Posted on June 12th, 2008 by iamnotachef
I am not a big fan of strict recipes for things like marinades, because the thickness of the meat* (yes, meat! What else is there to marinate?) and the amount of water in it can affect how quickly the marinade flavors it. For instance, if I were marinating something very thick I would use more salt than if the meat were cut thinner. I speak from bitter…er, salty experience, most recently last night.
Anyway, I have a fallback marinade that works very well with pretty much everything, but because it seems like a summery mixture I tend to use it when I barbecue, and that is usually during the summer. I love the flavor of chipotle, which is smoked jalapeños, usually found canned in an Read more »
Filed under: recipes | No Comments »
Posted on June 10th, 2008 by iamnotachef
A recent commenter mentioned Schiller’s Liquor Bar, and it reminded me of an excellent mixed drink that I had there recently. It was a simple concoction, nothing more than lemonade, lemon-flavored vodka, and strawberries. But the bartender muddled the strawberries so most of the flavor was extracted by the alcohol. Good stuff, and something that I am going to try.
The proportions? I am going to guess, but really, it is all to taste.
3 oz. Lemon Vodka
3 oz. Lemonade
2 oz. Seltzer
3 strawberries stemmed, and then muddled in bottom of glass.
Add ice, pour everything in, give it a bit of a stir, and serve.
Filed under: Drinks | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 10th, 2008 by iamnotachef
We have 16-year-old who sleeps, eats and does his laundry (sometimes) here, when he isn’t doing what most kids his age do. What that is, I have no idea. I just hope it isn’t what I was trying to do when I was 16. Anyway, he mentioned that one of his friends just got a job as a busboy in a popular local bar/restaurant. It’s a family-oriented place, where the focus is the food-drink combination, not the number of shots you can throw back after work. But that doesn’t prevent some of its patrons, complete with kids in tow, from treating this kid badly enough that even I, jaded and bitter, was surprised. This isn’t some professional waiter who should be held to a high standard; this is a kid trying to make some extra money so that he can buy a car, or pay for gas, or maybe even earn enough Read more »
Filed under: General, Restaurants | 5 Comments »
Posted on June 6th, 2008 by iamnotachef
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 by iamnotachef
Wow, another study that says that people are impressed by expensive wine, but that when they don’t know the price, they don’t have any idea of…the price! I’m mocking this paper just a bit, but the point is pretty basic. People tend to choose less expensive wines when they don’t have price information. It’s not a huge difference, and then only if you toss out the outliers.
I don’t think that this is anything particularly newsworthy; people will obviously tend to choose wines they like. Many people choose particular wines because they have found that, for instance, Dry Creek Valley Zinfandels have a peppery characteristic that is pleasing. But when you eliminate the more generic wines within the varietal, the remaining wines will be more expensive. Read more »
Filed under: Food | No Comments »
Posted on May 30th, 2008 by iamnotachef
Stephen Bainbridge is a well-regarded law professor and a blogger, who also takes food and wine pretty seriously. I am not enamored of his taste in wine, and he sometimes uses short cuts in his cooking that I wouldn’t, but he is undeniably a worthwhile read. Here are his thoughtful comments about Rachel Ray and The Food Network. I ranted a bit on a similar topic, but Bainbridge does a fine job here.
Filed under: Cooking, blog | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 29th, 2008 by iamnotachef
This is the blog of Michael Laiskonis, the pastry chef at Le Bernardin, a nice little fish joint on 51st St. in Manhattan. Aside from it being a very interesting blog, it is a wonderful example of what separates me and, probably most of you, from professional cooking. Laiskonis’s perspective is radically different. He approaches food from directions I can’t even fathom.
I was reminded of this gulf yesterday when I had a pleasant chat with a friend who was a successful, professional chef. He mentioned that he used to experiment with pairing red wine with seafood, and that it was a difficult feat. It occurred to me that he looked at food from a perspective not unlike that of a scientist. Read more »
Filed under: Cooking, blog | No Comments »
Posted on May 25th, 2008 by iamnotachef
Photograph by Michael Yon
Filed under: General | No Comments »
Posted on May 21st, 2008 by iamnotachef
It requires very little effort to find good pork ribs. Unlike prime, aged beef, which requires significant effort and, in many cases, a trust fund. The warehouse stores carry good-quality, untrimmed pork ribs for incredible prices. I am familiar with how efficiently freight moves in this country, but it still impresses me that they can get this stuff all over the country, in good condition, and charge less than $2/lb. I am sure that if you wandered around Pennsylvania or upstate New York or Iowa and found an artisanal hog butcher, he would be happy to sell you gorgeous rib racks — just not for $2. That is what is so impressive about commercial ribs; they are almost always really good. But there is a reason for that, and it is called fat. Ribs are cooked at low temperature for a long time, so most of that fat has a chance to melt away, and as it melts it bastes the meat, keeping it moist. The long cooking times also help tenderize the meat and break down the connective tissue and collagen, all of which contributes to flavor and texture. Read more »
Filed under: Cooking | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 18th, 2008 by iamnotachef
This was my last bottle of Williams Selyem, and I am very pleased that it was not completely over the hill. I waited a few years too long to drink this wine, but it has retained a fair amount of fruit without being overwhelmed by that unpleasant, lean structure that I find in older California Pinot Noirs. This was, obviously, a fully mature wine with nicely integrated tanins. That sounds stupid and pompous, but what it really means is that the tanins blended nicely with the other flavors of the wine. It threw just a bit of sediment, and was a surprisingly dark and thick looking red. The finish was nice, although not particularly long. The fruit was disappearing, but there was enough to make this a very nice wine Read more »
Filed under: Wine | No Comments »
