My previous record was three. Today:
Cooks Illustrated this month has an article on frying potatoes in cold oil. That is, you throw the cut taters into a pan with cold oil, then turn on the heat. CI claims the resulting fries will absorb less oil (ask me if I care) than the traditional two-step frying process. But are they better?
My subscription to CI goes back to 1993. I used to be a big fan of their spare-no-effort process for coming up with the best recipes. But at some point a few years ago, they began cutting corners to appeal to a wider audience who would rather not go to so much effort. Lately, I think they have steered a course back towards the original rigor.
So yesterday I cooked up some fries using the cold-oil method with some ruby reds that were getting a little old. The fries were served with grilled rib-eye on a fennel and sweet pepper roll with onion marmalade. Were they better tasting? No. Were they as good. YES! Were they easier to make? Much easier. Isn’t it strange how we will stick with complex methods based on conventional wisdom when simpler can be better. File this one under “Why didn’t I try that a million years ago?”
My dislike of single-purpose gadgets seems to be waning. The Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper is one of those few gadgets that really does deserve space in my kitchen drawer. A family member is having dental work done and is unable to gnaw the kernels off the cob. This gadget is perfect!
Other kernel removal devices, such as the OXO Good Grips Corn Stripper solve the problem of bits flying all over the kitchen. But the OXO doesn’t seem to be very sharp (by design) so lots of the kernels get broken (which you may want for creamed corn) and you can’t easily control the depth of the cut.
The Corn Zipper does a beautiful job on both raw and cooked corn. No corn juice or kernels all over the kitchen. You get mostly whole kernels as close to the cob as you want.
I’ve had this book, Eat Dangerously
I’ve never been a big fan of biscuits, but my wife considers them an essential breakfast staple. I’ve tried through the years to help her relive the biscuits of her youth and have consistently failed with all kinds of scratch recipes and mixes- too dense, too flakey, too sweet, too tall, too flat, too hard, too too ….
This week I received some varieties of biscuit mix from Pioneer. Made the buttermilk ones today and finally, yes finally, got a “just right”. I also used the same mix for a batch of pancakes. Now, I am very, very proud of my made-from-scratch buttermilk pancakes based on a recipe from Marion Cunningham. Guess what? These were better. And easier. And probably less expensive. Just add milk and eggs.
Roughly based on a recipe in Thai Food, by David Thompson (one of my favorite books), this duck curry blew my socks off with the combination of intense, but delicate, flavors with an intoxicating balance of sweet, salty, spicy, and greasy. Ingredients included:
You can imagine how the house smelled while all this was cooking. Tasted even better!