27 Dec 2011
by scolgin
in Cooking Tips, Recipes, Video
Tags: Bologna, Bread, Christmas, ciabatta, dough, kneading, Mario Batali, pasta, pizza, recipe
I recall when I worked in pizza joints as a pimply kid, big beachballs of pizza dough churning in cavernous steel bowls beneath a massive metal Popeye arm. Industrial mixers made quick work of enough flour, yeast and water for 100 pies. But if you’re a home cook, why deprive yourself of the meditative pleasure of kneading?
Fresh savory rustic bread, just out of the oven
I sometimes see TV chefs mixing their dough in a Cuisinart. While this works perfectly well, your dough will never have that intangible mojo the best food has — the love that comes from a human hand. More
16 Dec 2011
by scolgin
in Observations, Recipes
Tags: Central America, chicken, illegal aliens, lunch, Mexico, pozolé, recipe, tortilla soup
Like most reasonably well-off white Americans, I’ve hired aliens. Most have been Mexican or Central American. Some have been legal, some have not. All have been good people with families and hopes and dreams, with warm smiles and senses of humor, with dignity.
One of the small but important joys in my life over the years has been serving the help, usually in the form of lunch. They honor me with their time and services; I honor them with a home-cooked meal.
Homemade chicken, tarragon and tortilla soup
For seven years, three to five days a week, I made lunch for our nanny, Karina. She came from a Oaxacan Mexican family and had never eaten much other than Mexican fare or fast food. More
08 Nov 2011
by scolgin
in Recipes, Video
Tags: Amatrice, bucatini all' amatriciana, cooking, Genoa, Italy, pasta, recipe, Rome, video
One of the most interesting parts of cooking, to me, is discovering the roots of particular types of cuisine and dishes. The etymology of food, if you will. For example, you may claim to love tacos. But in Mexico, regional variations range from the familiar fish and shrimp tacos of Baja to the grilled sandwiched mulitas of Oaxaca to the fried tacos de cazo of Mexico City — often filled with pig’s esophagus. The people of central Mexico eat wriggling live larvae in their tacos. Do you love that?
The coat of arms of Amatrice
A favorite pasta of mine is called bucatini all’ Amatriciana. It has long been part of my Italian repertoire. But making it one evening, and videotaping it for this blog, I realized I didn’t know much about it’s origins. So I decided to investigate. More
04 Oct 2011
by scolgin
in Recipes
Tags: breakfast, chorizo, margarita, Mexican, Mexico, potatoes, recipe, russet, tacos, tacos de papa
Breakfast potatoes — hash browns, if you prefer — have forever been a bit of a mystery to me. I’ve always been able to make passable potatoes, better if I added a bit of duck fat or lard. But that was kind of cheating. And they were still never as good as those little oblong potato pucks at McDonalds.
But try enough different things and every once in a while you stumble on something really good by accident. That’s how I came to discover the best breakfast potatoes ever. (Note: If you have leftover potatoes, this preparation also works beautifully for the traditional tacos de papa — potato tacos — of Mexico City. I’ve included a recipe for these below the potato recipe.) More
23 Sep 2011
by scolgin
in Cooking Tips, Recipes
Tags: art, finishing, Mexican, Mexico, recipe, serving, Sonora, soup, swiss chard, tortilla
A lot of the difference between what I (the average chef) do when serving a meal and what you (the average home cook) do can be summed up, at least in terms of presentation, as the subtle art of finishing.
It takes practically nothing but a little imagination to turn a dish from ordinary to inspired. Here’s a picture of some tortilla soup:
Looks reasonably good, right? And it tasted great! But now, here’s a picture of that same soup — finished with a couple tortilla chips, some sour cream, a handful of spicy pepitas and a sprinkling of ancho chili powder. More
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