Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 118

Spicy Spatchcocked Chicken with Cous Cous Salad & Salsa Verde

Remember yesterday when I posted about making salsa verde with a mortar and pestle? And remember this morning how I linked to a Huffington Post piece I wrote about roasting a chicken? Now it all comes together in this post, a post that begins with a confession: last week, I made a meal on Monday that I loved so much, I made it again on Friday. This is that meal.

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Reasons To Roast A Chicken

My latest piece is up on Huffington Post, "Reasons To Roast A Chicken." If you're not roasting a chicken every week, I hope this will change your mind.

Salsa Verde via 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.

Click here to read the rest of this Amateur Gourmet post »

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.

Click here to read the rest of this Amateur Gourmet post »

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