Posted by Brian Halweil, February 29, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Brian Halweil of Edible Communities and editor of Edible East End checks in with braising ideas from East Hampton, New York.
"Of all the various culinary operations, braisings are the most expensive and the most difficult," Escoffier wrote in his tome on French cuisine, Le Guide Culinaire. "Long and assiduous practice alone can teach many difficulties that this mode of procedure entails, for it is one which demands extraordinary care and the most constant attention." The authority devotes ten dense pages to the technique's many variants and nuances.
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Posted by Adam Roberts, March 20, 2007 at 7:00 AM
Photograph by Adam Roberts
“This is a really big step: you should be really proud.”
I’m talking to Molly Stevens, author of my new favorite cookbook—All About Braising—and she’s patting me on the back for something I haven’t done yet.
“When you don’t use recipes anymore, when you call on your own techniques, that’s when you can call yourself a chef,” she says. “Coming up with your own recipe is a big moment in your development.”
What Molly doesn’t know and what the voices in my head keep reminding me is that this big step I’m about to take is one I’m not ready for. Like some kid who likes to dive in the family pool and then enters the Olympics, I am in over my head.
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 9, 2007 at 10:26 AM
In Praise of Braise: "When done with the proper liquids (stocks or wine) and the right aromatics (root vegetables and herbs), braising carries more flavor than boiling or stewing and doesn't dry out or burn food the way roasting can." Good short history of braising plus four recipes; I especially liked the Braised Guinness Stout Short Ribs and Anthony Bourdain's Coq Au Vin.
