Gothamist Cooks (Kind of) by the Book

About
Gothamist Cooks (Kind of) by the Book is a weekly column written by Girlynyc, featuring a tasty, easy-to-make recipe featured in a New York-related cookbook. This week features New York Cooks: The 100 Best Recipes from New York Magazine, by Gillian Duffy (Primedia, 2003).

Gillian Duffy raided fifteen years of back issues of New York Magazine for its best recipes, so you can throw out all those old magazines already! Unlike many celebrity-chef cookbooks that are full of recipes that most of us don't have the time (or counter space) to make, New York Cooks pulls together recipes from some of the city's leading chefs (Mario Batali, Patricia Yeo, Bobby Flay, Rebecca Charles, Jeremy Marshall, Claudia Fleming, David Bouley, Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten) that you would actually want to make and actually can make, often in less than an hour. Best of all, every recipe is only a page long, and most have a glossy, food-porn quality picture on the facing page.

Faced with an invitation to a potluck brunch, it was difficult for me to decide whether to make the Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Terrine from David Bouley of Bouley, the Chocolate Brownies from the Gramercy Tavern's Claudia Fleming, or Geoffrey Zakarian of Town's Heirloom Tomato and Watermelon Salad.

IMG_0177.jpgBut I eventually settled on the Deviled Eggs from Kenny Callaghan and Michael Romano at Blue Smoke, since everyone loves deviled eggs, but it seems like we never get to eat them, and they are super easy to make. Plus, these eggs have received excellent reviews.

  • NYT travel section
  • NY Magazine
  • Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine

    • I didn't follow the recipe exactly, since I think the best thing about cookbooks is taking ideas and running with them. Anyway, I don't think Kenny Callaghan's mom used tarragon-infused champagne vinegar when she made them as his "rec room snack".

    Ingredients:
    12 extra-large eggs
    1 ½ teaspoons tarragon infused Champagne vinegar (but regular vinegar is A-OK)
    ¾ teaspoon Coleman's dry mustard
    2 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
    2/3 cup mayonnaise (not soy mayo-it does not make good deviled eggs)
    1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper
    ½ teaspoon curry powder
    Salt and pepper, to taste
    Paprika

    Instructions:
    Hard-boil the eggs. You might have your own way of doing this, and that's fine in our book. But this is what Kenny recommends:

    Put the eggs in a saucepan, cover with cold water, place on high heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer exactly 9 minutes. Remove eggs from heat and quickly cool under cold running water. Pour off water. Crack shells and peel off shell under running water. (Note: I generally cook the eggs the night before and then let them cool overnight in the fridge, and haven't noticed a difference in the ability to peel them or in the consistency of the yolks.)

    The recipe calls for cutting a small sliver off of each end of the egg, and cutting the eggs in half width-wise. This will only work if the yolks are in the center of the egg. Turning them four or five times while they cook helps to set the yolks at dead center. Remove yolks and put in bowl and mix in mayonnaise, vinegars, mustards, cayenne, curry powder, salt and pepper. Mix well (I recommend using the food processor for this).

    Put mixture in a pastry bag with star tip. Pipe mixture into egg white shells in shape of rosettes. (If you don't have a bag or feel like doing this, fine, drop from a spoon. That's what my mom does and her deviled eggs are excellent). Sprinkle tops of eggs with paprika. Refrigerate immediately, serve chilled. If you don't have a deviled egg plate, and the eggs slide around on the plate, serve on a bed of lettuce or greens.

    To transport easily, spoon in filling (no paprika yet, and don't overfill!) and then put top and bottom back together as if none of the above ever happened, wrap each egg in plastic wrap, and put back in the egg crate. Stick the whole shebang in your bag & go to the potluck, picnic, or BBQ with your eggs and paprika. Either split them up and serve on a plate at your destination or just hand out deviled eggs like you are the Easter bunny! If course, if you want to be super cute about it, you could actually go to the 99-cent store and buy plastic eggs, and pass them around in those. And why not?

    --Girlynyc
    Girlynyc is an, ahem, anonymous blogger. She is obsessed with cookbooks and likes to cook almost as much as she likes to eat, but not as often.