How I Turned Carrots and Yogurt into Lunch

Plus: Seared Scallops with Tangerine Butter Sauce, Diana's Ricotta Pancakes, and Finishing Laurie Woolever's Care and Feeding.

Hey everyone,

Lately I’ve been playing Chopped in my own kitchen with the remnants of my CSA box from the previous week. On Friday, I found two things in my refrigerator… actually, three things: yogurt, carrots, and cilantro. My first thought was to make a shredded carrot salad (an actual TikTok trend) though my grated carrot salads lean in a more French direction.

It was pizza, however, that I had on my mind. Craig and I had decided that on Friday night we would eat pizza and watch the Severance finale (so good). But this was lunch and I somehow remembered that if you mix yogurt and flour with salt and baking powder, you can make a flatbread. So that’s what I did!

I used this formula from The Kichn: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 1/2 cups full-fat plain Greek yogurt. I mixed that all together with a fork, then kneaded it on the floured counter until it really came together, then I cut it into six sections, rolled them into balls, and covered with plastic.

Then I turned to the carrots: I just sliced a bunch of carrots, tossed them with olive oil, a little honey, salt, and Aleppo pepper.

Popped them on to a baking sheet and roasted in a 425 oven until they were golden brown all over (I flipped them once or twice) and a knife went through easily. Then, when they cooled a bit, I smashed them with more olive oil, grated garlic, balsamic vinegar, and Tahini. Warning: this is not a pretty picture.

But it tasted oh so good!

As for the flat bread, I rolled each ball out as thinly as I could then cooked it in a super hot cast iron skillet until golden brown on both sides. Yes, I set off the smoke alarm and Winston started quivering (sorry, Winston).

To serve, I slathered each piece of flat bread with the carrot mixture, topped with a few stray roasted carrot pieces, sprinkled with za’atar and a little more olive oil and some torn cilantro and that was lunch.

*takes a bow* (Note: we had Chinese food that night instead of pizza because this was basically a pizza lunch.)

Another inventive dinner came on Thursday night, when I found parsnips in the fridge and Craig bought scallops at the seafood shop. I thought: seared scallops on a parsnip puree with a brown butter tangerine sauce.

Step one: parsnip puree. It’s so easy, using Julianna Marguiles’s recipe vis-a-vis The Barefoot Contessa.

You just boil parsnips in salted water until tender and smushable, then you pop them into a food processor with some of the liquid from the pot and butter. That’s it! So easy and earthy and sweet and good.

For the scallops, I seared them in a non-stick skillet with olive oil, not moving them at all until they were deep golden brown (note: these were “dry” scallops, an important distinction if you want to get a good sear).

Once cooked, I removed them to a plate, then added a pat of butter, which browned fairly quickly, and a good squeeze of two tangerines, cooking everything until it thickened up into a sauce.

To plate, I spooned the parsnip puree on to plates, topped with scallops, and drizzled on the sauce. Oh and I made a quick salad of segmented oranges, chopped shallots, cilantro, and olive oil which I spooned on top. “Four stars!” says the imaginary food critic in my head.

This weekend, we went up to Irvington to visit our pal Diana who’s holding down the fort with three kids while Mark, her hubby, directs his first feature in New Mexico. We helped out by playing Nintendo (Smash Brothers, in particular), reading books to the children…

…and eating all of the food that Diana so lovingly cooked, including homemade peanut butter cookies…

(I forget where she got the recipe, but they were excellent) and lemon ricotta pancakes from the NYT (here’s a gift link to the recipe).

Diana does her pancakes perfectly: she doesn’t set the heat too high so they stay light and fluffy. I’m so impatient when I make mine, I crank the heat and smash them flat, completely defeating the purpose of making ricotta pancakes. And the Best Pancake award goes to… Diana!

Finally, on the train over, I finished reading Laurie Woolever’s Care and Feeding which is currently #8 on the NYT bestseller list:

Laurie was once a guest on my podcast so I know her a little in real life (well just over Zoom) but I went into this book pretty cold overall and wow, what a story. This may be the most brutally honest book I’ve ever read: not just about working for Mario Batali (with explicit episodes of him humiliating Laurie and many others at work) and Anthony Bourdain (who comes across well overall), but mostly about her own exploits as a sexually curious, struggling addict wrestling with her role as wife and mother as she travels the world and longs for escape. The book it reminded me of the most, actually, was Miranda July’s All Fours, another story of a sexually repressed, adventure-seeking woman who “behaves badly” (in the conventional sense) but, in doing so, finds ultimate release and revelation.

Not everyone will love this book (I already received a few texts from friends who questioned my praise of it on Instagram) but I really dug it, especially the momentum she builds as the house comes crashing down around her. It seems the value that Laurie prizes above all others isn’t being liked, it’s telling the truth… which I really admire.

Have you read it yet? What did you think? Sound off in the comments:

Hey, let’s look at some links:

• Ottolenghi’s roast chicken with butter beans? I might makes this soon (The Guardian);

• In Cellar Rat, a Sommelier’s Righteous Indignation About the Restaurant Industry (Eater);

• Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s cooking collection goes to auction… lots of tempting stuff here (Live Auctioneers; thanks Deb Floyd for the heads up).

That’s all for today, folks!

Until next time….

Your pal,

Adam