Three Things

A 15-minute meal, silent heroes in food history, easy dinner party starter

Feb 01, 2022

Illo by R. Gregory Christie for *Sweet Justice*

Good morning readers and eaters! I don’t know about you, but the snowstorm and cold snap up in New York gave me just the excuse I needed to binge on Cheer (Season 2, so good, I wept!); The Bureau (not sure how, as a huge fan of Fauda, Borgen, and Nobel, I just discovered the 2015 French spy series); and old episodes of The Office because I heard producer-writer Michael Schur interviewed on Tim Ferris and his stories about TV writing absolutely blew my mind. What else? Parents of littles: I reviewed a bunch of biographical picture books about influential women in food and particularly loved Sweet Justice by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by Caldecott nominee R. Gregory Christie (above), which tells the story of Georgia Gilmore, an unsung hero of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. Lastly, I’d be remisss if I didn’t mention that Forbes named The Weekday Vegetarians one of the best books to keep you inspired in the kitchen this year. (Hooray for Forbes!) Alas, here are your weekly three things, even though that’s already, like, 10 things, but who is counting?

1. Dinner in 15 minutes start to finish

I could’ve sworn I reminded you about this 15-minute dinner fairly recently, but a search came up empty, so apologies if I got that wrong and you’re all enough enough about the avgolemeno. The thing is, this soup, a (decidedly non-authentic) Greek lemony chicken soup, has earned the right to show up again and again in this space considering how regularly it used to appear on our dinner table. (Especially during the period when we were still eating chicken a few times a week.) The recipe involves a little technique with the tempering of the eggs, but overall, what results is the very definition of the sum being better than its parts, all bright, herby, and creamy-with-no-cream. The recipe comes from an old colleague, the legend Victoria Granof.

Avgolemono
Makes 4 bowls

4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup uncooked orzo
salt and pepper
3 eggs
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh dill (chopped), or more to taste
shredded cooked chicken (optional; I almost always use a store bought rotisserie to keep this in the 15-minute family)

In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Add the orzo and cook until tender but still al dente, about 7 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper and reduce heat to low; let simmer.

While the orzo simmers, in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and lemon juice until smooth. Slowly drizzle about 1 cup of the hot broth into the egg-and-lemon mixture, continually whisking to combine.

Slowly return the mixture back to the simmering saucepan, stirring just until the soup becomes opaque and thickens as the eggs cook, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add dill, salt and pepper (to taste), chicken if you have it, and serve.

2. Anchovy toasts OR when minimal work yields maximum flavor

Our friends Sonya and Pierre came over for dinner on Saturday and instead of doing what we usually do with starters — a lot of little salty, tangy treats to whet the appetite, not smother it — we essentially stuck with one medium-size salty-tangy treat: These pickled white anchovy toasts with caramelized onions. We always order them at a favorite local restaurant and they couldn’t be easier to assemble or more special to eat. (Anchovy skeptics: Trust me! I was you for the first 30 years of my life and oh how I regret those years!) Because we were snowed in and I didn’t have anywhere to be, I let the onions caramelize forEVER, but you really only need to cook them a half hour or so to get to the desired sweetness. The hardest part is securing the pickled white anchovies, but we can almost always find them in the refrigerated section of Italian markets. (You don’t want jarred or canned which aren’t as plump or delicately flavored.) The brand we found was Vantia. Here is the how-to, should you even need it.

3. What I’m reading - have you heard of this magazine The New Yorker?

I am definitely not the first person in the world to say this, but there is very little I enjoy more than sinking into a good New Yorker profile and there have been so many juicy ones these past few weeks. (Warning: They only give you FOUR free stories a month, so click the following links strategically if you are not a subscriber.) There was Lauren Collins on the rise and fall and rise again of food personality Alison Roman; Michael Schulman on the “Somebody Somewhere” star Bridget Everett (I really want to watch that show now); and Evan Osnos on the crazy popular radio host Dan Bongino. (The most remarkable thing about that last story might’ve been that I had never heard of Bongino and he has essentially assumed Rush Limbaugh’s mantle.) But the piece I can’t stop forwarding to everyone I know, is not a profile, it’s an essay by Akhil Sharma about his decision to become a father at 50. The whole piece is so honest and heartbreaking, but all week I’ve been thinking and laughing about this part below. Once Sharma finds out his wife is pregnant with a girl (who he jokingly calls “Ziggy,” as in zygote; she hasn’t been born yet) he becomes obsessed with strong women:

I began reading biographies of female scientists and politicians. Books on violence against women. Books about how to help young women develop a healthy relationship to their own sexuality. Every time I read news about a strong woman, I began imagining Ziggy like her. I looked up Janet Yellen’s educational history and thought how wonderful it would be if Ziggy ran a major central bank. I called an economist I know who teaches at Princeton and asked him what it would take for Ziggy to run the Federal Reserve. “Are you joking?” he asked. To me, my question seemed quite reasonable: somebody has to run the Fed; why shouldn’t it be my daughter?

How great is that? The hopes and dreams we have for our children…how we believe in them in a way no one else can! Why shouldn’t it be them? It almost makes me cry.

Have a great week!

Jenny

P.S. My next book!

Thank you to everyone for all the excellent feedback on my next book! Last week’s comment thread was unbelievably helpful. I’m spending February working on honing the concept and proposal, and of course will report back on where I end up. Stay tuned! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!

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I almost forgot!

Nakano is again offering DALS readers 15% off all their products. (I’ll say it again, you won’t find a better value for quality Japanese knives.) Enter code DINNER at checkout!