APÉRITIF:
What a week. Has it only been a week? Firstly, we want to acknowledge it is not Sunday. No, we will not be changing our name to Shifted, as my dad (snarkily) suggested. But from time to time this may go out on a Monday or Tuesday, or as we like to call it, Second Monday. We spent most of our weekend refreshing Twitter and bracing ourselves for one particularly salient New York Times push notification. If you did too, we want to offer you some easy recipes this week that require minimal time and brain power, so you can use that effort elsewhere, such as mailing in your ballot. Please vote, or we may be stuck sending you comfort food recipes for the next four years.
ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
DINNER PLANS
Grilled Anything with Scallion-Peanut Salsa: Sometimes I’m the worst kind of recipe-user. I take liberties with quantities, switch proteins, recklessly substitute, play fast and loose with cook times, and just generally think that I know what’s best. I must admit I have never followed this recipe as it’s written, and yet I love it dearly. I rarely cook or eat large quantities of meat that would necessitate freezing and then grilling a brisket, but the marinade and peanutty-herb “salsa” are damn good on nearly anything. I usually do another cut of steak but you could easily sub in shrimp, pork, or tofu; you do you baby. The recipe is all about the supporting players, and this peanut salsa is basically the Judy Greer of condiments. -CK
Insalata Verde (but mostly just the dressing): The lovely Lauren Goldstein submitted this recipe for Via Carota’s insalata verde that she swears by (and you can do submit your faves too, here!) She had a lot to say about it, but really waxed poetic about the dressing. She called it “liquid gold” and loves it on seemingly everything: “Roast chicken! Canned cannellini beans! Thick slices of heirloom tomato from my garden!” Lauren also noted that “the recipe says the dressing lasts for 3 days in the fridge, but I find that it actually holds up for about 5 days (if you don’t use it all before then), but the shallots start to get soggy after that.” And in classic Sifted style, she had some substitutions. Sub in another light vinegar: “I use red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar, because I couldn't find sherry vinegar when I started making this recipe in the early days of quarantine, and now I just like it this way.” Use less oil: “The recipe calls for 1 cup of olive oil, but I use 3/4 cup.” And “extra garlic! My general rule is that I use at least 3x the amount of garlic a recipe calls for, because I am a garlic fiend.”
Kale and Delicata Squash Salad: Butternut squash is bad. It’s sort of ugly, very hard to cut, and worst of all, bland. I’d rather roast slices of the smaller and sweeter, striped and scalloped-edged squash — delicata. I cut two in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and slice crosswise into ~¼-inch pieces. After roasting them with olive oil, salt and pepper until they’re soft and some slices have crispy, dark brown edges (it takes a while), I’ll use them in any big, crunchy salad that calls for butternut squash, like this one with kale and pumpkin seeds and parm (or pecorino, or grilled halloumi.) -GS
Bland butternut.
SO YOU SPENT THE WEEKEND REFRESHING TWITTER INSTEAD OF GROCERY SHOPPING FOR THE WEEK
Pea Pesto: I discovered this recipe working on the aforementioned daytime cooking show. It was a part of a throwaway segment on cheap substitutions for pesto, but the resulting recipe for a pea pesto is shockingly delicious as a pasta sauce or dip for crunchy crostini. Proof: I once brought this dip to a party and it was such a hit that I have thus been known as “pea dip girl” in that friend circle. If you have a bag of frozen peas in the back of your freezer for injury-icing purposes, now is the time to use them. Defrost and blend in a food processor or Magic Bullet with some olive oil, lemon juice, a few nuts, and pecorino or parmesan (this is the time and place to use the cheap shit) and voila, a sauce that tastes so much better than the sum of its parts. Boil whatever dregs of pasta you have floating in your pantry, top with more cheese and some red pepper flakes for a little extra kick, and that’s dinner. One note: as written, it makes a pretty thick sauce, so for pasta I like to thin it out by adding some salty, starchy pasta water while blending. Just please don’t save the water for other purposes.
Fridge Tostadas: Corn tortillas are always in my fridge. Some are white, others are yellow. Some I bought this week at the deli, others have been there for many, many, many weeks. No matter which ones you have, if you want a very easy and delicious dinner, rub whole tortillas with olive oil, shower them with salt, and bake them in a 325 degree oven for 40-ish minutes. (If you want to do nachos instead, find a big knife and cut a stack of tortillas into triangles to make chips.) While they bake, run to the deli for a can of these refried beans, come back, and start caramelizing two or three onions (with a pepper if you have one). When the tortillas are golden brown and bubbly, empty that can of beans into a bowl and find a way to heat them up. Use the microwave, the same pan you used for the onions, a brand new pan that you can add to the pile in your sink. Have any cheese? Grate it! Have pre-shredded cheese? Gross, but use it. Now get a plate and layer your crispy tortillas with cheese, hot beans, dark caramelized onions, and any last bits of lettuce or herbs you have in your vegetable drawer. Yum.
Herby Frittata: Just don’t call it brinner. One of my favorite meals to make for breakfast, lunch, or dinner when I have nothing in the house and refuse to go shopping is a frittata aka a 𝒻𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎 𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓁𝑒𝓉. Chop up veggies, sauté an onion or shallots until dark and caramelized, throw in some beaten eggs and maybe some cheese and bake. But when I really have nothing, I’ll take any sad herbs or herb stems and that semi-wilted bag of spinach lying in my crisper drawer and make a very loose adaptation of the Persian dish Kuku Sabzi. (Saint Samin also has a version on the NYT.) The basic idea is an herb-packed frittata topped with some crunchy stuff and served with some creamy stuff. I promise it’s worth the trip to the bodega for some parsley or a bag of spinach. It’s super green, so therefore feels extra healthy, and tastes remarkably savory and satisfying. Top with toasted nuts and maybe some dried fruit (currants are my favorite) and serve with an artful schmear of labneh or plain greek yogurt and a drizzle olive oil.
TAKEOUT:
I picnicked at the pier with friends this weekend and was assigned bread and cream cheese to eat with lox, so I brought toasted slices of seedy rye and... feta. We actually concluded it ranks above cream cheese as a spread to eat with lox, as do goat cheese and avocado. Again, change my mind!
On a recent Trader Joe’s trip, my brilliant sister had the balls to walk right past the parade of pumpkin nonsense, and instead add these Cornbread Biscotti to our cart. If you’ve never tried their Cornbread Crisps, they bear an uncanny likeness to the real thing and you are going to want to add them to every bowl of chili you eat this fall. The biscotti did not disappoint, and are a beautiful continuation of my (and apparently Joe’s) lifelong love of all things corn.
What exactly were we scrolling past on Twitter besides “Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!”? This, and this, and most importantly this.