No technical difficulties. Life is just being a little too interesting right now to put together a post. Everybody’s okay, but there is just way too much going on. I won’t bore you with details or excuses (and I think any litany of excuses should be required by law to end with “and the sun was in my eyes”). I’ll just say come back next week for a fresh recipe.
What we eat doesn’t just affect our health—it affects the health of the planet. Two recent articles highlight serious food production problems and possible solutions.
Want to help improve the planet’s health? Eat less beef and more chicken. That’s the assessment of James Hamblin’s most recent piece for The Atlantic, “Meats: A Health Hierarchy.” He backs it up with some powerful numbers, like the fact that farming cattle produces about four times as much greenhouse gas as does poultry or fish. To explain the impact of this much greenhouse gas, Hamblin quotes Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group: “If every American stopped eating beef tomorrow and started eating chicken instead—which I don’t expect—that would be the equivalent of taking 26 million cars off the road.” Continue reading “What we’re reading: chicken vs. beef and improving fish farming”
Looking for recipe ideas for your July 4th celebration? Here are a number of our favorites from the Blue Kitchen archives.
JULY 4th IS AT THE APEX OF GRILLING SEASON IN THE UNITED STATES. It’s practically written into our constitution that every household shall cook out of doors on this day. So I’m going to start this post with ideas for the meal’s centerpiece. Continue reading “Recipes for a delicious 4th of July”
An ingredient that appears in more recipes than not here at Blue Kitchen is freshly ground black pepper. Why freshly ground? Whole peppercorns ground in a pepper mill deliver much more flavor than the pre-ground stuff in tins. When I grind pepper over a pan of simmering food on the stove, the fragrance rises up to meet me, much the same effect of adding any spice to a pan.
Grinding your own pepper also allows you to control its coarseness or fineness, from crushed for steaks and chops to finely ground for delicate sauces. Continue reading “Essential kitchen tools: the Peugeot pepper mill”
For attentive service with a side of good dinner conversation, try snagging a seat at the restaurant’s bar.
Friday was our wedding anniversary. When our dinner plans suddenly fell through, we happened to be near Rootstock Wine & Beer Bar. We were offered a perfectly lovely table or seats at the bar. We chose the bar.
Just to clarify, I’m not talking about eating bar snacks in a bar. No wings, jalapeño poppers or clever little sliders. That’s a different experience, fun in its own right, but here I mean dining at the bar in a place that serves a chef-driven menu. Continue reading “The simple pleasures of dining at the bar”
It’s been a wild ride the last couple of weeks for cheese lovers and artisan cheese producers. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration appeared to signal that it would ban the aging of cheese on wooden boards in the United States. Doing so would effectively end most small batch (and even good-sized batch) independent production of artisan cheeses in America. By extension, it would also end the import of many European cheeses, most of which are aged on wood—including Parmigiano-Reggiano. Continue reading “The FDA gives cheesemakers a real food scare”
Canned black beans cooked with onion, red bell pepper, garlic and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce make a smoky, spicy, show-stealing side for pork chops, chicken and fish—or a vegetarian meal with tofu. Recipe and variations below.
There is something almost primeval about combining food and smoke. Cooking with fire and its attendant smoke links us to our earliest ancestors. Indeed to all our ancestors before the invention of gas and, later, electric stoves. Smoke is why we love hot dogs charred on sticks over campfires. And why, when grilling season rolls around, some of us refuse to cook indoors again until the first snowfall.
But there are simple ways to add the taste of smoke to foods without firing up the grill, some as close as the supermarket shelves. One of our favorites is canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Continue reading “Where there’s smoke, there’s delicious: Braised Pork Chops with Chipotle Black Beans”
Just in time for summer picnics, cookouts or quiet evenings on the porch, three very drinkable French whites for under $10.
First, let me admit that white wines are pretty much my year-round go-to wine. While I do enjoy a nice big red with steak or a roast or duck, my first choice for settling in for the evening with a glass of wine is generally an oaky Chardonnay. When warm weather arrives, I’m happy that I can indulge my preference without worrying about raising an eyebrow when I order. Here are three affordable French whites, perfect for summer. Continue reading “Three bargain French white wines for summer”
In this take on classic fried chicken, buttermilk-soaked chicken thighs are heavily seasoned, fried briefly and finished in the oven. Recipe below.
The term “classic” can be freighted with wildly varying baggage, especially when attached to something as iconic as fried chicken. Largely seen as a Southern dish, it arrived there by way of Scotland. Many Scottish immigrants settled in the South, bringing the deep fried dish with them (fellow Europeans preferred to bake, roast or boil chicken).
According to The Urban Daily, “When African slaves who worked as cooks were brought to the country, they put their own spin on the dish using seasonings and spices not found in most Scottish dishes.” As with many classic dishes, generations of home cooks, chefs and fast food chains have put their own spin on fried chicken, making defining a single classic version impossible. Continue reading “Semi-classic fried chicken, half baked”
Butcher and chef Chris Turner marinates thinly sliced beef short ribs in a mixture that includes garlic, onion, Asian pear, mirin, soy sauce and sesame oil to create authentic Kalbi Korean Barbecued Beef Short Ribs. Recipe below.
On a recent visit to our favorite butcher shop, The Butcher & Larder, we saw butcher Jimmy Shay working over thin slices of beef short ribs with the back edge of a cleaver. When we asked what he was up to, he said he was tenderizing them so that fellow butcher Chris Turner could turn them into the “most amazing, authentic kalbi, Korean barbecued beef.” We immediately asked Chris if he would share the recipe—and story behind it—here. Happily, he said yes:
Continue reading “Guest chef: Chris Turner rocks Grilled Kalbi Korean Beef Short Ribs”