February 9, 2010
Posted by Blake Royer, February 9, 2010 at 4:00 PM
[Photograph: Blake Royer]
When I'm after elegance, my go-to is salmon. It's easy to cook well, delicious, and relatively inexpensive. I also tend to look for recipes that use the oven instead of the stove top—a way to introduce good caramelization on the fish without creating that lingering fishy smell that we all love so much.
I adapted this recipe from Real Life Entertaining, a glossy book by Jennifer Rubell with photographs of fabulous people eating fabulous things. Normally I don't go for that kind of cookbook, but I was pulled in by the ease and elegance of her recipes. Making full use of the oven, small potatoes and wedges of lemon cook alongside the salmon, which is coated with mustard seeds and fresh dill. A fresh yogurt sauce—bit of garlic, lemon juice, more dill, and chopped cucumber—is simple to throw together, while the rest of dinner is ready in 20 minutes.
It's nothing hectic, and the result is wonderful.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, February 9, 2010 at 2:30 PM
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
This Corn Pudding from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson is a not only an insanely rich side or fantastic brunch dish, it's also a bit of an optical illusion. When the pudding emerges from the oven it appears to be a golden yellow-brown pan of cornbread studded with scallions, cheddar, and bacon but the second you break the surface it reveals its true nature. Under the crisp surface lies a creamy, custardy pudding that I for one would be happy to eat all day.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, February 9, 2010 at 1:00 PM
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
Pineapples are not a fruit that I think about on a regular basis. I have nothing against them but they've never been part of my regular fruit rotation and anyone who witnessed me struggle to pick out a ripe one at the market today can attest. You see, I stood in front of the mountainous pile of pineapples for a solid five minutes staring blankly, trying to remember any shred of pineapple knowledge that might be hidden deep in the recesses of my brain. I finally decided that smell was as good a judge as any and went about smelling a good portion of the pineapples. Eventually I found one that smelled, well, like a pineapple, threw it into the cart and made my way home to attempt a very unlikely dessert.
When I saw a recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake in Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller I must admit that I was a bit taken back. This was not the kind of refined, elegant dessert that I expected to see from such a lauded chef. To me pineapple upside-down cake means syrupy canned pineapple slices, glowing red maraschino cherries, and lots of gloopy cake batter made from a boxed mix, purely 1960s housewife stuff. But once I got to reading through the recipe it became clear that this isn't all that different from a tarte tatin, caramelized fruit baked underneath a layer of sweet pastry or in this case, cake.
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Posted by Chichi Wang, February 9, 2010 at 10:15 AM
Though some ingredients in previous Nasty Bits entries bore some resemblance to today's featured item, this really is what you think it is. [Photographs: Chichi Wang]
Nasty Bits lovers, if you think I'm cooking heart for Valentine's Day, then you underestimate my mettle. Why talk about matters of the heart, when we've yet to cover penis? The Chinese believe the organ to possess all kinds of medicinal properties related to virility and general health. Though I harbored no presumptions about its libido-enhancing abilities, I was curious about the culinary merits of eating penis: Namely, is it delicious? Even more pressing, what does the organ taste like in the first place?
A quick search yielded the somewhat opaque answer that the penis is primarily vascular tissue, composed of tubes with names like vas deferens. Knowing something about its anatomical breakdown brought me no closer, however, to imagining the taste. Flesh, fat, skin, tendon, and even cartilage are all parts to which meat eaters are exposed. An organ composed of vascular tissue, on the other hand, calls to mind spongy textures and very little flavor. Lucky for me, my favorite Korean market regularly carries packs of beef "pizzle," the typical euphemism for penis, so acquiring the organ was the least of my worries.
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Posted by Carolyn Cope, February 9, 2010 at 8:00 AM
You may know Carolyn Cope as Umami Girl. She stops by on Tuesdays with ideas on preparing fruits and vegetables. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Carolyn Cope]
As spry young college graduates in the early dot-com era, we used to joke that the dozens of small companies springing up on a daily basis might have been named with a random word generator. Let the machine choose one from Column A: Technology Words and maybe one from Column B: Relationship Words or Column C: Nerd Words, and you'd be filing for IPO within months. Since it's bad form to speak ill of the dead, I'll offer only my own beloved former employer by way of example, born Cyber Dialogue, and currently (still!) doing business as Fulcrum Analytics. See what I mean?
(Then, of course, somebody went and made one of those machines, but that's another story entirely.)
Usually I like to tell myself how much I've grown and changed in the years since then. I could be mistaken for a real adult these days. But then, here's me, having a little too much fun working for websites, and contemplating the use of a random word generator to decide which of my favorite roasted cauliflower recipes to share with you.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 8, 2010 at 4:50 PM
"I can't be the only one who grew up with this meal."
[Photographs: Nick Kindelsperger]
Call it what you will: creamed chipped beef, "Stew On a Shingle," or some other variation of S.O.S. It's all the same and no matter how you attempt to present it, the plate will always look like a mess. There is just no hiding that this is just dried beef served with a simple gravy on toast.
The meat comes from a little baggy that has been dried, smoked, and salted. It's not exactly a delicacy, but I can't be the only one who grew up with this meal. I have a serious sentimental attachment to chipped beef so when I found this version on Whipped, I had to give a chance. But would it stand up to my grown-up tastes?
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Posted by Caroline Russock, February 8, 2010 at 3:15 PM
"Starting with the pre-ferment gives you a dough that's more resilient than most make-at-home pizza crusts."
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
Homemade pizza is something that I try my hand at fairly frequently and although it's never bad, many times the dough isn't exactly where I want it to be. I suppose that I just hadn't found the ideal pizza dough recipe until I came across the Pan Pizza from The Grand Central Baking Book. It's really one of the best dough recipes I've tried in a while.
This dough is a thick-crusted base that can stand up to a lot of toppings, similar to a Sicilian-style. The dough has a lightness that belies its dense look, which comes from a technique that was new to me, at least as far as pizza is concerned—the pre-ferment.
Basically you mix yeast, water, and flour and let it sit for an hour. After it bubbles up into a starter, you mix it in with the rest of the ingredients for the dough, a little more yeast, olive oil, salt and flour. The dough is kneaded and left to rise again for another hour.
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Posted by cakespy, February 8, 2010 at 2:30 PM
Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy) drops by every Monday to share a delicious dessert recipe. —The Mgmt.
[Original artwork and photographs: Jessie Oleson]
Sure, conversation hearts are a sweet gesture. But are you sending the wrong message?
Do you really want, for instance, to say "text me" to someone from whom you'd rather not receive digital missives, or to downplay your serious crush by leaving it at "U R Special"?
Avoid etiquette blunders and tell them how you really feel by making your own personalized homemade conversation hearts. They're surprisingly easy to make, just as sweet as the store bought kind, and you have the freedom to set the tone you want—whether it's sweet, snarky, or confessional.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, February 8, 2010 at 1:15 PM
"I left these on my kitchen counter and by midafternoon the bowl was almost empty."
[Flickr: elana's pantry]
Memorable dinners don't have to begin with fancy canapés or the perfect amuse-bouche. More often than not, a bowl of mixed nuts or a hunk of cheese and some crackers are an ideal way to welcome your guests, along with a cocktail or a glass of wine. Even a culinary mastermind like Thomas Keller agrees that a few bowls of nuts are a perfectly acceptable hors d'oeuvre. Here are a pair of recipes to add a little extra panache to simple and satisfying roasted nuts.
I was curious to see how Keller would handle a preparation that usually requires nothing more than some oil olive or butter and a sprinkling of salt. In these recipes for Candied Pecans and Herbed Toasted Walnuts from Ad Hoc at Home, Keller keeps the list of ingredients to a minimum but employs a few extra cheffy techniques that keep these nuts from tasting like they came from a can.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, February 8, 2010 at 11:30 AM
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
[Photograph: Kristen Swensson]
Lately, I've been loving The Kitchn almost as much as I love Friday Night Lights. And for a food blog to surpass Tim Riggins in the hierarchy of Things That Are Nice to Look at—well, that's pretty big stuff.
A few months ago, the blog re-posted a recipe for ice cream made entirely from one ingredient: bananas. You simply freeze the fruit, whip it in a food processor for a few minutes, and *poof*. It morphs into a custardy, soft serve treat.
Since Valentine's Day and its obligatory dessert indulgences are around the bend, the dish had to be attempted. A few readers suggested adding peanut butter and honey, which sounded most excellent. (Elvis would be pleased.) So, away I went.
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