Category Archives: Donna Turner Ruhlman Photography

How To Fry Chicken

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 9, 2012

The chicken wings I made for a Super Bowl party. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Fried chicken, done right, is one of the best things to eat on earth. It's all about the proportions—crunchiness: juiciness: chewiness: savoriness. And this ratio hits golden proportions with the wing, lots of crunchy peppery surface area and sweet succulent meat. The study of fried chicken began for me in 2007 during discussions, observations and eating with chef Dave Cruz at Ad Hoc in Yountville, CA, as we worked on the book Ad Hoc at Home. While Ad Hoc's method of flour-buttermilk-flour is not unique, their trial and error experimentation with various methods (including sous vide), proved to them and to me, that this method is indeed superlative. That was 2007, and I've since fried a lot of chicken. My recipe is in Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in american regional cuisine, Main Courses, Recipes, Seasonings and Spices, Technique | Tagged food photography, fried chicken, recipe, twenty | 33 Comments

The Greenhouse Tavern

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: July 5, 2011

Jonathon Sawyer at Greenhouse Tavern/All photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Restaurants have flourished in Cleveland over the past decade. Michael Symon's places are nationally know; Donna and I had a great summer meal al fresco at Doug Katz's Fire Food and Drink on Friday (does the best brunch in Cleveland, too), finally got to eat some great food truck food last night from Chris Hodgon, and the place that makes me so happy these days: The Greenhouse Tavern. They hand grind beef to order for tartare, roast chickens en croute, serve humble clams with snooty foie gras, and roast whole hogs heads and serve them on the bone. Defiant cuisine in a meat-and-potatoes I-want-my-burger-well-done town. Or used to be. No longer. Thanks to everyone mentioned here, and the too many ...

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Also posted in chefs, Restaurants | Tagged Cleveland, donna turner ruhlman photography, The Greenhouse Tavern | Comments closed

Serving Foie Gras At Home

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 27, 2011

Foie torchon served with apple, balsamic, toast, sea salt. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Foie gras has a reputation for being fancy. Many don't understand what it is. When I served my dad a seared slice of foie gras, the liver of a fattened duck, he looked at it surprised. "I thought foie gras was pâté," he said. Often foie gras is made into a pâté, but not always. Foie gras can be sliced and seared in a very hot pan, no oil, crisp on the outside, molten within. It can be roasted whole. Or it can be made into a torchon as Bob del Grosso described on Monday, with a product he and Chef Pardus developed for Hudson Valley foie gras, and served cold. Either ...

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Also posted in Appetizers, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie | Tagged A Hunger Artist, Bob del Grosso, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, serving torchon at home, The Greenhouse Tavern, torchon | Comments closed

Veal Stock Contest!

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 19, 2011

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman (click to see more pix on her site)

Regular readers know I’m a veal stock evangelist. Veal stock is one of those magical ingredients that can transform a mediocre cook into an ohmyfuckinggodthisfoodisamazing cook. Really, it’s that powerful. My first piece for Gourmet magazine was about veal stock. My veal stock recipe is in the Gourmet cookbook. In Elements of Cooking, a 242-page book about food and cooking, there is but a single recipe: veal stock. I once asked Jacques Pepin about veal stock and he said he didn’t much make it. Ingredients weren’t at his store in Connecticut. I found this amazing, until I realized something important! It was Jacques Pepin! He doesn’t NEED veal stock. He could probably make Miracle Whip taste good. But for the rest of us? ...

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Also posted in aromatics, Challenege, Giveaway, Ratios, ruhlman products, stock | Tagged Aki Kamozawa, Alex Talbot, giveaway, ideas in food, Mr. Veal Stock, pantry, stock, utilization, veal stock, veal stock contest, what do you do with veal stock | Comments closed

Lessons of Guacamole

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 13, 2011

All photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman (click them to go to her site)

This is not just a guacamole recipe and preparation, it's a broader lesson about aromatics and acid and using seasonal foods. It's avocado season, so they're really good now! And they will be all summer long. Avocados are one of my favorite fruits; they're kind of like butter, a ready made sauce—all you have to do is adjust texture and add flavors. I recently offered this mortar and pestle to followers on OpenSky (more on OpenSky here), and it makes a gorgeous service piece in addition to being a practical cooking tool. I mash garlic and salt to a paste, then add minced shallot (yes shallots!). Then I add lime ...

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Also posted in Appetizers, aromatics, Ethnic Cuisine, Kitchen Tools | Tagged avocado, guacamole, guacamole recipe, motar and pestle | Comments closed

The Breslin Pig Foot

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 6, 2011

©photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman—see more at: Ruhlmanphotography.com

When Donna found herself in NYC at the Ace Hotel last fall, she spent a couple nights in the Breslin kitchen watching executive chef April Bloomfield, Breslin chef de cuisine Peter Cho, and crew rock (that's Peter and April top right). The trotter caught her eye. It's the perfect example of why this post could be called Why April Is Not the Cruelest Month But Rather the Best Porker, or simply Why We Love April. The British chef takes a great Italian classic, a zampone, as she notes, breads it, fries it in olive oil and butter, and serves it as their "Pig's Foot for 2." It's the boned out trotter, stuffed ...

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Also posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Main Courses, Pork!, Recipes, Restaurants, sausage, Technique | Tagged April Bloomfield, au pied de cochon, cotechino, Peter Cho, pig's foot stuffed with cotechino, stuffed pig's foot, stuffed pig's foot recipe, stuffed pig's trotter, The Breslin, zampone | Comments closed

Citrus

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 1, 2011

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman Long enamored of black and white, my wife and collaborator has been working on a series of food shots featuring not food so much as the color of food. If you like her work, let her know, spread this link on facebook or twitter, or have a look at her gallery at ruhlmanphotography.com. This last one reflects where we've been. Florida at the height of citrus season. Great weather for the first time in a decade, excellent lunch at Cafe Morada, jaw achingly chewy conch fritters at Alabama Jack's, an excellent meal at a new place on Palm Beach (my mom's a real estate agent at Sotheby's there) at Buccan, and delicious and genuine daiquiris at Nick and Johnny's watching Duke's final win (sigh). Back home and will resume posting Monday (thinking stock more ...

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Also posted in Books | Tagged chef series, citrus, Donna Turner Ruhlman, food photography, food photos, lemon, lime, of a chef series, orange, ratio, spring break | Comments closed

Orange

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: March 30, 2011

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman Long enamored of black and white, my wife and collaborator has been working on a series of food shots featuring not food so much as the color of food. If you like her work, let her know or have a look at her gallery at ruhlmanphotography.com. Update: In response to a comment below, Donna says she can make available reasonably priced 11x14 prints of this photo or any of her shots on her site. Email her there or send me an email via the above contact tab, and one of us will get back to you next week. I'm on vacation from now until Monday, April 4. Until then, check back in here every other weekday for another of Donna's photos. As ever, I'm grateful to all who come to this site, especially those who ...

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Also posted in Books | Tagged chef series, crab, donna ruhlman photographs, Donna Turner Ruhlman, food photos, kumquat, of a chef series, orange, ratio, ruhlman books, spring break | Comments closed

Purple

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: March 28, 2011

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman Long enamored of black and white, my wife and collaborator has been working on a series of food shots featuring not food so much as the color of food. If you like her work, let her know, spread this link on facebook or twitter, or have a look at her gallery at ruhlmanphotography.com. I'm on vacation from now until Monday, April 4, when I'll be back with a new post. Until then, check back in here every other weekday for another of Donna's photos! As ever, I'm grateful to all who come to this site, especially those who comment and keep the conversation lively! Thank you! Want more food writing? Have a look at some of my books:

For deep forays into the world of professional cooking, my "Of A Chef" series, Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in Books | Tagged cabbage, donna turner ruhlman photography, of a chef series, pearl onion, purple cabbage, ratio, ruhlman books, spring break | Comments closed

Blue

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: March 25, 2011

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman Long enamored of black and white, my wife and collaborator has been working on a series of food shots featuring not food so much as the color of food. If you like her work, let her know or have a look at her gallery at ruhlmanphotography.com. Update: In response to a comment below, Donna says she can make available reasonably priced 11x14 prints of this photo or any of her shots on her site. Email her there or send me an email via the above contact tab, and one of us will get back to you next week. I'm on vacation from now until Monday, April 4. Until then, check back in here every other weekday for another of Donna's photos. As ever, I'm grateful to all who come to this site, especially those who ...

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Also posted in Books | Tagged blue, chef series, color, Donna Turner Ruhlman, food photos, of a chef series, ratio, ruhlman books, spring break | Comments closed

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