American Classics. After a wild ride last week, the New York Times' Dining Section is back with a focus on some all-American favorites: brownies, grilled cheese, and meatloaf. What recipe from this week's issue are you most likely to try?
Simple Pleasure, American Style: Julia Moskin questions the American "fetish" for overly chocolate-y desserts. She explores this history of brownies -- with nods to Cathy comic strips, Diane Von Furstenberg, and roasted garlic along the way. With recipes for: Supernatural Brownies, French Chocolate Brownies (from Dori Greenspan's excellent new baking cookbook), and New Classic Brownies.
The Chocolate Bar Makes a Difference: What to look for when buying chocolate for baking.
Taking Back a Childhood Favorite: Melissa Clark has new ideas for grilled cheese, including Salami and Horseradish Cheddar Bagel Sandwich and Comté Grilled Cheese With Cornichon Spread.
PLUS...
• Meatloaf Made Meatier: The Minimalist suggests a "company supper" version of meatloaf he calls country pate. He suggests buying pork and veal shoulder, cutting it into chunks, and then using the food processor to grind it. Has anyone ever tried something like this?
• Eggman: A video slideshow about the brunch classic Eggs Benedict.
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Comments (8)
I am definitely eyeing the brownie recipes.
wild horses couldn't keep me from trying that cornichon spread.... and with comte? I can't believe I never thought about that myself.
Ann and Laura -- BINGO. I was going to write that, for me, it's a race between the French brownies and the cornichon spread for me. I'm LOLing that you two picked up on the same two recipes.
Any particular brand/store for cornichons?
I'm tempted by the brownie recipe, but I'm more likely to make the grilled cheese for lunch today. :)
Meatloaf will have to be next week's recipe. Tonight I'm whipping up a hefty casserole of potatoes, green beans, and ham out of Easter leftovers.
That meatloaf (country paté) recipe explains what I've seen at local grocery stores -- trio packs containing ground beef, pork and veal. I could never figure out what you'd do with three kinds of ground meat...
My grandmother in PA buys those trio packs to make cabbage rolls (aka halupkies in her region). Apparently, the trio is considered a standard meatloaf mix, but I've never ever seen them sold in my local grocery stores in TX.
I made a variant on the grilled cheese for lunch using what I had in my fridge. I chopped up some Queso Mahon, ham, and pickle, and mixed that up with some mayo and mustard. Mmm mmm.
Has anyone ground up meat in the food processor for meatloaf like the Minimalist's recipe suggests?
gochrisgo,
My mom would chop pork butt in the food processor all the time. She'd cut it into chunks no more than 2" square first, and would always be stopping the machine to mix the bigger pieces back into blade range. Large quantities were done in batches, so there wouldn't be big chunks added to fully chopped meat.