Things I like about fall: apples… sage… toasty, nutty flavors like browned butter… Oh wait, I guess I’m only referring to food I like in the fall. I have a one-track mind much of the time. Good thing there are occasions for such obsessiveness, one annual Brooklyn tradition being the apple pie contest at Enid’s.
As with my other attempts at Chili Takedown championship, this was a very time-consuming process. In keeping with tradition, it also did not succeed in receiving first-place honors. However, this was no ordinary chili cook-off; I was competing against four other veteran Takedown contestants, hand-selected by our ringleader, Matt Timms. The bar was high, and the secret ingredient, à la Iron Chef-speak, was heat. At least, that’s how I would describe my approach to this chili. You see, our special … Read More
This fall, we’re starting something new. An idea fledged by myself and Liz Carollo, Greenmarket Publicity Coordinator for the Council for the Environment of New York City (CENYC), the Shopping Club & Tour Series begins this Saturday, October 4th at Brooklyn’s busy Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. To kick it off, I’ll be making an early-fall veggie risotto at the information stand at 12:00 noon beforehand, so I hope you can come for some freshly-made grub, and stick around for the … Read More
Okay, so maybe that’s a pretty big pig. Last week, I shared with you four lessons I learned in the geeky, futuristic world of high-tech food science. Perhaps I should have preceded it with this post, on a much more primitive practice: butchering. Still, it requires no less skill, experience and serious passion to hack up a hog than it does to turn sauces into silly string. I’m grateful to have learned these lessons at a sold-out pig butchering class … Read More
It’s really the last week of summer. The skies are really becoming darker sooner, and that chill breeze in the evening is really happening. But on the flipside, and in celebration of late-summer local fruits, this watermelon pie is also real. I didn’t think it would make it past the dream stage for a while.
Some of you may have heard certain stories about New York magazine’s Highbrow BBQ last weekend. You may have seen a video about it on Grub Street, and if so, caught an unsightly glimpse of me chewing, or something. You may have even been there yourself, under the clear, blue sky at Solar One’s East River waterfront playground. But in any of these cases, what you probably haven’t seen is an up-close account of the cook-off that took place toward … Read More
New York magazine’s Highbrow BBQ has sold out, and those who snagged tickets are in for a treat. As for the rest, I can only promise more tales of barbecue bliss, and hopefully a recipe from the winner of the amateur grilling cook-off. Let’s hope he or she isn’t one of those “it’s a secret” types.
What you’re looking at is the title card for the first-place judge’s choice chili of the latest Brooklyn Chili Takedown, made by first-time cook-off contestant Zeph Courtney. With a dark, earthy flavor and thick, rich sauce surrounding golf ball-sized hunks of beef, it’s as in-your-face as its name suggests. And below, exclusive to this blog – I think – is the winning recipe for it.
You know that summer is in full swing when there’s a barbecue to attend to every other day. But the best ones always seem to roll around just at the cusp of Labor Day. This time, New York Magazine is upping the ante with a waterfront BBQ of unprecedented heights: Announcing the first-ever Highbrow BBQ on August 23 — an afternoon extravaganza of charred, smoked and spice-rubbed goodness, plenty of beer, and live music by Islands. If the lure of … Read More
This recipe is like a southern housewife who just flew back from the Bahamas. There’s nothing that smells of home, sweet home like a fresh-baked pan of cornbread, but who wants to forget the intoxicating aromas of the tropics so soon? Heck, a compromise. And to return to reality from that little hyperbole, this dish was indeed a compromise when it was planned for the menu at the BBQ last night, hosted by Finger on the Pulse.