 |
Home
Who are we?
Bookshelf
Toolbox
Store
Food Network
Busy Cooks
FoodFit.com
Mimi's Cyber-Kitchen
Taste of Home
Fine
Cooking
FoodWeb Online
Betty Crocker
BH&G
Food
Mr.
Food
Fabulous Foods
BH&G
Cooking School
Reluctant Gourmet
Culinary Cafe
FoodLines
Epicurious
RecipeSource
RecipeSpot
All Recipes
What's on Hand
Cookbook
Low-Cal Diner
Texas Cooking
Gumbo Pages
KFC
Copycats
Free Recipes
CopyKat.com
Top Secrets
Iron Chef
Alton Brown
Good Eats Fans
Jamie Oliver
RoadKillRojo.com
Murray Hill 5
|
|
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Viva Viva Tortillas!
Posted
5:21 PM by Rick
I'm with you, Mike. Simply placing a stack of tortillas on the table along with fillers can make for dinner fun. As simple as it sounds, this is a blast and lets the kids be their own chefs: a stack of tortillas, a plate of warmed hot dogs, and supplies of everything your family might eat on a hot dog, like chili, cheese, baked beans, relish, ketchup, etc... A really old idea, hot dogs, turns into something new and exciting.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Viva tortillas!
Posted
10:48 PM by Mike
I've come to the conclusion that a great staple item to have on hand at all times is a supply of flour tortillas. OK, if that seems obvious to most folks, my apologies; sometimes it takes me awhile to get caught up with things.
Why tortillas? Well, for the versatility, of course. Many meals can be built upon them, starting with the obvious, tacos and burritos. Then, naturally, you have your breakfast burritos. And quesadillas. And fajitas.
Tonight I used them for taco pizzas. Ordinarily I make my taco pizzas on actual pizza dough, but this time, to speed things up, I used the tortillas. I season the browned ground beef with cumin, ancho chile pepper and paprika. Before topping the tortillas, I heat them first in a dry, non-stick skillet (they're right out of the refrigerator, so I want to heat them first so as to not shock the baking stones in the 500-degree oven). Then I brush them with a coat of olive oil, them add a light layer of beef. Then some grated cheese (I used the four-cheese blend out of the bag). Then the tortilla goes into the oven until the cheese is melted. After that it's topped with grated lettuce, diced tomato and some picante sauce (also some chopped onion on mine).
They also come in handy for sandwich wraps. First I trim the rounded edges to make squares (save the edges; I'll tell you later). Then I spread with one of various blends of cream cheese -- pimento, olive, chives, herbs. Then I layer with sliced meats out of the bag - chicken, turkey, ham, etc. Remember to leave about a half inch of the cream cheese uncovered with meat, to seal the wrap when rolled. Roll it up and slice into medallions (or leave whole, if preferred).
Later, take all those trimmed edges and fry in some hot oil (you don't need much; just a thin layer in a flat-bottomed skillet) for a few seconds. Drain, then sprinkle with powdered sugar for a great dessert treat.
Monday, February 24, 2003
TIP: The cookie experiment worked!
Posted
7:18 AM by Mike
Earlier I posted my first recipe, now I'm going to post my first kitchen tip. Perhaps someone else already has thought of this, but I'm going to take credit for it anyway.
Situation: I wanted to make some cookies, but I didn't want to turn out the dozens of cookies usually yielded by the average recipe for Toll House Cookies. Sure, I could freeze the rest, but it's always hard to get out of the tubs I use. I thought of rolling it, like you can flavored butter, but cookie dough is not of the same consistency as butter, and besides, there's so much of it to deal with. What I needed was an easy way to roll it.
Solution: Get some cardboard tubes from the center of paper towel rolls. For an average batch of cookie dough, you're going to need at least three. If you want to make some cookies and freeze the rest, two will do.
Next, get a piece of plastic wrap about four inches longer than the cardboard tube.
Fold it lengthwise down the middle.
Then, turn up the selvage ends (my sewing background is showing, sorry; turn up the ends opposite the main fold) about an inch ...
... then again, then again:
What you want to end up with is a tube of plastic wrap slightly wider than the cardbard tube.
Now, thread the plastic wrap tube through the cardboard tube.
Once it's through, turn down the ends of the plastic wrap over the ends of the tube (just like turning the top of a garbage bag over the lip of the can).
What you're left with is a cardboard tube lined with plastic wrap.
When the dough is ready, place a small piece of wax or parchment paper on your work surface. Put one end of the lined tube onto the wax paper. Now, spoon the dough into the tube until it's filled (the wax paper is to prevent a mess on the bottom end; you don't want to pre-seal one end because you might have to spoon into both ends to help even things out).
Once the tube is filled, slide the ends of the plastic wrap up and twist them closed. Seal each end with a wire twist. Repeat this process with other lined tubes until all the dough you want to freeze is sealed.
Now you can pop it into the freezer. Leave the cardboard tube on while it freezes to keep it straight and to prevent the seam from bulging.
Once frozen, simply slide the dough, still covered with plastic wrap, from the cardboard tube.
For further protection from freezer burn, wrap the dough with some aluminum foil, or place the plastic-wrapped dough tubes into a large freezer bag.
When you're ready to make cookies, you can simply slice the frozen dough into medallions, place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake according to the recipe.
Saturday, February 22, 2003
Now, that's better
Posted
11:18 AM by Mike
Just watched this morning's episode of "America's Test Kitchen" (all about casseroles), and being the macaroni-and-cheese lover that I am, returned to AmericasTestKitchen.com to snag the recipe. I'm happy to say that the technical errors I encountered last time -- broken images, screwy links and navigation -- were not there on this visit, which is good, because there's a lot of useful information there.
The pitfalls of a picky family
Posted
12:19 AM by Mike
It's hard to cook for my crew. Everyone has their particular dislikes that threaten to put a crimp (is that the correct phrase?) in many a dish that I plan.
For instance, my wife doesn't like cooked carrots. Well, that puts a damper on most any recipe that calls for a mirepoix (the roux of carrots, celery and onion). Sometimes I can get away with it. For instance, when I make Alton Brown's Pantry-Friendly Tomato Sauce, the carrots eventually are overcome by the richness of the sauce, so my wife isn't bothered by the taste or texture.
My daughter doesn't like peppers. My son doesn't like mushrooms.
Can you begin to see a cook's problem? Well, sometimes I can cook around it, sometimes I just have to toss the offending items in and hope for the best.
Sometimes, however, I can use all of the offenders and still please everyone. For instance, I've gotten into the habit, when making stir fry, of preparing the ingredients, but making everyone's portions separately. Because stir fry cooks so quickly, it's practical to do this. For instance, I can throw carrot strands and peppers into my son's portion, but no mushrooms, with similar restrictions for the others. Of course, for my own I can throw in everything!
A philosophical quandary
Posted
12:07 AM by Mike
Here's something that's occurred to me recently. When you create a dish from someone's recipe, and it turns out great and you get all kinds of kudos and kind words, who should really get the acclaim, the cook or the composer of the recipe?
The analogy that immediately pops to mind is that of the musician who plays a piece by a famed classical composer. A pianist plays a Chopin piece. The applause is for the pianist, with appreciation of the way he or she interpreted Chopin's composition. For one thing, not every pianist could play the Chopin as well; even accomplished pianists could interpret the piece in a way that doesn't sit well with all audience members.
Following that analogy, a cook deserves the applause for a well-crafted meal, regardless of who created the original recipe.
That's all well and good, but I've followed some recipes to the point where I simply cannot accept credit; I'm just following directions. On a lot of recipes, with little or no wiggle room for interpretation, it's hard to accept credit.
For instance, the meal that got me thinking about all this: a simple-but-amazing recipe for banana pudding gleaned from Paula Deen's home cooking show on Food Network. It's called Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding, a recipe that Deen herself received from a friend. There's not much to this recipe, but the rich parts add up to a more-than-satisfying whole: French vanilla pudding, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and frozen whipped topping. Oh, and of course the bananas. And instead of vanilla wafers, Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies.
There aren't many ways you can interpret this recipe and make it "your own." Since I've made it, I've received all sorts of compliments. My mother-in-law calls it "Mike's banana pudding."
Can I accept these compliments and accept the "ownership"? (Believe me, I credit Paula Deen everytime I serve it; still, everyone praises me.) Personally I feel that I'm just the conduit. Regardless of whose hands actually prepare the dish, to me it's still the creation of the woman who gave Paula Deen the recipe in the first place (actually the creation of whomever created this variation of banana pudding).
I only really feel comfortable accepting compliments when it's a recipe that I've created (such as the Sweet Potato Cups in an earlier post) or one to which I've made considerable modifications.
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Quick tip, just FYI
Posted
2:27 PM by Mike
I wasn't storing my baking goods well (flour, sugar, etc.), so I finally cracked down and bought plastic canisters. Just FYI, a 5-pound bag of sugar will fit in a 3-quart container (that is, you can pour it in the canister, not stick the bag in there).
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Onion tip is good; site leaves much to be desired
Posted
12:24 PM by Mike
Just watched "America's Test Kitchen" on PBS and picked up a great tip for dicing onions. You know the trick about leaving the root end to hold the onion together while you slice? Well, do that, but instead of trying to cut horizontally across the onion half, just cut the onion again down the middle, through the root end, so you now have quarters. Make your vertical cuts down, then turn the onion quarter 90 degrees, then make vertical cuts down again, followed by the final dice strokes across the cuts. Much easier.
After the show, however, I went to the site and found its technical setup very sloppy. First, it had quite a number of broken images (and I tried on two different browsers). Then, it went wacky while asking for login and registration. Even after registration, it kept offering connection errors on certain links (although I found I could get to those same links via a side door. If it's a Mac issue, I'm very disappointed. It's a fine site with great information, tips and recipes (www.americastestkitchen.com, if you want to check it out), but until they fix the technical glitches, we're not adding it to our main list of links over there.
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Fresh fish, yes. Fish, no.
Posted
3:48 PM by Rick
I'm not yet a gourmet and hope I'm never a snob, but Alaska cooking has taught me one thing. Fresh fish and fish are not the same animal and should never even be kept in the same part of the zoo. Salmon caught in the Kenai River and immediately rushed to my grill or skillet (never bake fish - unless you've found a recipe that can change my mind) is better, by orders of magnitude, than even the fish I catch and freeze myself. In a restaurant, go for the catch of the day.
Here's the two best, simple and quick ways I know to cook salmon.
For the grill: Marinate an hour in Teriyaki sauce and grill. Let the center of the filet change color but do not overcook. If the skin is still on one side, excellent! Place skin side down first. The skin will stick to the grill. When you flip, slide the spatula between the skin and the filet and the skin will become a flat surface to grill on.
For the skillet: Sprinkle filets liberally with Southern Flavor. You can find it on the Internet. It's an excellent rub, great for barbecuing steaks, chicken, etc... Then fry the filets in oil. The result will be a marvelous blackened salmon, made even better if you mixed your own special (and secret) spices with the Southern Flavor. (OK: Cayenne pepper powder, but I can't talk any more: I'd have to kill you.)
Monday, February 10, 2003
Mmmmm ... pretzels
Posted
7:21 PM by Mike
I made soft pretzels for the first time this evening.
On the way home from junior college, my son stopped off at the mall and bought some food court pretzels and brought me one. I had always wanted to try my own; the mall pretzel provided a jolt of inspiration. So, I logged onto FoodTV.com and downloaded several recipes. Two were by way of Sara Moulton and "Cooking Live"; the third was by Gale Gand of "Sweet Dreams." I used the Gale Gand recipe because it was faster; the dough didn't require time to rise. Production time was pretty fast in the ol' Kitchen Aid.
Perhaps because of that non-rising, the pretzels were pretty chewy, but they were good. Next time I'll try one of the longer recipes and allow the dough to rise.
Thursday, February 06, 2003
The FoodDork Project: My goals
Posted
11:07 PM by Mike
1. To never again create a meal from a kit, or toss a frozen, pre-prepared meal in the oven, unless it's one that I've prepared and frozen myself. From now on, boxes with pictures of talking and smiling hands are forbidden in my kitchen.
2. To maintain a properly stocked pantry/refrigerator, so that I always will have the proper ingredients on hand, so that I will never be tempted to break Goal No. 1.
3. To learn about food, pure and simple. Perhaps not to the extent of a professional chef, but enough to be able to walk into a produce market or fish seller with confidence, not confusion.
4. In Alton Brown's book, "I'm Just Here for the Food," he describes an occasion where, at an associate's home, he went into the kitchen to prepare lunch and, based on what was available in the cupboard, whipped up a nifty Broiled Chicken Salad. I want to be able to do that: To walk into a kitchen without a recipe or even a plan, take quick stock of the resources at hand and create a meal from scratch. Of course, I can walk into a person's kitchen and do that right now. If the person has eggs. And the person wants to eat eggs. Fried or scrambled. With toast if they have bread.
5. To eat well, but not irresponsibly.
Learning by example
Posted
10:57 PM by Mike
In the kitchen, so many things are learned by doing, and the best lessons are learned the hard way, such as why you should put a piece of plastic wrap over a chicken breast before you whack it flat with a mallet (OK, perhaps that should have been common sense, but I'm trying to make a point here).
On the other hand, if I had been present in someone else's kitchen when they attempted to whack a chicken breast flat without plastic wrap, I would have learned the lesson without suffering the embarrassment (and the flying chicken parts).
That's another reason why we're here: To help others learn through our own kitchen adventures, and the tales we tell that we learn from others.
Excellent!
Posted
8:59 PM by Mike
Just made the tilapia recipe below. It was excellent, if I do say so myself.
Tilapia recipe I just saw on TV
Posted
8:27 AM by Mike
I wanted to write this down before I forgot it. In our area there's a local cable-access TV channel known as BLAB-TV. It's not public access; it sells blocks of time for local businesses (and whomever wants to pay) to sell their wares in what amount to infomercial/talk shows.
Just this morning there was a show for a local seafood restaurant, Ryan's Catch. The chef was doing a cooking demonstration, using different methods of preparing tilapia. Here's the one I saw before I had to leave for work. I'm going to try it tonight:
He started by topping his tilapia filets with drawn butter, seafood seasoning (a combo of two lemon peppers, Old Bay and paprika) and a splash of white wine, then baking them in a 425-degree oven for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, he prepared a very simple sauce: Worcestershire sauce and Tobasco sauce in a 4-to-1 ratio, then about a cup of small shrimp, cooked over medium heat. Once the shrimp are coated and slightly cooked, add a dollop of cream, then several pats of butter. Pour the completed sauce over the baked fish.
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
RECIPE: Sweet Potato Cups
Posted
11:35 PM by Mike
OK, here it is, my first recipe. Every so often I try to throw some things together in the kitchen and call it a "creation," but usually they're just variations on things I've seen elsewhere and I can't really claim creator credit. But this one qualifies, I think. It came together better than I could have hoped and was quite the hit at Christmas Eve dinner.
This year, it was our turn to host the clan's Christmas Eve celebration, and I volunteered to do the cooking. It would be my first big meal for guests outside the immediate family since I had embarked on my learn-to-cook crusade.
Because table space was limited, and because we figured that all of our guests would be sitting in chairs, balancing their plates, Lani and I decided that we would go with all finger foods. We still cooked a turkey and a ham, but we put them out with bread and rolls to make sandwiches. All of the other sides would be handheld as well.
The thing is, I love sweet potatoes, particularly as candied yams, so the trick was figuring out how to serve one of my favorite treats at our finger-food-only meal. I considered such weird presentations as yam-kebobs and yam sandwiches (a medallion of candied yam between two graham crackers; don't worry, I tabled that idea quickly) before I hit on a more elegant solution.
Sweet Potato Cups are dollops of mashed sweet potato served in cups of baked phyllo dough, the kind you use to make baklava and other crunchy pastry treasts. Here's what you do:
First, get a mini-muffin pan; mine is the large version, that makes two dozen at a time. (In all, I made four dozen cups.) You'll also need about six large sweet potatoes, a package of frozen phyllo dough, butter, sugar, cinnamon and some mini-marshmallows. (I'm not giving exact measurements here, because everything is to taste and if you make too much of something, you can always use it somewhere else; keep reading for an example.)
First, bake the sweet potatoes in a 350-degree oven for an hour, or until their skins are slightly mushy, slightly wrinkled.
While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the phyllo. Thaw it, but don't unwrap it until you're ready. Get a sheet of plastic wrap ready and a damp kitchen towel. Melt some butter (go ahead and melt a stick; you'll need a lot). Mix the cinnamon with the sugar (just as if you're making cinnamon toast; in fact, my daughter has a large shaker of cinnamon sugar that she uses when making her toast; if you have something like that, use it).
Roll out the package of phyllo next to your work area. Spread one sheet of the dough on a smooth surface. Be sure to quickly cover the remaining dough with the plastic wrap, then the damp towel. With a pastry brush, brush the entire surface of the dough with melted butter (I found that brushing outward from the center to the edges is the best way to keep from tearing the dough). Once the sheet is covered, sprinkle it with the cinnamon sugar. Lay another layer of dough atop the first and repeat with the butter and sugar. Repeat this with layer after layer until you get a desired thickness (I used five layers in all).
With a knife or pizza cutter, cut the large rectangle of phyllo into thirds lengthwise, so you have three long strips. Then, cut these strips into quarters, so you wind up with 12 squares of phyllo.
Press the squares of phyllo into the holes of the muffin tin, one square per hole. Gently shape them into cup form; they'll hold their shape. Don't worry about greasing the tin, especially if it's a non-stick; the butter in the phyllo will keep it from sticking. If you've got a large muffin tin as I do and you're going to make two dozen at a time, drape a slightly damp paper towel over the first dozen shells while you're preparing the next dozen, as described above.
Once the shells are shaped, bake them in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes (just stick them in with the potatoes, if they're still in there).
When the potatoes are done, peel them and mash the pulp through a potato ricer.
Now, here's where some folks might differ. Sweet potato purists will tell you not to add anything to the potatoes, and to let their natural sweetness come through. My choice was to enhance the flavor of the potatoes a bit with some cinnamon and some light brown sugar. In any case, stir the pulp, sweetened or not, to a nice paste.
The next step is to get the potatoes into the baked shells. You can dollop them with a spoon, but here's what I did: Take a large, plastic, zipper-seal bag, spoon in the potatoes, clip off one small corner from the bottom of the bag and use it like a pastry cone, squeezing the potatoes into the shells.
Top each dollop of potatoes with two or three mini-marshmallows (if desired). Then, put the filled shells in the oven, set to broil, for just a few minutes, or until the marshmallows get that golden brown roasted tinge.
(By the way, for this final step I removed the shells from the muffin tins and arranged them on a large cookie sheet. You can broil more at one time this way.) Serve warm.
Monday, February 03, 2003
Oh boy ...
Posted
10:52 PM by Mike
The new Cook's Illustrated just arrived!
Great primer on Asian food
Posted
1:44 PM by Mike
Today the Life section of the newspaper for which I work, the Pensacola News Journal, ran a great primer on Asian food. It's worth checking out. (Note: Stories on the PNJ site stay on the server only for 30 days.)
Sunday, February 02, 2003
The tomato question
Posted
4:29 PM by Mike
Last week, in my capacity as Online Editor of the Pensacola News Journal, I was working with feature writer Amie Streater, preparing her new Amie's Life@Home page, in which she dispenses housekeeping and other domestic tips.
Not that Amie is not already a sweet person, but I've been doing some heavy-duty kissing-up to her, because I'm convinced she's going to be the next Martha Stewart (as in, multi-billionaire domestic goddess), and I want to keep my options open. (I certainly wouldn't turn down a gig as an editor on "Amie" magazine.)
Anyway, we were putting together a shopping list to be posted as a PDF file for reader download. I was trying to get most of the items to fit on one line, and was having trouble with "crushed tomatoes." Amie didn't like how I had it abbreviated as "crsh tomatoes," not that I blame her. She suggested removing it altogether. "I already have diced tomatoes on the list," she said.
That was fine, I said, but I suggested that instead she should just replace crushed tomatoes with whole tomatoes, as in canned whole tomatoes, because they're more practical to cook with anyway. "You have more recipe options with whole tomatoes as opposed to crushed tomatoes," I said. "You can always crush your whole tomatoes, but you can't make crushed tomatoes back into whole tomatoes."
"But by having your tomatoes crushed already, you save a step," she said.
I'm all for a little time-saving, of course, but part of the fun of cooking is, well, cooking, working with the food. Besides, crushing a whole tomato isn't that time-consuming. I pointed out some whole-tomato options that wouldn't be possible with pre-crushed tomatoes. A nice, chunky chili, for instance.
Apparently saving seven milliseconds of crushing time was more important than meal variety and practicality, because she brushed off my suggestion with a smirk.
"You can roast whole tomatoes under the broiler first, before making them into a spaghetti sauce," I said. "You can't do that with crushed tomatoes."
By this time she was making a hasty retreat from my desk.
"Think of all the things you can do on homemade pizzas with whole tomatoes," I called across the Newsroom as she took refuge at her desk.
Oh well. What can I say? She still cooks with Hamburger Helper.
Anyway, I'm convinced that canned whole tomatoes is a better staple pantry item than crushed (although I do keep diced tomatoes, for throwing together a quick salsa or cheese dip; crushed just wouldn't work right in those, either).
Bookshelf
Posted
1:33 PM by Mike
I've just added our Bookshelf list, those volumes, mostly how-to books, that we feel should be within reach of any budding chef. More titles are to come. If you have any to recommend,
Links
Posted
10:52 AM by Mike
Over to the left are the favorites of our Favorites; the best food-and-cooking-related Web sites we've found so far. They're organized in our own sort of Dewey Decimal System: There are general sites, then how-to and lesson sites, followed by recipe sites, then just some neat sites.
As to the recipe sites: There are hundreds, if not thousands, of great recipes sites out there; these few in our list, of course, barely scratch the surface. If you're just now getting a serious start in this whole food thing, however, these are some great sites to get you started.
Of course, we'll be adding to the list as we go. Also, remember that almost every site has its own links page. A site's links page is a great place to look for buried treasure, great pages that might otherwise have been overlooked. If you find a good one,
A culinary Indiana Jones
Posted
10:42 AM by Mike
I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated whenever I walk into someone else's kitchen, particularly if it's the kitchen of a fellow Food Dork.
No matter how small or how large, a working kitchen always has things to share, lessons to teach. It's culinary archaeology. How another person cooks, and what they keep in their kitchen, provides many useful tips and ideas.
So, one of the occasional features of the FoodDork Project will be reports from the field, as I snoop around in other folks' kitchens (with their permission, of course). I'm going to start with my own at some point. It's not a fancy kitchen; it's not even a very big kitchen. But it's an efficient kitchen and a fun place and, I must say, the perfect FoodDork's kitchen.
Saturday, February 01, 2003
Alaskan cuisine
Posted
9:40 AM by Mike
I'm hoping that Rick, who has encountered moose and elk and bear and big, big fish up there in his Alaskan habitat, might be willing to share some tales of some of the more exotic things he's prepared, particularly on the grill.
|
