Monthly Archives: February 2010

Grapefruits and Knives

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 25, 2010

Segmenting grapefruits this morning I thought, I should write something, but then I realized I already did! Almost to the day one year ago. It's time to look for good deals on excellent grapefruit. Learn to segment them. (Here's Michael Symon's demo.) Segmenting grapefruit also reminds me: One of the easiest ways to improve your cooking and make cooking easier is simply to get your knives sharpened. Are you the partner of someone who likes to cook? Help them out, get their knives sharpened for them. Nothing says I love you ... like a really sharp knife.

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McGee on Bread Dough and Water

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 24, 2010

Interesting NYTimes story by Harold McGee on bread, water, and kneading. I still don't know why people fixate on the kneading part or "no-knead" bread. Kneading dough is part of the fun as far as I'm concerned.

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How To Make Grits
(Sauteed Grits with Sausage and Poached Egg)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 24, 2010

Sauteed grits with poached egg and sausage, photo by Donna

Over the weekend I was working on a recipe based on the traditional low country dish, shrimp and grits.  I’d found excellent grits from this company at my grocery store, I tapped my friend and former instructor Eve Felder for her recollections of growing up in Charleston, and I made shrimp and grits for Donna, a late dinner after seeing the amazing Jeff Bridges performance in Crazy Heart. I’d made extra grits so in cleaning up after dinner, I poured the leftovers into a springform pan and refrigerated them.  By morning they were solid and sliceable. Donna happened to be setting up to shoot wine braised short ribs and semolina egg noodles.  I happened to be hungry.  I also happened to have some duck sausage and chicken sausage ...

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Salt Research Nonconclusive

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 23, 2010

As readers here know, I'm a salt advocate, if only because I believe America is hoodwinked into fearing all kinds of natural foods for no good reason. I admit my pleas to have you salt your food as you wish so long as you avoid processed and fast food are based on nothing more than common sense, intuition and personal experience. I don't do randomized clinical trials. Here, doing something that traditional journalism is so good at, a NYTimes article by John Tierney shows that there is no evidence to say lowering salt in our diet, helps us or hurts us. It might even make us fatter! Again, eat natural foods that you cook yourself and stop listening to the agenda-pushing health police.  See also my recent salt rant.

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Life is a work in progress

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 22, 2010

Like this blog.  I forgot to put a contact page in!  Also need to figure out what else to put in these columns.  What would be helpful to people.  Recipes? Links?

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New Site Design!

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 21, 2010

Photo by Donna

The bright colors and bright minds I found in Ixtapa convinced me that I needed to brighten and clean up my blog.  The grays and and boxes were heavy and that combined with this winter that's already too long, made me hunger for a lot of clean white space.  So I asked my friend Joe to give me that.  I also put one of my favorite kitchen tools as a graphic because I love the lines of that spoon.  Often I'll read something or hear something that I want to get down or get out and it doesn't really fit in a regular post.  So Joe created place in the right column for these kinds of smaller thoughts.  I don't know if it will prove useful.  Comments are such an important and valued part of ...

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New White Space

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 21, 2010

This is a space for thoughts, reactions, links that don't merit an actual post but deserve some kind of venting!

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Why I Cook

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 19, 2010

Dicing Onion, photo by Donna

Dicing Onion, photo by Donna

I posted yesterday on twitter that I began cooking because I was hungry but continued to cook because I loved to eat, and it got me thinking.  There are so many different reasons to cook, as a number of twitters pointed out.  Self-defense was a good one!  And with the state of our processed food, one that every cook can claim!  Can I encourage other bloggers to post about why you cook?  Spell it out.  Writing it down forces you to know what you think.  When I was nine, I cooked because I was hungry and making things was fun.  Today, age 46 and devoted to family, I cook because: —I want my family to have great food all the time that’s tasty and good for their body and ...

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Photography 101: Lighting & Editing Decisions

By Donna Turner Ruhlman | Published: February 18, 2010

This is the final version of this photograph of lemon confit I did recently. It was lit with strobe lights, camera on tripod with a long shutter speed (1.5 sec.) to get the evening light outside the window. It's been cropped and corrected in Photo Elements, which I will discuss next, but here is the lighting set-up: Set-up@440 This photo was taken with my point and shoot with the strobe modeling lights left on so that I could show how the lights effected the subject. When I took the photo, I turned off the strobe modeling and room lights so that the only available light was the evening light out the window. The final photo I chose has a fill card in front to the right, but not too close, ...

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Vanilla Sugar

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 15, 2010

Vanilla pods, packed in sugar, photo by Donna

Vanilla pods, packed in sugar, photo by Donna

James and I made popovers Sunday morning and sprinkled them with vanilla sugar, and this sugar made the popovers appealing in a surprisingly effective way.  Like fleur de sel on caramel.  It brought the flavors and textures together without overtly calling attention to itself.  When I’d posted a while ago in a recipe to discard the vanilla bean, I got what amounted to a scolding from Shuna, who found it appalling that one could so easily waste an opportunity for the pleasures of vanilla sugar.  She was right to scold. I had never really taken the time to appreciate the wonderful aromatic flavor of sugar but now I always will.  It deserves a place in the spice rack.  That it is ...

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