05 Jul 2013 4 Comments
in American Series, Recipes Tags: 4th of July, barbecue, California, cooking, food, humor, recipes, Santa Maria, tri-tip
To give you a sense of how thoroughly ingrained in the collective California consciousness the tri tip is, I need tell a story.
The 4th of July was approaching, I was at the market, and tri tip was on sale. I figured that would be the perfect thing to grill for a few friends who were coming by, so I bought a nice three pounder, brought it home, sprinkled it with salt, wrapped it in paper towels and put it in the fridge to cure for a few days. More
30 Apr 2013 11 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Food, Humor Tags: cooking, dining, food, lunch, Sapporo, sushi, toro, uni, wine
It was a Sunday morning. My wife had taken the kids to church, and I was alone in the house. I spent some time chasing a guinea fowl in the yard, but failing to catch it, returned inside to do the responsible thing: pick up toys and clutter. I hadn’t gotten far into my chores, however, before the kitchen called.
Lunch with myself
Shifting things around in the fridge for inspiration, I remembered some toro and sea urchin I’d purchased at the Japanese market a few days before and hadn’t used yet. With dinner plans for the evening and time running out on the freshness clock, it was now or never. So I got out the short grain rice and began rinsing it. More
15 Feb 2013 4 Comments
in Food, Humor Tags: 1000-year duck eggs, Anthony Bourdain, century eggs, China, Chinese cuisine, congee, cooking, fermented black beans, Taiwan, tofu
Our friend Jon has a new girlfriend. Actually, she’s not all that “new” — they’ve been dating about a year now. But it took six months for him to introduce her to us. Before that, the only evidence of her existence was dumplings. And by that measure, things weren’t looking good.
“Do you want some dumplings?” Jon said one day at the kids’ school. “Priscilla dropped them by my house.” He led me down to his truck and opened the back. It felt illicit, like it was high school and we were going to drink a beer or smoke some pot. He pulled out some big bready bao and a couple cold pork dumplings whose steamed wrappers were crumbling off. More
25 Jan 2013 17 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Pork Tags: beurre manié, Bolognese, cooking, food, gravy, grocery shopping, Korean short ribs, risotto, tips
During my adventures in the kitchen, I discover various tips and shortcuts — usually by accident — that make my cooking easier or more effective. I could probably do a whole blog just on handy cooking tips, except that’s not really my thing and I’m sure someone else is already doing a good job of it.
Applewood smoked bacon from the clearance aisle
For now, here are some recent epiphanies that I hope will benefit your cooking, too!
Flavor & the Passing of Time
I was preparing an Italian roasted green pepper salad the other day when I was reminded of a simple truth in cooking. That often, when ingredients are allowed to sit idly integrating together, the flavors meld and the sum is greater than the individual components. More
26 Oct 2012 7 Comments
in Observations, Recipes Tags: cooking, food, hunger, Italian, José Andrés, NRDC, penne
Contemplating a quarter loaf of severely stale ciabatta bread in my kitchen this morning, I was reminded of a staggering statistic I read recently. “The NRDC report said Americans discard 40 percent of the food supply every year.”
All that stale bread & an overripe tomato can be
As a person with a gut-level aversion to throwing anything edible away, this figure was unimaginable — especially given the hunger not only around the world, but in our own country. Another statistic: “In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States.” Children were “food insecure” (i.e. hungry) in 10% of households. All of which brings up a fairly obvious question:
How is it that 15% of America is hungry, when we are throwing away 40% of our food? More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 