Michael Ruhlman's Blog, page 86

Ruth Reichl's Remarks on Gourmet's Demise

Nine hours door to door from Cleveland to my hotel room and I was hungry.  The fine folks in Portland organizing the International Association of Culinary professionals, had filled the room with Portland products, wine beer coffee candy and, lo, some serious local beef jerky.  Dense sweet salty savory concentrated protein, like candy.  I knew [...:]

The Elements of Cooking, Paperback At Last! 5-X Giveaway!

Finally!  The Elements of Cooking, my guide to the language of the kitchen, has been published in the form it was meant to be in—paperback, an edition affordable for students (just $10 from Amazon), light and bendable for stuffing into backpacks or knife kits.  Eric Ripert, chef-owner of the 4-star restaurant, Le Bernardin, calls it [...:]

Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

As I mentioned today over in Huffington Post's new food pages, I once used to purchase the Knorr powdered mix for Alfredo sauce.  This is almost like buying dehydrated water.  Fettuccine Alfredo is the world's easiest cream sauce, and it's also one of the best.
In my opinion, the quality of the dish is dependent on [...:]

Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

As I mentioned today over in Huffington Post's new food pages, I once used to purchase the Knorr powdered mix for Alfredo sauce.  This is almost as intelligent as buying dehydrated water.  Fettuccine Alfredo is the world's easiest cream sauce, and it's also one of the best. But the time was the late 1980s, Donna [...:]

My Essential Kitchen Tools

I get asked a lot about cooking tools and while I could do anything I really needed with just five tools—my truly minimalist kitchen would have a chef's knife, cutting board, large sauté pan, flat-edged wood spoon and a large Pyrex bowl—I've got lots of tools I like and a box of tools I never [...:]

Demo On the Beach!Chimichurri Shrimp in Naples

Yes, it was a vacation, but I'd offered to help out at benefits for University Hospitals (where I was born!) in Naples and Palm Beach by doing a short demo and getting on my soapbox about cooking for yourself in your house (or, in the case of Palm Beach, hiring somebody to do so; seriously, [...:]

Server Issues Resolved

Due to the recent OpenSky press (NYTimes bits blog, techcrunch.com, USAToday), this site got a surge of traffic that forced my inhospitable host to shut it down last night. Can't tell you how frustrating that is.  We've gone ahead and moved it to a dedicated server so this should never be an issue again (permalink [...:]

Marinades: Grilled Pork Tenderloinwith Lemon Zest-Thyme Marinade

Our last night in Florida, my mom, having no real plans for dinner, thawed a pork tenderloin she'd been wanting but was in a quandary how to cook it. I find pork tenderloin a little on the ho-hum side, but a marinade 0f some kind would help it considerably.
Marinades can be a contentious subject, especially [...:]

How To Make Ceviche:Red Snapper Ceviche with Red Onion and Jalapeno

I go back and forth about how much to stress ease in the kitchen.  This is so easy!  This is so fast!  You'll never believe it! No excuse not to cook it yourself it's so fast and easy! And the exact opposite: Forget about ease, forget about how long it takes, that shouldn't be the [...:]

Poached Salmon Lunch, with Asparagus,Shrimp and Salads

A week's vacation in West Palm—punctuated by two events I was asked to speak at and demo some recipes in Naples and Palm Beach, a week that concluded with blue skies, beach, pool food, fruity rum drinks—began with an unexpectedly fine lunch made by my dear old, hard-working, fun-loving, enormously generous mum.
We'd risen early, left [...:]