Four ways to help the people of Haiti

The food blogging community has proven itself time and again to be generous, warm and caring, always ready to share. The people of Haiti are in desperate need of your generosity right now.

Living in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haitians face daily struggles in the best of times. But the devastating earthquake has left many of them injured, homeless and without food or water. According to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as much as a third of the nation’s population—about 3 million people—has been affected by the quake.

The best way to help is money. Donations in whatever amount you can give. Here are four organizations that will put your generosity to good use. Continue reading “Four ways to help the people of Haiti” →

A little something on the side: Three potato recipes spice up dinner

Three different ingredients—cayenne pepper, wasabi powder and, in the case of Marion’s Asian-inspired “poison gas potatoes” below, Sriracha hot sauce—add kick to three different potato side dishes. Recipes below.

Potatoes are pretty versatile as sides go. Even the everyday treatments we all rely on—baked, mashed, roasted, fried—show their flavorful flexibility. But add a little heat and things get really interesting.

This week, we’re featuring three potato recipes that do just that. The results range from subtle, with Wasabi Mashed Potatoes, to semi-serious spiciness, with Spicy Roasted Potatoes and Marion’s delicious [if frighteningly named] Poison Gas Potatoes. We’ll start with the one with the most intriguing name.

Poison Gas Potatoes

There’s nothing that will clear the kitchen faster than when these potatoes are cooking and the Sriracha hot sauce hits the pan. Continue reading “A little something on the side: Three potato recipes spice up dinner” →

Two new food blogs worth bookmarking

Two very different new food blogs have caught my eye recently, for very different reasons.

That’s not lettuce is written very much the way its creator Melissa Yen thinks about food: Constantly and from every angle. Our too infrequent conversations may occasionally veer away from food, but they always hurry back. Buying it, growing it, making it [at home or for paying customers], enjoying it [in restaurants or at the tables of friends and family]…

A former owner of the much missed Vella Cafe here in Chicago, Melissa’s first food job in a long line of them was in her aunt’s restaurant when she was eleven. She’s also been involved in the Logan Square Farmers Market. So when she says that thing that all food bloggers say, “I am someone who is absolutely passionate about food,” I think she has a little more history to back up those words than some of us do—certainly than I do. Continue reading “Two new food blogs worth bookmarking” →

The other white fish: Skate Meunière with Browned Butter and Capers

This simple, classic French preparation makes the most of skate wing’s mild, sweet flesh, brightening it with lemon juice and capers. Other white-fleshed fish—sole, flounder, halibut, ocean perch—may also be used. Recipe below.

“ARE YOU ENGLISH” The question surprised me. I answered with a simple no. “Well, did you live in England for a while?” Again, no. I was curious as to what had the fishmonger at Dirk’s Fish & Gourmet Shop convinced that I had some English connection. Turns out it was the pound or so of skate wing fillet he’d just wrapped up for me. Continue reading “The other white fish: Skate Meunière with Browned Butter and Capers” →

Eat, drink and be healthy in 2010

A quick round-up of ideas for healthy eating and drinking, including fighting diabetes with small changes, more reasons to drink coffee, reasons to drink and not drink wine and an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon.

‘Food Rules’ from someone who should know

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Michael Pollan

www.thedailyshow.com

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Michael Pollan has written definitive tomes on food and health—the health of those who eat it, those who produce it and the planet we live on. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is the best known, weighing in at nearly 500 pages.

His latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, is a lot slimmer, a pocket-sized 112 pages. But in its own way, it’s just as full of useful information. In it, Pollan lays out 64 rules to help us eat smarter, eat healthier. In a piece he wrote for Huffington Post, he tells how the list came about and gives us a small taste of the list. Here are a couple of samples:

#36 Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.

#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

Pollan recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He entertainingly but forcefully makes the point that the way we eat is responsible Continue reading “Eat, drink and be healthy in 2010” →

Breakfast? Dessert? Tea? Cozy, versatile Lemon Hazelnut Scones

Light, flaky scones flavored with lemon juice and zest and toasted hazelnuts make a delicious, not-too-sweet treat with tea in the afternoon or your morning coffee. Recipe below.

SCONE. Whether you rhyme it with John or with Joan [both are common], there’s just something about the word. Scone. It sounds at once homey and comforting, a cozy treat to enjoy with tea by a fire, but also somehow more sophisticated, more elegant than, say, a muffin or biscuit. Continue reading “Breakfast? Dessert? Tea? Cozy, versatile Lemon Hazelnut Scones” →

In season right now: Clementines, the orange’s cooler kid brother

Sweet, juicy, easy-to-eat clementines are in season and in stores for just a few short months. Come and get ’em.

Clementines are like Oranges 2.0. They’re the cute iPod version of the original, smaller and easier to grab and go. And they’re totally user friendly, with a thin skin that practically zips right off and virtually no seeds. [In fact, according to wiseGEEK, “a clementine with seeds is evidence that Continue reading “In season right now: Clementines, the orange’s cooler kid brother” →

Let us now braise, part 2: Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops and Tomatoes

Inexpensive lamb shoulder chops become the star of a flavorful meal when you add thyme, garlic, tomatoes, wine and oven braising. Recipe below.

There are so many thing I love about this dish. First and foremost is the distinctive, mildly gamy flavor of lamb. As I’ve said in these pages before, that gaminess is the same quality that separates venison from beef and duck from chicken. I also love the straightforward simplicity of this meal—a handful of ingredients, simple preparation and time are all that’s required. And most of the time is the meat cooking unattended in the oven—prep time is minimal. And maybe most of all, I love the way it transforms a humble cut of meat into something delicious and satisfying.

In last week’s post about Oven-braised Asian Short Ribs, I talked about oven braising and how its even heat tenderizes flavorful but chewy inexpensive cuts of meat without drying them out. Lamb shoulder chops are another cut perfect for this treatment. Continue reading “Let us now braise, part 2: Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops and Tomatoes” →

Food blogging and simple gifts

Every year around this time, I like to share a little something about gifts. Last year, it was the humble gift of an orange that meant so much to my grandmother growing up on a farm in Illinois. Two years ago, it was the amazing gift of the poetry of e.e. cummings, first shared with me in grade school, a beautiful poem about a tiny Christmas tree. And the year before that, when Blue Kitchen was not quite two months old, it was about our non-traditional tradition of Christmas Eve dinner in Chinatown and a joke about gifts that transcended language barriers.

This year, I’ve been thinking about the gifts this blog has given me.

Gift one. I fell hard for publishing as a teenager. I got my first taste on my high school newspaper. Then I started an underground literary magazine with some friends, The Grub Street Journal. Continue reading “Food blogging and simple gifts” →

Let us now braise inexpensive cuts: Oven-braised Asian Short Ribs

Slow oven braising and plenty of garlic, scallions, star anise and pan-Asian ingredients turn inexpensive beef short ribs into a tender, exotic main course. Recipe below.

The first time I tasted steak I was in college. Cheap cuts of meat were what we ate in my working class family when I was growing up. Chuck roast, pork steaks [as opposed to the leaner, more costly chops], beef stew, burgers made from fatty ground chuck… We also occasionally had short ribs, but only as an ingredient in a beefy vegetable soup.

I relate this personal history with cheap cuts not as a tale of woe and deprivation. These cuts are often more flavorful than their pricier brethren and probably largely responsible for my love of all things meaty. But they’re usually tougher than the more expensive cuts too. I remember many happy, chewy meals.

Braising takes care of the toughness issue. Slow, moist cooking breaks down connective tissue and melts some of the fat also present in most inexpensive cuts of meat. The result is wonderfully flavorful, juicy meat that is almost falling-apart tender. Continue reading “Let us now braise inexpensive cuts: Oven-braised Asian Short Ribs” →