Where we'll be

If you happen to be in Park Slope this Saturday, swing by and check us out:

Sudden and irrational

It didn’t start this way. I had a beautiful bunch of broccoli rabe and some spicy Italian sausage waiting for me in the refrigerator. But at four o’clock in the afternoon, while sitting at my desk, it hit me: a sudden and irrational craving for tacos. And not the authentic spicy pork tacos from Tehuitzingo. I’m talking old school, Old El Paso tacos. The box with the envelope of seasoning mix and the little packet of “mild taco sauce.” The kind of tacos that I grew up eating at home.

For the next hour and a half, I tried to convince myself that sausage, white beans and broccoli rabe over polenta would hit the spot. But alas, to no avail…the desire for some crunchy tacos could not be ignored. So on my way home from work, I picked up some ground chicken, an avocado and crispy taco shells.

I couldn’t quite get myself to buy the “taco kit”. In full disclosure, I did pick up the Old El Paso box but quickly put it back down when I remembered that whatever I made would be infinitely healthier than whatever “mix” is in that envelope, especially with the addition of black beans to the meat. And I mashed up some avocado with garlic and lime – a garnish that was not included in my childhood taco dinners. Nor was the chipotle sour cream that topped the final product.

In the end, the broccoli rabe could wait...only crunchy tacos would do the trick. Actually, it took three of them. Just like when I was a kid.

I ended up making much more ground turkey and black bean filling than Eric or I could eat, so we invited Ross over who managed to polish off the last five tacos.

Where we'll be

Stop by on Saturday and say hello!

Introducing S.E.E. aka Stuff Eric Eats

Every so often, I have to travel for either work or to visit friends/family while Eric stays at home. When this happens, Eric ends up fending for himself on the food front. And often times, the results aren’t pretty. To understand WHAT Eric ends up eating, one needs to understand HOW Eric eats. While he could certainly appreciate the concept of good food, he ate more than his fair share of Hotpockets, McDonalds and delivery pizza before we met. Now, Eric gamefully joins me in any of my food adventures/field trips, eagerly tries all of my kitchen experiments and is adept at ordering a multitude of cuisines for delivery. But he also has a combination of thriftiness and laziness that enables him to eat out of the refrigerator for a weekend despite the fact that this appliance may only hold a few chunks of cheese, a quarter package of bacon and some week-old leftovers.

With that said, I would like to introduce a new series to the blog: Stuff Eric Eats. This idea was spawned by my friend Gleason after Eric horrified her with tales of eating an entire can of black olives for dinner while I was having a mini-reunion with my college roommates on the Delaware shore.

So, in a blatant rip-off of my Reel Tasty partner's P.I.E. WITH (People I Eat with) series, I dub this new feature: S.E.E. while I’m in…

To kick off this series, I went up to Maynard to visit my parents a few weeks ago. My mother recently had back surgery (she’s doing okay…just uncomfortable) and this was her first weekend at home. So I went up to help out my father and cook some meals.

Back in NYC, Eric managed to eat five Babybels, leftover chicken meatballs with fettucini (from a restaurant a few nights before), and a frozen quart container of leftover chili from Chilifest. He also cobbled together a “salad” of week-old arugula, blue cheese (that may or may not have turned a different color), half a package of bacon, and three fried eggs (in the Eric Morgan school of cooking, old food/leftovers are completely fine as long as it’s topped with a fried egg).

Eric's Sunday afternoon dinner

While Eric was slowly clogging his arteries with eight pieces of bacon in his salad, I spend the majority of Sunday in my parents’ kitchen. My mother’s favorite meal in the world is roast chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. Unfortunately, since finding out a few years ago that she is allergic to gluten, my mother can no longer eat the traditional stuffing she cooked and loved for years. So I used her gluten-free millet bread and treated it exactly as if I was making regular stuffing.

My parent's Sunday afternoon dinner

Here’s the rest of the dishes I ended up making (clearly, not everything was consumed on Sunday…):

• Gluten-free oatmeal pancakes
• Sausage, white bean, tomato and spinach soup
• Suzanne Goin's mustard-garlic marinated pork loin
• Rosemary-roasted potatoes
• Glazed carrots
• Roasted beet salad with goat cheese
• Finnish meatballs
• Roasted chicken with gluten-free stuffing and gravy

Plenty of leftovers in the fridge and freezer. In fact, after I left, my father made his delicious take on a Cuban sandwich with the leftover pork loin, pickles from Artie’s and provolone cheese. Eric, on the other hand, welcomed me home with a refrigerator filled only with a Brita, bottles of hot sauce and a few jars of jam.

Gluten-free Oatmeal Pancakes
This is a variation on a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Orangette. At first, I adapted the recipe merely to decrease the amount of butter (the original recipe calls for a stick of butter – and while delicious, a bit indulgent for breakfast). But then I realized that since this recipe has so little flour, the pancakes could easily be converted to gluten-free – a luxury my mother has sorely missed over the past few years. I tested this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free All-purpose flour, brown rice flour and teff flour (the last one more out of curiosity – unsurprisingly, this was a bit more savory…not bad, but not very breakfasty). After making our gluten-free neighbor Ross test them, the brown rice flour was declared the winner (the gluten-free AP flour was a bit mushy). Note that these aren’t super light and fluffy like traditional buttermilk pancakes; and gluten-free oats are much chewier than regular rolled oats. Nonetheless, they are delicious and both Ross- and mom-approved.

2 cups gluten-free oats
2 cups buttermilk
½ cup brown rice flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. table salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted but not hot
Vegetable oil or spray, for greasing the pan
Maple syrup, for serving

The night before:
Combine the oats and buttermilk in a medium bowl. Stir to mix. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

The morning of:
Take the bowl of buttermilk and oats out of the fridge. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Add the eggs and melted butter to the oat mixture, and stir well. Add the flour mixture, and stir to blend. The batter will be very thick.

Warm a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, and brush (or spray) with vegetable oil. To make sure it’s hot enough, wet your fingers under the tap and sprinkle a few droplets of water onto the pan. If they sizzle, it’s ready. Scoop the batter using a ¼ cup ice cream scoop or a small measuring cup onto the pan, allowing plenty of room to expand (which they will do, pretty significantly). When the underside is nicely browned and the top looks set around the edges, flip the pancakes. Cook until the second side has browned.

Remove from pan and repeat.

Serve hot, with maple syrup.

Yield: about 12 pancakes, or 3 to 4 servings