It’s the last Veggie of 2022 and, as your writer, I have to admit I’ve often slipped into a weird timeline in the kitchen: temporarily ahead in time, out of sync with everyone else so that I can tell you about a recipe I love and you can make it at just the right moment. This isn’t a complaint! The other night, for example, I feasted on Eric Kim’s chestnut risotto, a luxurious New Year’s Eve dinner, even though it was just a regular-shmegular Thursday night.
The setup was quite involved, but not intensive. I roasted mushrooms and onions, pickled sliced celery and celery leaves, fried some pre-roasted and peeled chestnuts in olive oil, grated cheese and whisked white miso with hot water to dissolve it. Finally, I cooked the arborio rice in a scrap stock until the starchy grains were fat, tender and glossy.
The risotto was so comforting and delicious. It would be perfect for an end-of-year dinner party with a small crowd, with everyone piling on their own toppings and passing around a bottle of cold, bubbly wine and then sinking into the sofa with the dogs. But I was pretty delighted that I ate it in my pajamas!
I don’t have a New Year’s Eve tradition, but on the first day of the year, my husband usually bakes a few sheet trays of focaccia and I keep a very large pot of black-eyed peas going on the stove. We invite friends and family, whoever is free, to drop in for breakfast (and gossip!) whenever they can.
Take a look at Mashama Bailey’s perfectly easy recipe for black-eyed peas if you’re not familiar with cooking them. (I usually like to add a lot of greens as well, like collards, and let them simmer and almost melt into the pot.)
If you prefer to start your year with the taste of something sweet, and you’re cooking for one, or two, I can’t imagine anything better than a little pile of delicate malawax, perfumed with cardamom and ghee. Ifrah Ahmed’s recipe calls for a blender to make the simple batter, and if flipping thin crepes makes you a little anxious, you could always use a nonstick pan instead of a cast-iron one.
The most important direction in Ifrah’s recipe, in my opinion: Eat the malawax right away, while they’re still nice and warm and the edges are crisp!
Malawax (Cardamom Crepes)
One More Thing
Do you ever sprout your own sprouts in the kitchen? I do it pretty often, and similar to when I’m planting seeds out in the garden, I’m still absolutely delighted by the sudden rush of growth, the magic of it. Every. Single. Time.
I wrote about some particularly wonderful sprout-filled sandwiches in Los Angeles and looked back into the food’s recent history as an American health food fad in Southern California that started in the early 1950s. And as I was eating many raw alfalfa sprouts, I was reminded that sprouts aren’t just a symbol of a new beginning, but 1,000 actual new beginnings. 🌱
Thanks for reading The Veggie, and Happy New Year!
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