Filed under Caribbean, Brooklyn · Print This Post
803 Washington Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Lincoln Place, Brooklyn
718/398.3575
about $40 for three dishes, without drinks, with tip
♥
No roti today? I wanted to make sure I heard correctly. I was so excited to eat at Islands after hearing favorable reviews on places to eat around the Brooklyn Museum, but eating goat curry without fresh, warm roti to wrap the meat and sop up the yellow sauce with just about killed the experience.
We craned our necks to climb the steep and very narrow stairs to sit where the air conditioning was working properly. With our goat curry, we ordered the Jamaican staple of jerk chicken and the oxtail stew. Whatever disappointment I harbored because I was unable to show off how roti tastes to my friend, who came all the way from New Jersey to hang out with me, disappeared as soon as I had a taste of the oxtail. The meat separated from the large bone right away, with only a slight pull using my fork. I scooped up some of the red orange sauce onto my rice and ate heartily. The chicken was not as jerky as I would like it to be, but we devoured the meat down to the bone. The goat was salty, without the roti and all, so it was barely touched. I would have taken it home if we didn’t plan on being out all day because there’s something about leftover curry that I like.
Walk down Washington Avenue and you’ll see a few more places to while away your time after a visit to the museum or the botanical garden, including Franklin Park beer garden off St. John’s Place, but do yourself a favor and eat island food that will keep you going all day.
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Filed under Beef · Print This Post
Burgers are burgers, right? It’s summer and you’ve gone to your fifth barbecue this season and yet, you really haven’t had a decent burger. There must be something you can do to make it more than just a burger. Over the weekend, the Dr. and I invited several people to upstate New York where we rented a house. We drove the night before bringing with us a cooler full of meats I ordered from my CSA share, or Community-Supported Agriculture. I ordered them ahead of time from Lewis Waite Farm in Greenwich thinking of the lamb chops, pig’s trotters and beef burgers we could grill for us and our friends.
Cameron volunteered to make patties out of the grass-fed ground beef with smoked Gouda cheese and the prerequisites: garlic, onions, parsley. Two days later, I couldn’t help but recreate them at home. I used my grill pan and turned the vent on high to absorb the smoke and the smell. Instead of smoked Gouda, I used the blue cheese I’ve kept fresh in the fridge using Press’n Seal. The flavor is more fierce than the ones Cameron made because of the cheese, but man, did I have an excellent dinner for a Monday night.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
a small chunk of blue cheese, crumbled
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
half a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red chile, deseeded, finely chopped
oil, salt, pepper
1. Combine all ingredients, except the oil, in a bowl with a dash of salt and pepper. Form extra large golf-sized balls with your hands to help them stick together and then gently flatten them out with your palms to form patties.
2. Heat some oil on a grill pan over medium-high heat. When almost smoking, add the patties to fry. I was able to fit 3 of the 5 patties I made. Using an iron grill press, put on top of the patties to weigh them down. Remove press and flip the burgers slowly using a heat-resistant spatula. Replace the press to cook the other side of the patties. Each side can be cooked medium-rare in about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and finish cooking all the other patties.
3. Serve sandwiches in toasted buns with some hot pickles and mustard.
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