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Baileys is good. No, I take that back. Baileys is great! Wait, no, that isn’t right either. Let me think about this…ok, I got it. The THOUGHT of drinking Baileys is great. It’s creamy, boozy, Irish, and combines two of my favorite things, being high-fat dairy and getting blotto. I kid, of course. High-fat dairy isn’t one of my favorite things…
Why is the thought of drinking Baileys great while the actual act of consuming the Irish concoction is, well, not so great? SUGAR AND MYSTERY INGREDIENTS!!!! I find Baileys to be overly sweet, which in my mind is never a good thing. I also am not a fan of the unknown emulsifiers and other ingredients added to the beverage to prevent separation and enhance shelf life. So, what’s a person to do when they want a creamy, delectable cordial but don’t want to experience the shortcomings of Baileys? The answer –> head to the kitchen and make your own!
Tired of using coffee as a crutch, about 4 months back I kicked the habit. Sure I’ve dabbled since then, but not once have I looked back longingly. Starbucks, bad breath, and that humming nervous feeling of having imbibed too much caffeine can take a hike.
In its place, I have nurtured a taste for Earl Grey tea that has grown into a veritable addiction. I have bulk ordered “double bergamot” varieties unavailable locally, and become known for regularly toting a flashy glass tea vessel for loose-leaf on the go.
In an unabashed effort to push my Earl Grey fanaticism yet further, tonight I bring you the first installment of Adventures in Earl Grey, an exploration of the many less common uses of a tea that I have grown to love.
I recently went to a restaurant in the South End of Boston called Coppa, which is one of Ken Oringer’s growing group of top notch restaurants within Boston’s city limits. I dined on numerous dishes that most patrons would shy away from, like calves brain ravioli, braised pig tail, and charred octopus salad. However, the dish that really got me excited was duck prosciutto, one of the many items available on the charcuterie menu. It was fatty, gamy, nutty, tender, and pleasantly salty. Most importantly, it was something that I knew I could make with just a little guidance from a charcuterie master. Two days later, I began the prosciutto-ization of some prime duck breasts.
In January I closed the chapter on my exotic and challenging life in Podgorica, Montenegro, and took up residence in a green suburb of Brussels, Belgium. In doing so I left behind burrek and endless variations on grilled meat in exchange for a cheesier, French-style cuisine and excessive potato (and potato-like substances). Convinced that neither cuisine is overwhelmingly healthy, I’ve taken to describing my transition as a horizontal move from greasy/meaty to fatty/starchy.
One edible that I recently came across that fits the Belgium mold is morchella mushrooms sautéed with butter (recipe below the break). This treat, revealed to me by the ‘mushroom man’ at my local Sunday farmers market, constituted a spectacular Easter dinner almost* entirely by itself.
One of the most tantalizing and titillating phrases to have ever been coined in the food world is “cooked in its own juices.” Ron Popeil has made millions of dollars off of this phrase…and, of course, “set it and forget it.” The thought of a nice piece of meat or fish cooking in its own juices makes my saliva glands go from 1st to 6th gear in a flash. How can you best such a seemingly perfect cooking method? How can you achieve better flavor and texture? How can you possibly up the wow factor? Cook meat in its own fat…that’s how. That’s right. Today’s post is going to focus on one of the most prized and celebrated French dishes, duck confit.
Almost all home cooks, including yours truly, are guilty of paying no mind to one of the most delicious meats readily available in all supermarkets…DUCK! When I go out to eat and see duck on the menu, I almost always jump at it, which makes sense since I never prepare it myself. Every time I go to the store I end up cycling through the following steps when perusing the butcher section:
- Look at the whole ducks
- Think about all the various dishes I could make with duck
- Slowly reach for the plumpest, tastiest looking bird
- PANIC
- Start psyching myself out and convincing myself that I actually want to cook chicken
- Look back and forth at the ducks and chickens
- Buy chicken
Well this week I did not allow myself to panic. I reached for a duck and actually ended up getting one. I promptly brought it home and broke it down into its various parts, knowing full well what I was going to do with each and every one. Today’s post will focus on what to do with the carcass of the bird after having removed all the delicious meat and fat.
Buddha’s hand is one of the absolute strangest fruits that I have ever seen. If somehow a lemon and a cuttlefish were able to mate, and produce an offspring…and that offspring mated with Medusa, the offspring of THAT encounter would probably look an awful lot like Buddha’s hand. I would like to send a special “Thank You” to Luke and Sarah for gifting me with a Buddha’s hand.
The only usable part of the fruit, in my opinion, is the zest, and there is a whole lot of it, so I will be putting up a number of posts about this unusually fruit. Today’s post will focus on a dish that definitely falls in my top 5 desserts list, crème caramel. PLEASE NOTE – Buddha’s hand is not an easily accessible fruit, so all Buddha’s hand based recipes that I post can easily be made with the zest of any citrus fruit.
Broccoli soup…I know, it sounds terrible. I’m sure any kids that have stumbled upon this post have asked their parents to block our site to ensure that they will never have to read something so ghastly again. I think broccoli soup gets a bad rap because it typically takes one of two forms: liquid salt from a can or frozen broccoli boiled in unflavored, under-seasoned water and pureed. Well, I say that broccoli soup can not only be good, but it can be sublime! How are we going to go about deliciousizing (take that, Shakespeare) broccoli soup? Two words, caramelization and shallots.
As promised in my last post, today’s post will be about the king of braised meats, the short rib. Short ribs are so fun to cook with because they can wear a million and one different hats. You can serve them as a main course at a fancy dinner party. You can wear pajamas and eat them in front of the TV since they are one of the GREATEST comfort foods on the planet. They meld perfectly with Italian, Latin American, French, Scandinavian, Eastern European, Indian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, North African and American flavors. You can serve them whole. You can turn them into a delicious meat sauce for pasta, rice, etc. They are wonderful additions to soups and stews. I am to short ribs as Bubba is to shrimp, so if permitted, this could go on for a while. Today I will focus on a Mediterranean-style recipe of my own creation that I am particularly proud.
The highest rung of the food ladder is composed of foie gras, truffles, saffron, caviar, and ice cream. That is an undeniable fact. I imagine if you were to eat a dish made up of a combination of these five items, the result would be akin to crossing the streams in Ghost Busters, or burping, sneezing, coughing, and hiccupping at the same time…“Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light” – Dr. Egon Spengler from the movie Ghost Busters. However, if you fear the repercussions of eating these incredibly delicious delicacies, then play it safe and go for one of the two items on the second-highest rung of the food ladder: Short ribs and pulled pork. Today’s post will focus on pulled pork, but there will be a short ribs post in the very near future.
Andrew Maki
Alex Welles
Owen Maloy
