An Ode to Couch Food
Plus, three great ways to make broccoli.
Hi friends,
Welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce, a newsletter about cooking, dining out, and making the most of it. Before we get started, I still have a few spots for our January event: Shabbat dinner (aka regular dinner + challah!) at my apartment on January 25th. Reply to this email if you’d like to come!
Now let’s dive in.
Something to Cook:
I was in a major broccoli mood this week (proof this has happened before) and made not one, not two, but three broccoli recipes.
Are you ready for this?
First up are broccoli fritters which I made with Isa, Sarah, and Asha for a very fun Monday night dinner party. We made a double batch since the original recipe only makes 9 fritters. Make sure to cut your broccoli in small pieces so you can mash and shape it. We had a few rouge pieces that became more of a broccoli hash, no complaints though. We made a little lemon garlic sour cream to serve on top plus an arugula salad with avocado and cucumber. To drink? Prosecco leftover from New Year’s.
The Broccoli Roast which I heard about on the Of a Kind Podcast and documented on Instagram stories on Thursday (check out the broccoli roast highlight). It’s a great way to showcase broccoli stems and there’s something fun about cutting broccoli with a steak knife. The rub is a nice blend of spicy, salt, and sweet and I may put the extra on some sweet potatoes.
Fried rice with broccoli and egg was dinner on Saturday, thanks to Julia who made this before a night out. To save time, she picked up rice from the Chinese restaurant on the corner which made this very quick and delicious. It says this in the recipe but I’ll reiterate: give this dish time to get crispy. Patience pays off.
Also, can you tell I got new plates? They’re from Flying Tiger and were only $5 and I love them. They feel very sturdy and durable, plus they’re cute.
Now on to some other foods…
Yesterday, I was a little tired of broccoli and craving something different, so I made mushroom larb also from the Healthyish Feel Good Food Plan. It’s definitely on the lighter side for a dinner but I’d definitely make it again. The mushrooms get a little crispy and are a perfect contrast to the peanuts, mint, cabbage and chili going on here and it comes together in under 30 minutes.
The leftovers from this kept really well and I served it over spinach topped with some freshly sliced cucumber.
Before our larb, Julia made miso soup (without the dashi) and it turned out great. It’s always fun to recreate a restaurant staple at home.
You guys know how I feel about cheese plates but I have to mention the one we had on Monday at Sarah’s: a little brie, a few pecans, some dried apricots and some olives. I think Wheat Thins or Carrs are the best plain crackers and cheese plates are really such a fun way to stretch the odds and ends you have in the cabinet and make a hangout feel special. Make one! And send me a picture!
Another soapbox: keep cookie dough in your freezer! Next time you make cookies, roll out all the dough but only bake some of them. Freeze the individual balls in a ziplock and then you’ll have fresh cookies anytime. Just preheat your oven, top the dough with some flakey salt and add an extra minute or two to the baking time. Voila.
Something to Order:
Yesterday, I had a quesadilla from Los Tacos on Dale’s couch while hungover and it sparked absolute joy. There’s something so comfortable about a meal on the couch, with a plate balanced on your legs, something silly on TV (a football game I was paying zero attention to), and everything you need within reach (phone, charger, at least two beverages, a blanket). Los Tacos is one of my favorite local Mexican spots and their housemade red hot sauce is so good. We had ordered delivery but stopped to pick it up in person to get extra containers of hot sauce. Sunday afternoon perfection.
I believe every vegetarian needs a friend who eats burgers, strictly for fry sharing purposes. Julia and I grabbed dinner at Allswell this week and I was a very helpful fry eater (I also do this at Lighthouse). Allswell is also great for brunch and has a really cozy atmosphere. They have three kinds of housemade hot sauce and the habanero one is not messing around.
In a classic January moment, Lizzi and I went to a 7:30 am yoga class and the teacher didn’t show up because she slept through her alarm (jealous). Since we were already awake, we did some stretching in the empty studio and then went to get breakfast: shakshuka at Gotan. Their shakshuka comes with a bright chimichurri and warm pita and it’s a great start to your day. Plus, Gotan has wifi and the Williamsburg is basically empty till after 9 am so you can have a very productive morning.
Something to read:
What the mug cake trend says about how we eat today.
Lovely essay on discovering chicano identity through flour tortillas.
Huge fan of these restaurants that are providing free pads and tampons in their bathrooms, often on the owners’ personal dime.
Travel content ahead: The New York Times released it’s 52 places package (which as always is too Eurocentric) and named their new 52 places traveler, Sebastian Modak. I loved following Jada Yuan in 2018 (read her recap of the year if you haven’t) and Modak has big shoes to fill.
The LA Times has two new critics after the death of Jonathan Gold and they both wrote beautiful first reviews: Bill Addison on Fiona, a pie shop and cafe, and Patricia Escarcega on Xtiosu, a Lebanese spot with Oaxacan influence.
Such a fun interview with a cheese plate influencer that includes some good budget cheese tips. Also a related story about the great American cheese surplus, which sadly is mostly processed cheese that’s very shelf stable.
There’s a new Bon Appetit meme account and I can’t stop laughing.
What women in the kitchen want to wear
Nikita Richardson wrote about #TheStew and other viral recipes. Love this quote, “And it’s not that #TheStew is the be-all and end-all of stews; it’s just that it’s the stew of the moment.” My thoughts on the Stew are here.
There is such thing as a free lunch, it’s at the office. Articles like these always make me consider going into tech, if only for the snacks, though I think I’d really miss making lunch.
Now, get your grocery lists ready because you shared some awesome pantry staples:
Hilary: Beyond my utter basics like eggs, onions, garlic, bottled lemon/lime juice (for backup!) and hot sauces, I am rarely without frozen spinach, frozen edamame, sour cream, soba noodles, kidney beans, carrots and/or cabbage, and tofu.
April has an epic list (frozen tamales…next level): Pantry Staples... frozen pressure-cooked beans and a bag of frozen Primavera tamales. Firehook Crackers (which come in a nice sealable container) to go with the inevitable weird bits of cheese in our fridge. Fat Gold olive oil, some parm, and some fancy Baia pasta which goes well with whatever strange veg is in the crisper. For breakfast, frozen cubes of oatmeal with chia seed, raisins in the fridge. We also almost always have a carrot and a few stalks of celery in the fridge to make aforementioned frozen beans. We save extra bean liquor and use it when recipes call for stock. I always make extra rice for meals because the extra is so good for a ton of other meals during the week like fried rice, or crispy rice and a fried egg. Some jarred yellow or red curry sauce to transform random veg into dinner.
Molly is always ready for a bowl of pasta: As for pantry staples, you can always find the following in our apartment: pasta, rice, quinoa, onions, garlic, spinach, grape tomatoes, eggs, Parmigiano, and frozen chicken breasts that we defrost and throw in the Instant Pot for soups, stews, and burritos.
This week, let’s talk about couch food. What do you like to eat on the couch? This can range from your TV snacks of choice to a full out meal. Let’s get cozy and discuss. Reply to this email with your favorites.
I hope your week includes some couch time and some broccoli.
Happy eating and thanks for reading.
xo, Abigail
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