As much as I try to be environmentally friendly in my life, I haven't done it much in my cooking. I'm not talking about green bins and the like, but rather the pots I use and how I cook them. I imagine that part of this lack of piggybacking in my life is due to science paranoia -- which things can be joined together, and which can't? But a big part of it was the thought never occurring to me. That is, until I made the Fantastic Fish Pie.
If you read the recipe, you'll notice that Jamie Oliver gets the potatoes cooking, then throws the eggs right into the same pot to become hard-boiled, and then tops the whole thing with a steamer to steam the spinach. It took one pot instead of two or three, and only a fraction of the time and energy required to do them separately. It all turned out perfectly, and even my almost-too-old eggs were just wonderful. In fact, they were the first hard-boiled eggs in eons to shed their shells easily, without losing any of the delicious whites.
So I ask you: Do you piggyback any of your cooking? If so, please share your tips below!
Next Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, the Food Network will premier Chopped, its new chef-competition series with host Ted Allen. On the Food Network's site, you can check out the contestants of the show, many of them coming from the NYC restaurant scene. On Allen's blog, he defends the need for another "cook-off show" by explaining that, unlike existing shows, on Chopped, there are four new chefs that compete on each episode. The one that wins that episode receives $10,000; the one with the worst food is "chopped." Since each episode features new contestants, there is none of the drama and sleep deprivation present on shows like, 'Project Runway'.
Alright, so Chopped is not entirely based on shows like Top Chef. Nevertheless, after watching its video promo I couldn't help but to view it more like an Saturday Night Live satire of Top Chef and Project Runway, than as a serious TV show. Clips of contestants panicking and asking "what am I going to do?" and saying "my worst nightmare" seems slightly ridiculous if host Allen is going to state that the show is so different than previous chef-competition series. "This January, a new kind of competition." Really? At the end of the clip, Allen, in Heidi Klum style, states "you have been chopped." While the show seems to borrow several elements from other reality based competition shows, we'll have to wait until next Tuesday night to judge whether this a fresh concept or more of the same.
I think it was sometime in 2008 that I discovered how delicious Pernod was in Italian cooking (which led me to make one heck of a Pernod and fennel-based lasagna in August). But for some silly reason, I never thought of combining the two without noodles and tomato sauce. Duh.
The above picture comes from a delicious side of Fennel Braised in Pernod from The Kitchn (using a recipe from The Greasy Spoon). Slap this on the table with a shot of sambuca and a dessert of Black Jack gum and this food fiend would be a very happy camper. I don't think I'd need a main dish. But maybe pernod-flavored pasta...?
U.S.-based, fast-casual* restaurant Chipotle Mexican Grill announced yesterday that they will be opening at least one store in London by the end of 2009. Opening a location abroad has more complications for Chipotle than it does for other dining brands, as they have a policy of working with local farmers and ranchers in order to source their food locally, humanely and sustainably.
They also announced yesterday that Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch, will be joining the management team as the Sustainable Agriculture Advisor. His job will be to will help Chipotle to expand on its efforts to support sustainable agriculture and bring food from sustainable sources to the masses.
It sounds like Chipotle is working hard to do everything right. Now, if only they could open a location in Center City Philadelphia!
*What happens to eating out when the quality of casual dining meets the speed and efficiency of fast food.
During the winter, carrots are one of the few vegetables still being sold in large quantities. They are often planted in early spring, mature in early autumn, and are stored for winter consumption. They're a sweet and tasty source of vitamin A, and they're high in fiber.
Besides their vibrant orange color, carrots add a distinctive bright sweet taste to dishes. They can serve as part of a traditional crudités along with raw celery, broccoli, and cauliflower. Or, you can make them the centerpiece of a dinner table.
For those of you out there with iPhones, there are all sorts of great food-related applications available for your nifty gadget. You can plan your evening meal with the Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner or find the closest grocery store or take-out joint with Fast Food. The UrbanSpoon app allows you to find area restaurants with a simple shake of your phone.
Kraft Foods has decided to get in on the iPhone app-action and to do it has creating the iFood Assistant. This app serves up a daily recipe, as well as ideas for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. However, as far as I can see, there are a couple of glitches in Kraft's plan for iPhone domination. When it comes to healthy eating, Kraft's reputation is a bit dubious. I would be concerned that the recipes it serves up would be laden with overly processed, chemical-laden ingredients. Second, they've decided to charge $.99 for their app. I could see people downloading it if it was free, but I'm not sure how many takers there'll be for a this sucker when it's got a price tag on it (especially since the Allrecipes.com download is free and offers many of the same services).
For those iPhone accessorized foodies in the audience, does Kraft's app appeal to you? Would you be willing to pay a buck to have recipes and meal suggestions sent to your phone?
Emmental and Gruyère are the usual suspects when choosing cheeses for fondue. Occasionally, people use Appenzeller, Comté, Beaufort, and Tête de Moine. When I make cheese fondue, I like to try cheeses that I've never used before - experiment! Cheeses that work well in a fondue are dense creamy cow's milk Alpine cheeses, like the ones mentioned above.
Some people strongly believe that a fondue should consist of only one cheese. I'm not from that school of thought. In fact, I think it's a good idea to have one cheese be the base from which other cheeses are chosen. For example, if I chose Comté to be the main cheese in my fondue, I might want another cheese, such as Erguel Jurakäse, that has a more spicy flavor. The idea is to melt together a variety of three or 4 cheeses that create a well balanced flavor. In other words, use a larger piece of a more traditional "fondue cheese," like Emmental and Gruyère, and then, add to it.
After the jump, find out 5 suggested full-flavored cheeses you can add to your fondue.
When I can come home and cook up a meal in under 20 minutes that tastes as good as it looks and smells, I'm a very happy camper. This dish comes from Giada de Laurentiis's new cookbook, Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites. I found myself flipping through it and marking off multiple pages. Having made several of her dishes before, I know that they tend to be straightforward and always full of flavor. This was the second recipe I tried. The roasted halibut was flaky and incredibly moist, while the grapefruit and fennel salsa brightened up the palate with bursts of citrus and bits of tangy olives.
One of the great things about delicacies is that, while they may be rare, they are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. For example, sturgeon eggs may be a taste treat, but if nobody is willing to fork over the a small fortune, then they are, essentially, just bait. Recently, this simple fact has become quite important as lobster, which was once priced well out of the range of the average person has started to come within reach. The freakish crustaceans are now going for about $2.50 per pound wholesale, down from a high of about $10 per pound in spring 2007. In terms of retail price, this translates into a drop of at least $4 per pound. In some Boston-area seafood markets, the price hovered in the $7 range earlier this year; depending upon one's location, it has subsequently dipped well below that.
There are two big reasons for the great lobster drop. One is the fact that many high-end consumers, the kinds of people who could afford to eat lobster regularly, were hit particularly hard by 2008's financial meltdown. The second reason lies in the collapse of Iceland's economy: seafood producers in Canada that used Icelandic banks have not been able to get the credit they need to buy large amounts of lobster.
Personally, I'm going to be taking advantage of this sudden piece of good news. While I'm not a big fan of shelled lobster - to be honest, the huge crustaceans remind me of aquatic cockroaches and the whole lobster dining experience is disturbingly like an alien autopsy - lobster tails and lobster bisque are among my favorites. What's more, with lobster going for a fraction of its former price, this might be the perfect time for a Monty Pythonrecipe that I've always wanted to try: Lobster Thermidor Aux Crevettes with Mornay Sauce, Truffle Pate, Brandy, Fried Egg and Spam. While I'm at it, I'm also keeping an eye on other delicacies; after all, who knows what will drop next?
Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake is on a quest to find healthy foods that don't suck (my guess is that there are lots of us out there searching for the very same things). She recently whipped up a batch of Chipotle-Lime Glazed Shrimp and declared it a winner. In addition to being a tasty and healthful option, it's also super fast, cooking up entirely in just five minutes. If only I wasn't allergic to shrimp I'd be making this tomorrow night!
Remember that if you'd like to see your picture featured in this space, all you have to do is head over to Flickr, join the group and start adding your images. The more creative or delicious, the better!
The first Monday of 2009 is upon us: The first day reality sets in.
Was it just me or did the holidays fall in a very precarious position this year? Both Christmas and New Year's landed on Thursdays, leaving their respective Eves to precede on Wednesdays, resulting in anemic two-day work weeks barely worth thinking about, causing almost an entire 16 day period to be a wash, thus making getting back to any sort of actual life that much more difficult.
But here I am. My point: None.
However, I am building to a larger sentiment that New Year's Eve 2009 has come and passed without but a squeak from me on the beer blog -- begging the question: "How did Slashfood's resident beer snob kick off 2009 (beer-wise of course)?" Well, I'm not so proud to admit that after the requisite champagne toast, my first beer of 2009 was... drum roll please... a Budweiser!
Yikes! Equally requisite explanation: NYE09 was spent at a house party with but one keg to satisfy all beer drinkers' tastes, so I swallowed my snobbery and kicked off the new year with a Bud draft out of the barrel.
My beer expertise did come in handy though when someone was needed to tap said keg. So there: my knowledge did pay off after all.
We're now five days and one full weekend into 2009. What was your first beer of the year? Or fill me in on any interesting NYE beer drinking tales. Otherwise it's going to be a long, boring year, people!
Does the end of the Rainbow Room signal the end of an era? Just yesterday, MSNBC reported that the Rainbow Room, the renowned Manhattan landmark and restaurant, is going to shut down. John Higgins, the Chief Operating Officer of Cipriani, announced that the close is due to the current economic crisis and an ongoing dispute with their landlord, Tishman Speyer. Our sister blog, Luxist, explains that despite the definitive close on January 12th, they will continue to operate the bar, banquet space, and the weekend dinner-dancing sessions on the 65th floor.
The Rainbow Room opened on October 3, 1934 and quickly became a NYC icon associated with high-culture and style. The likes of Fred Astaire waltzed on its floor. Marlene Dietrich dined there, and famous musicians, such as organist Ray Bohr, performed there. The restaurant which opened during the Great Depression is now ironically closing during a new economic crisis. You can view images of the Rainbow Room's cultural peak at Gawker and feel the nostalgia of a past glamour.
While President Elect Barack Obama's dining budget may have scaled up a tad since '01, the then State Senator was already a passionate fan of food. Enjoy this clip of the soon to be Foodie-in-Chief on a never-aired episode of WTTW's "Check Please," extolling the virtues of the johnnycakes, peach cobbler and Southern sampler at Chicago's Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop.
The "lost" episode will air on WTTW twice on January 16th, again on the 18th and once more on January 20th, the day of Obama's inauguration.
Ah, the good old days when cereal boxes were blatantly wacky! I'm curious what cereal advertisers in the '70s were thinking? Now, you can check out campy, ridiculous, slightly freakish cereal boxes from the '50s, '60s, and '70s on The Imaginary World's archive of cereal boxes. Fellow blog, lemondrop, comments on several of the boxes of cereals that no longer exist, such as Fruity Freakies, Crazy Cow, and King Vitaman (to the right).
The names of these cereals alone leave plenty to the imagination. Or do they? The box of King Vitaman cereal is mildly creepy. An old man dressed as a king looks as though he's going to feed you cereal. The juxtaposition between this odd-looking "king" and the ad for the toy give-away appears slightly perverse. As lemondrop says, "this is not the guy we want feeding us breakfast."
Then, there's the absurd Kellogg's Puffa Puffa Rice cereal box that seems to shout "absurdity!" There's a volcano exploding with cereal. To think that this past year Kellogg's reduced the size of its cereal boxes...Where has its creativity gone? The cereal box archive is extremely amusing and I am now trying to figure out different ways in which one can use the images. I foresee trendy retro tee-shirts and posters.
Between Sesame Street and The Muppets, Jim Henson brought a myriad of lovable, furry creatures to our television sets. But did you know that some of them were food-based? My friend recently alerted me to a Mental Floss post that outlines the origins of some of our favorite Muppets, which also happens to reveal some fun foodie tidbits.
The Swedish Chef is, of course, the most obvious. While it can't be confirmed, there's a Swedish chef -- Lars "Kuprik" Bäckman -- who claims that he is the Swedish Chef. I wonder if he borka borka borkas? If not, I'd question his validity. But beyond the crazy chef, there's also the Cookie Monster, who has food ties that go well beyond his sugar-addicted name; he was a monster created for a General Foods commercial in the 1960s that was never used. The same goes for Rowlf the Dog. He was originally created in the '60s -- this time for Purina commercials.
I wonder ... are there any current food commercial characters that will become beloved childhood characters one day?
As much as I try to be environmentally friendly in my life, I haven't done it much in my cooking. I'm not talking about green bins and the like, but rather the pots I use and how I cook them. I imagine that part of this lack of piggybacking in my life is due to science paranoia -- which things can be joined together, and which can't? But a big part of it was the thought never occurring to me. That is, until I made the Fantastic Fish Pie.
U.S.-based, fast-casual* restaurant Chipotle Mexican Grill announced yesterday that they will be opening at least one store in London by the end of 2009. Opening a location abroad has more complications for Chipotle than it does for other dining brands, as they have a policy of working with local farmers and ranchers in order to source their food locally, humanely and sustainably. 
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One of the great things about delicacies is that, while they may be rare, they are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them. For example, sturgeon eggs may be a taste treat, but if nobody is willing to fork over the a small fortune, then they are, essentially, just bait. Recently, this simple fact has become quite important as lobster, which was once priced well out of the range of the average person has started to come within reach. The freakish crustaceans are now 
New Year's Day Hoppin' John
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It's all in the planning - First time Thanksgiving
