Pho!

Oh my goodness this is my new favorite soup to make. SO fragrant and fresh and really easy. Any time I get to cook with whole cloves, star anise, peppercorns and cinnamon stick, my little tail starts wagging... And anything that's served with loads of fresh herbs and lime and Sriracha in a build-it-yourself type fashion really makes me happy. I've always loved ordering Pho when at a Vietnamese restaurant, and now I'm super psyched to add this quick and simple version, adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe, to the repertoire.. Enjoy!

VIETNAMESE BEEF AND NOODLE SOUP

Makes 4 servings

7 oz rice stick noodles
8 cups beef stock
5 whole cloves
4 thin slices fresh ginger
3 star anise pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 yellow onion, sliced
S&P
1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
8 shallots, sliced
1/2 lb eye of round beef, very thinly sliced by the butcher, cut into 2-inch pieces
leaves of 1 bunch fresh cilantro
leaves of 1 bunch fresh mint
leaves of 1 bunch fresh basil (preferably Thai - I had regular)
1 cup bean sprouts
2 small red Thai chiles, seeded and thinly sliced (I had a green one)
1 lime, quartered
hot sauce for serving, such as Sriracha

In a soup pot, combine the stock, cloves, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the broth is fragrant, about 10 minutes. Strain the soup into a large bowl through a fine-mesh sieve, discarding the spices. Return the stock to the pot, and set aside.

In the meantime, boil water for your noodles. While the stock is simmering and the noodles are cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallot slices and fry, turning with tongs, until evenly browned on both sides, about 4 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Have large, deep soup bowls ready. Reheat the seasoned beef broth over high heat. Drain the noodles and place in soup bowls. Divide the beef slices among the bowls, then ladle over the boiling broth (the hot broth will cook the thin beef slices). Serve with abundant fresh cilantro, mint, and basil, as well as the bean sprouts, chiles, fried shallots, lime wedges and hot sauce.

Jimmy's recent hits

I started buying purple cauliflower at the farmers market, b/c it's just so pretty. Well, it turns out it's also really tasty. Jimmy invented this attractive and healthy veg medly, including purple cauliflower, little red potatos, Brussels sprouts, onion, olive oil and s&p, cooked in the oven at 400. I believe he puts the potatoes in first since they need longer; after 20 minutes he adds the veggies for another 20 minutes. It's so yummy and colorful! A great side dish for any meal.

Another one of the super-duper dishes he likes to come with is twice-baked potatoes. So delish! Potatoes, cheddar cheese, chives, sour cream... (this time we had some Crème fraîche on hand so they were particularly creamy and scrumptious). On this particular night he served them up with a juicy steak that we shared and some peas. Perfect.

Pasta with Radiccio

Another beautiful ingredient at the farmers market right now: radiccio. Searching for something new to try with it, I found this great fall recipe for Pasta with Roasted Radiccio. You gotta try this it's so good! The roasted radiccio is SO yummy, it's bitterness perfectly complimented by the kalamata olives and pine nuts. The only thing I left out were the sun-dried tomatoes, which I'm not a huge fan of. I used fresh cherry tomatoes instead, and I thought they were perfect. We served it up with a little lean steak. Yum!

Bistro Burger

There's always a lot of debate about who makes the best burger in New York City. And I can't say I've tried them all, but I can say that a definite contender is the "bistro burger" at the Corner Bistro in the West Village. The Corner B has been around for like 100 years or something, and it's basically a dirty old pub that serves McSorley's Ale (from another New York Institution - NYC's oldest continuously operated saloon) and makes a great burger.

(sagging counter to demonstrate how old the place is)

Their fries are amazing - kinda like your perfect McDonalds-esque skinny fry except it tastes vaguely like bacon, probably because of all the bacon grease that has been permeating the walls for the last century. And the bistro burger is "an eight-ounce slab of juicy grilled beef piled several inches high with melted cheese, bacon and raw onions." To quote New York Magazine again: "If you call yourself a New Yorker, consider it your civic duty to have a beer and a burger here at least once. If you're really a New Yorker, you'll know that the best time to do that is a weekday afternoon, when Corner Bistro's timeless tavern charm feels as warm as the sun streaming through the front windows".

Clean-out-your-fridge - Lavash Pizza

So here is a slightly healthier take on pizza, using lavash bread as the dough.  It's as easy as pie to make!...well actually it's WAY easier than pie! All you do is preheat your oven to 450, lay a piece of lavash on a baking sheet, and brush some olive oil onto the top of it.  On mine I put some cherry tomatoes that were on their way out which I cut in half, some sliced onion and fennel, and lastly some slices of leftover steak from the previous night's dinner.  After all that I grated some Parmesan cheese on top.  I then baked it for about 5 minutes or until the cheese was melted.  While it was baking I combined some arugula, a squeeze of lemon, olive oil and S&P and tossed that up.  After the lavash came out of the oven, I topped it with the arugula mixture and enjoyed the tasty creation.

This is super easy and you can really put whatever you want on top.  I just put whatever I had that I didn't want to go to waste and it came out great.  Next time I may try with eggplant and maybe a little mozzarella like in this recipe from Bon Appetit.