Curry Chicken Sandwich

I’ve been enjoying my last few days of summer by doing a lot of relaxing. Think lazy mornings watching HIMYM in bed before eventually pouring myself some coffee and making brunch. Today, my boyfriend told me he would be joining me for lunch so I made something I’ve never made before. It turned out VERY well, and we intend to finish the leftovers tomorrow and make more as soon as possible. Feel free to take liberties with the seasonings and additions in this recipe!

Curry Chicken Sandwich

Ingredients:

Bread of your choice

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts

1 ½ cups plain yogurt (we use low fat)

2 ½ Tbs. Curry Powder

1 Avocado

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

Coriander

Cashews

To prepare the chicken salad, place the chicken breasts in a skillet and just cover with warm water. Bring the water to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Check that chicken is cooked through before removing from pan. Remove chicken and cool in fridge for at least 1 hour.

Heat curry powder in a small pan for about 2 minutes, to release fragrance.

In a separate bowl (or Tupperware container—less dishes) combine yogurt, curry powder and other seasonings of your choice. Once poached chicken cools, shred the chicken breasts and add to the bowl of curried yogurt. Toss in cashews for some added crunch, and don’t forget that you did not season the chicken when you poached it, so you may want to add extra salt and pepper to taste.

Toast your bread. Layer sliced avocado on one slice of bread, and the curry chicken salad on the other slice of bread. Put together, slice, and enjoy!

Keep leftover chicken salad in the fridge.

DiFara’s on Avenue J

DiFara’s Pizza on Avenue J serves, in my opinion, the best pizza in New York City. I know this is a bold statement, but there is something about the combination of Brooklyn residents, brave (and hungry) tourists and the very HOT hole in the wall where the pizza is made that combine so very well with the actual greatness of the pizza.

The pizza. Oh, the pizza. Dom (the man who owns and runs the place, and the only one with the recipe) uses three types of cheese. I know he uses mozzarella and parmagiano, but I’m not positive what the third is…The cheese goes on top of a delightful, slightly sweet tomato sauce. My friends and I get the plain, circular pizza but extra ingredients are available.

When the pizza comes out of the oven, it is bubbly, cheesy, fragrant. Just as pizza should be. But, at this moment, Dom takes it one step further. He drizzles olive oil from a dented old canister onto the pizza. He then roughly cuts fresh basil (as seen in the photo below) over the pizza and, lastly, drops a handful of grated parmagiano on top.

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is. To get to DiFara’s, take the Q train (Brooklyn bound) to Avenue J. Exit the station and walk right, to the intersection of Avenue J and 15th Street. The sign says DiFara’s opens at 6, but it actually opens at 7. If you want to eat by 7:30, I’d recommend getting in line by 6PM. There is very little seating in the actual space, so get the pizza to go, or spend your line-waiting time vulturing for one of the four tables…enjoy!

An Update

Hello, friends. Unfortunately I dropped off the face of the blog-earth a while back. This was not because I had stopped eating, enjoying life to the fullest, or even writing. It was more because I lost my camera cord. Anyway, I’ve found it now. I’m now living in Madison, WI in pursuit of an M.A. in Journalism (with some Socio -Political Branding research thrown in) and unsurprisingly, I already miss New York (and the food there) an insane amount. For those of you in New York, go eat this delicious food for me since I am now unable to! As always, I love your constructive criticism and your ideas, so keep them coming.

Lime Meltaways

*These cookies are delicious, though I’m going to spend some time trying to tweak the recipe in interesting ways. Look forward to twists on citrus meltaways. This is a (delicious) starting point. The original recipe–below–is from Martha Stewart.*

Makes about 10 dozen

Ingredients

* 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
* Grated zest of 2 limes
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
* 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lime zest, juice, and vanilla; beat until fluffy.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat on low speed until combined.
3. Between two 8-by-12-inch pieces of parchment paper, roll dough into two 1 1/4-inch-diameter logs. Chill at least 1 hour.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Place remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Remove parchment from logs; slice dough into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart.
5. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, place cookies in the sugar-filled bag; toss to coat. Bake or freeze remaining dough. Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

A Flavor-Obsessed Weekend

Hello, fellow foodies! This weekend was almost entirely based around food for me. With the intention to write about it, and photograph these incredibly flavor experiences, I brought my camera everywhere. However, it died early Friday night and I could not charge it until Sunday. So…

Friday night consisted of DiFara’s pizza on Avenue J and E. 15th Street in Brooklyn. Go there, immediately. Be prepared to wait up to two hours in line–don’t worry, it’s worth it. An old man named Dom makes the pizza, pretty much all by himself, and as soon as he pulls it from the oven and places it in the pizza box (much to the thrill of the starving, waiting customers) he roughly cuts a large amount of fresh basil over the top of the pizza and drizzles olive oil and REAL parm to top it off. This, my friends, is pizza heaven. We rushed home and enjoyed that pizza, two hours after putting our names in, in about five minutes.

Saturday morning was a delightful stop at Almondine, in Dumbo right next to the end of the Brooklyn Bridge (on the Brooklyn side.) One delightfully flaky and fresh almond croissant and a fresh squeezed orange juice sustained me just long enough to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. It was meant to be a photo op, but with the dead camera it turned out to be just a walk–albeit a gorgeous, scenic and famous walk.

Sunday, I finally charged my camera, just in time for the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market Food Truck Bazaare. That’s right–a scheduled gathering of award-winning NYC food trucks! I went, accompanied by my patient foodie friends (K and A) and we promptly divided up cash and line/ordering duties. All in all, and hours later, we ended up with:

Rickshaw Dumplings:

Pork and Chive Dumplings

Chicken and Thai Basil Dumplings with Peanut Satay Sauce

Chilled Sesame Chili Noodle Salad

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck:

A Salty Pimp–picture your childhood “chocolate shell” dipped cone from DQ. Now, under that, put dulce de leche and sea salt. Tasted like a delicious, chocolate-y pretzel.

The Belgian Slipwich–Two chocolate wafers, spread with nutella, encase vanilla softserve ice cream.

The Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich–Same as the Belgian Slipwich, but with Chocolate Chip cookies from the Treat Truck instead.

Calixico:

Black Bean, Pork, Carne Asada Tacos–definitely all delicious. Worth the insane wait? No, not really. Tasty, nonetheless.

In pursuit of flavor…

This blog will be dedicated to all things flavor-related. I love to cook, I love to eat and I love to drink. So expect a fair amount of recipes, mingled with cocktail and wine pairing tips and restaurant reviews. As a woman who has always loved food, living in New York City–a foodie’s paradise–is simply too inspiring not to write about. Comments, questions and recommendations are welcome–though this is not my first foray into the world of food, it is my first attempt at food-photography and food writing. I hope you enjoy it.