Take a Break from Kale. No, Really.

Kale is like that obnoxious cheerleader who got all the hot guys in high school.

Seriously, can we mix it up people?

Try this cool ancient grain salad instead. I think it has more staying power.

Snag the recipe here:

http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/May-2013/Recipe-of-the-Month-Nifty-Shades-of-Grain/

The Tale of the Great Fried Chicken Quest

One of the most fun stories I wrote this year centered on one chef's borderline-crazy obsession with making the perfect fried chicken.

Some 75 variations later, he discovered the ideal recipe. You have no idea how many chickens he "utilized" in the process.

I throw you a (chicken) bone here, along with the winning recipe:

http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/May-2013/Winner-Winner-Fried-Chicken-Dinner/

Peep This: Easter Recipe Revamp!

If you're like us, you just eat Peeps and chocolate on Easter, but some people have been making the same family recipes for generations.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but we thought it would be fun to see how chefs around the country are revamping Easter dishes in this piece for Wine Enthusiast.

http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/April-2013/Easter-Recipe-Revamp/

We threw in cool cocktail pairings for good measure, since you're probably spending the holiday with family. You're welcome.

How to Pair Wine with Herbs

No, this isn't a story about how herb is legal in several states. But cheers to that!

This piece for Wine Enthusiast Magazine delves into the plethora of plants Mother Nature has provided us...from basil and thyme to lemon verbena, adding spice and depth of flavor to cuisine for centuries. This Pairings story ponders the age-old question, how can we approach wine when we've got so many kick-ass flavors?

http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/Best-Of-Year-2012/A-Wine-Lovers-Guide-to-Herbs/

We talked to top chefs and their sommelier cohorts around North America about how to match wines to any herb-centric dish, and scored their secret recipes. Mission accomplished.

Perfect Pairing: Blue Crab Dip and Vouvray

Stealing things from restaurants, like salt and pepper shakers (you know who you are) is wrong, so we're borrowing a recipe instead.  Did we mention it's from one of the hottest restaurants in Baltimore, Wit & Wisdom?

This creamy crab dip makes for a perfect party snack and can be made in under 1 hour! So much for slaving in the kitchen. Oh, and we scored the perfect wine pairing to boot.

Read my Wine Enthusiast article here:

http://www.winemag.com/Wine-Enthusiast-Magazine/Best-Of-Year-2012/Maryland-Jumbo-Crap-Dip-Pairs-With-Vouvray-Sec/

Tasty, Tropical Turks & Caicos

 Sometimes a girl's got to get away. Who knew the Turks & Caicos is just a 3 hour jaunt from NYC?

 It's hot in the Turks & Caicos. One might consider bottled water, but we eschewed H2O for Rum Punch hydration. You may only have a small fire escape from which to enjoy it, but here's an easy recipe to make at home:

Rum Punch
1 cup Bacardi 151
1/2 cup Myer's dark rum
1/4 cup Malibu coconut rum
2 cups each orange and pineapple juices
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons grenadine syrup

Mix all ingredients together in a (hopefully tropical-looking) punch bowl. Pour over ice cubes in any type of glass. We went for plastic (pictured) since it's safer for drunken dancing on the beach. Serves 1 very thirsty individual but makes quite a few drinks.

Wondering what the local island specialty is in the Turks & Caicos? 

 Really, it's all about conch. You can have it fried, frittered, curried or made into chowder. You can take it as a shot, some say it's an aphrodisiac, but isn't the whole island kind of one? Eat that versatile conch with rice and plantain fries. YUM.

And while every hotel offers conch in some variation, you simply must go to Da Conch Shack. Sure, it's a bit out of the way (near the airport) but you'll be watching your conch get pulled from the turquoise sea with your toes in the sand. Check out all the conch shells below!

 If you've had too much punch, sober up with a locally made Turk's head lager. Cheers!

Trying to Convince Friends to Become Vegetarians...

is shockingly easy. When you trick them.

Mysteriously, since the vegetarian kick resumed last summer, several friends have become converts. How, you ask?

We're actually not sure but at a recent Sur La Table cooking class (strongly recommended), the menu was (shockingly) all vegetarian. And delicious, I might add. Not a single friend with carnivorous intentions was dismayed at the evening's dishes. (Maybe because we didn't have to do the cleaning up part?)


Just check out this vegetarian recipe for a Provençal-style tart. It's actually shockingly easy to make. Our off-dry Riesling pairing was a huge hit, too.


 (So much so our instructor kept talking about her famous lov-ahs. Wink, wink.)

Provençal Caramelized Onion, Gruyere and Olive Tart

Serves 4 as a light main course, 6-8 as an appetizer

1 sheet (9 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed (keep refrigerated until ready to use)

1 pound (about 4) Vidalia or yellow onions, cut into ¼-inch thick lengthwise slices  (about 4 cups sliced)

1 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teasp fresh rosemary leaves, plus extra tiny sprigs for garnishing

2 sprigs fresh thyme, plus more for serving

4 ounces Gruyere cheese, finely grated

6-8 kalamata or good black olives, pitted halved

Fleur de sel for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 400F Line an unrimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

To make the onion filling, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and butter and heat until butter foams. When foaming subsides, add the sliced onions and a pinch of fine sea salt, and toss to coat.

Add thyme sprigs and reduce heat to low. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until the onions are caramelized: they should be very soft and a deep golden brown, about 35 to 45 minutes. You may need to add a bit of water to prevent sticking.

While the filling cooks, roll the puff pastry on a lightly floured board to an 11-inch square. Lift it gently onto the prepared baking sheet, then prick the dough in several places with a fork (but not the rim). Refrigerate until ready to assemble the tart.

Once the onions are caramelized, remove the skillet from the heat, discard thyme sprigs and add the rosemary. Stir in the grated cheese and mix well to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper, then leave to cool until luke warm, at least 15 minutes.

Distribute the onion mixture evenly over the pastry and arrange olives evenly on top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until crust is golden on top and underneath al the way to the center (lift up to check.)

Transfer the tart to a cutting board, scatter with the extra rosemary sprigs and garnish with sprigs of thyme. Serve warm cut into squares.

Borgias-Inspired Libations: Machiavelli Manhattan?

Is anyone else obsessed with The Borgias?

For cocktail fans like us, we fully realize it's all about Mad Men in terms of drinks slammed per prime-time episode. But frankly, people were throwing them back in Pope Alexander VI's time, too.

Now it's obvious Manhattans were not all the rage during the Renaissance, but we could totally see our hero (Machiavelli, duh!) drinking this variation of our favorite Bourbon-based cocktail: The Prince.

The Prince

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
2 1/2 ounces Bourbon
Dash Angostura Bitters
1 orange twist, for garnish
Pinch of edible gold dust, add for dramatic effect

Elaborate velvet puffy sleeves are not a requirement to consume.

Sex and the City Cocktails: Wine Enthusiast

While it may be true that Sex and the City 2 is one of the worst movies of all time, it still was vaguely and vacuously amusing.

Despite the photoshopped-to-death gals galavanting inappropriately about Abu Dhabi, we will always appreciate the fact that the fab four put lady cocktail swilling on the map.

In honor of those Cosmo-sipping gals, winemag.com ran my cocktail piece on easy-to-make Sex and the City-inspired drinks made with Rosangel tequila (which is hibiscus-infused). Click on the image to enlarge.

Cheers!

Cute! Floral Cocktails

Mother's Day may be over and done with (phew...we barely remembered to send a card), but you and I both know that moms everywhere really prefer cocktails to flowers any day of the week.

That's why over at winemag.com, Wine Enthusiast's website, we decided to run two floral drink recipes that will be sure to win over mom--or anyone else--you need to impress, but would rather get tipsy.

Brussels Sprouts Recipe: Wine Enthusiast

Brussels sprouts: People love to hate them, but haute-y chefs are eager to redeem them--explaining why so many restaurants are serving the embattled sprouts these days.

We think the Brussels sprouts trend merits a recipe, and we've snagged one for Wine Enthusiast's new website, winemag.com. The recipe is a raw version with brown butter vinaigrette, from Circa59 in Palm Springs. Yum!

Click here to see the original recipe on Wine Enthusiast's website.

Tomatoes and Vermentino Wine Sound Divine

It's hot, you're starving---and you have no time to thow together a meal. Sound familiar?

Luckily for you, tomato season is in full swing. Click here to find your local greenmarket for fresh- off-the-vine veggies, including succulent tomatoes.

Whether you slice them up and layer them with rows of mozarella and basil, or throw together something slightly more complex, like a Tuscan Bread Salad (go here for a great recipe), they pair well with a refreshing white wine, like Villa Antinori Bianco 2008 (pictured) from Tuscany.

While light, this wine is medium bodied and quite aromatic. Made in Tuscany from a blend of five grapes (Trebbiano, Malvasia, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio), the Vermentino is a great accompaniement to a tomato-based dish.

According to foodandwine.com, Vermentino wines are "assertive and savory, with a salty, lemony edge. Though the grape grows throughout Italy, the Vermentinos of Tuscany and Sardinia generally have the most character and the most complexity."

We love all things with an edge, especially if they are lemony.

Cin cin!

The Pigeon Problem: A Tasty Vintage Solution

We love vintage recipes. And we seriously hate pigeons.

While reading http://www.vintagerecipes.net/, we discovered a delightful (if vaguely disturbing) solution to the pigeon problem from an unusual source, English Housewifry (1764), a cookbook by Elizabeth Moxon, who also crafted instructions that include "How to Dress Rabbets to look like Moor-Game".

Jugg'd Pigeons Recipe

Instructions
Take six or eight pigeons and truss them, season them with nutmeg, pepper and salt.

To make the Stuffing

Take the livers and shred them with beef-suet, bread-crumbs, parsley, sweet-marjoram, and two eggs, mix all together, then stuff your pigeons sowing them up at both ends, and put them into your jugg with the breast downwards, with half a pound of butter; stop up the jugg close with a cloth that no steam can get out, then set them in a pot of water to boil; they will take above two hours stewing; mind you keep your pot full of water, and boiling all the time; when they are enough clear from them the gravy, and take the fat clean off; put to your gravy a spoonful of cream, a little lemon-peel, an anchovy shred, a few mushrooms, and a little white wine, thicken it with a little flour and butter, then dish up your pigeons, and pour over them the sauce.

Garnish the dish with mushrooms and slices of lemon.
This is proper for a side dish.

Disclaimer: We at citycitybangbangny would never attempt to touch a pigeon, never mind "jugg" one. Nonetheless, it does pose an interesting solution to our city's plague of winged rats.

The Perfect Mint Julep

They say that nobody's perfect. But you can make the perfect mint julep to sip this summer--

no frilly hats required.

The Perfect Mint Julep

Ingredients:

4 cups bourbon
2 bunches fresh mint

1 cup distilled water

1 cup powdered sugar

Recipe:

Muddle mint leaves, powdered sugar, and water in a collins glass. Fill the glass with shaved or crushed ice and add bourbon. Top with more ice and garnish with a mint sprig. Serve with a straw.

Ask a Bartender: Entwine's Mixologist Makes Us a Drink

Image from Eater.com

We were blown away by the herbal cocktails at Entwine, the antiquey yet brand-spanking-new, bi-level boite in the Village (765 Washington Street, near W 12th; 212.727.8765), and wondered how we might try to mix those drinks at home. (Though it was awfully nice to sip drinks in their quaint, backyard garden).

Enter Duane Fernandez Jr, the bar's bubbly mixologist (below).

You may recognize Duane from the 5th annual 42Below Cocktail World Cup (at the Bowery Hotel last July), where he represented the Soho Grand, competing against NYC cocktail giants, like Sammy Ross and Lisa Hare.

This guy really knows how to mix it up!

So we asked him to score us one of Entwine's secret, herbalicious recipes, the Rosemary Fresca. Here's how to make it:

Rosemary Fresca:

2 oz silver tequila

1oz elderflower

Rosemary syrup

Fresh lime juice

Topped with proseco

Garnished with an rosemary stem

Not sure how to concoct a rosemary syrup in your own kitchen? Here's a simple recipe from Food & Wine: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/rosemary-syrup.

If you're looking for a few good drinks, contact DFJ at Duaneandcocktails@yahoo.com.

Blue Cheese Stuffed Dates Recipe

Need a party snack? This bacon wrapped, blue cheese stuffed date recipe will knock their socks off. Which is a good thing, especially if your party involves Twister. And best of all, it's super easy to prepare.

1 pckg bacon (we like a very salty version, skip the Maple)

1 container dates

1 chunk extra sharp blue cheese

toothpicks if desired (soaked in water)

balsamic if desired

Pit the dates and cut in half. Stuff with blue cheese. Wrap each half in bacon. Stick with water-soaked toothpick, if you don't like licking bacon grease off of fingertips. Lay on a baking tray covered in aluminum foil. Drizzle with a little bit of aged balsamic. Cook in a 375 degree oven for 7 minutes, or until bacon is done.

Drain on paper towels, and serve immediately.

Warm Asparagus Salad with Caramelized Onions

Asparagus is in season, and we know what to do with it. Here's an easy recipe for a warm asparagus salad with bacon and caramelized onions. With just 5 ingredients, this recipe is a breeze to throw together for a barbecue or impromptu picnic. And of course, adding the bacon is an instant crowd pleaser.

Ingredients:

3 bundles asparagus, chopped into 4 equal, bite-sized pieces (keep the tips but discard the ends)

2 lemons

6 strips bacon

1 small sweet onion

pinch brown sugar

Directions:

In a large skillet, cook bacon. Remove bacon, drain on paper towels. Reserve bacon drippings in pan. Chop onion and cook in pan with bacon drippings. Sprinkle a pinch of brown sugar to caramelize. Once onions begin to shrink, add chopped asparagus. Cover if desired.

Check on asparagus after 6 minutes. Asparagus should be al dente. Crumble and stir in Bacon.

Remove from heat. Squeeze lemon over skillet, toss, and serve immediately.