Kitchen Wench

I have to confess that I don’t usually make my own pasta sauce. It’s actually not that hard, but the jarred stuff is so convenient. Also, there are so many more brands of tomato sauce being stocked in the grocery store these days, and many of them are worlds away from that Ragu or Prego crap. (I like Rao’s a lot, though it is on the expensive side). However, the DC farmers’ markets are still flooded with heirloom tomatoes, so I thought it would be good to take advantage of ever-shrinking season.

The ingredients for this sauce are very simple, though the process of roasting does add some time. However, I think the result was well worth the effort. I plan to make a huge batch next weekend to freeze for later. This stuff is definitely just as good as the most expensive gourmet jarred sauce, if not better. Plus, it’s going to taste amazing with some meatballs.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

• 2 lbs fresh, ripe tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 280 oz can of whole plum tomatoes
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, cut into ribbons
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp fish sauce (The Romans used it and chefs do too)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
• 1 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
• 1 tsp ground pepper (or to taste)
• olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay fresh tomatoes cut side up on a cookie sheet. Lay the whole canned tomatoes on a second cookie sheet. Save the juice from the can for later. Cut off the top of a head of garlic and place it on the same sheet as the canned tomatoes. Drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. I found that the fresh tomatoes took longer to cook, so it is advisable to use two separate pans. Roast until tomatoes begin to brown on the edges and the garlic is very soft, about 30 minutes for the canned tomatoes and garlic and 50 minutes for the fresh tomatoes.

2. Place the roasted tomatoes in a large pot. Peel the skin off the garlic and add the softened cloves to the tomatoes. Add the reserved tomato juice from the can. Using a stick blender, pulse the tomatoes and garlic until the sauce achieves your desired consistency. (I like mine a little chunky.) If you don’t have a stick blender, you can do this step in a food processor or a regular blender.

3. Place the pot of sauce on the stove over medium-low heat. Bring sauce to a gentle simmer and add fish sauce, balsamic vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper, and dried herbs. Reduce heat to low and allow it to barely simmer for about an hour or more. If the sauce starts to get too thick, add some water and lower the heat. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning as necessary. The flavors will meld and intensify over time. A few minutes before serving, stir in the fresh basil.

Makes enough sauce for 6-8 servings of pasta.

These were inspired by the sweet potatoes from Teaism, which they serve with a miso dressing. However, these are much better, if I may say so myself. Teaism serves their sweet potatoes cold, and the texture gets rather mushy and gloppy. Roasting crisps the potatoes on the outside, but the inside is still soft and creamy. Mixing the dressing in right after they come out of the oven creates a glossy, sticky glaze.

Miso-glazed Sweet Potatoes

• 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into 2″ cubes
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons of miso dressing from 101 Cookbooks

Miso Dressing from 101 Cookbooks

• 2 tablespoons miso
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard (or a bit of whatever mustard you have around)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (or honey or agave)
• 1/4 cup (brown) rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup mild flavored extra-virgin olive oil (I substituted vegetable oil)
• 1 teaspoon pure toasted sesame oil (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss sweet potato cubes in vegetable oil.  Pour into shallow baking dish and roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until tender.

2. Whisk together miso, mustard, brown sugar, and vinegar.  I popped the bowl in the microwave for about 20 seconds to soften up the miso paste and make it easier to blend.  Pour in a thin stream of oil while whisking vigorously to emulsify the dressing.

3.  Toss warm sweet potatoes in 4 tablespoons of dressing (or to taste).

I usually don’t think too hard about why I do this. Writing feels familiar and comfortable. It’s not that is feels natural, like breathing, but that it feels routine and “normal”, like brushing your teeth before going to bed. Like brushing your teeth, it’s become sort of a habit. It would feel strange not to do it, because that’s what you’ve always done.

But it wasn’t always like this. This weekend, author and essayist David Foster Wallace hanged himself at 46. It is incredibly sad, for a multitude of reasons. I felt a little lurch inside me when I heard the news. I have always loved reading, but it wasn’t until high school that I started reading authors that made me not just want to consume words, but create them myself. David Foster Wallace was one of those writers.

Unlike many of the books I read for class, DFW was a modern American author. He was still alive; in fact, at the time, he was in his mid-thirties. So, I wrote him a fan letter. It was several pages long, typed. I told him all about how his book made me want to write, but that I also felt paralyzed by my own fear and perfectionism. Later, I read over it and became a bit embarrassed by my boundless enthusiasm and precocious rambling. I consoled myself with the fact that he’d probably never read it, that the publisher would never actually route the letter to the right place, and it was probably sitting in some mail room in New York gathering dust this very minute…

He wrote me a thank you note. When my mother handed me the letter, I just stared at it for several minutes, too terrified to open it. What could he possibly have to say to me? I felt about as insignificant as a dust mote, and this man was heralded as one of the greatest authors of modern time. In slanted, blocky script, David Foster Wallace told me that letters like mine helped him and that he too struggled with a harsh inner critic. The note was deeply humbling, encouraging, and personal. He signed it with a funny smiley face doodle. I was utterly delirious.

I still have the note, nearly ten years after I received it. I kept it tucked away in my bedroom and would reread it on occasion, still stunned that David Foster Wallace had sent me a handwritten thank you note. I briefly considered applying to Pomona, just so I could take a creative writing class with him. In the end, practicality won the day, and I went to college close to home. I still continued to read him over the years, but had forgotten all about this little exchange.

Today, I feel like I am inundated with words. Every morning, I read the newspaper on the subway; my Outlook inbox at work is constantly overflowing; and I get agitated just looking at the unread post count on my Google Reader. Amidst all this incoming data, it’s easy to forget that words can do more than convey the most basic of information.

When I first read David Foster Wallace, I knew I wasn’t grasping the entire depth of the work. But I could tell that he was blisteringly talented, and that his moments of brilliance were often heartbreakingly beautiful. What also struck me about Wallace was his ability to observe and understand other people (both real and fictional). As Laura Miller describes in her Salon article, he had a singular way of connecting the reader to the most unlikely of characters. I never had any illusions that I could write using language and vocabulary at such a high level. I did, however, cling to a sliver of hope that I could aspire to capture human experiences in a humorous and perceptive way. I still do, and I guess that’s why I’m still here writing this.

So, this is a fun little game, courtesy of the Very Good Taste blog. This is a (subjective) list of 100 foods that every good omnivore should try. Copy the list to your blog and then bold the items you’ve eaten. You can also cross out anything that you would never consider eating. I didn’t cross anything out because I figure, I’ll try anything at least once (though I am not exactly running out to get carob chips, nettle tea, or a Hostess fruit pie).

I’ve eaten about 60% of this list, which I think is pretty good considering that I’m only 24. I’ve also realized that I haven’t eaten some pretty pedestrian things, like a hot dog from a street cart or a bagel with lox. (I’ve eaten bagels and I’ve eaten lox, but strangely never together.) I’ve also eaten some weird stuff that didn’t make this list (various sorts of pig, sheep, and cow offal, octopus, chicken feet). Regardless, it’s a fun little exercise and gets you thinking about what you’ve eaten and what you want to try next. Maybe I’ll make my own list one of these days. (Mine will definitely include chicken feet.) What would you put yours?

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. PoutineCarob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Despite having lived in DC for two years, I hadn’t taken the requisite weekend trip to New York, until now.  For Labor Day weekend, I went to visit some friends who had recently relocated.  It was the perfect vacation, because all we did was eat, drink, shop, and walk around.  Here are some tasty highlights:

Ramen from Rai Rai Ken
Nestled on a quiet street in the East Village,  Rai Rai Ken is a little shoe box of a restaurant. There is an L-shaped bar that seats maybe 12 people, and chefs lowers steaming bowls of ramen over the edge of the counter.  Rai Rai Ken serves miso, shoyu, and curry ramen, along with a handful of other seasonal noodle dishes, appetizers, and yakitori.  This place kind of reminds me of the movie Tampopo and the protagonists’ quest for the perfect broth.  Rai Rai Ken’s is rich and multi-layered, and the egg noodles are fresh and wonderfully chewy.

Rai Rai Ken Japanese Restaurant
214 East 10th St, New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-7030

Chocolate Covered Bacon from Roni-Sue’s
Bacon + Chocolate?  How could we go wrong?  My friends and I saw this on Serious Eats and thought we’d make a stop at the Essex Street Market to give it a try. The first bite is all creamy chocolate, but then as you chew, all the salty, porky, bacon-ness starts to come out.  It’s very strange, fatty, and delicious.  Roni-Sue also make some great truffles.  Big ups on the coconut, pineapple, and toffee flavors.

Roni-Sue’s Chocolates
Essex Street Market #24, 20 Essex Street, New York NY 10002
(212) 260-0421

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