Honey Miso Coleslaw
The coleslaw I was raving about? It’s the same one Akiko and Cathy made for their first annual Hapa Kitchen BBQ. (Okay, they’re not actually calling it “first annual,” but I missed it and am dreaming of a second chance.)
Cathy has also posted recipes for other Hapa comfort foods: Hoisin Chipotle Baked Beans and Curry Potato Salad with Chickpeas and Rosemary.
Honey Miso Coleslaw
(makes about 8 servings — a party-sized bowl)1 small head green cabbage, shredded
1 small head red cabbage, shredded
1-2 large carrots, finely shredded
2-3 scallions, both green and white parts, finely chopped
2 tablespoons miso paste
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
juice of 2-3 limes
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup mayonnaise (give or take — and we used Kewpie mayo, which is tasty, if MSG-laden)
black sesame seeds for garnish (optional)In a food processor or a large bowl with a whisk, combine the mayonnaise, honey, ginger and miso paste. Taste and add more of any ingredient as desired. Fold in the vegetables and chill for at least 30 minutes prior to serving. Top with optional sesame seeds.
The girl’s got (knife) skills.
Akiko slices square carrots for the best coleslaw I’ve ever tasted (pictured here). “Fun with shapes and colors — makes happy mouth!”
It looks like snot but it tastes good.
It looks like snot but it tastes good.Akiko Moorman in the motherfucking New York Times. As permanent engravings in the (cyber) paper of record go, this is right up there with “Mayur Subbarao is a serious drinker.”
Akiko, expediting and plating in the farmhouse kitchen. The cooking was supervised by Cathy in a modern kitchen in a different building, about 50 yards away. Their crew had to run the food in the rain! You wouldn’t have known it, of course. The presentation was gorgeous.
Cathy finally got to enjoy a glass of wine after dessert was cleared…
M: “Why is skate so cheap in this country? Because Americans are idiots?”
Akiko: “Yes!”
Last night M. made pan-fried skate wing (panko’d and subtly curried) with a fennel and apple puree. “I’m recycling meals,” he said. He made it the first time he cooked for me, although then we had a wintry fennel and carrot slaw on the side (pictured above), and last night we had these big fat glorious spring asparagus that he picked up on his way home from a business meeting in New Paltz. (Since he brought them home on the train and the meeting was in advance of a Hudson Valley green jobs conference, we calculated that the asparagus have a negative carbon footprint — like calories in celery!) We also had sauteed rainbow chard (prime season right now) and a salad with New Paltz beets and raw goat milk feta.
Other differences between then and now: this time, we didn’t start with Champagne, oysters, and darling little homemade mushroom-and-walnut-filled pastries, a trifecta of culinary seduction if there ever was one. Also, I was wearing my go-to schlubby casual dress, in contrast to that night’s totally killer “borderline slutty dress.”
“You look even sexier tonight,” he said. Good boy.
Anyway, I’m here to say GIVE SKATE A CHANCE! It’s delicious, inexpensive, local, and sustainable. Here are some recipes and information on cooking.
PS: The edge of the wing sometimes curls up during cooking. Akiko weights the edge with something. M. says that’s cheating. I’ll let you be the judge.
Thursday [not pictured]: improptu spring feast by Akiko and Cathy. Dinner table argument about race in America. A half-round of “Two Truths and a Lie.” Broken glass. Too tired to find my way home in the rental car. Lost in Brooklyn.
Note: woke up at 6 am to drive to Willimantic, CT. Exhausted.
Akiko and Tom rocked the black menu. It was really rather outrageous. As were the white and black punches by Holst and M.
PS: Akiko was inspired by The Taste of Black, a hard-to-find cookbook that she gave to M. for his birthday. She didn’t really follow the recipes, though, because it arrived just hours before the party. (She didn’t need to.)
I am working on a menu for Saturday that is celebratory, sexy and Presidential. In other words: black.
I am working on a menu for Saturday that is celebratory, sexy and Presidential. In other words: black.Akiko’s one hell of a chef, and she’s doing the food for M.’s party. A taste:
Oysters with Black Mignonette, Black Flap Jacks with Black Sesame Creme Fraiche and Caviar, Black Olive-Eggplant Relish, Soy-Honey Glazed Almonds, Black Angus with Sauteed Black Kale on Toasted Pumpernickel and Black-Cod with Black-Miso glaze in Black Rice Rolls with pomegranate and Hoisin sauce…
Another friend is making dessert: something very similar to these bad boys. And I’m making “Oreos” (for the Obamaesque white center).
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The Great American Cooking Project