Ceurvels - The NYC kitchen cookbook: 150 recipes inspired by the specialty food shops, spice stores, and markets of New York City

For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or . Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. Cover design by Jane Sheppard Cover photography by Tracey Ceurvels, Caroline White, Judy Schiller, Kirsten Kay Thoen, and iStockphoto Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2112-8 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2116-6 Printed in China This book is dedicated to my wonderful, always loving, and supportive parents, Bill and Yvonne, and to my darling daughter, Sabrina, who, moments ago, told me that one of her favorite activities is baking together. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Theres something special about shopping for food in New York City.

Each morning the metal grates of stores rise up, with shop owners ready to sell their herbs, spices, oils, vinegars, wine, cheese, fish, meat, and vegetables. Near our apartments, or only a train ride away, New York City seems to carry every ingredient imaginablefrom Chinatown, where vats of fish sit on sidewalks; to the Bronx, where family members of old-world Italian ancestors make crusty bread and handmade pasta; to Brighton Beach where, Ive been told, you can buy Russian ingredients no longer available in Russia. In New York City, you can find mozzarella made moments ago, obscure spices, rare fish, unique cuts of meat, artisanal everything, from honey to beer, and infinite types of handmade pasta in many shapes and colors. You can choose among hundreds of salts, visit a vegetable butcher, find any green under the sun, taste many varieties of olive oil, eat cheese made around the world or from local New York farms, and visit an entire market devoted to Italian food. You may find inspiration in a jar of fenugreek at an Indian store, in cassava at a Brazilian store, tamarind at an Asian market, or berbere, an Ethiopian spice mixture. Inside these stores, stimulated by scent, color, and flavor, our imaginations flourish And this seems to be in tandem with the New York experience of picking and choosing from the multitude of offerings, and melting and merging tradition with innovation to create our own enjoyable way of cooking.

There are neighborhoods that still harbor certain types of food, like the stretch of Lexington Avenue in the 20s, which has remained Indian, or the area around Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which has been Italian since the early 1900s. Other areas have a variety of stores and cuisines. There are two blocks on Bleecker Street where you just might be able to do all your food shopping with a butcher shop, a bread store, a cheese shop, and a pork store. In and around Union Square and Flatiron you could never tire of options to make for dinner. New York City is truly a food lovers paradise While I do enjoy dining out frequently (I have many favorite restaurants), and grabbing a snack from one of many food trucks or eating a slice of pizza now and then, what I love most is cooking at home with the ingredients I seek and find during my jaunts around the city. For one, it helps feed my love of adventure.

Visiting different parts of the city and discovering the variety of food and ingredients satiates my sense of wanderlust. Secondly, I enjoy meeting people who love what they do, especially when it comes to food. Ive met beer brewers, winemakers, chocolatiers, butchers, and cheese mongers. Their passion for what they do is contagious, and honestly, Id rather buy an artisanal product made with love and care than a mass-produced one at the supermarketthats my philosophy. When I first moved to New York City, I lived in Chinatown, where I became immediately fascinated with the food shops on nearly every block. I started buying ingredients like lemongrass, Thai chili paste, Chinese five-spice, and miso from Asian specialty stores and incorporating them into my daily meals.

Id also walk to nearby Little Italy where Di Palos became my go-to store for fresh pasta, prosciutto, and Parmesan, and further uptown to the Union Square Greenmarket for fresh and locally-farmed eggs, garlic, and fruits and vegetables. I ventured to other food stores that inspired me, like Kalustyans on Lexington Avenue, where Id stock up on Indian spices and curries. I came to like olives in a roundabout way: I tasted tapenade, that salty delicious spread so sublime on a piece of sliced baguette, and soon found myself at Titan Foods in Astoria, choosing among the vats of olives for dips and recipes (plus feta cheese and phyllo dough). Id trek to Sahadis on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights for pistachios, spices, and ingredients like rose and orange blossom water and fig glaze. The West Village is home to one of my new favorite stores, The Meadow, which has an entire wall of artisanal chocolate, plus hundreds of unique salts that add new dimensions to food. When I want a mouthwatering cheese, I go to Murrays Cheese, and also Stinky Bklyn, Bedford Cheese, Artisanal, and Saxelby Cheesemongers.

For meat, theres Ottomanellis, Staubitz Market, Esposito & Sons, Fleishers Grass-Fed & Organic Meats, and one of my favorites: Florence Meat Market. Its tucked away on a charming West Village street, and you can call ahead to owner/butcher Benny to order special cuts of meat. Oh, and coffee I wasnt a loyal fan until I had a young baby and needed an extra buzz to keep me awake. Fortunately, Roasting Plant was in walking distance. The scent of their coffee beans roasting and then shooting through a tube overhead is something I look forward to every time I go for my stash. The Block Party Blend is my favorite for its notes of chocolate and caramel, and perks me up in the morning as I start my day.

I add coffee to several of my recipes, both sweet and savory. Now searching for coffee has become an adventure: Stumptown, Porto Rico Importing, Blue Bottle, and DAmico are also regular spots to pick up beans. I cant mention coffee without mentioning tea. I roast chicken with tea leaves and add tea to desserts, and even vegetables. Tea can add both sweet and early nuances to a dish. There are so many tea shops, from Harney & Sons, Sullivan Street Tea & Spice Company, McNultys, Davids, Kusmi Tea, and Suns Organic.

Its always good to have a variety of teas for drinking and cooking. New York City and its amazing variety of shops has become my inspiration for cooking. I never tire of adventuring around the city, gathering ingredients, and running home to cook, excited to experiment with my discoveries. My goal is to inspire you to venture around your home, whether its here in New York or in the artisan shops of your own town. Which is not to say that you have to run around town like I do; this is what I love to do, so its natural for me. If your area doesnt offer artisanal cheese, Indian spice shops, or other places I mention throughout the book, you can order online (web addresses on pages 193203).