Undomesticated Brooklyn

In case you haven't heard the news, I'm repeating it here. Undomesticated Me is going to have a weekly column on Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn, a must-read Brooklyn blog created by Louise Crawford. Look for my Undomesticated Brooklyn column on Louise's site on Tuesdays.

This week I'm going to make it easy for you lazy readers by duplicating the column here (but don't let this become a habit):

I haven’t yet set a date for my first-ever dinner party, but I’ve already enlisted a distinguished list of guinea pigs to get me ready for the big event. My new game plan is to invite one guest over for dinner each week to help me hone my skills. I’ve also begun soliciting advice from Brooklyn-based culinary mavens. First up is Giulia Melucci, author of the fabulous foodie memoir, “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti.”

After reading her book, which chronicles her romantic and culinary adventures, I felt as if I already knew Giulia. So I did what any reasonable person would do. I stalked her on Facebook. Giulia was nice enough to reply to my message and to accept my dinner invitation. We had a wonderful meal at Fonda, the upscale Mexican place on 7th Avenue (between 14th and 15th).

Since our first date was a success (the delicious margaritas didn’t hurt), I was so bold as to suggest a 2nd rendezvous. Last Thursday night, we had dinner at Provini, the newish Northern Italian Trattoria on 13th Street and 8th Avenue.

It felt a bit like a private party since I knew almost everyone in the cozy restaurant. In addition to the fellow P.S. 107 parents who congregated by the bar after the PTA meeting, one of my neighbors was celebrating her 40th birthday with a group of friends in the corner booth.

I introduced Giulia to everyone as “my new author friend who I met on Facebook.” As I gushed about her terrific book, Giulia kindly offered to go to her car and get some copies. The birthday girl was thrilled when Giulia returned and signed a copy of the book for her. Giulia and I enjoyed our prosecco and drooled over a selection of appetizers, including grilled calamari and Malfatti. A perfect Brooklyn evening.

As someone who has thrown countless dinner parties, Giulia is just the person to give me advice. So I grilled her with questions:

Undomesticated Brooklyn: What makes a dinner party?

Giulia Melucci: Good and abundant food, of course. But what’s most important is appreciative guests who are open to talking to everyone and keeping up a lively spirit.

UB: Describe the best dinner party you ever hosted.

GM: I had a lot of great ones when I was testing recipes for “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti.” In fact, I had a dinner party every night with just about every friend I ever had.

I remember enjoying the September “seder” I made for a bunch of my old Harper’s Magazine colleagues. I paired brisket and matzoh ball soup with teriyaki pork roast and Bok Choy. A strange Asiatic-Semitic amalgam, but all of it was delicious and the table was alive with office gossip and political discussion that I could drop in and out of while I ran from table to kitchen.

As hostess, you can pick up the vibe, but you’re only feeding it, not creating it. I like that.

UB: What is the most important piece of advice to keep in mind when prepping for a dinner party?

GM: If you show generosity in what you serve, you’ve done all you need to do. The food need not be perfect, but it should show a spirit of giving that will set the tone for your guests. You can’t make people have a good time—that they have to do on their own, you’ll be busy—but you can facilitate good feelings by offering the abundance of your own heart in the food and drink you put out.

UB: Any warnings I should heed?

GM: Try not to do anything that will take extensive work in the kitchen while the guests are there. No risottos, etc. I like roast meats and vegetables that you can just chuck in the oven, then you’ll have a few minutes to visit with your guests. Or stews that cook in a pot for hours and are ready to go whenever you feel like ringing the dinner bell. There is no peril inherent in entertaining, so I will give no warnings.

Julia Child said “make no apologies,” if you think something isn’t quite right, no need to talk about it, your guests will probably not notice. That’s probably good advice, but I don’t heed it.

UB: Any recommendations about what I should serve?

GM: I believe in making it easy on yourself and keeping it simple. I love roast pork, or roast fish, with sautéed vegetables or roasted vegetables. The dinner party menus in my book are great, easy, and ready to go. Nigella Lawson’s cod wrapped in prosciutto can be prepped earlier in the day and popped into the oven twenty minutes before you want to serve it. That on a bed of lentils with some chopped parsley adorning it looks so professional and is so tasty. Follow that with a salad and bread (Have lots of bread so people can stuff themselves if you somehow didn’t make enough, which would never happen, of course) a lovely dessert (bought from a bakery is perfectly acceptable) and you have all the elements of a great meal.

UB: Will you come to my dinner party?

GM: I never thought you’d ask!

Dinner Party Plans

And the winner is...dinner party. The people have voted (19 for Dinner Party; 6 for Housewarming Party; 6 for Learn to Knit; 2 for Learn to Sew). Who am I to refuse? I'm flattered that you have faith in me. Or maybe you just want to see if I can survive the challenge.

The first thing I need to do is set a date -- not too soon because I won't be prepared and not too far off because then I'll have too much time to fret about the daunting task ahead.

Second, I must draw up a guest list. It's going to be challenging finding an interesting and compatible group who is free on the same night.

Third, I will draft a menu. My mom suggested that I keep the dinner party simple, including several dishes I can make in advance.

Avo will be in charge of pre-dinner cocktails and I can certainly pick up some tasty cheese and crackers from the co-op. But what then?

I have so many questions to answer: How many courses will there be? Will I prepare dishes I've made before or something entirely new? Most importantly, do we have enough chairs to seat everyone?

In the coming weeks, I plan to work out these and other details. I'm also excited to survey some local dinner party experts and solicit their advice. First up is Giulia Melucci, the Brooklyn-based author of the appetizing memoir "I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti," which was published to much acclaim last year. Look for Giulia's dinner party tips next week.

Gourmet Me

I'm beginning to think I can no longer in good faith call myself "undomesticated." I'm still not the world's best cook, but I now know how to do much more than boil water and toast bread.

As promised, inspired by Giulia Melucci, on Friday night, I prepared Salmon with Lemon-Tarragon Butter and French Lentil Stew.

Melucci includes both of the recipes in her wonderful book, "I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti," (p. 81) but I'm posting them here just for you:

Salmon with Lemon-Tarragon Butter
(Adapted from epicurious.com)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
juice and zest of 1 large lemon
freshly ground pepper
2 salmon fillets
Salt
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, minced

In a small saucepan over low eat, melt butter with lemon juice and zest, remove from heat.

Place salmon skin side down on a broiler pan. Brush with half the butter mixture, season with salt and pepper. Broil until just cooked through, about 20 minutes (there is no need to turn).

Transfer to plates. Add tarragon to remaining lemon butter. Spoon over salmon and serve over lentils.

French Lentil Stew
(Adapted from Nigella Lawson, The New York Times)

1 shallot
1 clove garlic
1/2 stalk celery
1/2 carrot, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup French lentils
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Finely chop the shallot, garlic, celery, and carrot. It's easiest to do them all together in a food processor if you have one. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the vegetables and cook until they have softened (about 5 minutes), then add 3 cups of water, lentils, thyme, bay leaf, and salt. Bring to a steady simmer, then lower heat. Allow the lentils to cook for 20 to 26 minutes. When they are tender and have absorbed most of the water, they are ready to serve; if they are still a little tough, add more water and continue to cook until softened.

It was a lot of fun for me to buy French lentils. Anything French sounds fancy and I felt like a culinary snob seeking out the French lentils rather than the plain old boring American ones.

The lentils took a while to soften and I did end up adding more water. I realized too late that I should have waited longer to start making the salmon, which was ready much faster than the lentil stew.

I also should have bought bigger fillets of salmon. The salmon was delicious, but there was much too little of it -- especially once Ruby joined us for dinner.

In general, I can only handle cooking one dish a night, so this was a big treat for Avo to have a balanced meal for once.

"This is your best dinner yet!" Avo declared.

Paired with a glass of white wine, it was all very sophisticated.

We even had leftover lentils for lunch on Saturday (served over brown rice, it was a satisfying meal).

It doesn't get much more domesticated than that.

I Loved, I Lost, I Blogged

After reading I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, I was compelled to write a fan letter to author Giulia Melucci.

Yes, the header was "I Loved, I Lost, I E-mailed."

"Dear Giulia," I wrote. "Just wanted to write to let you know that I just finished your book and I feel as if I devoured a delicious meal!"

To be honest, actually, I felt as if I wanted to eat a delicious meal -- prepared by Giulia herself.

I could relate to Melucci on so many levels. We're around the same age and we both worked in magazine publicity before eventually writing a memoir. We both dated a string of losers (though I went on to find Avo). We both live in Brooklyn. But mostly, I wanted to be her best friend because I love the dress she's wearing in her author photo.

Oh, and did I mention that she's a terrifically funny and perceptive writer?

And unlike me, she is also naturally talented in the kitchen.

Throughout the book, Melucci cleverly interweaves recipes with her romantic interludes and various heartaches.

Reading her book inspired me to continue my efforts to learn to cook. I only wish she had written it years ago when I was a single gal subsisting on greasy takeout. She makes cooking seem easy -- and fun!

Those who don't cook think it's too much trouble, especially if it's just for one. If there is anything I want to convince the world of, it is that this is not the case: Cooking is impossibly easy. Food that is prepared simply from a few fresh ingredients is the food I like best.

Last night, I tried out:

Giulia Melucci's Orzo with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

1/2 cup orzo
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes (a mix of red and yellow if the latter are available), halved
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the orzo (remember that orzo cooks quicker than regular pasts, so check it earlier than you normally would, 6 minutes should do the trick). Drain the pasta and add the oil. Once it is cooled, stir in the tomatoes, basil, pine nuts, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.

Early September surely must be the best time to prepare this recipe. The mix of red and yellow cherry tomatoes I bought at the co-op were so ripe they were about to burst.

But, once again, I made that same classic beginner's mistake of not checking to see if I had all of the ingredients before proceeding with a recipe. After the orzo was ready, I realized we had no pine nuts in the house. I phoned Avo on his way home from work, but our local gourmet food shop had just closed (at 9 p.m.), so we had to do without.

Then I dispatched Avo to the back garden with a flash light to pick the fresh basil. It was worth the effort. The basil was looking (and tasting) fresher than ever.

Even without the pine nuts, the dish was a taste sensation.

"Nice! Very nice indeed!" Avo declared after his first bite.

"The fresh tomatoes and basil helps," I said.

"Featuring the flavors of summer," said Avo.

Thanks for dinner, Giulia.

Tonight, I'm going to try your Salmon with Lemon-Tarragon Butter over French Lentil Stew. I'll let you know how it goes.