Cheers to Bad Wine
21 Mar 2007

Cheers to Bad Wine

by | posted in: Ruminations | 14

Who would dare question a cooking commandment passed down from Julia Child? Hooray to Julia Moskin in the New York Times for making one pretty promising case for something we were all too embarassed to fess up to doing: cooking with cheap wine. Cream of the crap wine. “Two-buck Chuck” wine, as referenced in the story. Or my personal fallback, too-tired-to-care Yellow Tail. In the story, she gives taste tests of several dishes cooked with prestigious, expensive wines versus cheap … Read More

Turkey Black Bean Chili with Okra
20 Mar 2007

Turkey Black Bean Chili with Okra

by | posted in: Beans, gluten-free, Meat & Poultry, Recipes, Soups & Stews | 10

We all know that ground turkey is the new hamburger if you’re looking to go easy on your heart. But I never found this a satisfactory replacement unless it was used in a sauce or stew of some type — in which juices from all kinds of ingredients run free and wild as piglets in a pen. A turkey burger? Not even close… but ground turkey in chili? Seconds, please. Besides, you’re bound to end up draining most of the … Read More

Bourbon Sugar Cookie Crunch Ice Cream
19 Mar 2007

Bourbon Sugar Cookie Crunch Ice Cream

by | posted in: Desserts, Ice Cream, Recipes | 19

Thanks to everyone who offered delicious and wacky ice cream flavor suggestions on my last experiment with white pepper ice cream. I apologize, however, that I haven’t gotten around to trying any of them because I’ve been drunk on this bourbon-drenched one. Sweet, creamy and simple, this was my kind of ice cream — or nightcap?

Best Next Excuse to Web Surf While Having Your Third Mid-Afternoon Snack
17 Mar 2007

Best Next Excuse to Web Surf While Having Your Third Mid-Afternoon Snack

by | posted in: Ruminations | 0

I nominate Culinate.com for this. Sure, there’s Gothamist for local news and gotta-know-about-it-but-not-really-go-to-it events, there’s foodie sites like Serious Eats and Chow where you’re encouraged to chime in on things like creative authentic Mexican uses for icky black banana goo and who makes the best pita in the world. There are always, always blogs. But a refreshing foodie site (and one that happens to be based — though not editorially-focused — in Portland, which I just so happen to idealize … Read More

Chicken Fried Steak Fried Chicken
16 Mar 2007

Chicken Fried Steak Fried Chicken

by | posted in: Meat & Poultry, Recipes | 8

A completely uninspired twist? A seemingly pointless reverse-effect pastiche? Maybe, but it made for some of the greatest chicken sandwiches I’ve ever had. Since seeing the recipe for chicken fried steak on The Homesick Texan, I was homesick for some of that, too. Let alone I’ve never been to Texas and have no roots to the state. Some things, like fried chicken, are so classic that they inspire new classics like the chicken fried steak. But one of the nice … Read More

Super Crunchy Nutty 2-Step Granola
15 Mar 2007

Super Crunchy Nutty 2-Step Granola

by | posted in: Breakfast & Eggs, gluten-free, Grains, Recipes, vegetarian | 7

Ah, the good ol’ two-step. Like the dance, this one carries a myriad of variations. Then again, I never did learn the dance, in any style, and now I kind of wonder what happened to that swing and formal dance revival that took hold of the city several years ago. For that matter, what happened to any kind of dance craze? There has been a bit of a granola craze going on as far as I can tell — everywhere … Read More

White Pepper Ice Cream
13 Mar 2007

White Pepper Ice Cream

by | posted in: Desserts, gluten-free, Ice Cream, Regrets, Ruminations, vegetarian | 25

I got an ice cream maker. I was watching the episode of Good Eats all about premium ice cream and how simple it was to make, and the next day I ran out to buy an ice cream maker. For $50 I’ll never have to go to the corner bodega to grab a pint of Haagen-Dazs again — sweet. The first batch, a basic vanilla ice cream made from the recipe in the Cuisinart machine’s instruction booklet, was refreshing, sweet, … Read More

Red Bean Hummus with No-Knead Bread
12 Mar 2007

Red Bean Hummus with No-Knead Bread

by | posted in: Beans, gluten-free, Recipes, Sides & Salads | 6

Since the no-knead bread-off at the Brooklyn Kitchen last week, I haven’t been able to stop making bread. Thoughts of forging a foccacia from the technique, or elegant dinner rolls have been clouding my mind as well. At least one of those urges had been released the other night, when I tried to make a French baguette from the recipe. Knowing well enough that the bread needs to cook inside a dutch oven, or other large, covered vessel able to … Read More

Chile Rellenos con Pollo y Patata and Roasted Tomato Salsa
8 Mar 2007

Chile Rellenos con Pollo y Patata and Roasted Tomato Salsa

by | posted in: gluten-free, Recipes, vegan, vegetarian | 9

I am convinced that stuffed peppers, like soup, are a true leftover invention, and that’s just what I stuffed my poblano peppers with for these chile rellenos. In most cases the preferred grain would be rice, but since I had some potatoes I used them along with some leftover chicken. I’ve also come to suspect that most anything when stuffed inside a smoky, roasted poblano pepper will taste good — that is, if you like smoky, roasted poblano peppers.

I Cracked Peppercorn (and does anyone care?)
7 Mar 2007

I Cracked Peppercorn (and does anyone care?)

by | posted in: Cook-Offs, Events, Grains, NYC Events, Recipes | 9

Being the breadwinner, they say, isn’t always fun. I can think of one exception, however, where that’s pure pish posh: winning the No-Knead Bread-Off at The Brooklyn Kitchen. Alright, I tied for best bread in show, beating out three of the five different loaves made by locals who each took twists on the no-knead bread recipe-turned national bread craze created by Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery.

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