Saucing Basics for the Home Cook – Easy Espagnole and Demi-Glace
Starting off with Espagnole: Espagnole is a classic mother sauce. Since Escoffier revolutionized “French Cuisine” at the beginning of the twentieth century, Espagnole has been an intermediate step in making other sauces (called compound sauces). With the exception of a few individuals, most people don’t like it on its own; and it is (almost) never [...]
corned beef hash
We had corned beef for dinner the 15th of March. For dinner on St. Patrick’s day, the 17th, we had this hash. Hash is a very good thing, but because the techniques are so simple, almost to the level of boiling water, and because there are any number of good recipes available on the [...]
Fish and chips
The best fish and chips I’ve ever had came from the King’s Head, a theme British style pub which was owned by a couple of Aussies in Santa Monica. The Aussies are gone, the King’s Head remains. The fish is wonderful. So are the chips. As a result of their training, I prefer the coating [...]
Irish soda bread
This is an authentically Irish version of soda bread. There are a few twists here, but they’re more for conforming American ingredients than for altering taste or texture. Soda bread’s texture and loft depends on the interaction of buttermilk and baking soda and on the strength (percentage of glutens) of the flour. Irish buttermilk [...]
mashed potatoes
WONDERFULLY LIGHT and FLUFFY MASHED POTATOES Not to let the cat out of the bag or anything, but this is more by way of a very brief, technical primer than a recipe. Know your friends: • Butter, butter and more butter. • Dairy – Milk, 1/2 and 1/2, and cream, whether singly [...]
HORSERADISH – GREEN PEPPERCORN SAUCE
This is incredibly easy. It’s incredibly simple. It’s an incredibly good accompaniment to just about any protein. If there’s a catch, no one’s discovered it yet. It is infinitely variable, allowing scope for whimsical improvisation. Vary it by taking out the mayonnaise and using all sour cream, or vice versa. Or, replacing the mayonnaise [...]
RIB SMOKING RECIPE AND GUIDE
This was originally written in 2007, in a slightly different format than the one I usually currently use. Although there are substantial changes since the first time I posted it on the interwebs, I decided to keep it in (mostly) the old format. For one thing, there are so many contingencies it would have been [...]
Challah to Die for
You’ll love this soft, sweet bread that already has so much butter in it. It’s practically cake. Challah recipes may be classified as either regular or sweet. This one just shades into the sweet side. If, instead of forming challahs, you make sandwich loaves, the bread makes best-ever pain perdu (aka French toast), and bread [...]
Forming Batards
How to form one of the most common “artisanal” loaf types. Formation is verrrrrrrrrrrry important, and the post contains good general information about it as well.
Fettuccine Alfredo – The Real Way
Alfredo the real way. Simple recipe. Lots of work. No cream, no eggs. You’ve got to try it.