Brunch for Dinner: Shakshuka

I've been wanting to post this recipe for one of my favorite brunch dishes for a long, long time. So I'm cheating by referring you to my friend Katie's blog, because though I did most of the cooking, she took the did the rest of the work by taking the photos and writing about it!

This is a vegetarian recipe, but it's super filling and totally satisfying.

Dinner in a hurry: Pizza

Sometimes I don't want to deal with making a grocery list. When this happens, I go to the store with an ingredient in mind that I've been craving, and then base my meal off that ingredient. This week it was artichokes. I really, really wanted artichokes for some reason (because they're delicious, obviously). So, I grabbed a can of artichoke hearts and decided to make pizza.

Pizza is not rocket science. With pre-made dough it's a little more involved than making pasta, but way more interesting. From start to finish this meal took about thirty minutes to make, and I had plenty of leftovers for lunch. Win!

What did you make for dinner this week?

Red Rooster

I took a field trip to Harlem a few weeks ago for dinner at Red Rooster, and let me tell you, the neighborhood is not the place it used to be (sketchy). Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go skipping around there at night twirling my pigtails or anything, but the place has changed a lot in the past few years (majorly gentrified).

Chef Marcus Samuelsson opened this place less than a year ago with the idea of melding his roots (Ethiopian), his upbringing (Swedish), and his current home (Harlem) into an affordable neighborhood dining destination. The idea is interesting, but the execution left me pretty disappointed (and if you scroll down to see what I made ordered for dinner you'll understand what I mean).

Corn bread, honey butter, and tomato jam. The salt-flecked corn bread was delicious and moist, and the honey butter made it that much more enjoyable. On the other hand, the tomato jam tasted like mild Pace salsa. Not good.

Two of my friends ordered the fried yard bird, with white mace gravy, hot sauce, and shake (some sort of seasoning blend). This is a terrible picture, but the portion was generous, the skin nice and crispy, and the hot sauce complex and full of heat.

Blackened catfish and black eyed peas with fried pickles and lemon dill slaw. I didn't taste this (I hate fish), but apparently it was so good that by the time I looked back up from my plate it was all gone! 

Yams and sweet potato puree with bacon, horseradish, and maple. We shared this as a table, but we didn't finish it. To me, that speaks volumes. The puree was just too soupy. We turned our attention to picking the crunchy bits off the top and pulling out the pieces of bacon that were folded into the puree.

And now for the picture I've been holding off on sharing because it is just too disgusting to look at. Chickpea dumplings, fresh cheese, spinach, and peas. This is what I made the mistake of ordering. I was so hungry and humiliated by my choice that I ate the entire thing. It tasted fine (even verging on flavorful), but it was almost entirely texture-less and every time I caught a glimpse of it I felt ill.

 

In a nutshell, I don't recommend the trek to Harlem for Red Rooster. I've heard they have great cocktails, but I couldn't justify spending $14 for a drink on a Monday night.

Buttermilk Channel

Buttermilk Channel is lovely. The food is delicious, but there’s something about it that is good in an unobtrusive way. You’re more focused on your conversation than the mind-blowing entrees, and that’s okay. It’s a place that does exactly what I, personally, want food to do. It brings friends to the table in a comfortable, unpretentious setting to enjoy a good meal and each others company.

Dinner last Thursday night was a celebration, and a prelude to the holiday weekend, so I started with a (forgettable) cocktail. The menu’s description was promising (tequila, honey, grapefruit, jalapeno, lime) but it was basically just a glorified margarita, so why didn’t they say so?

While we made our critical dinner decisions, the waitress brought out a plateful of warm popovers drizzled in honey and sprinkled with flake salt. The idea was amazing but the execution was slightly wanting. The popovers were a bit overdone, so mine had a faint burnt taste. Le sigh.

On to the appetizers! The olive-sized hush puppies were a bit heavier than I would have liked, but their presentation in a miniature ice cream dish filled with green chile aioli won me over. I am a sucker for cute and these definitely qualified.

House-made pickles. Good, but a bit floppy and the vinegar fumes they gave off with every bite made my roommate a little faint. Baked oysters. Now we’re talking. Plump and warm, these were a satisfying blend of creamy, crunchy, savory, and sweet. I only wish they hadn’t been $3 a piece or I would have eaten many, many more.

Duck Meatloaf. Swoon. Anyone that’s known me for a while—and has therefore shared a few meals with me—can tell you that I am very territorial when it comes to food. I demand the first bite, and if you take it away from me I will shoot you with my laser eye beams. Or stab you with my fork. Be warned. Actually, while I'm being perfectly honest, I don’t like sharing things I find totally delicious, but because I wasn’t raised by wolves, I share. Though no one I was with is as keen on duck as I am, I found this meatloaf so absolutely wonderful that I had to keep myself from licking the duck jus off my plate. The creamed corn still had whole kernels in it and the onion ring was the perfect crispy counterpart to all the other textures on my plate. I didn’t take pictures of our dessert selections—chocolate chip bread pudding and a pecan praline sundae—because they didn’t blow my mind nor were they inspiring to look at. The sundae was tasty, but the bread pudding was so dry I found myself biting into pieces of bread that hadn’t been soaked in egg custard. I’m not a fan of soupy bread pudding, but come on!