Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 97
March 12, 2012
How To Turn Leftover Chicken Into A Tasty Soup
One benefit of making a complicated, classic dish like bouillabaisse, as I did last week, is that the process of making it becomes its own version of cooking school. You follow the steps but as you do so, you learn things. For example: making a fumet (or fish stock) may be labor-intensive but your efforts pay off later when that highly flavored broth is poured in with the tomatoes and onions and fish and takes your bouillabaisse over the moon. Why couldn't I apply a similar strategy with leftover chicken and leftover chicken carcasses? Last week, that's precisely what I did.
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March 9, 2012
The Salted Caramel Latte
Leave it to Nancy Silverton to come up with an idea that's so absolutely brilliant it deserves fireworks or a parade but that's simply presented without any fanfare or fuss. If her new bakery, Short Order, were a Starbucks, you'd see signs all over the place advertising the Salted Caramel Latte. As it stands, you sort of have to discover it for yourself–it's there on the menu, below the mocha and the vanilla bean and across from Aunt Nancy's Shakerato–but it's not highlighted or underlined in anyway.
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March 7, 2012
An Imaginative Feast By Food Prodigy Andy Windak (Mac 'n' Cheese Stuffed Ravioli! Coq au Vin Chilaquiles!) & A Roasted Feast By Cookbook Hero Molly Stevens
I don't follow sports, but I know that there are these people called scouts who go around to minor league events and look for future stars to recruit to the majors. Well, I never considered myself much of a chef scout, but that all changed on Sunday when food blogger Andy Windak–of the food blog The Wind Attack–invited us over for dinner. I was wary of this 25 year-old who talked a big game the first few times that I met him (he said something about marinated yucca blossoms) but what I didn't realize was that he was the real deal: a self-taught, self-motivated prodigy who works wonders in the kitchen.
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March 6, 2012
Lindsey Shere's Legendary Almond Tart
I suppose I must really like a challenge because, on the night that I made the bouillabaisse, I also attempted a famously difficult dessert: Lindsey Shere's Almond Tart.
Lindsey Shere, in case you don't know, helped open Chez Panisse in 1971 and stayed there as pastry chef until 1998. I first heard about her famous almond tart on my trip to San Francisco in 2007; I think it was at a place called Jojo in Oakland, with my friends Derrick and Melissa, that I first heard tell about it. The word "legendary" might've been applied.
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A Dickensian Banner
Did you know that I was in "Oliver" twice in my life? First as Oliver in my 5th grade production and then as Fagan in 7th grade. It wasn't until after college, though, that I read my first Dickens novel ("Bleak House," for the record) and became an instant fan. This month I said to Lindy, "What if we do a banner in the style of a Dickens illustration?" And being the talented person that she is, she came up with the banner you see above. I consider myself lucky to have her.
March 5, 2012
Bouillabaisse! A French Seafood Odyssey At Home
Certain recipes are so complicated, so expensive, and so high-stakes that they become, for adventurous home cooks, the equivalent of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or sailing a boat around the world.
Bouillabaisse is that sort of recipe. Originating from Marseille (in France), bouillabaisse–at least, the authentic kind–asks you to make your own fish stock (with fish bones that you have to collect from a fish purveyor), to use that stock to flavor bread for a rouille (an emulsion of garlic, egg yolks, the soaked bread and a roasted red pepper and tomato), to marinate fish in a mixture of white wine, Pernod and saffron, to form a soup base with chopped leeks, onions, tomatoes and white wine, and finally to cook the marinated fish (which, if you buy it fresh, will be expensive) in the soup (made with the stock) along with mussels and clams just enough so nothing overcooks. Yes: that's a lot of work but then the results speak for themselves. When I made this last week, our dinner guests swooned over their bowls of bouillabaisse–there were actual groans of pleasure at the table–and I'd easily list it as one of my greatest culinary triumphs. Here's how the whole odyssey began.
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March 1, 2012
Cook Bouillabaisse and An Almond Tart Along With Me (Live!)
Live Video app for Facebook by Ustream
On a whim, I decided to hook up my computer in my kitchen and in a few minutes I'll be cooking an elaborate dinner of Bouillabaisse and Lindsey Shere's almond tart. If you want to follow along live, either watch above or click here to join the live chat. Once the cooking's over, I'll delete this post and this whole experience will be our little secret!
Spago
If you've read your "United States of Arugula" (and, really, everyone should), you're well aware that the age of the celebrity chef–an age we're still enduring–may very well have had its start here in Los Angeles at a restaurant called Spago. The chef, of course, is Wolfgang Puck and on the night that I ate there with my family (including my aunt and uncle and cousin, who were visiting) there was Chef Puck himself making the rounds, going table to table–this was two days before the Academy Awards–smiling his movie star smile and making everyone feel welcome.
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Waiter Don't Take My Plate Away (The Essay)
February 28, 2012
Waiter, Don't Take My Plate Away
Back in the old days of my blog, I used to write Thursday Night Dinner Songs. Those files went missing, I got older and more self-conscious, and the days of food related songs on my blog were over. But tonight I Tweeted that I wanted to write a country song called: "Waiter, Don't Take My Plate Away" (because so many servers take our plates away before we're finished) and was surprised to see it get ReTweeted many, many times. So then I thought: "What if I actually write it?" I sat down at the piano, took out a notepad, and created the song you can hear up above. A few notes: (1) sorry that you can see up my nostrils; (2) sorry that I turn blue every few seconds; (3) yes, it sounds like Dolly Parton's "Why'd You Come In Here Looking Like That?"; and (4) I know I'm not a great singer, which is why I'd love for you to record your own version of the song….
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