How to Survive Winter feat. Hot Chocolate and Hot Toddies

Hi friends,

Welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce (And Other Food Thoughts), a newsletter sharing something to cook, somewhere to eat out, and something to read. I'm a native New Yorker who spends far too much time thinking and reading about food. I love helping people find better things to eat and solving problems, so let me know how I can help. Let's dive in.

This week has been cold, no other way to describe it. We had a snow day on Thursday and the ground is still covered in increasingly grey snow, with temperatures well below 20. It's brutal out there and I'm sure many businesses are suffering. If you can convince yourself to leave the house, a restaurant can be exceedingly cozy, but it's also a great excuse to stay in and cook. Follow your bliss.

Something to cook:
It's the perfect season to make shakshuka, baked eggs in spicy tomato sauce. It's hearty and reheats pretty well for an egg dish. I made this for my parents when they got home from a trip and I think it's the perfect "have been traveling all day" dinner. The feta is a fun addition but skip if you don't have any.
There are a million recipes for this but my favorite version is Melissa Clark's.
Shakshuka for a cold day:
Olive oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 teaspooon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
Cayenne to taste
1 28 ounce can of tomatoes, whole
Salt, pepper
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese for topping
6 eggs
Cilantro for topping
Pita bread and hot sauce for serving.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In an oven proof pan, heat the oil over medium-low. Saute the pepper and onion for about 20 minutes until starting to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two, then add the spices, including the salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and break them up with a wooden spoon. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the sauce thickens. Then crack the eggs into the skillet and add the feta cheese on top. To finish cooking, put in the oven for about 7-9 minutes (you don't want to overcook the eggs so check them after 7 minutes) or put a lid on the skillet and finish cooking on the stove, which will take slightly less time. Top with chopped cilantro and hot sauce (harissa would be perfect here). Serve in bowls with lots of warm pita bread. 

In other cooking news, I tried this technique for cooking brussels sprouts in 10 minutes and it works. They taste more fried than roasted but it's still useful if you're in a hurry. 

My snow day was a great excuse to make myself some fancy toast for breakfast. I like my avocado toast smitten kitchen style with lemon, red pepper flakes and a bit of olive oil. I also used some ricotta leftover from last week's toasts to make a sweet toast with ricotta, honey, salt and pepper and sliced bananas. More leftover ideas here. 

If you happen to own a crockpot, I feel obligated to let you know that it's perfect for making hot toddies. We did this at a friend's house this weekend, heating up the cider, tea, lemon peels with cloves, and ginger and letting everyone add whiskey to taste.

Something to order:
I successfully left my apartment a few times this week to eat at some great spots.

My family had an end of winter break dinner at Charlie Bird which was excellent. If you book on resy, you'll get a free glass of champagne when you arrive, which starts things off on a high note. I want to try making their farro salad (the secret is cooking the farro in apple cider) and the gnocchi were tiny and fluffy. I had some oysters too (my first of 2018) which they served with a great apple cider vinegar sauce. This is a place known for its wine, which you can drink out of extremely expensive Zalto glasses, the kind with a thin stem. Keep it in mind for your next special occasion or if you have an extremely cool job/boss, try to organize your next team dinner in their back room (and please invite me to be your date).

I got brunch at my old favorite Allswell this weekend. Fun fact: My first Williamsburg brunch was back at Allswell in 2012. I was an intern at the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Allswell chef was cooking at an upcoming gala so I was sent to interview him and write a blog post about it. He made me french toast with peaches and insisted on changing his shirt for the photo shoot. I've since visited with my friend Celine when she visited from France and took my sister and her friend this weekend. It's a lowkey brunch spot even though it's on Bedford Avenue, with good coffee and a cool twist on avocado toast with charred radicchio and poached eggs. Their bar is super cozy and a great spot for drinks.


Right in my neck of the woods is Testo, an Italian spot with really excellent homemade pasta and extremely large carafes of house red. It's also tiny so call ahead if you have more than 2 people, tables do not turn over quickly here. They always have good specials and the owner will probably pour you shots of limoncello before you leave (which is not my favorite part of the experience but still speaks to the convivial vibe). Note: It's cash only with an atm outside which was quite unpleasant to use in this weather.

I finally tried Lil Frankie's, a restaurant that seems to work for any occasion. It's huge and also cash only with great pasta and a delicious looking dinner menu! Will need to go back.

Huge thanks to the La Newyorkina kiosk in Astor Place and its extensive Mexican hot chocolate menu for keeping my hands from freezing after walking from 1st and 1st to the 8th street R station because weekend subways in a snowstorm are the worst. (Sidenote: we've got to save the subway). I got the regular and it came with two little cinnamon cookies. 


Something to read:
Guy Fieri's American Kitchen on its final night 

The NBA's first Asian American GM is a food blogger on the side. Love it. 

Adam Roberts is blogging again and his post from last fall about how to host a dinner party in one day is the most unpretentious and wonderful.

This piece about the passionate farmers behind pecorino cheese details the extensive rivalry between Italian and French sheep. 

How lucky we are to get Deb's Grubstreet diet. Still hoping to run into her at M. Shanghai one day, those spicy vegetable wontons are epic. 

If you want to read a 400+ page book about the history of food production in New York, I recently finished Food City: 400 Years of Food-Making in New York, which has the really cool history of meatpacking, beer brewing, sugar refining, bread baking, and more in this city. It's fun to imagine what this city was like at different moments throughout history, especially as Brooklyn becomes a new center of food manufacturing with the rise of breweries and the rebirth of places like the Navy Yard. Emma lent it to me and I'm happy to pass it along if you're interested.

Restaurant owners need to do more to end the culture of harassment, says Pete Wells (a fellow Penn history major). I agree.

Last week, I asked you for childhood favorite food. These answers were so much fun to read. It's really amazing how much our palates can grow as we get older. The best foods are always the ones your parents don't let you have.

What did you eat during the snow day? If you're a warm weather reader, feel free to reply to this email and gloat. 

Childhood faves:
French Toast Crunch cereal (rip), strawberry shortcake ice cream bars, cornflake chicken, and ants on a log (still a great snack) - Danielle

My fave childhood food is/was/will forever be pickles and nothing quite compares. I think next best would be this, which is not just a food but the whole experience: when I visited my Bubby in Lake Worth growing up, we would start Saturdays with her HUGE bagels and lox spread. While totally full, we would then head out to wade in the neighborhood pool with all her thousands of friends for a couple hours before I'd return home to her *perfect* white bread tuna sandwiches with a jar of dill pickles on the side. - Julianne

Pizza Hut. My mom hated it so my dad would take us when my mom had other plans. -Hillary

Send me any burning food questions and let's hope we can all wear only one layer of leggings sometime soon.

Happy eating and thanks for reading.
xo,
Abigail