pictures & pickles

our post today is inspired by many different sources - momofuku ssam bar, farmer's market and old magazines. on our recent trip to nyc, we had a great plate of pickled vegetables at ssam bar and tasted some ingredients i'd never think of pickling! farmer's market on sunday was beautiful but all i could think of was which vegetables could bath in vinegar, salt and sugar when we got home. we've also been going through years of old magazines to recycle and ripping out loads of recipes and photo inspiration - food & wine, gourmet, domino, the list goes on and on. but i found a fun recipe for david chang's sweet & sour pickles in an issue of Food & Wine from 2007 and adapted it for this recipe. the brine works for almost any veggies you'd like to pickle. enjoy!

Pickled Veg

2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1/8 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

2 cups daikon root, peeled and sliced 1/8-inch thick

1 cup carrot, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick

2 pickling cucumbers, sliced 1/-inch thick

combine water, sugar, salt and vinegars in a pot and bring to a boil. simmer until sugar and salt are dissolved and remove from heat. arrange prepared vegetables in clean glass jars and cover with hot liquid. let cool to room temperature, seal and refrigerate overnight or up to two weeks.

the big apple

back from a busy but great week in nyc! we had a little rain, a little sun and a lot of great meals. we had a fabulous lunch at momofuku ssam bar which included steamed pork buns (of course!) and amazing pork scrapple with thick cut bacon, a perfectly poached egg and a little salad of frisee and mizuna on top - unreal!! another great lunch was had sitting at the bar of gramercy tavern for a late afternoon cocktail and delicious pulled pork sandwich. we had an amazing dinner at locanda verde in the greenwich hotel - the garlicky fava bean crostini and homemade ravioli were great but the best part of the meal was dessert - a scoop each of malted milk chocolate and rice custard gelato. another highlight of the meal was meeting jeffrey steingarten, food critic and author, and his lovely wife at the bar after dinner. can't wait to go back again for more foodie adventures!

restaurant week

we decided to make this first week of march our version of restaurant week! for our posts this week, we're going to feature recipes from some of our favorite places - places that inspire us, delight us and have a particular dish that we just can't get enough of. 

we were lucky enough to hear about momofuku noodle bar about a year before david chang was in every food magazine imaginable and now we make sure to get a few amazing pork buns every time we visit manhattan. gourmet magazine published the recipe for these amazing sandwiches in october 2007 and we finally got around to trying them at home this past week.  we recently received 8 pounds of pork belly from a friend (don't you wish all friends came with pork belly?!) and in addition to the bacon currently brining in the fridge, we knew we had to try the recipe. another great memory from that first visit to the crowded restaurant in the east village was discovering hitachino white ale. it's from the kiuchi brewery in japan and is a Belgian style white ale with plenty of orange peel and spices, plus the logo on the bottle and cap is the cutest little orange owl you've ever seen! unfortunately, the noodle bar no longer serves this fantastic beer but you can find it at specialty liquor stores and markets with amazing imported beer selections across the country. it is definitely worth seeking out and a great pair to the steamed pork belly buns. the recipe is a bit long with many steps but the end result is SO worth it - they taste exactly like the little pieces of heaven that put momofuku and all it's glory on the culinary map. get the recipe here, find some hitachino (or order it here) and have a pork bun party as soon as possible!