#MadeWithLocalRoots: Soup’s on with Winter Cabbage and Root Vegetables

February 08, 2018 in Guides

As part of my Local Roots CSA, I'll be sharing easy ways to use up your produce. From prep to leftover hacks, I hope you learn to love cooking at home as much as I do!

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Get cozy with an easy winter root vegetable soup inspired by my former roommate Grace. Whenever she was coming down with a cold or maybe, a little hungover, she’d make this very simple soup with bok choy. Instead, I've subbed in crisp strings of cabbage and added garlic chips to bump up the texture.

  
  Things you'll need:
  
  2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 large carrot

    3 cups of broth or water

    1 medium turnip or 2 small
    
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 star anise

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

    Optional: Pepper and sesame seeds

Slice the garlic as thin as you can into chips. Fry them in the oil on high for 2-3 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown. Turn off the heat and move the pan away to another burner. Let it steep and continue cooking for 15 to 20 minutes until the garlic is golden brown. Drain from the oil and place on paper towels. The oil is now garlicky! You can use it to fry eggs or whatever you want.

Chop your carrots and turnip into chunks and cover with the broth. Add enough water to submerge all the vegetables. Bring it to a rolling boil on high heat.

Add a cinnamon, soy sauce, a thin slice of ginger, and star anise. Lower to a simmer until the vegetables are fork tender, about 7 to 10 minutes. Fish out the star anise, top the soup with a tuft of shredded cabbage and sprinkle of garlic chips. Freshly ground pepper is optional.

Easy, warm, yay!

Here are more ways to prep the carrot and cabbage from this week’s share.

Sweet, sweet carrot.

When you cook these carrots, they get sweeter! Like I mentioned above, boiling one-inch chunks until they are just fork tender is very enjoyable. If you let them go longer, they get mushy, but not mash-y like a potato.

Of course, you can eat our dear carrots raw with hummus or yogurt. To roast, split them lengthwise, toss in a little olive oil and cook at 450 degrees until the edges brown and its body wrinkles.

Do the cabbage patch.

I always enjoyed my fried Japanese tonkatsu with a side of plain shredded cabbage. Fried fatty foods and bbq go really well with slaws. All you really need per cup of shredded cabbage is a teaspoon of your favorite vinegar. Toss to coat and wait a few minutes for it to wilt.

Thick slices of whole cabbage roast up in the oven nicely, too. Their edges get crispy and brown while the inside is tender and juicy. You can boil cabbage but I find that boiling for too long releases those mustardy fumes, so beware!

Finally, you can kraut it! The best part is punching it regularly.

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Are you a member of Local Roots? Tag both @Randwiches and @LocalRootsNYC with the hashtag #MadewithLocalRoots when you use your produce. We want to see what you're making!

If you have cooking questions about anything you receive from your farm share, please ask me! I might have a few suggestions.

How to Host a Crunchwrap Party

January 12, 2018 in Guides

“I could work at Taco Bell, you guys!” I exclaimed as I presented the first completed Crunchwrap at a party I hosted. As of this writing, I still have not had a Crunchwrap at Taco Bell (despite the many times I frequent the place). However, I’ve been obsessed with the format. If you are unfamiliar, a Crunchwrap Supreme™ is a flat burrito, seared closed. Even though I come from the burrito wonderland that is California, I almost never order them. They are so large. They’re a commitment. With a crunchwrap, most of the tortilla’s surface area is used to enhance the crunch texture with seared folds.

Why do I love it so? It feels good in your hands, it’s compact and doesn’t leak. It reheats really well and damn, don’t you just love a satisfying crunch?

You, too, can host a crunchwrap extravaganza for one or as many people can fit into your kitchen. I present to you tenets of a good pocket of audibly crunchy goodness, listed in order of how you should pile them.

The wrap: Chipotle-sized burrito wraps are quite the meal and can host up to a quarter cup of protein. Smaller tortillas are great for a snack size.

Filling: Your protein mustn’t be too goopy or saucy. Its viscosity should be thick enough that it doesn’t drip from a slotted spoon. So far I’ve experimented with ground beef, turkey, grilled tuna and all manner of egg.

Vegetables: Completely optional but I find that lettuces and tomatoes do balance out the super-umami taste of taco seasoning. Plus, iceberg lettuce does crunch if you eat it fast enough.

Sauces: A little hot sauce is great and thicker lubricants like sour cream or Mexican crema will help you chew and save the roof of your mouth. But don’t overdo it! Wet = NO CRUNCH.

Crunch: The utmost important part. Depending on what protein and flavor profiles you’ve chosen, the sky’s the limit. I’ve used Cheetos, tortilla chips, seaweed crackers, Funyuns— any dregs at the bottom of a snack bag work, too.

Set it all up on a big table or long counter as an assembly line of ingredients with a clean cutting board at the end for folding. I’ve found that a pentagon works well. Fold the bottom flap up, make two creases upward and complete it by folding down two more flaps from the top. Press it, seam-side down in a dry pan on medium heat. If you’ve got a cast iron press, even better! If you don’t, it’ll still close, the press just helps with a uniform sear. Flip it and cook the balance to your liking. You can also do this in a panini press or George Foreman grill.

Here are a few recipes inspired by my friends:

Beefy Nacho Crunchwrap, make it extra crunchy with the addition of chicharron
Swap out the beef for fresh chorizo sausage
Bacon, lettuce, tomato with an extra crunch of chicharron is awesome!
Crunchwrap Benedict
Lamb Pastrami and Mustard Hash Pocket
Seared Tuna Crunchwrap
Thanksgiving Crunchwrap

When the party is over, pre-make a bunch and wrap them in foil for later. As I said before, they reheat really well. Still in the foil, heat it up in a pan. After 5 minutes, take the foil off and sear on both sides for 2 to 3 minutes. It’s really creepy but we discovered that Cheetos remained crunchy.

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Love this? Let me know if you decide to host a crunchwrap party of your own. Tag @Randwiches on Twitter or Instagram to show me.

Magically Cure Vegetables with a Winter Nukazuke Party

January 04, 2018 in Recipes, Guides

When I was working in Dumbo, I joined the Dumbo CSA. Even though I split my share with another person, it was still difficult to keep up with the sheer amount of vegetables I got every week. I needed a way to boost the longevity of my stock!

Nukazuke was the perfect solution because the pickles take 8 to 12 hours to cure and they’re still a bit crunchy afterward (so you can still cook with them!). It is a Japanese method of pickling with fermented bran, beer and miso, it smells like baking bread. Nota bene! When you start a nuka, it's like a pet. You have to stir it every morning and night. If I knew I wasn't going to be home in time, I would text my roommates to, "Stir the bitch!"—much like Anthony Bourdain’s story of sourdough starter from Kitchen Confidential. In a similar way, you can pass on a cup of nuka to a friend to begin their own crock. When it starts to warm up, it may attract bugs. If you have to leave home for a day or two, store it in the freezer. I've read that some people store theirs completely in the fridge to keep vermin out, but they will take double the time to cure.

Whenever I have company over, I make them try every single pickle or make them a tub of my own version of mixed pickle. In some parts of Asia, namely India, “mixed pickle” is a jar of spicy cured lemon, lime, mango, onion, carrot, cauliflower and fenugreek. Because my nuka pickles or tsukemono are already cured with miso and salted, I just chop them up and cover them with a really buttery olive oil. I highly recommend the Barbera Sicilian evo from Fairway.

Photo by Marjorie Becker. Pictured: carrot legs, radishes, garlic scape, asparagus, onion, scallion, and green bean. — *Photo by Marjorie Becker.* Pictured: carrot legs, radishes, garlic scape, asparagus, onion, scallion, and green bean.

  
  Things you'll need:
  
  1-gallon crock

2 pounds oat bran

2 1/2 cups filtered water

3/4 cup Hitachino beer, warm

    3/4 cup sea salt

1 jalapeno

      1 bulb of garlic, peeled

1/4 cup white miso 

1-inch piece fresh ginger, diced

1 large carrot

 2 cups of hearty vegetables, no leaves or soft skins

Adapted from Serious Eats post about 'Mastering Fermentation' by Mary Karlin

Start by toasting the oat bran in a dry pan. While that is happening, combine the water, beer and salt in the crock. Once you smell the toastiness of the oat bran, cool it off. Mix it into the crock with the white miso, it should form a sand-like paste.

Slice up the jalapeno and nest it at the bottom of the crock, bury it in the sand with layers of garlic clove and ginger. Make sure none of the vegetables stick out. Wipe down the sides and cover the whole thing with a cheesecloth and store it in a cool, dark place. And then, wait three days (I know! That's the worst part!).

When the nuka is ready, bury chopped up vegetables in it and unearth them in 8 to 12 hours. Swish them around in a cold bowl of water to clean them and that's it, they're ready! Make sure to taste each kind of vegetable, thicker cuts will take longer. When you take the vegetables out every morning, give the crock a good stir and wipe the edges down so you don't promote mold growth on the sides.

I always like to include a jalapeno and a few garlic cloves in each batch because they will naturally keep the sand clean. Plus, the miso-cured jalapeno kinda tastes like nachos!

A word about my ba-donk a donk carrots! At the Dumbo CSA, you walk along the bins and pick out the vegetables that you want. When I saw this pair of gams, I had to grab them. You can’t just chop these up and throw them in a stew (are you CRAZY?). These are a pair of CARROT LEGS! I wanted them around in my kitchen for as long as possible to show people when they came by, “Look, look at these little stumps! No, we’re not eating them…”

When I was a kid, I did this odd thing with a pack of Sweet Tarts. I loved the blue ones and would hide them in my Barbie jewelry box for a time when I’d had harvested enough to have an all blue Sweet Tart party with myself. Alas, the insecure packaging made them disgustingly chewy. Thus proving the Vanessa Williams song wrong: No, you shall not save the best for last. These carrots were getting a little cellulite with every passing day and I had to do something.

The whole carrot bathed in the nuka for 12 hours and rinsed it in cold water to wash off the sediment. Because it is such a special carrot, I had to prepare it in a different ways. I split the legs down the middle for a chorus line of Daucus carota. One pair danced into the oven with olive oil until the edges were a little brown. With so much salt and miso in the cure, there was no need to season or sauce.

Alternate blog post titles considered:

My carrot’s too bootylicious for ya, babe
She had carrot-dumps like a truck truck truck / Thighs like what what what
Fat bottomed carrots make the rockin’ world go ‘round
Dance! Too much carrot in the pants
OMG Becky, look at her carrot
All you brothas want a carrot girl,carrot girl, carrot girl (who, me?)
Hoe, who is you playin wit? Back that carrot up

***

Love this? It's part of a romantic Spanish vegetarian menu.

Have you ever tried nukazuke? What is your favorite kind of pickle? I want to know! Tweet me @Randwiches.

#Make100 Egg-Centennial: A Living Kickstarter Guide

January 28, 2017 in Guides

I'm on a mission to pop 100 egg yolks in one day on Kickstarter. The party is on Saturday February, 11th, 2017. Will you join me?

My friends at Kickstarter launched a creative prompt called #Make100 to jump-start 2017. Artists and creators of all stripes are encouraged to make 100 of anything from limited editions to experiences.

Maybe you thrive under creative constraints, or maybe you’re just excited that we’ll be shouting Make 100 projects from the rooftops all month long. Either way, consider this your nudge to get creating.

Along the way, I decided to make my project a living case-study of how to run a campaign. I took to Medium to publish a few guides to key elements like analytics, communication and graphics.

Previous to this, I launched a project to create my band's first cassette album. We offered unique awards and had a killer promotional video. I later helped Kickstarter with a one-hour Creator Hangout, explaining how we pulled it off.

If you have any questions about running a Kickstarter project, you can tweet me @Randwiches. I'd love to know if any of my advice helped you succeed.

2016: Year in Randwiches Recipes

January 02, 2017 in Guides

Looking back is one way to clear your mind so you can move forward. 2016 was a challenging year and one of my most prolific. Not only did I post all of the recipes in the list below, I wrote and edited my first book (due out in June on Page Street!), spoke at BlogHer Food, went to summer camp with 40 of my new best friends, cooked a dinner with two fashion designers, popped up at Daddy's bar before it closed, started a Twitch show with Justin Warner, and made my Food Network debut.

I'm thankful for it all and am rolling up my sleeves for an even busier year. If you try any of the recipes below, please make sure to tag @Randwiches on Instagram or Twitter, I'd love to hear how it turns out for you.

Here are more features & interviews I appear in:

Sous Vide Egg Yolk Croutons (Nomiku)
On-the-go meals that can be prepared in 15 minutes (Kitchen Nine MSN)
Five family mushroom meals made in under 15 minutes (Kitchen Nine MSN)
Crafty Kate: Thanksgiving Leftover Hacks with Randwiches (Dear Kate)
Popping Yolks and Photographing Food with Egg Poppa (Kickstarter)
Y our Birthday Cake Should be Bo Ssam (Put A Egg On It)
PWL Camp (Kickstarter)

What's in My Kitchen: Products, Books & Services I Use - AD

December 10, 2016 in Guides

Instead of posting affiliate links throughout my blog, here is a running list of products I use. If you purchase from this page, it will directly benefit my blog and cooking career. Thanks for taking a look!

APPLIANCES

Breville Deep Fryer
Cusineart 8 cup Food Processor
Cusineart Immersion blender (I have a vintage one that isn't available anymore)
Mr. Coffee Grinder (for spices only!)
Nomiku
Oxo Good Grips Mandoline
Searzall
Spiralizer
Whynter ICM-15LS Ice Cream Maker, Stainless Steel

BOOKS

SERVICES

Airtable
Dropbox
Squarespace
Venmo

What to Do with Your Thanksgiving Leftovers

November 25, 2016 in Recipes, Guides

Thanksgiving Leftover day is my favorite time of the year because figuring out what to do with the them is a fun creative exercise. It’s gotten to a point where I over-prepare dinner to ensure I’ll have stuff to play with for the whole weekend.

Here are some of my hacks to repurpose everything from mashed potatoes to the turkey bones.

1. Keep the Party Going

In years past my friends at Put a Egg on It would host a day after Thanksgiving sandwich potluck. Everyone would bring their leftovers and we’d spend all day making sandwiches. It’s such a great idea because you can try everything from another person’s dinner. Here are some of my favorites:

Pulled turkey is easy to make the next day. All you need to do is shred all the meat and simmer it in a bit of gravy and brown sugar. You can also ~trust me~ and use mang tomas a Filipino brown sugar liver sauce. Serve on potato rolls with pickles.

Leftover cured meats platter and salad turns into an Italian sub.

Have you ever considered a dessert sandwich?

2. Soup’s On

Save the turkey carcass and bones to make soup stock. Remove all the meat from the bird and set aside for another dish. Roast the bones on a sheet pan at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown. Throw those into a stock pot with any carrot shavings, celery hearts or tops; onion peels, garlic, bay leaf and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for up to 4 hours. Cool it down, strain and you’ll have stock for days!

Gravy can also act as a soup starter. Just add 1 cup of water or unsalted broth per tablespoon of gravy.

An easy leftover soup is shredded turkey, hot broth and a scoop of mashed potato.

3. Fry, My Pretties!

Cold mashed potatoes are perfect head start for croquettes. If your mashed potatoes are on the liquid-y side, stir in dry bread crumb or blended up stuffing to make a thicker filling. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop the potatoes into balls, roll them in flour, dip them in whipped egg and roll in bread crumbs. If they fall apart while you are dredging them, the potatoes are too thin. I like to freeze these croquettes before deep frying for 3-4 minutes until they are golden brown.

Make turkey tenders by tearing leftover meat into large chunks. Similarly, dust them in flour, dredge in egg and panko breadcrumb before deep frying to a golden brown.

4. Butter Me Up

Make cranberry orange compound butter. Fold a hefty spoonful of cranberry sauce and zest of an orange into a stick of softened butter. Place the mixture on parchment paper, roll it into a log and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill for two hours to set it. It also freezes well for a couple months.

Got a ton of leftover herbs? Thyme, rosemary and sage blend well together with a bit of garlic and melted butter. You can substitute olive oil and use this as an easy spread for garlic bread. It lasts for up to another week or freezes for a couple months.

5. On the Rocks

Make a cranberry simple syrup by mixing 1 cup of hot water per 2 tablespoons of cranberry sauce. Strain the mixture, let it cool completely and mix with your favorite seltzer, lemonade or vodka on ice.

Cheers! If you use any of these leftover hacks, I’ve love to see it! Tag @Randwiches on Instagram.

How to Host a Killer Super Nacho Bowl Party

February 07, 2016 in Guides, Events

Need a quick game day plan? Make a vat of Serious Eats cheese sauce and tell your friends to bring chips and their favorite toppings.

At my previous apartment, we had this long countertop where people lined all of their nacho toppings with various types of chips. Everyone grabbed a cardboard boat and went to town. The only requirement was that everyone had to take a photo of their nachos with our aerial camera rig on the dining room table.

The results were glorious! The mega GIF (above) is an aggregate of all the nachos but here are some of the highlights:

Filipino nachos with beef tapa, lime, black bean bagoong, sour cream and crushed chicharron.

Vegetarian beef nachos

Loaded nachos with pepper salami

Deviled egg nachos

Nacho bacon

Torched!

Are you getting your nacho on today? Tag @Randwiches on Instagram, I want to see!

Randwiches Guide to Thanksgiving

November 14, 2015 in Guides

Thanksgiving is my favorite cooking holiday. Not going to lie, it's an awesome time to show off in the kitchen and I rarely get to cook large format meals. I pull out all the stops and I use every single leftover bit in a sandwich.

Instead of telling you what you should be cooking on turkey day, I thought it would be better to help you get through it. My cooking origin story goes like this: my mom asked me to help with Thanksgiving dinner when I turned 16. She told me to wake up at 6am and when I awoke, she was gone. She had to work at the hospital and I had to get the whole dinner on the table. The end of the story is that I did it and started watching Food Network as a result.

The point is: no one wants to panic on Thanksgiving morning. I put together these editable Google Drive templates for everyone to use and share with guests.

>> Click here to view the Thanksgiving worksheets<<
To save to your Google Drive: File > Make a Copy > Rename > Save	To save as a PDF: File > Download as > Select PDF > Save

Once you've got it filled out, print it out or display it on an iPad in the kitchen so you stay on track.

Page 1: Organize the guests

Open the Google Document and share with your friends, have them sign up to bring a dish.
Do you have enough platters and serving utensils to accommodate the whole dinner? If not, ask a friend who isn't bringing anything to bring or buy disposable.
Note that there is a column for heat source. Make sure you can fit everything into the oven when they need to be or get creative with warming solutions, like...
- In the microwave
- Wrapped in a blanket or winter coat
- Slow Cooker, rice cooker or steamer
Short on fridge space? If it's cold outside, consider hosting your drinks in a cooler or (god forbid) in the snow.
- Any meats to be cooked can be out of the fridge for an hour to come to room temperature.
- Cheese can be plated an hour ahead. Watch out for sheep or buffalo milk cheese, they will sweat. Prepare to blot them like a greasy pizza or plate them last.
- Precut tubers like carrots or potatoes and store them with ice water if you can't fit them in the fridge.

Page 2: Lay out the schedule

It really important to time your dishes. Figure out what can be made ahead.
A good window of time to make gravy is while you rest the turkey, it will still be hot in 30 minutes!
Think about the residual heat on the stove or in the oven, do any desserts need to be defrosted or held at a low temp?

Page 3: Plan your individual dishes

Don't just read one recipe. Read many recipes and decide what steps you will take or if you're going to add a bit of flair.
Document what you need to do and when.
List all of the ingredients you have already.
Manage shopping by grouping ingredients by store and department.

Finally, roll with it. People are going to bring different things if the store runs out. There might not be enough of one thing or another. A relative might have a strong opinion of how you're making your gravy. It's all ok, have a drink and I hope you treat yourself to a slice of pie!

Love leftovers? Or better yet, leftover sandwiches? Join me for the Put A Egg On It issue 11 release party and Leftover Special event. Not only will you be the first to get a copy of the newest PAEOI, you can bring all of your Thanksgiving leftovers and compete in a sandwich making contest. Full details here.

Ho-ho...UH OH: Your Last Minute 2014 Gift Guide

November 30, 2014 in Guides

You've got just enough time to ship holiday gifts to their destinations before it's too late! I'm usually terrible with gifts, but I'm so organized this year that I wanted to share some inspiration, tactics and deals.

If you're a heavy Amazon shopper like I am, you can actually funnel a percentage of your purchases to a nonprofit of your choice! Head to Amazon Smile, pick your nonprofit and shop as normal ! The nonprofit I support is The Tank, a curated multi-disciplinary space for emerging artists in New York City.

C O V E T on Flipboard

"C O V E T" is a mixed bag of things that I want from across the web. Clothes, shoes, ridiculous gold plated silverware? You can get to know me better by the things that I put in here. I have no plans to buy these things any time soon, but maybe it will give you ideas of what to get loved ones this season. If you want to show off what you want for Christmas in a cool way, try making a Flipboard magazine about it.

GOOD OL' STANDBYS List on Canopy

Canopy curates fun, design-y stuff from Amazon on their website and iOS app. You can create collections of items for wish lists or recommendations. I have mine organized by how soon I can buy them, ranging from "Soon" to "Later On" (perhaps not practical at this moment in my life!). I also have a list called "Good Ol' Standbys" for the items that I own already and highly recommend. Some are cheap, but be warned some larger items like stand mixers and immersion circulators can be expensive.

Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 12.33.27 AM.png

Check out my Amazon Recommendations

Part wish list, part things that I have around the house. Hope it helps!

Amazon.com Widgets

CYBER MONDAY RECS

Deals and Referrals (Subject to expiry!)

Phaidon food books are 75% off through Monday with Free shipping! Lot's of Ferran Adria titles, too.
Free shipping on Food52 until Monday! Use my referral link to get $20 to spend on your first purchase.
$15 Off of $99 or more at Herschel Supply Co. with the code H15. Totes, packables and hip packs are under $20 bucks right now.
Here is my general list of referral links from other non-food websites.
My personal Cyber Monday guide for DIY, Handmade and Small Business.

I'll be posting more deals as I find them! Feel free to tweet them to me @Randwiches.

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