A personal gathering of recipes and food
A few hours in the water bath and a quick fry in the pan leads to the best technique for medium rare foods like pork and steak. The sauce is the blend of sweet and tart to pair with the pork. (more…)
Starbucks came up with these things and a cavalcade of copycat recipes followed. These do a decent job of replicating the expensive little buggers. Cook them in 4 oz canning jars with the two piece ring lids. A jar will hold one egg each. I make a dozen at a time, cooking six of them due to the size of the water bath, but the recipe can be easily adapted to any number of eggs.
A recipe from Bon Appetit. Probably the simplest and best whole, roast chicken recipe I have found. The chicken itself is nothing to write home about but the pan juices are amazing.
This comes courtesy of Cooks Illustrated. This British cookie is a shortbread crust with a layer of caramel and a veneer of chocolate to top it off. This has become another Christmas tradition that is worth breaking out the digital thermometer for. (more…)
Buzzfeed had a video about bakery cakes at different price points. The chocolate espresso cake from Proof Bakery was the mid-price offer in the video. The LA Times published a recipe replicating itThe original offering was a three layer 8″ round cake. The rounds are quite substantial creating a very tall, impressive cake. This is great for a smaller venue. I’ve modified the recipe for a four layer 9″ round cake. The height is less substantial and it does involve splitting rounds. I went with a milk chocolate ganache instead of the cremeux. I’ve tried making the cremeux three times and each time it came out too thin to be used as a cake filling. Also the glaze is unnecessary but if you do decide to go with it, make more than what is called for. The espresso buttercream I ended up preferring is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen. (more…)
Pad prik king (or khing) is a style of thai curry stir fry involving red curry. It is sweet, spicy and hot. The ingredient list is short and the dish comes together quick. If you are brave, you can make your own curry paste or you can use the store bought stuff. Brands do matter for this. Thai Kitchen makes a mediocre paste and Mae Ploy makes a very decent one (your mileage may vary). Mae Ploy typically can only be found in Asian supermarkets while Thai Kitchen is usually found in most grocery stores.
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Ina Garten’s turkey meatloaf recipe comes from a time in my life when I was watching a lot of Food Network TV. Ina’s recipes tend to be pretty fool proof and also make a metric ton of food. This recipe is actually halved from the original with some minor adaptations. (more…)
This showstopping cake comes courtesy of Alton Brown and Good Eats. I admit that a good deal of my culinary training comes from logging many hours of watching Food Network. (more…)
The Joy of Cooking was the first cookbook I owned. The recipe that constantly return to is their recipe for hummus. It strikes what I think is a perfect balance of chickpea, tahini and lemon. Also, the addition of cumin amazing. (more…)
This recipe originated from America’s Test Kitchen or Cook’s Illustrated. I’m uncertain where I picked it up, but it is delicious regardless and relatively simple. (more…)