Ever wonder what the Times Square Ball looks like up close? This year, the famous sphere gets a stylish update with brand new Waterford Crystal Sparklers.
Because, you know, Swavroski is so 2011.
Happy New Year!
Month: December 2011
Goodbye 2011
Before we ring in the new, we should say a goodbye to the old!
Goodbye to:
Gourmet Burger Overload
Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good burger. I love hamburgers. But everyone these days has a fancy burger on the menu. On every corner is a new gourmet burger joint. And the all the meat is a specially ground just for that restaurant from Pat LaFrieda, which begs the question: if everyone has a proprietary blend from the same butcher, how special are the proprietary blends?! And they all tower to the point that only Paul Bunyan could comfortably take a bite out of one without it exploding local pickles and artisanal slaw.
Too much, too much, too much.
Burgers reached maximum saturation point yesterday. It has just gotten ridiculous.
But . . . yeah, I’ll still order them. Because they’re delicious.
Whoever came up with the idea of playing dead, and posting the clips or pics on the internet as a fun thing for adults to do is just idiotic. I look forward to saying goodbye to this bizarro trend in 2012.
Oh, Tim Tebow. I know next to nothing about football. But I do know that you strike a pose out of love at the end of each game. I’m not a hater, but you spawned a fad that I wish would go away.
Pork Belly
Yes, I know. I love pork belly too. I really love pork belly. I would marry pork belly if I could, but pork belly is also everywhere all the time.
And quite frankly, I think it is about time some other cut got some tender loving attention too.
I said “goodbye” to this last year too, but it still lingers on and on. Foam is fun, but sometimes I just want food that looks like food, you know what I mean? I don’t want to sniff a whiff of flavored air from a globe made out of candied sugar before and after each bite of gelatin.
This year, I want food that I recognize. I want food that I know how to eat without needing an explanation. If I have to ask how, I don’t want to eat it in 2012.
An overused excuse for not cooking with real heat. Seriously, a monkey can stick a bag of vacuum-sealed chicken breast in an expensive hot water bath. The only difficult thing about sous vide is purchasing or building a sous vide water oven.
I think people who smoke a lot of pot must really like cooking sous vide, since building a bong is suspiciously similar to jerry-rigging a cooler. I’m just saying.
Potted Food / Food in Jars
Along with “boards,” this is the one restaurant snack trend that I think has had its day. I like rillettes as much as the next person (in fact, I adore rillettes), but what was once a deliciously thrifty way to use and store away every last bit of valuable animal has now become silly as prime cuts get ground up, or shredded and topped with Sauternes gelée.
One to Two-Hour Waits for Tables
I’m sorry, I’m too old for this. Bring back reservations!
Menus on iPads
Am I the only one who gets overwhelmed looking at restaurant menus? I think that I love set menus because I would rather sit back and let the kitchen bring me something to enjoy, rather than shove the onus of picking well or poorly onto my uneducated shoulders.
I cannot think of anything more distracting, more confusing, and more annoying that putting a menu on an iPad and making me figure out how to navigate my way around it.
And if I picture my mother trying to do it, I can only think of one thing: #restaurantfail.
Merry Christmas!
May your holiday be filled with good friends, family, and good food!
Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Sautéed Brandied Apples
Is it too cliché to mention that old adage that necessity is the mother of invention?
Maybe it should be added that necessity is good, but extreme cold and laziness is a better motivator!
This was where I found myself the other chilly night, looking at the contents of my fridge and pantry and wondering what I could make for dinner without having to go out and get anything else. Pork chops and apples was what came naturally to mind as I had a pair of juicy pork chops from the CSA, and some shrivelly apples. The apples were a little past being able to be enjoyed raw, but they were still perfectly good to cook.
And then I looked up at my nice collection of booze, and thought, “Not just any apples tonight, but flambéed apples!”
Okay, I’m not being 100% truthful. My actual thought was, “Fire! Fire! Fire!”
In any case, the results were fast, easy, delicious, and perfect for an early winter supper.
Ingredients:
2 thick-cut boneless pork chops
Olive oil
2 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into small pieces
1 shallot, finely minced
1/4 cup of apple cider
1 branch of fresh thyme
1/4 cup of brandy
Salt and pepper
Special items:
Matches
How to prepare:
1. Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the pork chops. Sear the pork chops for about 3-4 minutes. They should have a nice golden crust when you flip them. Lower the heat to medium after you turn the pork chops. Continue to cook them until they are done (you’re looking for a nice rosy pink). A meat thermometer inserted in the center of each chop should register between 140-145°. Remove the chops to a plate while you finish the dish.
2. Spoon off most of the fat in the pan, leaving only about two teaspoons. Set the pan back on stove over medium-high heat. Add the apples and shallots. Toss them together in the pan, being sure to scrape up any tasty brown bits stuck to the bottom of it. Cook them until the shallots gain a little color and begin to turn translucent.
3. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the apple cider and the thyme to the pan. Cook the apples and the shallots in the apple cider until the sauce has thickened.
4. Take the pan away from its heat source, and carefully pour the brandy over the apples. Return the pan to the heat. Let the brandy warm for a just a few seconds before igniting it with a match. Stand back and let the alcohol burn off completely. To help you visualize this, here is a nice Youtube clip from the Food Network (the flambé-ing occurs around the 2:55 mark).
5. Add any juices that have accumulated in the plate where the pork chops are resting to the pan. Continue to cook the apples until the liquid has some reduced more. Remove the thyme branch, and adjust the seasoning. Set the pork chops on top of a good mound of apples and serve.
Keema Beef Curry
It is officially cold.
Really cold today. Not as cold as yesterday night (which was the coldest day of the season so far), but still very nose-nippy outside.
It is also officially dark at 4:30pm.
When the weather takes a sharp turn like this, I often start to crave something spicy and bright. This recipe is from the current issue of Food and Wine, and suits my tastes and my mood perfectly. The spices are so warming; they make me dream of locales where the sun shines all the time. The coconut milk makes the curry smooth and creamy, and the spritz of lemon juice makes the whole dish sparkle.
Another great thing about this recipe? It’s something new and delicious to make with ground beef that isn’t hamburger, meatloaf, or meatballs!
Adapted by Grace Parisi from the amazing Julie Sahni, this recipe strangely seems to have not been uploaded to the magazine’s website yet. I have basically kept the recipe as published. However, I have reduced the amount a liquid a bit so it isn’t so watery (you might choose to reduce it even more). Even though Parisi’s recipe doesn’t call for lemons, a hit of acid just seems like such a natural addition to make the flavors pop.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of canola oil
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of ginger, finely grated
2 large cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 1/2 tablespoons of Madras curry powder
Salt and pepper
1 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 cup of chicken stock
1 14-ounce can of unsweetened coconut milk
1 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups of frozen baby peas
Fresh cilantro
Lemon wedges
How to prepare:
1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the ground beef. As it cooks, use the edge of your wooden spoon to break up any lumps. Continue to brown the meat until there is no longer any pink, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the onion, the ginger, the garlic, and the curry powder. Season everything with salt and pepper. Continue to cook the meat mixture until the onions begin to soften and become translucent, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the potato, the stock, the coconut milk, and the diced tomatoes and their juices. Stir everything to combine. Bring the everything to a boil, and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook the curry until the sauce has thickened, and the potatoes are tender.
4. Using the back of your wooden spoon, lightly crush some of the potatoes against the side of the casserole. Adjust the seasoning. Add the peas, and continue to simmer the curry until they are heated through. Adjust the seasoning for a final time.
Top the beef keema with cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Serve with either basmati rice or naan.
Classic Southern Fried Chicken
This recipe is not for the faint-of-heart.
Your mission, should you choose to undertake it, will require Crisco. Lots of it. More, probably, than you have ever felt comfortable using. Gobs. Of. Crisco.
But the payoff is huge: the crispiest fried chicken you could possibly imagine. Chicken so shatteringly good, it explodes and leaves a healthy dribble of juice running down your chin.
Prior to this endeavor, I had never fried with Crisco. Previous experiences with hydrogenated soybean oil were either a scant quarter cup here and there while baking, or a light smear to periodically re-season my cast-iron pans.
That was before getting James Villas‘ amazing cookbook, The Glory of Southern Cooking, in which he makes a very cogent and convincing argument for Southern Cooking being one of the great regional cuisines of the world.
The book is a wonderful introduction to Southern charm and Southern hospitality, portraying the American South as a world of genteel manners and local thrift where casseroles are always given, silver chafing dishes abound, and Crisco is used liberally.
Very liberally.
This is not meant to diminish the value nor underestimate the diversity of Southern cooking, but simply to point out that at its heart, the bottom-line is that good food has nothing to do with calorie-counts or percentages of saturated fats. Good food is food that tastes good, like light and fluffy cakes, gooey and melty macaroni and cheese, and Crisco-fried chicken.
Villas’ recipe is less a recipe and more a series of guidelines to perfect frying. To attain perfection, you must:
1. Cut up your own bird (on High Point Farms’ website, there is a link to a Gourmet Youtube clip that must be the best one I have seen for teaching you how to do this).
2. Use cast-iron.
3. Use Crisco.
4. Never crowd the skillet.
5. Maintain the heat of the fat, except when the chicken is obviously burning (in which case, turn down the heat).
6. Never, never, never cover fried chicken after it is drained, unless you want soggy chicken.
And though frying an all-natural, pasture-raised chicken in fully-hydrogenated fat may outwardly appear to negate all the health benefits of eating free-range in the first place, at least you have the comfort of knowing that your chickens lived very happy lives before becoming crazy good and super delicious fried chickens.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
Buttermilk
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Crisco
1 tablespoon of bacon fat
How to prepare:
1. Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl, and add enough buttermilk to just cover them. Let the pieces soak for about 30 minutes.
2. In a heavy brown bag, or a large Zip-loc bag, combine the flour, the salt, and the pepper together. Add the chicken pieces to the bag, one or two at a time depending on the size of your bag, and shake the bag vigorously so that all the pieces are evenly-coated with flour. Tap the excess flour off of each piece, and stack the pieces on a large plate.
3. Place a large cast-iron skillet over moderate heat. Melt together the bacon fat and a huge amount of Crisco. You want the skillet to be about half-full of melted fat. Continue to heat the oil until it comes up to temperature, about 350-375°, or when a drop of water flicked into the pan sputters loudly.
4. Start frying the dark meat pieces first. Arrange them in a single layer, making sure not to overcrowd the pan. Fry them until they are golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes per side. You should turn the pieces only once. Drain the pieces on paper towels, and fry the white meat pieces last.
5. Transfer the pieces to a large serving platter (how Southern!). Do not cover the chicken pieces at all. Serve them warm, or at room temperature.
Pumpkin Butter
This is Cheese Pumpkin Project #2, using up the second half of the cheese pumpkin that I used in the Pumpkin Soup with Chipotle Chili Purée.
Pumpkin butter is terrific smeared on toast, or bread. This particular recipe is moderately adapted from Serious Eats.
Ingredients:
1/2 a small cheese pumpkin, seeded, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes
Apple cider
1/3 cup of maple syrup
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg
A pinch of ground cloves
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
Special equipment:
A hand-held immersion blender
How to prepare:
1. Place the pumpkin cubes in a large Dutch oven. Add enough apple cider to barely cover the top of the pumpkin cubes. Bring everything to a brisk simmer over medium-high heat, before lowering the heat to medium-low. Cook the pumpkin until it is very tender, about 30 minutes. You should be able to easily crush a pumpkin cube against the side of the casserole with a wooden spoon when the pumpkin is done.
2. Turn off the heat and using an immersion blender, purée the pumpkin until it is smooth. Add the maple syrup, the brown sugar, and the spices to the puréed pumpkin. Stir everything together to evenly distribute the spices throughout the mixture.
3. Turn the heat back on to low. Simmer the purée uncovered until it is thick and spreadable, and has reduced by about more than half. This can take anywhere between 1 to 2 hours. Be sure to carefully stir the mixture occasionally, scraping the bottom of the pan as well to ensure that your pumpkin butter is not burning or scorching. If it is burning or scorching, turn the heat down even more.
* At a certain point, you may want to cover the casserole with a fine-mesh splatter screen. As the mixture cooks down, thick bubbles will form and burst on the surface that can make a bit of a mess on your stove, and potentially burn you. Be sure to use a screen that allows most of the steam to pass through it so that your pumpkin butter can cook down properly.
4. Once the pumpkin butter is nice and thick, stir in the butter. Turn off the heat, and let the mixture cool completely before transferring it to another container and storing it in the refrigerator.
coolcookstyle 