APÉRITIF:
Snowmageddon 2021 amiright?! A teacher once told me that the easiest job in the world is meteorologist because if you’re right, you’re celebrated and if you’re wrong, no one blames you—who are we to think we can predict the weather?! All that goes to say, the East Coast is expecting to get rocked by some snow this week, so get ready to do some first class Staying In, but in a cute, cozy way, not a sad, mandatory, pandemic way. It’s the perfect time to make some comfort food and break out any of the kitchen appliances you got for Christmas that you kind of regret asking for because it’s nearly February and you still haven’t used it and it takes up space in your tiny apartment kitchen where storage is already limited but you saw these avocado fries on TikTok and just had to have them. Yeah, that appliance! So today, in addition to a warm Dinner Plans menu of trendy soup, garlicky kale pasta, and rich maple cake, we give you recipes for your Instant Pot/air fryer/multicooker/et. al. Full disclosure: neither Gab nor I were gifted an air fryer for Chrismukkah and therefore do not own one. While we typically test recipes to grant them Sifted-worthy status, today’s So You column features recipes we have not tried, but that have solid reviews and are what would be on the top of our to-make lists if we had said air-frying devices. With all that said and done, let’s get into comfort food.
ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
DINNER PLANS
THAT Potato Leek Soup: After seeing this soup all over the internet, I couldn’t help but wonder, is PLS the new PSL? When my produce box arrived this week with gorgeous, giant leeks, it felt like the universe telling me I just had to try it for myself. I was skeptical about the lack of blending (my usual potato leek soup is a silky smooth purée) but I found myself enjoying the variety of textures. It’s super savory and surprisingly hearty, and the addition of mixing in sour cream made for a tangy, creamy finish. I’d caution that you add said sour cream gradually, stirring constantly, to avoid any prospects of curdling. I am a recent dill-convert and am still learning to appreciate it in all its glory, so I enjoy topping mine with copious amounts of Lactaid sour cream and scallions too. It’s got a certain baked potato-esque vibe so next time, in addition to the Big Dill I want to try topping with chives and fried shallots or garlic (bought in bulk from any grocery store in Chinatown and/or H Mart). Oh, and maybe some chili crisp because I challenge you to find a food that is not improved by adding chili crisp.
Green, Garlicky Pasta: I made Joshua McFadden’s infamous kale sauce this week and was simply shocked by it. Shocked by how quickly the entire meal came together, how few ingredients and pans it called for, and how saturated the color of the sauce was. Just floored by it all. The green is bright, but so is the sauce’s flavor, especially if you add the zest of one lemon while you’re blending everything together. Toasting the smashed garlic cloves in olive oil deepens the flavor of both ingredients before blitzing them with blanched kale (and optional lemon), and the piles of salty parm you shower the finished pasta with is sharp, creamy and makes each bowl look like a lush, snow-capped mountain.
Maple Pudding Cake: Snow storms and cold spells bring me back to my time living in Montreal and its unrelenting winters. I loved the universal excuse for never having to leave my apartment; I loved the brazenness of the Québécois to hunker down with heavy food and strong alcohol and just wait it out till April (or more likely May or June). Sugar shacks are a longstanding Québécois tradition; little huts originally intended to feed the workers tapping maple trees through the winter months. Modern day sugar shacks (there are even gourmet ones) sling out rich meaty dishes and tooth-achingly sweet maple desserts. When I find myself missing the Great White North, I make this maple pudding cake a.k.a. pouding chômeur a.k.a. poor man’s pudding (or this more generic recipe). It’s essentially a simple drop biscuit dough baked in a cream-and-butter-laden maple caramel sauce. You can bake them in individual ramekins, or better yet, one big skillet, plopped straight on the table with some spoons and a bowl of whipped cream or crème fraîche.
SO YOU JUST GOT AN AIR FRYER
French Fries: If you get an air fryer and don’t make french fries, did you even get an air fryer? Call me sassy, but to me air fryers are just tiny, high-performing convection ovens, so I would follow my favorite oven fry recipes which are these fat frites and these super-seasoned fries. But if you want to try air fryer-specific fries, this recipe looks good and comes highly recommended. Whatever you do, give them a good soak to get the starch out before frying them and serve alongside chickie tendies and many, many dipping sauces, like this copycat Chik-Fil-A sauce. (To clarify: I’ve never had CFA because gay rights!)
Coconut Shrimp: Coconut shrimp is something I eat at one place with one person: Margaritaville in the Bahamas with my grandma. She loves snacking on sweet, crispy, crunchy shrimp the way I love licking a spatula covered in creamed butter and sugar clean (which is to say an immeasurable amount.) If I had an air fryer, I’d use it to bring a little bit of the Bahamas to my Brooklyn apartment, and make this coconut shrimp recipe. I’m sure unsweetened coconut flakes would work in a pinch, but I like the idea of the sugary sweetened ones caramelizing while they “fry”.
Pork Katsu Sandwiches: The katsu sandwich from Konbi in LA is one of the more delicious things I’ve ever eaten, and this recipe is from the Konbi crew. I’d marinate and bread the pork as directed, but instead of frying, would lay it in the air fryer to let each slice cook into a crispy cutlet. For once, every surface of my kitchen wouldn’t get splattered with hot, greasy oil, and I could use the time they’re hanging out in the air fryer to make a little extra cabbage slaw for the week (yes, cabbage and I are still in our honeymoon phase) and snack on the milk bread (ideally this very local one) crusts.
BBOTW (BEST BITES OF THE WEEK):
Gab: When I rolled out of bed on Saturday morning, I was dehydrated, confused and severely hungover, but somehow still made my way to Mel, a tiny, buttery bakery on the Lower East Side. I picked out an absurd amount of croissants, and when I heard one of their loaves was made by cooking schmaltz, onions and grains into a porridge that’s then incorporated into the dough somehow, I took home a fat loaf of that too. Yeah, I finished the loaf in less than 24 hours, but the chocolate croissant is what I’d travel to Mel for again and again, no matter how hungover I am or freezing it is outside. The golden, crunchy bottom and buttery center of dense dough and melted dark chocolate serve as cures for both of those things anyway.
Court: Oprah reference aside, I truly love bread. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you how I can one-man a baguette like nobody’s business. This week’s best bite had to be the mouthful of steaming hot fresh bread I made with a little help from Dough Dealer. I used their no-knead bread kit, folded in some pitted Castelvetrano olives after the first bulk rise, then coated the top in sesame seeds before baking. The loaf was delicious and gone in a matter of hours, but the best bites had to be the pieces of crust, laden with extra-toasty sesame seeds, topped with a healthy schmear of Counter Butter (trademark pending), a big sprinkle of Maldon, and a little dab of honey.
TAKEOUT:
First we learned their bread is made from yoga mats. Now we learn the tuna salad contains “no scintilla of tuna” (and also the definition of the word ‘scintilla’.) Who is still eating at Subway?? Please reveal yourself in the comments so that we can convince you to see the light. (And by that we mean to go to Jimmy John’s or Jersey Mike’s instead.)
Kraft is coming for Nabisco’s Chaotic Evil energy and releasing a limited edition Candy-flavored mac ‘n’ cheese. They’ll be giving away 1000 boxes so please do us a favor and enter to win, so we may learn what this could possibly taste like. Yes, we know the website looks sketchy and almost certainly like a data-harvest, but please! For the greater good!
If you’re going to take this opportunity to have an elective snow day and NWFH (Not-Work From Home), may we suggest some classy and trashy shows to watch? My trash-du-jour is the incomparable Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, which gave us instant-classic lines like “you smell like hospital” and “I’m disengaging!”. If you want a more wholesome and non-mind-melting show, I recently blazed through How To with John Wilson. The risotto episode is a masterpiece, as is the entire Referee Dinner scene. I (Gab) have committed myself to too many shows. The list includes Mad Men, The Boys, season 3 of Sex and the City, The Bachelor on Mondays, and every single Knicks game.
Sidekick, a newsletter that does a bit of ~sifting~ through the internet itself, sends recommendations of all kinds to your inbox twice a week. They suggest things to watch, eat, do and read, and a little birdie told us Sifted might have been mentioned in it last week. Subscribe to Sidekick here for things to do when you aren’t cooking recipes from us.