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Monthly Archives: August 2011
Prescott Frost Organic Beef Venture
I love benevolent crazy people, people who just do things because they have to. Sometimes they make sense (Dickson Despommier and vertical farming). Sometimes they make no sense at all (making a farm and raising livestock in urban Oakland, which is what Novella Carpenter did—totally crazy, and she wrote a fabulous book about it called Farm City). I know benevolent insanity the moment I hear it and I heard it the moment I heard Prescott Frost's voice:
“Every acre I can change from corn to grass, the better. It’s the only way we’re going to change this train wreck that we have now,” he told me by phone last week. He was calm and direct. “My mission is to change ...
Posted in Beef, Business, Community Supported Agriculture, Farming, Food Politics Tagged agriculture, farming, grass fed, Opensky, organic beef, Prescott Frost Organic Beef Comments closed
Maine’s Lobster Currency
Posted in Article, Food Politics, Seafood Tagged conservation, fishing, lobsters, new york times Comments closed
Gluten-Free Brioche
I accidentally upgraded my wordpress account and it wreaked havoc. Lost all kinds of posts and it broke countless links. F@$#! One of the many post sent off unanchored into the ethernet was this guest post (and photo) by freelance writer Stephanie Stiavetti. As with her gluten-free fried chicken, enough people have asked about it that I'm reposting it again. I've really only recently become aware of what a rotten disease celiac is, especially for people who love to cook, and to eat, and to write about it. This post with Carol Blymire (alineaathome.com) describes the situation, um, vividly (the post also has glutenfreegirl's awesome pizza dough recipe). It's also impressed on me how important it is for chefs to understand celiac disease and gluten-free cooking. Stephanie Stiavetti, a social media consultant and reluctant techie ...
Posted in baking, Bread, Gluten-free, Guest Post, Recipes Tagged bread, brioche, gluten-free bread recipes, how to make brioche, recipe, Stephanie Stiavetti, wasabimon Comments closed
Friday Grilling: Radicchio
Just about anything can be grilled that won't slip through the grate or grilling basket. You can't grill batter, you can't grill soup (though you could keep it hot on a grill). I don't know that I'd grill a tough vegetable, like cabbage or kale, but you could try. One of my favorite vegetables to grill is radicchio. Its natural bitter notes take on the smokey charred flavors of hot open flames deliciously. And when paired with the acidic sweetness of balasamic vinegar, it's a great side dish. I'd like to underscore the importance of balsamic vinegar here. Its intense sweet acidity offsets the natural (pleasing) bitterness all foods grilled over high heat pick up. I love a product called Crema di Balsamico, which is basically pre-reduced balsamic. Just a few ...
Posted in Appetizers, grilling, outdoor cooking, Recipes, sidedishes, Vegetables Tagged grill, grilled radicchio, summer Comments closed
Stock Clarifications
Last April, I wrote a post about leaving stock out on the stove top claiming that it would be safe to eat provided that you brought it to a simmer before eating. Indeed I've been doing this for a decade with no ill effects. On twitter and on the post itself, I received voluminous responses. One response, from a large-animal veterinarian, noted that it was entirely possible for heat-stable toxins, not bacteria, to persist, making the stock unsafe. I revised the post with the vet's valid warnings with links to the CDC's warnings on the particular bacteria.
But the response was so strong, I suggested in an email to NYTimes food section editor Pete ...
Posted in Food Safety, food science, Recipes, stock, Technique, Uncategorized Tagged harold mcgee, recipe, stock Comments closed
Tomatoes
It's one of my enduring childhood memories, a gift from my mom. I was seven or eight, my mom in her early thirties, late morning, august sun, we stared at the six full tomato plants we grew behind our garage. I don't know if she actually spoke but her urgent and determined movements said, "Let's do this."
She wrenched two ripe tomatoes from the vine. I followed her to the kitchen. She rinsed both tomatoes briefly under cool water but they stayed hot the sun. She gave one to me. She shook salt on the one she held, and it stuck to what water remained. Something was going on, but I didn't know what. Then she bit into the tomato as if it were an apple, closed her ...
Posted in Article, Farming, Vegetables, Writing Tagged 39 Ways to Eat a Tomato, Men's Journal, summer, tomatoes Comments closed
What’s in Your Honey?
Posted in aromatics, Article, Food Politics, Food Safety, food science Tagged china, contaminated, food safety, Food Safety News, honey Comments closed















