Caesar Roasted Striped Bass

Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa, and her cookbooks are already a source of guidance for basic recipes but her show serves as my inspiration for more adventurous culinary efforts.  So now that I’ve got the essentials down it’s time to branch out. I’ll choose a recipe from an episode of the Barefoot Contessa to try in my tiny New York kitchen. We’ll see if I can keep up with the Contessa!

Episode: “Going Local”

The Set-up: Ina is writing an article and has challenged herself to make a three course dinner using only locally produced ingredients.

The Menu: Roasted Eggplant Caponata, Caesar Roasted Striped Bass, Fresh Peach Cake

0:53 – Ina’s talking about making the shift from menu to seasonal ingredients vs. using what’s available to determine what you’ll serve.

1:20 – First up: the Eggplant Caponata. Apparently roasting eggplant is a dangerous undertaking – if it isn’t trying to explode in the oven it’s doing its best to slide off the baking sheet. Slippery little suckers. And now I’m having a Pretty Woman escargot in the fancy restaurant flashback.

2:18 – Ina got her eggplant from the Green Thumb Farm market and the owners made a video about their business. I think the farm stand manager, Jo, might have a second career as a demonstrator on QVC. She has the right sing-song voice for it.

3:32 – I’m not familiar with caponata but it seems to be the Sicilian version – olives, pine nuts, etc. – of baba ghanoush. I must have nothing but ridiculous movie quotes on the brain today – now it’s Wedding Crashers. “Baba ghanouush!!”

4:56 – Ina’s adding lemon juice and white wine vinegar to give the caponata some acid. The Barefoot Contessa doesn’t truck with bland.

6:08 – Mmmm, home made pita chips.

9:34 – Onward to the Peach Cake course!

9:44 – The eggs and the peaches for the cake come from Amber Waves Farm – two tiny acres which appear to be run by J. Crew models – and Amagansett Farmers Market, part of the Eli Zabar empire.

11:03 – Pro-tip: when eggs are really fresh the yolks stand up firmly.

14:26 – This peach cake looks so good. Ina doesn’t say that it’s coffee cake, but with the layers of peaches and cinnamon sugar it looks pretty darn close.

18:10 – Ina’s making Caesar Roasted Striped Bass and just to round out my un-official theme of pairing movie quotes I give you: a little Dumb and Dumber…”What’s the [fish] du jour?” “It’s the [fish] of the day.”

19:28 – More video – this one is from Stewart, the fisherman who caught the bass. I doubt that Ina’s seen Dumb and Dumber, but if Stewart’s dreadlocks are any indication I’m POSITIVE that he has it memorized.

21:35 – Time to make the Caesar dressing. Ina doesn’t say so, but this looks like a great option for a weeknight dinner or low impact dinner party. I think the total prep time was about 15 minutes.

23:14 – She just added ‘frizzled’ capers to the roasted fish. Maybe only serve this to people who won’t be offended if you offer a breath mint at the end of the meal….?

24:26 – Group photo! “Just like at camp!” I’m guessing that food at camp will be the plot of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3: Revenge of the Commissary.

27:00 – “Ask Ina” time and the theme is vegetables. Ripe avocados, cucumbers, mushrooms, and broccolini are the topics of viewer questions.

28:41 – Ina has such a talent for answering simple questions without making the ask-er seem silly for asking them. I think I learn something every time she does this feature.

29:01 – In a nutshell: when the skin of Haas avocados are brown then they’re ripe, scoop the seeds out from English cucumbers for better texture in recipes, wipe mushrooms clean, don’t soak or rinse them; broccolini can be cooked the same way as regular broccoli. And scene.

Final Thoughts:
Ina’s strategy of letting seasonal ingredients inspire her menus is smart – I should do that more often.
I wonder how many cooking tips I’ve picked up from watching this show? Has Ina taught me everything I know?
I bet J. Crew shoots its next style guide at Amber Waves. Rural chic.

Caesar Roasted Salmon; Image: Laura Messersmith

Lessons Learned:

The hardest part of making the Caesar Roasted Striped Bass was sourcing the ingredients. Striped bass was difficult to come by in my local grocery store (I used salmon instead since Ina recommended pairing the sauce with a full flavored fish) and it took a little hunting to find anchovy paste – but once I located everything the recipe came together quite quickly. The cooking mainly consists of mixing the Caesar sauce and is definitely small kitchen friendly: a food processor, one cutting board, one small sauté pan, a baking sheet, and a few simple kitchen tools. Really, really easy and the final product looks impressive – the frizzled capers perhaps? Extra bonus: I followed Ina’s recommendation to line the baking sheet with foil, which made clean up really easy.

The Verdict:

Both my husband and I both liked this dish, but thought the sauce was a little heavy. To be honest it's not a dish I would normally gravitate toward if it were on a restaurant menu in the first place, so I'm glad I decided to balance out the richer flavors of the Caesar sauce and salmon by serving roasted asparagus. I could see making this again with another type of fish; perhaps we would like it better.

Snow Day

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week begins here in New York in 3 days, but thanks to the snow storm that blew through today, it was a day made for L.L. Bean duck boots and giant roll neck sweaters. Frankly, that's the direction my fashion sense takes anyway regardless of how many inches of wet flakes have fallen.

Since the sidewalks of the UWS are our runway - and Maddie-pup always looks chic in her furs - I bundled up in my long down parka and the two of us trekked over to Central Park to make the most of the snow with some afternoon hijinks. We spent several hours exploring and enjoying the silence that seems to fall over the city when the usual traffic sounds are muffled with snow.

M.P. absolutely looooves the snow and her favorite activities for enjoying it fall into three major categories:

1. Snuffling her nose in it (whatever it is that she smells down there is between her and the snow bank.)
2. Rolling around in it, all the better if it’s the dry fluffy kind.
3. Bounding over drifts to reach a fresh unbroken expanse.
4. Posing as a willing, but not terribly obedient model.

After all that playing and fresh air I now have a very sleepy pup on my hands and we're both happy to be curled up inside. Hope you're staying warm too.

Scouting: Chagall

I took a walk across the park and along the Jackie Onassis Reservoir earlier this week to check out an exhibit of Marc Chagall’s paintings called “Love, War and Exile” at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side. My familiarity with Chagall before I went was minimal – like, “Hey wasn’t there a plot point in Notting Hill about Chagall?” level minimal. But, after I missed the Dutch Masters at the Frick earlier this year I refused to miss this one too. I mean, it’s New York! I should be seeing great art, not spending my time catching up on Scandal! (not that there's anything wrong with that…)

The show was titled “Love, War and Exile”, so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I wasn’t really prepared for the emotion in Chagall’s work – tenderness, despair, urgency. His experience as a Russian-born, Jewish man who fled to the United States from Paris during World War II is very clear in his paintings and the allegorical scenes portraying the danger Jewish people were in during that terrible time are powerful and dark.

Perhaps no surprise, but I gravitated toward the lighter pieces depicting Chagall’s relationship with his first wife, Bella. No photos allowed in the gallery, but thanks to the magic of the internet I was able to find images so you can see my favorites. The first two are from the 1930s – more than 15 years after they married! - and the second two were painted in the years following her passing in 1944. The colors are gorgeous and I’m not an art historian by any means, but I see so much intimacy and tenderness in the closeness of the figures. Amazing and definitely worth checking out before the show closes this weekend, assuming that you already know what Olivia Pope and Associates are up to.

Marc Chagall, Lovers Among Lilacs, 1930; Source

Marc Chagall, The Lovers, 1937; Source

Marc Chagall, The Wedding Candles, 1945; Source

Marc Chagall, Anniversary Flowers, 1947; Source

Coq Au Vin

Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa, and her cookbooks are already a source of guidance for basic recipes but her show serves as my inspiration for more adventurous culinary efforts.  So now that I’ve got the essentials down it’s time to branch out. I’ll choose a recipe from an episode of the Barefoot Contessa to try in my tiny New York kitchen. We’ll see if I can keep up with the Contessa!

Ina Garten in the Kitchen, Image via Philly.com

Episode: “Anniversary Dinner”

The Set-up: Ina and Jeffrey are celebrating their 39th anniversary with a special dinner on the porch outside the barn.

The Menu: Coq Au Vin, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Chocolate Cake

0:21 – Ina says that she and Jeffrey had a white, multi-tiered fruitcake at their wedding. Umm, eww no thank you.

0:39 – Thank goodness she’s not going to recreate the fruitcake monstrosity. Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream frosting is a no brainer substitute.

1:24 – Cake batter is underway. The secret ingredients for making chocolate flavor really come through: coffee and vanilla.

2:02 – Cake pans in the oven! I really need to try making a layered cake sometime which if I'm honest will probably be never…

2:59 – Ina’s telling stories about their first anniversary. She went nuts looking for something within the $5 budget. He got her a cashmere scarf. I think Jeffrey and my husband have the same M.O. when it comes to gift giving rules: Ignore!

4:07 – Ahh, their wedding album is so sweet! I love black and white wedding photos and Ina’s hairstyle is straight out of the 1960s.

4:34 – That is a MASSIVE pile of chopped chocolate. How did she resist sneaking a small sample? That’s discipline.

5:50 – I had no idea that buttercream frosting had egg whites in it. I wonder what other hidden ingredients are in my desserts – please don’t tell me!

6:03 – Okay, unless it’s rum. Rum works.

11:06 – The chocolate frosting looks so, so good. Pro tip: A hot palette knife will make the frosting surface super smooth.

14:15 – Mischief is afoot! Instead of working Jeffrey has been secretly out shopping for Ina. That sly devil.

15:00 – Coq Au Vin time and it’s off to a great start: bacon!

16:20 – Chicken, carrots, onions and garlic have all been browned in the lime green Le Creuset. I think that's the kitchen item I use most and Ina is a devotee of cast iron french ovens.

16:30 - Next? Deglazing the pan with cognac. Ina doesn’t say what she uses, but I’m assuming she and Busta Rhymes agree: pass the Courvoisier. No? Just me? Okay, cool.

17:00 – Onward! The chicken goes back into the pot and into the oven.

20:22 – Decorating the porch with candles and lavender napkins. So simple and elegant. I’d love to get a look at her linen closet. No, that is not a euphemism.

21:08 – I think Ina just hated on button mushrooms.

22:30 – Ina is thickening the coq au vin sauce with flour mashed into softened butter. This is brilliant – no lumps!

27:00 – Jeffrey is super stealth. Ina’s presents have been hidden table-side for the big reveal. Mission accomplished.

27:10 – Garlic mashed potatoes with sautéed garlic and a splash of heavy cream. Aaand, now I’m hungry.

29:00 – Dinner and presents are served! Jeffrey is totally busted for giving Ina more than the allotted 1 present and invokes the ‘hubby’s prerogative’ clause of their marriage. I like his style.

29:38 – The moment I’ve been waiting for – cake!! Wedding cake cutting re-enactment complete, and it’s another successful anniversary celebration.

Coq Au Vin, Image: Laura Messersmith

Lessons Learned: I’ve made beef bourguignon in the past and the recipe for Coq Au Vin is very, very similar so I felt confident that I could handle this one and whip up some Garlic Mashed Potatoes too. Making the dish is pretty straightforward but there are a few different steps, so I had to pay close attention and make sure that I did them in the right order. The Coq Au Vin alone is pretty small kitchen friendly 1 large pot, 1 medium pan, a few basic kitchen implements, and a plate or two for reserving the chicken while the vegetables sauté. Adding the Garlic Mashed Potatoes to the mix made it more complicated and took some focused organization to coordinate with the final stages of the Coq Au Vin. At one point I had 4 pots and pans going on the stove. So, if your kitchen is really tiny or you don’t have that much cooking equipment another side dish might be better. Roasted potatoes or crusty bread perhaps?

The Verdict:

My husband loved this and commandeered the leftovers the next day, so that’s a definite vote in favor of making this again. This would be great for a dinner party too especially served with a fresh salad or greens.