Kitchen | Easy Delicious Recipes

Equipment: What Makes the Best Steak Knives?

September 1, 2010 – 1:27 am | by admin

Just like a good kitchen knife, for a good steak knife to make the cut, it’s gotta be sharp, comfortable, well-balanced, and sturdy. But that’s where the similarity ends. Steak knives differ from kitchen knives in two important ways: 1) A steak knife must look good. A kitchen knife is all utility and no form. A steak knife, on the other hand, should look and feel elegant. It should make me want to touch it. Using a plastic-handled bottom-of-the-barrel knife on a top-dollar dry-aged rib eye is like using Mr. Bubble in your solid-marble bathtub. It just doesn’t make sense. I’m willing to plunk down a couple of extra dollars for a handsome set that will last a lifetime 2) A steak knife is used on a plate, not on a cutting board. Cutting boards are forgiving. Plates are not. This may seem insignificant, but it means the world when selecting the proper edge for your knife (as we’ll get to in a minute) With those parameters in mind, let’s explore our options. On The Edge When it…

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Tags: barrel, dollar, facebook, henckels, kitchen, knife, knives, marble, plate, result, serrated, spoon, steak, steak-knives, Straight

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Best in Show: Pleasant Ridge Reserve

August 31, 2010 – 8:39 pm | by admin

Photographs by Katrina Vahedi Every August, the American Cheese Society lures cheesemongers and makers from all over the U.S. and Canada to one city for a weekend of hot-headed cheese talk, judging, and fun. This year the conference was held in Seattle, the temperate home of many beautiful public markets and nearby dairies. American cheesemakers can submit their products to be assessed and graded by a panel of cheese-industry professionals who evaluate the cheeses within their categories and also on the whole. This year’s winner of the much-coveted Best in Show title: Extra Aged Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a cheese from Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. A raw, gruyère-style cows’ milk cheese, Pleasant Ridge is a firm tomme with a healthy, smooth, natural rind that’s feltlike to the touch. If I were a more skilled artist, I would paint a tribute to the rind of Pleasant Ridge Reserve. The interior paste is smooth and even with the occasional crystalline crunch. The flavors are sweetly nutty with an earthy bite that would make its Swiss cousin proud. A beautiful cheese for melting or sandwiches, although in my kitchen it doesn’t usually get farther than hand and …

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Tags: artist, cheesemakers, dodgeville, industry, katrina-vahedi, kitchen, milk, pleasant, skilled, winning, wisconsin, year

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White Chocolate Cashew Krispies

August 27, 2010 – 2:45 pm | by admin

[ Flickr: kreg.steppe ] As an adolescent, I went through a phase where I was always looking for scientific studies to “prove” how everything my parents had done was wrong. I read an article that suggested that toddlers, before having an exposure to parental prompting or cultural influences, would eat a perfectly balanced diet just by instinct—not necessarily as formal meals, but if left alone for a day amongst food, they would graze in a manner so as to eat just what their bodies needed. I just knew that study must be true, based upon the post-dinnertime hours I sat watching creamed spinach congeal in front of me—or when I was forced to finish large restaurant dinners that were too expensive to waste. But my memory offers me evidence that questions the validity of that study—slightly. Like so many children, I remember the first time I ever cooked something. Baking, as opposed to heating up Ragu or throwing a plain breast of chicken in the broiler, was alien to my home. But my mother took me on a play date with a girl my age. I don’t remember …

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Tags: adolescent, Balanced, earth, food, from-the-ground, instinct, kitchen, krispies, memory, mother, parents, radishes, rice, steppe

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Bring it: Bacon Cupcakes in the Bacon Takedown, Chicago

August 25, 2010 – 4:35 am | by admin

The Bacon Takedown is going to rock Chicago on the second weekend in September – and they want your bacon cupcakes! Yes, even cupcakes have succumbed to the magical enchantment of BACON. Imagine what 15 lbs of crispy bacon could do to a cupcake recipe. Oh, the sweet and salty possibilities! It will be hosted on September 11 at 1:30pm at Lincoln Park’s very cool venue, Lincoln Hall . 20 local contestants will have the opportunity to win $1,500 in kitchen gear from Wustof , Anolon and Microplane . Each contestant is given 15 lbs of Hormel bacon to work his/her magic with. Spots are still open and you can email to enter. Or if you just want to come and taste all the different kinds of bacon wonderment that can most definitely will happen at this event, buy tickets here for $15. Not only will you get your bacon fix, but a portion of the proceeds goes to Feeding America , too.

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Tags: america, bacon, bacon mania, bacon-takedown, chicago, enchantment, gear, kinds, kitchen, lincoln-park, magic, opportunity, possibilities, proceeds

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Pizza Obsessives: Casey Crynes, San Francisco Pizza-Party Caterer

August 24, 2010 – 4:20 pm | by admin

From Slice You may know Casey Crynes as skylash here on Slice. He’s also a full-fledged Pizza Obsessive, which is why he’s this week’s interview victim. Let’s get ‘im in the hot seat! — The Mgmt. [ Photographs: Casey Crynes ] An example of Casey Crynes’s pizza-catering set-up. Name: Casey Crynes Location: I live in San Francisco, was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and was raised bi-coastal Occupation: web guy/pizzamaker/pizza intern Website: caseyspizza.com ; flickr.com/caseyspizzas So you do pizza catering out of clients’ home ovens? Yes, I am now offering an in-your-home-oven pizza-party solution. I bring my dough, stone, all the materials, then cook for your event, offer pizzamaking Q&A, even build you a pizza-friendly wine program. I am also trying to get a mobile pizza solution up and running, much like the Pizzahacker . SF needs more street pizza battles. A lot of my pizza antics are to pave the way for a possible brick-and-mortar spot, to be called Casey’s Pizza. More on that at a later date. At home, have you tricked out your oven at all or have you just kept things simple? Can you share any tips with us all? I don’t think you …

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Tags: book, casey, casey-crynes, hot, italian, kitchen, pizza, pizzahacker, recipes, result, seat, theory

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The Crisper Whisperer: 10 Great Blogs for Veggie Lovers That May Be New to You

August 24, 2010 – 11:39 am | by admin

You may know Carolyn Cope as Umami Girl . She stops by on Tuesdays with ideas on preparing the abundance of fruits and vegetables you might get from your CSA or the market. —The Mgmt. [ Photograph: Carolyn Cope ] When seasonal veggies abound (such as, for example, now ), it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, or how good you are with a julienne attachment. Once in a while you’re going to need a little help taming The Bounty. It’s not that you couldn’t toss together a perfectly edible, even respectable, salad or stir-fry. I know that. Believe me, I do. But if you’re going to haul out your knives and bowls and pots and pans, why not transform that veg something inspired instead? At the quite real risk of stating the obvious, sometimes all you need to take your produce to inspired heights is a little inspiration. These 10 websites are among my current favorites when I’m staring at a full crisper and need a little jolt of creativity. Behind each site is a person or team…

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Tags: abundance, california, carolyn-cope, csa, fruits, hunter-angler, kitchen, university

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Serious Salad: Steakhouse-Style Blue Cheese Pasta Salad

August 19, 2010 – 4:28 am | by admin

[ Flickr: .imelda ] My mother claimed to have no interest in food. She said she’d be happy just swallowing a nutrition pill to survive. But her passion for beef belied her hatred of all things food. When my father was away—which was often—we’d frequent a place called Mr. Steak for lunch. To this day, I love all restaurants with the name “Mister” in the title. Mr. Steak served steaks and hamburgers with little toothpicks stuck in the meat that said “medium rare” or “rare,” depending on how you ordered your slab of protein. I loved the little signs better than the beef itself—to the meat, I was largely indifferent. When I wanted to order my chopped sirloin “well done” just to see what the label looked like, my mother said “No, TRUST ME you don’t want it THAT WAY,” in the same voice that she said filet mignon was “an expensive cut of beef for people who don’t really like beef—meat should be served on the bone.” How could something well-done be bad? I was confused. For Americans born on the cusp of World War II like my mother, being able …

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Tags: college, flickr, grandmother, imelda, kitchen, love, meat, norman-rockwell, result

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Equipment: The All-Clad vs. Tramontina Skillet Showdown

August 17, 2010 – 4:52 pm | by admin

Each week J. Kenji Lopez-Alt ( KA Cuisine and GoodEater.org ) drops by with a tool you might want to stock your kitchen with. Kenji also writes The Food Lab column here on SE. You can follow him as The Food Lab on Facebook or

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Tags: cuisine, facebook, kenji, kitchen, lab, slowly-bubbling, Temperature, walmart, wife

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Dinner Tonight: Summer Succotash with Bacon

August 17, 2010 – 4:52 pm | by admin

From Recipes [ Photograph: Blake Royer ] When I improvised a recipe for succotash a few weeks ago, the idea stuck in my head. It seemed like a perfect way to employ all kinds of summer produce, and I loved the varied textures. Digging around for more recipe, I came across this one from Gourmet via Deb at Smitten Kitchen . Unlike my original recipe (and many traditional succotashes), there’s no milk or cream here. Just lovely, lovely bacon fat and a shot of sherry vinegar to wake the whole dish up. It works. To turn it into a proper meal, I toasted two slices of crusty bread, rubbed them with a cut garlic clove, and drizzle with olive oil. It’s the kind of meal you eat on a table on the back deck, or makes you wish that you had a table on a back deck, a glass of wine in hand, sort of eating it like an open-faced sandwich, sort of eating it with a fork, sort of spilling it on your shorts and sort of not caring. In other words: summer. About the author: Blake Royer founded The Paupered Chef with Nick Kindelsperger, where he writes about food and occasional travels. After a year in Estonia, he’s now living in Chicago. Ingredients 1 pound fresh shell …

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Tags: bacon, cloves, cooking, garlic, gourmet, kitchen, paupered-chef, Pieces, recipes, royer, words

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Critic-Turned-Cook Competes in Cake vs. Pie Contest

August 13, 2010 – 12:40 am | by admin

You know that sinking feeling when a recipe goes wrong? I felt that flutter in my gut when a portion of my cake slumped onto the plate as caramel icing dripped down three layers—it was a sweet sticky mess. This was after I had spent all day working on my entry for the Cake vs. Pie competition put on by fellow Serious Eats contributor Jessie Oleson at her adorable new Cakespy shop . What had I been thinking when I signed up to represent cakes? I knew my way around a pie, especially after taking a class earlier this year from Kate McDermott , the pie whisperer. I rarely made cake, especially the super-challenging recipe I chose: Ann Cashion’s Caramel Cake . Yet, somehow, I felt I could pull it off. Maybe my cake confidence had a little something to do the time I spent in the Tom Douglas pastry kitchen . It was my very first job in the professional kitchen and it was so daunting, I barely slept the night before my first 6 a.m. shift. I arrived at the doorstep that morning a true flour-phobe. Thank goodness the extremely talented crew was welcoming and my pastry mentor, Phil, put me to work piping rosettes …

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Tags: cake, caramel, caramel-cake, competition, compliments, feeling, icing, kitchen, night, professional, result, sister, slept-the-night, time