Posted by Robyn Lee, July 10, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Photographs take by Elise Bauer
You don't need a fancy smoker to make great barbecue in your backyard. With the help of Hank Shaw at Simply Recipes, you can learn how to turn your kettle grill into a smoker. Just add water (in pans) along with a mix of charcoal and water-soaked wood chips beneath the grate. The meat should only lay on the side of the grate above the water pans. You'll have to periodically check the coals and pay close attention to the temperature to make sure it's low enough for a long, slow cook, but judging from these mouthwatering photos, the results will be worth it.
Related
How To Build a Cheap-Ass Grill for Under $10
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 14, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Ever look at a radish with a long root and think, "Hey, that looks like a rat!" Maybe not. But with just a few small slices and cuts, you could make something that kind of looks like a rat. Impress your friends with your food-carving technique; just don't serve your radish rats to anyone who's afraid of rodents.
Watch the instructional video, after the jump.
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Learn how to make your own sugar skulls for Dia De Los Muertos. Naturally, sugar skull-making supplies may be bought from MexicanSugarSkull.com. [via Boing Boing]
Posted by Alaina Browne, May 16, 2007 at 1:55 PM
Over on Ask Metafilter someone asks: How to cook delicious beans? Lots of good advice, including a Rancho Gordo heirloom beans shout-out.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 10, 2007 at 3:45 PM
ReadyMade Blog highlights the best tips from a Chow thread on how to deal with cramped kitchens.
Everyone in my family tends to packratting—my mom has Christian Dior clothes from the 60s in perfect condition that no longer fit still stored away—so my favorite idea is the one that recommends tagging items with tape, removing the tape when you use something, and then tossing out the stuff that's still taped six months later.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 24, 2007 at 5:30 PM
Phil Lees writes a fantastic food blog from Cambodia called Phnomenon and has put together a short guide to eating street food, for the benefit of fellow intrepid eaters, and maybe those just starting to dip their toes in. He says, "I tend to eat more food from the street in Cambodia than your average tourist as well as eating everything that the LP warns me against and tend not to ever injure myself doing so. I don’t have a cast-iron stomach and accordingly, I eat in a way that I consider sensible."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 24, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Friend of Serious Eats Matt Haughey, who happens to be Grand Poobah of the community weblog MetaFilter, bought a new grill for his backyard recently and asked his loyal followers for tips on learning how to use it.
There are lots of recommendations of books to buy in the thread, many of which don't just have chapters on grilling but are all about it, but the best thing is that people are also sharing both their favorite recipes and their best tips. Here's a bit from my favorite response, from Mr Gunn:
One method taught to many people when they're just starting out is to hold your hand out flat, palm down, fingers and thumb parallel. Feel the firmness of the muscle between your thumb and first finger. Close to the bone of the first finger is the firmness of a well done steak, and as you move out to the side of the muscle, it gets softer. Medium is about half-way out. I don't know if this helps, because you still have to get a feel for it, but some people use it.
Photograph from iStockPhoto.com
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 18, 2007 at 5:14 PM
Elise's How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke is one of my favorite tutorials, and quite timely — the peak of California artichoke season is upon us (March-May)!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 28, 2007 at 2:30 PM
Carole Kotkin of the Miami Herald has nine great tips to cooking matzo balls, for those of you making Passover meals for Monday. Tip No. 8: "To ensure tender matzo balls, do not uncover the pot, even to peek, for at least the first 20 minutes."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 8, 2007 at 11:28 AM
"While fish consumption has climbed steadily since 1970, rising by more than one-third, averages are still low enough to conclude that some Americans (maybe many) don't eat fish at all, or rarely. And those who do more often leave the cooking to others, since surveys show that fish is savored in restaurants twice as often as it is served at home." Most of us are apparently too scared to prepare fish ourselves since we don't understand how to do it, so the Philadelphia Inquirer's Marilynn Marter talked to chefs Guillermo Pernot and Anthony Goodwin and came up with thirteen key points to choosing and cooking fish right, like cooking to what traditional instructions consider slightly underdone ("less dry and flaky, and slightly translucent at the center"), and only salting after the fish is cooked in order to preserve moisture.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 7, 2007 at 2:56 PM
Zach of the Midtown Lunch blog shares his slightly terrifying but also pretty hilarious Guide to Beating the All You Can Eat Chinese Food Buffet:
I really love Chinese Buffets. And it is not just the fact that you get to stuff your face (something I enjoy doing very much). It’s also the no waiting (you start eating right after you sit down), the variety (it’s the spice of life!) and of course, the competition. That’s right… the competition. You vs. the Buffet. The price is really just a dare. A sign that says “All-U-Can-Eat for $14.50″, might as well just say “I dare you to eat more than $14.50 worth of food. Signed - The Buffet.”
Basically, your goal from the moment you walk into the buffet should be “Win the Game”. And the game is to eat so much food that the restaurant loses money. You want to eat so much that when they see you come back the next time, they get scared. You want them to worry that if you eat at their buffet too often, they might have to close it down. But before you can learn how to beat your enemy, you must KNOW your enemy.
I try not to stuff myself too full these days—no competitive eating for me—but Zach's third tip is good advice for any buffet situation, whether it's a bargain Chinese place, a sitdown picnic or at a fancy wedding.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 27, 2007 at 3:17 PM
"Making your own bacon at home is not difficult. You will need pork belly and a brine of some sort. The most important ingredients are salt and TIME." Well, most important after the pork belly.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 5:24 PM
Raul Gutierrez has an amazing photoblog (one of my all-time favorites, as a matter of fact) but the reason I'm linking to him today is his text blog post on how to buy good tortillas: "Good tortillas have 3 ingredients: corn, lime, water. That's it. If anything else is listed in the ingredients you your tortillas are no good. If your supermarket doesn't have tortillas with these ingredients (and these ingredients only), go somewhere else." And yes, he gives you good advice on where that somewhere else should be.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 3:45 PM
Barbara Fisher of Tigers & Strawberries put together a really useful post for people who like to cook Chinese food at home, Staple Ingredients of the Chinese Pantry, in which she discusses her favorite brands, what qualities to look for when buying a particular item and how they're generally used in cooking.
What I liked most about her list is that she gives you a short but concise summary of why each item should be a regular fixture in your kitchen. For example, we all know about soy sauce, sesame oil and dried noodles, but have you ever considered fermented black beans? They're "black soybeans which have been cooked, salted and fermented, often with slivers of ginger, and this treatment turns them into flavor powerhouses. They smell somewhat like a good aged cheese, and surprise! They are absolutely filled with natural glutamates. They make whatever they are stir fried, stewed, steamed or simmered with taste amazing. I cannot praise them highly enough."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 2:41 PM
Marketman’s Philippine Fruit Index: "I was recently reviewing a reference guide which had a section on tropical fruits from this part of the world and I was surprised to note that I seemed to have covered many of the fruits in the book. Turns out that Marketmanila has already featured over 50 locally-grown fruits in the past two years!!"
(If you read nothing else, make sure to check out his Mango Slicing 101—it's pretty easy once you know what to do.)
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 23, 2007 at 2:07 PM
I love fish but I don't buy it to cook at home very often, mainly because I don't really know how to pick the freshest one out. CeCe Sullivan over at The Seattle Times interviewed a few experts and wrote a starter guide to picking fresh fish out and also what to do once you've gotten them home: "Once home, "all fish, whether fillets and steaks or whole fish, should be unwrapped and released from their packaging," said Dale Erickson, owner of University Seafood and Poultry Co. in the University District. "The foul air that collects can produce bacteria quickly." He suggests covering the fish with a wet tea towel or loose piece of plastic wrap, refrigerating it, and eating it within a day or two of purchase. "Quality seafood is not meant to be stored," said Erickson."
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 14, 2006 at 4:34 PM
"That would be about 20-25 minutes in a freezer. If you put it in a bucket of ice, that would halve that time. If you put water in that ice, it'd be cold (+- 5c) enough to drink in about 4-6 minutes, if you put salt in that water, you'd reduce the chill time to just over 2 minutes. Agitating the can in the water, rolling it around, reduces the chill time even more. The fastest possible way is to grab a CO2 fire extinguisher and unload that sucker on the can. Whatever you do, do NOT bury the can in sand, pour gasoline on the sand and set the sand on fire. That won't do anything."
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 13, 2006 at 5:40 PM
Personal-finance blog Get Rich Slowly outlines the pros and cons of buying a side of beef straight from a local cattle rancher:
"... We try to grow as much of our own food as possible. But one thing we cannot grow is our own meat. We’ve discovered the next best thing, though: we buy beef in bulk from a local rancher. Every year, we pool our money with three other couples to purchase an animal when it’s ready to be slaughtered. In early December, we bring home about one hundred pounds of meat."
Complete with cost breakdowns on bulk beef vs. store-bought beef, the cuts typically available, and links to further resources.
