2009 November | hungry sofia

Nov 5

Causa Caliente

I’ve been wanting to try this second causa recipe, stuffed with chicken for awhile. I was finally got my hands on bottled ají amarillo, the Peruvian peppers that are key to so many recipes but are difficult to find in New York. Though usually served cold, roast chicken wrapped in yellow potatoes then slathered with cheese and lightly browned, seemed like the perfect early fall comfort food. I’m always a little skeptical that it’s going to work, but the pureed potatoes combined with oil and peppers become a perfect kind of molding clay so the only difficult part is stopping yourself from playing with it incessantly so it has time to chill.

Culinary Conspirators

I’ve been grazing in the same used book store for a few months now, becoming protective of the cookbook corner in the back that no one else seems to visit. It’s become a kind of oujia board, I’ll drop in on my way to Sahadi’s and take a quick look for something new or unusual that will take me in a different direction. I’m starting to believe that the books I’ve been finding come from the same collection since they all share a similar sensibility – New York circa Auntie Mame. Yesterday, I finally bought their copy of The Conspirators’ Cookbook published in 1967 under the pseudonym Century Downing. I was drawn to it’s a pleasantly misanthropic, pro-Europe cookery rants against the canned American sixties with chapters like “Mari’s Little Lamburger”, a list of Ten Commandments that includes “shoot anyone who asks for catsup,” and diatribe against “food fakery.” I’ve never been too interested in conspiracies, but I’ve always had a soft spot for curmudgeons ahead of their time. Read more

Nov 1

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Pan de Muerto

I first came across pan de muerto, or “bread of the dead” in the long stretch of Mexican bakeries and stores in Sunset Park. Placed on family altars for el Día de los Muertos (November 1 & 2) as an offering to their deceased loved ones, I asked everyone I knew how they’d celebrated in Mexico and whether they continued to do so in the States. Read more