Ghostwriter Dustup

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 25, 2012

Clockwise from lower left, Deborah Jones, David Hughes, Dave Cruz, Jeff Cerciello, moi, Amy Vogler, Thomas (yes, first name only now), Susie Heller/Photo "by" Deborah Jones

A lot of friends emailed me last month asking what I thought about the stink bomb Julia Moskin dropped on the cookbook world in her bitter account of chefs not writing their own books (or sometimes not even reading them). Then there was the dustup that followed—Paltrow histrionic with the Times, Regina Schrambling (indefatigable NYTimes gadfly) calling bullshit on it all, time.com weighing in decorously. So this is for my friends who asked. In Michael Symon’s book, Live to Cook, he includes a recipe of mine (naturally fermented pickles), and I wrote the headnote in his voice. How meta! The above photograph is by Deborah Jones, a ...

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Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 232 Comments

Chicken Curry: Teach Kids To Cook

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 23, 2012

Chicken Curry by James/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

There are lots of ways to change the food system, and you and I aren't likely to do it. It's going to be our kids who do it. Two weeks ago I threw together a quick chicken curry and both the kids liked it, so I asked, "Is this a keeper?" and they nodded, chewing hungrily. So, last week, when 12-year-old James got home from school, I said, "We're having chicken curry tonight." He said, "Yes." I said, "You're going to make it." He didn't respond. "I'll do all the prep and you're going to make it." He said, "OK." An hour before I wanted dinner on the table, I diced an onion. I've already taught him how to hold a knife and halve, slice, or dice an onion; tonight I wanted him to see how ...

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Posted in aromatics, Chicken, Ethnic Cuisine, Recipes, staple meal | Tagged , , , , | 94 Comments

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Old Fashioned

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 20, 2012

The old fashioned. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

Phew! I'm exhausted from all the amazing and powerful energy generated by the food fascism post! Oy! Time for a cocktail! (Figuratively—I've got long hours to go before I earn mine.) Today's Friday cocktail hour is one the oldest and simplest on record. In this era of high-end mixology and complex recipes involving expensive aperitifs and liqueurs, well unless out in the stratosphere at Aviary, I like my cocktails simple. The Old-Fashioned is just that: American whiskey, sugar, bitters, over ice with a twist. All there is to it. With the range of bourbons and bitters now available, the drink itself can vary wildly and well. So even though this is every bit as simple and satisfying as a martini, it's infinitely more complex. A martini is clear and clean, an ...

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Posted in Cocktails, Food Culture, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 76 Comments

Food Fascism

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 18, 2012

 

A sensible dinner, by Michael Ruhlman/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I got an email last week that made my blood boil. Yes, seemingly to boil. Not simmer. A blanching-green-veg boil, a pressure cooker boil. The kind of boil my blood gets when I’m at a restaurant and I hear a woman, grilling the server suspiciously, saying, "I'm allergic to lactose” and then later says, “Oooh, could you wheel that cheese cart over here? Gawd, I love Epoisse." I’m just minding my own business, a happy Bertie Wooster moment at my desk before work, dreaming of confiting turkey legs, and an email pops into my box and it’s like someone smacked me on the skull with a cricket bat. It was from Heather Clayton, an expat living in southern Germany, trying to plan a meal here in the once sensible USA (West ...

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Posted in Food Culture, Food Politics, Rant | Tagged | 455 Comments

Homemade Mayonnaise

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 16, 2012

 

Homemade mayonnaise is faster to make then you think. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

I have so much crap on my desk! Being gone for three weeks it piles up. Books I have to at least familiarize myself with, dried soy beans and a tofu press, the manuscript I've got to fix, knives and rolling pins and some weird Fagor three-way cooker to figure out, emails to respond to, the ineluctable ... not modality of being ... but the ineluctable compulsion to check twitter feed. OY! But I never get tired of mayonnaise you make yourself.  I don't care if it's with a hand blender or whisk. Helmann's is fine—I use that too, but it's not anywhere near homemade mayo. Two totally different products, and that's and why I love it.  Its goodness is something you can't buy. You ...

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Posted in Books, Eggs, Elements of Cooking, Recipes, Technique | Tagged , , , | 86 Comments

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