Small Bites: Tacos with a Korean accent, going mobile to fight Detroit’s food desert and a new book on sustainable farming

For a time in my life, most of my taco consumption happened in the hours after bars in St. Louis had closed for the night. This isn’t a confessional post about substance abuse, but rather a frank assessment of the state of tacos in the Midwest until recently. Taco lovers in California (and indeed, throughout much of the Southwest) have long enjoyed much finer fare, authentic tacos sold from Mexican taco trucks on street corners. But now, really good tacos are popping up across the country, thanks at least in part to Korean tacos. For more about tacos enjoying newfound street cred, check out my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

In Detroit: Bringing fresh food to the people

For many of Detroit’s nearly one million residents, getting to stores that carry fresh, healthy foods is a major challenge. To help people eat healthier in one of the nation’s worst food deserts, two organizations are taking creative approaches to getting the food to the people. Continue reading “Small Bites: Tacos with a Korean accent, going mobile to fight Detroit’s food desert and a new book on sustainable farming” →

Duck Breasts with White Beans and Sausage: The comfort of cassoulet, only quicker

Duck Breasts with White Beans and Sausage combines many of the comforting elements of cassoulet, but comes together fast enough for a weeknight dinner. Recipe below.

French cooking is usually thought of as elegant and refined. And indeed, it’s no accident that the term that defines high-end dining, haute cuisine, is French. But fancy isn’t all they do. When it comes to comfort food, few can outcomfort the French. Hanger steaks with frites, coq au vin, gratins filled with cream and covered in cheese…

And perhaps the most comforting of French comfort foods, cassoulet. A hearty baked stew of beans and various meats (usually pork and duck and maybe lamb) and crusted with bread crumbs, cassoulet sticks to the ribs and satisfies your very soul on a chilly night. Unfortunately, cooking it takes forever. Recipes vary, but baking time is always measured in multiple hours, usually with at least an hour or two of prep time up front. And if you make your own duck confit for it, you can tack on another day or two.

So we were really excited when a dinner in Portland, Oregon, on our recent trip to the Pacific Northwest got us thinking about ways capture some of the flavors of cassoulet without all the long cooking. Continue reading “Duck Breasts with White Beans and Sausage: The comfort of cassoulet, only quicker” →

Small Bites: An “essential” cookbook, hot sauce, cool candy, food trucks 2.0, farm made croutons

A trio of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts, Vermont-made croutons with a cool back story and our favorite hot sauce now actually comes in four flavors. Who knew?

Thomas Edison once said that, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Not one to miss an opportunity, Amanda Hesser wrote the 932-page, 1,400-recipe New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century while working full time for the Times and giving birth to twins. For the herculean six-year project, Hesser scoured through recipes published in the Times since it began covering food in the 1850s and took suggestions from hundreds of Times readers. She then cooked and updated every recipe that made the cut. To read more of the project and what makes the resulting book essential for your kitchen bookshelf, check out my post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Delicious Mexican heat in four flavors

At last count, there were approximately a bazillion hot sauces out there. We have maybe a half dozen or so on hand at any given time. But the one that always seems to make it from the cupboard onto the table—or into the ingredient mix—is Cholula. Continue reading “Small Bites: An “essential” cookbook, hot sauce, cool candy, food trucks 2.0, farm made croutons” →

Patatas Riojanas: Potatoes and sausage with a spicy Spanish accent

Spanish chorizo—dense, flavorful sausage—paprika, red bell peppers, onion and garlic turn potatoes into a colorful, satisfyingly hearty meal, perfect for chilly nights. Recipe below.

Before I get started, I’d just like to say that this post marks Blue Kitchen’s fourth anniversary. As Anonymous once said, “Time flies when you don’t know what you’re doing.”

MY, WE’VE BEEN BOOKISH LATELY. Today’s second post below mentions two books, one the memoir of a chef who forever changed food and professional cooking, the other, a resource for anyone interested in a career in the kitchen. A recent USA Character Approved Blog post reviews Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cookbook, which many home cooks will find essential indeed. And this recipe was inspired by José Andrés’s lively, inventive Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America.

Andrés comes by his inventiveness honestly; he is a protege of Ferran Adrià, chef of El Bulli, Spain’s temple of molecular gastronomy Continue reading “Patatas Riojanas: Potatoes and sausage with a spicy Spanish accent” →

Two new paths to culinary careers

For aspiring chefs, many roads lead to the professional kitchen. In this post, a new cooking school with a grand old name is announced, and a no-nonsense, comprehensive book spells out a whole range of culinary careers and how to get your foot in the door.

Born in 1846, the legendary Auguste Escoffier changed the course of culinary history, modernizing and codifying centuries of French cooking traditions and extending the fame of French cuisine throughout the world. In the early 20th century, he was France’s pre-eminent chef.

Besides changing cooking, Escoffier forever changed the job status of chef, elevating it to an honored profession—not just for himself, but for every chef who followed. And now he’s having an impact on food and the business of cooking again, through his great grandson Michel Escoffier. Continue reading “Two new paths to culinary careers” →

A pair of grown-up Halloween treats: Roasted baby pumpkins, white chocolate with buttery pecans and candied orange peel

An impressive start and finish to an autumn dinner—roasted baby pumpkins filled with mushrooms and shallots, topped with Gruyere for the first course and sinful white chocolate with candied orange peel, roasted pecans and reduced maple syrup for dessert. Recipes below.

Our last Halloween party some years ago was the kind of party that makes us call the police now. Seventy-five or so people overflowing from our apartment into the hall and onto the fire escape out back. About two in the morning, I started turning the music down out of some drunken semblance of courtesy to our neighbors. I turned it down three or four times, in fact. But at 4:30, when the last guests left and I turned it off, it was still impossibly loud.

Still, we have fond if blurry memories of that party—and a soft spot for Halloween in general. Continue reading “A pair of grown-up Halloween treats: Roasted baby pumpkins, white chocolate with buttery pecans and candied orange peel” →

Real food, real quick: Wine-braised Chops and Potatoes are weeknight fast, comfort food good

Dijon mustard, tarragon and garlic add flavor, complexity to quick and easy Wine-braised Pork Chops and Potatoes. Recipe below.

I like to think I’m a fairly nonjudgmental person. Live and let live, celebrate our differences, walk a mile in another person’s shoes… Until I’m in the grocery store check-out line.

As you watch fellow shoppers unload their carts, piling box after bag after frozen package of processed “edible foodlike substances” (as Michael Pollan calls them) on the conveyor belt, it’s hard not to ask how they made it through the produce department without picking up a single fruit or vegetable. Or where are the eggs? The milk? Even the fresh meat, for that matter? And it’s easy to see why obesity, childhood diabetes and heart disease are reaching epidemic proportions in our country.

So it was particularly refreshing to visit the kitchen of four recent college graduates this weekend and see real food. Continue reading “Real food, real quick: Wine-braised Chops and Potatoes are weeknight fast, comfort food good” →

For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure

Forget bologna and cotto salami. Cured meats have returned to their artisanal beginnings. The delicious fare of a famous Seattle cured meats master is the subject of my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Sometimes a place just starts showing up on your radar. We started hearing about Salumi long before we started planning our recent trip to Seattle and Portland. About its delectable handmade salamis, prosciuttos, pancettas, lardos and guanciales—and about the famous owner with the even more famous son. Then when our trip started taking shape, we asked mado chef/owner Rob Levitt what places we should hit. Top of his list was Salumi. Continue reading “For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure” →

Blog Action Day 2010: Food’s water footprint

Today is Blog Action Day. Thousands of bloggers all over the planet are talking about water, from the perspectives of their individual blogs. I’d like to talk about food’s water footprint, how what we eat affects the water we all need.

The Great Lakes are called that for a reason. Together, they cover 94,000 square miles. In school, they loomed large for me, both in geography and history lessons. I was enthralled by tales of intrepid explorers and voyageurs braving these fresh water oceans in mere canoes. And living in Chicago now on the shores of Lake Michigan, I am wowed by its power and size every single time I see it.

Still, on a trip to Toronto last fall, we were given a startling new perspective on the Great Lakes and on water in general. A large chalk illustration of the five Great Lakes covered an entire wall in a trendy shop Continue reading “Blog Action Day 2010: Food’s water footprint” →

Just like somebody’s grandma used to make: Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Fennel, Sage

Adapted from an Italian grandmother’s recipe, slow oven braising allows many flavors—onions, garlic, celery, wine, sage, juniper berries, fennel seed, bay leaves—to melt together in this soul-satisfying, fork tender lamb dish. Recipe below.

One of the perks of doing Blue Kitchen is that we’re occasionally asked to review cookbooks. It’s also one of the drawbacks. Writing, thinking, reading and talking about food on a daily basis means that we’re almost always at least a little bit hungry—kind of a low grade infection that never clears up unless you are actually actively engaged in consuming a substantial meal at the moment. And when a gorgeous cookbook like Jessica Theroux’s Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories from Tuscany to Sicily comes along, whole hams can’t quite stay your hunger.

To write Cooking with Italian Grandmothers, Theroux spent a year in Italy talking, cooking and often staying with a dozen Continue reading “Just like somebody’s grandma used to make: Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Fennel, Sage” →