Madison&Mayberry

Homemade Gravlax

I could almost live on smoked salmon, if I could afford it. But that's not the case. Recently, I thought I had found a steal when I got a bagel with practically half a pound of smoked salmon for $4. That's right -- $4 for bagel, cream cheese and all that salmon. I made a return visit to the deli, except that same smoked salmon bagel was the correct price -- $10. Not such a deal apparently.  

Then I thought making my own smoked salmon might be the more cost-effective way to go. I worked at a restaurant where the sous chef boasted that he made excellent smoked salmon, all without a smoker. But one day  he bolted from the restaurant, taking with him the recipe I had forgotten to ask for.

Enter gravlax. Instead of smoking the salmon, it is cured with a mix of sugar and salt, along with some dill. I followed these easy step by step instructions from Cooking for Engineers. The only difference was that I added a tablespoon of vodka to the mix, which had been advised by other gravlax recipes.

My next step was wrapping the salmon, salt, sugar, dill and vodka in plastic wrap (Okay.. actually put the plastic wrap down first before you splash the fish with vodka.. learned that one the hard way). Some recipes say to weigh the salmon down as it preserves, but the Cooking for Engineers guy said this step wasn't needed. Two days later when I peeled back the wet Saran Wrap, there was lusciously orange gravlax. The only minus was that it tasted just a little too sweet for my taste, so next time, I'll add more salt. (Aside from the time I accidentally poured a whole container of salt into my carrot soup, I'm not one to think things are too salty.) I'm a fan, even if this is my first experience with gravlax. This was just the first of many more batches to be made..

Union Square Cafe Copycat

At a Union Square Cafe lunch the other day, there was a simple but mindblowingly tasty salad. Of course, it wasn't ordered by me. I had opted for a concoction of oranges, olive oil, sea-beans and ricotta salata (And for the record, I loved the orange-sea-bean combination. I don't like ricotta salata apparently, on its own or in a salad).

But Ryan was the lucky one who had ordered the snow pea salad and gave me a few forkfuls (I tried going back for more only to realize it was gone.) All the ingredients were listed on the menu -- "Snow peas "tagliatini," pancetta, mint, olive oil and Pecorino Romano." The snow peas had been purchased earlier that morning at the Greenmarket.

I remade the salad, using perfectly good- looking snow peas from the grocery market. I couldn't find pancetta, so bacon was used. And I substituted Parmesan for the Pecorino. I know, I know.. I felt like one of those people who leave comments on epicurious.com that say "I hated this recipe. I used fish instead of chicken, omitted all the herbs and substituted noodles for potatoes." But I don't think my changes were so big.

Anyway, there was still something missing in the salad, which I think has to be chalked up to the fact that you can't fake the quality of fresh, farmer's grown snow peas. That was the key to the salad. It was still a quite good salad. But my second try will involve snow peas for the farmer's market.

As a side note, the most time-consuming process to this salad is cutting the snow peas into strips. It takes a good amount of time and at some points, I thought my fingertips were going to be sacrificed for this salad. So beware.

Union Square Farmer's Market Snow Pea Salad (adapted)

1/2 lb.  snow peas, blanched and then julienned

3 slices of bacon (or pancetta), fried and crumbled

7-8 mint leaves, julienned

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Parmesan

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice (optional)

Combine ingredients in bowl. Taste. Adjust salt, Parmesan and olive oil to taste.

Shake Shack Time Again

I wait all winter for the reopening of Shake Shack and those cheese-slathered fries, those chunky shakes. But the hamburgers are the real mouth-watering glory. Heck, my mouth is watering right now...

Unfortunately, all of NYC feels the same way. Or at least it appears this way when you excitedly sneak into the park only to be greeted by a massive line of people. But now there's the Shack Cam where you can monitor the line's progress and race down there during a lull. An ingenious idea, I must say.

Another spectacular addition this year can be seen below..

It's a Shake "Wand," which vibrates when your food is ready. It was always annoying standing in the crowd trying to hear if your name was being called. This makes for a  much more enjoyable, relaxed experience.

Also new are the organic trans-fat free fries. They taste about the same as the non-organic trans-fat loaded fries. But, come on.. the fries have never been their specialty. It's all about those burgers..