Pomelo Yellow

My first encounter with pomelo was in high school in Taiwan, when I saw little kids running around during the Moon Festival wearing its thick peel as a hat. While everyone was spending the holiday stuffing their faces with moon cakes, I was busy tearing apart its thick green skin and marveling at the deliciously firm citrus flesh.  Though now somewhat common, back then this grapefruit relative (the humble grapefruit is actually a hybrid of Indonesian pomelo and Jamaican sweet orange) was an addictive novelty that rivaled even the mighty bell apple for my interest, and since then it's become one of my favorite fruits - something I look forward to each winter, when, along with the pomegranate, it's actually in season. So the other day when I was looking at a poor, lone bulb of fennel sitting in my fridge waiting to be used, I immediately thought of this ideal partner. 

A Time in Africa

There is something I adore about an old, worn recipe - whether it's hand written or typed, on plain or lined paper. So much is expressed by the yellowed, acid-stained sheets. There's also something in the knowledge that it's been held dear by so many and changed hands under potentially interesting circumstances. In this case, the recipe above was obtained by my father-in-law from Baptist missionaries in Cameroon in the early 1960s when he was there as part of the Peace Corps. This (and pages for many other dishes) was prepared for foreigners working in isolated areas and called for ingredients available in local markets, the only alternative to the highly overpriced French stores that were found occasionally in some capital cities. 

A Christmas Tradition & A Mad-Car Pile Up

It's been quite some time since my last post - as it happens I tend to get absorbed in the food aspects of the  Holiday Season and was spending what would otherwise be my blogging time cooking and baking as if preparing for a deadline. For four days my husband quizzically observed me hauling grocery bags from all corners of Brooklyn and Manhattan. "Relax, it's the holidays. Why are you making this so hard on yourself?" he asked. This would be met with an irritated, "What do you mean? It's tradition!" 


But in all honesty, for me, the Polish pre-Christmas tradition of Wigilia (Christmas Eve dinner), which was historically a 12 dish "meatless fast" (now more like a coma-inducing mushroom, sauerkraut and fish filled feast), is a hugely importatant and very necessary part of my year-end celebrations. And so after all the preparation, I feel it necessary to share a small part of these adventures with you.

Bacon, Cheese and Scallions Makes Everything Better

Having always loved savory breakfast muffins, I made a rather experimental batch this weekend (with BACON!) that turned out to be quite a hit with my friends. Since then several people have asked for the recipe I thought I would share it with you here.  


The great thing about these is that they freeze really well - you can make them ahead of time, freeze them, and have a great and easy breakfast every day. I must admit that I like every meal to be somewhat noteworthy and I'm by no means a fan of shoving a donut in my mouth as I leap through the subway doors in the morning, so if you're anything like me I'm sure these will be a great morning solution. To defrost them, place them in a 350F oven for 15 minutes or leave them to defrost overnight.


Bacon, Cheese and Scallion Muffins


• 10 slices of bacon, chopped (or more if you are like me and no amount of bacon is ever enough)
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 cups of cheddar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup sour cream


Preheat your oven to 400F. 
Fry the chopped bacon until crispy and drain on a paper towel. While it cools, mix the dry ingredients (cheese and scallions count as dry) and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients together and fold into the dry mix slowly. Mix in the bacon. Grease or line a muffin tray and spoon in the mixture. 20 minutes in the oven will do the trick, after which you should cool them fully before freezing. Make sure to freeze them within the hour, that way they will defrost with the same level of freshness. 


Enjoy! 


xx Annah

Bottoms Up! The Bloody Mary Salad

Inspiration can be found in the strangest of places, and in this case I found it at the bottom of a large pitcher of Bloody Mary on a rooftop in Melbourne. Looking out at the skyline from our perch at Madame Brussels - self proclaimed “rather fancy terrace and public house”- our group of three had been working on this savory concoction for quite some time. As it was way past my dinner time (this was the first week of a 5-week food-fueled trip through Australia and Asia and consumption was foremost on my mind), I had already eaten the celery, olives, parsley and cucumber slices that had adorned the top of our shared beverage. So it was with revived enthusiasm that I fished out the remaining cucumber slice from the bottom. This one was different from the others – it had soaked up the spicy, tomatoey booze and resulted in a light, crunchy pickle that left me wanting more. As we finally set off to Gills Diner for some real sustenance, the flavor and texture of that cucumber danced in my head - I had to recreate it, to see if this little morsel could be turned into a dish that I could eat by the plateful. So upon our return to New York, my first task was to do just that.

Now, although I’ve had many a Bloody Mary in the past, I was surprised to realize that I’d never actually made one myself. So the recipe that follows is one I adapted from what I found online and sourced from friends (thanks Andy!). I must admit it turned our pretty well. This works well as both a Bloody Mary mix and marinade, though if you plan on having several of these as a bevy, you might want to add a little more tomato juice as it’s pretty intense.

Mix/Marinade/Dressing:

• 4 cups of tomato juice

• Juice of 2.5 lemons

• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

• ½ cup freshly grated horseradish (you can use a prepared horseradish as well, but it doesn’t really have that zing of fresh horseradish. When grating, make sure to use the finest grater and to go with the grain – it’s a bit of struggle otherwise)

• 2 teaspoons celery salt

• 1 clove of garlic minced

• 2 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper

• 1 teaspoon tobasco or other hot sauce

• 2 tablespoons mirin (Mirin is a Japanese sweet cooking wine - if you don’t have mirin, substitute sugar)

• 1 tablespoons capers

• ½ cup of vodka (in all honestly, I found the vodka doesn’t make a massive difference to the actual salad in terms of flavor, so you can just save it to drink with the leftover mix if you like)

Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher and let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours to let the ingredients marry. Trust me, it really makes a difference.

The Salad:

• 2 English cucumbers sliced on the diagonal

• 2-3 celery stalks sliced on the diagonal

• ½ a red onion, thinly sliced.

• Bloody Mary mix – strained.

Mix these together in a bowl or ziplock bag and add enough marinade to cover. Let it marinate at least overnight.

To compose the salad:

• 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and sliced into strips

• Handful of celery leaves

• Handful of Italian parsley leaves

• ¼ cup of large green olives, pitted and sliced lengthways

• 1 tablespoon of capers

Toss ingredients together and drizzle with some extra marinade. I served this with a pan seared cod (any white fleshed fish would work really well) which I also drizzled with a bit of the marinade - it was perfectly light and the acid in the salad complimented the fish really well.

So there you go. From a rooftop in Melbourne to a table in Brooklyn - it’s amazing where you can find a little feast for thought. Throughout our trip I encountered many such inspirations, which I will write about in upcoming entries. But for now, we are just happy to be home, back in the kitchen, and kicking back with a Bloody Mary.

See you all soon!

xx Annah