8.2.10
I’LL BE BACK AFTER LABOR DAY!! I’m taking a little time off from the blog. Time to relax and recharge. I hope you won’t feel I’ve abandoned you. I love sharing my adventures in and out of the kitchen with you. Even though you’re not a very vocal bunch, I know that on some days there are actually a couple hundred of you out there, and I’m counting on all of you to come back in September—and bring some friends with you! Going forward, I’m going to try to diversify a little bit; my original intention had been to blog about more than just cooking and food. I’m still planning to conquer sourdough bread, perfect a tomato aspic and write a big-picture treatise on creating the ultimate well-stocked pantry, but I hope to begin a new series of interviews with inspiring people and also share the saga of building our dream home. For now, for these dog days, I’ll be lounging in the hammock, working on my novel and soaking up the summertime. Before I go, I’ll leave you with a few suggestions…
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8.1.10
photo by george billard
The fruits of one’s own garden just seem to taste sweeter. Our first patty pan squash, Japanese eggplants and scallions went on the grill, along with red carrots and sweet onions from the farm. With a radicchio salad in a creamy dressing, that was all we needed for dinner the other night. I made a dipping sauce for the vegetables with an earthy red miso and it truly was perfection. A grill can really change the way you eat, especially if you live in LA or some other temperate climate. As irresistible as that charred flavor can be, I want you to be aware that too much blackened food is not good for you. Burning food produces a group of substances (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) that are associated with cancer, cardiovascular toxicity and immune system suppression, among other adverse effects. So avoid extreme charring of your food, and don’t eat from the grill every day. Moderation really is the key. (Except when it comes to exercise, of course.) But don’t despair! You can use you grill to cook in a number of ways that don’t involve charring but still infuse your food with that delicious smoky flavor. Low and slow, as in our pulled pork for instance, or indirect cooking, which really is the best way to do chicken or other foods that tend to burn quickly. Read the rest of this entry »
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7.30.10
photos by gluttonforlife
Having already waxed poetic about peaches, I feel I must give these luscious apricots their due. Seldom have I seen such perfect specimens, firm yet yielding, their golden hue tinged with a pink blush. I find that so often apricots can be mealy and tasteless, but these are a revelation: sweet-tart, juicy, with a delicate perfume all their own. I came away from the farmstand with 7 quarts and every intention of replicating the vanilla-scented jam my mother-in-law so enjoyed 2 years ago. If you’ve never made jam, let me just warn you that most recipes call for what seems like an obscene amount of sugar, but there is another way. This time I decided to make a batch using some powdered pectin and relatively small amounts of sugar and honey. Sadly, I wasn’t totally thrilled with the results. I found the jam to be less crystalline; it seemed to have a slightly cloudy and over-gelled quality. I probably need to experiment a bit more, with quantities and timing, but I just haven’t had the extra time lately. So for now, I’m going to put these up the old-fashioned, and use organic sugar. It’s not like jam is something that gets eaten by the cupful anyway… Read the rest of this entry »
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7.28.10
takashi inoue & jake dickson photos by george billard
The very day the Times gave Takashi a rave review, Dickson’s announced it would be co-hosting a special dinner there, featuring an all-beef menu from a single steer it would supply. As a big fan of Dickson’s, conscientiously-raised beef, Korean barbecue and adventurous eating, I couldn’t really pass up the opportunity. Takashi—the name of the chef and his restaurant—opened in April in Manhattan’s West Village, and seems to be occupying a new space in the city’s dining landscape. The food is in the style of yakiniku, a Japanese version of Korean barbecue that originated in Japan during the Second World War, when many thousands of Koreans were conscripted into the Japanese army and brought to the island to work. Chef Takashi Inoue’s grandmother is Korean and runs a small yakiniku restaurant in Osaka. Takashi came to the United States three years ago to study English, met Saheem Ali—then a theater director, now the restaurant’s general manager—and together they opened this small restaurant. The quality of the meat on offer is fantastic. At the dinner we attended, it all came from one steer that had been provided by Dickson’s. It was a real adventure in nose-to-tail eating, and one that honored Dickson’s fine beef, Takashi’s original cooking, and the magnificent animal that made it all possible. Read the rest of this entry »
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7.24.10
photos by gluttonforlife
A bowl of white peaches sat on the counter, their rosy, fuzzy curves as innocent and perfect as those of a child. Their sweet fragrance would waft towards me whenever I walked past and, after a few days, they hovered at that turning point of ripeness than demands attention. My freezer already held a bag of white peach purée, ready to recreate the bellini of my dreams, first sampled on a freezing January day at the crowded, overheated bar at Harry’s in Venice, surely among the most glamorous and decadent meals of my life. (When you go there, why not stick to bellinis and panini at the bar as the locals do?) There were 6 peaches, too many to simply eat out of hand now that they were on the verge of going soft. How then to take advantage of these delicate creatures? I had read recently in more than one place about peaches poached with basil, which has now taken off in our garden. I liked the idea of these two perfumey flavors coming together and decided to give it a whirl. Turns out nothing could be simpler or more perfect on a hot summer’s eve. And you’re left with plenty of divine pink syrup to mix with white wine or drizzle over yoghurt. Read the rest of this entry »
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7.23.10
mexican limes
Not as in Lima, Peru, as in Mexican lime. I had a reader request for Yucatecan sopa de lima, the Mexican version of Jewish penicillin, and I was happy to oblige, in part because I had a big jar of freshly made chicken stock in my fridge. The timing didn’t really work out for photos as I only know how to make them look good using natural light. So you’ll have to make do with a couple that show the difference between the small, seed-filled Mexican limes (not unlike key limes) and the more ubiquitous Persian limes. Either one works for this soup, and you can even use lemon. I ended up using both. This recipe was not something I grew up eating. My mother’s cooking was much more influenced by her mother’s New Mexico roots. And although I have eaten this soup in Mérida, I consulted a number of sources to get it right, including Rick Bayless, the Chicago-based chef (and Obama favorite) whose recipes tend to be impeccably researched and very authentic. I can’t really say this is his recipe; I changed it too much. His stock calls for pork bones, and for a few other ingredients I didn’t have on hand. But in the end, I wound up with a delicious, light but satisfying soup redolent of cinnamon and cumin, with a bit of chile heat, a pleasingly tart finish and a fabulous garnish of crispy tortilla strips. It’s great in hot weather and cold, and if you have stock on hand, you can cook up a pot in about an hour. Read the rest of this entry »
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7.19.10
photos by george billard
Alex Raij is the chef and co-owner of Txikito, a wonderful restaurant in Manhattan with its own uniquely personal take on Basque cuisine. I have eaten there on many occasions—on my own or with a friend for lunch, with groups big and small for dinner—and she has never failed to impress me with her imaginative and delicious cooking. El Quinto Pino, a more traditional tapas bar, is also part of her empire, which I’m sure will continue to diversify and grow in popularity. Chef Alex was kind enough to agree to an interview and submitted to a quick photo session with G. She even passed along a recipe for the basil pomada served at El Quinto Pino (I’ve done my best to adapt it faithfully). The result is the first of what I hope will be a series of interviews on gluttonforlife. Read the rest of this entry »
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7.18.10
photos by gluttonforlife
Once you make chicken stock using this recipe, I promise you’ll never want to go back to that stuff in the box, no matter how organic it is or how convenient it seems. You can make an enormous vat of this and freeze small containers or even ice cube trays full of it to use for months. If space is at a premium in your freezer, you can boil the stock down to a concentrated and syrupy demi-glace which can later be reconstituted into stock by adding water. I got this recipe from Nourishing Traditions and it’s really quite similar to most chicken stock recipes you’ll find, with one key exception: you cook it over very low heat for at least 6 and as many as 24 hours! Turns out this make a huge difference in the flavor, color and consistency of the stock. It’s rich, golden, unctuous without being greasy and highly flavored. Of course it helps if you are using a whole chicken, or lots of good bony parts, including necks and feet.
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7.16.10
photos by gluttonforlife
There comes a time every summer when I fetishize plums. When I lived in Los Angeles, I got to know many different varieties: Santa Rosa, Greengage (Reine Claude), Damson, pluots and more. And somewhere tucked away, I still have a recipe for a lightly sweet and dry cake studded with juicy Italian plums I got from the Times more than 2 decades ago. I’ll share it with you a bit later in the summer, when those plums are at their peak. I prefer plums when they are ice cold and rather firm, juicy but still a little tart. Still, I’m not opposed to popping a yielding little sugarplum into my mouth and licking its sweet syrup from my fingers. But before I go all Nigella on you, I want to tell you about a quick and easy way to make spicy plum pickles. Sometimes you buy a few too many, or you just can’t eat one more right now and they’re about to pass their prime, and that’s when you might consider this recipe.
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7.14.10
photos by gluttonforlife
Bear with me as I learn to use G’s camera. I prefer to do things I’m already good at (I know that’s so wimpy), so this means going beyond my comfort zone. That said, I’m having fun with it and it may ultimately mean more photos of dishes in progress, which might be helpful for you. Now, to artichoke hearts. I love the rich, buttery goodness that lies nestled within all those leathery leaves, the secret heart buried in this armored flower. But I’m not the hugest fan of the canned variety, finding them a bit slimy and strangely acidic, nor of the marinated kind in a jar that often swim in insipid oil. So what’s a glutton to do but try to make them from scratch? Believe it or not, I couldn’t find a recipe that didn’t start with either big globe artichokes or a bag of frozen hearts. And what I had were these little beauties…
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