5-Second Rule: Notes from a Student Foodie

I’m shocked by how many residents don’t cook for themselves. (And by cooking, I don’t mean heating up Trader Joe’s prepared foods).

Everyone at Broome Street should take advantage of what this area has to offer in the way of cuisine. We live on the intersection of SoHo, NoLita, Chinatown, and Little Italy! In this weekly column I’ll be keeping you posted on food events, the best in local dining, cheap eats, and helpful cooking tips.

For Valentine’s Day, the last thing I wanted to do was go out. We can all agree that it was pretty awful out, and after an hour of drudging through the snow with groceries, I looked forward to staying in and doing some heavy duty cooking.

I got a recipe for Braised Veal stuffed with Breadcrumbs, Pancetta, Rosemary, and Lemon (foodnetwork) and modified it a little. First of all, I never ever measure things out unless I’m baking. Eye-balling takes some time to get right, but I find that rigidly following any recipe makes cooking far to labor-intensive. This is an intense recipe with serious prep, but I felt I should go all out for the holiday.




I don’t have a Dutch oven, but you can braise meat in any pot, so long as it doesn’t have a non-stick surface. True Story.


Add a pinch of sugar to help caramelize vegetables like carrots and onions. This gives the veggies a nice gloss. I added the veal, stock, and put the pot in the oven for 3 hours.

Here’s the recipe to my fail safe Rosemary Mashed Potatoes:
1 bag of baby potatoes (about 3-5 cups)
¾ cup Chicken stock (tonight I used the veal stock just to add some consistency)
2 Tsp. crème fraiche
2 tsp. crème cheese
¼ stick of butter
2 sprigs of rosemary minced.
¼ cup Parmesan cheese

The beauty of baby potatoes is that you don’t need to peel them, though sometimes I like to give them a nice once-over so it’s not too skin-ey. Boil potatoes till you can cut one with a spatula. Drain. Add the rest of ingredients, and go to town.

The Final Plate:


For dessert I made Molten Chocolate Cake, which was so easy that I sort of got suspicious. I tried the Paula Deen recipe, but I like my way much better. I got the idea from Finale, a dessert restaurant in Boston. The inside of the cake is thick, runny chocolate. Here’s how:

1 cup Domino’s Superfine Sugar
9 ounces semisweet baking chocolate
1 stick butter
½ All-Purpose/Cake Flour
3 beaten eggs
½ tsp. Almond extract
1 tsp. Vanilla extract

Preheat oven 425 degrees. Chop up chocolate and butter and melt together in a double-boiler. (To double boil, simmer some water in a saucepan, and put a ceramic or steel boil over it at medium heat. Place the chocolate and butter inside, and stir gradually until fully incorporated.) Slowly fold in the sugar and flour. When fully mixed, add eggs and stir till smooth. Add to buttered, chilled ramekins (or cupcake pan, or custard dish), and bake for 15 minutes, or until you see a slight rise.


My Valentine’s Day meal was prepared entirely from groceries I purchases in this area! I went to Dean and Deluca on Prince and Broadway to get my veal and chocolate. For the rest, I went to Met Foods on Prince and Mulberry.

For next week, get ready for Chinese New Year by getting some grub in Chinatown. I’ll be hitting my perennial favorites with full write-ups:

Vegetarian Dim Sum House- 24 Pell Street
Joe Shanghai’s- 9 Pell Street
Peking Duck House- 28 Mott Street
Wild Ginger Vegan Cafe- 380 Broome Street (right down the street)