A couple of weeks ago my friends Jess & Garrett, of We Heart New York, invited me along to a lecture at Proteus Gowanus. When they suggested that we meet someplace beforehand for dinner, I thought of Sheep Station, which bills itself as “an Australian ‘local’ in Brooklyn”.

I went for the veggie burger (for a dollar extra, topped with Aussie cheddar). The patty itself was pretty standard fare (that is, it fell apart pretty quickly), but the toppings were interesting: beets, a slice of grilled pineapple, and a fried egg. There’s no reason that all of those things should work together, but somehow they combined to make something pretty good. The side salad left something to be desired, and the veggie burger wasn’t good enough to warrant a second trip, but if you find yourself down 4th Avenue you might want to give it a try.

Sheep Station — 149 4th Avenue, Brooklyn

I had purchased some squash blossoms from the Farmer’s Market, and I was trying to decide what to do with them. I usually stuff them with cheese and fry them, but I didn’t really want to fry anything. Then I remembered I had about a dozen cherry tomatoes left over from making a tomato and okra stew, and I realized I could put the tomatoes inside of the blossoms. Since I didn’t want to fry, and boiling obviously wouldn’t work, I thought I’d try baking them in the oven. I even went out and bought a pack of toothpicks to help this work.

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I had no idea what to do about dinner while working through the isles of Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn. I had a small crave for pasta but was too lazy to cook, part of me also wanted to just leave Trader Joe’s and get pad thai but the other part of me wanted to save money. Ah what to do, what to do. I was walking near the bread section and thought “hmmmm I do love bread, hmmm what if I just make a sandwich? What about a sandwich topped with chili?” And from then on ideas and cravings just poured into my head. The above photo is what I came up with. Texas toast, mayo, wild arugula, 1 slices of mozzarella cheese, hash brown and vegetarian chili.

I ate 2 of these. !!! Food coma in 10, 9, 8… *ZZZZZzzzzZZzzzzzzz

This was AWESOME!! Really really hit all the different cravings I had. The taste of the chili was a bit overpowering though.

My cousin Wendy is a vegan, so when we eat out together it can sometimes be a problem. For her birthday she invited some of us out to the Natural Gourmet Institute‘s Friday night dinner. For $40 the students at the Institute cook and serve a three course dinner to you. The meal was quite good, though not perfect; these are, after all students. I will say I had a good time and some of the food was excellent. Click on the link above to find out how to make reservations.

Appetizer:
Curried roasted cauliflower in saffron “ailoi”
Roasted Brussels Sprouts in smoky tomato “cream”
Kale chips with horseradish cream

Entree:
Lentils and bulgur with olives, raisins, and caramelized onions, braised radishes, microgreen salad, and celeriac sauce

Dessert:
Chocolate tart in pistachio crust with salty caramel and candied kumquats

Note: A couple of years ago I wrote a detailed post about how I cook Kosher for Passover, or K for P as I call it. Click here if you care about such things.

My mom recently sent me a recipe for “Pesach Muffins” and I was immediately intrigued. I noticed that the recipe and technique was almost exactly the same as choux dough, like I used when making profiteroles. Except for the flour, of course. I had purchased matzah cake meal this year, rather than regular matzah meal, and my mom thought I might get better results with the more finely ground product. While baking the rolls I also started making some cheese to go along with it.

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Note: A couple of years ago I wrote a detailed post about how I cook Kosher for Passover, or K for P as I call it. Click here if you care about such things.

Call this one an interesting failure.

The idea was to get the crispy jacket of the potato to act as a cup for the smooth duxelle. It ended up being the other way around. Perhaps I shouldn’t have used those soft red potatoes, but I coated them with oil, salt, and pepper, then baked them in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour. While they cooked I made the mushroom duxelle — I used shitakes and oyster mushrooms because that’s what I had, but I’m sure anything would be fine. In order to get the mushrooms into tiny pieces you need either a lot of patience or a food processor. I used a food processor. Then the mushroom bits were cooked in olive oil and butter until the moisture was almost all cooked out, then seasoned. Then I added a splash of wine leftover from the Seder. When it cooked down I let it cool for a few minutes. When I pulled the potatoes out of the oven they were cooked through but they almost liquefied when I cut them in half. I tried scooping out the interior, but they were way too soft to do it well. Undeterred, I filled the best looking ones with the duxelle, which tasted good but was a little crunchy. I baked them again for about ten minutes. This didn’t do much to crisp up the potato skins, but it did dry out the mushrooms even more.

I ended up mixing the rest of the potatoes directly into the remaining duxelle; everything tasted good, it just wasn’t what I had intended to make.