Three Things

Meat as condiment, a small way to add big flavor, a biography I tore through

Greetings eaters and readers! What’s for dinner tonight? We made Kenji’s Vegetable Fried Rice yesterday and I am counting the moments until lunchtime when I can inhale the leftovers. (Is there anything better than next-day fried rice?) Also for your dinner consideration: Abby’s Miso Beans with Blasted Tomatoes, Caro Chambers’s Ratatouille Lasagna, and, in the been-too-long category, Gabrielle Hamilton’s Cider-Braised Chicken, which is just the ultimate cozy winter Sunday dinner. Before we get to your Official Three Things: For those of you who, like me, feel somewhat helpless watching the heartache unfold in in California, I have found that two LA-based food writers, Gaby Dalkin and Catherine McCord have been excellent resources for sharing targeted ways to help, like “clearing the list” of someone who has lost everything and needs help buying the basics, and donating to organizations that are sending food to firefighters. Give them a follow, and please feel free to share other ways this community can help. Stay safe, friends.

And now, your Three Things…

1. Meat as Condiment, aka Steakhouse Steak Salad

So how’s that Vegetarian Challenge coming along, everyone? By now, maybe you’ve discovered an excellent perk in the program, namely, you are officially allowed to break up the routine with a Harissa Roast Chicken or a bowl of Cioppino or a Steak Salad like the one you’re looking at above. I love that one in particular because it feels special enough to order in an old-school steakhouse (we were definitely inspired by New York’s Keens here) and yet, with the potatoes, pickled onions, and blue cheese, the steak isn’t necessarily playing the starring role. I mean, of course it is, it’s steak, and you want to find a good strip — that’s another perk, i.e. when you’re cooking with less meat, you can spend a little more on high-quality options — but you don’t have to overwhelm the salad with it. Repeat after me: Meat as condiment. Here’s a downloadable PDF with the recipe:

Dals Steak Salad

117KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

P.S. Other meat-as-condiment options: Bean Burritos With or Without Chorizo and the Polenta with Roast Mushrooms and Vegetables — add cooked crumbled chicken sausage, pulled pork, or shrimp. (Official recipe on page 56 of The Weekday Vegetarians.)

2. Neat Trick: Anchovy Breadcrumbs

On Saturday night, Andy and I went to dinner at Noho’s Il Buco Alimentari, sister restaurant to Il Buco, both of which were old haunts of ours back when we worked in Condé Nast’s midtown offices and it was normal to head downtown for expense account lunches. (How I dream of those expense account lunches!) The restaurant, known for its salumi, rustic breads and pastas was every bit as special as I remembered, and — bonus — getting a reservation didn’t involve moving the earth as it sometimes can in this city. (I booked a 7:30 table after setting an alert on Resy Notify only a few hours earlier.) The energy was high, the lighting was honey-gold, and the menu was foolproof. We ordered the fried artichokes and salumi and a strikingly jet-black Chittara Neri Vongole, but the takeaway for me was the simple market salad made with little gems and chicory and tossed with anchovy breadcrumbs. I know, it sounds so basic! But you know the deal: You don’t have to interfere too much with a dish if every ingredient is behaving like its best self. The chicory was vibrant pink and crisp and fresh, and each bite delivered a little crunch with a big flavor pop thanks to those anchovy breadcrumbs. Naturally, the next day I cheffed up a batch of them to have at the ready. So clutch. So easy.

Anchovy Breadcrumbs
Use tossed into salads or on top of pasta. You can freeze any remaining anchovies in a ziptop freezer bag or use the leftovers as an excuse to make a Caesar Salad. PS, I’m sure that Il Buco made their breadcrumbs from their day-old loaves (not panko) and you should do the same if you can.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs*
5 anchovy filets, chopped finely
kosher salt, a pinch

Add oil to a cast iron pan or heavy medium skillet set over medium heat. Add panko and anchovies, stirring to combine. Stir every 15-20 seconds or so and cook until panko looks deeper golden brown (see photo), about 3 minutes total. Scoop into a small bowl and use right away in salads, or over pasta or roasted vegetables.

3. Read of the Week: JFK, Jr

Over the holiday break, I was at my friend Lia’s when she mentioned she was on a roll with books. There was plenty of overlap with my list — All Fours, Long Island Compromise, Good Material, Ina Garten’s Memoir, and Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation* — but then she mentioned a wildcard: JFK, Jr. An Intimate Oral Biography, which came out last summer, timed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Kennedy’s death. Like a lot of people, I’m a longtime Kennedy family obsessive, but my understanding of John was essentially limited to his big public moments: The iconic photo of him saluting his father’s coffin as a three-year-old, the “Sexiest Man Alive” era of the late 80s and 90s, his launch of George magazine, and, of course, the plane crash that killed him along with his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette. I was amazed by how thoroughly this biography filled out the picture of him as a human — flawed, beloved by his friends and family, and engaged in a lifelong struggle of balancing the public’s expectations for him with those he had for himself. The book was edited by Rosemarie Terenzio, John’s former executive assistant, and Liz McNeil, a journalist and People magazine editor, and though they included great quotes from celebs (Rosie Grier, Brooke Shields, Bill Clinton, Julia Roberts), the interviews with people who were closest to him in the day-to-day sense were the most fascinating — everyone from Jackie Kennedy’s White House security detail to his childhood best friends and college classmates to the maintenance men who worked in his midtown office.

At first I was skeptical about the oral history format — just quotes adding up to tell his story with no analysis and minimal context in between — but I quickly got into the rhythm and realized it was the best kind of biography, just insider anecdote after anecdote. And many of the contributors (his closest friends!) were not afraid to spill the tea when it came to his relationships, which really surprised me given how protective they felt towards John throughout his life. Anyway, I tore through the book in two or three sittings — if you are into the Kennedys, this one’s for you.

*btw: Haidt’s newsletter, After Babel, is a must-read for parents of young kids

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For simple vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians or the follow-up: The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple.