Still life with toaster oven 🍕
Cooking without a stove, taking back Valentine’s Day, and more.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we shake our fists at the landlords of New York, eat a plate full of loofah, and embrace heart-shaped foods. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Rice cooker steamed ginger fish over rice at home
Recipe from improvised.
I believe my life is slowly crumbling around me. I haven’t had gas in my apartment for more than a week now, thanks to the discovery that I may have been slowly poisoned over the course of several months due to a faulty burner. I broke my favorite plate by accident. So it was a complete surprise to me that everything I cooked this week was exceedingly delicious. I fully braced myself for the worst when I tossed a frozen Branzino filet over some soaked rice with some strips of ginger, a dash of cooking wine, and soy sauce in the (Hello Kitty) rice cooker. But when the timer went off, I flipped open the lid to possibly the most tender steamed fish I’ve made over a bed of fragrant rice. Not only was the fish perfectly cooked, something I struggle with in the oven, it didn’t need to be defrosted at all (which I always forget to do)! After topping it off with baby spinach leaves, which wilted after a few minutes from the heat, and giving it a drizzle with sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, I had a delicious comforting meal.
Shaved fennel and parmesan salad with mint at home
Adapted from Simply Recipes.
On Day Two of the Great Gas Outage my microwave, feeling inspired by the stove, decided to also give up. That’s when this once-a-year salad girl turned into a “salad every night” woman. Most of the salads I made were nothing to write home about, but this shaved fennel concoction, inspired by half a wilted bulb of fennel in my fridge, was a delight. I love medicinal, bitter flavors, like celery and amaro, and this salad really contains all the elements of a good cocktail: Bitterness from the fennell, citrus brightness from the lemon, and a herbal finish with the mint. I don’t own a mandolin slicer, because I am afraid of them, so I just sliced the fennel very thinly with a chef’s knife. I added a handful of finely chopped mint, which created a lovely synergy with the fennel and lemon. Here’s the recipe.
Toaster oven focaccia pizza with mozzarella, red pepper, and baby spinach at home
Here’s the original recipe / ramble-post.
On Day Three of the Great Gas Outage, I caved and bought a toaster oven for $35 at Target and then lugged it home 15 blocks. I am now in love with my toaster oven, and it might be my favorite kitchen appliance. I guess usually I’d be worried about my microwave being jealous but since it’s left me, I no longer have to worry about that. I had no idea, but toaster ovens, even the budget ones, have really improved since the 90’s! On the night of my toaster oven’s arrival, I pulled out some week-old, extremely fermented focaccia dough from the back of my fridge, and stretched it out into two tiny pizzas, and covered it with a thin layer of marinara, a few balls of baby mozzarella, a handful of spinach leaves and sprinkled it with flaky salt and red pepper flakes. After baking it at 450F for about 15 minutes, I had fresh pizza at hand, without even risking gas poisoning!
Loofah with Dried Scallops 丝瓜扇贝 at Cafe China
59 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
One of my absolute favorite vegetables is loofah. That’s right, I’m talking about the pre-pubescent phase of your all-natural bath sponge. When you pick it before it ripens, loofah makes a delicious stir-fry. The name in Chinese is 丝瓜, or “si gua”/“threads gourd,” because when you slice into the fresh young gourd, it gets a little sticky, like okra. I was really excited to see it on the menu at (the revamped) Cafe China, because I’ve never seen it on a menu before. Sigua tastes fresh and sweet and grassy, almost like a cucumber with a special texture (that’s because it is in the cucumber family!). It pairs very well with the salty bits of dried scallop. It’s so refreshing and addictive, I could eat the whole dish.
Raspberry white chocolate donut at Dough Donuts
I really, and unabashedly, love Valentine’s Day. I know this will come across as a huge surprise because it seems to really counter my entire existence and all that I stand for. While it is true that I feel a little uncomfortable bringing more attention to society’s already intense focus on coupledom, 1) I am a sap who loves flowers and holding hands and 2) Valentine’s Day has the absolute most amazing aesthetic of any holiday (ok, second to maybe the Christmas that exists only in Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen). Drown me in kitsch and teddy bears and heart-shaped everything in pink and red and white. Single or partnered, I’m here to reclaim Valentine’s Day as a high-femme, bimbo holiday of excess, one pink-frosted, heart-shaped donut at a time, starting with this raspberry white chocolate donut from Dough. Dough donuts are already the definition of excess on a normal day, as they are massive (even I, notorious sugar fiend, can only finish half on a good day), and come in flamboyant flavors like Hibiscus and Margarita. But on Valentine’s Day, they are heart-shaped. If you’re a fan of yeast donuts, and a fan of sharing, which I did not do, lol, I highly recommend them.
Have a good weekend,
Soph
P.S. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being a reader. Please support my writing by buying a paid subscription for yourself (or a friend!) so that I can continue to keep sharing my thoughts, and also maybe move out of this hellfire apartment, and/or buy a hot plate, lol. Paid subscribers will have access to bonus longform recipes.