As much as I love exploring the restaurants and cocktail bars of a city, there is something so therapeutic to settling in at home to a challenging recipe, with a complementary cocktail in hand.

When you find that you have ample time to cook because of a pandemic (just, you know, as an example), try making a nice soup and freezing most of it for those days when you won’t have so much time.

This recipe was spicy, pungent, and oh-so-smooth with the addition of blended squash. Don’t skip the garnish- it will make your entire apartment smell like a foot for a few hours (oof, roasted fish sauce…) but it is truly the piece de resistance. I made a little jasmine rice with toasted almonds to accompany the dish, and tossed in some cubed soft tofu.

Find the recipe below (borrowed from the New York Times cooking), with a few notes: I didn’t have lime leaves so substituted lime zest. Also, in place of peanuts I used sliced almonds because again, I had them on hand. 

Thai Basil Gin Fizz

Created by my in-house cocktailero Zach, the secret here is a thai chili tincture that brings out the botanical qualities of the gin and basil and adds a nice, lingering spice to the finish. This drink is ideal for a pandemic with all of the immune-boosting ginger and turmeric! Trust me. I know a doctor.

Want to know more about Sneaky’s Tinctures? Send an email to sneakyspiritsocialclub@gmail.com and we’ll fill you in on the rest.

INGREDIENTS (for 2 servings)

• 4oz gin
• 20g diced ginger
• 10g diced turmeric
• 5 leaves fresh basil
• 1oz simple syrup
• Juice of 2 limes (roughly 3oz)
• 4 droppers of Sneaky’s Thai Chili Tincture

Marinate 4oz gin with diced ginger, diced turmeric, and basil leaves for at least 30 minutes. Add all ingredients into a shaker, shake and pour over ice. Top with soda and garnish with a basil leaf.

Butternut Squash and Green Curry Soup

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE SOUP:

• 4 tablespoons coconut oil or neutral-tasting oil
• 3 medium shallots, diced
• 1 (2-inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 lemongrass stalk, cut into 3-inch pieces
•  Kosher salt
• 2 medium butternut squashes (about 4 pounds), peeled, seeded and cut into about 3/4-inch cubes
• 2 (13 1/2-ounce) cans coconut milk
• 6 to 8 tablespoons Thai green curry paste, or to taste
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 to 4 cups water or chicken stock, preferably homemade

FOR THE GARNISH:

• ¾ cup raw peanuts
• ¾ cup unsweetened raw coconut flakes
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 8 small dried red chiles, such as Japones or chiles de árbol, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon neutral-tasting or melted coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon minced lemongrass
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 10 lime leaves, thinly sliced (optional)
•  Handful of Thai or Italian basil leaves
• 2 to 3 limes, quartered

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Melt oil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. When oil shimmers, add shallots, ginger, lemongrass and a generous pinch of salt. Reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are tender and just starting to brown, about 18 minutes.
2. Add squash, coconut milk, curry paste, 3 tablespoons fish sauce and 3 cups water or stock. Increase heat to high. When liquid comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook the soup covered until squash is tender, about 25 minutes.
3. Make garnish while soup cooks: In a medium mixing bowl, toss together peanuts, coconut flakes, fish sauce, chiles, 1 tablespoon oil, the minced lemongrass, the sugar and the lime leaves, if using.
4. Spread mixture out onto a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes after the first 10 minutes. Remove from oven when coconut is deep golden brown, and pour mixture immediately into a bowl to prevent overcooking. Stir to combine, and set aside.
5. Remove soup from heat. Remove lemongrass stalks from pot. Use a hand blender to purée soup. Alternatively, transfer soup in batches to a blender or food processor and purée. Taste and adjust for salt and curry paste. Add water or stock to thin soup to the desired consistency.
6. Thinly slice the basil leaves and arrange on a small plate or platter, along with lime wedges and peanut mixture. Serve soup hot with garnishes.

Cheers everyone, and stay indoors!

the recipe. 

ingredients

what to do with the ingredients

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees (it’s going to get damn hot, if you live in brooklyn and only have a/c in select rooms. think of this as a great opportunity to sweat out your hangover. you know you have one.)
2. combine peaches, 1 cup of the sugar, and water into a saucepan. bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes. remove from heat.
3. melt butter. (gotta be honest, i really enjoy doing obnoxious paula deen impressions while i’m melting butter. inspiration here.)
4. mix together the remaining sugar, flour, and milk.
5. pour melted butter into a 3-quart baking dish and pour or spoon the flour mixture over the butter. do not stir.
6. spoon fruit on top.
7. sprinkle with cinnamon.
8. bake for 30-45 minutes, until batter is cooked and everything ie smelling really fucking heavenly in that hot little apartment kitchen.
9. serve with vanilla ice cream.
10. realize that all of your sins have been forgiven.

 <3L.

it’s springtime. and that means that as temperatures rise our waking hours get a little later and our non-waking hours get a little nonwakier and we all have to go to work and pretend to be human beings. while listlessly gazing out the window into the sunshine and wishing we were napping in mccarren park.

because of this hot heat and no sleep and desperate need for caffeine phenomenon that is rapidly rising with the temperature, my coffee budget is also on the up and up. the hot percolator coffee from my stovetop or drip drip americana from the community office pot just isn’t refreshing. and while i’m proudly funding a new back patio at konditori on manhattan ave with my daily $4 cold brew purchase, it’s been eating into my budget for everything else.

and thus, enters, the you-do at home cold brew.

what you need

1/2 lb whole bean coffee (highly recommend gumpy’s, oslo, or stumptown)

bean grinder (or you can get it freshly ground when it’s purchased as long as you use right away)

a large bowl

cheese cloth (i had a little trouble finding this but they sell it at the garden on manhattan ave)

the magic

grind beans to a medium-course grind.

dump into bowl

fill bowl with water- water to coffee ratio should be about 3:1.

put the bowl in the refrigerator over night and wait. (you can sleep too if you want.)

remove bowl and strain liquid through cheese cloth.

enjoy, my friends. and now let’s go spend your savings on fun.

<3L.

where I’m from, tomatoes are in our blood. we eat them as a side dish with dinner in the summertime, with just a little salt and pepper. or fresh out of the garden smushed between two pieces of white bread with a smudge of dukes mayonnaise. we have a festival in their honor each year, complete with tomatoes on a stick, a tomato dunking booth, a tomato queen, and other such non-traditional relics to the juicy, red gods of summer.

and so when I first moved to Spain I was delighted to be in a country that reveled these fruits as much as I did. it’s served as a simple accompaniment to almost every meal, rubbed onto crusty bread and sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt as pan con tomate. they grate it into tomato rallado as a sauce base, salad dressing, and the sticky, seductive secret to socarrat. of course, there’s the annual tomatina in buñol, outside of valencia. this quote from one spain’s most famous playwrights- pero sin tampoco olvidar el pa amb tomàquet

And of course, how dynamic a simple chilled tomato soup became as you travel through different regions. heading south to andalucia and gazpacho it is no longer gazpacho, the chilled, refreshing tomato soup you may be familiar with- it is salmorejo, a thick-based, garlic-laiden, dream of a substance that looks you straight in the eye and says to you, in that thick, distinctive andalusian way of speaking that you need to “tranquilo, nino- sientate aqui y por favor, disfrutate la vida.”

if you haven’t had it, you owe it to yourself- but beware, it may be impossible to go back to normal gazpachos, or really to eat anything else and not be thinking about it, for a while. this gazpacho runs down your throat and into your veins, your pores, until you become the gazpacho. and the gazpacho becomes you. and you are absolutely fine with that- it is not a resignation, it is an revelation.
try your hand in making it here- but don’t say i didn’t warn you.

recipe below

ingredients

1 (4″ long) piece of baguette, crust broken off (note: this can be up to 4 days old.)

2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon of salt

12 whole blanched almonds OR 1/4 cup natural almond butter

1 cup extra virgin olive oil (preferably spanish, or andalusian hojiblanca)

2 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored, and quartered

1/2 english cucumber, peeled, sliced, and quartered

1/2 yellow bell pepper, core and seeds removed.

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

preparation

soak bread in water for 1 minute (or 2 min for 2-day old bread, 3 min for 3-day, etc), squeeze dry and discard water.

mash garlic to a paste with salt using a mortar and pestle. blend garlic paste, bread, and almonds in a food processor or with an immersion mixer and slowly add olive oil while blending, until mixture is thick and smooth. add tomatoes, yellow pepper, and cucumber pieces a few at a time, along with vinegar, and blend until smooth. force soup through a sieve into a bowl while saying things like “Who’s your daddy??!” or allow to pass through a food mill to remove any remaining solid pieces.

transfer to a jar and let chill for 2 hours before serving.

to serve

add- one soft boiled egg, cut in half. toss in a dash of jamon bits. drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with spanish paprika. attempt to use a spoon although you know it’s a rudimentary tool for such greatness and that life is short- just assess what is appropriate given the company you are with and enjoy.

<3L.

this has been my mission. to leave no pan unturned, no eggs unflipped. to conduct countless hours of questioning and listless field research. I will slice. I will sauté. I will beat, pour, wait. -inhale- flip, and eat. I spent 11 months in spain, and have a lifetime ahead of me- as an introduction became a desire, an affirmation is consummated, an embryo becomes a fetus becomes a silhouette becomes a heartbeat. I will at the very least come to understand the simple perfection that is- the tortilla de patata. 

notes from the field (del campo):

“If you asked all of us teachers to make a tortilla, you would end up with 20 different tortillas- each person thinking there’s is the best.” so then what makes each one different? “It depends. It depends on how you cut the potatoes, on how many eggs you use, on how long you cook the onion… do you use onion by the way?” this was a question? I couldn’t help but question the integrity of a dish where you could reduce the list of ingredients by 1/3 and it was still acceptable. “Mine though…mine is the best.”
-Esther Hernandez, 1 nov 2013, teacher’s lounge.

“The secret?” They looked at each other and laughed. “Lots of practice, right?” She agreed. “I’ve been making tortillas everyday for about 8 years. It’s practice, and knowing just what each one needs,” she spoke of the omelet as if it was one of the students she served, sincere and frank.
-cafe de IES Manuel de Falla, 31 oct 2013

“The tortilla has 4 main ingredients- eggs, potato, onion, and love. The last one, that is the secret.” I gave him a sideways glance, the one that says- that was cute, now get real and tell me the damn secret.”Ok, my secret? My said, lowering his voice. “You must have very high heat. And patience. And when it’s time, make sure your moves are quick and direct.” he imitated flipping the tortilla as I sipped my caipirinha, wondering if we were still talking about cooking.
-Alvaro, arguelles, madrid. 6 nov, 2013

“This one. This is crap.” He said, as he grabbed a slice of the free tortilla and took a bite. “It’s crap but I am hungry.” I asked him why. “You try,” he said, handing me a slice. As I bit into it I was both angry and overjoyed. It was crap! And I could tell that it was crap! I felt like a novice wine drinker, spitting out an immature red for the first time at a tasting. I felt like a sailor finally gaining his sea legs, standing tall and unwavering during the storm. It was crap, CRAP I tell you!
-4 nov 2013, malasana, madrid.

As we sat in the plaza that night, surrounded by the pure history of Madrid- narrow streets, stone churches, street lights barely illuminating secret stone pathways down narrow alleyways, public fountains decorated with blue and white tiles, intricate ironwork showing faces and inscriptions. People moving along, basking in the moonlit of a cool autumn Sunday evening. Couples lost in embrace. And as he leaned over he pointed, and with all the reverence of a conquistador, finally bringing into vision the land he was seeking… and  I knew he was going to share with me a secret of this mysterious city. “There,” he pointed, speaking slowly, with reverence. “There is where you will find the best tortilla in all of Madrid.”
-Xico, 13 October 2013, plaza de la puerta cerrada, madrid.

“so i hear this is where you come to have the best tortilla in all of madrid,” i asked, with a smile on my face. the waiter’s face turned from playful to grave in an instant. i was confused. “i must be honest- you cannot find that here. but i will tell you that everyone in all of spain will agree on who makes the best tortilla in all of the country,” he said. i leaned in. “their grandmothers.”
-juana loca, la latina, madrid, spain.

so here, i suppose, is the fruits of my research:

ingredients
3 large potatoes (of the russet variety or similar)
1 medium spanish onion
5 eggs
olive oil. lots of it.
salt

directions
peel potatoes and slice into slices about 1/8″ thick and about the size of half-dollars or so. slice onion, thinnish. heat a medium-sized, non-stick frying pan on medium high heat with some oil in it. add sliced potato and onion and enough oil to nearly cover them, about 1/4 cup of oil (really). add salt (don’t be shy here- we have 4 ingredients. the salt marries them all together.) cook, for about 25 minutes, or until the whole troop is soft and salty and maybe a few parts are slightly golden. flip only when necessary- mostly let these all sit and meld together into a love circle of magic. (this is a loose translation or a very technical spanish cooking term, of course.)

when potatoes are tinder, strain potato and onion mixture through a metal colander over a bowl, capturing all of the residual oil (this can be reused on any dish, just keep in mind that it will be quite onion-infused.) let these sit and cool and mesh.

once they are cool, crack all eggs into a bowl and add just the teeniest splash of cold water. beat like crazy.
slowly mix in egg and potato- do not beat anymore, just mix.

heat pan over med to med-low heat. add a tiny pinch of the infused oil. once hot, pour in egg-potato-onion mixture all at once.

this is where things get serious.

shake pan gently as this cooks, letting the heat permeate evenly but the mixture not get too attached to the pan. slowly begin to work a spatula or other such tool around the edges, peaking to see how things are firming up as you shake gently.

grab a round plate that will fit inside the frying pan, covering the surface of the tortilla. when the tortilla is just firm but still quite raw on top, place plate upside-down over tortilla.

with one hand pressing plate tightly to the pan, FLIP the whole sha-bang over. don’t be scared, don’t hesitate. DO IT.

you should have a semi-done tortilla on the plate, raw-side down. now shimmy the raw side onto the frying pan so it begins to cook. begin to work the sides of the tortilla with your spatula, gently tucking in the sides and consequently puffing up your proud little tortilla.

after just a few minutes it will be done. the ideal tortilla is still runny on the inside but just firm enough to stay together. slide back onto the plate, let sit for 5 minutes.

slice, share, eat, die.