Sasha's & Brad's Kitchen: Tiger Beer and Fish Curry Pairing at Masak

I've never been a big beer drinker, but there are a few kinds of beer that I do enjoy.  One of them has always been Tiger beer, a nice balanced Malaysian beer.  It's one my husband, Brad, more the beer connoisseur than I, has always enjoyed as well.  Recently, I got the opportunity to be treated free of charge to a Tiger beer and fish curry food pairing at Masak, a Singapore-influenced restaurant down in the East Village courtesy of the folks at Tiger Beer.  Coming into the experience, I knew I liked Tiger beer but wasn't sure about the pairing of fishhead curry.  Boy was I surprised.  The curry was delicious and I enjoyed the tender, flaky fish and rice with the homemade Singapore-style curry.  The dish was fantastic and Brad enjoyed it as well.  Just goes to show that it pays to be a bit more adventurous in your eating style!  You just have to be careful of the bones, but the fish was very tender and Masak's curry sauce was delicious.

Delicious fishhead curry at Masak - no need to be afraid, it's super good!

The curry flavors paired well with the smooth, exotic flavor of the Tiger beer.  The beer really brought out the flavor of the curry and it was a truly excellent pairing.  Next time I'll have to try making a curry dish at home and serve it with some Tiger.  In addition to the beer and curry we were treated to, we also purchased a couple of excellent appetizers at Masak as well - we got little Qui Pie Tee (little pastries) filled with hen of the wood mushrooms and duck, as well as the crispy duck croquettes.  All and all this was an exotic and fun drinking and eating experience and an excellent way to enjoy Tiger beer and Malaysian/Singapore-style food!

Qui Pie Tee, filled with hen of the woods mushrooms and duck rilette

Duck fritters, which also paired nicely with the flavors of the Tiger beer

Sasha's & Brad's Kitchen: Tiger Beer and Fish Curry Pairing at Masak

Sasha's Kitchen: Restaurant review - Chuko

Noodles bars are all the craze here in New York (and probably elsewhere) right now.  The most famous is Momofuku Noodle Bar, which draws crowds for its noodles as well as its famous fried chicken here in Manhattan.  Recently the sou chef from Morimoto opened a new noodle bar right here in Brooklyn - on Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, called Chuko.  Opened by Jamison Blankenship and David Coon, Chuko's ramen wasn't the only delight.  We had a great meal with several delicious appetizers, including some salt and pepper fried chicken.  The ramen is great as the restaurant offers a variety of broths to mix with the noodles (we tried both soy and miso broths with chicken).  Needless to say we were impressed. Last but not least, dessert of a chocolate macaron sandwich was a creative and tasty twist.  Below were the highlight of our meal.

menu at chuko

appetizer of salt and pepper fried chicken

appetizer of eggplant bun

chicken rame with miso broth

chicken ramen with soy broth

chocolate macaron ice cream sandwich

Sasha's Kitchen: Restaurant review - Chuko

Sasha's Kitchen: Brooklyn Restaurant Roundup

Recently it was Dine Out Brooklyn week for two weeks, the equivalent of Manhattan's famed restaurant week - except we have better bargains, better restaurants, more bang for your buck here and less snobbery in Brooklyn ($20 for a three course lunch, $25 for dinner). We had three fantastic restaurant week meals here in Park Slope at Al Di La Trattoria, Rosewater and Applewood, as well as a great non-resturant week meal the week before at Williamsburg's Loreley (which also has a location in the LES in Manhattan). These are some of my favorite dining out spots in Brooklyn so I am excited to share these four terrific meals, or parts of them.

Farro salad with goat cheese, different types of beets and herbs at Al Di La

Tomato onion soup with poached egg at Al Di La

Amazing duck confit with apples and cherries and potatoes at Al Di La

Veal ravioli at Al Di La

Amazing chocolate bread pudding at Al Di La

Cheese platter at Applewood

Pan seared Rhode Island Bay Scallops with greens, buttermilk vinaigrette and black bean puree - Applewood

Red wine braised grass fed beef with spatzle, parsnips and swiss chard at Applewood. So good!

Orange bread pudding and sorbet

German bratwurst at Loreley - a German style beer garden with lovely outdoor seating

German schnitzel sandwich at Loreley

Fried goat cheese with prosciutto, clementines and honey at Rosewater 

Sauteed fluke with maitakes and swiss chard - amazing! - at Rosewater

Meyer lemon cake with lavender ice cream at Rosewater. This lavender ice cream was amazing as was the rosewater tinged lemonade I drank with dinner. So refreshing!

Sasha's Kitchen: Brooklyn Restaurant Roundup

Sasha's Kitchen: Four and Twenty Blackbirds & A Guest Recipe from Europe

There's a new pie place in town. Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Four and Twenty Blackbirds, on the border of the South Park Slope and Gowanus.  It was fabulously delicious and I can't wait to go back. This pie in the sky, pie spot, has different pies for every season (I can't wait to try some of their fruity pies when I go back in the summer!), as well as a daily changing array of pies to choose from. When we went, we tried the Salted Caramel Apple Pie (pictured above) and the Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie (pictured below). Other winter pies include Buttermilk Chess, Salted Honey and Chili Chocolate pies. And a whole array of lovely fruit flavors await us in Spring and Summer. These pies are delicious and this is a spot worth venturing to the edge of Park Slope to try.

In addition, I am sharing a recipe from a reader of A Kitchen In Brooklyn - Anna, and old friend of mine now living in Strasburg, France. Here's the recipe below, as well as a description of its family origins.


This recipe originated in my mom’s kitchen (or maybe my grandma’s, don’t remember). It is not
something you are likely to find in a cookbook or a TV cooking show. It is something that I make when I am nostalgic for my mom’s cooking.

It is definitely not fancy French cuisine, but I did add some ingredients to make it more…interesting, if
you wish. But it remains a dish from the kitchen of a poor family (in former USSR everybody were either poor or in the government :-) whose motto was “tasty and cheap.”

Now to the recipe!

Anna's Chicken Gizzard Stew
1 kg chicken gizzards (buy already cleaned, if possible) you can also use hearts or a mixture
2 large onions
2-3 medium carrots, grated (you can add more if you like your stew more on the sweet side)
3-4 small celery stalks
1 cube of chicken or beef soup (I use from “Rapunzel” and it gives fantastic results)
¼ cup dry white wine (Riesling or similar)
3-4 bay leaves
5-6 whole English peppers
Salt and ground pepper to taste

Preparation:

If you have a pressure cooker – use it! You will save a lot of time. If not, I like to use my “Staub” cocotte, which keeps the juices in even after a long cooking time. In fact, the trick is to use gizzards from young chickens to shorten the cooking time, otherwise it may take a while.

Warm a bit of olive oil, add chopped onions and fry until golden but not browned. Add carrots and
chopped celery and cook until softened, mixing from time to time. Add a bit of hot water to cover and a
soup cube of your choice, mix until dissolved. Add wine, whole English peppers and bay leaves. Then add the gizzards and cover with cold (!) water. If you’d like more sauce, add more water (not more than the maximum allowed for your pressure cooker). Be careful not to overdo it, otherwise you will have a soup and not a stew! Follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for operating the pressure cooker. Start your timer AFTER the pressure has been built. Cook between 25-35 minutes, depending on the gizzards (whether from old or young chickens).

Adjust spicing to your taste after opening. We usually eat it with buckwheat kasha and some pickled
gherkins on a side!

Bon appetite!

Sasha's Kitchen: Four and Twenty Blackbirds & A Guest Recipe from Europe

Sasha's Kitchen: Spice-Infused Heirloom Tomato Salad and NYC's Eataly (a review)

Heirloom tomatoes are one of my favorite summer treats. So delicious and the colors and shapes are unique and beautiful. I love the way they look when you slice them, and all the colors and textures. Their imperfections and details is what makes them so perfect and gorgeous. The taste is luscious and fresh - nothing like a regular tomato.

The heirloom tomato season is not very long, but they're still around in New York, so I picked some up at the new Eataly Market, to prepare this dish. Eataly, by the way, is an incredible Italian foodie paradise of grandiose proportions.  I've been quite a few times now, since it is so close to where I work in Manhattan.   I decided to create some Indian spice infused heirloom tomatoes using my produce from the marketplace. It's quite easy. Mix the various spices and herbs below with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil and add the tomatoes and a sliced kirby cucumber. Allow to soak for a minute or two before serving with freshly made mozzarella. I love the way the Indian spices mix with the fresh goodness of the heirloom tomatoes. It's a wonderful way to say goodbye to summer. The kirby cucumber by the way, is from the locally grown produce section of Fresh Direct.

Sasha's Spice-Infused Heirloom Tomato Salad

3 large heirloom tomatoes
1 kirby cucumber
fresh mozzarella
1 1/2 tsp fennel
1 1/2 tsp cumin
pinch of pepper
pinch of cayenne
1/3 cup olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar (I used fig-infused balsamic vinegar)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup cilantro
1 tsp diced jalapeno
1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger


And before you thought I forgot - a bit of a review of Eataly Market. I love Eataly - everything there is fresh, gourmet and absolutely screams out Mario Batali. There's quite a few restaurants there, and even though I have been about 5 times already, I have not tried them all. So far, I have tried the panini bar, La Piazza, Verdure, La Pizza and La Pasta. Next I'd like to try the raw bar restaurant (Il Crudo), the fish restaurant (Il Pesce), and the gourmet beef restaurant (Il Manzo). In fairness, I should warn readers, the place is a hot spot right now. It will cool off, but right now the crowds are pretty fierce, even at lunchtime during the week.

 On my first visit, I went to the panini bar and had a brasaole, arugula and pesto panini which was delicious (not pictured).  Then, I went back to the absolutely crazy Saturday night atmosphere with my husband. First, we stopped a the Piazza and enjoyed a sampling of parmesan cheeses with a glass of Italian spumoni. Next, we decided to try the pizza and pasta restaurants. I had one of the fabulous Italian sodas. I've tried a variety of the Italian sodas at Eataly - I've never seen any of them anywhere else in NYC, but the ones I've had so far have been fabulous - rhubarb, lemon, lime - a whole variety of flavors and not overpoweringly sweet like American sodas. My husband had a Moretti beer.

At La Pasta/LaPizza we both started with a fabulous dish of the homemade fresh pasta in a pesto sauce - it was one of the best pesto dishes I've had. Fresh and simple, but oh so good. Then we followed with a basic pizza, which was good, but perhaps a bit too much cheese. But oh that crust - it was irresistible. The cheese was still great though, and of course they make their own mozzarella fresh at Eataly every day.

I have also had the opportunity to try the gelato at Eataly, which despite the long lines, does not dissapoint. I had two favors that would seen not to go well together - Fig and Hazelnut, but they were actually both delicious and went together just fine. I love fresh figs and the fig gelato took me back to that day in Napa a couple years ago where I tasted fresh mission figs from the trees.

Finally, I have tried Verdure (food pictured above),  the vegetable restaurant. There were so many great choices on the menu, including specials. However, I went with a lime flavored Italian soda and vegetables a la piatra, a dish that was composed of a variety of fresh market vegetables, from cauliflower to asparagus to sprouts to radicchio, to zucchini and just about everything else you could imagine. It was an amazing vegetable salad. The brushetta of the day was also amazing - fresh sweet corn with chives and black garlic.  The black garlic was amazing, with an almost balsamic/tamarind like taste - so exotic and delicious. I plan to make my own bruschetta using some later this week, since they sell it at Eataly market.

Sasha's Kitchen: Spice-Infused Heirloom Tomato Salad and NYC's Eataly (a review)

Sasha's Kitchen On the Road: Foodie Tour Of Vermont

My husband and I spent last weekend in Vermont for a friends wedding at Shelburne Farms.  While in Vermont we had some fantastic local cheeses (especially the Shelburne Farms two year cheddar).  What's so great about Vermont cooking is the focus on using local, organic farm fresh ingredients from eggs to cheese and dairy to fruits and vegetables.  Everything we tasted was fresh and fabulous from the food at our friends' wedding to the local produce we ate at the restaurants we visited.  And of course we made time for some of vermont's finest Ben & Jerry's Ice cream, because a visit to Vermont without stopping by their factory in Waterbury just isn't a visit to Vermont.

Our first night in Vermont, we had an amazing meal at Hen of the Wood, in Waterbury, VT with friends who had just flown in from Germany. We started out meal with a sampling of four local Vermont cheeses, all of which were delicious.  We paired this with different beers and wines that were equally fantastic - Allagash White, a local white Belgian style wheat beer that has become one of my favorites - and a delicious summer Frog's Leap Rose - a great wine from one of my favorite Napa wineries (yes Napa is in California, not Vermont, but I couldn't resist).

For my appetizer, I had the most delicious salad I've had in some time.  The salad was a mixture of locally grown, farm fresh arugula, spinach, barley, pansies and walnuts with local goat cheese.  So pretty. My husband and our friends had the asparagus soup which was also delightful.

Four our main courses, I had braised beef short ribs prepared with gnocchi - of course locally raised organic beef which was delicious.  One of our friends had the scallops which were beautifully prepared.  My husband opted for a more unusual suggestion - the rabbit prepared with a fresh carrot puree - it was delicious as well.

For dessert, our friends had a chocolate torte that was decadent and delicious, while we had a panna cotta with fresh strawberries - also amazing.

We also had a lovely brunch at Shelburne Farms (see above) where I had an amazing frittata made with eggs that were locally raised on the farm (we got to meet the animals on the farm later that afternoon, including some adorable baby goats).  My husband had the cinnamon carrot pancakes with ricotta that were out of this world amazing.  Our table was outside, where we had a gorgeous view of Lake Champlain to the side.

And just a final note - the arugula salad from our friends' wedding was made with delicious Vermont blue cheese and Shelburne Farms' own farm-made honey - right in the honeycomb.  It was amazing, along with everything else served at the wedding.  They had some fantastic beer and food pairings at the cocktail hour as well, but the food was so good I forgot to take pictures of it.

Sasha's Kitchen On the Road: Foodie Tour Of Vermont