Rhu-berry Crostata 🫐🫐🫐

Plus: Upping my BBQ Game, Hailee Catalano's Shallot Dip, and Lunch at Smør.

Hey everyone,

Okay: we’ve hit 93 this morning and the temp is still going up. Took Winston in for his summer haircut and he felt betrayed at first — he thought it was his normal morning walk! — but now he feels oh so comfortable.

Before it hit these unbearable heights, I had some friends over for a BBQ on Saturday night:

One of the questions I got on my book tour was: “Had you really never cooked a hamburger on a grill before this year?” The question was in reference to this post where I declared precisely that: it really was my first time.

As I may have mentioned, when we lived in L.A., we shared a communal backyard with a view of a gas station so we never used it. Now that we have a carriage house in Brooklyn (we’re renting, don’t be too impressed) we have our own little patio and I can grill to my heart’s content. And guess what? I’m getting better at it!

This time I marinated bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in Dijon mustard, lemon juice, garlic, shallots, and olive oil for a few hours. Then I lit a charcoal chimney, poured it on half the surface (creating two heat zones) and added the chicken to the cooler parts at first, putting zucchini slices and corn on the hotter parts.

I had a bowl ready for the zucchini with a quick salsa verde: lots of chopped parsley and garlic, lemon juice, Dijon, and olive oil, so when the zucchini was good and brown on both sides, I just plopped it into that bowl and let it marinate. Same with the corn.

As for the chicken, I gradually moved it closer to the flame, careful not to scorch it, occasionally putting the lid on so the internal temperature would go up. I don’t know how I pulled it off, but 40 minutes later, this was the best chicken I’d ever grilled. Tangy and a little spicy and burnished deep brown.

As for the dip in the middle, that comes from Hailee Catalano’s fabulous new cookbook, By Heart, a gift from our friends Kristen and Ryan who stayed with us earlier this year.

I’m obsessed with Hailee’s videos on Instagram — she’s so smart and so unpretentious and her food always looks so good — so getting this book was a no-brainer.

First recipe up? Her shallot dip. Only when I went to buy the ingredients, I forgot to buy one kind-of-important ingredient: SHALLOTS.

Not to worry: I had red onions and they worked perfectly fine. (The original recipe calls for 10 medium shallots, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1 tablespoon of butter) I diced two red onions and then sautéed them in the butter and olive oil with a pinch of salt on medium-high heat just until they started to color, then I lowered the heat all the way and cooked for another 40 minutes until they were that deep, profound shade of golden brown you can only achieve when you take the time to do it.

To that, you add 1/4 cup of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and 1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika:

If you just ate that with a spoon, it’d be good, but after letting that cool, you stir it together with 3/4 cup labneh or sour cream (I used sour cream), 1/4 cup Kewpie mayonnaise (I just used regular), 1 tablespoon Dijon, and 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.

That is one flavorful dip! And served with firm, ruffled potato chips? Pretty much the best summer appetizer. You could even serve it with raw vegetables, if you wanted it to be lighter.

But I didn’t lure you in here with the promise of chips or BBQ-ed chicken; I lured you in with the promise of a rhu-berry crostata.

Here’s the deal: I made Nicole Rucker’s flawless pie crust recipe from her must-buy new Fat & Flour Cookbook. I froze half the crust, rolled out the rest into a large circle, and then made the filling from this New York Times blueberry rhubarb pie recipe (gift link).

On a Silpat-lined cookie sheet, I placed the dough, poured the filling in (I subbed corn starch for tapioca, FYI), and folded the edges over. I brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled with Turbinado sugar:

Into a 400 degree oven I placed it for about 35 minutes, until it was deep golden brown all over, and the middle was bubbling intensely. (That’s important, so the corn starch activates.)

After letting it cool completely, I served with freshly made whipped cream (made by hand — you’re welcome) with a little bit of buttermilk whisked in towards the end (hat tip, Lisa Donovan):

How’s that for the perfect summer dessert?

Finally, on Thursday last week I met up with my pal

Jenny Rosenstrach

for lunch at Smør in the East Village:

As someone who travelled to Denmark (see here) and didn’t eat Smørrebrød for some reason, I had a lot of catching up to do. Thankfully, Jenny led the charge and we ordered a pickled herring Smørrebrød (essentially, an open-faced sandwich on dark bread) and one with smoked salmon. They completely hit the spot on a hot, rainy day:

Thanks for being my lunch date, Jenny!

Okay, time to look at some links:

• Clare De Boer’s Strawberry Cobbler looks so good, I don’t know why any other strawberry recipes need to exist (The Best Bit);

• A Karaoke Tribute to Anne Burrell (NYT Gift Link);

• I need to make some of these Italian Homemade Liqueurs (Elizabeth Minchilli).

That’s all for today, folks!

Until next time….

Your friend,

Adam