Category Archives: Technique

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, Donna Turner Ruhlman Photography, Main Courses, Recipes, Seasonings and Spices | Tagged food photography, fried chicken, recipe, twenty | 33 Comments

Israeli Couscous with Butternut Squash

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 6, 2012

Israeli couscous with butternut/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I almost never "do" recipes. I've written a book that if anything is an anti-recipe book. I set out on this culinary journey in part because, as I wrote in Making of a Chef, I sensed that recipes were nothing more than a tease, that the real cooking lay beneath the recipes. This is not to say that recipes are bad. Say you made a really killer stir-fry and wanted to be able to do it over and over, or you wanted your best friend to give it a try, you'd want to follow a recipe. If you want to recreate a dish, you need a recipe. I could probably make a decent oatmeal raisin cookie just by figuring it out, but I'd feel better at least glancing ...

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Also posted in aromatics, Recipes, sidedishes, Vegetables | Tagged couscous, david lebovitz, lemon confit | 20 Comments

Cooking On the Road (Tools I Traveled With)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 27, 2012

An array of tools I didn't want to be without when I arrived in an unfamiliar kitchen.

If you're on the road and will be cooking in unfamiliar kitchens, what are the essentials you cannot afford to be without? Thomas Keller once told me he always brought three things, kosher salt, string, and his pepper mill. Everything else, a restaurant kitchen was likely to have. But what about when you're traveling to a rental house, as I did last week. A rental house you count on providing you with one crappy non-stick pan, a small plastic cutting board, a cheap pot just big enough to cook a box of spaghetti in, and an array of dull and serrated knives. Donna photographed the tools I brought with me to Key West to cook 9 consecutive dinners for 16 people. A ...

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Also posted in Tools, Travel | Tagged cooking on the road, cooking tools, Travel | 45 Comments

Stress Free Key West Menu 2012

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 25, 2012

Beef short rib, cooked sous vide 48 hours at 140F/60C, finished on grill. Photo by Donna

It requires a certain amount of stress to cook for a lot of people. Otherwise you won’t get it done. Too much work, and therefore too much focus and efficiency to both get everything done and also enjoy yourself. You’ve got to like this very peculiar kind of stress. Or like the release that inevitably follows. And it’s not the same kind of release as it is for the guy who, when asked why he’s banging his head against the wall, responds, “Because it feels so good when I stop.” But it’s close. You’ve just got to have that kind of love-the-pressure, love-the-release to cook for a lot of people night after night. If you do, you can make ...

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Also posted in Food Adventure, Tips, Travel | Tagged cooking for large groups, key west, menu, menu planning | 29 Comments

Steak Pie

By emilia | Published: January 23, 2012

A hearty winter recipe for steak and kidney pie, via Guardian UK.

Also posted in Article, baking, Beef, Recipes | Tagged beef, Guardian UK, pastry, steak and kidney pie | Leave a comment

Latke Recipe

By emilia | Published: December 26, 2011

Try a new parsnip latke to spice up your holiday season, via Smitten Kitchen.

Also posted in Appetizers, Article, Recipes, Vegetables | Tagged holiday, latkes, parsnip, smitten kitchen | Leave a comment

Christmas Dinner: The Grill/Roast Technique

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 21, 2011

Roast beef mise en place. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

On Thanksgiving, I offered a roast/braise combination cooking technique for turkey. Interesting that I use a dual cooking technique for our traditional holiday Christmas meal as well. The Grill/Roast method, which I write about in Ruhlman's Twenty. I don’t think there’s a better way to cook a rack of beef (or a whole beef tenderloin) than this combination grill-roast method. It gives the meat great grilled flavor and allows you perfect control of temperatures and timing. I use the method in during holidays, to serve beef tenderloin sandwiches on a buffet or a rack of beef for a large group of people because I can grill the beef a day ahead if I want and then just finish it in the oven. Flavor the meat on ...

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Also posted in appearance, aromatics, baking, Beef, Butchery, grilling, Holiday, outdoor cooking, Recipes | Tagged beef roast, Grilled, holiday, prime rib, roasted | 21 Comments

Do-over: Charleston, Eve, & Grits

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 13, 2011

Shrimp and grits. photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

One of hard things about writing books is that they are in constant flux and then they are permanent. Thanks to the organic nature of blogs, I can make amends. When I was at the Culinary Institute of America, one of my best and favorite teachers was Eve Felder, who taught Garde Manger. She was the Cheshire Cat of chefs, perched high on stacked stools, who taught us that "Cooking is alchemy, cooking is magic!" And she was right. Righter than I knew, in fact. I'm heading to her native city, Charleston, South Carolina, and so she's been on my mind. When I wanted to do a butter-poached shrimp for Ruhlman's Twenty, I naturally wanted to pair it with grits. Who did I call for grits finesse ...

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Also posted in american regional cuisine, Appetizers, aromatics, chefs, Food Writing, From Scratch, Recipes, Seafood, Seasonings and Spices, sidedishes | Tagged Charleston, CIA, Eve Felder, shrimp and grits, South Carolina, twenty | 22 Comments

Guest Post: Carri’s Bacon Truffles

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 9, 2011

Bacon truffle presented two ways. Photo by Carri Thurman

Carri Thurman has been a friend since she traveled from her home in Homer, Alaska, to visit her fellow Homerian, Daniel Coyle, author and journalist who'd moved to Cleveland with his Cleveland-born wife—bless you, Dan! (His last book was The Talent Code, fascinating look into how talent is developed.) Carri runs Two Sisters Bakery in Homer, and she offers here some fabulous confections for the holidays, right up our alley, proving once again that chocolate, like life, is better with bacon. James and I will be making these as soon as school lets out. Thanks for sharing, Carri, and for all the helpful step-by-step pix! —MR by Carri Thurman Bacon and chocolate may be a passing fad ...

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Also posted in Desserts, Guest Post, Pastry, Pork!, Recipes | Tagged bacon truffles, bon bons, carri thurman, chocolate, dessert, ganche, recipe, treats, two sisters bakery | 24 Comments

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