Mystic Gypsy Libations

In addition to the jars of hot sauce that we gave folks this Christmas, I also made Chai Infused Vodka and a bottle of Frangelico to a few people as a special treat. People are always so impressed with infused vodka, and it's the easiest thing in the world to make. I brought this concoction to a tea party for a dear friend's birthday party a few months ago and it was a hit.

I remember visiting a Russian bar-bistro in the East Village called Anyway Cafe years ago and being transfixed by the number of infused vodkas on the menu (the food an ambiance there are fantastic, too). I chose this spot to celebrate a publication I worked on once with the Open Society Institute and a Ukranian colleague, and we had a really nice time.

The Best of the Leftovers

Tuesdays were never meant to be this easy. D and I came home a bit late and a bit short on planning tonite. I thought I'd make turkey legs with mushroom masala sauce, but D said he was sick of turkey. We've eaten it every day since Thursday. That's five straight days: turkey slices, turkey soup, turkey slices, turkey soup (again), turkey stuffed in delicata squash boats . . . I knew I was pushing the limit. So I asked him to defrost the sirloin I have in the freezer, and to pick up some lettuce and mushrooms so that I could make a beef and ginger stir fry and a salad. But when I got home, he said he had just gotten home and didn't have a chance to do it. Well, I said, I kinda wanted to order Atomic Wings anyway, and I started getting together some money to give him so he could pick them up on the way back from the gym.

But then I thought: damn, I have so much food in this fridge right now why can't I just make something...it doesn't even have to have turkey in it! So I started taking out the cubed butternut squash that I had from the other night, the chopped kale, the ginger, an onion, some quinoa; I figured I'd make a stir fry. But then I thought: why not add some ground turkey that I haven't yet stuck in the freezer. Add some leftover ricotta cheese in there to make it all mushy. Maybe he won't even notice. And I could bake it in some of the phyllo dough that we used the other night.

I swear, this must be the best leftover turkey recipe I've ever dreamt up. I cooked it while I was listening to this awesome online service called Pandora radio (www. pandora.com, thanks so much to Ariel for the tip!) which takes a musician who you like, and collects all of the music that is like that music that you like, as rated by other pandora service users, and you just listen to it as though it is a radio station. You get to say whether or not you like the songs you hear, and pandora promises that it will not play songs like that one again. Anyway, I've been playing my Matt Nathanson station since this afternoon at work and I love it. What a great way to discover new music, seeing as how there is not a single consistently decent radio station that plays music that I like here in NYC.

I talked to an old friend while I was doing the dishes, and poured a glass of new Brooklyn Oeneology Motley Cru (very interesting...made by a local vintner so small they don't even have a website! I get my B.O. wines from LeNell's Wine & Likker (http://www.lenells.com/). Then I cooked up this thing:

Turkey Phyllo Torte

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp minced ginger

1 cup turkey

2-3 cups shredded kale

1 cup cubed butternut squash (uncooked)

1/4 cup chopped mushrooms

2 tbsp small black currants

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cracked black pepper

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp paprika

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1 pkg (8 oz) phyllo dough

olive oil

Saute the onion until it becomes a golden brown and gives off a heady scent. Add the diced ginger and garlic and saute until tender. Add the ground turkey, brown for a bit, and then add in the butternut squash, kale, and mushrooms. Add some water or broth as needed to keep the mixture moist. Toss in a handful of currants. Then season with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and paprika. Saute until everything is cooked through and the butternut squash is a bit mushy, but not too mushy. Take off the heat and set aside until it is no longer too hot to work with. Line a springform pan (or a pie pan, but it won't turn out as a torte). Layer phyllo dough sheets, about five atop one another arranged to cover the pan, spraying some olive oil in between each layer.

Scoop in half of your turkey/kale/squash mixture and spread at the bottom generously but evenly. Dollop your ricotta cheese atop that layer, and repeat with another layer of turkey/kale/squash. Pat evenly, and layer another five phyllo dough sheets evenly over the filling.

Pop it in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes, then 400 for 15 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and some nuts (pistacchios). But if we were to make this recipe again (which seems likely) we'd sprinkle a handful of pistaccio nuts in the middle of the torte.

What a perfect meal.

The leftovers make a great lunch for the next day. I packed ours with a few olives, a slice of mango, and a handful of pecans. If you heat everything up together, it's delicious.

Ukrainian Solyanka

I traveled in Ukraine in September and I've been carrying around the idea that I'd make this awesome soup I had in a cafeteria. With all kinds of meat in a rich broth, lemons, olives, and dill, I knew my sweetie would love it. Its taken me this long, but this morning, I found a recipe on a Russian blog and we picked up all of the ingredients at Fairway this afternoon. It took me about two hours to prepare the whole thing.

Ingredients

8 cups rich meat stock
3 lb different sorts of meat (we used pork rib tips, beef ribs, and beef shank steak with bone)
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 pickled cucumbers (cut into 1/2 inch strips)
1/2 head of cabbage
1 cup brine
1 small can of tomato paste
2 bay leaves
25 or so black peppercorns
3 lemons
Olive oil
25 pitted olives (black and green)
2 Tbsp capers
fresh herbs (dill, parsley)

Preparation

Brown the meat (on the bone) with olive oil in a large Dutch oven
Once brown, add 8 cups of meat stock
Cover and let simmer until the meat is falling off the bone
While the meat is cooking, saute the onion and garlic until browned in a soup pot
Add the pickled cucumbers, cabbage, and tomato paste
Saute until tender
Add brine, 2 bay leaves, peppercorns and simmer for about 2 minutes
Once the meat is falling off the bone, lift it out of the Dutch over with tongs and set aside to cool off until you can handle the meat.
Shred or cut the meat into little pieces and place into the soup pot with the onion mixture
Skim the fat from the top of the meat stock and discard
Pour the soup stock into the soup pot
Shortly before serving, add chopped olives, capers, 2 Tbsp dill, and juice from one lemon
Heat
Serve with a garnish of dill, thinly sliced lemons, and sour cream on the side.

Enjoy!

Pickles and Eastern Europe

I went to a party tonite with old colleagues from an international organization that I used to work with. We were talking about what we were all working on, and I told them that pickling was my new interest. People who live and work in the U.S. and Western Europe were sort of bemused, but you should have seen the gleam in the eyes of people who live and work in Eastern Europe, and Russia in particular. You know why? 'Cause it is COLD there, and in the wintertime, many people don't have access to fresh vegetables; pickled veggies are staples.

So back to the problem of marketing....how do I get these Americans that I know to eat my pickled vegetables. People had several ideas, much better than my idea of buying fancy plates and putting out signs. One woman suggested that I just serve pickled vegetables in place of any other type of vegetable....kind of force my guests to eat them. I liked better the idea of having very small dinner parties, just three or four more people (I actually like to invite 3 single people over for dinner...it's much more interesting than two couples, who often end up talking about themselves and their coupledom). You bring the pickles out as a sort of discussion piece, like artwork. And then you can initiate a conversation about pickles. And I think it's fun to talk about them; everyone has something to say about pickles. Or maybe that's just my perception, and people think I'm crazy when I start talking about them.