Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 18, 2008 at 1:00 PM
It isn’t summer yet, but the sun has me thinking. Every June when the food magazines put out issues full of gorgeous grilled things, I, a grill-deprived citizen of New York City, feel somehow snubbed. The rest of the country, I imagine, is enjoying lingering al fresco dinners on decks and in gardens as I continue to eat inside at a corner of the table that also holds my computer and my work. Certain things I never get to eat at home at all—grilled fish, grilled pizza, grilled corn.
Luckily, two summers ago I finally made the consoling discovery that you can cook very tasty hamburgers indoors in a cast-iron skillet. For some reason I never make them in winter, but now that I can leave the house without a coat, it’s time to throw open all the windows for a Saturday night cookout high above 57th Street.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 14, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Photograph from RockyEda on Flickr
I've been working my way through everyone’s suggestions in response to last month’s post about how to eat sardines. With many methods and recipes left to try, I have already discovered one new favorite. Sardines and hard-boiled eggs didn’t sound like a natural combination to me, but since more than one person cited the pairing with some fondness, I had to try it.
It’s really good! Especially on an English muffin. Thank you, hanak and allakarasik. Obviously this is a great source of protein for people who eat fish and eggs but not meat, and sardines are full of the wonderful fish oil we could all use more of. For people like my dad (who said, “Here’s a recipe for sardines: Give the sardines to the cat and order a pizza”), this could be a good gateway sardine dish. The eggs really mellow out the oily little fish, and the texture of the salad on a soft roll is very comforting.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 7, 2008 at 4:15 PM
During the time I spent studying abroad in London, I became infatuated with the egg and watercress sandwiches you could buy pre-wrapped at the corner store. I loved how the simple ingredients were transformed into a unique package. Perhaps I loved them so because they were the cheapest possible meal I could find, but I came home with a real hankering for them in all their packaged glory.
I thought it would be easy to recreate them—it’s basically just eggs, mayonnaise, watercress, and bread. I attempted to crack the code a few years back, but something essential was missing and my early interpretations always ended up a tad too creamy and bland. This recipe from Saveur is much better. This recipe spikes that basic mixture with white wine vinegar and mustard, adding a wonderful contrast to the creamy mayo. It’s also advertised as an open-faced sandwich, which allows the watercress to play a more critical roll. But it’s just as good squeezed between two slices of bread.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, March 31, 2008 at 12:45 PM
You don’t need me to tell you to pack a sandwich for lunch, but lately for some reason I can’t get peanut butter and honey out of my head. Though I’ve been eating it on spelt bread in a gesture towards healthiness, I often dream of eating it on the dreadfully soft white bread we used to use at summer camp.
As a kid and a teenager I spent three weeks every summer in a screen and concrete cabin on the shores of a lake about an hour outside of Austin. The camp cook, Barney, was a little-seen but much-beloved institution. Each cabin was expected to make up a little song and dance in praise of him at least once a week (no joke). We looked forward to certain meals obsessively, but I can remember only a few now: honeybuns for breakfast, chicken fried steak and apple crisp for lunch, and taco salad for dinner. (For some reason out biggest, hottest meal of the day was served at lunchtime, when the temperature usually hovered around 97 degrees. Perhaps the director’s hope was that we would all pass out during the required post-lunch siesta instead of playing pranks on our sleeping counselors.)
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 29, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
I don't know what did it, but this past week I'd been craving a good sloppy Joe. Luckily, I had just the recipe for these tangy-sweet sandwiches.
You see, a couple years ago, I had a similar craving, but I wanted to avoid whatever weirdness might be in those canned mixes. I was thinking aloud about this around a coworker at the time, and the following week, out of nowhere, she dropped off a hand-written recipe on my desk for "Hamburger Goo." I'm not going to lie and say it's faster than opening a can and pouring, but really, all you have to do is dice some onion and chop some celery and you've done the heavy lifting. After that, it's just a matter of browning some ground beef and measuring out some basic pantry staples.
If you're a fan of the canned stuff, this recipe is a pretty close approximation, and you can feel all the better for it knowing exactly what goes into it.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, March 26, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Photo courtesy of Adam Fields
If you love meat and you love sandwiches, then it doesn't get better than a sandwich made by a butcher. Makes sense, right? I mean, if a guy can take apart an animal, he probably knows how to make it taste delicious. That's all I could think about last night as I stood with 11 other "classmates" at a pig butchering class in the Brooklyn Kitchen (a hipster's Williams Sonoma for New Yorkers who love to cook). The butcher, Tom Mylan, was dissecting half of a 200-plus-pound Berkshire pig, and the 12 of us had paid $75 to watch him do it, ask him anything we wanted, and, of course, divvy up the meat at the end of the show.
My question (aside from how I could get his job): If you were going to make a sandwich from this glorious animal, what part would you use and how would you do it?
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 24, 2008 at 4:30 PM
In my family, Easter means a big old ham and lots of leftovers. When the parents hugged us goodbye they sent us on our way with much more ham than a normal person should eat. Instead of just going with the regular old ham sandwiches, we decided to try our hands at the Cuban sandwich. I know there are lots of rules, and I was initially was leery about approaching a sandwich as contentious as this one. Hell, even poor Howie of Top Chef fame (remember him?) got crucified for not pressing his interpretation of the sandwich down.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 6, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Monday was a croque monsieur. Tuesday was a ham-and-brie-and-apple sandwich. Yesterday we went vegetarian with a goat cheese, artichoke, and tomato sandwich. Today we're back on the pork tip. Sorry. We're like junkies here at the Serious Eats office. The Catskills Cubano recipe called to us from the pages of this week's featured cookbook, Panini Express, and we couldn't resist. I'd been wanting to make a sandwich on ciabatta to see how it reacted in our new panini press, and this one was pretty darn simple, with no pre-press prep other than chopping some peppers. From there, it was a simple matter of layering on pork and cheese.
The book's author, Daniel Leader, named this a Catskills Cubano in honor of the region in which his bakery is located. It's a slight variation on a traditional Cuban sandwich, in that he calls for pickled jalapeños instead of regular pickles and he uses serrano ham or prosciutto instead of the the more common cured ham used. We riffed on this one a little more, subbing in Hatch green chiles.
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If you're just now tuning in, you should note that we're giving away five (5) copies of this book here on Serious Eats this week. More details on that here.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 5, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Today's recipe from this week's featured cookbook, Panini Express, veers away from the ham of the last two days and heads straight to vegetarian territory with Artichoke, Oven-Roasted Tomato, and Goat Cheese Panini. Although tomatoes aren't in season as I write this, oven-roasting those you do find this time of year can help concentrate their flavor, sweetening them enough to play against the other flavors in this pressed sandwich.
But that's not what we did. We didn't have four or five hours to roast tomatoes today, so we subbed in jarred sun-dried tomatoes. We also didn't want to buy an entire bunch of basil just for one tablespoon's worth, so we subbed in some greens we had growing in the office AeroGarden.
Win 'Panini Express'
If you're just now tuning in, you should note that we're giving away five (5) copies of this book here on Serious Eats this week. More details on that here.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, March 5, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The following recipe is from the March 5th edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
If you've never thought of getting a panini press before, you will after reading Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman's book Panini Express: 70 Delicious Recipes Hot Off the Press. Sandwiches taste 500% better when the bread is crispy on the outside and the sandwich innards are warm. Try this recipe for grilled chicken with Asian slaw panini—the slaw is flavored with peanut butter, ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 4, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Today's recipe from this week's featured cookbook, Panini Express is for a Ham, Brie, and Apple French Toast Panini. Apologies in advance for going for another ham-and-cheese variation. I was halfway through preparing this recipe when I realized I'd just done a similar sandwich yesterday. I couldn't resist this one, though, because I've been a fan of the ham-brie-apple combo since discovering it a few years ago. Add the French toast, I thought, and this recipe's a knockout.
As I found out, this recipe really is a knockout. You're essentially taking some fairly rich items—brioche, eggs, and brie—and combining them in a hot, pressed-sandwich package. It's a lot to take in, and I was pretty much "game over" a half a sandwich in. It might be the kind of sandwich you could cook up on a lazy weekend for brunch and serve as halves to family or friends with some fruit or a salad.
Win 'Panini Express'
If you're just now tuning in, you should note that we're giving away five (5) copies of this book here on Serious Eats this week. More details on that here.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 3, 2008 at 1:45 PM
The Panini Express Neo-Classic Croque Monsieur recipe makes two hot, crisp ham-and-cheese sandwiches.
The first recipe out of the gate for this week's featured cookbook is what Panini Express authors Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman call a Neo-Classic Croque Monsieur. It's "neo-classic" because, Leader says, it's a bit more rustic than the "dainty" versions typically served in France; it uses thick-cut ham, along with chopped cornichons and grainy mustard to "give it some heft."
Win 'Panini Express'
If you're just now tuning in, you should note that we're giving away five (5) copies of this book here on Serious Eats this week. More details on that here.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 4, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Recently I agreed to bring the savory edible of my choice to a baby shower. Due to an advanced case of entertaining anxiety I throw parties approximately once every five years, so I was excited to get to try one of the nibbly party recipes I usually have to pass over in my cookbooks. Calmly I decided on B-L-Teas from Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook and pimento cheese sandwiches; calmly I went to the grocery store; and calmly I did some yoga, went for a walk, and took a nap the day before the party. Then I woke up in a panic, realizing how little time I had to make something for dinner, get everything ready for the sandwiches, and finish the baby’s present. It all came together in an intense triathlon of cooking, assembling, and knitting, but on the way to the party, too worn out to tell for myself, I thought, “Are these sandwiches even good?”
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Posted by Adam Kuban, January 29, 2008 at 12:45 PM
As I try to eat healthier this year, instead of drastically changing my diet, I've tried to make familiar standbys more fit-friendly. And almost nothing's more familiar at lunchtime than the ol' chicken salad sandwich. I've taken to this recipe, which I've adapted to my own liking.
In it, plain nonfat yogurt replaces mayo, and plenty of herbs and fruit keep things interesting. Serve it on the bread of your choice, though I like it on a nice rye.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, January 28, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I don’t work in an office anymore, but when I did, I almost always took my lunch. This was partly a function of the alarming rate at which my overly enthusiastic cooking generates leftovers and partly because a sack lunch is so much cheaper (and usually healthier) than whatever you can buy in midtown Manhattan. Eventually I found myself cooking dinner and packing lunch for a husband, too, but this (he) presented a problem: the pot of whatever-it-was that had, once upon a time, fed me for two dinners and two lunches now disappeared between the two of us in thirty minutes flat. And then he would look up as if to say, “Where’s the rest of our dinner?” If I was going to pack lunches, I would have to plan and shop for them separately.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, January 2, 2008 at 1:30 PM
It's almost the New Year and this time, your resolution to eat healthier foods can be a lot easier to keep with Ellie Krieger's new cookbook, The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life. The portobello panini with gorgonzola and sun-dried tomatoes recipe not only sounds delicious but is really simple to make and could be served with a side salad to make a great filling lunch. After the recipe, she notes "that there are five basic tastes our tongues can detect: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and, only recently recognized by western science, umami, a Japanese word that loosely translates to 'deliciousness.'" Mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese are chock full of umami—or as you'll come to call it, "mm-yummy." (sidenote: my New Year's resolution is to stop making bad food puns...looks like I'm off to a bad start.)
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 14, 2007 at 7:30 AM
This is one of the greatest breakfast or brunch sandwiches ever. If you live in New York or plan on visiting, you can go to 'ino any tine of the day or night, and the skilled toaster-oven cooks there will make one for you. Or you can use this recipe to rustle up one right now in the comfort of your own home (and your own toaster oven).
This Scrambled Egg, Pancetta, and Fontina Bruschetta is adapted from Simple Italian Sandwiches by Jennifer and Jason Denton and Kathryn Kellinger.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 11, 2007 at 3:30 PM
In Louisville, Kentucky, says John T. Edge, author of Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South
, the Brown Hotel "has been the epicenter of the social whirl. Debutante parties, Christmas balls, weddings by the score."
The Hot Brown Sandwich, Edge says, was created by the hotel's chef a few years after the place opened and is "the ideal hangover food." Click through to the recipe, and see if you agree.
If you'd like to read more about The Brown Hotel, the Hot Brown Sandwich, and other Southern delights, grab a copy of Southern Belly for yourself.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 28, 2007 at 2:30 PM
If you missed yesterday's intro post on it, this week's Cook the Book features Jenni Ferrari-Adler's Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, a book in which food writers and food-crazy authors share what it means to cook for one or dine alone. Today's recipe accompanies an essay written by Marcella Hazan, the woman credited with almost singlehandedly introducing Americans and Brits to traditional Italian cooking.
Hazan declares that she will eat "almost anything enclosed between two slices of bread," and offers her recipe for tost, "a grilled cheese sandwich whose ideal components are fontina cheese and cooked Parma ham."
It's no surprise that a sandwich would appear in a book dedicated to eating alone, but unlike that old solo-dining standby, the PBJ, this one is anything but dull—and is almost as quick to make.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 1, 2007 at 4:30 PM
It can seem like the the Zuni Cafe's secret to success is all about waiting. The San Francisco restaurant is famous for salting just about everything and letting it sit for long periods of time. My experiences with recipes from its Zuni Cafe Cookbook have been remarkable. Its roast chicken is a beauty to behold.
Which is all well and good, but if you need dinner pronto, then this little pick from the appetizer section might be a quick route—not that it doesn’t try to trip you up as often as possible. Oil is infused, sandwiches are smashed with large pots, and a brush is used. You may wonder what happened to a simple grilled cheese. But even with a few pretenses, it can still be cooked in less than 30 minutes, and it always makes me feel much less guilty about any grilled cheese cravings. It also helps that I usually use some great Fontina.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 21, 2007 at 4:30 PM
And today's Cook the Book recipe is for a Jersey Shore Tuna Sub. When I visit the Jersey Shore, subs somehow make it into my hands as if by magic—that is, unless the seagulls on the boardwalk (which are ruthlessly aggressive) steal them. This sub is one that both they and I would enjoy.
Like all the Cook the Book recipes this week, this one comes from Jasper White's Summer Shack Cookbook.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 18, 2007 at 6:15 PM
We've had a fair amount of lobster roll discussion here on Serious Eats. Even a video about this traditional New England summertime fare. But we've never offered a recipe for this iconic treat—until now. After the jump, Jasper White's recipe for Classic Maine Lobster Rolls.
It's our first daily recipe from this week's Cook the Book offering, The Summer Shack Cookbook. The Summer Shack is White's mini-chain of restaurants that serve classic, simple, and comforting seaside fare. The cookbook is a collection of recipes, how-tos, and an overall guide to every kind of shore food you'd want to eat.
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