Foodie vs, food

Fried chicken cookoff:  The Pioneer Woman Cookbook vs. Thomas Keller

Before you take the trouble of preparing a fried-chicken dinner, there's a decision to make: Just how much trouble? There are populist cookbooks that promise basic recipes for basic people. These take shortcuts and try to speed the process. Meanwhile, lots of fancy, big-name chefs write folksy cookbooks for the little guy, too. But it's a very specific sort of little guy they have in mind—the kind willing to toil for days on end just to get food on the table.

I like to think that there's a happy middle ground out there - in fact, I think that the America's Test Kitchen books often hit it.

Who was that chef on Northern Exposure

He doesn't post very often, but the results are pretty spectacular.

I want a hambaaga too

Chubby Hubby: I rabuu Hambaaga. Although, when we made meat-loaf, we never used Waygu or Berkshire pork belly. The truth is, regular hamburger is made of lots of steak trimmings, and is better quality than you think.

Is it Memorex or Real, part a million

What's the Difference Between Artificial and Natural Flavors?

So yeah, I do not think that word means what you think it means. That said, I think that the distinction between natural and artificial is overblown.

Trends

Epicurious Predicts Top 10 Food Trends for 2009

1. "Value" is the new "Sustainable"
These days, the economy dictates our cooking and shopping decisions: Bargains are in, no matter where they come from.

2. The Compost Pile is the new Flower Garden
Growing your own now refers to vegetables, not just herbs, and that will in turn help feed the gardener's compost pile. Live worm garnishes, however, will not make it to the house salad.

3. Peruvian is the new Thai
You thought Peruvian cuisine was all about seviche, maybe? Guess again: Peru boasts culinary influences from Spanish, Basque, African, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, and British immigrants. Pisco Sour, anyone?

Annie get your Reuben

If you're ever in Austin, swing by Katz Deli-Bar if you can. It might seem a little strange to head to a Manhattan-style deli in the middle of Texas, but there it is. I should have taken a picture, but here are a thousand words instead. And here's a photo of the Caddy outside Katz.

Careful

The Anti-Restaurants. If they touch a regular restaurant, the pair will annihilate into a burst of pure energy.

That's a lot

Kinda on a food kick today, but check out what Michael Phelps eats in a day - all 12,000 calories of it.

The next step is getting a slave to peel my grapes

I feel odd mentioning this, but I bought a cheap-o citrus juicer the other day, and each morning since I have made myself a glass of fresh Auger. It's not much more expensive, if at all, than the bottled OJ, and it's way better in the morning screwdriver. Fantastic!

Amelie would totally flip out over this

Creme Brulee Oatmeal

This looks great to me, but Wilfred Brimley would not approve, as he has the diabetes.

Food is good

FWIW: The Viet Bistro at the Eden Center is really, really good. Really. I mean it. Really mean it. A lot. Have I convinced you yet? The spicy beef appetizer, the grilled mussels, the sea-food hot pot, and the bun (vermicelli noodles) were all fantastic. This is going to become a regular dinning option, and the Eden Center looks like there are half a dozen places there worth checking out. Sometimes it pays to venture to the 'burbs.

Not so much in the burbs is a restaurant group in Alexandria that runs a couple of higher-end foodie places: Vermilion is the best of them, and I will be going back. Our waiter was very good, and I appreciated her advice. Rustico was okay- it's their fancy brew-pub eatery. I liked my goat cheese and pine nut dusted pizza, but I have less desire to go back; Same with the Majestic, which is the hoity-toity cafe slash diner. I had the meat-loaf, which was very comforting indeed. Nothing wrong with either, although the waiters were less smooth. If you're going to generic fancy place A, I am really starting to appreciate a professional waiter. I very much like the vibe of someone who is in it for a long haul.

Let them eat nutraloaf

Yeah, the Supremes can go ahead and worry about the death-penalty and hand-gun bans, but does "nutraloaf" violate the Eight Amendment: Can prison food be unconstitutionally bad? Yes, I imagine, but nutrialoaf does not sink to quite that low:

Even unsympathetic courts seem willing to concede that Nutraloaf is pretty disgusting, but after reading through the court filings in these cases, I couldn't shake a nagging question—just how bad is it? Nutraloaf is made differently in different prisons. Vermont's penal cookbook calls for a combination of vegetables, beans, bread, cheese, and raisins. I recently spent $15 on a nearly identical dish at a vegan cafe in New York—and it didn't even have raisins. In a spirit of legal and culinary adventurousness, I decided to make some Nutraloaf of my own.

He should have named the cafe, so that they could advertise their food as constitutionally legal. Anyway, he makes a bunch, and then serves it to guests at a dinner party. Which is cruel and unusual.

Pim's Thai Recipies

Pad See Ew for beginners.

Can't stand the heat?

The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen:

January 2, 2008
The Curious Cook
The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen
By HAROLD McGEE

OF all the ingredients in the kitchen, the most common is also the most mysterious.

It’s hard to measure and hard to control. It’s not a material like water or flour, to be added by the cup. In fact, it’s invisible.

It’s heat.

Every cook relies every day on the power of heat to transform food, but heat doesn’t always work in the way we might guess. And what we don’t know about it can end up burning us.

We waste huge amounts of gas or electricity, not to mention money and time, trying to get heat to do things it can’t do. Aiming to cook a roast or steak until it’s pink at the center, we routinely overcook the rest of it. Instead of a gentle simmer, we boil our stews and braises until they are tough and dry. Even if we do everything else right, we can undermine our best cooking if we let food cool on the way to the table — all because most of us don’t understand heat.

The Big Cheese

Cowgirl Creamery / Library of Cheese

Roll your own nuggets

For Laura: Homemade Chicken McNuggets. McDonald's has a funny aftertaste, but you don't have to clean all the oil off your stovetop either.

Walken Roast

Christopher Walken roasts a chicken. With roast pears, which is a weird pairing. ha ha. Previously, Robert Rodriguez makes breakfast tacos.

Finally

Tabasco Hot Sauces by the gallon.

Breakfast Tacos

Somewhat of a non sequitur, but here's Robert Rodriguez on how to make breakfast tacos.

Spud-nix

How can you not have a picnic this weekend? Easily. But in case you do, here's an easy measure for steak doneness. I'll take mine extra medium rare, please.

And here's an alternative to potato salad:

Rice, Asparagus, and Cucumber Salad

• 1.75 c water
• 1 c rice
• 1 lb asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1.5 c diced cucumber
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 0.5 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2.5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 0.25 c chopped fresh dill
• s & p
• Butter lettuce and fresh dill sprigs

This can be made one day ahead, but keep the salad and dressing separate until you serve them.

1. Make the rice, and let it cool to room temperature.
2. Cook the asparagus in boiling salted water for 2 minutes until crisp-tender.
3. Drain, and then rinse with cold water until cool.
4. Mix the asparagus, cucumber, green onions, and rice together.

5. Combine the Dijon mustard, sugar, vinegar and dry mustard together.
6. Gradually mix in the oil.
7. Add the chopped dill.

Mix the salad and this dressing together, season with salt and pepper, and mound the salad into a bowl lined with the lettuce leaves. Gar-nish with the dill, and there you go.