Grub Street pointed out this great video from Big Think, embedded below, featuring the man himself speaking on a number of food related issues. Some interesting tidbits in here. I like the reminder that it's very rare that you mess up a dish so badly that you can't enjoy it. Truth.
Meanwhile, I just got a Kindle and the second book I downloaded for it? That's right, How To Cook Everything, now ultra lightweight! (The first book? Street Gang, Michael Davis' in-depth history of the groundbreaking early days of Sesame Street)
If You Don't Like Bittman's Food, 'Something's Wrong' [grubstreet]
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Minimalistist: Stir-Fried Pork with Spinach
The longer, more involved recipes in How to Cook Everything are great. But it really excels in the fast and dirty recipes that Bittman has been dispensing in the Times' Minimalist column for years now. This is one such recipe, so fast and simple, utterly delicious, and endlessly adaptable that you wonder why anyone would ever spend more than an hour or so in the kitchen.
The trick with this recipe is to get all your prep work done beforehand; it only takes ten minutes once you get your pan hot. So, take some pork shoulder, slice it into bite size pieces as thin as you can get them (freezing for 30 minutes will be a huge help here), then wash the spinach (or whatever leafy green you want) and tear it up a bit.
Okay, oil in the pan, get it really hot, cook the pork 'til it's just cooked through, then get it out of there. Throw in the garlic, let it get some color for a mintue, then add all the spinach. Lots of spinach. It cooks down like nobody's business. When it is cooked down, throw the pork back in, along with some lime juice and soy sauce. Add scallions (lots of scallions). That's it! I'm sure you can do this with any kind of meat, or any kind of veg thrown in, but the pork/spinach combo seems to work really well.
The trick with this recipe is to get all your prep work done beforehand; it only takes ten minutes once you get your pan hot. So, take some pork shoulder, slice it into bite size pieces as thin as you can get them (freezing for 30 minutes will be a huge help here), then wash the spinach (or whatever leafy green you want) and tear it up a bit.
Okay, oil in the pan, get it really hot, cook the pork 'til it's just cooked through, then get it out of there. Throw in the garlic, let it get some color for a mintue, then add all the spinach. Lots of spinach. It cooks down like nobody's business. When it is cooked down, throw the pork back in, along with some lime juice and soy sauce. Add scallions (lots of scallions). That's it! I'm sure you can do this with any kind of meat, or any kind of veg thrown in, but the pork/spinach combo seems to work really well.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Things I've Actually Baked: Scones
Scones, it turns out, are not the hardest thing in the world to make. Bittman says you can mix the batter in the food processor, so that's exactly what I did.
For some reason, my batter ended up incredibly runny when I plopped it onto the counter out of the food processor, so I added some more flour to the mixture before kneading it ("10 times; no more"). I also forgot to add the dried currants, which would have been a nice touch. Oh well. Bittman says to cut circles out of the dough after rolling it out to 3/4 inches, but I decided to just roll it into a square and cut amorphous triangle things off of that. They didn't look great, but they tasted fine and cooked evenly. These were really good for plain scones, but next time I'd definitely use the currants, or anything else Bittman suggests in the adjacent list, "13 Additions to Virtually Any Quick Bread, Muffins, Biscuits or Scones." He's always got you covered.
The best part of the scones recipe is, you can do it all way ahead of time. Deb at Smitten Kitchen even says in her scone recipe that she rolls and cuts them out, freezes the dough, then throws them in the oven the morning of brunch to save time.
For some reason, my batter ended up incredibly runny when I plopped it onto the counter out of the food processor, so I added some more flour to the mixture before kneading it ("10 times; no more"). I also forgot to add the dried currants, which would have been a nice touch. Oh well. Bittman says to cut circles out of the dough after rolling it out to 3/4 inches, but I decided to just roll it into a square and cut amorphous triangle things off of that. They didn't look great, but they tasted fine and cooked evenly. These were really good for plain scones, but next time I'd definitely use the currants, or anything else Bittman suggests in the adjacent list, "13 Additions to Virtually Any Quick Bread, Muffins, Biscuits or Scones." He's always got you covered.
The best part of the scones recipe is, you can do it all way ahead of time. Deb at Smitten Kitchen even says in her scone recipe that she rolls and cuts them out, freezes the dough, then throws them in the oven the morning of brunch to save time.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Brunch Dish: Spanish Tortilla
It's big, filling, cheap, and you can cook the whole damn thing at once: Spanish Tortilla is the best thing to make if you have some friends coming over for brunch.
The Spanish Tortilla recipe in How to Cook Everything is basically a big pile of potatoes, eggs and onions cooked together in one pan. You sauté some onions and thinly sliced potatoes until soft in a large skillet (it helps a lot if it's nonstick). The potatoes and onions cook together in a whole bunch of olive oil--one cup. It's a lot, but you drain it out before adding the eggs. After draining the oil, 6-8 eggs go in a bowl with the potato-onion mixture, and that goes back into the pan (add some of the oil that was drained before you add the potato-egg mixture to the pan. You just cook this over medium heat until the edges firm up. Then, using a spatula to loosen the tortilla from the pan, transfer it to a large plate, turn it upside down using another plate, and finally return it to the pan, thereby flipping the tortilla. Cook it for another five minutes or so, and it's done. This thing is damn tasty, and it can be served warm or room temperature. I want some right now.
The Spanish Tortilla recipe in How to Cook Everything is basically a big pile of potatoes, eggs and onions cooked together in one pan. You sauté some onions and thinly sliced potatoes until soft in a large skillet (it helps a lot if it's nonstick). The potatoes and onions cook together in a whole bunch of olive oil--one cup. It's a lot, but you drain it out before adding the eggs. After draining the oil, 6-8 eggs go in a bowl with the potato-onion mixture, and that goes back into the pan (add some of the oil that was drained before you add the potato-egg mixture to the pan. You just cook this over medium heat until the edges firm up. Then, using a spatula to loosen the tortilla from the pan, transfer it to a large plate, turn it upside down using another plate, and finally return it to the pan, thereby flipping the tortilla. Cook it for another five minutes or so, and it's done. This thing is damn tasty, and it can be served warm or room temperature. I want some right now.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Schmauthenticity: Carnitas
The How to Cook Everything recipe for Carnitas is a variation on Bittman's Shredded Pork recipe. Both, I assume, are great taco fillers, which is what the carnitas I made were used for. Crispy little pieces of shredded pork: major drool factor. There are probably more authentic ways of doing this, and they may taste better, but these were damn good and they certainly did the trick.
In the mother recipe, you simmer chunks of pork shoulder along with a quartered onion, a bunch of smashed garlic cloves, bay leaves, cumin, a dried chile (I used ancho) and water to cover for about an hour or longer, until the meat is tender. Then you shred it, and you're done. The carnitas variation has you shred or chop the meat at this point, but then return it to the pot to cook further until all liquid is evaporated and the meat is getting nice and crispy.
Now, I simmered the pork in my enormous 8 qt. dutch oven and it took over 12 cups of water to cover the pork. I was not about to simmer this stuff for 12 hours waiting for all that water to cook off. So I shredded the meat, removed most of the liquid (strained it and froze it as pork stock, natch), returned the meat to the pan, added a bit of neutral oil and simmered until the meat was getting crispy. Then I let it cook a while longer, because in my book the crispier the pork is, the better.
It worked, and it was great. There are more authentic ways of making carnitas, I'm sure, but let me tell you: these tacos were pretty effing good, especially with the leftover Red Beans with Meat I'd stashed in the freezer. The remaining toppings were roasted tomato salsa (Trader Joe's) and ricotta salata--could've used something green like lettuce or my favorite, the gringotastic cucumber, but these were pretty delicious as it was. The leftovers I just ate mixed with a big bowl of rice and beans (cheese on top) for lunch.
In the mother recipe, you simmer chunks of pork shoulder along with a quartered onion, a bunch of smashed garlic cloves, bay leaves, cumin, a dried chile (I used ancho) and water to cover for about an hour or longer, until the meat is tender. Then you shred it, and you're done. The carnitas variation has you shred or chop the meat at this point, but then return it to the pot to cook further until all liquid is evaporated and the meat is getting nice and crispy.
Now, I simmered the pork in my enormous 8 qt. dutch oven and it took over 12 cups of water to cover the pork. I was not about to simmer this stuff for 12 hours waiting for all that water to cook off. So I shredded the meat, removed most of the liquid (strained it and froze it as pork stock, natch), returned the meat to the pan, added a bit of neutral oil and simmered until the meat was getting crispy. Then I let it cook a while longer, because in my book the crispier the pork is, the better.
It worked, and it was great. There are more authentic ways of making carnitas, I'm sure, but let me tell you: these tacos were pretty effing good, especially with the leftover Red Beans with Meat I'd stashed in the freezer. The remaining toppings were roasted tomato salsa (Trader Joe's) and ricotta salata--could've used something green like lettuce or my favorite, the gringotastic cucumber, but these were pretty delicious as it was. The leftovers I just ate mixed with a big bowl of rice and beans (cheese on top) for lunch.
Friday, February 12, 2010
A Few Links For The Weekend: Apps Only, Momo for 2, $3 Pizza Stones, FEAST
Hey everyone! More cooking going up as soon as the pictures of my first attempt at carnitas are ready. In the meantime, here's some stuff from around the internet you might be interested in.
First off, I'm thrilled to tell you that I'm writing a column for Serious Eats! I'm so siked to be involved with them--you may notice I mention them a lot around here--and I hope you'll check out my stuff, and all the other great stuff over there. The Talk section can answer just about any question you have. I'm contributing to SE: New York with a column called Apps Only, where I go to restaurants I can't afford a whole meal at, and try to construct a meal composed of sides, appetizers, and small plates. Check it out.
I love Momofuku, and I love to stare at the pictures in the cookbook, but the only thing I think I'll ever make from it is the simple ginger scallion sauce. Badass chick Steph is not scared like I am; she's making every recipe in the Momofuku cookbook. Her blog is well written, beautifully photographed, and lovingly executed. A ton of the shots, like the signature pork buns, for example, look better than the photos in the book itself. As a bare bones kind of home cook, I am flabbergasted by how adventurous she is in the kitchen. Check it out.
The always helpful Paupered Chef shows us how to make a pizza stone from about $3 worth of tiles from Home Depot. Check it out.
Finally, last week I attended a FEAST (Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics) in Brooklyn: a community dinner where the price of admission goes to fund art and community projects. I wrote a short writeup of the event, also for Serious Eats: New York. Check it out and also check out the FEAST site for more info on this amazing organization.
Apps Only [serious eats: new york]
Momofuku Pork Buns [momofuku for two]
How to Make a 3 Dollar Pizza Stone [paupered chef]
FEASTing in Brooklyn [serious eats: new york]
First off, I'm thrilled to tell you that I'm writing a column for Serious Eats! I'm so siked to be involved with them--you may notice I mention them a lot around here--and I hope you'll check out my stuff, and all the other great stuff over there. The Talk section can answer just about any question you have. I'm contributing to SE: New York with a column called Apps Only, where I go to restaurants I can't afford a whole meal at, and try to construct a meal composed of sides, appetizers, and small plates. Check it out.
I love Momofuku, and I love to stare at the pictures in the cookbook, but the only thing I think I'll ever make from it is the simple ginger scallion sauce. Badass chick Steph is not scared like I am; she's making every recipe in the Momofuku cookbook. Her blog is well written, beautifully photographed, and lovingly executed. A ton of the shots, like the signature pork buns, for example, look better than the photos in the book itself. As a bare bones kind of home cook, I am flabbergasted by how adventurous she is in the kitchen. Check it out.
The always helpful Paupered Chef shows us how to make a pizza stone from about $3 worth of tiles from Home Depot. Check it out.
Finally, last week I attended a FEAST (Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics) in Brooklyn: a community dinner where the price of admission goes to fund art and community projects. I wrote a short writeup of the event, also for Serious Eats: New York. Check it out and also check out the FEAST site for more info on this amazing organization.
Apps Only [serious eats: new york]
Momofuku Pork Buns [momofuku for two]
How to Make a 3 Dollar Pizza Stone [paupered chef]
FEASTing in Brooklyn [serious eats: new york]
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
More Greens: Stir-Fried Broccoli
This recipe couldn't be much easier, and it's pretty versatile: broccoli is a good accompaniment to almost everything in my opinion. You could probably just add some meat or tofu to this and have a whole main course to serve over rice.
Basically you take your broccoli (I used this thin-stemmed kind that I can't remember the name of, but you can also use cauliflower, broccoli raab, or a terrifying hybrid I never heard of but Bittman suggests called Broccoflower) and cut the tops into florets, then peel the stems and chop them up. Stems are like the chicken wings of broccoli: so often overlooked, but so clearly the best part. Jacques Pepin agrees, so it's true.
Then you heat up some neutral oil over high heat and throw in the broccoli until it's just starting to brown. Add salt, sugar, and stock, then keep stirring until most of the liquid is evaporated--you end up with a slightly thickened sauce. Add soy sauce, and you're done.
Ate this with a salad and roast chicken parts in ginger scallion sauce (David Chang's recipe, not Bittman's). It was a fast, easy meal that felt more like a feast.
Basically you take your broccoli (I used this thin-stemmed kind that I can't remember the name of, but you can also use cauliflower, broccoli raab, or a terrifying hybrid I never heard of but Bittman suggests called Broccoflower) and cut the tops into florets, then peel the stems and chop them up. Stems are like the chicken wings of broccoli: so often overlooked, but so clearly the best part. Jacques Pepin agrees, so it's true.
Then you heat up some neutral oil over high heat and throw in the broccoli until it's just starting to brown. Add salt, sugar, and stock, then keep stirring until most of the liquid is evaporated--you end up with a slightly thickened sauce. Add soy sauce, and you're done.
Ate this with a salad and roast chicken parts in ginger scallion sauce (David Chang's recipe, not Bittman's). It was a fast, easy meal that felt more like a feast.
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