The New York Times - USA (2020-07-22)

THE NEW YORK TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020 N D3

Front Burner

FLORENCE FABRICANT

A scoop of Eclipse blackberry-
tarragon ice cream devised by the
chef Greg Baxtrom comes topped

with support for his restaurant
Olmsted’s food bank, active in
Brooklyn. Toasted almond thyme
ice cream by Nicole Krasinski, an
owner and the pastry chef at
State Bird Provisions in San
Francisco, benefits Black Earth
Farms, a Black and Indigenous
farming collective in the East Bay
of San Francisco. These are just
two of the options from Eclipse, a

company that is collaborating on
flavors with chefs, who designate
charities that will receive the
proceeds. Though there’s choco-
late and vanilla, most of the fla-
vors in the “chef series” are un-
usual. In fact, calling any of these
ice creams, despite their rich
mouth feel and texture, is some-
thing of a misnomer since they’re

entirely plant-based, using ingre-
dients like cassava and corn to
deliver the creaminess. The com-
pany, which began selling its
confections late last year, has now
made them available nationwide:
Eclipse, regular flavors, $11.99 a
pint (six-pint minimum); Chef
Series flavors, $17.99 a pint:
eclipsefoods.com.

TO DELIGHT

Vegan Ice Creams

With a Charitable Twist

Smorgasburg has reopened in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but for
now, the chance to graze from a
buffet of food vendors is off the
table. Smorg to Go only allows
preordering through its new
website for takeout from a weekly
rotating list of 10 vendors. There

are three new ones in the starting

lineup: #Gogi for Korean pork

barbecue; Mai Bpen Rai, a Thai

papaya salad stand; and the

Whole Bowl, a Portland, Ore.,

transplant serving rice and beans.

They join stalwarts like Berg’s

Pastrami, Lobsterdamus and

Mao’s Bao. Next week will wel-

come Groundlings Pizza, Ring

Ding Bar and Yakitori Tatsu,

among others. There is no out-

door seating. Through its website,

Smorg to Go is raising funds for

Rethink, which fights food insecu-

rity in many neighborhoods:

Smorg to Go, Williamsburg, daily

11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., 51 North Sixth

Street (Kent Avenue), Williams-

burg, Brooklyn, smorgtogo.com.

TO ORDER

Changes Accompany

Smorgasburg’s Return

Cocktails on tap? From your

fridge? St. Agrestis, the Brooklyn

spirits company specializing in

Italian-style aperitivos and diges-

tivos, has introduced Negronis in

a box, 1.75 liters (almost two

quarts) of premixed cocktail. Like

St. Agrestis’s bottled Negroni, the

drink consists of the company’s

Inferno Bitter spirit, their own

vermouth and Greenhook Gin-

smiths Gin for a properly complex

and forceful drink (24 percent

alcohol). A splash of water or

soda won’t hurt; it’s not included

so you can add your own. Keep

the box in the refrigerator, ready

to dispense: St. Agrestis Negroni

Bag-in-Box, $59.99, stagrestis.com.

TO SIP

Move Over Boxed Wine;

Here’s Negroni in a Box

Spices like cinnamon and car-

damom bring alluring fragrance

to all sorts of Scandinavian foods,

most notably baked goods like a

classic swirled bun to pair with

your morning coffee. The soft,

slightly chewy and well-bur-

nished breakfast pastries —

showered with pearl sugar, from

the chef Emma Bengtsson (bot-

tom) at Aquavit — are heavenly

scented with cardamom, too. And

now they’re available retail for

the first time: Aquavit Cinnamon

Buns, $5 each for takeout or deliv-

ery (two-mile radius); Aquavit, 65

East 55th Street, 212-307-7311,

aquavit.org.

TO SAVOR

Tempting Sticky Buns

Are Available for Takeout

“The Catskills Farm to Table

Cookbook,” a seasonal, brightly

photographed survey of the area’s

foods and farms, hews closely to

what is produced in the region’s

five counties in southern New

York State. Spring brings nettles,

ramps, fiddleheads, garlic scapes,

pea pods and even milkweed buds

to compelling recipes, like scal-

loped potatoes in a stinging nettle

sauce. Summer adds corn, toma-

toes and zucchini; fall offers

squash and apples; and in winter

there are roots and cabbage.

Meats, mainly pork, show up from

time to time, and desserts amount

mostly to pies, crisps and crum-

bles. Some ingredients are not

listed in order of use, but the

recipes work, though the cacio e

pepe with greens is better if the

greens are chopped first. For the

two upside-down apple desserts, a

cake and a pie, the author never

nods to tarte Tatin, the obvious

antecedent, nor does she use the

more common name, Dutch ba-

bies, for the puff pancake: “The

Catskills Farm to Table Cookbook”

by Courtney Wade (Hatherleigh

Press, $20).

TO CONSULT

Celebrate the Catskills

In Your Kitchen

Souvla, a chain of casual Greek

restaurants in San Francisco,

created a Greek yogurt-based

version of ranch dressing six

years ago, calling it Granch. The

company even trademarked it.

Now the seasoning it depends on

is being packaged and sold na-

tionwide by Williams Sonoma.

The mixture of buttermilk pow-

der, herbs and spices, along with

your lemon juice and salt, is

designed to transform plain

Greek yogurt into a tangy dress-

ing. You might want to add less

salt than they suggest, especially

if you’re tossing a Greek salad

with olives and feta. The dressing

works as a topping for lamb

burgers, a marinade for chicken

or a garnish for cold cucumber

soup. It comes in a little metal

mug — a miniaturized version of

an old-fashioned Greek wine

carafe: Granch Seasoning, $16.95

for 2.3 ounces in a cute metal mug,

williams-sonoma.com.

TO SEASON

Ranch Dressing,

But Make It Greek

HEIDI’S BRIDGE (VEGAN ICE CREAM); BERG’S PASTRAMI

VIA SMORGASBURG (SMORGASBURG); KARL BISCHOFF

(NEGRONI); EMON HASSAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

(BUNS); COURTNEY WADE (BOOK); WILLIAMS SONOMA

(GRANCH)

The next time you get delivery or takeout,
don’t throw away those condiments. Use
them in your cooking.
This recipe was inspired by a chef who,
according to his fiancée, mixes together
takeout condiments — hoisin sauce, nuoc
cham, sambal oelek, to name a few — and
rubs it on pork or chicken for something
that becomes deliciously savory, sweet and
spicy.
In that same vein, you could also save
those wasabi packets from your Japanese
takeout, and whisk them into a tahini
dressing to cover a celery-chicken salad.
The combination of wasabi and celery
isn’t all that new: It’s similar to a cold appe-
tizer found in Taiwanese-Chinese cuisine,
simply called hot mustard celery salad. In
the dish’s usual preparation, blanched cel-
ery ribs are peeled or have the tough
strings pulled out, and are then tossed with
a dressing made with hot mustard powder.
(The wasabi you often get from Japanese
takeout has the same tingly flavor profile
as hot mustard powder.)
Think of this dish as a less chunky take
on a traditional chicken salad, and one
that’s just as quick and (probably) more
delicious. The most time-consuming part is
cutting the celery into matchsticks and
tearing the chicken into small pieces,
which allows more of both to be coated.
The addition of lime juice pulls this away
from your standard tahini dressing: It
lends a subtle sweetness while balancing
the bitter wasabi. And a note on that:
Wasabi’s flavor is strongest when the
dressing is first made. The nose-tingling
spiciness sort of disappears with time, so
add more for a stronger flavor.
Make the recipe as it is, but don’t stop
there. Much like a jar of the best marinara
sauce, this dressing has endless possibili-
ties. Try it with tofu and celery. Use it on an
egg salad or an herby pasta salad — or
even a pepper-Jack-heavy romaine salad.
Or just tuck it into a soft potato roll, and en-
joy it at a socially distanced hang.

Chicken Salad That Comes With a Kick

A tahini-wasabi dressing

finishes this any-occasion dish.

By SUE LI

BRYAN GARDNER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES. FOOD STYLIST: BARRETT WASHBURNE.

TIME: 1 HOUR

YIELD: 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

2 small boneless, skinless chicken

breasts (about 1 pound total)

Kosher salt

¼ cup fresh lime juice, plus more lime

wedges, for serving (3 to 4 limes)

¼ cup tahini

2 tablespoons wasabi paste

2 garlic cloves, grated

½ teaspoon granulated sugar

8 to 10 celery ribs, plus ½ cup celery

leaves

Sesame seeds, for serving

1. In a medium pot, cover chicken breasts with
   about 2 inches of water, and season with 2
   tablespoons kosher salt. Bring to a boil over
   high heat, then simmer on low until the chicken
   is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Once the
   chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and
   let cool.


2. While the chicken cools, make the dressing:
   In a medium bowl, whisk together lime juice,
   tahini, wasabi paste, garlic, sugar and ¼ cup
   water until smooth. Season to taste with salt.


3. Cut celery into 2-inch segments, then cut
   segments lengthwise into matchsticks and
   place in a large bowl.


4. Using two forks or hands, shred the chicken
   into bite-size pieces and transfer to the bowl
   with the celery.


5. Pour dressing over the chicken and celery
   and toss to coat. Top with celery leaves and
   sesame seeds, and serve with lime wedges.

CHICKEN AND CELERY SALAD

WITH WASABI-TAHINI DRESSING

An article on July 8 about the scarcity of Black-

owned restaurants in the Twin Cities, misstated

the racial heritage of Dawn Drouillard, a co-

owner of Fabulous Catering. She is partly of

Anishinaabe heritage, and a Grand Portage

tribal descendant.

CORRECTION