Quarter-Life Coaching: Sarah & Evan's Perfect Crab Cakes

EVENT: Sarah & Evan Give BGSK a Lesson in Crab Cakes

VENUE: Sarah's Apartment, Lower East Side

PARTY SIZE: 4

MENU: Perfect Mini Crab Cakes with Chipotle Mayo and Corn-Pepper Relish; Lobster Rolls on Brioche; Squash Slivers with Truffle Salt and Lemon; Coronas; Mark Bittman's Tofu Chocolate Pudding (chili powder omitted)

The first meal I ate with Sarah and Evan as an almost-couple was at Spitzer's Corner, after we'd all been to hear Colson Whitehead read from Sag Harbor at McNally Jackson. When Evan was down for sharing the mac & cheese with Sarah, me, and Sarah's friend Casey, Casey and I looked at each other: we knew he was a good egg.

Though Phoebe and I would prefer to take full credit for Sarah's ascent into cooking, we know we can't. But then again, if we have to share responsibility with anyone, we're fine with that "anyone" being Evan. The two of them cook together quite often, a habit cemented during a recent trip to Florida and a night spent cooking Middleastern food with one of Evan's chef-y friends. Then, on an evening just before New Year's, for which Sarah and I were co-hosting a party, I ran into a mutual friend who told me Sarah and Evan had declined to go out, instead staying at home to test out crab cakes for New Year's Eve. This made me very happy, and I repeated to myself, then to Phoebe, that Evan was awesome. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Sarah, a stylist and co-author of the adorable fashion, art, and lifestyle blog The Gamine, has impeccable taste.

I don't know if I'm right to do so, but I'd also like to consider Sarah's cooking through the lens of one infamous email chain entitled "Dinner" and begun on August 19th, 2008. Jocelyn had written a note to our big group of girls from high school about getting together. Phoebe, in true BGSK fashion, suggested a potluck dinner at her place, which went over well, but it was her next email that caused real controversy. This was before we knew about the Potluck ESP Phenomenon, and she tried to assign dishes for everyone to bring, since, she wrote: "there always is too much food and not enough wine."

After committing a number of us to meat/veggies/carb/dessert contributions, she wrote: "Wine: Sarah (sorry, I love you), Sam, Jessy, Jocelyn, Sami, Jor." The wine bringers took their assignment personally, in spite of my attempt to call them "highly cultured oenophiles," and all hell almost broke loose until it was averted by us gathering at Phoebe's for a dinner abundant in both food and wine, and so abundant in cake that leftovers of it were put--and remain--in Phoebe's freezer.

But maybe Sarah took it all as a challenge, and after that, she seemed to get really into baking, bringing delicious, buttery sweets to most of our get-togethers even when Memorial Day was approaching and I begged her not to. Baking, like any other gateway drug, paved the way for slippage into more intense use--and soon Sarah was sauteing and roasting and making pizzas and casseroles.


It was the New Year's Eve crab cakes, in the end, that stood out to us, and that made us invite ourselves over to be fed by Sarah and Evan once more. In these heady pre-Valentine's Day days, we wanted to feature them on the blog not just as a cute couple, but as a couple who have really embraced cooking and entertaining in the same way we have: as something fun and productive to do, and as the best possible way of spending time with one another.

coffee table dining--the only way we like to eat

From Evan & Sarah's kitchen, where we are lucky enough to eat crab cakes followed by lobster rolls, to yours,

Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

**Recipe**

Mini Crab Cakes with Chipotle Mayo and Corn-Pepper Relish

Makes about 16 mini crab cakes

Evan and Sarah are in the midst of a love affair with their Cusinart food processor, which Evan received for Hanukah. They used it to perfect the texture of these crab cakes, which are not diluted with very many breadcrumbs. Instead, some of the crab meat is shredded quite finely, which helps the cakes stay together and remain as crabby as possible.

Ingredients
1lb jumbo lump crab meat
1 egg, beaten
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 dash Tabasco sauce
½ lemon, juiced
½ cup finely crushed saltines (in a food processor)

Roughly chop the crab meat. Reserve half in a medium mixing bowl. In a small food processor, pulse the other half of the crab meat until it becomes shredded. Remove half of that meat and add it to the mixing bowl. With the remaining ¼, pulse again until the meat is very finely shredded and almost a paste. This will act as a binder for the cakes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, mayo, mustard, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and lemon juice. Add this to the crab mixture and toss gently with your hands until combined.

Add some of the crushed saltines slowly and gently mix until it begins to come together. You may not need all of the saltines, so test out the crab cakes for texture as you go.

Form the crab mixture into small, 1-inch cakes. Coat a large skillet with oil, and fry the cakes over medium-high heat until brown and crispy. Serve alongside chipotle mayo and corn-pepper relish (recipes follow).

Chipotle Mayo

Ingredients
½ cup mayonnaise
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
1 tbsp adobo sauce (from the can)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lime, juiced

Puree the ingredients in a small food processor. This can be done up to a week in advance and kept refrigerated. Place in a small bowl or ramekin for dipping.

Corn & Pepper Relish

Ingredients
2 cups corn kernels
2 cups diced peppers (green, red, or orange)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
chili powder (optional)

Combine all ingredients for the relish in a small mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lobster Salad on Toasted Challah Rolls
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 lb lobster meat
2 tsp chopped scallion (green parts only)
½ tsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp chopped chives
1 ½ stalks celery, chopped
2 tsp minced shallots
½ cup mayonnaise
1 ½ lemons, juiced
2 challah rolls, toasted (brioche would work as well)

Roughly chop the lobster meat into bite-sized pieces. Reserve half in a medium mixing bowl. In a small food processor, pulse the other half of the lobster meat until it becomes shredded. Remove half of the meat and add it to the mixing bowl. With the remaining ¼, pulse again until the meat is very finely shredded and almost a paste. This will act as a binder for the salad.

Add the scallion, tarragon, chives, celery, and shallots to the lobster mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise and lemon juice. Using your hands, toss the lobster mixture together with some of the mayo mixture (best done with two sets of hands on deck). Add as much of the mayo as you like until you reach your desired consistency—Sarah and Evan prefer it to be just lightly dressed. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Top each roll with a large spoonful of lobster salad and serve.

Cara's dessert bowl. Licked clean.

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Potluck Parties: Superbowl Sunday

baked pasta, a game changer

EVENT: Super Bowl Sunday
VENUE: Adam’s Parents' Apartment, Upper East Side
PARTY SIZE: 20-25
TYPE: Casual Buffet
MENU: Shirley’s Cannelloni; Guacamole and Chips; Honey Mustard Chicken Strips; Bowls of Candy; Brownies

The Super Bowl is one of my favorite eating events of the year. I’m not sure why, since you’d think the football-watching part would kind of balance things out to result in a pretty mediocre day for me. But the prospect of wings and dip and pizza in alternating bites always gets me pretty excited.

Two Super Bowls ago, just weeks after moving into my new apartment, I got food poisoning and spent the day watching Lost episodes on my computer and trying not to think about food. It was miserable. Last year, to make up for all the calories not gained the year before, I went crazy. Luckily, I had the perfect venue at which to do so. My friend Adam, who also functions as my full-time quarter-life camp counselor, had us over to his parents' apartment for the festivities. The Nelson Family Super Bowl Party has apparently been a tradition since 1972, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the event was opened to members of the female gender.

Still, the most revered figure in the family’s Super Bowl traditions is Adam’s mother, Shirley, whose cannelloni alone made me wish I could watch football everyday at the Nelsons'. While it's not necessarily what you should eat every day, Shirley’s baked pasta is everything you could want while watching football and so much more: cheesy, creamy, fatty, and filling. Last year, I filled up a little too early on guacamole, but this year, I'll know better. I’m saving myself for the cannelloni.

From my kitchen, where I’m cheering for Peyton and pasta, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

If you aren’t lucky enough to be adopted by someone else’s mother, here are a few recipe ideas to feed the kids at your table:


1st Quarter
Guacamole
Mexican Dip
Onion Dip
Panko-Crusted Spinach Dip
Spicy Chipotle Hummus


2nd Quarter
Black Bean Cakes
Pigs in a Blanket
Cilantro Succotash Quesadillas
Mini Meatball Subs


3rd Quarter
Autumn Brisket & Pumpkin Chili
Smoky Chipotle Vegetarian Chili
Chicken-Chard Enchiladas
Butternut Squash Nacho Casserole
Man Burgers
Mexican Shepherd's Pie
Mustardy Turkey Meatloaf
Macaroni and Cheese
Penne Gratin with Sausage, Fennel and Mushrooms
Meghan's Turkey Lasagna
Cilantro Slaw


4th Quarter

M&M Blondies
Brownies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Bark with Pretzels and Toffee

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From My Mother's Kitchen: Spaghetti & Breakfast

EVENT: Dinner for Breakfast
VENUE: Cara's Apartment, Park Slope
PARTY SIZE: 2 for dinner, 1 for leftovers
TYPE: Extra Homemade; Leftovers
MENU: Beef Stew with Fresh Pasta; Fried Noodles

The evening I made beef stew for dinner, I found myself a little bored around 6pm, when I'd normally be cutting and chopping and otherwise prepping. The reason was I'd made the stew in the slow cooker overnight, and though I'd spent some time browning and chopping the evening before, all that remained was to reheat the stew which had been mellowing in the fridge all day. For most, this would be good news. It's almost the point of the slow cooker--that dinner's on the table without much effort in the hour preceding it. But for me, it meant a feeling of aimlessness.

That's when I decided that the only worthy bed for my beef stew was a mess of homemade noodles.

I followed the basic recipe from TheKitchn, though I'd made pasta at home and in classes before. What I was most wary about was the rolling: I don't have a pasta maker. What I do have is a new, very heavy and strong rolling pin from OXO, which I won from being a finalist on Food52. With my "dining room" table at hip height, I found that the combined weight of the rolling pin and my upper body created enough pressure to roll out the pasta dough thinly enough that I could see my hand through the sheets. Then I folded the sheets up into thirds or fourths and cut myself lots of wide, uneven tagliatelle.

I served my slow-cooker beef stew on top of my brand new homemade noodles. I stashed the remaining cooked noodles in a tupperware in the fridge, so that they'd cool and dry out. I had plans for them.

The next morning, I took the cold, slightly stiff noodles out of the container I'd stored them in. I was going to eat the leftovers for breakfast, but with a new special preparation. Like most strange and special preparations, it has its roots in childhood eating habits: As a kid, one of the best breakfasts was a plate of "fried noodles." I seem to recall I was the one of my sisters who liked fried noodles the most, and so I'd get dibs when we'd had some sort of pasta dinner the night before. The charm of fried noodles lies equally in the taste of slightly browned butter and in the crispy edges the pasta pieces acquire. All pasta shapes make for good fried noodles, but my fresh pasta was extraordinary, the crispy parts of the strands resembling pan-fried dumplings more than anything else.

From my kitchen, where spaghetti becomes an excellent breakfast, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Fried Noodles
Serves 1

Like fried rice, this works much better if the noodles have had the night to cool and dry out in the fridge.

Ingredients
1 cup leftover cooked, cooled pasta
2 teaspoons butter
salt
fried egg, grated cheese (optional)
Place the pat of butter in a small frying pan. Over low heat, melt it, then add the pasta. Cook until the edges are crispy, mixing occasionally so you don't end up with a nest of sorts. Sprinkle with salt and serve. topping with some grated cheese or a fried egg if you're so inclined.
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Recipe Flash: Chocolate Bark, Version 2010

DISH: Chocolate Bark with Cinnamon Coated Nuts and Cherries
TYPE: New Year's Eve Treats

MAIN INGREDIENTS: Chocolate, Walnuts, Dried Cherries

Chocolate bark has been my go-to ever since I was a kitchen-deprived, chocolate-craving freshman at college. In the past years, I've made the bark with white, milk, and dark chocolates of both good and mediocre qualities. I've made double-layer bark, fruity bark, and the 2008-2009 winning bark filled with toffee bites and broken pretzel pieces that was featured at Jor's 24th birthday party (and which I made for her 25th and then forgot in the fridge).

For 2010, I decided to hearken back to the original dorm-room barks, which always contained nuts and dried fruit. This time, I complicated the nuts, toasting and sweetening them before mixing with the chocolate. The extra step creates delicious, crispy nuts that are worth baking a batch of even if you're not venturing onto the bark. Only if you own an oven.

From my kitchen, where chocolate bark rang in a New Year that's so far quite sweet, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Chocolate Bark with Cinnamon Coated Nuts and Cherries

Makes 1 sheet of bark

Ingredients

For the nuts:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups raw unsalted walnuts
1 small egg white, beaten (or ½ of regular egg white)

For the bark:
2 cups milk chocolate
½ cup dried cherries
2 ounces good quality (contains cocoa butter) white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Spread the walnuts on a parchment-covered pan and toast for about 5 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.

Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and sat. Add the egg white and whisk to combine. Add the nuts and toss so that the egg white-spice coating covers all sides of all the nuts.

Spread nuts on the same lined baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes on one side, then toss them with a spatula and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Cool the nuts completely before proceeding.

Melt the milk chocolate over a double boiler or in short bursts in the microwave. You want it to be just melted—don’t let it bubble or anything. Add the cooled nuts and the cherries and stir to distribute.

Pour the bark onto a parchment-lined pan and spread it evenly with a spatula. Put the pan in the freezer and let the bark sit until hardened.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave until just melted. Remove the chocolate bark from the freezer. Using a fork dipped into the white chocolate, flick your wrist to create streaks of white chocolate all over the bark. Return to the freezer and let harden.

Using your hands or a knife, break the bark into bite-sized pieces. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

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Cooking For One: Carbonara, Two Ways

DISH: Crispy Spaghetti Carbonara with Dandelion Greens and Pecorino; Orecchiette Carbonara with Scallions and Sundried Tomatoes
TYPE: Weeknight QLC Dinner
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Pasta, Egg, Bacon, Cheese

When we are home alone and craving a hit of creamy, cheesy carbs, we ladies of BGSK go straight for the carbonara. Back in Cara’s vegetarian days, the dish usually included some other meatless enticement in place of the bacon. But today, she is back on the wagon. So when we were shopping together on our retreat, and Phoebe instinctively reached for some uncured applewood smoked bacon (organic, of course), Cara was all for it.

It was a slippery slope from there. Somehow, we managed to eat carbonara only two out of the three days we were together. We weren't so steadfast on the carb front: bread and pasta were still the main ingredients of all our other meals. We’d like to think it was just to use up all the bacon we'd bought, but really, after our first night of crispy spaghetti carbonara, we were already talking about what other delicious morsels we could add in the next day. We managed to fight the urge for twenty four whole hours by eating these Chard & Chickpea Toasts. But the last afternoon of our retreat it was dreary, cloudy and cold. The orecchiette we'd bought was calling to us, and so was the bacon. Like all sane humans with very little will power, we submitted.

From our kitchen, where we would eat carbonara fifteen ways if we could, to yours,

Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

**Recipe**

Crispy Spaghetti Carbonara with Dandelion Greens and Pecorino
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients
½ lb spaghetti or other long pasta
1 bunch dandelion greens, main stems removed
3 strips bacon, chopped
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/3 cup finely chopped bread
2 eggs, beaten
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup shredded pecorino

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions, and add the dandelion greens when there are 4-5 minutes left in the cooking process.

In the meantime, coat a small skillet in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry the bacon over high heat until dark and crispy. Remove to a paper towel to drain. Turn the heat back to medium-low, and add the shallot. Sauté until translucent and beginning to brown. Remove to a pasta bowl.

Add the bread and the garlic to the pan and toast them the remaining fat and oil. When brown and crispy, remove to the plate with the bacon.

Allow the onion to cool slightly, then stir in the beaten eggs, red pepper flakes, most of the shredded cheese, and half of the bacon.

Drain the pasta and greens and reserve ¼ cup cooking liquid. Temper the egg mixture with a bit of the water, then add pasta and quickly toss to combine. Taste for seasoning. Garnish with the rest of the crispy bacon mixed with garlicky bread crumbs, and the remaining shredded cheese. Serve immediately.

Orecchiette Carbonara with Scallions and Sundried Tomatoes
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients
1/2 lb orecchiette or other short pasta
3 strips bacon, chopped
3 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
5 sundried tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 eggs, beaten
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup shredded pecorino or parmesan

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions.

In the meantime, coat a small skillet in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry the bacon over high heat until dark and crispy. Remove to a paper towel to drain. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and add the scallion and garlic. Sauté until fragrant and beginning to brown. Remove to a pasta bowl.

Allow the scallion mixture to cool slightly, then stir in the beaten eggs, red pepper flakes, sundried tomatoes, and most of the shredded cheese.

Drain the orecchiette and reserve ¼ cup cooking liquid. Temper the egg mixture with a bit of the water, then add pasta and quickly toss to combine. Taste for seasoning. Garnish with the crispy bacon and the remaining shredded cheese. Serve immediately.

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Baking For Others: Late-Night Birthday Cake

EVENT: Alex's Birthday

VENUE: Cara's Apartment, Park Slope

TIME: 2:30am, January 17th

MENU: 7-inch, Dairy-Free Carrot Cake

I may be a decent baker, but I'm not so good with surprises. So when, for Alex's birthday, I determined I'd make him a cake, I didn't have the wherewithal to kick him out of my studio apartment while I did so. He claims to have guessed at the nature of my concoction long before the scent of the cake wafted out of my kitchen to the desk where I'd exiled him, eight feet away. It was the sound of me grating a vegetable drawer's worth of carrots, apparently, that tipped him off. Anyway, before we went out for the evening I made the cake as fast as I could. By the time we left, I had the cake nearly cooled, frosted (well, the frosting melted into the layers a tad), and hiding in plain sight on a cake plate on my table.

Alex, who made the stomach-related decision, several years ago, to consume no dairy whatsoever, thought (and I quote) that he would never eat things like creamy icing ever again. Having vowed, somewhere in the fall of 2007, that I'd be a vegan for life, I had an idea of what it was like to stand in his shoes. I got both the sadness and the conviction of this vow. And a year of dairy-, meat-, and egg-free life back then led me to the knowledge now that carrot cake is a resilient, long-suffering hero of a confection. You can cut out its eggs, its butter, its cream cheese, and somehow the cake tastes delicious. I'm not exaggerating. This faith-like belief in carrot cakes long ago chose the flavor of Alex's birthday cake for me.

Later, after we'd gotten back from celebrating my friend JoJo's birthday, it was 2 or 3 hours into Alex's actual birthday. Persisting in my delusion that the cake would be a complete surprise, I disappeared into the kitchen to decorate it with candles. I forced Alexto listen to three rounds of off-key "Happy Birthday To You" while I lit them, then I finally cut him a slice to eat and to share with me. Surprise or not, late-night cake ingestion seemed an excellent tradition, akin to opening one gift on Christmas Eve. I can't think of a better midnight snack.

Or breakfast. It should be duly noted that carrot cake is one of the best breakfasts around.

From my kitchen, where the cake tastes best after midnight, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

Update, 2/8/10: I'm submitting this cake to a Valentine's blog contest called "Food Is Love" sponsored by bloggers Jennifer at Savor The Thyme and Kelsey at The Naptime Chef. Their idea was to find out how cooks show their love through food. I thought this cake was a good candidate because I modified the recipe to be dairy free for Alex. See his verdict on the cake in the comments below.

**Recipe**

Carrot Cake

makes a 2-layer, 9-inch cake

I made the batter by proportion, and it's actually a bit too much for a 7-inch cake. I used 1/3 of it for each layer then made mini muffins out of the rest. However, it's just the right about for two 9-inch layers, which is a more standard size cake pan anyway.

Last but not least, you can substitute standard cream cheese and softened butter for the tofu cream cheese and margarine/shortening.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups finely grated carrots (about 6-7 medium carrot)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease the cake pans, and, if you like, cut out a circle of parchment with which to line the bottom. Grease the parchment too.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl). In another, larger bowl, stir together the sugar and oil until the sugar is saturated by the oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the flour mixture, and fold with a rubber spatula until just combined. When the flour's almost stirred in, add the carrots, raisins, and walnuts, still being careful not to overmix. Divide batter equally among cake pans.

Bake the layers for 40-50 minutes, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for a few minutes, then turn them out onto a rack or a plate to cool. Cool completely before icing.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz tofu cream cheese
12 oz margarine or shortening
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup

Beat all the ingredients in a food processor until very smooth. You may need to chill it in the fridge for a few minutes so that it's thick and easy to spread.

Trim the layers as necessary if they're really puffed up in the center. Then spread a thin layer of frosting on top of the first layer. Top with the second and carefully cover the top and sides with icing. Keep in the fridge--it'll stay good for a week.

the cake minus a slice: an accidental Pac Man!

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Cooking For One: Retreat Lunch

DISH: Chard & Chickpea Toasts with Scallion Butter
TYPE: Out-of-Town Weekday Working Lunch
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Chard, Chickpea, No Knead Bread

It’s a rare treat that Cara and I actually get not only to eat together but also to prepare a meal in the same kitchen. Even if the opportunity did readily present itself to cook in tandem, our apartment kitchens are not so conducive to sharing, especially when one of us is on our home turf and in a hurry--or just an only child, like myself.

But a few weeks ago we decided to get away from the distractions of city life and hunker down to book writing and brainstorming for a little while. On a Tuesday morning we fled for Cara’s mom’s house in Long Island, stocked up on a mere $40 of groceries for the week (a joint experiment in and of itself—who knew Cara compared milk prices as obsessively as I do!), and got to work. We made a lot of index cards with chapter titles, recipe names, and other crazy coding matrices. And, naturally, we did a lot of cooking.

Our first working lunch was founded upon Cara’s No-Knead Bread, which had emerged from the oven as one beautiful, crusty round earlier that morning. We had bought a lot of random greens the day before, and with this meal of stewed beans and greens in mind, Cara suggested sautéed chard and chickpeas on top of a toasted piece of bread. And with my mind still on breakfast (we had already dug into the bread), I said that I’d make a scallion butter to slather on top of each slice.

Soon, Cara was manning the greens while I doctored the butter and bread (and consuming any uneven slices that happened to fly my way). Save for one minor disaster involving a shattered wine glass in my hand, lunch was on the table in a flash, with only a small amount of blood shed in the process.

From my kitchen, where Cara sautés the greens and makes the tourniquets, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Ouch.

Chard & Chickpea Toasts with Scallion Butter

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced

pinch red pepper flakes
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup white wine
1 15oz can chickpeas, just a bit of the liquid tipped out

2 thick slices country white bread (see recipe for No Knead Bread), toasted

2 tbsp butter (room temperature)
2 scallions (green parts only), thinly sliced
Pecorino cheese for garnish (optional)

In a medium skillet, sauté the shallot and garlic in the oil until translucent and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the red pepper flakes. Add the chard to the pan, tossing to coat with the vegetables, then turn the heat up and add the wine, bringing it quickly to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquids have reduced, and the chard is wilted. Add the chickpeas and most of their liquid, keeping the mixture moist. Continue to cook until the chard is tender. Season with salt and red pepper, and set aside.

In the meantime, cream the butter with the scallions until smooth and soft. Add salt if the butter was unsalted. Place back in the refrigerator to firm up until the chard has finished cooking.

To serve, slather the toast with a healthy (or not, depending on how you look at it) layer of scallion butter. Top each slice with a big portion of the chard and chickpea mixture, and garnish with grated pecorino cheese.

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