It’s Pink… Three!

Strawberry Shortcake is a sure way to get me to pucker up… and I have a feeling I’m not the only girl who sees the fluffy, creamy pink poof and leaves her morals at the door. The stuff works better on me than date rape drugs. I like it the old fashioned way, with sweet butter biscuits; here’s a quick recipe!

1 pint fresh strawberries

1/3 cup plus 2 tbsps sugar

Whipping cream

Vanilla

1 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter

1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.Wash and slice strawberries. Mix them in a bowl with 1/3 cup sugar. Set aside.

2.Whip the cream, adding a drop of vanilla and 1 tbsp sugar. Put in fridge.

3.Mix the flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.

4.Cut and mash the butter into the flour mixture with a fork until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. Or pulse several times in a food processor.

5.Combine the cream and vanilla in a small bowl.

6.Make a hole in the center of the flour and pour the cream mixture into it. Mix until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined.

7.Gently knead by hand five or six times to create a loose ball.

8. Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF.

9.Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment and pat it into a small square, about an inch tall. Slip the parchment onto a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.

10.Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 4 squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet.

11.Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

12.Let cool. Slice in half. On the bottom half, dollop strawberries and cover with cream. Position biscuit top at a slight, flirty tilt.

This makes just 4—you don’t want to get too full!

It’s Pink, too…

If you are taking your guy or gal to Madison Square Garden for any Valentines Day treat (which would be the Keith Urban/Carrie Underwood show on February 13th, Matchbox Twenty on February 14th, The Harlem Globetrotters on February 15th, or the Rangers game on the 16th) and feel like you’re not doing something romantic enough, be sure to make a point of trekking to the upper level for the fantastic roast beef sandwich at Primehouse …see, it’s pink meat, so you can count it as a Valentines Day delicacy.

Everyone will be jealous as you present it to your date when you return to your seats.

NB: the Roast Beef Sammy here has a devout following of fans; it’s more reliable at delivering than some of the spectacles that go down in the arena.

It’s Pink…

For a very red and pink and white dinner, consider taking your date to Milos. The Grecian estiatorio displays your dinner selection on a bed of ice, and you can literally point to what fish you’d like to eat. Last time I went, I split a pink snapper, imported straight from Greece that afternoon. I got to thinking that it’d be a good Valentines Day place for those who what to do something special, without it being overly sappy-romantic.

The space is white and airy, and each table is housed below an umbrella, setting a private dining mood. Don’t miss the tomato salad (it’s red!), complete with tomatoes flown in from a Canadian greenhouse.

Organic beet salad also looked like a sweet option, and it’s in the right color category, too.

Desserts tend to be browns and tans, but the super sweet flavor of Greek treats will make up for it: baklava, galaktoboureko, and karidopita are all homemade, and will leave your date licking his/her lips.

Stone Crab Claws

Recently in Naples, Florida, I had the pleasure of a complete lunch of stone crab claws. I adore crabs of every make—from soft shell to king to imitation you find in California Rolls. But the stone crabs were truly a treat. It was my first time eating them, and so I learned a little about the fishery of the delicacies. As a crustacean almost extinct in the 1960s, a law was passed that stated that fisherman could only remove one claw from the crabs while harvesting them for food. The crabs tend to hang out near reefs and oyster beds and can crack an oyster shell with their fierce claws. If they are caught, their claw for the taking must measure to at least 2.75 inches, hence only ever seeing monstrous claws at a meal of stone crabs. The fisherman take only one claw because the crabs can exist with just their remaining chelae for a duration while they regenerate the one taken captive. Overall, a mindful history that ends in a delicious, simple meal.

Switching to the Spicy Salmon

When, a few weeks ago, all of this mercury-in-the-tuna news gained a swell of momentum, I had mixed feelings. It seems like, these days, everything has a warning label on it. Don’t eat too many carbs; don’t eat so much red meat. Canned tuna has long been questionable, but until last week, the general public didn’t lump spicy tuna rolls into that category.

Mercury is a heavy metal in the composition of rocks and soil. It enters the environment mostly from coal-burning power plant and waste incinerator emissions. Fluorescent lights and some thermometers also contain mercury that gets into the environment when disposed. The dangerous metal trickles into our bodies of water where it is converted into a more toxic form by certain bacteria.

Its presence is so strong in tuna because tuna is a long living, predatory fish, so there’s time for the mercury to accumulate. It’s high in swordfish, too.

I was pretty bummed out by this whole thing: we’ve shot the environment to hell so now tekkadon is unsafe. I eat a lot of sushi; I really like it. And, while my taste can be discriminating, I have been known to enjoy an afternoon spicy tuna roll from the grocery without concern of freshness or flash-frozenness. And now there’s this news that it doesn’t even matter where you get your fix.

The Times said that eating six or less pieces of tuna a week would keep us from glowing in the dark. The day that article came out, I had planned a sushi dinner with a buddy of mine. Of course, we still went (to our favorite 50% off every roll dive), but didn’t get any rosy red pieces of nigiri.

We had to explore the menu a bit more, and I realized that it really wasn’t as bad as I’d made it out to be. There are many other types of fish, and they really are tasty—even made spicy. Instead of the spicy crunchy tuna roll, I opted for salmon and ended up liking it more. I went for an Alaska roll as well: salmon, avocado, and cucumber: so refreshing!

I am trying to think of this fishy hiccup as a forced way of expanding my Japanese restaurant order: a means of keeping my cool about it.

TasteBook

A friend of a friend just turned me on to  TasteBook.com. This fantastic concept and website helps people assemble their recipes into a lovely, bound booklet. Forget those magazine tear-outs and forgotten dinner party swaps, Taste Book organizes your recipes into a cohesive, customized book. You can add your own photos or choose from their fresh collection. If you’re worried about not having enough recipes of your own but have a big collection of go-to recipes that you keep snipping from Bon Appétit and Gourmet, you’re in luck. Taste Book is partnered with Epicurious.com, the online presence of those magazines, and you’ll be able to insert the recipes into your book directly.

It makes a great gift or simply a great addition to your kitchen.

Sunset Calamari

If you’re hungry and in no-mans-land between 4p and 5:30p, duck into The Smith on Third Avenue near Astor Place. The place has a bistro-esque aesthetic to it with its high booths and shiny tiling. It’s brought to us by the folks behind Jane, on Houston St, and Neptune Room, on the Upper West Side.

At this in between hour, The Smith offers up a lovely little “sunset menu” at the bar. You can nibble on a few tasty items that will tide you over until dinner. A week ago, a friend and I treated ourselves to fried calamari, Brooklyn style, meaning with a thick spicy sauce slathered on top. The $8 portion was enough to share, and, partnered with Bloody Marys, it was the ideal solace in the midst of a gray day.

There were other tempting options, like string bean salad with ricotta salata and freshly made hot potato chips with gorgonzola fondue drizzled on top.