Three Things

Minnesota, community, hot pots

Good morning, everyone. This week’s newsletter is dedicated to the people of Minnesota, whose courage and care for one another have left me in awe, and who have shown the country what community looks like the face of tragedy and fear. Before I get to Three Things today, please consider donating to one of these mutual aid organizations and GoFundMes, assembled and vetted by Minnesota readers and friends:

Reader Alice R. sent me a link to Stand with Minnesota, which has a centralized list of nearly a hundred small, local organizations providing rent relief, food distribution, safe rides to jobs, and so much more. My friend Stella, who lives in the South Uptown neighborhood took a look at that list and highlighted three of them: Joyce Uptown Food Shelf; the Neighborhood House + El Burrito Mercado, which is asking people for gift cards to support a local Latino-owned business; and the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization, an organization she’s worked with before that is on the front lines of food justice. My daughter, who went to college in Minnesota, still has a robust network there and asked two close friends where donations would be most helpful. Lara, who volunteers at a restorative justice organization, and lives in the Phillips neighborhood suggested Neighbors in Need, as well as a fundrasier to help bring one of her neighbors home. Margo, a teacher who works in the Columbia Heights school district suggests this Family Support Fundraiser. Along those lines, reader Courtney B suggests donating rent relief for families of children in Minneapolis Public Schools. She writes: “Several of my friends who are teachers and community health workers in Minneapolis say rent relief is the greatest unmet community need at present.” Please do what you can.

If you are from Minnesota, please feel free to suggest other ways this community might be able to help.

Here are your Three Things…

1. Apple Galette with Maple Glaze

This past weekend, the day before the storm hit, I found myself on the relatively calm second floor of Fairway, my local supermarket, trying to figure out how to avoid shopping on the first level, which was thick with pre-storm calamity energy and a register line that was literally out the door. This presented a problem, which is a term I use very loosely: I was planning to make chicken pot pie, and the shortcut product I wanted for that — a pack of Pillsbury pre-made pie dough — was on the first floor. Instead of dealing with the chaos, I went home and made my own pâte brisée, eventually wondering what excuse I had to shortcut that part of the recipe, i.e. the best part of the recipe, in the first place.(Besides, you know, time, energy, etc.) But here’s the point of this scintillating supermarket story: The pâte brisée recipe is from Martha and yields two single crusts for 9-inch pies, and for whatever reason I never halve it, even if I only need one of the crusts. So the day after I used one beautifully flaky, buttery crust to blanket on top of my chicken pot pie, I found myself with another nice problem on my hands: An extra crust. And so what choice did I have but to wrap that one around a few sliced apples, galette-style, drizzling a little maple glaze on top for good measure. An excellent return on investment to say the least.

Apple Galette with Maple Glaze

1 9-inch pâte brisée or store bought crust, such as Pillsbury
3-4 medium apples (such as Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith) sliced thin
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
1 egg, whisked with 1 teaspoon water

Maple Glaze
1 tablespoon butter (salted is fine)
3 tablespoons real maple syrup
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted so there are no lumps

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil. Place crust in the center.

In a medium bowl, mix together apples, sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch. Place the apple mixture in the center of the dough, leaving about a 2-inch perimeter, folding in the perimeter of the crust to cover the filling, as shown. Dot the top of the apples with pieces of butter, brush the exposed dough with egg wash, and set your alarm for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat down to 350°F without opening the oven, and bake another 25-30 minutes until filling looks bubbly and golden.

Once the galette has baked and cooled slightly, make your Maple Glaze: Add the butter and syrup to a small saucepan set over medium heat. As soon as butter melts, take the pan off heat and whisk in powdered sugar until creamy. Drizzle or pour over the pie right away. If the glaze hardens before you do this, place the saucepan back on the stovetop over low heat until it loosens.

2. Everyone Hot Pot

In addition to being a James Beard-Award nominated pastry chef, bestselling cookbook author and beloved New York-based social justice activist, Natasha Pickowicz is a hot pot fanatic. And, as she makes clear with her new book Everyone Hot Pot, she wants you to be one, too. Pickowicz grew up in San Diego, the daughter of a Beijing-born artist and a New England–born historian of China, and hot pot nights with friends and neighbors were what she looked forward to the most as a kid. “The windows would fog over with the billowing, aromatic steam, like we were in our own heaven, floating away on a cloud we had created,” she writes. “I was free to ‘play’ with my food—fishing for a fallen dumpling or tofu cube with my woven mesh basket, like a competitive game—and I made a mess without chiding or consequence.” For people new to the Hot Pot game, Natasha’s book expertly straddles the line between doable and aspirational, as she explains the history of the ancient Chinese cooking method (rapidly poaching morsels of vegetables, meats, seafood, and tofu in a communal broth), holds our hands through her hyper-organized, hyper-delicious sounding sample menus (“The Land and the Sea,” for instance, which features shrimp and kale skewers, scallop and fava been skewers, crab legs, tofu skins, bok choy, dark greens and so much more), and takes the whole sharing-a-meal-thing to the next level.

Everyone Hot Pot: Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting is out this week. Congrats Natasha!

3. Lasagna for All

The other week, I made My Mom’s Lasagna for an elderly neighbor who has been dealing with health issues and some heavy grief in the past few months. And I tell you this not because I would like you to congratulate me, but because I was reminded, yet again, of an amazing, if kinda selfish thing that happens when you cook for someone else: The comfort flows in both directions. My neighbor, of course, was grateful, as were her sons and grandchildren who were also able to benefit from the drippy, cheesy offering. But I — me — felt a profoundly therapeutic privilege being there for her. I know none of this is breaking news to anyone, and there are all kinds of ways to show up for people besides dropping off food. But in case you happen to be looking for an excuse to show up for a neighbor, I have unlocked my mom’s recipe from the archive. So think about it: Who could use a lasagna in their life? It might even be you, plus a few of your people, who can be at your place by 7:00.

See you next week,
Jenny