THE PUDDING INCIDENT

What have you been up to in the kitchen?

Saturday, December 23, 2006

PBS Wisdom

A chinese emperor was once asked "Where do you find the best food in the world?" and he replied "I can not answer that, for the finest food can be made in the poorest of homes. If it tastes delicious and brings you great joy, than it is good food."

From "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie: China- One Billion Foodies"

Friday, December 15, 2006

Roasted Cauliflower


Cauliflower is notoriously healthy, and, in my kitchen, inherently bland. I came across this recipe for roasted cauliflower in Cook's Illustrated magazine, and it has a lot of potential - maybe season with curry powder, or sprinkle with parmesaen cheese after it comes out of the oven. Amazingly enough, the cauliflower was crisp and tender, and great dipped in kung pow sauce or ranch dressing (it's probably delicious with any sauce though!).

You will need -
1 Head of cauliflower
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt, ground black pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat over to 475 degrees. Trim outer leaves of cauliflower and cut stem flush with bottom. Cut head into 8 equal wedges (so florets stay attached to the stem). Place wedges cut side down on foil or parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper - rub to evenly distribute seasoning. Flip cauliflower and season other side with remaining oil, salt, and pepper.

2. Cover baking sheet tightly with foil and cook for 10 minutes. Remove foil and continue to roast until bottoms of cauliflower pieces are golden, 8 to 12 minutes. Remove sheet from oven (this is very imporant...i lost a wedge to gravity and the door when trying to flip the pieces while still in the oven) and using a spatula carefully flip wedges. Return sheet to oven and continue to roast until cauliflower is golden all over, 8 to 12 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper to taste, serve immediately.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

potato outrage

Taken from:http://www.phdcomics.com/blog.php

I am annoyed with my favorite cookbook, "The New Best Recipes" from the editors of Cook's Illustrated. Their recipe for scalloped potatoes claims that 1/8 of an inch is the ideal thickness for the potato slices, but it instructs the reader to use a mandolin or a food processor to cut the slices because "you will not be able to slice them thin enough" with a knife.

"Will not"?! Not even a "will probably not" or a "may not"? How dare a cookbook tell me what I can or cannot do? How does it know how well I can handle a knife?

Outraged, I proceeded to slice 5 lbs of potatoes into 1/8-inch thick slices using my trusty Global knife. I totally rocked those potatoes! Take that, cookbook!