Spicy, Giant Crunchy Corn by Alison Roman

I truly can’t believe I’m writing this. The final recipe. 

There were days when I wished time would speed up so I could arrive here. There have been far more days when I wished time would slow down to delay things a little longer. I wish I could go back and taste certain dishes for the first time, feel the rush of those small victories all over again. I wish I could relive all of the conversations and community shared around those meals. 

For a whole year, my social life has primarily revolved around a cooking project. For a whole year, I’ve filled moments of solitude, of dreaming about the future, of rest, of worry, of exhaustion - with cooking and writing. It would be impossible to count the hours spent on this project, but there’s really no need to do that. I would do it all over again. 

It feels sort of odd to end such a journey with a recipe as simple as spiced corn nuts. Somehow this one slipped through the cracks till the very end. Yet, after what’s felt like a marathon of the past month, perhaps it’s fitting to end with a snack that only requires baking corn nuts in oil, then tossing them in nutritional yeast and aleppo pepper. What results are highly addictive and oddly irresistible toasty corn kernels - perfect for a party or sharing with coworkers the next day. A dish meant to be shared. (I couldn’t for the life of me find quicos, so I used the Love Corn brand of corn nuts, which are less salty).

This project started out of a desire to reincorporate my artist-self back into my daily life. After years of studying theater and making art all the time, the years since have felt drier, lacking. This project changed that by providing an outlet for self-expression and personal growth all in one. I don’t want to go back to my old way of being. I’m ready to keep going. 

This is not the end. I believe it’s only the beginning.

225 recipes cooked, 0 to go. Goal: Complete.

Dad's Scotch Gravlax by Alison Roman

There was this bagel shop near my high school that served a freshly baked, toasted sesame seed bagel with cream cheese for $5.50. Besides going to Panera for a cup of their tomato soup, this was my ideal lunch, which I ate often. 

One day in line at the bagel shop, I heard the person in front of me order a toasted bagel with lox and cream cheese. I hadn’t the faintest idea what lox was. Since these were the olden days, and I didn’t have a smartphone to look up quick definitions or Google Image search for clues, I had to use my good old fashioned virtues of paying really close attention. As we all stood by the counter, waiting for our order number to be called, I kept my eye on the lox-orderer. Of course, the last thing I expected to see was cured salmon. When I saw that plate of bagel and cheese topped in fish, I couldn’t help but say “gross!” out loud. To this day, I don’t know if the lox-orderer heard me. 

Also, to this day, I’ve never ordered a bagel with lox and cream cheese. I have absolutely no desire for it, mostly due to texture (can you say slimy?). So when I saw this gravlax recipe, I had two reactions: 1) “what is gravlax?” and 2) “oh no.” 

Answer key: 

1. Gravlax is Nordic salmon dish that consists of salmon cured (never smoked) in salt, sugar, and dill. Alison’s definition adds scotch, lemon zest, and aleppo pepper. 

   1. There are two main steps to making Alison’s Dad’s gravlax. First, you must make the ingredients become intimately acquainted with one another. Start by pouring a tablespoon of scotch over the fish. Then, after massaging the other ingredients listed above into what feels like “wet sand,” rub them on top of the salmon. Second, you must prepare it for curing. This involves tightly wrapping the fish and cure in many layers of saran wrap. Then poking a few holes in the wrapping on the bottom. And finally, placing the salmon on a rack inside of a baking sheet with a plate and heavy skillet on top to press the cure into the salmon. Over the next 3-5 days (I decided on 4), water creeps out of the salmon and it becomes cured. 

2. My worst fears didn’t come true. Yes, the salmon is somewhat slimy, and yes, it was a mental battle for me to get over that fact. But the flavor is so complex and interesting and in your face, that it overrode any focus on texture. Seriously -- the flavors of scotch, pepper, and lemon are so strong, that I couldn’t think of anything else. If I were to make this again, which, who knows, I might some day, I would stop the curing at 3 days for a slightly fresher taste. But I can’t stress enough how much the flavor distracted me from what I was most wary of. 

   1. It helped that I served the fish with other delicious things: gluten-free bagel, almond milk cream cheese, cucumber slices, and lemon. 

To answer your ever-burning question, will I now become a lox-orderer after making Mr. Roman’s gravlax? The answer is, likely not. 

148 recipes cooked, 77 to go.

Perfect Asparagus with Garlic and Salted Olive Oil by Alison Roman

For every way to prepare great asparagus, there are at least eight ways to screw it up. I like asparagus, but the reason I don’t love it is because I’ve had far more asparagus-gone-wrong’s, than right’s. Too soggy, too tough, too stringy, too limp, too mushy – we’ve all made asparagus one or more of these ways. It’s easy to do! 

Alison claims that she’s found the *perfect* way to cook asparagus. In my opinion, she’s gotten pretty darn close. 

Alison’s asparagus method includes blanching the greens in a pot of boiling, salted water for 45 seconds (that’s it!). The asparagus must be on the thinner side for this to work. Not so thin that the top flops over, but not so thick that it doesn’t do a little wavering when you hold it up from the bottom. Once the 45 seconds are up, the asparagus can rest on a plate with paper towels to soak up excess water. Plate the greens and drizzle with a mixture of olive oil, salt, grated garlic and aleppo pepper, and of course, flaky sea salt. The flavor is subtle. The asparagus (asparagi?) are still crunchy, but not tough. They’re a beautiful bright green, and taste as fresh as they look…

The longer I think about it, the more I’m inclined to agree that it is the perfect asparagus. 

81 recipes cooked, 144 to go.