These are called Brussels sprouts, and unless you had some especially mean parents growing up, this might be your first time together. Even I, who had been force-fed green beans for the first 10 years of my life, never had to touch them because my dad hated them so much. I don't think I'm the only one. I've never seen them on a menu, and have never been confronted with them at a friends...
I (Blake) turned 24 yesterday and, in celebration, my girlfriend thought up and orchestrated a gorgeous meal of French provincial food. From the surf to the turf, we ate, drank, and otherwise acted like shameless hedonists. Since I'm groggy and barely awake this morning, and don't much feel like working very hard, I'll just put up some pictures and perhaps post the recipes some other time...
I had no idea. Abby and I are staring at this picture of skirt steak with string beans with mouths agape, salivating over the chance to make this fine meal , when we notice that nowhere in the ingredients are those beans listed. We double check, and then wonder what it was exactly that we were looking at. All they they had was something called haricot verts. "I'm not sure what that...
Every time I go to a grocery store and, while making my merry way down the produce aisle, I see leeks, a little jolt of suspicion and hesitation runs through me. My shoulders tense up a little, my eyes get shifty, and I keep walking. What are those giant, oversized green onions? What steroids have they been fed? Are they from a Jonathan Swift novel? And why do these arm-length veget...
On Sunday night, I was subconsciously looking for a kind of willing-the-weather-to-change activity. After a cool week of light sweaters and no sweating on the subway platform, Saturday and Sunday heralded the return of muggy weather, which was very unwelcome. The threat of rain provided sufficient justification for me to hole up and read and watch movies all weekend (save a trip to Bensonhu...
To make a grill week interesting, you have to move beyond the basic hamburger, steak, boneless skinless chicken breast, and the occasional fish. We've done steak twice before , and as we espoused during the Shake Shack Alternative week , we're not big fans of the charred-on-the-grill burger (naysayers and defenders, feel free to comment away). Leave that business to dad. So,...
It began when my friend Glen T. Tremaldi, who runs a community garden in Boerum Hill, informed me of his zucchini overstock. "You should see the zucchinis I picked. The size of your calves," he said. And he wasn't joking. They were the size of melons. Then he related something about a frozen rabbit that was bought some time ago from a butcher on Court St., who had divided it up into ser...
High heat has its positives and negatives, but one thing for sure is that it definitely tastes much different than whatever the Joy of Cooking will throw at you.
In fact, one of the only downsides is that this recipe is easy to the point of being rather boring. For the busy this is a godsend, but we cooked it with some much more challenging melting potatoes , that upped the ante on the fat...
Step 1: Find a Spanish Man.
Step 2: Find a Spanish Ham.
Preferably, a wildly handsome Spanish friend with a hunk of Spanish ham that his mother sent him. Jorge had looks. And he had the ham. What follows is an evening of many, many stages that included overcoming fears of anchovies, quail eggs, and two romantic party members who ate their share, doted on each other, and c...