Borscht, Black Bread, and Ginger Apple Cake

Plus: Back to Bacetti, Almond Cake, and Instagram Live.

Ben Mims, Nik Sharma, and Nik’s husband Michael gather around for borscht.

Hey everyone,

I’m starting to gear up for a big trip to New York. Headed that way for a wedding in Poughkeepsie, then our big book launch on October 4th. We’re looking to do a signing at The Drama Book Shop: more info about that soon. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy of Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway, now’s the time to do it!

And if you’d like to win a copy, I’m going live with my co-author Gideon Glick tomorrow on Instagram:

I’ll be making Rent-il Soup (with Seasonings of Love) and Gideon will be asking Broadway trivia questions. The winners will received signed copies in the mail! Should be a blast. So give us a follow on Instagram and join us at 12 PST / 3 PM.

Now, as for that picture you see at the top of this post, I cooked for two food world luminaries last night: Ben Mims (LA Times cooking columnist) and Nik Sharma (author of Season and The Flavor Equation), plus Nik’s husband Michael. I knew I had to dress to impress, so I cooked up a storm from The Kachka Cookbook — probably my favorite cookbook of the last decade.

I started with the smoked trout dip with pickled mustard seeds (served with infused vodkas, strawberry and tarragon, also from the Kachka book):

The dip is essentially flaked smoked trout mixed with creme fraiche, Dijon mustard, chopped cucumbers, apples, dill, scallions, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The pickled mustard seeds are optional but boy do they make a difference: they add acidity, a little heat, and a surprising pop. Don’t skip ‘em!

For the main event, I made the short rib borscht from the Kachka book which I’ve made once before to great acclaim. It’s a big process (I may do a TikTok of it later this week), but so worthwhile.

The book says to serve it with Russian Black Bread and since I couldn’t find any in the store, I decided to make it from scratch using King Arthur Flour’s recipe.

It’s a delightfully simple recipe featuring rye flour, molasses, yeast, and a score of surprising ingredients including black cocoa powder (I used Valhrona) and espresso powder, plus fennel seeds. The resulting bread has so much depth-of-flavor, it could be a meal within itself. I served it with lots of salted butter.

For dessert, I made a lovely ginger apple upside-down cake from the new cookbook Six California Kitchens.

The cake is a cinch to make: just some melted butter, brown sugar, sliced apples, and then a batter made with more butter, sugar, molasses, and buttermilk. But it’s a dazzler and exceptional served with unsweetened, hand-whipped cream.

So that was that dinner!

On Friday, I cooked another dinner for my pals Ryan, Jonathan, Kevin, and Conor for Ryan’s birthday (a belated celebration). I made a baked ziti (TikTok forthcoming) and for dessert, Amanda Hesser’s legendary almond cake.

I first discovered this cake when I read Amanda’s book Cooking for Mr. Latte over a decade ago (it’s a terrific read) and I’ve been making it ever since. It came to mind when Amanda wrote a surprisingly confessional post on her Instagram last week — an update to her Mr. Latte story, and one that left a lot of people impressed by her candor, including me.

What else?

I went back to Bacetti in Echo Park on Saturday night with my pal Marcos. Everything was delish, but the focaccia still reigns supreme… especially now that they serve it with honey butter.

And the owner, who recognized me from my Insta (!), gifted us this dish of Roman-style gnocchi coated with cheese and broiled:

It was all excellent — too excellent! I need to calm down with the eating after this weekend.

Now for some links!

• Dying to try this clam pizza when I go to NY (NYT);

• This wonderful mini documentary by Ben Proudfoot about Sally Schmitt, founder of The French Laundry, is what inspired me to buy Six California Kitchens… thanks to Craig’s dad, Steve, for encouraging me to watch it (NYT);

• How Owamni Became The Best New Restaurant in The United States (The New Yorker);

• Meera Sodha’s recipe for tamarind tofu with noodles, herbs, and pickles (The Guardian).

That’s all for today!

Until next time….

Your pal,

Adam