New site!

I switched over to a new domain, http://petes-eats.com/

All new post will be posted there.

Review: Mario Batali's Tarry Lodge

It was my mom's birthday last Thursday. So the family decided to do something special and head up to the Tarry Lodge in Portchester. Mario Batali's Tarry Lodge is considered to be one of the top restaurants in Westchester. With such an extensive, appealing menu, it's difficult to narrow one's options. Each element of the pizza's was bright and fresh-tasting, on a crust that really surprised us. We found it pliant and well-salted, with a real outside char from the wood-burning oven, good interior hole structure, and a great balance of chew and crunch.

The first time I had the Guanciale, Black Truffles and Sunny Side Egg Pizza I had dreams about it the coming weeks, and it became the one dish I was most looking forward to on our return trip. There's no skimping on the truffles. But with the sweet, seeping guanciale, Parmesan, and rich yellow egg, they don't dominate or overwhelm the pizza. It's a fine dish, not just a fine ingredient. A pile of black truffles for $17? Talk about an affordable luxury.

My main course was the Orchetti with fennel sausage and rapini. The pasta was perfectly al dente, and soaked up the luscious red sauce. The fennel spiked sausage was a great complement to the savory sauce and earthy rabini.

Tarry Lodge has quickly become a top notch restaurant in Westchester, and just keeps climbing up the culinary ranks.

Tres leche birthday cake with fresh strawberry sauce

It was my mom's birthday today, so I wanted to do something special. She's been raving about a tres leche cake from Hell's Kitchen, so I decided on tres leche. The recipe doesn't contain butter, so the cake doesn't feel heavy. On the contrary. Despite being soaked through, this cake is as light as air. But that doesn't mean that it's not bad for you. Oh no, my friends. Where the butter leaves off, the heavy cream, condensed milk, and sweetened evaporated milk pick up. The three milks seep through every pore of this spongey cake and the result is a cake that drips with sweet, almost caramel-flavored milky goodness with each bite.

Tres Leches Cake
1 cup All-purpose Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
5 whole Eggs
1 cup Sugar, Divided
1 teaspoon Vanilla
⅓ cups Milk
1 can Evaporated Milk
1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
¼ cups Heavy Cream

12 strawberries, quartered
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan liberally until coated.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Separate eggs.
3. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.
4. Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.
5. Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.
6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.
7. Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream and rum in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle all but about 1 cup of the milk mixture—try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can.
8. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for a minimum of 3 hours, ideally overnight.
9. To make sauce, combine all ingredients in a small pot until berries are tender, blend and cool.

Coffee Granita with soft whipped cream

This dessert is very simple and easy to do. And I'll leave it at that.

Coffee Granita

2 cups coffee

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Boil sugar and coffee until sugar has melted.
2. Freeze mixture in a shallow pan.
3. Every half hour, scrape with a fork.
4. Spoon into a glass with soft whipped cream, enjoy!

Smoked Salmon Tacos with fresh Tortillas and Sweet Corn-Black Bean salsa

Everything in this dish is homemade right down to the tortillas. I don't have a smoker (I wish I did) so I used a alternate smoking method using a bamboo steamer. The salmon came out great, with a little smoky flavor that doesn't overpower the natural fish flavor but complements it. The corn salsa adds layers of flavor to the smoky fish. This is a great summer dinner: fresh, flavorful and somewhat healthy because of the salmon and corn.

Smoked Salmon Tacos

2 cups corn meal

1 1/2 cups water

1 tsp salt

2 Salmon fillets

3 cups hot water

2 Tbsp salt

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp pink peppercorns

2 handfuls apple wood chips

1/2 cup water

1 can black beans

2 ears corn

1 shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

Juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. Brine salmon overnight. Make sure it's skin side up so the flesh gets full exposure to the brine.
2. To make tortillas, combine corn meal, water and salt until a ball forms. Using the back of a heavy pan, flatten a small ball of the corn/water mixture. Heat a cast iron pan and cook tortillas for 2 minutes on each side.
3. To make corn salsa, combine beans, corn, shallots, garlic and lime in a small pot until corn is cooked though. Refrigerate until cool, add cilantro.
4. Take salmon out of the brine and let air dry for an hour.
5. Lay 2 layers of tin foil in a wok. Add chips, heat over high until smoking, add water. Lay salmon in a bamboo steamer. Smoke for 30 minutes.
6. Lay one tortilla down, spoon on corn salsa, then two or three pieces of fish. Enjoy!

The secret to great Iced Coffee

I have 3 very simple rules with it comes to iced coffee.

1. Start with a strong brew. (I prefer Stumptown or Intelligentsia)
2. Cool the coffee first.
3. My favorite rule: use coffee ice cubes instead of regular ones. Using regular ones dilutes the coffee, giving it a watered down taste.

Iced Coffee

1-2 cups coffee for the ice cubes

1 glass full of cooled coffee

milk to taste

sugar to taste

3-4 coffee cubes

Directions

1. Pour 1-2 cups of coffee into a ice cub tray, freeze overnight.
2. Cool coffee in fridge. Add milk and sugar to taste.
3. Add 3-4 cubes, enjoy!

Lamb Burger with charred onion and mint

After having the lamb burger at the Breslin (which was amazing), I've been meaning to make one of my own. So I got some ground lamb from the now local Fairway and went to work. I didn't want to do just salt and pepper, so I made a bit of a spice rub consisting of cayenne, cumin and cinnamon to highlight the slightly gamey lamb. Mint is a classic pairing with lamb, so I wanted to implement it somehow, so I combined it with the onions I sautéed in the leftover lamb fond while I let the burger rest.

Lamb Burger

5-8- oz ground lamb

1 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cumin

1 Brioche bun, toasted

1 diced small onion

5-6 mint leaves

1 minced garlic clove

Directions

1. Form lamb into a patty. Heat a cast iron pan over medium-high heat.
2. Toast bun until a mahogany color appears.
3. Combine salt, pepper, cinnamon, cayenne and cumin. Season burger on one side with rub. Place on pan and season the other side.
4. Sear for 4 minutes, flip, and cook to desired temp. Around 3 minutes for medium rare.
5. Take the burger off, and let rest on the bun. Throw onions/mint/garlic onto the hot pan and scrape up lamb fond, sauté for a few minutes and top the burger with the onions. Enjoy!