Game Changer: 101 Grilling Recipes

Well, this week's Minimalist is another show stopping 101 column: 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling. The list is full of winners; can't wait to cook a few of these this summer. It's too early to pick a favorite, but I'll leave you with this:

46. Not so easy, but so impressive: Stuff squid bodies with chopped chorizo (optional), garlic-toasted bread crumbs, lemon zest and parsley. Close with toothpicks. Char quickly over a very hot fire.

Oh, and the video is SUPER kooky.

101 Fast Recipes for Grilling [nytimes]
Actually Grilled Cheese [nytimes video]

Mark Bittman Does Not Want To Stress You Out.

Today in the Times, Bittman brings us another incredible list of 101 short recipes. This time, the focus is on Thanksgiving sides, salads, deserts, and everything in between, with an eye towards not having you scramble around the kitchen like a crazy person on the big day. It's huge, and you should take a look at it right now.

UPDATE: I'm poking around the Times' Thanksgiving page (great resource, btw) and I've come across this oldie-but-goodie from Bittman circa 1997. In which our hero attempts the entire feast in true Minimalist fashion, over just three hours the day of. I bet 1997 Bittman wishes he had 2009 Bittman's list of 101 head starts. And while we're on the subject, check out Serious Eats' Thanksgiving page, which has recipes, pointers, techniques, and even whole menus.

101 Head Starts on the Day [nytimes]
Give Thanks: In Three Hours, From Scratch [nytimes]
Serious Eats: Thanksgiving [serious eats]

The Manic Minimalist: 101 Simple Salads

Today's Minimalist column is another one of Bittman's lists of 101 one sentence recipes--this time with the theme of summer salads. They range from the standard to the completely zany (carrots, blueberries and pine nuts, anyone?) across a wide range of categories, including seafood, meat, noodles, grains, vegetarian, and "mostly vegan." There's even some dressing recipes. If you can't find at least a handful of things you want to eat on this list, there's something wrong with you. Go check it out.

Also, if you fancy this kind of super short recipe thing, check out Bittman's latest book, Kitchen Express, a collection of these seasonal recipes from the Times.

101 Simple Salads for the Season [nytimes]
Share Your Salads [bitten]
Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less [amazon]

Above picture jacked from the NYTimes.

The Freezer Gospel

Bittman's on fire in this week's Minimalist column, which does double duty as the Dining section's cover story. The focus is the freezer, and Bittman thinks that you're doing it wrong. And he has a point:

If I tried to sell you a new appliance that could help you save money, reduce food waste and get meals on the table faster, the only thing you’d ask would be “How much?”

The answer is “Nothing.” You already own it. For just as the stove comes with a hidden and often overlooked bonus — the broiler — so does the refrigerator: the freezer. Why not use it?

I know: you do. In that messy box you have some ice cubes, some stuff you bought frozen — a pizza? Lean Gourmet? peas? — and maybe, if you cook a lot, some stock or hastily stored leftovers. You also have a load of things you’ve already forgotten about and will eventually toss, even though you would have been guilt-struck if you had discarded them when they were fresh.

But if you conscientiously use the freezer in two ways, you’ll value it as never before. The first: take raw ingredients you have too much of — or whose life you simply wish to prolong — and freeze them. The second: take things you’ve already cooked — basics like stock, beans, grains and the like, or fully cooked dishes — and freeze them.

The thing is worth a read, full of helpful factoids (freezers are more efficient the more jam packed they are) and tips that range from the unexpected (cover pesto with a layer of olive oil to prevent freezer burn) to the obvious yet often overlooked (label your stuff, because fish stock looks like chicken stock looks like lemon juice once it's frozen).

And! Don't forget to check out the related post on Bittman's blog Bitten, where the comments section is bursting with even more ideas for maximizing the use you get from your freezer. I like this one:

In cool months, I regularly make a big batch of steel cut oatmeal , then spread it on a cookie sheet, freeze, cut it into serving size rectangles, and take them to work where I microwave them for breakfast. Quick, easy, and much better than instant.

Leave your own ideas over there, or in the comments below.

Oh, and also worth a read: Harold McGee's fascinating piece about asparagus.

Freeze That Thought [nytimes]
The Freezer (Comments) Section [Bitten blog]
Asparagus' Breaking Point [nytimes]

Minimalist Wednesday: Fast Tomato Sauce and Grown Up Mashed Potatoes

Today Bittman took his spiel to the Today show to do a recipe very near and dear to my own heart: Fast Tomato Sauce, that endlessly variable recipe that was a key reason I started the Ben Cooks Everything project in the first place. He didn't call it Fast Tomato Sauce, but that's exactly what it was, complete with the toss-in-anything-you-like attitude. Matt and Meredith keep the obnoxious to a minimum, which is nice. And! Bittman says you can throw in the rind of parmesan cheese when making sauce and get a lot of flavor from that otherwise garbage-bound ingredient. Awesome.

Meanwhile, the Minimalist column in today's paper, which went online last week, is all about making mashed potatoes a little healthier and a little more interesting. Boil potatoes, add dandelion greens, olive oil (interesting substitution for the butter that I've got to try).

Both these recipes use a similar concept of using a lot of veggies (tomato sauce, dandelion greens), and a lot less starch than you usually would (pasta, potatoes). Mark Bittman: waning you off carbs. That being said, both of these (especially the mash) look tasty as hell. Are dandelion greens in season yet? I guess so.

As always, the NYTimes video is better, more informative, easier on the eyes, and with 100% less cheery morning talk show hosts. It is not, however, embeddable, so please enjoy below the Today show clip and click here or below to see the Times video.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Green Potatoes from Liguria [nytimes video]
The Minimalist: The Greening of Mashed Potatoes [nytimes]

Minimalist Wednesday: We Have a Lefty!

Mark Bittman: rule breaker. In today's minimalist, he expands upon the savory oatmeal dish that he took to NPR and the blogs a couple weeks ago. Also featured is breakfast pizza, made on a crust of polenta. Hell yes. Bittman also took the idea to the Today Show, to show an overly sassy Meredith Vieira how the polenta pizza idea works and profess his leftiness. It looks dank. Check out the Today Show clip below, and don't skip the Times article which has even more recipes for what look like tasty and easy savory breakfasts. There's also a video with a different savory breakfast recipe on the Times website.

NOTE: If you're reading this, NYTimes web people, PLEASE make your videos embeddable. Then I could post those instead of the Today clips, and that would make me extremely happy. Alternatively, if the hosts of the Today Show would stop talking to their audience like a bunch of confused toddlers, maybe I wouldn't have such a problem with sharing their videos. So, there's two possible solutions.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Your Morning Pizza [nytimes]
Savory Breakfast [ntimes video]
Savor a slice of Mark Bittman's polenta pizza [todayshow]

Crackers: It Works!

I didn't take any pictures or anything, because it's really not a part of the project, but over the weekend I made the recipe for Parmesan Cream Crackers from Bittman's last Minimalist column (check the video), and the bloggers were right about them: delicious, easy, super impressive. Lots of "you MADE these?!" comments. And it really only takes 20 minutes, baking time included.

Update: turns out these Parmesan Crackers are in HTCE, as I discovered last night. I can't believe I thought crackers wouldn't be in the book; they are anything, after all. I'll probably do it again because it was so easy, so I'll try to get some photos next time (some people have pointed out that the crackers I made this weekend don't count for the project, but these people were mostly my brother/roommate Jonathan who really just wants me to make them again so he can eat them). I think the best part of this realization is that I've now been thrust into baking without having to think about it. I'm afraid of baking, and I was planning to put it off for as long as possible. But this shit was easy!

Also, as far as I can tell, this means that Bittman comes up with ideas for the Minimalist column by picking up a copy of How to Cook Everything, choosing a recipe, punching up the intro, and sending it to his editor. How badass is that?

Flaky, Buttery, and Easy to Make [Bittman's Bitten blog]
Recipe: Parmesan Cream Crackers [nytimes]