Peter's Eats Night 2

After the overwhelming success of Peter’s Eats night, I decided to have a second one with all new people and an all-new menu. Despite the bad weather, the second ever Peter's Eats night was an absolute success. It was really an awesome night. I hope to have another one soon.

Here is a copy of the menu

Second ever Peter’s Eats Night

Course 1:Armenian Mezze consisting of boereg Armenian-style string cheese, pistachios and basturma

Course 2: Pan fried shrimp with ponzu vinaigrette, baby spinach salad

Course 3: Pork Butt two ways, Momofuku-style and spice-rubbed, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese with bacon

Course 4: Pumpkin bread pudding with salted caramel coulis and freshly whipped cream

First off, here is a lovely gift I got from Oliver, one of the guests. It’s a micro-zester, which is definitely a tool I’ll be using a lot.

Here is the first course, the Mezze, a conglomerate of Armenian goodies, there’s boereg(cheese filled pastries), string cheese, basturma and I forgot to put the pistachios out, whoops!

The second course was the pan-fried shrimp in some seasoned flour and ponzu sauce. It was paired with a spinach salad in simple vinaigrette with bacon bits for texture and flavor.

The main course was 6-hour pork butt two ways, Momofuku-style, and spiced-rubbed. It was with sweet potato hash and chipolte-bacon mac n’ cheese.

Finally, the dessert was pumpkin bread pudding, with a salted caramel coulis and freshly whipped cream, albeit, a little heavy, but a great way to end the meal.

Special thanks to my mom, who helped with all the prep work and shopping. My dad, who helped with the mezze and my brother Alex who designed the menu.

Buttermilk Biscuits with Cheddar and Jalapeno

Biscuits are awesome, period. And so are these biscuits. They’re light and fluffy, with a jalapeno kick with an extra sharpness from the cheddar. They are simple to put together, taking only about 15-20 minus baking time.

These biscuits can be eaten at any meal of the day; part of a hearty breakfast, a light lunch, a tasty snack or the always great brinner(breakfast for dinner) which it can be paired with some delicious sausage gravy.

Buttermilk Cheddar-Jalapeño Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup cold buttermilk, shaken

1 cold extra-large egg

1 cup grated extra-sharp Cheddar

1 jalapeño, deseeded with membrane removed, chopped

1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water or milk

sea salt, optional

Directions

1.)Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2.)Place 2 cups of flour, the baking powder, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, add the butter and mix until the butter is the size of peas.

3.)Combine the buttermilk and egg in a small measuring cup and beat lightly with a fork. With the mixer still on low, quickly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and mix only until moistened. In a small bowl, mix the Cheddar and diced jalapeno with small handful of flour and, with the mixer still on low, add the cheese to the dough. Mix only until roughly combined.

4.)Dump out onto a well-floured board and knead lightly about 6 times. Roll the dough out to a rectangle 10 by 5 inches.

5.)Using a circular cookie cutter, make around 10-12 circles. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

6.)Brush the tops with the egg wash, sprinkle with salt, if using, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the biscuits are cooked through. Serve hot or warm.

Banana Bread with walnuts

The perfect banana for banana bread is when the banana has black speckles all over and the peel has turned soft and crepe-y. I was a little impatient as I’ve been waiting all week for the bananas to be the right color, but I was sick of waiting, I wanted some banana bread. The kicker in this recipe is the buttermilk, it adds a little acidity to react to the baking soda so it raises well.

Walnut-Banana Bread

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 eggs

1/1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (one banana)

1/4 cup walnuts or pecans

1/2 tablespoon butter milk

Directions

1. Start by setting out the butter and eggs. Bringing them up to room temperature will make the batter better. Let them sit for at least an hour at room temperature. If you are in a hurry, microwave the butter for 10 seconds and stir it to distribute the heat. Try not to liquefy the butter. And in the end cold eggs, won’t make bad bread.


2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg, vanilla and butter milk and mix it until smooth.


3. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.


4. Add the dry mixture and the banana to the butter mixture. Add a little at a time and mix after each addition. Stir in the nuts.

5. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan (9×5x3″).

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a sharp knife poked in, comes out clean.

Bananas Brûlée

This is a very simple dessert with very simple, robust flavors. It's very easy to put together and can make for a very delicious dessert. I wanted to make something a little special for Valentines day for my mom and grandma and decided this would make a great end to the meal.

Bananas Brûlée

2-3 bananas, halved

Handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

Directions

1. To make the chocolate sauce, melt chocolate over a double boiler and add cream in once melted.
2. Peel and halve the bananas, cut them in halve again and lay over a cooling and top with the sugar.
3. Torch the bananas until the sugar melts and and bubbles and browns.
4. serve with ice cream and chocolate sauce, enjoy!

Perfect grilled cheese with bacon and sautéed onions

Grilled cheese is a great comfort food that is easily prepared. It invokes memories of ones childhood as an after-school snack between cartoons and homework. I opted for swiss rather then the nostalgic bright orange American cheese. The swiss has a nice nuttiness that adds balance to the salty bacon and sweet onions. The aforementioned bacon and onions upgrade this childhood sandwich to a more gourmet one.

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

2 slices white/potato bread

2-3 slices bacon

1/2 thinly sliced onion

2 slices swiss cheese, any cheese is good

Directions

1. Heat a pan over medium heat and cook bacon with onions until cooked through, around 4-5 minutes. Reserve the rendered bacon fat in the pan.
2. Build the sandwich, cheese topped with the bacon and onions.
3. Put the sandwich in the pan with the bacon fat and cook until golden brown and then flip. Take it off after around 30 seconds and cut in half, enjoy!

First Ever Peter's Eats Night

I had some of my loyalist fans over for the first ever Peter’s Eats night. I prepared an extravagant four-course meal of some of my favorite dishes for them. We’ve been planning this for quite some time, and I’ve personally been looking forward to putting my culinary skills to the test. Due to the success of tonight, I’ll definitely be doing this again, I already have a menu in my head for another one.

Here was the menu for the first Peter’s Eats night,

First Ever Peter’s Eats Night

1^st course

Ricotta cheese Gnudi with crispy bacon and arugula

2^nd course

Seared Scallops with Sriracha white wine cream sauce

Main course

Pan-fried panko crusted chicken breast with hoisin vinaigrette over sweet corn and swiss chard

Dessert

Mexican hot chocolate with French style salted caramel macarons

First course were the Gnudis, one of my favorite dishes. I first had them at the Spotted Pig and fell in love with them. They tasted as good as I’ve ever made them; creamy, salty, buttery and those bacon bits add a nice textural contrast.

Next were the scallops, they were seared till they were golden brown and had a nice crust. The fishy scallops paired well with the white-wine cream sauce.

The main course was the panko-crusted chicken breast over sweet corn and swiss chard with a hoisin vinaigrette. The crunchy panko sealed in the juicy chicken and the sweet corn worked well with the bitter chard and the salty vinaigrette.

For the dessert, the Mexican hot chocolate was thick and luscious (not your usual hot chocolate). I did two different macarons, a chocolate macaron and a salted caramel one. Also, my mom made some brownies last minute because the macarons were kind of small.

Special thanks to my brother Alex Kayaian! He designed the menus and helped out with the cleaning up, cooking and serving the food.

Review: Louie & Ernie's Pizza in the Bronx

(Pictures courtesy of Slice)

We have been going to Louie and Ernie’s for quite some time now, and each time we've gotten the sausage pie because it’s utterly delicious. Louie and Ernie’s is a neighborhood kind of place; it has that homey and cozy feeling to it of laid-back pizza joint. It’s always our go-to pizza place whenever we get the pizza craving.

L&E has a very local vibe to it. It seems like everyone is a regular there. Owners—brothers Cosimo or Johnny Tiso, who bought the place from Ernie Ottuso in 1987 and who are the only ones who make the pizza.They even have some celebrity followings, famed actor James Gandolfini, notorious for his role on the Sopranos makes Louie and Ernie’s his pizza spot whenever he’s in the area.

Now to the pizza itself, L&E is known for their phenomenal sausage pies. Heavily seasoned with fennel, the fatty pork sausage is divine. It’s the star of the show, the sauce nor cheese overpowers it (in a good way) and it’s the reason we keep coming back time after time.

(Pictures courtesy of Slice)

The white is also great, not on the same scale as the sausage pie, but still pretty damn good. It’s a nice contrast from the meaty sausage pie, but certainty isn’t to be considered light. It’s slathered in creamy ricotta cheese and mozz. The crust is much better on the white pie and for some reason it’s a little chewier, but still has a decent crunch, which I like.

(Pictures courtesy of Slice)

Overall, Louie and Ernie’s is a great pizza joint that makes a fantastic sausage and white pie. If you’re in the mood for a nostalgic slice of heaven, head down to Louie and Ernie’s in the Bronx.

Louie & Ernie's Pizza

1300 Crosby Avenue, Bronx NY

10461 (at Waterbury Ave.; map);

718-829-6230