Gougères

Gougères is French for "cheese puffs." [Don't fact check that.]

These are perfect finger foods for cocktail parties, dinner parties, or when your wife’s out of town and you don’t want to guzzle those martinis on an empty stomach. I love having a bowl of these when guests first arrive, as we’re all huddling around the kitchen counter while I pour Champagne. You can make them earlier in the day and put them in the oven 20 minutes before your guests arrive.

Makes about 20 gougères

31⁄2 ounces (100 g) butter
1 cup (250 g) water
11/3 cups (200 g) flour
4 eggs
2/3 cups (50 g) Cheddar cheese

Add butter to a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. Add water, heat to a simmer.

Add flour to the saucepan, increase heat to medium-high, and stir constantly. You want it hot enough to cook out some of the flour flavor but not too hot that it starts browning. Reduce the heat if it starts browning.

Once it comes together into a doughy ball and stops sticking to the sides of the pan, remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.

Add one egg, stir to fully incorporate. Add the remaining eggs, one at a time, stirring to fully incorporate.

Preheat the oven to 400 ̊F.

Scoop balls the size of Ping-Pong balls onto a parchment paper–lined baking sheet, top each ball with a bit of cheese, and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

French Onion Dip

This dip is really good. So good, in fact, that my wife and I may have finished off an entire bowl in one sitting while I was writing this for my cookbook. It’s not too creamy since the onions make up a good proportion of the contents. The secret here is to make sure the dip is nice and moist. [I realize I just made 98 percent of you uncomfortable.] I find this dip to be heavier than others, so use a sturdier chip or cracker. I can say from experience that Ritz crackers work well (see note about Wife and me slamming the entire bowl).

Caramelization takes a long time. Like several hours long. But it’s not active time. Once you start cooking the onions, you’ve got plenty of time to work on anything else. So sit back, relax, and have yourself a few cocktails while those babies get sweet, sweet caramel brown.

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
2 pounds onions (900 g or 5–6 cups), 1⁄2-inch dice
1 tablespoon (30 g) Better Than Bouillon
4 tablespoons dry white wine
3 tablespoons (10 g) fresh thyme
4 ounces (114 g) Gruyère
6 ounces (170 g) crème fraîche (or sour cream)
6 ounces (170 g) good mayonnaise, such as Hellman’s

Add the butter and onions to a large sauté pan and sweat over medium-low heat until the onions caramelize, at least 60 minutes, stirring occasionally to caramelize evenly. If the onions get too dry, add a few tablespoons of water and stir. You’re not trying to brown the onions; you’re trying to caramelize them. If they start browning, turn the heat to low. You should hear a gentle sizzling but nothing more than that.

Add the bouillon, white wine, and thyme to the pan. Turn heat up to medium and reduce the liquid to a glaze. Once you achieve the glaze, move the onions to a bowl.

Add the Gruyère, crème fraîche (or sour cream), and mayonnaise to the bowl with the onions and mix thoroughly to combine.

Onion Jam

1 tablespoons (14 g) butter
1 tablespoons (10 g) olive oil
1⁄2 pound (225 g) onions, 1⁄2-inch dice
1 tablespoon (15 g) brown sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon (1 g) kosher salt
4 tablespoons (60 g) balsamic vinegar (don’t waste D.O.P. balsamic here; I.G.P. is fine!)
3 tablespoons (10 g) fresh thyme leaves

Add the butter and olive oil to a sauté pan and melt over medium heat.

Add onions, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until caramelized, about 45 to 60 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of water if the onions get too dry. Adjust the heat so they don’t fry. You’re looking for more a translucent brown color, not a fried brown.

Add the brown sugar, salt, balsamic vinegar, and fresh thyme to the onions and reduce to a syrup.

Baked Brie, Phyllo, and Onion Jam

This dish is a great way to fancy up casual get-togethers, or to eat all by yourself with a nice glass of Chardonnay, Sancerre, or Champagne when the going gets tough. It looks fancy, but, between you and me, it's pretty easy to put together.

Makes 6-8 servings

1 9-ounce wheel of Brie
1⁄4 cup Onion Jam
8 sheets of phyllo dough, thawed
6 ounces butter (85 g), melted
3 tablespoons (10 g) thyme
1/3 cup (50 g) seedless red grapes, cut in half, sprinkled with sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400 ̊F.

Cut the brie wheel in half lengthwise, like a bagel you’re getting ready to schmear. Slather half of the onion jam between the two halves and reassemble. Set aside.

Place two sheets of phyllo dough on a work surface. Overlap them so that they make a square. Paint the sheets with melted butter. Place two more sheets over the first two. Paint with butter. Repeat with the remaining sheets.

Place the Brie wheel in the center, slather the top of the wheel with the remaining onion jam. Sprinkle thyme like it’s raining herbs. Pull the corners together and pinch it at the top. You could do something fancy here . . . or just smoosh it together like I do.

Transfer to a parchment paper lined–baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve with grapes or anything else you desire.

Challah French Toast

I love everything French. Their fries, their toast, their kissing.

My favorite thing about the French is that they eat French toast every morning. When in Rome and all that. I don’t know what they call regular toast, but I don’t care. Give me French toast or give me death! (Also, the kissing.)

French toast always seemed extravagant to me. And so sweet with all that maple syrup (from Canada, a French-speaking country, even!). It seems like a special-occasion breakfast. The addition of vanilla bean and nutmeg makes it taste sweeter than it actually is. You can substitute 1⁄4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract for the vanilla bean pod; it just won’t taste as rich. If you can’t find challah, substitute brioche.

5 extra-large eggs

1⁄2 teaspoon (2 g) kosher salt

1⁄2 vanilla bean

11⁄2 teaspoon (1.5 g) freshly grated nutmeg

2 challah rolls, sliced 1 inch thick, lengthwise

4 tablespoons good butter, such as Kerrygold

For serving:

Good maple syrup (Grade C is more flavorful than Grade A, strangely enough)

Peanut butter, warmed slightly to make it easier to spread

Butter (my favorite! Note: either salted or unsalted is fine here.)

Maldon sea salt (I love the sweet-salty combination of maple syrup and sea salt.)

Crack eggs into a small bowl. Add the salt. Beat with a fork until there are no longer any large globs of egg white visible. You want a homogeneous mixture.

Use a paring knife to cut a whole vanilla bean in half. Cut across the width of the bean. Reserve the other half for another use. Make a slice down the length of the remaining vanilla bean half, being careful not to cut all the way through the bean. Use the tip of the paring knife to pry back the sides of the bean along the cut you just made, exposing the seeds. Run the blade of your knife down the length of the pod, scraping out the tiny seeds. Add the seeds to the eggs.

Grate nutmeg into egg mixture, a little less than one half of a nutmeg seed for two servings, and beat to combine.

Pour egg mixture onto a large plate or casserole dish and add the challah roll slices. Soak for 10 minutes, turning the bread over after 5 minutes.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium. Add butter.

Add soaked slices to pan containing butter and fry until lightly browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, flip each slice, and cook for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.

Move the slices to two plates, with the browner side facing up. Top with butter, melted peanut butter, maple syrup, Mint Simple Syrup, or Spruce Simple Syrup. Or go wild and make your own combination of all the above!

Black & White Cookie

The doorman has a special place in the hearts of New Yorkers. They’re part guardian angel, part sentinel. They hail a cab for you when it’s pouring and there’s only one available cab for 12 billion New Yorkers, and they protect you from the riffraff (anyone else) outside your building. If you look close enough, under their uniforms, they’re wearing capes. It’s customary to tip your doormen every Christmas—a small price to pay for the favors (miracles) they perform.

Which is why it’s no surprise that Midge buys her doormen black and white cookies. Black and white cookies are perfect for people who can’t make up their minds.

Me: “I want a cookie!”
Cookie man: “Chocolate or vanilla?”
Me: “Yes!”

The most difficult thing about eating a black and white cookie is deciding which color goes in my mouth first. Sometimes it’s black. Sometimes it’s white. Sometimes, if I’m being honest, I’ll fold the cookie in half so I get both at the same time.

These are less cakey than the traditional black and white, and they feature a nice little twist: brown butter. That’s right! Black, white, and brown... All shades are welcome. (It’s an equal- opportunity cookie.)

8 ounces (226 g) butter, divided
3⁄4 cup (150 g) sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon (43⁄4 g) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (51/3 g) almond extract
1 teaspoon (5 g) baking powder
1 teaspoon (4 g) salt
11⁄2 cups (225 g) flour

Vanilla Frosting:

1 cup (100 g) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon (15 g) water

Chocolate Frosting:

4 ounces (125 g) semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons (40 g) butter

Add half the butter to a small sauté pan and brown it over medium heat. The butter will melt, then bubble, then bubble even smaller. Once the bubbles get very small, froth-like, watch closely. It’ll begin to brown. The goal is to get as brown as possible without burning it. If you feel like it’s getting close to burning, remove from heat and pour into a heatproof bowl. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Use a hand mixer to cream together the sugar, the reserved brown butter, the egg, and the remaining butter. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix together.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the creamed butter and mix.

Preheat the oven to 325 ̊F.

Spoon flatware teaspoon-sized balls of batter on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, with 2 inches of space between the balls. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature.

For the chocolate frosting

Add the semisweet chocolate and butter to a microwave safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 2 minutes on 30 percent. Stir to mix. Set aside.

For vanilla frosting

Whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, water, and vanilla extract in a small bowl.

To complete

Use a spoon, offset spatula, or butter knife to frost the cookies with half white and half black frosting.

Smoky Barista

I made a fantastic cocktail from a nonalcoholic cocktail book called ZERO—from the talented folks over at the Aviary cocktail book—and had some extra ginger syrup left over. I wondered what ginger would taste like with mezcal and tested it out in this riff on a margarita. It. Is. Amazing.

Ingredients

2 oz Fidencio mezcal
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz ginger syrup
6 Starbucks Caffe Verona coffee beans

Directions

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Ginger Syrup

I just bought the Alinea Group's newest non-alcoholic cookbook—it's amazing, btw—and found myself with some extra ginger syrup after trying out one of their cocktails. So I HAD to add it to a margarita with watermelon. And presto: Watermelon Ginger Margarita.

Ingredients

1 large hand of ginger.
granulated sugar, as needed

Directions

Peel the ginger and process through a juicer. Refrigerate the ginger juice for an hour or two to let the starch settle. Decant the juice into another container and weigh the juice. Measure half that amount of granulated sugar. [For the math-challenged, if you decant 150 grams of ginger juice, you'll need 75 grams granulated sugar.] Add the ginger juice and sugar to a blender and blend on high until all the sugar is dissolved.

Watermelon Ginger Margarita

2 oz Espolon tequila
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz ginger syrup
4 1-inch cubes watermelon

Muddle the watermelon cubes in the bottom of a shaker. Add ice and all the ingredients. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a double old fashioned glass with a salted rim and an ice sphere.

Scalloped Potatoes

My grandma used to make scalloped potatoes whenever the whole family got together. If it wasn’t on the menu, I’d scream until she added it. [I was an angel.]

It takes a little bit of work, but the results are worth it, I promise. Just be aware that your guests may scream if you don’t have it on the menu the next time they come over.

Ingredients

1.5 kg (3 lbs) russet potatoes
1 kg (5 cups) heavy cream
20 g (1 bunch) thyme, tied together with kitchen twine
15 g (1 T) kosher salt
150 g (51⁄4 ounces) cheddar cheese, divided
25 g (1⁄4 cup) panko

Recipe

Peel the potatoes. Then, working in batches, slice them on a mandoline, dropping the potatoes into a bowl of water immediately after slicing.

Add the cream, the thyme, and the salt to a large saucepan. Add potatoes and bring to a simmer. Adjust heat to simmer for 20 minutes. Drain, reserving both the potatoes and the cream. Discard the thyme.

Preheat the oven to 350 ̊F.

Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese and a bit of cream. Add more layers of potatoes and cheese and cream. Try to divide the cheese and cream evenly among the layers, but if you can’t, and have leftovers, it’s okay. I won’t judge you. Just add it all now.

Mix the remaining cheese together with the panko in a small bowl and sprinkle on top of the potatoes. Cover with aluminum foil. Cook for 30 minutes. Remove the cover. If the potatoes are swimming in cream, spoon some off. If they look dry, add a little leftover cream. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the oven and preheat the broiler. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the cheese and panko are browned.

Deviled Eggs

They’re fun to eat and fun to say! I don’t know what makes them deviled—there’s only a sprinkling of harissa powder to give them a red tint, and they’re not spicy—but who am I to argue with tradition?

I’ve taken these deviled eggs up a notch and given them the lox bagel treatment. The olives and capers give a nice pop of flavor and help cut through the luxurious fat while the red onion gives a nice pop of crunch. Oh, and those capers? They become something totally different after a quick dip in hot oil.

Makes 16 filled egg halves

8 eggs
100 g (4 ounces) cream cheese
20 g (11⁄2 tablespoons) good mayonnaise, such as Hellman’s
40 g (1⁄2 cup) olives, diced
4 g (1 teaspoon) kosher salt, divided
115 g yolks from eggs
vegetable oil, as needed
30 g (1⁄4 cup) nonpareil capers
50 g (1⁄4 cup) red onion, sliced
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1–2 tablespoons chives, cut into 1⁄2-inch-long pieces
harissa powder, as needed

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat, add all 8 eggs, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes. Remove to an ice bath and let cool for 30 minutes. Peel and cut eat egg in half along its long axis. Remove the yolks to a large bowl. Set the empty halves to the side.

Add the cream cheese, mayonnaise, olives, and half of the salt to the egg yolks and mix thoroughly. Put the schmear into a small ziplock bag. Seal the bag and snip off a small part of one of the corners. Set aside.

Use a sieve to drain the capers. Dry them on a paper towel–lined plate.

Heat 1 inch of vegetable oil to 375 ̊F in a small saucepan over medium heat. Working in batches, carefully add capers to oil and fry until they split open and get crispy, about 45 seconds. Use a fine-mesh sieve to remove them from the oil and set them on a fresh paper towel–lined plate.

In a small bowl, place the sliced onion, lemon juice, and the remaining salt. Let pickle for 10 to 15 minutes.

In the meantime, divide the egg yolk mixture evenly among the egg whites, squeezing it out through the hole you cut in the ziplock bag. Top each egg with a few capers, a few slices of pickled red onion, and a few chive pieces.

These are really good.

The Whiskey Sour

Whoever named the whiskey sour gets zero points for originality. Other drinks have fancy names: The Martini, The Manhattan, The Slippery Nipple. But the whiskey sour? It sounds exactly how it tastes. What the name doesn’t convey is that there’s a balanced sweetness to make this cocktail more than just a zesty zap of citrus.

1 lemon, sliced into 1⁄4-inch-thick wheels
2 ounces (60 mL) bourbon
1⁄4 ounce (5 mL) Simple Syrup, or Mint Simple Syrup
1⁄2 ounce (15 mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg white (optional)

This is technically an Amaretto Sour, but I technically don't care.

gnudi, morels, asparagus, peas.

Serves 4

Ingredients

200 g ricotta
32 g egg yolk (2 yolks)
2.5 g salt
100 g AP flour

Recipe

200 g ricotta
32 g egg yolk (2 yolks)
2.5 g kosher salt

Mix together in a medium sized bowl.

100 g all purpose flour

Add to cheese mixture and gently stir to incorporate. Form dough into ball and quarter it. Roll each quarter into tubes. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds.
Boil the rounds in a large pot of salted water for 4-5 minutes, or until they come to the surface. Remove with a skimmer/spider.

Blanch asparagus. Shock in an ice bath. Drain. Slice on bias. Reserve.

Sauté morels until soft. Add shallot and sweat for 5 minutes.

Add peas, asparagus, butter, reserved cooking liquid.

Top with lemon zest, parm, chives.

Homemade Ricotta.

Recipe

2 liters (1/2 gallon) whole milk

200 mL (3/4 c) heavy cream (optional, but it's SO worth it)

10 g (1.5 tablespoons) kosher salt

50 g (3 tablespoons) white wine vinegar

Heat the milk, cream, and salt over medium heat to 185˚F (85˚C), stirring frequently. Turn off the heat, stir in vinegar, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes. Place a piece of cheesecloth in a fine mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Strain the ricotta for 30 minutes.

Try it in whipped ricotta or gnudi.

https://youtu.be/ZVhDoIBCoyE

Asparagus "Panna Cotta," Morels, Fava Beans, and Bacon

I usually don't care about "cooking in the season" but I was really in the mood for spring produce. Maybe it's the timeless nature of quarantine [what day/month is this?!?] or maybe it's the fact that my fridge is packed to the gunnels after experimenting with different suppliers, but green was calling to me.

This dish did NOT come out the way I'd anticipated and hoped. I wanted to make an asparagus panna cotta, but remembered that gelatin melts at ~100˚F only AFTER I'd plopped it into a bowl that was quite clearly hotter than 100˚F.

So the panna cotta became "panna cotta."

Asparagus panna cotta

20 g whey (leftover from homemade ricotta. If you don't have whey use whole milk.)
1.76 g Knox brand gelatin
Sprinkle the gelatin over the whey and let it bloom until it's soft, about 10 minutes.

50 g heavy cream
50 g whey
100 g asparagus juice (1 bunch of asparagus with woody ends and tips removed yields about 300 g, about 1 cup, of juice.)
0.1 g salt

Blend together. Then mix with gelatin and whey in a pot. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat until the gelatin dissolves. Cool to room temp. Divide into two small ramekins. Cover and refrigerate at least 5 hours.

New Plates!

My new plates arrived yesterday. I'm so excited to get them into a picture.

I'e been looking for plates like this for months. I found ones I liked early on in my search, but almost everything was north of $50/plate, which I couldn't really justify, especially considering Wiff and I have, for the past several years, been downsizing our stuff.

When I found these babies on Wayfair for around $25 per plate, I was stoked.

Anyway, I shot these test shots this morning and wanted to share with SOMEONE.

Spruce Simple Syrup

Ingredients

250 g (1 cup) granulated sugar

250 g (1 cup) water

125 g (1 cup) spruce tips

Recipe

250 g (1 cup) granulated sugar

250 g (1 cup) water

125 g (1 cup) spruce tips

Add to a microwave safe container—I use this Pyrex measuring cup (affiliate link)—and heat on high until boiling. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Cover and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to a squeeze bottle (affiliate link) and refrigerate.

Basic Pickling Liquid

Last updated: February 18, 2026

This is a basic pickling liquid. It's a 3:2:1:0.3 ratio so it's easily scalable. 3 parts vinegar, 2 parts water, 1 part granulated sugar, and 0.3 parts kosher salt. The 0.3 may be confusing... but it's just 10% of the vinegar.

Oh, and if you don't have rice wine vinegar, that's fine. White or red wine vinegar are fine here too. They'll impart a slightly different flavor, but it'll still work.

Oh! One more thing. This is just a basic pickling liquid. I usually throw in a few black peppercorns, some mustard and/or coriander seeds. You could toss in a star anise pod if you wanted. Go wild!

Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

225 g rice wine vinegar
150 g water
75 g granulated sugar
22.5 g kosher salt

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and set over high heat. Whisk to dissolve the sugar and salt. Immediately pour the liquid over whatever you're pickling in the jar you're pickling in. Cool to room temp, then refrigerate for at least 3 days.

A jar of pickled ramps

Cilantro Lime Beurre Blanc

Last updated: February 18, 2026

Ingredients

1/4 c sliced garlic
1/4 bunch cilantro
6 black peppercorns
2/3 c dry white wine (150 ml)
1/3 c lime juice (75 ml)
1/4 cup heavy cream
8 oz butter, cut into small chunks, chilled
3 tbsp vegetable/chicken/any kind of stock

Recipe

1/4 c sliced garlic
1/4 bunch cilantro
6 black peppercorns
2/3 c dry white wine (150 ml)
1/3 c lime juice (75 ml)
Add to a 1.5qt saucepan over high heat and bring to boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer—around medium low—and simmer until liquid is down to 1 tbsp, about 20 minutes.

1/4 cup heavy cream
Add to the saucepan, increase heat to medium, simmer until it'll coat a spoon, about 5-10 minutes.

8 oz butter, cut into small chunks, chilled
3 tbsp vegetable/chicken/any kind of stock
Reduce heat to low. Add butter to the saucepan one piece at a time, whisking constantly to maintain the emulsion. Strain into small saucepan and stir in stock. Keep warm until ready to use.

Rigatoni with Wild Mushrooms

Serves 4

200 g De Cecco rigatoni
30 g EVOO
50 g (1/2 medium) yellow onion, 1/4-inch dice
15 g (3 cloves) garlic, thinly sliced
300 g wild mushrooms, thinly sliced and/or broken into smaller pieces (see note)
1/2 c white wine
1/2 c vegetable stock
75 g mascarpone
50 g (1 c) grated Parm-Reg
Italian parsley, as needed

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Note the package directions for al dente. Cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than al dente. And then we'll finish cooking it in our sauce.

Set a large skillet over medium-low heat and add EVOO, onion, and garlic. Sweat until translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Sweat means cook slowly, we don't need to brown anything. Add mushrooms and increase heat to medium. Stir occasionally, but not so often that the mushrooms don't have a chance to brown. Brown the mushrooms for 5-7 minutes, then deglaze the pan with the wine. [This is a good time to start cooking your pasta.] Cook until almost all the wine is gone, about 2 minutes. Add the stock and reduce by half, about 5 minutes. Use your judgement, you don't need to be too precise here.

When the pasta is two minutes shy of al dente, use a skimmer/spider to transfer it to the mushroom. Add about a cup of pasta water, the mascarpone, and the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Stir, stir, stir to create a saucy emulsion.

Transfer to a serving bowl and top with a bit more Parmigiano-Reggiano and some Italian parsley.