The People of New York City

I'm gonna step away from the food and address something for a moment. The interesting and strange and brilliant diverse walks of life that make up New York City.  Just when I think I've seen it all, something else comes and shatters the record for most odd and insane.

Friends have been bugging me since last summer to post a photo album I was starting to create on facebook. Called The People of New York.  Shots from folks in all the five boroughs. People from Chinatown to Washington Heights to Elmhurst Queens. Cross Island Expressway to Coney Island Brooklyn. All in a way that both surprise me and remind me of the diversity I get to live amongst everyday.  Drifters, fashion models, crazies, nudes, street performers, businessmen. Once my friends started seeing the photo's that I posted, all taken on my iPhone (except one), they would start to send me pictures taken from their iPhones. Anyway we built up a library so I thought I'd share. I can't take all the credit. Julian, Lee, Jen and Laura were contributing photographers. you know what? for a phone it takes pretty good shots. Enjoy!

9:30am Union Square. crackhead gets ahold of Mr Bubbles

Upper West Side with shopping bags

fashion week is officially closed

Brooklyn. Matching pink with Piggy accessories

Me and Piggy at Dickson Farmstand Meats

Union Square

Riverside Rink on 145th

Bulge??

Macys Bar 3 Event I cooked for. Not an iPhone shot

Golf on the Hudson. w Julian

the man who lives in Julians building on Mulberry St.

West Indian Day Parade. Brooklyn

Kate Manning & Gelber. Governors Island Lawn Party. 

Lauren Elder

Freemans night. L to R: Julian, Thomas & Kacie

Lee

The Highline

The corniest mothershucking tart

Butter popcorn tart with conflake crust. On top I made homemade (carnation) caramel and corn dust and a nutmeg spiced merengue and bob's yer uncle. This is our entry dish for the Kings County Corn Bowl. But one of those ideas for dishes, if I'm critical, that can keep get way more complex than it needs to be. keep it simple is the rule.

I remembered loving the butter popcorn pot de creme made by pastry chef friend Matt Danko.  Sinking past the layer of caramel and sea salt into corn and vanilla seed custard paradise. I was hooked. Some of my internship at Greenhouse Tavern was spent in the pastry kitchen with Matt Danko, the pastry chef and lineman.  This pot de creme goes back to their philosophy about desserts...that you can't take your desserts, much less your savories, too seriously. Sounds good to me

Josh & I agreed we wanted to do a sweet. The flavors and textures were on point but the crust wouldn't hold together well. Afterward I went back to the drawing board and decided to use a simple shortbread recipe instead of cornflakes, dry milk, and butter which just doesn't  hold together like a flour based crust. I cut the merengue and did a quick brûlée with superfine sugar. Just enough fire to brown it. On a hot or humid day, you'll see why merengue is a bad idea. Moisture kills merengue.  its actually really easy to make if you don't mind taking a necessary few steps. I usually make enough shortbread for 2  11 inch tarts.

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 Butter Popcorn Tart. Shortbread, Caramel, Corn Dust & Sea Salt

       

SHORTBREAD CRUST 

2 vanilla beans
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sifted flour
zest of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons cold milk or water
*11 inch pop up tart pan

BOURBON CARAMEL

2 14 oz cans condensed milk (look for Eagle)

3 tablepoons bourbon

CORN CUSTARD

4 cups heavy cream

6 ears of corn

1 bagful buttered popcorn

2 cups superfine sugar (plus 2 tablespoons extra for brûlée)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

leftover vanilla beans and seeds of 1 bean

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 fresh chili, seeds removed

8 free range eggs yolks

2 tablespoons wondra or flour

maldon salt
dehydrated corn

*brûlée torch

Making your own caramel is easier than expected. Place the unopened cans of condensed milk in a sauce pan big enough for both cans and fill with water just enough to cover the cans. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 3 hours. Keep checking the pan to make sure the  water level always stays just above the top of the cans. Otherwise the cans will explode with a vengeance. Put the cans to one side and allow to cool. It will give you the most insane caramel. Open the lids, scoop the caramel out into a saucepan over medium heat. while whisking pour in bourbon little by little. The heat will cook off most of the alcohol but your left with a slightly less than thick buttery bourbon caramel. Set aside or in squirt bottles for drizzling. 

First off make your pastry dough. with a knife score lengthwise down your vanilla beans. run your knife down the inside of each half (keep the pod for the custard mix. Set half the seeds aside for the custard). Mix together the butter, powder, sugar, and salt. Toss in the flour, vanilla seed and lemon zest. mix it all together by hand or processor.  just enough till it looks like course breadcrumbs. Add milk and work together till it forms dough. Don't overwork though. Depending, you might need to add a dash more milk. flour it lightly and form into a nice rectangular log. the flour will keep it flaky and short. Wrap the log with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour to harden up. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and slice lengthwise, slightly thinner than an iphone. assemble the slices together, like a jig saw puzzle, over a floured surface.  With a rolling pin and flour for dusting, roll out enough dough to just thicker than a silver dollar about 13 inches. Run a chef knife under the dough around, fold it over on top of itself and transfer to the tart bottom. Add the bottom to the tart lining, crease the edges, trimming off the excess, making sure the whole tart is uniformally the same silver dollar thinness all around. put in the freezer for an hour. 

Now make your corn custard. Get a nice sized high sided stainless steel cooking pot. Shave your kernels from the cob and toss them both into the pan. Add the cream, empty vanilla pods, chili, popcorn, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let it steep for an hour or a day. Wring out the cobs and discard. Strain the corn infused sweet cream. Discard the corn solids but you can also save the corn for cornbread or or add to polenta. To the cream, add your 2nd half of vanilla seeds and extract. place the egg yolks in a big bowl, whisk in flour making sure there are no lumps, and whisk in the corn cream. 

Now lets put it all together. Preheat your oven to 350. Bake your frozen pastry shell blind for 15 minutes with 2 forks crossing in the middle, to keep the shell from rising too much. Keep and eye on it. You'll want it to just brown around the edges. Take it out, turn the oven down to 250 and careful fill your shell with the corn cream close to the brim. Place it in the oven an bake low and slow for about 45 minutes, or until its just browning and you can stick a fork through it without pulling up any custard. Now it's done. Let it cool. sprinkle your 2 tablespoons of fine sugar all around, turn on your torch, and make a nice brûlée on top so its hard to the touch. drizzle the caramel and crumble a handful of your dehydrated corn on top. It gives it a great corn pops flavor. Now tuck in and enjoy

more shots from the Brooklynauts Kings County Corn Bowl

the winners. corn ice cream with jalapeño corn bread

Our friends (and rivals) from Dicksons Farmstand Meats

sweet & savory in the summertime

Can I say I'm a little excited to see the Nets in Brooklyn?? The Times reported today that the Nets vendors are all not just local, but specifically coming from Brooklyn. This makes me very happy. 

Josh and I teamed up with a good friend Davis Anderson who's the wine director at Maslow 6 and Eleven Madison Park and Josh's friend from NYU Aaron Polski who serves drinks at a great bitters bar Amor y Amargo and Netta. they both formed an underground dinner club [featured in Thrillest] called The Sinners Club. They meet every three weeks and believe that 'wine comes first and then food must match it's majesty.' They asked Josh & I to supply maybe 6 passed hors d'oeuvres before the main event 

For dessert I always go back to tarts.  a homemade crust is about 3 ingredients. very easy to assemble, simple, impressive, and so fulfilling..when you get the right ratio of a good firm almond and jam tart middle with a crispy vanilla shortbread crust, very thin. make a standard shortbread but then flavor it with some vanilla bean pods and lemon rind. when made ahead of time it gets better when it sits and sets in after a few days. 

Ive been experimenting with quiches, fruit tarts, custard tarts, chocolate tarts since watching Jaime Oliver on the BBC way before he attached himself to anything outside England. I would do spins on some of his tarts when I first began catering my own gigs.  The baked chocolate tart, my favorite anytime, works best with 2 things. Sour cream and eggs because it rises like a soufle.  To a standard double boil of cocoa powder & butter, instead of regular semi sweet chocolate I used a Lindt mint dark bar and crushed some girl scout thin mints into the mix. 


Here are some sweet n savories we'll pass around for the Sinners Club event

almond butter & rhubarb jam, baked thin mint truffle, and two quiches with thyme oil, speck, drunken goat & cheddar

best potato chips with garlic & rosemary

vintage pictures are just fun to have and to look at. Andrew has these hanging up in his house out here. stretched [and very loose] burlap on old wood backdrops of butcher charts.



This is where my nerdy chef comes out. He told me he found them in an old package house in the meatpacking district.

homemade chips is a great option for a proper summer BBQ. very easy to assemble and you look pretty cool when you get nods of satisfaction among a sea of crunching on the warmed chips with thin slices of fried garlic and rosemary.  I like the purple potato which fry up very clean and crisp. The purple is the original potato from Peru. Russets or Yukon Golds are good as well. you'll need a mandolin. if you don't have one, you can find a good mandolin slicer with or without a julienne attachment for under $20. you'll also need a bath of ice water next to you to be able to hold 3 pounds of sliced potatoes. 

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purple potato chips with rosemary and garlic

your list

3 lbs purple potatoes. washed, scrubbed and pat dried

peanut oil. enough to fill half a heavy saucepan

sea salt. Maldons good

a bunch rosemary leaves picked

1 bulb garlic. sliced super thin or whole roughly bashed

yesterdays newspaper

mis-en-place

set your stove to 250. now slice your potatoes into thin disks about the width of a quarter and drop in ice water. watch your fingers! I like to do a few lengthwise to change it up a little. after they're cut place in the oven on 2 sheet trays with raised wire racks for 30 minutes to get the rest of the moisture out. have tongs and a mesh colander handy [to scoop out the chips]. set a large saucepan on a stove and fill up halfway with the oil. turn it up till it reaches a steady 350 degrees. this is your cooking point. You'll be doing them in batches. Throw in a handful for each batch so theres no overcrowding.  Let it fry, turning with tongs, a few times on both sides. after 3 minutes toss a small handful of garlic and rosemary in. give it a few more minutes to crisp up. poke with your tongs. When its crispy and hard to the touch, they're done. pull them out with your colander & place them on wire racks. salt generously. keep them in the oven to stay warm & crispy till serving.  I like to serve them on newspaper. its a cheap alternative to paper towels and it looks like you picked them up right off the fish and chips man. try a bite with the garlic and rosemary. they season the oil with each batch which makes the chips all aromatic and lovely. tuck in!

chips from the Bar3BQ event