Some Stuff I've Been Cooking - April 2023

Even though it's May.

Well this is embarrassing. I thought I had one more day left in April to post this update. Turns out it’s already May (insert Justin Timberlake “it’s gonna be May” joke here); so just pretend like I published this yesterday on April 30th.

I’m here (belatedly) to report the latest exciting cooking updates in my life over the past month. The big event came in early April when my mother and I churned out a feast for Passover. Since then, however, my kitchen has been fairly silent thanks to a ceiling leak and subsequent construction repairs. The dust has quite literally settled, and now I’m back in there, making an enormous mess (there will not be a photo of its current state).

Anyway, here are the cooking highlights as well as some cookbook purchases of note.

Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake

Alison Roman | Sweet Enough

My friend Derya had the utterly excellent idea to host a caviar party last week wherein we would all chip in and order a variety of caviar and roe (all sustainably caught, of course). It wasn’t cheap, but it also wasn’t nearly as expensive as going to a restaurant. The whole thing was honestly wonderful, and I managed to stuff myself with a never-ending parade of blinis and booze.

I volunteered to provide dessert, which felt like a great idea in theory, but in practice, I actually had no time to make anything worthwhile. My week had been crammed with activities, and in the hours leading up to the dinner, I had gone traipsing into the California desert with friends to catch final glimpses of an alleged superbloom (missed it, mostly, but did get some amazing views of the rugged landscape).

Anyhoo, by the time I returned home from my day trip, I only had 90 minutes to go to the store, make a dessert, shower, and head to dinner. I decided to take a risk and lean into the high-low shock value of bringing a humble ice cream cake to caviar night.

Alison Roman had recently posted a recipe for Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake on her site; so I decided I would give it a try. The method was simple: place a cake round in a springform pan, scoop ice cream on top of it, smush it down, place it in the freezer, and top with homemade whipped cream. Unfortunately I didn’t have a cake round, but I did have survival instinct: I bought some (very delicious) supermarket chocolate muffins, sliced them in thirds, and squeezed them all into the springform. I topped my makeshift cake base with ice cream (two different varieties: mint chip + mint coookie) and threw the whole thing in the freezer while I showered. Lastly, I whipped up the whipped cream, placed it in Tupperware, and then relocated everything (with a bag of ice) to Derya’s place.

While we dined on caviar, the cake set up in the freezer. I refused to tell anyone what I had made for fear that it would seem too lowbrow for such a sophisticated evening. But luckily, by the time we were ready for dessert, most of us were pretty drunk, and so the reveal of a homey ice cream cake was met with delight and joy. It also helped that it was amazing. The muffin hack worked marvelously, and the whipped cream managed to keep the dessert strangely light and bingeable. Alison Roman herself regrammed the inevitable Instagram pic and called it “Brilliant TBH” on her IG story. That felt like a major seal of approval (not that we need one, of course, but… it was pretty kewl).

I loved the refreshing, nostalgic explosion of mint ice cream after our salty caviar bonanza. It was not only the perfect cake for the occasion, but perhaps the perfect template for my summer dessert plan. Ladies and gentlemen, my homemade ice cream cake era has begun.

Lemon Mint Cake

Aleksandra Crapanzano | Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes

Speaking of mint cakes, my initial plan for caviar night was to make this fascinating lemon-mint concoction, but I simply didn’t have enough time to do a full bake (see above story about desert jaunt). Still, I remained intrigued by the recipe after the caviar party, especially since it called for a full cup of mint leaves finely chopped. Lemon and mint is a fairly classic combination, and who doesn’t love a mint lemonade? How would the pairing work in cake form?

Quite well! The cake is neither as lemony as a lemon cake nor as minty as a mint ice cream cake, but it works in its own crossover way. Unfortunately, my bake turned out slightly dry, despite having pulled the cake out at the bottom end of the timing range. This has happened multiple times from Gâteau, and I’m starting to think it’s best to check Crapanzano’s recipes ten minutes before they’re supposed to be ready (a generally smart thing to do anyway, but I’m spoiled by everything from Snacking Cakes being perfectly timed). Luckily, this cake called for a heaping serving of tangy lemon icing, which offset any moisture issues beautifully. Really happy with this recipe.

Chicken Stock

Ina Garten

I wouldn’t normally report anything about chicken stock — it’s a pretty mundane, if delightful — thing to make. I’ve made Ina Garten’s famed recipe a million times over the years, but most recently, the result was tremendous.

I was very determined to make some good stock after the batch I made in early April turned out to be oddly sweet and “thin” tasting. Something had gone wrong, despite having used the standard Ina template: garlic, onions, celery, carrots, parsnips, parsley, chicken, dill, and thyme. I had thrown in a package of drumsticks, but even after five hours of bubbling away, the stock had barely any chicken flavor. The carrots, meanwhile, punched above their weight and flavored the whole pot with sweetness. It was all fine, but not amazing.

For the latest batch, I really wanted my stock to sing. Here’s what went in.

• 1 whole chicken (as opposed to piddling drumsticks)

• 2 onions quartered

• 3 garlic heads, sliced in half

• 4 stalks of celery

• 2 carrots

• 1 parsnip

• 2 bundles of dill

• 1 bundle of parsley

• a handful of black peppercorns

• frozen scraps from passover (some fennel bits, red onion, celery etc).

The result was an impossibly delicious stock that restored my faith in the process. Leaning into celery and garlic proved to be a worthwhile adjustment, adding rich layers of flavor without actually turning the stock into a celery-garlic bomb. Plus, using a whole chicken rather than drumsticks was clearly the way to go. So much more meat and bones to translate into flavor. Notably, Ina Garten uses three whole chickens in her stock, but my stockpot can’t fit all that. She needs to chill.

Moral of the story is this: if you’re an Ina Garten chicken stock fan, go heavy with the celery and garlic and see how you like it. And for those who are wondering, I used the stock to make Joshua McFadden’s cream of celery soup, my new favorite go-to soup.

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Oh no! That’s all I’ve cooked since Passover! However, on a trip to Toronto, I stopped by a bookshop and impulsively purchased three books:

Budmo! by Anna Voloshyna

I have it on good authority (i.e. my friend Sylvia) that when it comes to Ukrainian cuisine, Summer Kitchens by Olia Hercules is the high watermark. In fact, Sylvia has called Summer Kitchens one of the best cookbooks in her collection across all cuisines. That’s high praise. And that’s also why I’m surprised at myself for buying Budmo!, a colorful collection of Ukrainian recipes, instead of Summer Kitchens. Will this book provide better dishes than Summer Kitchens? I don’t know. But at least we now have a wider breadth of recipes to choose from.

Recipes that moved the needle for me:

• Black sea pickled mussels

• Herby white bean salad

• Summer squash spread

• Cabbage rolls

• Fried chicken livers with pomegranate molasses

• Garlic pampushky

Norwegian Baking by Nevada Berg

I’m starting to amass a small collection of baking books, but none are as beautiful as this tome of Scandi cakes, breads, and pastries. Sure, Norwegian Baking has a slightly precious streak with a few deeply obscure ingredients (I’m not foraging for meadowsweet blossoms), but by and large everything looks just fantastic in this book.

Recipes I’m most excited to make:

• Pull-Apart Bun Bread with Whipped Honey Butter

• Success tart

• Whole wheat, chocolate, and orange braided bread

• Creamy wild flatbreads

• Buttery caraway and Jarlsberg crackers

• Wild mushroom pancake bake (!!)

• Dark chocolate beer cake

To be honest, after having leafed through the book again just now, I just want to move to a cozy corner of Norway and bake everything on these pages.

Homestead Recipes by Amanda Rettke

Here is the part of the update where I lose any and all credibility as a food writer. This cheerfully unhinged book by blogger Amanda Rettke is all about homestead food of the Northern Midwest — specifically Minnesota. Think cream of mushroom soup and lots of it. The book’s pages are littered with puzzling concepts such as “meat raffles” and “candy bar salad” and “surprise meatloaf.” Honestly, it’s terrifying.

But… but… I’ve also learned over the years that some of the most utterly horrifying recipes are actually amazing. Buffalo chicken dip is, in many ways, a hideous concoction. It’s also irresistible. Velveeta and Hormel? How déclassé. But also… give me a whole bowl of it. The point is that there’s a time and a place for everything, and just because I pretend I’m Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated doesn’t mean I can’t deign to enjoy a Tater Tot hot dish.

Honestly, when I first leafed through Homestead Recipes, the experience was akin to literary rubbernecking. Who would publish this madness? Where are the vegetables? And how could one book incorporate cheeseburger into so many dishes? But I could only absorb so many photos of melted cheese before I became curious. Just because I write about food doesn’t mean I have to be a total snob about it. Or do I? This purchase will either be my very best decision or my very worst. Maybe both.

Here are the recipes that scared and/or intrigued me:

• Sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sliders

• Breakfast pie skillet

• Midwestern smokies

• Skillet beer cheese bread

• Potato tot hot dish

• Oatmeal raisin cookies with bourbon raisins

• And yes, candy bar apple salad (a.ka. Snickers salad)

Wish me luck…