Fire Up That Grill!

Plus: Another Apple Pie, Burrata and Citrus, and Lunch at Lodi.

Hey everyone,

Spring is in the air — we saw pink trees in Prospect Park this weekend — so I took it upon myself to honor the occasion by buying a brand new Weber Grill for our courtyard. This is a big deal for me because grilling has been my white whale, the cooking technique that I know the least about, mostly because I never had a grill to call my own. (We shared one with neighbors in L.A. and I rarely used it.)

So yesterday, to break it in, I bought two ribeyes at my local butcher, lit the coals in a chimney starter, and got to work. You can read all about my adventure on the blog: here’s my post, Ribeye Steaks with Chimichurri. There you’ll get the blow-by-blow, and something like a recipe. (I didn’t actually type out a recipe because it’s really just a technique but you’ll get the overall idea.) Also, here’s a video I made of the process:

amateurgourmet

A post shared by @amateurgourmet

If you have any favorite grilling recipes/techniques, leave ‘em in the comments! Eventually I wanted to use the Weber to smoke something… maybe a brisket?

On Saturday, we found ourselves with a surplus of apples. (I went a little crazy trying out Misfits Market… so much fruit arrived, I felt like I was in a misfit Garden of Eden.) Craig said I should make an apple pie and I had to agree with him.

Not much has changed in terms of my pie technique, except my confidence level. What made this particular pie experience special, is that I treated it like a kind of meditation instead of a task that I had to complete to perfection.

It probably also helped that I wasn’t trying to make a video or take too many pictures (though obviously I did take pictures). It was a pie that I just made for the sake of making a pie and because of that it was a pleasure to make… and even more of a pleasure to eat.

So the next time you’re anxious about making an apple pie, take a breath, cue up the Enya, and relax your way into it. You’ll be surprised at how your mental state, more than the recipe you’re using, will yield the best results.

Speaking of excess fruit, I also found myself with a citrus bounty: Cara Cara oranges and blood oranges. These I decided to cut up into slices for a burrata salad with olives and spring onions.

Burrata with citrus is a great late winter alternative to the typical salad with tomatoes. Just drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with Aleppo pepper, a pinch of Maldon sea salt. It’s a great way to use up your winter fruit when you’re not making mimosas!

Finally, I met my good pal Diana for lunch at Lodi last week in Rockefeller Center.

We were celebrating my big novel news (Diana was one of my first readers!) and this was the right spot to celebrate because, as you’ll learn when you read the book in the summer of 2025, a big scene takes place here.

We shared the house-made ricotta (SO GOOD) and their eggplant caponata.

We also had a salad and this extraordinary tuna toast:

But the best part was the carrot cake, which had a little face in it.

This was a fascinating cake, mostly because of the layer of carrot puree/icing in the middle. It was the most carroty tasting carrot cake I’ve ever tasted. Highly recommend.

Now let’s look at some links:

• Deb tackles turkey meatloaf (Smitten Kitchen);

• Melissa Clark tackles skillet chicken with greens (NYT);

• The Great American Novels… how many have you read? (The Atlantic).

That’s all for today, folks!

See you back here on Thursday….

Your pal,

Adam