Recipe Review

We aren’t really whizzes with a pastry bag. In fact, we don’t own one. But we think we could get this look using a plastic bag with the corner snipped off. These dots don’t have to be too precise, or even the same size, to be charming…Polka dots are just cute; there’s no way around that. Dots of varying sizes all over a layer cake is simple enough to do, and they can hide imperfections in your icing (if, say, you have a few crumbs that got rustled up).

Have you ever gone digging for clams? We’ve always wanted to, and Megan’s post on her blog Not Martha makes us want to even more! Check out a few more of her clam-digging pictures after the jump…Regulations for clam digging (and other shellfish) vary from state to state, but it’s usually a simple process of acquiring a permit and then following the rules for number of clams per day and per person.

Two ingredients. That’s it. Well, if you want to be a stickler and count salt and pepper and a touch of olive oil, it’s five. OK, and water makes six. But the oil method is optional, so we’re back to five again but really, it’s two ingredients. Potatoes and leeks. Two of the most humble ingredients, plus the simple alchemy of simmering water, come together to make one utterly blissful, satisfying soup. Read on for the recipe.You can do anything to this soup.

Knoblauchcremesuppe! Say that eight times fast. It’s actually a very simple thing, and it’s quite deserving of our soup of the day. Creamy garlic soup, an Austrian favorite.This soup is so simple and easy: just some onion and garlic, a little flour and a little milk. Toasted bread croutons and ta-da! Dinner. Sweet and simple.• Get the recipe: Knoblauchcremesuppe (garlic soup) at Dinner for OneHave a great soup recipe? Email us here if you have a recipe and photo to share.

Two months ago I started a ratafia. What’s a ratafia? Well, it’s a simple liqueur made from fruit steeped in alcohol. Or, as reader Bx put it, BOOZE FROOT.Want to hear how it turned out?Here’s the original post with the recipe:• Quince Ratafia: How To Make Fruit LiqueurI shredded a couple of quince fruit (delicious, heavenly things) and let them sit in a jar of pure vodka along with some sugar and a pinch of spices.

We mentioned this recipe a couple weeks ago in our roundup, but we just made these muffins again and we had to report back on how easy, fast, and good these are.We found this recipe for zucchini muffins at Simply Recipes earlier this fall, and we’ve made them several times since. We like this recipe because it calls for oil or melted butter, instead of creamed butter and sugar. This makes them easy to whip up in just one bowl, without a mixer.We also love how flexible they are.

This photo, and everything about the accompanying recipe, too, makes our mouths water. Eating light doesn’t mean avoiding meat entirely; protein is still essential, and chicken thighs are a frugal, tasty way to put it in your diet. But you do still want to avoid heavy sauces and lots of fat, which is where we come back to this recipe.The recipe is simple. Brown a pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Then create a base sauce with some shallots, garlic, dry mustard, and wine.

Here’s what happened. Kim says: For our New Year’s dinner, I impressed our friends (and myself) with an amazing menu. But what impressed me the most was something completely accidental. Rewind to our Christmas Eve dinner… … I’d stuffed a hen with onions, orange wedges, thyme, sage, and rosemary, and I had a few leftover orange wedges. I put them in the roasting pan with the bite-sized creamer potatoes just to see how they would turn out. Surprise!

Here is a very, very last-minute food gift that takes literally five minutes to make, and yet everyone you share it with will love it (and you). Too good to be true? No — it’s just chocolate-dipped pretzels.The other very nice thing about this pretzel project is that it is quite inexpensive. All you need are pretzel rods, chocolate chips or another chocolate good for melting, and some sprinkles or coarse sugar.Here are a few tips for making these salty-sweet treats.

What is the state of the American cookie? Three food writers, Dorie Greenspan, David Leibovitz, and Sara Dickerman discuss the definition of a cookie, what makes a cookie American, and chunky vs. thin.This roundtable discussion, conducted leisurely via email and published at Slate, yields a wealth of fascinating cookie topics near and dear to bakers’ hearts. Underbaking and overbaking, the role of nostalgia in cookie preferences, the ritualistic habits of cookie-eating (childlike, perhaps?

Getting rid of lingering food odors is a constant challenge for home cooks. We’ve tried candles and open windows (even in winter) and simmering pots of vinegar. Here’s one more trick to add to our list from Stephanie O’Dea of A Year of CrockPotting!Stephanie’s technique is to mix a few tablespoons of baking soda with water in the bowl of a crockpot or slow cooker. Set the crockpot in whichever room is most in need of a little freshening and set it to LOW with the lid off.

Whether you’re planning on making candy for the holidays or want to make your own candy in general, it’s a great idea. Candymaking is both economical and fun, and since you’re choosing your own ingredients, you know exactly what’s going into it. You can easily make your own organic, low-sugar candy without additives and preservatives. In this post, we’ll share a recipe for making your own peppermint patties. You’ll never buy them at a store again!

Looking for one more dish for Thanksgiving, or maybe a first course appetite-teaser? Maybe you should try this dish of pumpkin ravioli from chef Salvatore Corea of New York City’s Alloro. This is a very fun dish; we love pumpkin ravioli, and the sauces that accompany the pasta here are deceptively easy.Alloro is an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side – thank you to chef Salvatore Corea for this delicious dish! We’ll be trying it out soon.

Oden is a hearty Japanese stew that is cooked over several days and commonly served during cold winter months. It’s pretty easy to make and most ingredients can be found online or in Japanese supermarkets. It’s got a wonderful, savory flavor and contains an odd melange of ingredients like yam, taro, fish cake, hard boiled eggs, and mushrooms. Even though those food combinations might seem odd to Westerners, oden is a delicious dish that should be tried.

Have you heard of the vodka pie crust recipe? It made big news in the baking world when Cook’s Illustrated first published it last fall. Half of the pie dough’s moisture comes from vodka, which is 40% pure alcohol. The alcohol doesn’t promote gluten formation, so it helps the crust stay much flakier and more tender – a foolproof help to those of us who tend to overwork our pie dough.So, how does this pie dough work? Is the unconventional addition of vodka worth it?

Still thinking about what to serve on Halloween tomorrow? How about this? Dorie Greenspan calls it a “recipe in progress.” We call it yum…This dish certainly has a wow factor—a whole pumpkin stuffed with bread, cheese, garlic, and heavy cream, baked until creamy and bubbly. We frequently see small pumpkins that are stuffed and served individually, but with this one, everyone slices or digs in to the same big gourd.Dorie admits that the measurements are rough.

A pipérade is a Basque dish made with tomatoes, peppers, Bayonne ham, and piment d’espeletteThis dish is very quick and versatile, and hearty. I think Aida Mollenkamp’s recipe here is closest to the most authentic style.

What’s going on this week over at Serious Eats? Well, there’s this bread and tomato soup, and it looks pretty mouthwatering. This and more in our weekly wrap-up of the best cooking this week at Serious Eats.• Dinner Tonight: Bread and Tomato Soup – A thrifty peasant classic – pappa al pomodoro. Uses stale bread and fresh tomatoes, a winning combination.• Apple brandy for autumn – A discussion of Calvados and other apple brandies.

We have a trustworthy method for making sweet and spicy acorn squash, but there’s one downside: it’s slow. So we perked up when we saw this alternate method from Alicia and Summer at Bread & Honey.They used a Martha Stewart recipe – such a simple formula, really – and sliced the acorn squash before baking. They dotted each slice with butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and then put them in the oven.

We recently linked to a gingerbread-pear cake in our daily Delicious Links, and lo and behold, we found ourselves with that very same cake in the oven a few nights later. We wanted, you see, to give you a personal opinion.I have a Thing for gingerbread. Gingerbread cookies and gingerbread men – crispy, soft, and chewy – all kinds. Gingerbread lattes, gingerbread bread pudding – mmm, sometimes.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to cook squid, here’s a good introductory recipe. Ojingo bokum is a dish of sauteed squid and vegetables in a spicy sauce. The flavors are savory and the dish is very filling.

Dana’s post last week on cavalo nero kale reminded me that we’re in ribollita season. Ribollita is a simple, earthy Tuscan soup made from whatever vegetable scraps and stale bread is on hand, and is eaten in the fall and winter months.The word “ribollita” means “reboiled” and is used to refer to this soup because it requires a lot of cooking to get the right flavor and texture. It’s very hearty and filling, and keeps you warm in the winter.

It’s the first day of fall, and fall is high pie season for us. Sara Kate has already shared her favorite pie plate and a great sour cream pie crust recipe. But we also love this recipe from Martha Stewart for Pâte Brisée, a fancy name for a very basic French pie dough. It’s our go-to for pie crust. We use it all the time.

I had a jar of kimchi that was a little over a month old. At that point it’s got a little tang in it and doesn’t taste as good as fresh kimchi. It’s still edible, though, and is best used for stews and other cooked dishes.So, I decided to make soondubu jjigae, which translates to “soft tofu kimchi stew.” A jjigae is a savory, hearty Korean stew. There are many varieties of jjigae using various ingredients.

We know this is the second Gourmet videothree timesAccording to food editor Ian Knauer, who demonstrates the technique in the video, this is how they juice citrus in Mexico. You can watch Knauer juice two lemons, sliced different ways, and then measure the juice. The lemon sliced crosswise — the way most people naturally cut it — yields about two tablespoons of juice. The one sliced lengthwise yields 1/3 cup.

We’re not exactly going to win a medal for figuring this one out, but still. We’ve eaten this simple, creamy, peppery dish several times at Cafe Gitane in New York City (for breakfast as well as an appetizer at dinner) and finally made it at home…We don’t know the restaurant’s exact preparation, but the bread is always a thick, nutty whole grain and there’s a kicker — a big sprinkling of red pepper flakes over the top of the mashed-up avocado.

Looking for a new way to enjoy this sweet and earthy vegetable, a friend suggested we try pickling! Now that we’ve tried it, we may just need a jar of pickled beets on-hand 24/7 to satisfy our craving.Read our review of Alton Brown’s recipe for pickled beets after the jump…For our first venture into pickling, we wanted a simple, straightforward recipe that we could potentially use as a base for future variations. Alton Brown’s recipe from his Beet It!

Now that we’ve got our ice cream makers churning away this month, we’re looking for fun ways to play with the results. Mochi ice cream balls have popped up everywhere from swanky restaurant dessert menus to the freezer case at Trader Joe’s.But why not make a batch of your own?

Readers, we’re going to let you in on a little secret. This stuff tastes like Pinkberry…We watched cookbook author Patricia Wells make this yogurt sorbet for Ina Garten on an episode of Barefoot Contessa and thought, “Really? That’s it?”It was one of the first things we made when we bought our ice cream maker, and we proceeded to make it again and again until we got sick of it. But this summer, we’re getting reacquainted.

Looks pretty good, right?Alas, this loaf made from Local Breads by Daniel Leader fell far short of our hopes and expectations. Read on for the whole saga…This country boule started the night before with a liquid levain, one type of preferment commonly used for sourdoughs. We used our own starter instead of making a new one following Leader’s instructions. After examining his recipe and ours, they both seemed to result in the same liquid-to-flour ratio.

I grew up in Florida and Georgia. Now I live in California, where some things related to Southern cooking are hard to find. Unripe green tomatoes for frying aren’t sold in the supermarkets; to obtain them, one has to go to the farmer’s markets and hope one of the tomato vendors has some unripe green ones, or one has to grow their own.Another thing, Californians seem confused as to what “green tomatoes” are.

Every summer, we anxiously await the arrival of squash blossoms so we can make one of our favorite dishes: fried squash blossoms.It’s a little time-consuming to prepare as you have to carefully remove the pistil from the center of the flower without ripping the delicate petals, but the work involved is worth it. I first had fried squash blossoms when I lived in Italy. In Italy, they’re usually dipped in batter and fried, and then served with salt and pepper.

James Oliver Cury has a list of the top ten weirdest recipe names he’s come across in his work at Epicurious. We agreed that some were odd; others not so much – but we’re curious about your own weird recipe names. He says: Some catch my eye because they sound so delicious. Others force a double-take thanks to the name alone. “Ugly but Good” cookies? What’s the advantage of making that?

Like an ant to the picnic, we couldn’t resist trying out another bread recipe from Daniel Leader’s book, Local Breads, this past weekend.We had such success making baguettes last time, so we thought we’d try another straight dough recipe. We decided on Ricotta Bread, a basic yeast bread–no sourdoughs or starters–enriched with milk and ricotta cheese. Yum!The dough was pretty sticky at first and difficult to work with.

Yesterday we took a “Hot or Not” vote on flag cakes (at the time we’re writing this, it’s pretty much a tie), and then we saw this smaller, round version. Just as festive, but not quite as kitschy. We vote “hot.”See another photo, without the raspberries, below…In the interest of full disclosure, our (Elizabeth’s) sister made this cake. So call us biased.

Recently we bought a package of dried fava beans and made this delicious recipe that goes back thousands of years in Egypt.Ful medammes is a dish made of fava beans marinated in lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil. The dish is a popular street food in Egypt and is traditionally served for breakfast, smeared on pita bread slices with some hard boiled eggs. It’s very flavorful and filling.Recipe:1 lb. dried fava beans3/4 clove garlic, chopped3 tbsp olive oil1/4 c. lemon juice3/4 tsp.

We had a free afternoon this past weekend and thought we’d try out the baguette recipe from Local Breads, Daniel Leader’s latest book on bread baking.Leader says that he didn’t include this recipe in his first book because he thought it was “too simple.” In putting together this book, he realized that “its accessibility accounts for its charm.”Well. We’ll see about that!

With the weather turning warmer, we find ourselves turning to lighter meals and nibbles. Healthy dips and spreads such as muhammara are finding their way onto our plates more often in recent weeks.Another benefit of dips and spreads is they can be used as a substitute for less-healthy toppings such as butter, cream, hollandaise sauces, and other high-fat sauces and accompaniments. Try using hummus in place of mayonnaise in a sandwich, or experiment with covering a grilled steak with guacamole.

Look at this! It may be the most perfect peanut butter jar ever. Instead of all those curvy unreachable corners, and a bottom that keeps the last bits of precious peanut butter away from your groping spoon, this jar has a couple of distinct advantages. Can you spot them?Designed by Sherwood Forlee, this Easy PB&J Jar has not one but TWO lids. Take the bottom lid off to scrape the peanut butter jar ultra clean.

We came across this strange yet sensible tip over at the blog Domestigeek, and we’re curious if anyone has tried it! Since you get the best and crispiest chicken skin when the chicken has been thoroughly dried, this does make sense…When we roast a chicken we usually pat it dry and then salt it and put it in the fridge, a la the Zuni method.

So, we have a new salad that we are absolutely crazed over. We ate it for dinner last weekend; we ate it for dinner last night, and, guess what? We’re eating it for lunch today! And it’s nothing special – just an old potluck chestnut. But for good reason…This salad is a simple alchemy of shaved raw cabbage, sesame seeds, scallions and roasted almonds, with a dressing of oil, rice vinegar, a little sugar, and soy sauce. That’s it! It takes five minutes to make.

We consider ourselves hearty dessert eaters. We rarely say, “Oh, I just want a bite of something sweet.” We get seconds.But this dessert from Martha Stewart, which we featured on April Fool’s Day, was so rich we almost had to lie down and unbutton our pants…And oh how silky and delicious it was.Like our popular recipe for Coffee Fluff, this Rhubarb Fool is basically a serving of heavy whipped cream — with a ribbon of sweet, puréed rhubarb running through it.

We mentioned on Friday that we were planning on cooking this recipe from Epicurious: Chinese Broccoli With Sausage And Polenta. We made this on Saturday and we and our dinner companion were quite enraptured.It’s a very basic and easy one-bowl meal, though, and we were surprised at how quickly it came together. You just cook polenta, stirring occasionally, then fry up some smoked, spicy sausage and some bitter greens and pile them on top of the deliciously creamy polenta.

These might look like Easter eggs, but actually they’re a traditional treat for Passover. We asked NYC caterer and culinary consultant Sierra Spingarn to share the family recipe for Huevos Haminados.Since observant Jews refrain from doing work on the Sabbath, they employ techniques for slow-cooked foods that can be started Friday afternoon, and still be hot on their table. This year, as Passover begins on Saturday night, these techniques will come in especially handy.

Remember Magic Shell, that thin chocolate sauce that you pour over ice cream? It “magically” hardens in a matter of seconds into a waxy layer of hard chocolate. It’s junk food, and we love it. We don’t love the trans-fats and mysterious ingredients, though, so it’s a good thing you can easily make it yourself…Jocelyn at Brownie Points explains how just melted chocolate and coconut oil together make Magic Shell, DIY-version.

Our favorite April Fools Day food tricks are more nice than naughty – the classic idea of serving foods that look like other foods. You’ve probably seen the meatloaf “iced” with mashed potatoes to look like a cake. Maybe you’ve even seen mashed potatoes and gravy in a parfait glass, mounded up to look like a butterscotch sundae.This year, we were looking for a new trick to truly fool our favorite people. Did we fool you?

At the Alemany Farmer’s Market right now we’re seeing a lot of cardoons in season. Cardoons are closely related to – and taste very much like – artichokes. Why is this vegetable not well-known, then?Cardoons are high-maintenance vegetables. They look like very large hearts of celery, but have thorns in the stalks, so handle with care. The stalks are not solid like celery, and are semi-hollow and stringy.

One of the things we like most about our friends over at Serious Eats is their unfailing eye for a delicious photo. This one above, of Ham, Brie, and Apple French Toast Panini from Serious Eats’ Cook the Book expedition through Panini Express looks so good that we want to go make one now. But then, how can you really go wrong with ham, brie, and brioche?More Serious Eats below, including another great photo of croissant innards, heart-shaped cucumbers, knorks, and caramel popcorn cupcakes.

We’re packing for a flight tomorrow, and of course that packing includes a snack to make the hours in the air more palatable. Inspired by Saveur’s March theme of butter, we washed some radishes, spooned some artisanal butter into a disposable container, and bagged up a bit of sea salt.Tomorrow, just when the flight seems intolerable, we’ll take a bite of peppery radish, slather on some cooling butter and add a little extra crunch with the salt.

Photo by Allen of Eating Out LoudWe love spaetzle and we often make our airy, tender Ricotta Spaetzle for dinner. We’ve never thought of them as breakfast food, but now we suddenly do…Spaetzle are tiny German dumplings – not much more than flour, eggs, and water. They can be made orzo-tiny by pushing the batter through a ricer or special spaetzle-maker. Or they can be made, as we prefer them, by pushing thumb-sized lumps of batter off the end of a teaspoon.

Since coffee is our big thing this week, we reached back into the archives over at Serious Eats to see what our friends there had to say about coffee. We found good stuff – it looks like they need their java jolt too. Our favorite find was this cup, labeled the “Ultimate Coffee Cup” by its creator… • Artist David Piers created this cup to meet his criteria for the perfect, ultimate coffee cup.

Remember the big to-do over Jessica Seinfeld’s new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious? She sneaks pureed carrots, spinach and broccoli into foods that kids will eat, like mac and cheese and meatballs. The approach was wildly controversial, judging from the comments on our original post.We asked if anyone had actually tried it, and Darlene from my burning kitchen wrote us to say that she had. What did she think of Seinfeld’s vegetable concoctions?

Our friend Michael of Herbivoracious (and of that splendid spicy chickpea stew) tells us, to our surprise, that bacon salt is both vegetarian and vegan! To demonstrate, he makes a vegan Farro with Collard Greens and Bacon Salt.More thoughts below…Like Michael we try to avoid artificial seasonings, but if any of you are going vegan for the New Year (permanently or temporarily) and need a way to ease off that meaty diet of the holidays, this might be helpful.

Let’s stand up for the baby pattypan. The baby pattypan has its own unique crown shape and an olive-oil like flavor that cries out for attention. While baby pattypans can work in recipes created for zucchini or yellow summer squash, we’ve been hunting all summer for recipes that were created just for the little pattypans. Isn’t it a shame to slice them up when their shape is so perfect on the plate? Until this weekend, we hadn’t had much luck in our recipe hunt.

One of our favorite dessert party tricks is phyllo cups. You can buy those little phyllo cups, pre-shaped and crimped, out of the freezer at the grocery store. But you can get far more out of a regular package of phyllo, and it doesn’t take long to make cups in the size you want. Once baked these can be filled easily and creatively with all sorts of good things – raspberries and cream, chocolate mousse, whipped blue cheese with bacon crumbles.