Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 42
October 29, 2013
Arkansas Black Apple Cobbler
When Chef Diep Tran sang the praises of Arkansas Black apples on L.A. Weekly’s Squid Ink blog, there was no lack of enthusiasm: “The Arkansas Black’s siren song starts out bright and tart, then blooms with notes of nutmeg, coriander, vanilla and anise the longer it sits in cellar.” She points out that the apple is called the “Snow White” apple because of its “white flesh and ebony skin.” By the time I finished reading her post, I knew that if I ever saw Arkansas Black apples I would have to buy them. And sure enough, a week or two later, at the Atwater Village Farmer’s Market, I found them in a bin. I felt like I won the lottery.
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October 28, 2013
How To Serve Guacamole On Halloween
My friends John and Michael hosted a Halloween party this weekend and everyone got a big kick out of how they served the guacamole (see above); they got the idea from Pinterest, so no one’s claiming it’s original, but it’s still a good one to use if you’re doing anything for Halloween this week. The party was a costume party and costumes were REQUIRED and, of course, I left it until the last minute to find mine. Here was the scene at Party City when I arrived on Saturday at 4….
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The Ultimate Five-Hour Meat Ragu
Gather ye round, friends, and hear the tale of a ragu that cooked for five hours, perking away on the stove as the many pieces of meat that went into it–lamb shoulder, pork ribs, short ribs–slowly broke down and contributed their fat and flavor to the tomatoes and onions and garlic that made up the sauce, along with a secret ingredient (anchovies) we best not tell our guests about. Unlike Sunday gravies that I’ve made before, this ragu–which comes from Canal House Cooking Volume No. 2–asks you, at the three hour mark, to shred the meat by hand and return it to the pot. What happens then is that the meat continues to break down over the next two hours, as the sauce thickens, and what you have at the end is something so remarkable, so utterly delicious, you may as well throw away any other ragu recipe you possess because there’s no topping this one.
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October 25, 2013
Olive Oil Omelet with Celery Caesar
File this under recipes to make Martha Stewart scoff. But on Saturday morning–this was last week–I looked deep into my fridge and deep into my soul and came up with the breakfast you see here. I’m actually pretty proud of it, mostly because it used up lots of ingredients I had lying around: garlic, parsley, anchovies, Parmesan, celery, eggs and olive oil. I wanted the omelet to reflect the flavors in the celery; I also liked the idea of the textural differences between those two things. So here’s how this all went down.
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October 24, 2013
October 23, 2013
The Clean Plate Club, Episode #13: Rebecca Lando, Jeffery Self
We’ve got two internet luminaries on our show this week: the first, Rebecca Lando, is co-creator of Working Class Foodies, the viral web show with a devoted following that’s recently become a handsome and useful cookbook from Gotham Books. Our other guest, Jeffery Self, played Liz Lemon’s nephew, Randy Lemon, on 30 Rock and co-starred with Cole Escola on Logo’s Jeffery and Cole Casserole. He’s also the author of Straight People: A Spotter’s Guide and 50 Shades of Gay. ALSO: he’s doing a live show tonight (October 23rd) here in L.A. at the Neon Venus Theater on Melrose at 8 PM (tickets $10). Go see him!
Dinner was five-hour meat ragu (recipe to come next week) and chocolate pear cake. Click ahead to see a picture of everyone at the table, a list of all the things we talk about, and some clips of Rebecca’s and Jeffery’s work.
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October 22, 2013
Whatever, Martha
Last week, Martha Stewart caused something of an uproar in the blogger community when she said, in an interview with Bloomberg TV: “Who are these bloggers? They’re not editors at Vogue magazine…I mean, there are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested, that aren’t necessarily very good, or are copies of everything that really good editors have created and done. So bloggers create kind of a popularity, but they are not the experts.”
She’s since backtracked; a wise move considering that her empire includes an entire network of bloggers with MARTHA STEWART plastered prominently on their pages. At first I was offended by her off-the-cuff remarks, now I’m mostly amused. This was a telling, unguarded moment for Martha and one that reflects the vintage, bespoke bubble she’s living in with her dogs in Connecticut.
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October 21, 2013
Al Di La’s Chocolate and Pear Cake
There are people in this world who can read the same book over and over again. That’s hard for me because I view my time on this earth much like Dorothy views the red sand in the Wicked Witch’s hourglass, constantly sifting downward until there’s nothing left. I almost never read the same book twice (though I did recently re-read Cooking For Mr. Latte but that’s only because I’d just finished reading We Need To Talk About Kevin and, after that, I needed something that made the world not seem like a festering black hole of misery and despair; though I do recommend that book, I do).
Anyway, I’m saying all this because I have a similar attitude about desserts. Almond Cake notwithstanding, why make the same dessert again and again when there are so many desserts out there for you to try? In case you haven’t noticed, I make a different dessert for almost every dinner party. Well, did. See everything’s changed now because I just discovered the recipe for Al Di La’s Chocolate and Pear Cake on Smitten Kitchen and it may be my new favorite go-to fall dessert. I’ve already made it twice.
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Soup of Cannellini Beans with Pasta and Rosemary
Well if the banner says it’s autumn, it’s autumn. So let’s make soup.
Soup really tests your cooking prowess because there’s always a way to make it taste better. Even if you’re not crazy about the results, you can fix them. For example: when Gina DePalma taught me how to make her lentil soup (which Smitten Kitchen featured on her blog) the key step was sizzling garlic in olive oil and stirring it in at the end. That’s the ultimate soup fixer-upper. Today’s soup comes to us from Chez Panisse Cooking and there’s a lot of flavor introduced up front so it doesn’t need much fixing at the end.
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It’s Autumn After All
At least my new banner thinks so! After my last post where I made a summery dish in October, it’s time for a seasonal intervention and what better way to do that than with an autumnal banner image by the brilliant Lindy Groening. It’s been a while since we rotated the banner–over a year, in fact–but the time has come to shake things up again. Thanks, Lindy, for doing such an awesome job. If any of you don’t see it yet, try clearing your cookies or opening the site in a different browser; don’t worry, it’ll kick in eventually. [See Lindy's previous work here.]
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