Three Things

Fish & slaw, Final Four finger food, the easiest scallion pancakes

Greetings eaters and readers. I’m not going to lie — I’m very much enjoying the change of pace down here in South Carolina. It’s a working trip, but the weather has been excellent, so most days are bracketed by beach walks or bike rides, and driving into Charleston, 40 minutes away, as frequently as possible. (The hit list since our last catch-up: The Daily for breakfast, Babas for lunch, The Glass Onion for dinner, Rodney Scott’s for takeout.) Two of my daughter’s college friends stopped by on their 18-hour drive from Vermont to Florida (kids!) and we cheffed up a mini feast for them: A huge spring salad with radishes, asparagus and spring peas, brothy beans (bien sur) with burrata, and rigatoni with a simple, fresh roasted tomato sauce — I have a new trick for that sauce which will be sent to inboxes shortly! Welp, enough chit chat — on to your weekly triumverate…

1. Fish & Slaw

This photo probably looks familiar to longtime readers. What can I say: We are creatures of habit down in South Carolina. (And, um, in general.) If I look back at my dinner diaries, without fail, there’s a pan-fried flounder with some form of slaw on the line-up — but that certainly does not mean you have to be south of the Mason-Dixon Line to enjoy it. I’m calling last night’s slaw a beet slaw, because the color of the beets dominated, but you wouldn’t be wrong for instead calling it a “shred whatever’s left in the fridge” salad, which is a good way to think about end-of-the-week salads in general. In my case that meant: Two large-ish beets, 4 small carrots (they were light yellow and white, which is why you can’t really see them), the heel of a Napa cabbage, handful of snow peas (sliced thin, not shredded), half a sliced jalapeño, shallots, chives. With my all-purpose vinaigrette. It really was the winner on the plate, all fresh and bright and crunchy. I’m just going to come right out and say it: a raw beet might be more exciting to me than a roasted one. Fish recipe over on Dinner: A Love Story.

2. Empanadas: Final Four Finger Food

If you know me, you know that I am a diehard No-TV-During-Dinner person, but this rule flies out the window on Big Event Nights, when eating in front of the TV is not just tolerated, but mandatory. Oscar night qualifies, so does the Super Bowl and the World Cup. (I’m so sorry, Italy!) And now, after following the St. Peter’s Cinderella story, I’m ready to add March Madness to the list. Might I suggest Bianca Cruz’s vegetarian empanadas for your finger food consideration? I had the honor of testing and shooting the recipe for Cup of Jo a few weeks ago and haven’t stopped thinking about them since. (I know, I know, nice work if you can get it.)

3. Your Next Dinner Party Starter

A few weeks ago, back in New York, my friend Catherine had us over for a Korean feast — Bibimbap for dinner, with various vegetarian toppings like fried eggs, pickled cucumbers, kimchi, radishes and bean sprouts. But before we sat down to dinner, there were Manhattans and a hot-off-the-skillet pajeon — a large-ish scallion pancake — snipped with scissors into wedges, and packed with scallions, vegetables, and seafood. Let me just say, if that was the whole dinner, I would’ve gone home 100% satisfied. Naturally, I immediately started in on the rapid-fire questioning about the recipe, and apparently Catherine knows me very well because she disappeared into the kitchen and came back with a bag of Korean pancake mix, an extra one purchased at H Mart just for me. “I was hoping you’d like them!” she said before explaining to me that pre-made pancake mix is a staple in many Korean homes. From Catherine: “Literally you just add water. There are lots of different brands of pajeon mixes but my mom told me that a safe bet when Korean grocery shopping is to look for the CJ brand, so I just picked this one because it’s from CJ.” Catherine mixed in scallions, Chinese chives, carrots, red onions, and yellow peppers, but mentioned she’d usually add squid and shrimp if she wasn’t feeding vegetarians. “The key is to use way more scallions than you think would be reasonable, and to think of a pajeon as the batter as just holding the filling together. Like, less batter-y- and pancake-y.” Noted! How lucky is my next dinner guest?

On that note…

Catherine is Catherine Hong, the co-host, along with Juliana Sohn, of K-Pod, a podcast about Korean Americans in arts and culture and their latest episode features the man everyone is talking about in the food world this week: Eric Kim, author of the brand new, eagerly anticipated Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home. Give it a listen!

P.S.

Are we past grapefruit season? Never. Last week, I hosted a little Zoom cocktail chat with subscribers and I made my first Paloma for the occasion. I based it on a recipe from Mely Martinez, but the ratio of its components are 4-3-2-1 making it easy to commit to memory and illustrate in a Moleskine. (Maybe too easy — I had one the next night, too.) If you don’t want to miss out on the next DALS talk, consider becoming a paying subscriber. If you are a paying subscriber and got closed out of this one, I’ll give you a head’s up before the next one is announced if you want to email me directly: Jenny@dinneralovestory.com) For those of you who were there, thanks for such great questions — that was really fun and as always, please feel free to suggest topics for future talks.

Have a great week.
Jenny