We ran, in the dark, through the rain, to reach Daphne’s. It was a restaurant we had passed during a walk through Chelsea the day before. (It is next door to Itsu, a sushi restaurant that has a conveyor belt which moves color-coded plates of raw fish bits around the room. Intriguing.) We had impulsively called Daphne’s for reservations for that evening, and as humorous as the notion must have seemed to the voice on the other end of the phone, we were promised two seats at the bar. We shook off the rain and climbed high onto our perches and eagerly ordered our wine.
Last week I mentioned this meal, as our companions at the bar were so amusing. They were stick-thin young women, taking butterfly sips of tall golden cocktails, chatting companionably about expensive draperies, while constantly checking multiple cell phones for messages. I felt rather matronly as I drank my wine deeply.
We learned that when traveling it is best to try new things. (Certainly not the ziggurat roller coaster sushi next door – not for me at any rate.) But I was willing to heed the advice of our charming barman and try the wildly exotic-sounding Burrata con Pomodorini e Focaccia. It was basically tomatoes, basil and exceedingly fresh and creamy mozzarella with olive oil and truly crunchy and wonderful toasted bread. Not a revolutionary dish by any stretch of the culinary imagination. But trying to recreate this at home with grocery store ingredients was our next challenge.
Making our own burrata is going to be our summer project, and I will be sure to keep you posted with our progress. All the websites promise that it is easy (and fun!) to make mozzarella, and we found a couple of recipes for burrata which might be a little challenging for these fledgling cheese makers, so we’ll start with mozzarella and see if the marriage survives the next step to burrata. We found a cheese making kit at Sur la Table, the gourmet food store which is apparently located on every trendy Brooklyn street corner. I have found one not so far from here, and plan on a weekend raid.
In the meantime, while the memory is still vivid, I decided to use the freshest mozzarella I could find, to create an approximation of the dish, with a slight difference – I would roast the tomatoes so they would seem as jewel-like and sweet as the ones we ate in London. I must remember to add more wine to the shopping list.
Our friends at Food52, who are always so clever, had a great recipe for Mozzarella and Roasted Cherry Tomato Salad, which I followed as closely as I could. Instead of 2 cups yellow cherry tomatoes and 2 cups of red cherry tomatoes, I used just 2 cups of red. There were just the two of us and yellow could not be had where I shop. Perhaps you will have better luck. Do your own math.
https://www.food52.com/blog/1050_mozzarella_and_roasted_cherry_tomato_salad
How could you not love a recipe for My Best Tomato Sandwich. The very notion sends me back to the fourth grade, when Harriet the Spy (Harriet M. Welch) brought a tomato sandwich for lunch every single school day. My school lunch sandwiches consisted of a lot of peanut butter, or maybe the odd deviled ham…
https://www.food52.com/blog/1041_my_best_tomato_sandwich
It is just a few days until summer, and with summer come the bumper crops of never-ending zucchini. This might save neighborhood relations, when a bushel or two is dropped off on your front porch, without a note. https://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/summer/cooknow_tomatoes/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Zucchini-and-Tomatoes-with-Feta-Sauce-232146
If you feel like staying inside cooking here is something that you could try when your tomato plants outpace the zucchinis. https://www.roadfood.com/Recipes/124/fried-green-tomatoes
We were pleasantly surprised to find out that Daphne’s is a well-known restaurant, and that we were not blazing trails. Clearly, we are not as trendy as Brooklyn, let alone London, so for a moment we felt like we were the cool kids. It is listed in the latest Tatler as a place to meet and greet. We will have to go back, now that we know the way.
https://www.daphnes-restaurant.co.uk/
https://www.tatler.com/guides/restaurant-guides/2011/italian-job/daphne%E2%80%99s
In case you want to try cheese making along with us: https://www.surlatable.com/
“Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.”
-Alice May Brock
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