The Bitten Word

Avocado Toast with Chile Flakes and Crushed Pistachios

A Bitten Word Recipe

Here's a breakfast item we've been making for ourselves a lot this spring. Inspired by a delicious appetizer we ordered last year at Cork Wine Bar here in D.C., we decided that avocado on toast sounded pretty yummy for breakfast, too.

To find our perfect avocado toast, we played around with different variations of this dish. Cork actually drizzles theirs with avocado oil, which is delicious if you happen to have some (but pricey and probably not worth buying if you don't). We even tried a drizzling hot bacon grease over these, but it was just too much (yeah, we said it).

Chicken-Matzo Ball Soup

Cooking Light (March 2012) 

This probably won't be a shock to you, coming from two boys reared in the South. But until this week, we've never had matzo ball soup. 

We've seen it on menus countless times, in delis and restaurants in D.C. and New York. But for us it's been one of those dishes relegated to pop culture (Carrie Bradshaw ducking into a deli to order a bowl, after getting caught in a downpour) and appearances in food writing that we like (in one of our all-time favorite Frank Bruni reviews in the New York Times, he went to eat matzo ball soup at the Second Avenue Deli with Nora Ephron, Ed Koch, and Laura Shapiro). 

And Chicken-Matzo Ball Soup is a staple of food magazines this time of year. In March, Cooking Light features this recipe, while in April Bon Appétit touts a take on the dish using matzo gnocchi. And in breaking matzo news, today's New York Times has a big Passover seder feature that includes matzo ball soup.

We've seen recipes like these for years, but we'd always passed them up. It's high time that we get our matzo on, don't you agree?

Roasted Pineapple with Honey and Pistachios

Bon Appétit (March 2012)

We're always looking for reasons to make desserts. We don't typically make them for ourselves, unless it's a special occasion. But we love to eat them and we love to showcase them here on the blog.

But there are two occasions when we almost always make something sweet: when someone invites us somewhere (see Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cereal Bars) or when we invite friends over for dinner. 

If friends are coming over mid-week for dinner, dessert is usually simple, or something that we can easily make ahead. In the case of this Roasted Pineapple with Honey and Pistachios, it was the former. Our friends Ed and Guy were coming over for dinner on a Wednesday night, and we needed something we could easily throw together in under and hour.

In Praise of Bon Appétit: Revisiting the "New" Magazine One Year In

Nearly a year ago, we highlighted the revamped Bon Appétit magazine and the changes that had happened since GQ vet Adam Rapoport had taken over as editor in chief. We expressed a few concerns -- chiefly, a move toward blander, "nicer" photography and a new, cooler-than-thou tone of writing that sometimes came off as grating and a little condescending. But by and large, we were complimentary of those early issues.

A dozen issues have passed since then, so we thought it might be worthwhile to check in on Bon Appétit, and to share some thoughts about what we've observed over the last year. 

But really, we just want to write about Bon App because we're absolutely loving it right now. Month after month, we've each finished reading it and said, "Wow, what a great issue!"

Here's what we're loving. 

Curried Red-Lentil Soup with Dried Cherries and Cilantro

Martha Stewart Living (March 2012)

We've had a crush on red lentils for a few months.

It all started innocently enough. On kind of whim, we bought a variety of lentils from the bulk section of the organic market up the street from our house. (Yes, purchasing bulk lentils at an organic market qualifies as a "whim" Chez Bitten.)

While we enjoyed all the lentil we sampled, it was the red lentils that had us hooked. We can't tell you how many times this winter we ate cooked red lentils with some fresh basil (well, fresh-frozen basil) stirred in. It's a plain but very satisfying lunch -- and a very healthy one. 

But that's where our lentil project plateaued. We had grand plans to make other lentil dishes, but we got stuck in Red-Lentils-with-Basil Land, and we never left. 

So we were very happy to see this Curried Red-Lentil Soup with Dried Cherries and Cilantro from Martha Stewart Living.

Sponsor Shout Out: Sickles Market

We want to take a moment to welcome a new Bitten Word sponsor, Sickles Market.

Sickles, based in New Jersey, has been a family-run business for four generations. What started as a farm stand in 1908 has expanded to sell not only produce, but also fine foods and specialty products. The company has an excellent online store where you can order everything from Piri Piri Sauce to Red Onion Conserve.

(For what it's worth, this post isn't a requirement of some ad deal, we just wanted to give the market a special shout out.) 

Thanks, Sickles!

 

 

 

 

 

No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

Everyday Food (March 2012) 

We spent this weekend out in West Virginia. Our friends Charlie and Scott invited us, along with our friends Drew and Ralph, to come out to their cabin for a few days in the country. We jumped at the chance to get out of the city for the weekend. 

You may remember this cabin as the scene of the crime for The Bacon Explosion two years ago. (Never. Forget.) You may also recall that Scott and Charlie introduced us to a lovely libation known as a Porch Crawler. This weekend introduced us to another new drink -- the Pickleback. It's a whiskey shot with a pickle-juice chaser. Believe it or not, we really enjoyed 'em!

Anyway, we didn't want to show up to the cabin empty-handed. So we took a quick spin through the current food magazines, searching for something that we could easily make on a Thursday night, and that would travel well to work on Friday, and then on the two-hour drive out to the cabin. Cakes and pies were out of the question. We needed something easy that would be a crowd-pleaser. 

These no-bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cereal Bars looked like just the ticket. We ran to the supermarket on Thursday after work to buy some sugary cereal.

How To Stop Using Paper Towels + Other Ways to Cut Kitchen Waste

Earlier this week, we mentioned that we've drastically cut back on our paper towel usage. It's one of the ways we've tried to reduce our kitchen waste. A few Bitten Word readers asked for a little more info, so we thought we'd devote a post to cutting down on paper towels and other ways you can have a more sustainable kitchen.

First, a caveat: We're really not trying to be greener-than-thou proselytizers here. We're not trying guilt-trip you or tell you how to live. It's just that we got really fed up with how frequently we were filling up the garbage can, so we decided a few years ago to see what we could do about it.

We think that cutting your paper towel usage may be the single best step you can take toward a less wasteful kitchen. We came up with a method that allowed us to dramatically reduce the number of paper towels we use.

Wanna hear what our brilliant method was?

Spicy Tofu with Beef and Szechuan Peppercorns

Martha Stewart Living (February 2012)

Ever since we first ate Sichuan peppercorns in China last fall, we've been wanting to try them in a dish in our own kitchen. (The American spelling, by the way, is "Szechuan," which we totally don't understand, considering it's pronounced "SESH-wahn." To us, the British/Chinese-English spelling of "Sichuan" makes a lot more sense.)

Whether you spell it "Szechuan," "Sichuan" or, most accurately, "四川," it's a central Chinese province with a great culinary history and lots of spicy cuisine. The Sichuan peppercorns are a special treat -- lemony, sour and peppery, they have a sublte numbing effect on the tongue. We couldn't get enough of them while we were in China.

So we were excited to see this Spicy Tofu with Beef and Szechuan Peppercorns in last month's Martha Stewart Living. We ordered some peppercorns from the Internet and got to cooking.

Cod with Pecan-Raisin Salsa Over Broccoli

Whole Living (April 2012)

We consider ourselves conscientious consumers. Struggling conscientious consumers, but still. 

We try to support local farmers through our farmers market and CSA. We try to cut down the amount of waste we produce -- we've eliminated most of our paper towel use (it takes us a couple months to go through one roll now), and we wash and reuse resealable plastic bags. We buy very few processed foods and, for the most part, we care about where we're spending our money. 

That's not to say that we're perfect. Far from it. Being a conscientious consumer can be equal parts overwhelming and exhausting. You think you're doing a good job in your little corner of the world, and then it's pointed out just how little you actually know. 

That was the case in January, when we made Swordfish Puttanesca. Unable to find swordfish steaks at the time, we bought monkfish without a second thought. After we wrote about it, however, a few readers pointed out that both swordfish and monkfish are on the Monterrey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch List. According to the watch list, some swordfish is acceptable, but all monkfish should be avoided. Lesson learned. 

Are we kept up at night, unable to sleep, because of our errant monkfish purchase? Well, no. But if we'd known then what we know now, we likely would have chosen a different fish. Hey, you don't know what you don't know. 

So we were happy to see that the April issue of Whole Living features a spread on sustainable seafood choices. It features Barton Seaver, a D.C. chef whose recent cook book, For Cod and Country, is all about sustainable seafood options. (It's a beautiful book, lovingly photographed by the lovely Ms. Katie Stoops, who, coincidentally, was our wedding photographer. Small world!)