CSA Pickles: Revised Ratio!

By ruhlman | Published: July 28, 2010

Pardus Pickles, photo by Donna

Chef Pardus blew through Cleveland a couple weeks ago, and with summer in full swing we had loads of little cukes on hand (we also did veal heart again, got it on video, stay tuned).  While there was much to do in getting dinner out (tongue salad with new potatoes, calves liver and onions, corn relish, cucumber sunomono, grilled foie gras (grilling foie takes some serious attention!), and the grilled heart with an herb shallot vinaigrette—Pardus found time to get my pickles on the cure.  Because of time constraints and other issues, he didn't add aromatics.  What he did was make a 3% brine. I have for years been using a 5% brine for everything, pickles, chicken, pork, etc.  But this 3% worked great and I'm thinking that if you're ...

Click to Continue Reading

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Ratios, Recipes, Technique, Vegetables | 45 Comments

California Travel
Fresh Spring Rolls with Viet Dipping Sauce Recipe

By ruhlman | Published: July 26, 2010

Durian fruit being cut at a Vietnamese market in southern L.A. The green behemoths in front and back are jackfruit. (All photos by Donna.)

Flew out to southern California last week to be with one of Donna's oldest and dearest, almost entirely beaching it, but found time for one great restaurant meal and one day exploring little Saigon south of LA with the extraordinary White On Rice Couple, Todd Porter and Diane Cu. Diane, born in Vietnam two years before the family fled in 1975, and Todd, a native of Oregon, are photographers, videographers, writers, cooks and gardeners.  I met them in Ixtapa last January and was immediately impressed with their energy and work, but I didn't quite appreciate how fine these two souls were until they invited me and Donna and the ...

Click to Continue Reading

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Main Courses, Recipes, Travel | Tagged , , | 39 Comments

New York City Travel

By ruhlman | Published: July 19, 2010

Pizza at Pulino's (iPhone photo)

What began as a Bourdain initiated boondoggle turned into a great break in NYC for me and Donna with several restaurants I’d been eager to try. We arrived early, unloaded our bags at the most excellent Ace hotel (I highly recommend), then headed south to Balthazar, where we had hoped to get some breakfast—love their shirred eggs; it's the perfect way to enter the city.  Alas, closed for renovations! The young ladies posted at the door to preserve customers sent us several blocks east to Bowery and Houston to the McNally’s pizza joint, Pulino’s, where we had our eggs, on pizza. (Why eggs on pizza aren’t more common, I have no idea; want to try it? Here's a recipe.)  We’d just taken a seat at the bar when ...

Click to Continue Reading

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Travel | Tagged | 36 Comments

Ratio App Now Available for Android Devices!

By ruhlman | Published: July 15, 2010

At last, thanks entirely to app developer, marketing genius and avid cook, Will Turnage, and graphic designer Leah McCombe, the Ratio smart phone application can be downloaded by those who use android devices! Thank you Will and Leah. Android users, scan this QR to go directly to the app in the market.  Let me know in comments if you have any problems! qrcode For those who don't know what Ratio is or does, watch the demo below. The Ratio app is a cooking tool, a calculator of ingredients for 30 different fundamentals, from cake and muffin batters to bread doughs to vinaigrettes, to sausages and brine. I find it invaluable.  If I just need a couple cups of brine, I plug in the amount I want and it calculates the salt for me.  Same for if I have 28 ounces of sausage I need to season, or 247 grams of ...

Click to Continue Reading

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Ratios | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Goodbye, Harvey Pekar

By ruhlman | Published: July 13, 2010

Photo by Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer

Cleveland Lost a great literary artist and story-teller yesterday when American Splendor author Harvey Pekar died at age 70. The Cleveland Plain Dealer devoted much of Page 1 to the news.  William Grimes wrote a worthy obituary in The New York Times. And while the appreciations are beginning to flow, no one has written a more thoughtful one than Anthony Bourdain on his blog today.  On location in Spain for his show No Reservations, Tony took time out to write a piece that places Pekar precisely in the context of his time and of the city that gave him such rich material.  As readers know, I try to avoid thanking Tony in public for anything, what with all the trouble he gets me into, but Tony, you've done ...

Click to Continue Reading

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

  • Welcome to Ruhlman.com where I write about food, cooking, recipes and technique, because the world is better when we cook for ourselves. Thanks for visiting — hope you’ll join the conversation.

     
     

     

     

     

     

  • Info on Donna's Ratio Chart and Photography


  • Kitchen Tools

    Click here to see my favorite kitchen tools.

  • Recipes



  • Recent comments

  • Archives