26 Aug 2011
by scolgin
in Recipes, Video
Tags: guanciale, Italian cooking, Italy, Mark Taylor, mozzarella, recipes, summer, tomatoes, zucchini, zucchini blossoms
We stopped by our friend Heather’s house the other evening for a visit. On the counter were two enormous zucchini.
“Did someone leave those on your porch?” I asked.
“My client gave them to me,” she replied.
How generous of them, I thought to myself.
“They’re too big to eat, right?”
“Well,” I pondered, “you could make a parmagiana kind of thing with them. I’ve got a good recipe for Greek zucchini balls. But those would make about 400.”
Zucchini blossoms
I’m always wary of the food-giving generosity of friends, neighbors, loved ones, strangers and clients. More
09 Aug 2011
by scolgin
in Recipes, Video
Tags: barbecue, BBQ, butter, chicken, grill, grilling, recipes, spicy vinegar, thighs, wings
Among the world’s barbecue meats, next to regal rib-eyes and blissful racks of pork baby backs, chicken is the ugly red-headed stepchild.
More often than not, as I’m sure you’ve experienced at your share of backyard feasts, chicken is ruined on the grill. Rubbery thighs emerge black and blistered. Breasts languish on blazing grates while the host chats and tends to other things, turning them six or eight times over the course of an hour or so and eventually asking, “Do you think they’re done?” (Is it possible to successfully cook a chicken breast on the barbecue? Yes. Is it likely you will encounter it this summer? No.) More
12 Jul 2011
by scolgin
in Recipes, Video
Tags: baguette, Bastille Day, brasserie, charcuterie, France, french cooking, fries, frites, fruits de mer, moules, mussels, Paris, paté, recipes, seafood, video
We Americans like to appropriate other peoples’ holidays. I’m as guilty as anyone — on Cinco de Mayo we have friends over for fish tacos and margaritas; never does a St. Patty’s Day pass by without corned beef, cabbage and Guinness. And Chinese New Year always represents an opportunity for lacquered duck. But we the people haven’t seemed as taken, for some reason, with Bastille Day. 
I was in Paris once for Bastille Day. I remember tanks on the Champs Elysees, jets flying low overhead, drunk Parisians everywhere, reveling. I’ve always been enamored of France, and Paris in particular. More
04 Jul 2011
by scolgin
in American Series, Pork, Recipes, Video
Tags: 4th of July, barbecue, grill, grilling, Kansas City, Pork, ribs
50 million grills will be fired across America on the 4th of July. On many of them, the breasts of chickens who gave their lives for the event will be cooked long periods at a high heat into chalky oblivion. Burgers that held such promise will be transforming into rocky discs while their cooks chat with party guests over a beer. But on the best barbecues, magic will be happening. And I want that to be yours.
When I contemplate what to grill for Independence Day, my imagination travels the great barbecues of our country. More
24 Jun 2011
by scolgin
in American Series, Recipes, Video
Tags: Anchor Steam, butter, crab, crab feed, Dungeness, Old Bay, recipe, salmon, salt and pepper crab, Sierra Nevada, video, zinfandel
On the east coast, you have clam bakes. I’m jealous of you. In Alaska, you have salmon bakes. And I’m jealous of you, too. But on the West Coast, we have crab feeds. And you are jealous of us.
Sure, our friends around Baltimore will point out that they, too, have a crab tradition — spending frustrating hours picking and sucking miniscule bits of meat out of piles of Old Bay-seasoned blue crabs. But to those of us in the West, used to big mountains and wide open spaces, that’s the equivalent of eating a meatball when you could have a rib-eye. I’m talking about beautiful, abundant Dungeness crab, pulled from the Pacific bursting with snow white meat. Up where my mom lives in Sonoma County — where some of the best crabbing waters are — you’ll see signs during crab season inviting you to local crab feed fundraisers. $15 for all you can eat. That’s my kind of community event.
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