Cook the Book: Vin d’Orange

From Recipes [Photographs: Caroline Russock] Ever since I figured out that most of the magic that happens at those fancy cocktail bars comes from infused spirits I’ve quickly adopted the practice at home. And it really couldn’t be easier—simply take a middle of the road bottle of something, add your choice of fruit, herbs, or spices, and let it sit for a week or two before straining and serving. With a few of these infused spirits even the most middling home bartender can produce cocktails worthy of a master mixologist. This recipe for Vin d’Orange from Put ‘em Up! by Sherri Brooks Vinton is an ideal introduction to the world of home infusions. For those of you familiar with Lillet , that lightly sweet, elegantly orange flavored French apertif, this is a do-it-yourself approximation. White wine is mixed with pieces of whole orange (including the skin and pith for a pleasant bitterness), vanilla bean, cinnamon, and a mix of vodka and sugar for sweetness and shelf life. I chose a Grüner Veltliner for it’s affordability and drinkability, somewhere around $13 for a liter, and a neutral potato-based vodka from Poland that I had infused in the past with lots of success. When it came to selecting oranges I went with the not so…

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Tags: cinnamon-sticks, cocktail, even-the-most, infused-spirits, magic, photographs, quickly-adopted, recipes, result, skin, spirits

Knife Skills: How to Cut a Cantaloupe

If I wasn’t allergic to cantaloupes, I’d live on them. Sweet, juicy and musky, with an almost squash-like aroma (makes sense—they are closely related to pumpkins and squashes), they make the perfect appetizer or dessert for a simple summer meal. As it is, I can only pass on my endorsement and grab sneaky tastes here and there with my epinephrine shot in my back pocket just in case. Please enjoy this summer’s melons for me! Shopping and Storage Cantaloupes and other melons are amongst the group of fruits that do not continue to ripen once they are removed from the vine, so when buying a melon, make sure that it’s good—it ain’t getting any better at home! Here’s what to look for: Musky smell: Smell the melon at the end that was attached to the vine (it should have a small indentation, as opposed to the blossom end, which will have a small withered flower). It should smell distinctly sweet and musky. Noticeable pale patch: There should be a noticeable flat, pale patch somewhere on the melon where it was resting on the ground. This indicates that it was left sitting on the vine long enough to develop significantly. Pale orange skin: The skin behind the netting should be pale…

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Tags: blossom, endorsement, facehuggers, food, melon, melons, press, press-the-melon, remove-the-rind, skin, storage, summer, vine, wife

Peel Tomatoes in 2 Easy Steps!

Peel Tomatoes in 2 Easy Steps! www.WebCookingClasses.com Peel a tomato in boiling water, remove the seeds from the tomato and you have “Tomato Concassee”. One of the skills to cook healthy is removing the skin and seeds From: ChefToddMohr Views: 3 0 ratings Time: 03:11 More in Howto & Style

Tags: concassee, cook-healthy, cooking, from-the-tomato, recipes, removing-the-skin, seeds, skin, steps, the-skills, the-tomato, tomatoes

Cook the Book: Village Fries

From Recipes [Photograph: Caroline Russock] When I read that Spike Mendelsohn uses waxy Red Bliss potatoes for the fries at Good Stuff Eatery in D.C. my interest was instantly piqued. Everything I’d always read about making the best possible fries involved the use of floury Russet potato for it’s high sugar content that lead to good caramelization and browning in the fryer. But when I sat down to talk to Spike he made a good case for these unusual fries and I was eager to see how they compared. In The Good Stuff Cookbook Spike explains that he uses Red Bliss potatoes for a few reasons: Their thin skin is edible and does not need to be peeled, they cook faster, and their flavor is sweeter than the traditional Russets. Still a bit skeptical, I heated up a big pot of oil and started slicing my potatoes into fries. After the initial blanch and second fry at a higher temperature I had what appeared to be a beautiful pile of fries. I tossed them with the chopped herbs and salt according to the recipe and waited until they were almost cool enough to eat. What I noticed…

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Tags: bliss, cookbook, fries, potato, recipes, skin, stuff-cookbook, traditional

The Onion: "Children Of All Ages Delighted By Enslavement Of Topsy The Elephant"

I don’t have time to write much (any) commentary, but yay for The Onion ! They’re really coming out with a lot of hard-hitting animal stuff lately, with this and the Horse Beating thing. (And maybe some others I’m forgetting? Please comment if you have more.) Go read the whole article ” Children Of All Ages Delighted By Enslavement Of Topsy The Elephant ” and check out Circuses.com for more serious follow-up reading. Topsy also delighted the audience after the trainer repeatedly thrust a hooked rod into his skin, causing the miserable animal to lift one leg and his trunk to simulate waving. “Aww�” said the assembled circus-goers, who were taken by the cuteness of the barbaric spectacle. Branden Helger, 9, said Topsy was his favorite performer at Ringling Bros. because the elephant knew how to do neat tricks like pretending to limp. The third-grader also excitedly pointed out the “cool necklace” clamped on the animal’s foot. Topsy and the other elephant performers, who are separated from each other at all times, preventing the socialization that’s so crucial to their well-being, received a standing ovation from the…

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Tags: branden-helger, crowd, elephant, jonah-meeks, like-pretending, maladaptive, neat, onion, skin, socialization, standing, trauma

Dinner Tonight: Braised Chicken with Leeks and Cream

From Recipes [ Photograph: Blake Royer ] Most of the time, braising something evokes a winter night and long, slow cooking—so long, in fact, that we hardly ever cover it in this column about reasonably quick weeknight dinners. Short ribs, lamb shanks, and oxtail all require at least two hours to become fork-tender and delicious. The flavors are deep and satisfying, but it’s a commitment of time. Chicken, on the other hand, can braise in under an hour, and the thighs and legs are a perfect candidate for the job: They don’t dry out like the breast, and they absorb tons of flavor from the cooking liquid. To keep things light, I used leeks and white wine as the base of the sauce, finishing with just a bit of cream. But it’s an adaptable recipe; green olives or lardons of bacon would have made fine additions. The key is a very good sear at the beginning to build flavor. 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. Braised Chicken with Leeks and Cream – serves…

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Tags: bring-the-sauce, deglaze-the-pan, like-the-breast, paupered-chef, recipes, result, skillet, skin, slow, time

Knife Skills: How to Sharpen a Knife

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Knife Skills: How to Sharpen a Knife There is nothing more frustrating in the kitchen than a dull knife. Not only does it make prep work a chore and your finished product less attractive, it’s also downright dangerous. A dull blade requires more pressure to cut into a food, and can easily slip off of a tough onion skin and into your finger. Ouch. Most home cooks should sharpen their knives at least twice a year, and much more frequently if they use their knives every day. There are three ways to go about it. Method 1: Use an Electric Sharpener . A good quality electric sharpener is an option, but I strongly discourage their use. First off, they remove a tremendous amount of material from your edge. Sharpen your knife a dozen times, and you’ve lost a good half-centimeter of width, throwing it off balance, and rendering any blade with a bolster (i.e. most high quality forged blades) useless. Secondly, even the best models provide only an adequate edge. If you don’t mind replacing your knives every few years and are happy with the…

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The Butcher’s Cuts: Going Whole Hock with Joshua Applestone at Fleisher’s Meats

For the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you a series called, “The Butcher’s Cuts,” inspired by Chichi’s time and continuing efforts at Fleisher’s Grass-fed & Organic Meats in Kingston, New York. Every post will highlight a part of the animal that’s not typically sold at shops, for want of consumer demand. Every cut will be extremely delicious. Your butcher will cry when you request it, and then when you take the cut home, you’ll know exactly what to do with it. This series will run in tandem with our regular Nasty Bits column, which will highlight some of the offal that Chichi ate at the shop and in the subsequent weeks back in her own kitchen.—The Mgmt. Joshua Applestone, butcher and owner of Fleischer’s. [ Photographs: Chichi Wang ] Deep Fried Chinese Ham Hock Ready to get cooking? Here’s the recipe for Deep Fried Chinese Ham Hock! » “You want to grip the knife like this,” Josh said, holding his arm out at a right angle and gripping the handle of a 5-inch boning knife so that the tip of the instrument pointed directly down …

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Tags: animals, cooking, fed, fleisher, fried-chinese, hock, meat, pistol, result, skin, words

Dinner Tonight: Cornmeal-Crusted Pan-Fried Trout

From Recipes [ Photograph: Blake Royer ] I’ve been daydreaming lately about going on a fishing trip, the kind of wilderness escape where my main concern for the day is sunshine, adequate cold beer, and hooking enough fish to feed me dinner. So maybe that’s why I was drawn immediately to this recipe in New Classic Familiy Dinners , a cookbook by Los Angeles cooking legend Mark Peel. It is the absolute perfect recipe for sleepin’ on the riverbank and cooking up the freshest river trout known to man: simple, manly, delicious. The idea here is to use a fine cornmeal that will adequately coat the fish and give it a golden crunch on the outside. Doing so negates the need to dredge the fish in egg before dusting with cornmeal. Trout is ideal for its sweet, mild flesh, but any white fish ought to work well as long as it’s not too thick (the cornmeal crust is then in danger of burning). As instructed, I used a heavy cast iron skillet, which seemed like the right tool for the job both practically and aesthetically. But I’m sure a nonstick skillet would also do the trick. Cornmeal-Crusted Pan-Fried Trout – serves 4 – Adapted from New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel. Ingredients 4 trout fillets, or two whole…

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ORANGE TIAN – Daring Baker’s March Challenge

COLOR ME ORANGE AND CARRY ME HOME A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange tree would if it could walk up and down in the garden, swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up to the air. – Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) I so looked forward to winter. Everyone I meet oohs and ahhs over my great good luck of having grown up in Florida, having spent my childhood a mere five minutes walk from the beach, imagining me tanning lazily under the blazing sun. It would have been lucky and quite a happy childhood if I had loved the heat and the beach, swimming pools and surfing. But I didn’t. I waited impatiently through every hot Springtime, every steaming, humid Summer, every boiling Autumn for the kiss of Winter. The temperature would finally drop and that chilly December and January would come hand in hand with brilliant sunshine, a reprieve from both the stifling heat and the flash storms. Sunday mornings I would wake up to the divine smell of oatmeal simmering on the stove and, wrapped up in robe, feet tucked cozily in big fluffy slippers, I would fill a bowl, watch as a pat of butter would…

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Tags: Burning, california, christmas, cream desserts, crusts and dough, dessert, florida, garden, skin, sprinkler