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 Chocolate & Zucchini
Clotilde Dusoulier
  
Beef Kidneys with Ceps and Onions
Squeamish eaters, avert your eyes, and let me direct you here, here, or perhaps here. For the others, those who don't blanch at the mere mention of the words "tripe" or "beef tongue," those who own a dog-eared copy of the nose-to-tail bible* or have it on their wishlist, here is the dish I made last weekend with the beef kidneys I'd bought from my organic butcher - an entirely uneventful visit this time, 100% free of any impulse to punch anyone.
Washington Post
Food & Dining
He Eats, Shoots, Then Leaves
Oh, God. They hired a comedian (Food Network, "Have Fork, Will Travel") to go around the world making fun of people's accents. I (Anthony Bourdain) caught 15 minutes of the show. He described bouillabaisse as "really fishy fish." It's like hiring Roberto Benigni, very slapstick. How many cultures can you offend in one series? It's unspeakably awful. ...Of course, this will work in reverse: Wrap hairballs and [expletive] in a McDonald's wrapper, and say, "Look at what the smelly clown gave you! You know, Ronald, the one with cooties?"
Passionate Cook
Johanna Wagner
Coming in from the Cold...
...who said student life was wonderful and easy and the best years of your life? and where are the legendary parties, the staying up until the wee hours in the morning? Although I can do without the crap drinks that gave us unnecessary headaches and I quite enjoy the fact that I am eating confit de canard and truffled potato mash rather than a buttered toast day in day out!...
Vinography
Alder Yarrow
Don't Throw Out All That St. Emilion!
I know it's too late for some of you. You've already thrown out all that St. Emilion wine that used to be Grand Cru at one point, but which was turned into worthless, unclassified Bordeaux eight months ago. But for those of you who haven't divested yourself of all that pedestrian plonk, I have some good news. Can you hear the collective sighs of relief from status conscious winegrowers and collectors around the world? It's now back to being great wine again. I know I am going to sleep easier tonight.
Simply Recipes
Elise Bauer
Cranberries!
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Splendid Table
American Public Media
Happy Thanksgiving
This week it's our annual Thanksgiving show. We're bringing you a line up of experts for a look at why we eat what we eat on this day. Chef Jonathan Waxman, author of A Great American Cook, tells how he and his little daughter lay out the feast. His recipe for Apple and Chicken Liver Mousse is to die for and guaranteed to keep hungry relatives at bay while the turkey cooks.
Cooks Illustrated
Current Issue
In This Issue
New York Times Magazine
Style Section
The Way We Eat: The Sweet Hereafter
Taste memory is purely subjective. "I feel now a lot of these French desserts were very bland," she says. "It would be sugary and creamy with a little hint of flavor. I made them a little more flavorful, a little less milquetoasty. Even in the coffee crunch cake, I made the whipped cream into coffee whipped cream." And while there are nods to medieval red wine jellies and Antonin Carême's soufflé Rothschild circa 1820, in the end, Monaghan (Lost Desserts) stuck with what she liked. And that meant nothing with suet. "I didn't need it to be that authentic," she says with a laugh. "I'm sure suet is fine, it's just not my favorite thing. It was very personally driven, it's my book, and I decided, you know, I don't need to bring suet back."
Traveler's Lunchbox
Melissa Kronenthal
Oh, Fall
You might be thinking that making the pasta itself out of chestnuts sounds awfully avant garde, but it's actually a preparation that goes back hundreds of years, to a time when wheat was a rare and expensive commodity in the mountainous areas where chestnut trees grew rampant. By drying and grinding the abundant nuts, the region's poor discovered a virtually cost-free starch they could used in cakes, bread, polenta, and of course this, a sturdy, flavorful, subtly-sweet pasta that is equally at home under a thin blanket of melted butter and parmesan as it is standing up to a gutsy mushroom sauce.
David Lebovitz
David Lebovitz
Chocolate FAQ's
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Smitten Kitchen
Deb Smitten
Pie Crust 101
At their very base, they're all just some type of solid fat (butter, shortening or lard) cut with powdery ingredients (flour, sometimes salt and sugar) bound with a liquid (usually water, but some folks get creative with milk, cream, buttermilk or vodka), and I'm amused that every year, so many cooking publications feel a need to pronounce that By Golly, They've Got It! They've found the perfect pie dough. In my mind, it was never lost.
Orangette
Molly Wizenberg
A Great Relief
Then there was the winter squash gratin from Julia Child's The Way to Cook. I'd never made a gratin with béchamel - usually just milk or cream - but this was Julia, right? I love Julia. And butternut squash! And gruyère! It would be rich! It would be gooey! A Thankgiving homerun! You see where this is going. It too was only so-so: strange and slippery on the tongue, and with next to no flavor. It was like butternut squash with the volume turned down. It was wasted groceries, basically, and why oh why did I do that, and oh, what the hell, let's have ice cream for dinner.
New York Times
Dining and Wine
The Secret? It's Not the Potatoes
Starting with hot, dry potatoes and hot butter emerged as one of the two crucial steps toward mashed potato success. It should take no more than two minutes to reach the fluffy mountains stage. A brief, efficient mashing keeps the potatoes from turning gummy. After mashing, taste. A common cause of dull potatoes is undersalting; a potato can absorb a remarkable amount of salt before it starts to taste seasoned. Be openhanded with salt and butter but stingy with milk, which will flatten out the bright, earthy potato taste. Stop mixing, though, as soon as the potatoes are creamy enough. Beating the potatoes into submission does not make them any smoother; they can quickly edge into the dreaded library-paste style.
The Minimalist
Mark Bittman - New York Times
More Gravy? It's Nice to Have Options
First of all, you can make the gravy the night before - or most of it, anyway. Start with a good strong stock, one you have made well in advance, preferably with roasted meat, a few aromatic vegetables and a bay leaf or two. Then make a roux, heating butter and flour together until they darken. Whisk the stock into the roux until it's thick, then refrigerate. Gravy made this way will hold perfectly. When you are ready to serve, just reheat it. If you like, add some of the scraped-up brown bits from the bottom of the roasting pan, or the giblets. Presto! Gravy without hassle.
101 Cookbooks
Heidi Swanson
Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts Recipe
You end up with vibrant green, tender brussels sprouts that become deeply golden and crusty where they touch the pan. I then lightly dust the whole pan with cheese and serve. This time of year it's not unusual for us to cook them like this two or three times a week. I was a brussels sprout hater for most of my life. Boiled brussels sprouts? No thanks. This is a different beast entirely. And I feel confident saying this golden-crusted version has the ability to turn even the most vigilant brussels sprout haters around.
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