|
|
SOME people would call me a picky eater. I have to admit I do tend to stray away from certain grotesque foods. But other than that, I really do try to keep an open mind. The greatest of the “grotesque foods” is by far mayo. It’s white, gloppy, gooey, fattening and just makes everything creamy in all the wrong sort of ways.
I’m sure about 75% of people in this world will disagree with me-including all of my closest friends and boyfriend. But for the lucky 25% of you who agree, this is an excellent potato salad recipe sans mayo and all the yuckiness it embodies, avec lots of flavor.
I found this recipe in Bon Appetite magazine and was instantly intrigued. To be honest, I’ve never had potato salad before because said enemy, mayo, was always involved. But this recipe utilized other flavor enhancers like lemon juice, herbs and spices, and even bacon.
So goodbye white, messy potato salad. Hello potato + salad = YUM.
Potato Salad with Rosemary, Lemon and Bacon
Adapted from Bon Appetite Magazine
3 pounds idaho potatoes
3 large celery ribs, thinly sliced
juice of 2 lemons
zest of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup olive oil
5 pieces of bacon, crumbled
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
small handful of parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put bacon on to a sheet pan and in to the oven for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them. You want them to get crispy so that they’ll crumble apart but don’t let them burn. When they’re done, pull them out of the oven and place the slices on to a towel to de-oil. Put aside.
Put your potatoes into a large pot and fill the pot all the way up with water so that the potatoes are fully covered. Then place the pot on the heat until it boils. Once the water boils, reduce heat to medium and let the potatoes simmer for about 20-25 minutes.
While you’re waiting for the potatoes to finish, you can begin making the dressing. Combine the minced garlic, rosemary, lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil into a bowl and whisk together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then slice the celery and put it aside.
When the potatoes are done, put them onto a plate and let them cool- about 20 minutes. Slice and place into a large bowl. Throw the celery and bacon (crumbled) into the bowl with the potatoes and pour on your dressing. Top with parsley and combine everything together. Put in the fridge to cool.
Serve this light and fresh potato salad with…anything. Bring it to a buffet or a pot-luck. Take the whole damn bowl and bring it to the couch while you watch True Blood. Any way you eat it, you’ll enjoy it.
Thanks so much to Bon Appetite for such a great recipe. It’s so nice to find a potato salad that is this fresh tasting and lacking in the muck that is mayonnaise. Despite the lack of saturated fat, you will be pleased to note upon eating that your craving for smooth and creamy potatoes will be satiated. Perhaps you’ll never go back to that old crap. And if you do, just don’t tell me about it.
Bon Eating,
Ariel
 One of many... So I’m not really IN Italy anymore which really makes the title of this blog a lie…but what the hey I wish I was still there anyway so I’ll go with it. Double lie because this post isn’t even about Italy it’s about an entirely different country! Good ol’ Switzerland.
 Gotta love the cheese, and the cow paraphernalia everywhere, and the chocolate and the hot extreme sporty men. Good times had all around. My friend Liz and I went in the beginning of February so it was still pretty cold though now I’m sure it’s great summer sporting time there too. I almost didn’t go on the trip and I am SO glad that I did. We went to Interlaken–a tiny little town in Switzerland that a lot of student travel groups take trips to. It was amazing. Other than the night sledding and 4-wheeling illegally on Swiss highways, the food also happened to be a highlight of the trip.
 The one tip I got before going to Switzerland: eat Rösti. What is Rösti you ask? Oh only something that was clearly created to cure every hangover/bad mood/any craving for salt you’ve ever had in your life. This wonder dish consists of grated potatoes that are fried, covered in cheese, sprinkled with some herbs and then any other toppings you could possibly think of. My rosti was a sausage, cheese and applesauce rosti…it.was.incredible.
 Anyone who knows me knows one of my favorite foods is potatoes–and if I’m hungover, potatoes, preferably with grease, is the only thing I want to see besides a glass of ice cold water. Well I wasn’t hungover while eating this…and I’ll stand by my opinion that Rösti is ballin’. So one of my few tips for Switzerland: FEAST on some Rösti.
 Another tip: go to a chocolate shop. Don’t just buy the toblerone and Milka choco bars in the airport on the way back, really go to an artisanal chocolate shop and try their specialty truffles.
 We did this in the small mountain town of Grindelwald that we visited on a day trip from Interlaken. It’s a really adorable and beautiful town if you are close by. I got three truffles from this place and I wish I had gotten more, they were the three best chocolates I’ve ever eaten in my life. And I’ve eaten a LOT of chocolate.
 I ate one before I got a picture..don’t remember the flavor…but these two are white chocolate and strawberry and then a milk chocolate, caramel and vanilla bean marzipan sprinkled with sea salt.
 The first one tasted like those weird but great strawberry short cake bars you get from the ice cream man or from your middle school cafeteria–I lovingly refer to them as kitty litter bars because the outside looks like kitty litter. This chocolate=kitty litter ice cream bar, except not cold. Unless you leave it outside in the swiss air for long enough.
 The next chocolate–the caramel and vanilla bean marzipan covered with milk chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt–yeah, that one, was the best chocolate I have ever had in my entire life. I still think about it. I still refer to it as the best chocolate I have ever had in my entire life. And I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. I really think it needs no explaining, the combo of sweet and salty, the vanilla bean marzipan that tasted almost like vanilla bean ice cream, all covered with swiss milk chocolate……..my mouth is watering.
 Next and last tip for you, or the last one I feel like writing about, eat fondue! And lots of it. Or there’s the age old Raclette–always a good choice–but I only have pictures of one night when we ate fondue. Go ahead and do it right, eat some cheese fondue as an appetizer and have some choco fondue for dessert. The swiss know how to do fondue better than anyone. Perfectly melted cheese with a little hint of the alcohol that has burned off the top, all perfectly warm in the pot they bring it to you in. Delicious. Makes me feel wintery just thinking about it.
 I suppose this was a pretty unseasonal post but I have all these pictures that I have been waiting to write about when I had a little free time on my hands. That means there might be a few more unseasonal posts but not too too many. I still got Barcelona, my wine and food weekend in Chianti and Montepulciano andddddd I don’t remember what else. Crazy it seems like I was just in all of these places even though it was months ago. Happy July!
Bon Eating,
Whitney
Hello! We are FINALLY BACK! As soon as I returned to the US, I had a vaguely familiar craving. No more salads and falafel and traditional Israeli cuisine. I wanted something…cheesey. I wanted something…creamy. I wanted good ol’ stick to your stomach, food coma inducing, tried and true, mac and cheese. I looked no further than our Gourmet cookbook and I found an excellent recipe.
Gourmet Cookbook’s Mac and Cheese
Topping:
2 tbs melted butter, melted
2 cups panko breadcrumbs 1 cup grated extra-sharp cheddar
Cheese Sauce and Macaroni:
3 tbs unsalted butter
3 tbs flour
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 3/4 cups whole milk (I used skim because I didn’t have whole- it’s still decadent)
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 cups grated extra sharp cheddar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 pound elbow macaroni
Put a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 400 F. Butter a 3 quart shallow baking dish. (I used a bunch of little ramekins)
Make the topping: Stir butter, panko, and cheese in a bowl until well combined.
Make the sauce: Melt butter in a 5 quart heavy pot over moderately low heat. Whisk in flour and red pepper flakes and cook, whisking for 3 minutes to make a roux. Whisk in milk in a slow stream, then bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly. Simmer, whisking occassionally for 3 minutes. Stir in cream, cheddar, mustard, salt and pepper. Remove pot from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax pepper to prevent skin from forming.
Cook the Macaroni and assemble the dish: Cook macaroni until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water and drain macaroni. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl, then transfer to baking dish. Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni. Bake until top is golden and bubbling, 25-35 minutes.
All I have to say about this mac is that it gives Kraft a serious run for their money. The topping is crispy and buttery and the cheese- OH THE CHEESE. It’s perfect. The mustard adds a very unique flavor, and the reserved cooking water really brings everything together.
I have to say that I am SO happy to be back in New York. We have a great apartment and drumroll please….we have a DISHWASHER!!!!! No more hand washing dishes, no more soap scum, no more trouble.
Can’t wait to keep cookin and bloggin! Please give suggestions on what you want to see this summer on Nosh and Tell. Thanks for being such loyal fans- Whit and I love you for your hunger! 
Bon Eating,
Ariel
 Piazza San Marco Carnivale Carnevale is basically Europe’s Mardi Gras. Lots of drinking, ridiculous costumes and amazing amounts of fun. We chose to spend Carnivale in Venice, one of the major celebration cities in Italy. It was incredible. I have never seen such elaborate costumes and Venice, oh Venice. It feels like you’re walking around a movie set. Absolutely breathtaking. I loved it. We happened to eat pretty well in Venice, don’t get me wrong it’s an overpriced tourist city–well worth it though. But this post is going to be more of a mix of travel info about Venice and food because my experience in Venice was less about the food than it was just about the city itself.
Drinks:
While in Venice, try an Aperol Spritz. It’s made with Prosecco, Aperol Orange Liqueur and soda. They put a blood orange slice in it to made it look pretty and if you wanna get an extra buzz from this already stiff drink, eat the orange slice.
Also you’ve gotta get absinthe–real absinthe. Now it’s legal in the US but it’s not as strong as the stuff they’ve got over here. We got one of the strongest kinds that is 79% alcohol. That’ll leave you spinning for a while if you can stand the taste. I abhor licorice so I had a hard time sucking our sprite & absinthe cocktails down, but if licorice is your thing then expect a painful hangover the next day. (doesn’t the word licorice look funny? no? that’s just me? okay). Traditionally you get the special absinthe spoon, pour a shot of absinthe, rest the spoon over the shot glass with a sugar cube on top. Dip the sugar cube in some absinthe before and then light it on fire. Let it the syrup drip into the absinthe and drink up.
Food
Can’t tell you where we ate, but try and get out of the main piazzas or ask wherever you are staying for recommendations. I had pesto pasta one night near the Accademia and this roast chicken. If I recall they were both very good! Pasta was really fresh. Lord I’m gonna miss Italy.
One day for lunch we went to this little cafe that was really good for being a pretty touristy spot. I got bruschetta and pizza. The bruschetta was great, more Americanized than most bruschetta I’ve had in Italy but oily and delicious. Pizza was good too, big ol’ slices of grilled veggies as you can see.
Fried thingies! Fritelle. They’re like little fried donuts, sometimes salty too. They also have these fried strip things covered in powdered sugar that are great too.
 Aperol Spritz man! Random Things I remember:
- Go to the Guggenheim! It was AMAZING. The set up of the gallery, the art there and how it’s situated in Venice are beautiful. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip
- Go for Carnevale! We heard mixed reviews but I am so glad I got to experience it in Venice. The costumes are so elaborate and the festival in San Marco is really cool
- Go to Piazza San Marco, duh.
- Take an overpriced gondola ride. I did it on Valentine’s Day with my friend Liz, yes very cute and it was well worth the price. Once in a life time.
- Go SOON! Venice is sinking so go see it while you can. It is truly a really special place.
 - We loved this guy!
That’s about it for now. Should be studying for finals…oops! This will most likely be my last post while actually IN Italy because I’m leaving on Friday to return to the states. Sono molto triste. I have had an incredible time here and cannot wait to share more food adventures from my travels when I get home and have ample time to write about them. This semester has been like the best 3.5 months of my life and I am so sad to say goodbye to Firenze, Italy and Europe in general. Things I will miss about Italy? Fresh pasta, the CHEESE, Acqua al due salad sampler, Italians, the euro-clubs, the euro-club techno music, cheap and good vino, coca light skinny cans and sooo much more.
 - San Marco costume fashion show
Buon appetito e la prossima volta.
Whitney
|
|
Popular Posts