Taste of Tribeca Tips

This article first appeared in Tribeca Citizen on March 18, 2010. We appreciate being allowed to reprint this article.

In anticipation of Taste of Tribeca, the benefit for P.S. 234 and P.S. 150 on May 15 (tickets are on sale now via the website), I’m asking the neighborhood chefs who are participating in the event for cooking tips that mere culinary mortals might use at home. Here’s one from Rachel Thebault, owner and head confectioner at Tribeca Treats—who, it bears mentioning, has a cookbook, Sweet Chic, coming out in October, with a foreword by Isaac Mizrahi.)

When planning a dinner party, do you often skip a homemade dessert because it’s too time-consuming? You may not know it, but many desserts freeze remarkably well, so you can do most of the work one or two weeks in advance. Cookie dough is one of my favorite things to freeze, because you can make it all beforehand, portion it out, and then freeze it. (I use a small ice-cream scooper to form little balls of dough; after letting them freeze a bit on a tray—so they don’t stick—I stack them in an air-tight container. The key to freezing desserts is to make sure that whatever you freeze is wrapped as air-tight as possible—it keeps the flavors more fresh.) When it comes time to serve, pop the frozen dough straight in the oven. You’ll then have a plate of warm, fresh-baked cookies to offer your guests.

For something even more decadent, cheesecake also freezes really well. Spend a Sunday baking a cheesecake (or several mini ones), let it set in the refrigerator overnight, then wrap it and freeze it for a week or two. Let it thaw in the fridge one day before your party. Your guests will be very impressed. If you forget to plan ahead, of course, you can always visit your local bakery….

Tribeca Treats is at 94 Reade, between Church and West Broadway; 212-571-0500, tribecatreats.com.

Pepolino

On a snowy winter night, I maneuvered 6 friends into dinner at Pepolino. It's been a long-standing favorite of mine and I was thrilled to see the spinach souffle back on the menu. Think the word "luscious" can't apply to spinach? Think again. The dish of tomato confit that's served alongside bread is addicting. My friend from L.A. was thrilled with his Octopus and black-olive dish, but I'm loyal to the braised leek spaghetti (another under appreciated vegetable that's transformed here), served perfectly al dente. But there's one thing you simply must have: the sublime cheesecake. Cheesecake is even the wrong word for it--more like a ricotta tart--so delicate and ethereal. Ed Levine acknowledged them in his NY Times cheesecake roundup a couple of years back. All their desserts are terrific (was that why I invited 6 friends...so I could share several items at once?!).

Becomingachef.com Talks About Forge

When Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page write about a restaurant one needs to take notice. This week they wrote about a recent trip to Forge featuring some exciting desserts:

...But when it came time for dessert, we were sorry to find the restaurant so quiet: On this visit, we did want to stand up and hoot and holler a while for talented pastry chef Jenny McCoy (ex-Emeril's Delmonico), who retired her knife-and-fork doughnut dessert in favor of a new one, whose sugared and jelly-filled doughnut holes are very good all on their own, excellent with the accompanying lemon verbena creme anglaise, and extraordinary in concert with both the creme anglaise and the accompanying glass of plum-ginger soda...

Click here and scroll down to the July 29th entry to read the full review on Becomingachef.com.