Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 117

Salsa Verde in a Mortar and Pestle

I'll let you in on a blogging secret. We bloggers want you to click all over our blogs because every time you click, we make $0.001 and, eventually, that adds up. (That's why all successful food bloggers ride around in Porsches or, in my case, the subway.)

So it's a fairly significant fact that in this post about salsa verde I am not going to link to the salsa verde in my archives, the one that I made in September 2010 (and that you can easily find by searching in the search box). That's because, now that I've made that same recipe in a mortar and pestle, I disavow the old method. A mortar and pestle is the only way to do it.

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Zhenya's Stinging Nettles

You may recall that a few weeks ago, I befriended Zhenya, The Feral Gardener, while buying a Dr. Brown's black cherry soda at Katz's Deli.

On May 1st, Zhenya wrote me an e-mail: "I just picked a ton of very young stinging nettles and would be happy to give you at least half a ton.... Let me know if you're interested." Stinging nettles? Interested? I would have to seriously think about this.

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake

It was only after I'd started making this coffee cake, mixing the butter and sugar, that I realized this wasn't a round 9-inch cake sort of deal; this was a 13 X 9-inch beast.

Yes, I know, you're supposed to study a recipe carefully before proceeding; and yes, you're supposed to butter the pan before you start (I tend to do it right before adding the batter). But the point is: I made a giant coffee cake. And the larger point is: it was so outrageously good, with a chocolate cinnamon swirl inside and pecans on top, that it was gone in a matter of days.

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Let Them Eat Cake

Here's my second piece for The Huffington Post (click here); it's about junk food and why feeding it to your kids is ok, in moderation.

Asparagus & Ramp Risotto

Spring is here at last and that means you'll find two things at the farmer's market that you won't find there any other time of the year: ramps and asparagus.

Sure, you can find asparagus at the grocery store in January, but that asparagus is as far a cry from farmer's market asparagus as a Monet is to a paint-by-number flower. And ramps, love them or hate them, are here for just a fleeting moment.

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Exclusive: Inside My Parents' Refrigerator

For years, I've hounded my parents to let me videotape the inside of their refrigerator, a barren wasteland of processed foods and Tupperware containers filled with pre-chopped onions. (For those late to the story, my parents do not cook.) This Mother's Day, they finally relented and the video above offers you EXCLUSIVE access to a world of Egg Beaters, sugar-free Concord jam and a strange plastic bag hidden in a drawer. Thanks, mom and dad, for granting us access; and to all the mother's out there, Happy Mother's Day!

[Note: the sound gets muffled at the beginning, but stick with it. I think I had my thumb over the microphone.]

The Secret Chipotle & The New Doughnut Plant

Basil Lime Daiquiri

The best drink I've drunk in recent memory was the basil lime daiquiri I drank at ABC Kitchen, Jean-George's highly praised farm-to-table restaurant attached to ABC Carpet. The drink positively glowed with its fluorescent green color and intense basil-y aroma. Here, let me show you a picture....

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A Burr Grinder

Following my coffee trials on this blog must be like having a petulant four year-old child who wants soup then wants pizza then wants soup again and so on.

See, at first I told you not to worry about grinding your beans fresh in my post: "How To Make a Good Cup of Coffee." Then Amanda Byron, director of coffee at my favorite coffee shop in New York, Joe, held an intervention (see here) where she told me I was crazy not to grind my beans fresh. I ignored her but felt guilty as time wore on.

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10 Things That You're Doing Wrong At Restaurants

I just wrote my first piece for Huffington Post---10 Things That You're Doing Wrong At Restaurants---and you can read it by clicking here. If you like it, make sure to "like" it on Facebook and Twitter and all those other places that you can like something.