Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 30, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Gordon Ramsay’s In the Heat of the Kitchen has been fun to look through, but I haven’t really been able to put it to much use. Most of the recipes seem rather complex for a hectic weekday night. So I was a little surprised to find this quick little broccoli recipe stuck between “Caramelized baby onions with beet jus” and “corn fritters with lime crème fraîche." With only eight ingredients, seven of which I had already, this proved to be a perfectly practical side.
While the crisp garlic is fun and those onions sure do add a lot of sweetness, what really separates this dish from a standard accompaniment is the oyster sauce. It somehow binds all the ingredients and transforms this into an interesting side dish worth paying attention to. It’s such a simple addition, too. This, of course, all depends on whether you have oyster sauce just hanging around the fridge ready to go in to random dishes. I do. Its cost is so small, and it keeps surprising me with dishes like this one.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, December 28, 2007 at 3:00 PM
While kids all over this fair land were spending their post-Christmas/pre-school days playing with toys, I couldn’t keep my head out of the wonderful cookbooks I received. The first one I dove into was the River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whisttingstall. Now, I adore the River Cottage DVD’s I scored last month, which I plundered for a great recipe poblano taco recipe. But the Meat Book isn’t called the Meat Book for nothing. I’d be having none of those great vegetarian dishes. This book explains how to eat pigeon. I’m terribly excited.
I originally wanted to start nice and heavy with a big steak, but I got sidetracked with this incredibly easy lamb chop recipe with all that garlic. Like the roast chicken with 40 cloves, this one shouldn’t work. But all those cloves get sweet as they roast, and the anchovies add an unusual depth. Hugh uses a skillet to sear the meat and then tossed it in a baking dish, but I combined jobs and just used an iron skillet. I didn't notice anything missing from this rich, succulent dish.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, December 18, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Vampires beware: I love garlic in its many wondrous forms—roasted, toasted, sautéed, puréed—you name it, I'll snarf it down. Having never eaten it in its sweet caramelized form, when I saw the recipe for caramelized garlic and shallot pasta from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics, I knew I had to conquer this final frontier of Garlic Paradise. The recipe calls for about three heads of the stuff, but if the idea of that much garlic scares you off, have no fear—as the recipe says, "caramelizing the garlic tends to mellow and sweeten its flavor, so you can use more than you might expect." The cookbook lists the recipe under its "Late-Night Supper for Four" menu, and although I'll happily reek of garlic wherever I go, you may want to make sure whomever you're snuggling up with gets a couple of bites, too—just to level the smelling field.
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Posted by Alaina Browne, April 19, 2007 at 6:15 PM
In honor of National Garlic Day, I'd like to share my favorite for garlic lovers only recipe. 40 gloves of garlic? Yes, 40 cloves of garlic. I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me (and Mr. Beard!) it's just enough. 3 heads of garlic should get you 40 (or more) cloves. Enjoy!
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