The Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare

If you haven’t heard about The Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare by now, it's time to change that. With a multi-course tasting menu, and two Michelin stars, it's like a Brooklyn El Bulli. I celebrated my birthday there in September and it was the perfect place for a special occasion.

Their menu devotes just one word to each of it many courses, and a whole two sentences about photos and notes. In a nutshell, they’re not allowed. The chef wants you to enjoy his food without any distractions. For me, this was a relief. These days, I don't get to go out to dinner or see many of my friends much. To spend a few precious hours with some of my favorite people while enjoying cod, hiramasa, king salmon, egg, sturgeon, ravioli, duck, cheese and dessert, I didn’t want to worry about details. I do that enough.

I can’t tell you much more about what we ate, but I can tell you that it was all excellent. The chef, Cesar Ramirez, plated the food -- small, delicate bites that looked beautiful -- on china. We were all in awe of a sardine stitched into a potato chip . A few reviews I'd read commented on his bad attitude. Either he'd read them too, or people like to exaggerate. He kept to himself most of the night, but our lively group got him to loosen up a bit (and let us take a picture).

New York Magazine recently wrote a longer review of Brooklyn Fare and called its location brutal. Sure, this particular stretch of Schermerhorn Street is desolate and not exactly charming, but it doesn’t really matter. You’ll be there at night when it’s dark and you’re not coming to sightsee. Once you slip inside and sit down, you’ll feel like you’re at a fancy dinner party (even thought you're really in a stainless steel prep kitchen). But beware: Cesar will charge you for any broken china.

If you go by yourself, hopefully you'll click with some of the other people at the communal table. To have the most fun, do what I did. Get a big group and try to fill it up yourself; it seats up to 18 people. It’s still BYO from what I’ve heard. Stock their bar, then sit back and relax. Cesar will worry about the details and you can enjoy an incredible meal. Without any distractions.

The Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare
200 Schermerhorn Street
718-243-0050

*Brooklyn Fare's website focuses more on its supermarket of the same name a few doors down. Its Facebook page has more info about The Chef's Table.

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

With two kids, there are some days when it's impossible to leave home. In my case, one child usually decides to take a long nap and by the time he wakes up, the other one is tired. It's nice to get some one-on-one time with each of them, but when I'm in pajamas all day and somehow can't find a second to sit down, it's easy to go a little stir crazy.

To feel productive, and keep Nico busy, I usually pull out a cookbook and we find something to make.

Before becoming a Mom, the thought of cooking with kids didn't make much sense to me. I imagined the whole process being slow, messy and not a lot of fun. I had no idea how malleable motherhood would make me.

Cooking with Nico is one of my favorite things. As I suspected, it can get very messy and the final product isn't always the prettiest, but I love watching my child learn to cook. Whenever I ask him if he feels like baking, he usually rattles off a bunch of things he'd like to make. Chocolate chip cookies always top the list.

I read about these Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies from Kim Boyce's cookbook Good to the Grain on Orangette, so when we found ourselves stuck at home the other day while Leo took a very long morning nap, I knew it was time to finally make them.

Thanks to three cups of whole wheat flour, their flavor is more complex than a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but with a lot of butter and sugar, they are by no means healthy. I usually inhale regular chocolate chip cookies. I ate a few of these in one sitting, but their wonderfully chewy texture made me eat slowly and really appreciate them.

My only complaints were that they tasted slightly salty (maybe because I used regular salt instead of kosher?) and had too much sugar. I'd like to make them again, but will use less of both, and a really dark chocolate and see if that helps balance things at all.

Nico loved them (although I have yet to see a cookie he didn't like). When it was time for his nap, (right around the time Leo woke up, of course), he gave me the biggest smile and said: "We made some really awesome cookies!"

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bits

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. (If you have no parchment, you can butter the sheets.)

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to blend.

Put the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the chocolate, and mix on low speed until evenly combined. (If you have no stand mixer, you can do all of this with handheld electric beaters and/or a large, sturdy spoon.) Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then use your hands to turn and gently massage the dough, making sure all the flour is absorbed.

Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each cookie. (I made mounds about 1 tablespoon in size which explains why my cookies are on the thin side. I have a hard time controlling myself when it comes to cookies and wanted to keep them small.)

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly browned. Transfer the cookies, still on parchment, to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: about 20 cookies




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Thanksgiving Dinner and Dessert in Brooklyn

Two of my recent Mommy Poppins posts are about Thanksgiving in Brooklyn. The first features some of my favorite Brooklyn restaurants and what they'll be serving this year, plus places that have meals to go. The other lists Brooklyn bakeries that I love and what they'll be baking.

5 Brooklyn Restaurants Serving Thanksgiving Dinner, Plus 3 Places with Meals to Go

9 Brooklyn Bakeries with Delicious Thanksgiving Desserts

Since Daniel, Nico, Leo and I are on our own for Thanksgiving this year, we'll be referring to both lists often. We're thinking about getting most of our meal to go (as of now, we're leaning toward Bklyn Larder), but I plan on making this kale and apple salad with pancetta and candied pecans from Food & Wine.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds: Brooklyn's Best Pie

I've been spending a lot of time on a certain block in Gowanus. Close to the F stop on 4th Avenue, it has two important places. One spot makes Nico very happy (and though Leo is only 5 months old, he seems to enjoy it, too). The other motivates me, no matter how sleep-deprived I am, to schlep a baby and a 2 1/2 year old there almost every week.

Nico and Leo's place is Powerplay, a children's gym that has classes and an indoor playspace. Four & Twenty Black Birds, home to Brooklyn's best pie, is mine.

I've never really been a pie person. I usually crave crisps and crumbles, or brownies, cookies and cakes. But these pies are all I want lately. My favorites are filled with in-season fruits. Not sticky sweet, they have a double-crust and are sprinkled with raw sugar. On my last visit, I ordered slices of Spiced Plum Fig, Salted Caramel Apple and Plum Crumble.

Opened by two sisters from South Dakota, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is small and cozy. Some seem to come in for their morning cup of coffee while others linger at a big wooden table. The pies are perfect, but other baked goods, such as fat morning cakes stuffed with figs, or strawberries or prunes are also pretty addictive. It'd be a good place to relax with a friend and enjoy some sweets and a hot drink. For now, I get mine to go. I wait till both boys are asleep, then I heat my slice gently in the oven and eat it with some Greek yogurt on the side.

At $4.50 a slice, it's not the cheapest treat out there. After apple picking a few weeks ago, I found their Salted Caramel Apple Pie recipe and considered making it myself. Reading the instructions, I remembered that it takes a lot of time and patience to make a really good pie, especially when making your own double-crust. These days, I'll happily pay the Elsen sisters to make it for me. Again, and again, and again.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds
439 3rd Avenue (corner of 8th Street)
718-499-2917

Baby Chef

This is Leo. Or Baby Chef, as people referred to him last night while we celebrated Halloween in Park Slope. He was supposed to be the Pillsbury Dough Boy, but I never got around to making the sign for his hat. (Now that I think about it, Baby Chef is a better costume anyway. I love Pillsbury's adorable icon, but I don't want to promote bread from a can.)

A punctual little guy, Leo arrived on his due date almost 5 months ago. Since then, life has been exhausting and exhilarating. Busy, and sometimes blurry. Becoming a family of four is intense, and incredible.

In other news, I recently started freelance writing for a few sites. I'll have some articles launching soon on baby gooroo, a weekly blog on iVillage Food (starting tomorrow), and I'm now a Brooklyn contributor for Mommy Poppins, a great site for kid-friendly activities in New York City. I recently wrote about bakeries in Brooklyn that serve seasonal sweets and have fun places to play nearby. It was inspired by my food tours which I've taken a break from for now, but plan to start again at some point on a regular basis.

Life is busier than ever, but it feels good to be writing and cooking again. Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you about the best pie in Brooklyn.