Brownies for Bill

This July 4th weekend I went upstate to visit Bill who loves my brownies. I'm sure if I came brownieless Bill would have sent me back home! My ideal brownie is a little bit of everything - chewy, cakey, fudgey, moist, soft, crusty on top, and melt in your mouth. I want everything, that's just the type of girl I am! I'm still in search for the perfect recipe but this one comes pretty damn close. Everyone loves this brownie. It's fudgey, light, and melt in your mouth.

Almost Perfect Brownie

Butter 1 lb
70% Bittersweet Chocolate (use Valrhona for the best results) 1lb
Eggs 8
Salt 1 t
Vanilla Extract 1 T
Granulated Sugar 400g
Brown Sugar 400g
All Purpose Flour 230g
Cocoa Powder (Valrhona) 75g

1. Melt butter and chocolate together over bain marie.
2. Whisk together eggs, salt, vanilla x, and both sugars. Whisk into chocolate.
3. Whisk in flour and cocoa powder.
4. Pour into a buttered half sheet pan with parchment. Bake at 350 degrees farenheit for 1 hr.
5. Allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight and then unmold and cut.

Options: Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the brownie before you put it in the oven. Add 1 t of mint extract instead of vanilla extract for a mint chocolate brownie. Add both chopped walnuts and dried cherries that have been stewed in some orange juice into the batter.

Horny for Corny

I once went on a date with a guy because his pick up line was "Hey, do you like corn?". Heck yea I like corn! And he took me to eat the yummiest corn I've ever had. Too bad the date was a dud. Here is my list of the top 3 best places to eat corn!

1) Cafe Habana

17 Prince St (& Elizabeth St)
New York, NY
212-625-2001

-must get their Grilled Corn Mexican style with cotija cheese, chili and lime. Delicious! Get two each!

2) Havana Central

22 East 17th St (btwn Broadway & 5th Ave)
New York, NY
212-414-4999

151 W 46th St (btwn 6th & 7th Ave)
New York, NY
212-398-7440

-get their Mazorca de Maiz Estilo Havana (Havana corn on the cob) that comes covered with garlicy butter, lots of parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, and cuban spices. Sinfully delicious.

3) Go to your local farm and pick your own corn. It doesn't get fresher than that! Corn that is picked fresh off the stalk is so tender and sweet you can eat it right then and there without cooking it!



Don't be afraid of these animals that you may encounter in the corn fields. They love their corn too.

Hot diggity damn Dog

Took my mom to the outlet today to do a little shopping. By the time I got there my stomach was grumbling and I don't think I could have made it to the food court. I spotted a Sabrett Hotdog shop so I decided to get one. Goddamn, the man tried to charge me 45 cents for sauerkraut!!! What kind of world is this that someone would charge for hotdog condiments? Don't worry, I stuck it to him. I didn't get the sauerkraut.

Chef Dreams

I had a dream last night that I was in a candy store trying to buy jelly beans but they only had one vending machine with only three flavors in it. The only flavor I liked was pear so I was shaking the machine in hopes of only allowing the pear ones to come out. When the other two flavors came out too I tried to put them back into the machine. I must have been chomping and chewing in my sleep because I distinctively remember eating the candy in my dream!

Doughnut Plant

I love doughnuts. How could you not love fried dough covered with sugar? And when it comes to doughnuts I'm a simple person. I'm not into the sprinkles, glazes, jellies, and flavors. I love it just glazed. I've heard of the Doughnut Plant in NYC but never had a chance to stop by until yesterday when I was in the area. I'm sort of watching what I eat for the summer but hey a girl has got to live a little. This doughnut was the size of my open hand! Although they offer numerous flavors such as creme brulee, blueberry, banana pecan, tres leches, coconut cream, and blackout I opted for the simple yet still refined vanilla bean yeast doughnut which is just a plain doughnut with glaze. I prefer yeast doughnuts rather than cake doughnuts. To me there's something about the fluffy, airy, slightly chewy texture of yeast doughtnuts that makes me happy. Eating a cake doughnut is like eating a piece of pound cake and if I wanted pound cake then I would eat pound cake. And I find that cake doughnuts can be somewhat dry. My doughnut was good. A bit on the too chewy side but still good.

Mark Israel opened The Doughnut Plants in 1994 using his grandfather Herman's recipe. The history of his baking lineage dates back to 1910 when Mark's grandfather started working at a Minnesota bakery at the age of 16. In 1912 his grandfather was stationed in France where he baked bread for the army bakery. In 1934 he opened a bakery in North Carolina. In 2004 Mark opened a Doughnut Plant in Tokyo. So when you bite into that doughnut it's not just a doughnut but a piece of history that you are tasting. Stop by the website to read more about the history, see pictures, and peruse the menu!

http://www.doughnutplant.com/
Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700
Hours Tues- Sun 6:30am until doughnuts sell out (usually around 5-7pm)

It's Crawfish Season Y'all!

Three pounds of live and kickin' crawfish, a little Old Bay, some celery, garlic, lemon, potatoes, corn, a bay leaf or two makes for a very fun night!

Carl the Crawfish: "please don't eat me"
Me: "Muhahahhahahaha in my tummy crawfish!"


Update: Last night had dinner at my favorite izakaya bar, Hagi's Sake Bar, which I've blogged about before. It was delicious as always. My favorite was the Calf's Liver Sashimi which was outstanding. The texture of the liver was surprising. I thought it was going to be chewy or gritty but it was very soft. The combination of pureed ginger and garlic with thinly sliced onions and scallions dipped in oil and salt was perfect. It was very tasty. I'm sorry I didn't take pics. My dinner mate and I just dug in.

My First Chef's Hat