September 2, 2010
Labor Day is fast approaching, which sadly means summer is almost over. There goes half-day Fridays, white pants and local peaches. But there's still time for one last, big BBQ before the summer fun ends. We want to go out big, so we're making ribs, but as we learned a few weeks ago, one rack can take up the entire grill. There was no room for corn or zucchini on the grill, not to mention that you have to grill each rib rack one at a time, which took forever. It got ugly.
We dug around a little and found this stainless steel rib rack (pictured right), which allows you to grill six rib racks at a time. Each rack of ribs fits into a compartment on the stainless steel rack and cooks vertically, creating more room under the grill lid. It works for baby backs, beef ribs, and spare ribs alike. Even better, the vertical cooking helps drain excess fat. Now you'll have enough ribs to feed the crowd at your Labor Day BBQ!
Rib Rack... $19.95 at William Sonoma
August 31, 2010
The
sisters behind Brooklyn’s favorite pie shop, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, have
baking in their genes. While growing up in South Dakota, Melissa and Emily
Elsen learned the craft from their Grandma Liz, who baked all the pies for
their family’s restaurant in South Dakota. She taught the Elsen sisters the importance
of using seasonal, fresh fruit and the secrets to a phenomenal crust. Our favorites are the caramel apple pie with a thick, sea-salt studded crust and pear ginger pie.
Brooklyn
may be thousands of miles from South Dakota, but the Elsen sisters kept their
grandmother’s lessons close when they began running a pie business out of their
Crown Heights apartment. They opened their shop this past year and got immediate praise from the New York Times for their take on this classic American dessert. Melissa and Emily’s pies feature the freshest fruits of each season and
cleverly combine sweet and savory flavors to create pies like strawberry with
balsamic vinegar and salted caramel apple. “To us pie isn’t just a dessert, it’s a hearty treat, an
afternoon snack, a sustenance food,” the sisters explain.
Melissa
and Emily have been pretty busy lately thanks to Four and Twenty Blackbirds’
rapidly growing popularity, but they still find time to experiment with new pies. And
when they aren’t taste testing their own desserts, they’re enjoying artisanal
ice cream from Van Leeuwen, another Brooklyn sweets spot.
What did you want to be when you grew
up?
Melissa - All kinds of things . . . making pie suits me for now.
Emily - In elementary school, an astronaut. In high
school, either a musician or an artist.
You both grew up in South Dakota, what
compelled you to move to New York?
Melissa - I spent two years abroad post-college, but
didn’t have a plan for when I returned. There was a room opening up in Emily’s
apartment, so I thought I’d give New York a shot.
Emily- I came to Brooklyn in 1999 to study Sculpture at Pratt, where I
eventually got my BFA. I visited schools in Manhattan too, but I immediately
fell in love with Brooklyn. I felt it was the place I had to be. I went to
London for a little while, but have always felt like Brooklyn was home.
Did you always
get along as kids?
We did get along. We were pretty independent, and
maybe we weren’t "best friends" even though we are close in age, but
we definitely respected and cared for each other.
Use seasonal, fresh fruit. Enjoy what you are doing and take your time (when you can!). The pie will be better with love and attention. Don’t overwork your crust.
Do you stick mostly to her recipes, or have you changed and adapted them at all. If so, how?
We have adapted, but kept the same basic concept of fresh, in-season fruits in the Spring, Summer and early Fall, and creams, custards and chocolates in the Winter. Grandma Liz used lard in her crusts, and we use just butter – for us, it’s a flavor and texture thing. Lard is great for savory pies though!
Your family owned a restaurant. What was the menu like there and is still serving food?
Our mother and her sisters owned and operated the Calico Kitchen in Hecla, South Dakota from 1985 to 2001. The menu was classic Midwestern family style - full breakfast, lunch and dinner, and very unpretentious. For most of their business years they were the only place in town (the population was around 400 people), but they were well known around the county as a place to get a great meal. There were always big pots on the stove and roaster pans in the oven filled with something delicious. They were all self taught, or learned from Grandma. And they really knew how to cook everything well and with fresh ingredients like meatloaf, beef roasts and mashed potatoes, fried chicken, steak, hamburgers, potato salad, cole slaw, fresh soups, amazing cinnamon rolls, cookies, and of course, Grandma Liz made all the pies.
Tell us a little about how you started baking pies in Brooklyn. Did you ever think pies weren’t “trendy” enough to be a successful business?
We started baking together when Melissa moved to Brooklyn in 2009. Emily had been living here for almost 10 years. We had fantasized for a long time about going into business together but always said “no food!” because we knew how much hard physical work it can be. Despite that, Melissa had done a number of wedding cakes for her friends and Emily had been baking pies, tarts and cakes for friends as gifts. We started out focusing on pies and tarts because we were both interested in the creative potential of them – and we wanted to make a really good crust – because, that’s the real challenge of good pie! We created a menu of things we wanted to make and tried it from home, selling to friends and friends of friends. The positive response to our products, and the genuine encouragement from close friends gave us the confidence to say, hey, maybe we should really do this. We never thought about pie being “trendy”. It was gratifying to us to create a good product that people liked, trendy or not. For our shop, we really just wanted to create an awesome neighborhood spot where people would want to hang out and eat good pie and coffee, meet friends, have a business meeting, meet new people, what have you . The area we opened our place in needed that, and it makes us incredibly happy to see that developing in the shop.
Before you even opened up an actual shop, you were baking from your apartment. We heard you even made a “wedding pie.”
We made tarts for a close friend’s wedding recently (but that was after the shop was open). They requested Chili Chocolate Tarts. We asked our talented friend Ben Cohen to make custom tiers out of traditional tart pans so that we could create a tiered tart “wedding cake”. You can see it on our website here: www.birdsblack.com. We also catered a friend's wedding this month in Western Massachusetts. We made a variety of seasonal fruit pies and tarts with blackberries, plums, pears, peaches, rhubarb, blueberries and nectarines, and we are excited to make pies for some new customers who are getting married in the Fall as well.
Were you overwhelmed by all the publicity following the article in The New York Times?
We feel so blessed and lucky for all the positive press we have received. We were certainly not expecting it, and yes, we have been scrambling to keep up and we couldn’t be happier about it. We are doing our best to increase our production and grow our business in a positive way.
There seems to be a distinct balance between sweet & savory among all your pies, such as strawberry and balsamic vinegar or the salted caramel apple pie. Was that always important to you in baking?
We do aim to strike a balance with savory ingredients that add subtle aromatic notes that enhance the fruits we use. Neither of us are big into sugary foods or overly sweetened things – though some of our pies are pretty sweet! But, to us pie isn’t just a dessert, it’s a hearty treat, an afternoon snack, a sustenance food. It’s great for a breakfast treat too. We are working on savory pies now and hope to have a menu soon of lunch and dinner-worthy pies.
Your pie menu changes with each season, so what’s your favorite time of year for pie? And what’s your favorite pie from that season?
Summer! Because of all the wonderful fruits, but we don’t really play favorites. The best pie is pie that is made with in season, fresh fruit. Though some of our custards are pretty tasty too: Buttermilk Chess, Grapefruit Custard, Lemon Chess, Salty Honey.
Any new types pies in the works that aren’t already on your seasonal menus?
We are often experimenting with new things and offering them in the shop if we feel they are up to par. We’ll add them to the menu once we’ve had a good response.
Other than your bakery, do you sell pies to any restaurants or specialty shops?
No, not yet, but we’d like to one day.
New Yorkers finally seem to be embracing regional, American comfort foods foods, like fried chicken, barbecue and, of course, pies.
We believe that food that brings to mind the best meals one ate at home and growing up leaves a very powerful impression. Having been raised in a family restaurant, and with a father that is a farmer who grows corn, wheat, soybeans and more, food was a very important part of our family’s livelihood. We learned that simple, humble, yet delicious and fresh food is what we crave for sustenance. We think it’s natural, and exciting to see chefs and bakers making new twists on traditional American recipes…we use a lot of old cookbooks when making our pies, and update the recipes just slightly…it leads to some great recipes we can sort of call our own, with homage to the humble bakers of, really, not so long ago.
Other than your own, what are your favorite dessert spots in New York City?
Anybody that makes fresh ice cream! We recently met the Van Leeuwen folks and tried their ice cream – delicious.
Who thought of the ingenious egg sandwich with the egg baked into the bread?
That was a collaborative effort all the way, but it took a few rounds of perfecting and testing before we got it. We’ve got more ideas to spin on it, like adding cured meats and other types of cheese and herbs.
Any plans for additional locations, perhaps a Manhattan outpost?
Not yet, but if we do expand it will probably be in Brooklyn, and in Gowanus preferably.
Photo Credit: Toby Bannister
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Address: 439 Third Ave., nr. 8th Street
Phone: (212)741-6699
August 29, 2010
Most New Yorkers think of the South Street Seaport as a crowded tourist destination, best left to out of towners. But just behind the seaport are some often, overlooked restaurants worth discovering. This part of the Seaport is where the real downtown hustle happens.Suteishi
Address: 24 Peck Slip
Phone: (212)766-2344
Suteishi doesn't look or taste like your average sushi restaurant. For starters, it's outfitted with floor to ceiling windows, futuristic walls, and a sleek, red and gold sushi bar. But if the sushi weren't so fresh, the romantic decor wouldn't matter, at least not to us. Look past the usual, sushi suspects and take advantage of more unusual offerings, like yellowtail toro, salmon toro and King crab. We highly recommend the red snapper sushi, crowned with yuzu gelatin, squid with uni, and the sea scallop with spicy tobiko. Other unique dishes, include green tea soba soup, a black cod hot pot, as well as "hot rock" entrees with your choice of Portobello mushroom, shrimp or filet mignon. There's an extensive sake list with some wonderful unfiltered sakes.
Acqua at Peck Slip
Address: 21 Peck Slip
Phone: (212)349.4433
Outdoor seating is prime real estate in New York, and this is one of the most charming al fresco spots we've stumbled upon this far downtown. Request an outside table at Acqua (pictured above) and a glass of Prosecco at this lively Italian seafood eatery. But no matter what time of year, this is a great spot to linger over a bowl of linguine alla bottarga, antipasti or finely charred pizzas. But our favorites dishes on the menu are the crab salad comes and the Pizza Bianca alla Robiola, topped with speck and white truffle.
Cowgirl Sea HorseAddress: 259 Front St.
Phone: (212)608-7873
From the owners of Cowgirl in the West Village, Cowgirl Sea Horse (pictured right) is serving up its own brand of Tex-Mex grub with an emphasis on seafood. The menu at this casual, culinary canteen features "Pearl Street Oysters," -- a little like Oysters Rockefeller with a Texas twist. These are baked in a cilantro-lime butter and topped with breadcrumbs and parmesan. By far, the best thing on the menu are the catfish and oyster Po' Boys, fried in tasty mix of crackers and cornmeal, and served on a buttery bun
MarkJoseph Steakhouse
Address: 261 Water St.
Phone: (212)277-0020
Located on a sleepy cobblestone street, MarkJoseph Steakhouse is a little hard to find, but well worth it. Owner Charlie Blair learned a thing or two about grilling a well-charred porterhouse, while working as the general manager at Peter Luger before going off on his own. They make great hashbrowns, creamed spinach and steak fries to accompany all of their full-flavored meats. But not many steakhouses can boast homemade mozzarella and a memorable tuna tartar.
Salud
Address: 142 Beekman St.
Phone: (212)566.2220
If you want to make a festive night of the Seaport, this is the perfect place to dine. There's live music in the dining room, vibrant cocktails, and an extensive collection of Latin American dishes. The restaurant looks like a Southern Plantation with tall ceilings, white railings and palm trees scattered around the dining room. There's lots of great cocktails -- mojitos, margaritas, sangria and caiprinhas -- to start with, while wandering the tapas-focused menu. In fact, you don't have to commit to any entree with tapas-sized paella, mini-Cuban sandwiches and little lobster tacos. Our favorite dish on the menu is the Ceviche Ecuatoriano with a tart, spicy, citrus, and sweet mix of shrimp and luscious guacamole.
August 26, 2010
This is one of those times I wish I lived on the Upper East Side. Ever
since Simply Peeled opened a few weeks ago, I want to move. (I’m only
half-kidding.) The Upper East Side has just become home to a unique, new frozen dessert so delicious it may have the downtown set breaking their “no traveling north of 14th street rule.” Now, I’ve been smitten with Mister Softee and his vanilla soft serve since I was a kid. If there’s no truck in sight, I’ll cop to ducking into Pinkberry for tart frozen yogurt on occasion. But I really never thought frozen fruit could be so downright addictive. Simply Peeled serves soft-serve frozen fruit with the silky, smooth texture of soft ice cream and the clean, crisp flavor of fruit. It’s called Fruizo and it’s creamy, light and luscious. That’s not the best part. The best part might just be toppings, like warm, organic peanut butter, wasabi peas, and even chips & salsa.Fruizo sets a new standard for frozen treats: It's made from just fresh fruit, filtered water and organic cane sugar. A four-ounce serving clocks in at less than 100 calories. And it’s non-dairy, gluten free, fat free, organic, vegetarian, guilt free and exactly what we have been looking for. It’s hard to believe anything this craveable could be so healthy. Simply Peeled is the brainchild of four friends -- Michael Sloan, Chloe & Jason Epstein and Lauren Browne -- brought together by their quest to find a healthy alternative to the crack-like desserts they all love to eat. Not many soft-serve spots have scratch & sniff wallpaper, rustic, checkerboard floors, and wooden fruit bins strategically scattered about the space. The three seasonal flavors right now are mango, strawberry, and my favorite, banana, which all somehow taste fruitier then the fruit they’re made of.
Of course, you can get your Fruizo plain, but everything is even better with accessories. We love the strawberry Fruizo with wasabi peas because it’s spicy, sweet and just plain exotic. The mango Fruizo crowned with tortilla chips and salsa bears an uncanny, frozen resemblance to mango salsa. The Crunchy Salty Sundae is a mind-blowing -blend of banana Fruizo, chocolate chips, banana slices, pretzels and warm gooey peanut butter sauce. With its sudden, new cult following, Simply Peeled is the next big things in frozen treats. Fro-yo is so 2008.
August 25, 2010
Last week's sleek popsicle molds inspired a search for other inventive gadgets for making frozen treats. There's only one frozen dessert we love as much as popsicles and that's ice cream sandwiches. And apparently, we're not the only ones who feel this way. The mix-and-match ice cream sandwiches at The Meatball Shop, located in the East Village, are just as popular as their meatballs, With this ice cream sandwich maker (pictured right), you can make your own ice cream sandwiches whenever the craving strikes. The possibilities are limitless. You can make a peanut butter and strawberry ice cream sandwich, a chocolate chip mint, or snickerdoodles with moosetracks. Just bake a freshly baked batch of cookies and use the cookie cutter to create equally sized triangles for the two cookie layers. Use the mold to combine the cookies and ice cream together, remove the plunger, turn the sandwich maker upside down and let it rest until the sandwich slides out of the mold. Voila - perfect ice cream sandwiches ready to eat or put in the freezer for entertaining! if you want a healthy option, try sorbet or frozen yogurt, which work just as well in the mold.
Cuisipro-Ice-Cream-Sandwich-Maker $19.95
