- Amanda (photo by Deborah Copaken Kogan) This past weekend, my husband and I had dinner at our friends' Deb and Paul's house. Paul had marinated a butterflied leg of lamb to grill on their rooftop patio, and he headed out there well after dark. The fall's earlier sundowns have never stopped people from grilling, but grilling in the dark usually involves a jury-rigged move with flashlights. Paul, an excellent cook, has come up with a nifty solution: he wears a camping headlamp from L.L.Bean. Nerdy, you say? I think not, after tasting his perfectly grilled lamb. For the recipe....continue reading.
- Amanda I found this little pot when Merrill and I went on a shopping expedition to Williamsburg and stopped in at Whisk. Made by Krona, a moderately priced line of Norpro, the pot holds 12 cups (with measurements marked inside), has a comfortable tea-pot-style handle, a spout and a lid with small and large holes for straining -- in short, a lot of carefully thought out details. The pot is perfect for cooking small amounts of vegetables and pasta (without having to pull out a colander), scalding milk, making chai or hot chocolate and cooking soup. Plus it's cute! (Call Whisk to order one: (718) 218-7230; it's $45 at Amazon.) We'd like to know what your favorite pot is -- either comment below, or better yet, send us a photo ([email protected]) and we'll add yours to this blog post. Remember to tell us -- in a single sentence -- what you love about your pot. Can't wait to hear from you!
- Merrill Here at food52, we find the evolution of recipes a fascinating (not to mention educational) topic, as the transformation of one dish into another can occur in so many wonderful ways. Last week, I wrote a post about adapting someone else’s recipe in order to make it yours. This week, I thought I’d write about a recipe of my own that I have been making the same way for years but then suddenly decided to overhaul this weekend.
(photo (obviously) not taken by Sarah Shatz) - Amanda For years I've been baking a peach tart recipe that my mother gave me. The crust is scented with almond extract and enriched with oil rather than butter, which makes it crumblier and a little snappier. The best part is that you don't have to roll out the dough, you just press it into a tart pan -- which means it's a great dessert for making with your kids and for when you're stranded in a rented house without your rolling pin.
- Merrill Every summer I spend a week or so on the coast of Maine, and during that time one of the tasks I assign myself is to eat as much local crab, called Peekytoe, as I can get my hands on. Peekytoe crab, which has only just become popular outside of Maine in recent years, originated as a byproduct of lobstering. For years, lobstermen's wives would pick and sell the crabs that found their way into their husbands' traps. The crab meat was popular among locals but considered somewhat pedestrian.
- Amanda At the end of every summer, we spend a couple of weeks with my husband's family in Wainscott, on Long Island. I pass most of that time running around to farmstands and eating as many peaches, tomatoes, corn and lobster rolls as possible. A few years ago, on my night to cook, I made a pasta dish with roasted tomatoes and corn. Everyone loved it, and then I forgot about it. I revived it again this year, and, determined not to forget it again, I've decided to write it down. Here.
- Merrill Canning is one kitchen activity that can intimidate even the most confident cook. The truth is, it's dead simple. Every August I make jars and jars of wild blueberry jam at my parents' house in Maine, and every Christmas I know exactly what I'm giving out as presents. The best part? It takes all of an hour to make the jam, and both the ingredients and equipment couldn't be simpler.
One of our first and most enthusiastic users, seattlebonvivant, recently told us about a project that she and some friends have set in motion. It's called Canning Across America (or CAA), and it's a national collective which aims to "promote safe food preservation and the joys of community building through food." We hope you'll pay a visit to their informative website, and then submit a recipe or check out the entries for this week's preserves contest. We also highly recommend seattlebonvivant's Twiitter stream, in our opinion an exceptional food journal.
-Merrill There was a time when I would have insisted that the best -- if not the only -- way to serve a ripe peach is on its own, sans accountrements. Now, however, I'm not so sure.
Amanda & Merrill Every cook we know is in endless pursuit of the perfect cooking shoe. Amanda recently graduated from Mary Jane Crocs to a pair of black patent Dansko clogs (here). She likes that they provide more support and make her taller. After years of wearing her cooking school mandated Danskos, Merrill went the other way and now rarely bothers to remove her Sauconys in the kitchen. We'd love to know what you wear in kitchen, and if there's some great shoe we have yet to discover. Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
- Merrill Bavarian cuisine has gained a real toehold in New York City as of late. Trendy new restaurants like Seasonal and Radegast Hall are dishing up heaping platefuls of brats, schnitzel and goulash. Brooklyn even has it's own brand-new Schnitzel Truck,which announces its current location via Twitter.
- Amanda Yes, you're supposed to clean your grill as soon as you're done using it. But since that never happens in my house, I needed a way to scrape it down right before firing it up again. Merrill taught me a quick and effective trick for doing this: you crumple a piece of aluminum foil, then using tongs to grasp it, you use the foil to "scrub" the surface of the grill rack. It's amazing how well it works -- scraping up even the stickiest bits in just a few seconds.
- Amanda Before shallots and garlic became the standard aromatics for dressings, vinaigrettes and dips, onion juice was often used.
- Merrill Last summer my mother and I went to Scotland, where we visited some friends in Kirkcaldy, just north of Edinburgh. At lunch in their lovely dining room we were served a dessert I had never tried, and of which I had always been highly skeptical. Like Spotted Dick, Heg-Peg-Dump and Toad-in-the-Hole, Eton Mess is one of those traditional U.K. dishes with a moniker that makes you want to run for the hills. But I was happily surprised to find that what I had assumed would be a heavy, drippy English "pud" was in fact an appealing reinterpretation of one of my all-time favorite desserts: pavlova.
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