Cheever Sauce

This definitely isn’t your classic risotto dish. In fact, there is nothing about this dish that resembles risotto other than the fact that it contains a grain that was slowly cooked in broth to a “creamy” consistency. I use that word lightly because I didn’t use parmesan cheese or butter, which most recipes call for. I did however include the classic risotto method of stirring in hot stock into the uncooked rice, a ladleful at a time, cooking slowly as the stock is absorbed. This is a crucial step because it releases the grain’s starches, giving you a nice creamy, velvety dish.

I recently bought some farro and oysters mushrooms at the farmer’s market, so my original intention was to cook just a mushroom risotto. However, because of time and budget restraints (whomp whomp), I usually need dishes to last me a couple meals. I figured the corn and edamame peas I had in my freezer would add some hearty flavor and diversity to the dish, making it more of a meal and less of a side dish. 

I have to say, despite the stockpiling of random ingredients I threw into this dish, it came together very nicely and tasted absolutely delicious. The dish as a whole is packed with energizing nutrients with no skimp on flavor. 

Onward to the recipe loosely adapted from Gourmetmix: 

Sometimes I get carried away with what kind of food I can whip up in this little kitchen of mine. I have that mentality that if some of the top chefs in NYC can work out of some of the smallest kitchens in the United States, so can I. But I hear your plea for faster, easier, less ingredient dishes, so I am going to begin posting “Super Super Easy” meals that can be prepped in as little at 5 minutes, and ready to eat in less than 20 (Because I still feel that a lot of my recipes are just Super Easy).  I’m not talking about plain baked fish and steamed veggies here…I do have a certain caliber for what’s considered a delicious dinner. Just some basic ingredients that you might not think to put together, that can offer a wonderful, easy to make meal. 

So if you’re strapped for time, and looking for a last minute meal, resist the urge to visit your best friend Seamless and cook up a Super Super Easy CheeverSauce dish - you’ll surprise your closeted chef self with how easy it can be. The other week I only had salmon, bok choy, and other limited ingredients in my fridge, but this recipe is a classic case of how a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, goes a long way.

Onto the recipe from Serious Eats:

Brussel Sprouts have a bad rap in my opinion. They tend to stick out as one of those dreaded vegetables you hid under your napkin or fed to your dog as a kid…right next to the broccoli. I can’t pinpoint when exactly my relationship changed with them, but it’s safe to say that New York City restaurants, with their unwavering ability to offer delicious side dishes played an important role. It feels like one day (or at least as of 4 years ago) this once discarded vegetable came in vogue, and all of the sudden brussel sprouts with lemon and pancetta, brussel sprouts with bacon and shallots, brussel sprouts with garlic and parmesan, were offered on the menus of every restaurant north of China Town. I do love my side dishes so I was on board,  I didn’t even care if they were charging me $10 for fancy miniature cabbages on top of my already $35 meal. I was hooked. 

The best of the best (in my opinion) are served at Tartine, and since the restaurant is conveniently located down the street, I found myself falling into an addictive trap. So I decided to whip up my own batch that was heavily inspired by my West Village favorite, and the results were nothing short of perfection. 

Now brussel spouts are delicious just tossed with olive oil, some salt and pepper, and then roasted in the oven until tender, but a tiny bit more effort and a little more ingredients can give you some amazing results. I made these at our Thanksgiving dinner, and nothing is more satisfying for a food blogger than people “Oooh”ing and “Ahhh”ing what you brought to the table. Did you just make a yummy noise? 

The recipe is super easy and very CheeverSauce friendly since it’s the perfect dish for my no measuring philosophy. The sweetness of the dried cranberries offsets the bitterness from the spouts and the almonds offer a nice texture and crunch to the dish. Cooking them in white wine adds a punch of flavor that pulls together all of the ingredients perfectly.

Onto the recipe!

I finally did it. The Union Square Farmer’s Market and I met last Saturday. My sister and parents came in for the day to check out my other sister’s new apartment, grab some dinner, and drop off my winter coats (got to love NYC’s apartment storage situation). And because New Yorkers for some reason have the need to feel guilty if they don’t go outside on a nice day, we found ourselves walking around my sister’s new neighborhood. So my arrival at the market was more of a let’s wander around USFM because we have nothing else to do before our reservation, and less than an I need to visit the market to pick up fresh produce, cheese, and meats for all my dinners this week and support the local community. Not surprisingly, I fell in love with everything fresh and delicious the market had to offer, but I was lucky enough to stumble across Squash Blossoms!

Squash Blossoms are SO SO DELICIOUS and I was shocked to see them available for sale. Apparently squash blossoms are generally unavailable to all but home gardeners and habitués of farmers markets. Because they parish so fast, few supermarkets bother to keep them in stock.

I had my first stuffed squash blossoms at Aurora Cafe in Williamsburg. I went three years ago specifically for the squash blossoms. They were a featured dish on one of those video restaurant reviews they used to play in the back of the cabs. This restaurant was serving an edible flower, stuffed with creamy mozzarella and goat cheese, lightly fried than drizzled with sweet honey sauce? At first I was like Whhaaaat and then I was like…Waiiiit - driver please head to 70 Grand St…Yes. In Brooklyn. Go. 

So when I saw these squash blossoms not only for sale, but accompanied with a convienent recipe - I knew they were begging to be made. The result? They were the perfect fall midday treat. Light yet decadent. Salty yet savory. Earthy yet milky. 

This recipe can easily be adapted with other types of cheese (I recommend any kind of goat, ricotta, or mozzarella. Also try using tempura batter (flour, egg, and water) rather than the cornmeal for a lighter taste.  

Click here for the recipe adapted from Windfall Farms. 

Figuring out what to make for lunch is…the…worst. Lunch to me is that awkward middle child that isn’t getting enough love because its older and younger siblings are getting all my attention. Living in New York doesn’t make this neglected relationship any easier. Whether you’re a slave to the boardroom, working long hours on Wall Street, or salvaging the days of old Madison Ave, “homemade lunch?” doesn’t fall off the tongue in a 9 to 5 as easily as “take-out?” does. 

I know, I know - what do I know? I might not have experience living a life that entails the jobs above, but I certainly have experience living with people who do (and plus, I would still rather eat a yogurt, crackers, eggs, canned soup..basically anything that’s already in my fridge then whip up a meal in the middle of the day). Despite all this, when in the past I have taken the time to cook lunch, all the magic happens the night before. That’s the key people, because no one is going to prepare themselves lunch in the morning before running out the door - see New Yorker Scramble. Cook ahead and you’ll find a little bit of planning and some Tupperware goes a long way for your waistline and your wallet. 

This dish was another gem from Smitten Kitchen. You could easily serve it with dinner, but this batch went straight to the lunch containers. I was dishing it out generously to my roommate and a friend who were instructed to report back. The findings turned out to be fabulous. This is a perfect salad for this time of year because it utilizes one of the many delicious ways to eat squash. Lentils are very cheap, so the big splurge here is the cheese. The goat cheese is the perfect counterbalance to the spiced squash, and brings all the combined flavors of the salad together when you reheat it the next day. (CheeverSauce note: allow the cheese to generously melt around your veggies and lentils.)

Continue for the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Nothing like a quick lunch post to kickstart the weekend. This recipe came together in the snap of the fingers and is a great vegetable alternative to typical deli meat sandwiches. I also like to classify it in one of those trendy “5 ingredients or less” challenges that seem to cover every cooking magazine these days. 

I love portabella mushrooms. They’re plump, juicy, smooth in texture, and cook up perfectly when roasted with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt in a mere 10-15 minutes.  Add some goat cheese and greens to the mix and you got yourself a class A midday meal. 

Continue for the super easy how to:

Stepping outside the past couple days, I am finally getting those wonderful hints of cool and crisp, yet still wonderfully warm air that NYC fall brings. Everyone around seems to have a little extra pep in their step, because us New Yorkers know that our sweltering concrete heat, and hot, humid subway days are finally behind us. So store away those bathing suits and summer shorts, and bring out your cable knits and cashmere, because I am welcoming fall with wide open arms.

What better way to ring in October then a cozy, hearty, vegetable and bean stew. For those of you who are thinking “gross!” - shame on you - stews are fantastic! And this particular one, topped with a toasted whole grain roll, fresh grated parmesan, and a fried egg, is so delicious you’ll be making a triple recipe and freezing the rest for when gasp!…the snow starts to fall and you’re hibernating in your apartment until late March.

When I first started writing this blog I conducted a bit of research on other popular food blogs. One of my (and more then 10,000 others) favorites is Smitten Kitchen, which is actually run by a fellow New Yorker. So for the next couple posts, get ready for CheeverSauce’s Smitten Kitchen dump - because I cooked up about 3 recipes I bookmarked of hers, and was dying to try this weekend. 

I have to admit I cheated a little on this recipe. I took full advantage of NYC grocery store’s tendencies to have a full display case of pre-chopped vegetables. So this recipe took fraction of the time for me because my carrots, celery, onions, and garlic were all conveniently prepped for me, and all I had to do was throw them into a pot. Hey, when you’re in the center of the produce aisle and on your right side you have perfectly chopped veggies and on your left you have full vegetables that come with a vision of a cutting board, sharp knife, food scraps, extra garbage, too much time, and a future arthritis bill, who could blame me? 

Onward to the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Chard and White Bean Stew:

This week I watched “Food Inc.” Big mistake. Damn you Netflix streaming. Now I slightly hyperventilate while walking down the meat aisle at the supermarket and have obsessively been checking the ingredients in everything in my kitchen. I’ve always been one for eating organic, natural, healthy….but like come on, this movie just makes you want to eat vegetables out of your own garden and juice cleanse on fruit smoothies for the rest of your life. 

While the movie certainly had its effect, I still will not, and don’t ever see myself becoming vegetarian. I’m half Greek after all. Have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? “Whaaatt, you don’t eat meat? That’s okay - I feed you lamb.”  I will however, make sure add more local vegetables to my diet and spend the extra $$$ and splurge on organic meat when I need my fix. 

For this dish I picked up fresh, local New Jersey tomatoes at Gourmet Garage, and red pepper from Canada (I know! so not local. I promise I will start going to the greenmarket every week). This soup was so easy to make and nothing beats fresh vegetable soup. The sharpness from the goat cheese perfectly balanced the sweetness from the roasted red pepper and tomatoes and I mixed some leftover cilantro I had in the fridge with the crabmeat - which gave it a great zing.

Onto the recipe adapted from What’s Gaby Cooking

Who doesn’t like a Quesadilla? This is one Mexican food favorite I can never turn down so I thought it was only appropriate to cook and post the dish here.

Chicken…Beef…Veggies…add any of these with melted cheese and wrap it up in a warm tortilla and it doesn’t get much better than that. I like this recipe because it calls for a can of black beans, which is a lot easier to prepare than chicken or beef, and is still such a good source of protein. The mix between the sharpness of the Monterey Jack cheese and softness of the light, creamy textured goat cheese, balance off all these ingredients perfectly (I know I know, I am always blabbing about the mixing and the perfect balancing of ingredients…but its true!) Oh, and the dish is pulled together with THE ingredient of all ingredients: cilantro. Enough said.

1. Combine in a bowl 1 can of drained black beans, 1 small log of coat cheese (crumbled), a large handful of shredded Monterey Jack cheese, 2 minced jalapenos (stem and seeds removed), 1 head of minced cilantro, 4 dashes of ground cumin, dash of salt, and dash of pepper.  (CheeverSauce tip of the day: do not mix this with your hands, try to use a spoon. Don’t mix this with your hands especially if you’re going to a Bikram Yoga class that’s 101 degree room will open your pores and absorb hot jalapeno juice. To say my hands were on FIRE is an understatement).

   Keep reading to get the rest of the recipe.

Tonight we’re eating light folks. It’s been a long (but wonderful) holiday weekend filled with clambake dinners, seafood quiche’s, strawberry pavlovas, Bloody Mary’s and lots and lots and lots and lots of Rosé. CheeverSauce took the weekend off and the real chefs of the house (my parents) treated friends and family to a weekend of delicious food at our house in Nantucket. 

Now that I am back in the real world (whomp whomp) I had to snap back to healthy eating reality and whip up something light because my stomach is still recovering from the weekend’s feasts. At times like these, some girls often want to starve themselves for days in an effort to balance out their recent caloric intake. This is very dumb. Eat a light meal like this one so you don’t shock system into turning your metabolism into a debilitated slug. 

When I first read this recipe I saw in called for “tahini.” Tah-what? The name sounded familiar, so I assumed it would be easy to find in the grocery store. It could be in one of those spice racks right? Whelp - turns out tahini is actually a paste of ground sesame seeds. It is an ingredient used in many Middle Eastern foods, but can also be found in some Chinese, Korean, and Japanese dishes as well. I found mine in a jar next to all the peanut and almond butters.

The recipe itself was incredibly fast and easy to make and the leftovers will make a great lunch tomorrow. 

Onward onto the recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen latest issue

It’s hard to argue that New York City is the pizza capital of this country. Sure, New Haven has their dynamic duo Frank Pepe and Sally’s Apizza, and the lines at Pizzeria Bianca in Phoenix are just as famous as their pie. Chicago boasts its new celebrity Great Lake Pizza (finally some genius over there decided to ditch the deep dish) but there really is no city so obsessed with their pie then New York. I’ve witnessed heated arguments over Lombardi’s vs. Grimaldi’s and seen people pay $100 cash for people’s pizza at Di Fara just so they don’t have to wait in its massively long line. But whether you travel all the way to Coney Island for Totonno’s Pizzeria Napolitano or stop at your local Ray’s, Patsy’s, Artichoke Basille…(there’s just too many to name!) you’re guaranteed an amazingly cheesy, mouthwatering saucy, perfectly tasting NYC pizza. 

SO! As you can see (now that I am finished with my rant) with all these amazing pizza options at my disposal, I was initially skeptical about taking the time to cook a (semi) homemade pizza. But this specific recipe caught my eye because it called for one of my all time favorite summer vegetables: corn.

I know, I know, it seems like pizza blasphemy to put such a thing on a pizza but I swear to you - as soon as I took my first bite of this I felt like “CheeverSauce headquarters” needed to be added to the list of notorieties above. I made one whole pizza which I reluctantly shared with Olivia and Jess. When we all finished our pieces, all our taste buds and stomachs (although already full) wished for was more. 

Now for the recipe…

All I crave lately is vegetables. I don’t know what happened to me - but I just realized I have gone 5 days without eating meat (Is this my inner yogi telling me something?doubtful. Carnivores fear not…this will not last). It’s officially summer now, so with all this fresh produce available it seems only logical to purchase veggies at your local farmer’s market and top them all off with this amazing and versatile herb dressing. 

Now as much as I would like to say that I went to my local farmer’s market to gather my ingredients…that would be a lie. Let me be clear - I have fantasies about sauntering around Union Square Farmer’s Market on a Sunday, in a long, flowing sundress, with a straw basket in tow, flower behind my ear, sampling and selecting the finest produce the tri-state area has to offer, but I juuuuussst haven’t gotten around to it. This is embarrassing because a.) I now consider myself a food blogger and b.) because I am a 10 minute walk away from Union Square and a 5 minute walk away from the Bleecker St. Market. I decided it’s about time I get over my “paying for food with cash” reluctance and quit being a sham. 

Anyway, I read about this recipe flying from Los Angeles to NYC and let me tell you…nothing seems more appetizing than a fresh farm produce salad when you’re at 40,000 ft, eating stale pretzels with musty air blowing on you from above (whyyy wouldn’t that thing twist off!?). 

This was a perfect post-travels meal. It’s great for a light dinner or easy lunch, and its colorful ingredients really add to the dish’s aesthetic (I am such a girl). 

Onward for this dish’s how-to 

I don’t know what it is about lunch but it’s usually the hardest meal of the day for me in terms of figuring out what to eat. I know, I know - that sounds ridiculous considering I live in a city with countless deli’s, amazing bistros with their equally amazing take out menus, and food trucks galore around every corner. But for some reason all of it just blends together as same old, same old. 

I wanted to make a dish that would be easy to pack for lunch that doesn’t typically resemble what I am used to (sorry Mom - but I think the brown bagged lunches of my youth have forever turned me off from the classic turkey sandwich).

I read about this gem in a cooking magazine. It was created by Tamar Adler for her first book An Everlasting Meal: Eating with Economy and Grace and if this meal is any inclination of the direction her book is heading, I think girlfriend is onto something. 

To Make Eggplant and Tomatoes 

1. Slice two medium eggplants and transfer into a large mixing bowl, toss with olive oil and salt, and let sit for 5 minutes to absorb the oil. Lay the eggplant slices in an even layer on a tin foil covered baking sheet. 
2. Combine a pint of cherry tomatoes with a little olive oil, large spoonful of rosemary, and a dash of salt. 
3. Place the eggplant on the upper oven rack and the tomatoes on the lower rack (baking at 450 degrees)
4. Roast the eggplant until light golden and beginning to soften, about 10 min. Flip and roast until completely soft and light golden, about 10-15 minutes. Roast the tomatoes until many have collapsed around 40-45 minutes. 
5. Transfer your veggies to separate containers and let cool. 

To Make Cucumbers 

1. Combine 2 small shallots (sliced into thin rings), 4 splashes of red wine vinegar,  and a dash of salt in a small bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes to soften the shallot. Add the cucumbers (skins peeled, halved, seeds scooped out, sliced) and mix well. Season with lemon juice and salt. 

To Serve: Combine your cucumber mix with your roasted veggies and serve with a side of Greek yogurt (pour tiny spoonful of extra virgin olive oil over yogurt for extra taste). Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts. Serve with a whole wheat pita or crusty bread. 

To pack for the office - put your veggies, cucumber mix, and pita in a tupperware and your yogurt, oil, and pine nuts in a separate container. The veggies are safe to eat at room temperate but be sure to refrigerate your yogurt before eating.

Side note: I don’t typically have the energy to make a lunch like this and will most likely resort to that turkey sandwich tomorrow afternoon. 

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