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This Week in Recipes
Because I'm out here in big game country -- I like burgers made from half lamb, half antelope or elk. The lamb is just fatty enough to juice up the game which can make for a dry burger on it's own. I do two varieties -- one with fish sauce and soy sauce and ginger and garlic and sesame oil, and one with garlic and parsley and mint and a Georgian spice blend I got from World Spice in Seattle. Both are gorgeous ... and since I buy my lamb from a local rancher, and my ex-sweetheart still provides me with game, I know all the sourcing.
New ideas for a whole chicken.
I did one last weekend that came out great -- the standard Marcella Hazan Roast-Chicken-with-Lemon-inside (poke holes in lemon with fork, stick in chicken). This time I took a few pieces of preserved Meyer Lemon that I put up a few weeks ago (any Moroccan Preserved Lemon will do), threw them in the mini-chop with a couple cloves of garlic and enough olive oil to make an emulsion. Zip until it makes a nice thick sauce. I painted it on the outside of the chicken and threw it in a 425 oven (breast side down in a hot cast iron pan for 45 minutes, then flip -- I'm at altitude so a chicken takes a little longer than at sea level). It was great -- the combo of lemon and salt and olive oil and garlic made for the kind of crispy skin you just want to pull right off the bird when it's hot, and the juices made a great pan sauce. Yum.
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
Hi Ed -- I assume your poor dead parents were "dyed-in-the-wool leftists," no? (Sorry, editing's my day job -- I just see these things).
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Blogwatch: Eggs Cooked in Muffin Tins
We learned this in middle school home ec -- in a pyrex ramekin with a little butter and (quelle horreure) Velveeta -- I did a lot of these after school in the toaster oven as a starving after-school teenager. We also used to get a less-appetizing version at summer camp that we called "hockey pucks" -- not so yum.
This Week in Recipes
Because I'm out here in big game country -- I like burgers made from half lamb, half antelope or elk. The lamb is just fatty enough to juice up the game which can make for a dry burger on it's own. I do two varieties -- one with fish sauce and soy sauce and ginger and garlic and sesame oil, and one with garlic and parsley and mint and a Georgian spice blend I got from World Spice in Seattle. Both are gorgeous ... and since I buy my lamb from a local rancher, and my ex-sweetheart still provides me with game, I know all the sourcing.
New ideas for a whole chicken.
I did one last weekend that came out great -- the standard Marcella Hazan Roast-Chicken-with-Lemon-inside (poke holes in lemon with fork, stick in chicken). This time I took a few pieces of preserved Meyer Lemon that I put up a few weeks ago (any Moroccan Preserved Lemon will do), threw them in the mini-chop with a couple cloves of garlic and enough olive oil to make an emulsion. Zip until it makes a nice thick sauce. I painted it on the outside of the chicken and threw it in a 425 oven (breast side down in a hot cast iron pan for 45 minutes, then flip -- I'm at altitude so a chicken takes a little longer than at sea level). It was great -- the combo of lemon and salt and olive oil and garlic made for the kind of crispy skin you just want to pull right off the bird when it's hot, and the juices made a great pan sauce. Yum.
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
Hi Ed -- I assume your poor dead parents were "dyed-in-the-wool leftists," no? (Sorry, editing's my day job -- I just see these things).
'Shop the Peripheries ... Stay Out of the Middle'
That piece was written by Bonnie Powell of Ethicurean (http://www.ethicurean.com/). If anyone wants more info, she did an interesting post about the math she used to develop the numbers: "Wired’s Infoporn on mapping the price of a calorie" (http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/12/28/infoporn-on-calories/).
Do you blog? What's your URL?
LivingSmall
http://livingsmallblog.com
Thoughts on Literature, Food, Faith and the Subversive Power of Living Small
'The Next Iron Chef': Lead and Inspire
Spelling aside -- so did I -- I want both Besh *and* Symon to be Iron Chefs -- they're sort of complementary (and I am weary, weary of Bobby Flay and have always been bewildered by Cat Cora).
'The Next Iron Chef': Lead and Inspire
Um, that would be the opulent home of the US "Ambassador " ... (sorry, my day job is editing)
A Halloween Candy Hierarchy: What's Your Favorite Trick or Treat?
My favorite part was always sorting the haul and then hoarding it. I kept mine in an old doll trunk and my brother and I competed every year to see who could make theirs last the longest -- if you got to Christmas with anything other than those horrible Circus Peanuts (really, those people just hate children) then you won. Our mother would also steal the Butterfingers, and one year she had to pull over to the side of the road driving home (we lived on a farm so went to our cousins' house in town to trick or treat) to throw up. An instructive lesson kids, see what happens when you eat too much candy. Because our county is largely rural, and because it's always cold on Halloween, all the kids congregate on a 4 block stretch of Yellowstone Street -- when I was looking at houses my realtor warned me that those houses get 4-5 hundred trick-or-treaters every year -- our local community thrift store donates money to homeowners to buy candy. But it's fun and you get to see all the kids at one time.
Houston's Doesn't Suck: What's Your Favorite Slightly Fancy Chain Restaurant?
I'd second Il Fornaio -- I've wound up there when travelling for business and eating alone and too fried to be adventurous -- it's always a nice dinner, and they give good service to a woman dining alone.
Five Easy Ways to Go Organic: Are They Right and Are There Others?
But I think if we're trying not to alarm people who find the concept of going organic frightening, then urging them to buy a side of beef (unless they live out here in Montana where that's totally normal and everyone has a freezer) might be aiming a little high. I liked the approach of this article, even if I did quibble with some of the details -- if we can get people to start switching to organic potatoes alone -- the pesticide load not only on the food but on the land is so toxic -- that would be a good start.
12 Egg Yolks, 0 Ideas
Flan or creme caramel -- in memory of Consuela, the ancient housekeeper who used to make us creme caramel every Monday for "garbage dinners" when we used up all the leftovers from the week. Consuela was great -- she was thousands of years old and looked like the old woman in Babar. And she made killer creme caramel.
Dinner Tonight: Broccoli Rabe and Sausage Pasta
What had you been doing wrong before? I'm always as curious about people's cooking disasters as I am about the successes ...
Grocery Ninja: Marinated Slippery Jacks
According to my trusty copy of David Aurora's Mushrooms Demystified, Slippery Jack is a generic name for the Sullius genera -- they used to be classified among the boletes because like boletes, they have tubes, not gills and the name does derive from the fact that the cap is often viscid or slimy or "slippery" ... Aurora says they're not as choice as boletus edulis, but they're abundant ... he suggests using them as a substitute for escargot, a recipe he calls "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Slime" ...
Cook the Book: 'Beard on Food'
I taught myself to cook in my early twenties from James Beards twinset -- Theory and Practice of Good Cooking and The New James Beard. I was young and broke in NYC and lived about four blocks from the Union Square Greenmarket (and was working as an editorial assistant on The Best of Gourmet and Gourmet's Best Desserts). I was so broke that learning to cook was my main entertainment -- one has to eat, after all. I loved Theory and Practice because it's organized by cooking method -- boiling, roasting, baking etc ...
Morrone's Bakery Closes: Honest (Slow) Food Takes Another Hit
Maybe it was because I grew up in the midwest, and there were big German populations, but when I was a kid every town seemed to have a bakery. You could go in after school and buy a cookie, or parents bought bread and sweet rolls for the weekend. They all seem to have disappeared -- was it the supermarkets that did it? I know it's the one thing we really don't have out here in my little town in Montana yet -- there's a pretty good bread bakery over in Bozeman, and we have a cafe that makes nice cakes here, but we don't have a real bakery -- the kind you walked into and there were cases full of pastries and cookies and bread and cakes. They've just disappeared.
The Best Roast Chicken Recipe? Who Wants to Try It With Me?
I do this all the time -- I just salt a chicken when I get home from the store, stick it in the fridge, and then cook it whenever I get around to it. If you think about it as a technique, not a recipe, it's less daunting ...
Mario Unclogged: Spaghetti al Pomodoro
I've been growing a yellow cherry called Galina for a few years now -- it's delicious, grows like a weed, and it's very prolific. With our really short season here in Montana (the tomatoes went under plastic last weekend when the nighttime lows went into the 30s) I really appreciate a tomato that will continue into the fall ... sounds like pasta pomodoro is on the menu tonight!
I Took the Locavore Challenge (Sort of)
There's the "Marco Polo" exemption -- spices, coffee, things that historically have been high-value trade-ables are sometimes considered okay. Of course, it's like the different flavors of vegetarianism -- there's always going to be someone who will take purity to outrageous conclusions. I'd condsider olive oil part of the Marco Polo exemption, but then again, I live in Montana, where there are no olive trees --
Dinner Tonight: Broiled Ham Steaks
He's got a similar recipe for salmon steaks (I think it was his -- I remember it from one of his PBS shows but I can't find the recipe in the books I've got here). You make a sauce from equal parts Dijon mustard, honey, and Siracha sauce. You brush it on some salmon steaks and broil them until the sauce caramelizes and the salmon is cooked through (depends on the thickness of the salmon).
Picky-eater dinner guests
Beyond picky -- what about the food allergy people -- the celiacs and lactose intolerant etc ... I had one friend who was diagnosed with celiac and became insufferable -- as if gluten was supposed to disappear off the face of the earth because she was allergic to it.
On the other hand, I went to Aqua in San Francisco with a large group a few years ago, and they were great about my brother's shellfish allergy -- they made sure he got something equally yummy for every course and no anaphalaxis!
Fully Stocked
For me, the difference between stock in a box, and homemade is the gelatin. Homemade stock has that nice gelatinous texture that makes everything you cook with it have a better mouthfeel. I had to make soup today, and because I'm both sick as a dog and housesitting, I had to use stock in a box. It was still pretty good (carmelizing the onions a lot helps) but it didn't have that same texture as my stock in the freezer at home in Montana.
Do you blog? What's your URL?
Cocina Savant
http://cocinasavant.blogspot.com/
Weekly pictures, recipes, and thoughts from a husband and wife who love books and cooking for each other.
Mario Unclogged: Spaghetti al Pomodoro
My goodness, I just made this for lunch and it was amazing! No sungolds down here in Houston (that I can find) but the regular red tomatoes were splendid.
Mario Unclogged: Spaghetti al Pomodoro
i've made this probably two dozen times since the original post, both for myself and very appreciative friends. it's a real keeper. i have been using chipotle chile flakes {impulse purchase at zabar's} instead of the red pepper for a subtle smoky heat.
The Best Roast Chicken Recipe? Who Wants to Try It With Me?
This is not the best roast chicken recipe. For years now I have made Nigella Lawson's Roast Chicken; over time I have added my own variations to it (herbs, etc.) but the basic principles remain - lemon, butter, olive oil and salt & pepper; the lemon tenderizes and keeps the chicken moist during cooking without overpowering the chicken. The recipe can be found in "How to Eat: Pleasures and Principles of Good Food" (1999)
This Week in Recipes
When I was in Amsterdam and the local butcher was out of ground beef, I had ground lamb instead -- and from then on I mostly got ground lamb. It was tasty! Only a little pricier there, but I haven't checked it out here since I got back.
This Week in Recipes
I make a Gyros Burger that is half Lamb and half beef and Manalive! it's seriously good. Lamb is under appreciated and way underused in the country.
Houston's Doesn't Suck: What's Your Favorite Slightly Fancy Chain Restaurant?
Hi Ed. I just found this post while trolling the web for Houston's Key Lime Pie recipe/ingredients. I waited tables in the Rockville, MD Houston's from 1993-1995. Having seen Houston's and more than a dozen independently-owned restaurants from the waiter's side of the table, I agree with everyone's positive comments about Houston's. It's one of my go-to spots when I want to treat myself (and I live in Manhattan).
Although more personal non-chain restaurants are great, only Houston's made me memorize each ingredient in every dish before letting me serve a customer. We had line-up every night where we were quizzed on the number of ounces in the coho salmon and the marinade for the Houston's Hawaiin ribeye. I learned how to give 110% to a job and what to expect as a guest in a restaurant.
New ideas for a whole chicken.
make Chicken Paprikash. Prolly not spelled right.
Cut the chicken up. Salt and pepper it generously.
Brown the pieces a little on each side
Remove it from the pan
Add 3 Large Red/Green/Orange/Yellow (you decide) bell peppers (fat slices)
Add 2 onions (kinda thick slices)
Toss those around in the fat left over from browning the chicken for a minute or two.
Put the chicken back in the pan. Add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of paprika (i like hungarian)
Add a half cup of water.(It doesn't sound like much but the chicken is going to give off more liquid and if you add too much you'll end up with too much liquid for the sour cream to thicken and you'll get soup. Toss well. Cover. Cook till chicken is done. Stir a few times. Add another tablespoon or 2 of paprika. (note: the flavor of cooked paprika dissapates when cooked, hence adding more fresh at the end of cooking perks it back up).Turn the heat down low. Add a whole pint of sour cream. (note: if you're looking to save some calories, use low or no fat sour cream) If you want some thickening insurance mix a tablespoon of cornstarch into the sourcream.
Heat through. How hot? Depends on if you used cornstarch or not.
Serve over egg noodles.
Houston's Doesn't Suck: What's Your Favorite Slightly Fancy Chain Restaurant?
I love Houston's. Plain and Simple. It's never disappointed and If I was forced to choose a place for my last meal, this would be it. Want to know why?
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
My mom has always been petite (about 110 pounds on a 5 foot frame) but she never seems to diet or go hungry, which I didn't understand because our family eats rather fat-laden ethnic food, and my father, while a healthy weight, has always had a belly. I never noticed my mom's unique eating habits until I myself became conscious of eating healthy, in my later teens. I suddenly noticed her eating habits and I can't say I was surprised anymore about her healthy build. My mom always ate at regular mealtimes, never ate between meals, consumed her food very slowly and deliberately, flavored her food strongly, never skimped on fat and grease, ate smaller or fewer portions than the rest of us, and always had a small, rich dessert before bed.
I will never be a slow eater, and I skip way too many meals to adhere to regular mealtimes, but I've learned a couple useful things from watching her (she always encouraged us to eat frequently and didn't teach us her eating style, so I learned most of it from watching). I've learned from her not to eat between meals, so I get good and hungry before mealtimes. I then try to make large, full-fat, complex meals that satisfy me at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.The rule of thumb I learned from her was, If you're hungry between meals, you didn't eat enough to satisfy yourself at mealtimes, so don't skimp during meals because it'll backfire.
I don't think her advice fits everyone, though. It is truly suited to a particularly Asian style of cooking and eating: long, multi-course family meals with several helpings of rice to fill you up and a variety of heavily flavored, non-low-fat toppings, sauces, curries, and stews to satisfy all your taste buds, heavy on vegetables with meat or seafood served once a week.
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
My kids used to laugh about my mother in law's fretting that she wouldn't have enough food on the table, and then pushing more on everyone because there were left-overs. It's definitely a cultural thing. Hopefully the 'clean plate club' will be disbanding at some point in the near future. As one of my friends is fond of saying, if you want a little behind, you have to leave a little behind. And while I'm dishing out platitudes, I'll just add the one I found in a fortune cookie. "Life is a journey, not a destination." It's like that with managing food intake. You can't expect the issues to go away just because you meet a weight goal. It's something you're going to live with forever. And Ed, it seems as though you've made a breakthrough. Congrats!
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
I think there's an important connection missed here that relates more to generation gap than portion size. Our parents - those raised in the earlier part of the century - who struggled to attain even middle class status, would always comfort themselves that they had enough food on the table for their family. Although the quality was great - like my own Jewish mother's home cooking - if you didn't leave the table "full" you weren't fed enough. And at family gatherings, that same Jewish mother would be scooping out and dropping another large dollop of mashed potatoes with onions on yur plate even as she asked "would you like more?"
To take less was an insult to the cook and the house!
Food to them was not "art" - it was life, wealth, happiness.
And here comes Passover!
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
I happened to catch "I can make you thin" on TLC the other night. I've followed this guy's advice to eat at the table-no TV, reading, or internet. After each bite, PUT THE KNIFE & FORK DOWN!" and chew each mouthful at least 20x. No alcohol with the meal. Eat what you want & like until full & don't save the leftovers. The pants I couldn't zip up on Monday sild on like a dream yesterday! (2 days!)I am never hungry, but realize now that my eating habits were the worst. At home, meals were just an aside to crosswords, the news, TV and surfing the net. Now I really apreciate what I eat and can leave something on my plate. I think there are more points to his program, but he said this method is enough for some. Lucky me!
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
@Dave try concentrating on mingling with friends at parties and always have a glass of mineral water in your hand, this way if you want to pick at the food you have to conciously put down the glass. ;)
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
I had an even week, too. I don't know if anyone else out there has this problem, but I eat when food is in front of me, so parties and buffets kill me every time, as do places with huge portions. I avoid buffets now, but I need/want to go to parties. Any thoughts?
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
Ed, I don't know how old you are or what generation your parents grew up in - but I was the child of Depression children...and if it went on your plate you were expected to clean the plate of every morsel so nothing went to waste...poor children in India were starving because you weren't eating your food. Very bad child-rearing. Definitely setting up kids to overeat. I on the other hand was so picky that they had to force me to eat. I swore I would never do that to my kids...and I didn't. But then they wouldn't eat what I cooked - and I wasn't a bad cook. Now that they are grown they claim I never fed them and their palates are all very expensive/extensive.
So I guess the moral of this story is that you'll blame your parents no matter what they do. Great job on your diet. Lose a few pounds for me!
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
Hi Ed - Great post. I'm so glad someone else shares my greasy tortilla chip problem. I don't remember the last time I've made it to the burrito course without being 80% full.
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 11: Less Really Is More
Congrats Ed! sometimes staying even is a great thing. Your shrimp salad satori is a wonderful thing! Eat what you love and know if you really want more, it will be there another time.
Do you blog? What's your URL?
Thank you, Adam. Great blogroll!
Blog name: pastrystudio
My URL: http://pastrystudio.blogspot.com/
What it's about/tagline: I have a reverence for classical pastry technique as well as endless curiosity for international traditions and modern flavor juxtapositions. My blog is about simple, fresh, minimally sweet handmade objects of desire.
Do you blog? What's your URL?
Oops. Forgot to add my second new blog, Larousse Bites - Personal Notes on the Larousse Gastronomique 1961 Edition.
Today's post is "It's Christmas so it must be Cockscombs".
Do you blog? What's your URL?
Duh. Here is the proper link for Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.
Do you blog? What's your URL?
Blog name: Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast
My URL: www.honest-food.net
What it's about/tagline: Found foods, foraging, unusual veggies, wild game and fish -- all with serious eating in mind. I am a cook who hunts, not a hunter who cooks. My bent is the Mediterranean (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal) although I have a weakness for American recipes from the 1600s and 1700s. I also review wines from both the Mediterranean and from my local regional wineries in the Sierra Foothills, Lodi and Clarksburg.
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Blog name : Cooking Monster
url : http://www.cookingmonster.com
What it's about : mostly my ramblings about cooking, along with recipes, new and old, I've had success with ... and rather than keeping them on index cards, I figured I'd share them with the world.
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Great list, Adam!
Blog Name: The Perfect Pantry
URL: http://www.theperfectpantry.com
What it's about: What a food writer keeps in her fridge, freezer and cupboards.
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We learned this in middle school home ec -- in a pyrex ramekin with a little butter and (quelle horreure) Velveeta -- I did a lot of these after school in the toaster oven as a starving after-school teenager. We also used to get a less-appetizing version at summer camp that we called "hockey pucks" -- not so yum.