Posted by Lucy Baker, April 25, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Today's cook the book recipe, excerpted from The Oprah Magazine Cookbook, is for a sensational Creole Gumbo straight from the Big Easy. Chef Leah Chase, owner of the restaurant Dooky Chase and arguably the Queen of Creole Cuisine, pulls out all the stops. Her version includes fresh crabs, oysters, and shrimp; veal and chicken; and two kinds of sausage. The recipe makes a lot—it serves 8 to 10—so mix up some Sazeracs and prepare it with a group of friends. This is soul food at its absolute best.
Continue reading »
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.
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
Posted by The Gurgling Cod, December 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Sunday Night Soups, where each week The Gurgling Cod shows up to offer a soup appropriate to the week's Sunday Night Football game on NBC.
This week, the Patriots cede the Sunday Night spotlight to the 4-7 Bengals, who visit the Pittsburgh Steelers in a renewal of a hallowed Rust Belt rivaly. The AFC North is known for hard-nosed football, but Cincy and Pittsburgh have culinary traditions that do not translate easily into soups.
Under the circumstances, the best approach is to make a soup that keys on a single player, as with the pho bo for Cowboys–Bears back in September. A flamboyant Mexican soup honoring Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson would be one option, but we've done a posole recently, which unfortunately is where my even vaguely Mexican soup repertoire begins and ends.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 6, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Jacques Pepin, distinguished private chef, poet, HoJo consultant, and author of some of the thickest tomes of culinary education, also likes to eat on time. Although he’s recently been strutting his stuff on PBS hawking his 2004 cookbook Fast Food My Way, he’s been trying to cut corners for a long time. Or so I found out when I stumbled upon his The Short-Cut Book, which was released in 1990.
Luckily, I unearthed it from the Columbus, Ohio, public library, where it hadn’t been checked out since 1996. Anyway, true to claim, there are some great quick recipes in here. What caught my eye first was the recipe for broiled ham steaks, both because it was surprisingly easy looking and because I had some ready to go in the fridge. The ham steaks I had were probably way too thin. Pepin advocates half-inch steaks, and mine were more like an eighth inch, or just a tad thicker than deli slices. Anyway, this dish is more about the sauce, which is made with relatively common ingredients.
Preparing the ham steaks could not be much simpler. Slather on some of the sauce, place under the broiler, and cook until the sauce caramelizes. Even the sauce requires virtually no time. Just whisk everything together and go.
Continue reading »
