It's late, very late, and I'm packing for my return to San Francisco after six wonderful days in New York. The video shoot went well, and we finished an amazing seven video recipes in 48 hours.
This video recipe for smoked pork shank braised with white beans was filmed before I left, but due to my busy schedule, I wasn't able to finish editing and upload until today.
I'll add the ingredients and any other pertinent info that comes to mind when I get back home. Enjoy!
The rain finally stopped this afternoon, so I went for a nice long walk through the City. I was traveling through Little Italy when I happened upon Lombardi's.
I have seen this on countless food and history channel shows, as it claims to be the "original" NYC pizzeria.
I have received dozens of pizza recommendations from viewers and twitter followers, but since I was standing right there (and hungry) I decided to grab a small pepperoni and take care of dinner and breakfast with one twenty-dollar bill.
The super-heated coal-fired oven gave the impossibly thin crust a great crisp, chewy texture that is the hallmark of New York's famous pies. It was delicious, but I won't call it the "best" yet, since I still have a couple days to sample.
Tomorrow I start a "seven video recipes in 48 hours" job in Brooklyn, which I've heard, from more than one person, is home to the best pizza anywhere. We shall see. By the way, on the same street as Lombardi's I saw "Rice to Riches," a place that just serves rice pudding. Dozens of kinds of rice pudding, and that's it.
I may have to check it out before I leave, and report back. Stay tuned!
This short and not-too-sweet granola video recipe is a sort of test run for another video I'm going to be shooting for About.com when I'm in New York City this week (details tomorrow). Granola is amazingly simple to make, and significantly cheaper than those "gourmet" varieties sold at the local health food store.
Besides rolled oats and some type of sweetener, there really are no rules for granola. Here I've added a nice trio of crunch and texture with almonds, pumpkin seeds (that I call sunflower seeds in the video for some reason!), and coconut.
Dried fruit is also a common ingredient, with raisins being the most common, but you know me, and my love (borderline fetish) for currants, so I used those. This recipe is also very light in regards to the sugar. Some granola recipes are closer to candy than cereal, and call for making heavy syrups with which to soak the dry ingredients.
I prefer a looser, crumbly, barely-sweet granola, but if you do want yours a bit sticker, simply double the maple syrup called for below. Also, as I mention in the video, if you don't already have a silicon baking mat, making this recipe would be the perfect excuse to get one -- they are so incredibly useful, you won't regret it.
This type of granola makes a great cereal, and I would think you parents out there could turn this into a fun project to make with the kids. The fresh fruit and yogurt parfait you see at the end of the clip is perfect for kids of all ages, and really makes a great breakfast or snack. And yes, I did steal the idea from McDonald's. Enjoy!
Ingredients: (this can easily be doubled) 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 3 tbsp maple syrup 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups rolled oats 1/2 cup chopped or slivered almonds 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds 1/3 cup shredded coconut Bake at 250 degrees F. for 1 hour (or until golden brown), stirring every 15 minutes.
I mentioned gremolata at the end of the recently posted Fresh Corn and Shelling Bean Ragout video recipe, and here it is. This sharp, fresh, and very green Italian condiment is the perfect garnish to those rich, stick-to-your-ribs recipes that dominate fall and winter menus.
I not only used this batch of gremolata to top the shelling beans, but it will also make an appearance on a fabulous smoked pork shank and white bean dish I'm posting soon. As you'll see, this is an ultra-simple recipe, and one that makes so many great foods even better. When I went out to the garden to harvest some parsley, I was faced with one of the drawbacks of my super-busy month of travel and events… unnoticed, my parsley had gone to seed, and there weren't enough leaves to do the recipe with.
Time was very short, so I ran out to the corner market, which only had bunches of curly parsley. The horror. I'm sure you've heard me making fun of chefs that still garnish plates with curly parsley on videos in the past, and in general I always use the flat leaf Italian variety. But, I have to admit, ridiculous garnishing aside, it was fine.
I do prefer the somewhat stronger flavor of Italian parsley, but once minced fine, as in this recipe, the much-maligned curly leaf does an admirable job. Besides, I realize there is still a segment of the population whose only parsley purchasing choice is the curly, and so this goes out to all of you. Enjoy!
Ingredients (adjust to your tastes!): 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley 1 large garlic clove, crushed fine 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest 1 tbsp olive oil salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (optional)
At a recent dinner at Ramblas in San Francisco, Michele and I enjoyed an incredibly simple, yet deeply flavorful shelling bean ragout. Ramblas is our favorite Spanish restaurant in the City, and the big, meaty beans were stewed with corn, citrus, and currants.
In fact, I was so impressed with this dish I swore to myself the next time I saw fresh shelling beans, I would attempt something similar. A week later I was shopping in Berkeley and saw a beautiful pile of cranberry beans (another common name for shelling beans).
I was so happy, and my mouth watered thinking back to that great crock of beans. I'm sure as I stuffed them into the bag, I had one of those deranged smiles that had on-lookers wondering, "What the hell is wrong with that guy."
As you watch this video, I can understand if the combination of ingredients seems a little strange, but trust me, this is a fantastic vegetable dish. It's my new favorite side dish, which is funny since I can't seem to wait for the main course to eat it.
At the end of the video, I garnish the dish with a spoon of something called gremolata. I've already filmed this for another recipe, which isn't live yet, so you will get to see that made, but for now here's all you need to know. Gremolata is simply fresh parsley minced with some raw garlic and lemon zest, moistened with a little olive oil.
This sharp, raw green sauce, along with a little more freshly zested lemon takes a great bean dish and turns it into something spectacular. Enjoy!
Ingredients (these amounts are complete guesses): 2 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves sliced garlic 1 cup shelling beans 1 cup fresh corn 2 tbsp dried currants chicken broth as needed (about 1 1/2 cups total, maybe, possibly) 1/4 cup diced fresh ripe tomato 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 1 tbsp fresh lemon zest To garnish: gremolata (see description in post) lemon zest
This video recipe for Beef Shanks Braised in Three Onion Broth is the fourth in a series of videos I'm doing that focus on cooking various cuts of grass-fed beef.
These beautiful beef shanks came from Steve Normanton, and were everything you want a braised shank to be -- moist, tender, sticky, and comforting.
As I looked around for ideas on how to do these grass-fed beef shanks, I knew I was going to slowly braise them (really the only way to go), but I couldn't decide what exactly to braise them in. So many options, so little time.
I saw a few recipes that called for the shanks to be cooked in a broth made from instant onion soup packets. As much as the thought of taking these wonderfully wholesome, all-natural, grass-fed shanks and sticking them in a sodium-packed, MSG-laced, artificially flavored and colored, dry soup mix repulsed me, the idea of cooking them in a French onion soup sounded pretty good.
It was better than pretty good -- it was fantastic! The collagen-rich shanks broke down beautifully and the combination of those succulent chucks of meat, sweet melted onions, buttery marrow, and rich aromatic sauce over the soft polenta, made for a very impressive bowl of food.
As I mention in the video, beef shanks are like a two-for-one deal. Not only do you get the marvelous meat, but you also get one marrowbone per shank! If you've never had beef marrow before, do yourself a favor and get some beef shanks and make this recipe.
Thanks to Steve Normanton as usual for providing such great beef to work with. By the way, those of you who want to cook with grass-fed beef, but don't like it medium-rare, should give this beef shank recipe a try -- it's basically impossible for the dish not to be delicious. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 tbsp vegetable oil 4 beef shanks (about 1 1/2-inch thick) 3 large onions 1 bay leave 6 springs thyme 3 cloves garlic, chopped 2 sprigs rosemary 1/2 cup diced carrot 1/2 cup diced celery salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 2 cups beef broth chives to garnish
Excuse me for generalizing, but whenever I hear the term, "surf and turf," I think of a small bland filet mignon sitting next to a small dry lobster tail. For me this combination epitomizes dusty, dated faux gourmet food -- the polyester leisure suit of classic American cuisine.
Inspired by the aforementioned cliché, I just posted another interpretation of "surf and turf" -- grilled halibut steaks with corn and chanterelles. This grilled halibut steaks video recipe features the mild, meaty fish on an earthy, turfy, subtly sweet chanterelle mushroom and corn base.
I think seafood and mushrooms are really great together, and when you add the smokiness from the grill, you have yourself a great autumn meal. Speaking of a smoky grill, it was raining the day I filmed this, so you're not going to get much of a grilling lesson, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
Chanterelle mushrooms should be available this time of year at your nearest farmer's market, but if you can't find them you can substitute regular brown mushrooms and still have a delicious, modern "surf and turf." By the way, green beans almondine sold separately. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 big halibut steaks 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp butter 2 cups sliced chanterelle mushrooms, or other fresh mushrooms 1/3 cup diced roasted red pepper or 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, diced 1 cup fresh corn kernels (may sub. frozen corn if need be) 1/2 cup water 1 lemon, juiced salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 1 tbsp minced fresh tarragon micro greens for garnish lemon wedges
Michele and I stopped for some Korean food on the way home from a thoroughly enjoyable trip to Berkeley Bowl. Sahn Maru, in Oakland, CA, is one restaurant that will never have a customer send back a bowl of soup for not being hot enough!
Directly below, you'll see the iPhone video I took of our spicy soft tofu soup. My phone was off at the time, so this was after it had cooled for a minute! It was the hottest soup I've ever been served.
When I posted to YouTube, I was amused to see that many others had filmed this same soupy scene, so I gathered a small collection. There is something mesmerizing about watching this soup boil in the cast iron pots. Below these, I've posted a video recipe for how to make this super-delicious soup! (you just need to find the pots!)
As I've mentioned in a previous post, Michele and I have been working on a San Francisco-style barbecue sauce, called SFQ. It's quite an unusual, but still familiar BBQ sauce that features hints of chocolate, coffee, and red wine vinegar.
It's not quite ready for sale yet (but will be for Christmas, hint, hint), but I've been playing around with it in various recipes, and this meatloaf video shows one such experiment. When I've done "barbecue meatloaf" before, I've simply used the standard spoon the glaze on the top of the loaf and bake it method. This time I wanted to line the loaf pan with some of the sauce, press the meat in, and let it roast in the goodness.
I was envisioning a beautiful, glossy finish when I turned it on to the serving platter. As you'll see, it wasn't quite as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped (it was ugly). But hey, this is quick and dirty, fast and half-assed, home cooking. It may not have looked good, but it tasted fine!
When you factor in the almost complete absence of prep work, the results can't be described as anything other than successful. The rich, aromatic barbecue sauce permeated the meatloaf more deeply than if it had simply been baked on top.
Of course, if you do have the time and energy, this same upside down barbecue glaze method would work so nicely on a more involved meatloaf recipe with the traditional sautéed diced aromatic vegetables. Either way, it's just dinner. Enjoy!
We got to see and sample so many great recipes on our recent trip down to California's Santa Maria Valley, but my favorite may have been this Santa Maria-style salsa recipe.
This recipe was demonstrated for me by Susan Righetti, (also known as Susie Q on her website, where she sells local artisan food products). She is an authority on the local cuisine of California's central coast, and hosted us for a fantastic day of cooking and eating.
In addition to this great salsa, she also made a batch of Santa Maria-style pinquito beans, and her husband Paul showed me the real way to do a barbecued tri-tip (on a custom-made barbecue pit in the middle of the house!) I will be posting both those videos as soon as I can.
Susan joked about the Santa Maria-style salsa being, "the ketchup of Santa Maria-style BBQ," since it's always served along side the area's famous barbecued beef.
We had some version of this sauce at just about every meal (including breakfast), and it really did make the smoky meat even more delicious. Some places make a smooth version that's used as a sauce, others make a very chunky style, as seen here, which is eaten more like a side dish salad.
She had a big beautiful bowl of ripe tomatoes which she could have used in this video, but she said that canned tomatoes also work, and since most of you won't have regular access to big beautiful bowls of ripe tomatoes, I had her use the canned ones in the demo.
Susan has a website called Susie Q's Brand where she sells a large variety of local Santa Maria food products, including the magical red oak wood chips. If you are interested in learning more, or want to check out her stuff, here is the link. Enjoy!
Ingredients: (this is for a half batch of the large bowl you see in the video - about 6 cups) 1 can 28-oz whole tomatoes 1 can 7-oz diced green chilies 1/2 red onion, diced 1/2 bunch green onions, thinly sliced 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 cloves garlic, finely minced (may substitute garlic powder to taste) 2 tbsp chopped parsley (may also substitute or add fresh cilantro) salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
*Note: Susie used a shake of her Santa Maria Seasoning, which I have broken down into salt, pepper, etc., here. You can see what's in her blend on the Susie Q's website.
One of the best things about understanding the best ways to cook something is the freedom to ignore them. This incredible garlic-studded, herb-rubbed, roasted pork shoulder recipe is a great example of how you can be rewarded for doing something "the wrong" way.
For cooking pork shoulder, I usually preach slowly roasting, covered, using low heat and long cooking times. The results are moist, falling apart, fork-tender succulence. Here, I wanted to play with textures a bit.
My plan was a bowl of simply prepared white beans, topped with a garlicky, crisp-edged, firm, pleasantly chewy pork, which would be then be topped with a sharp, vinegared cherry tomato and baby romaine chiffonade salad.
I wanted to concentrate the flavors of the pork and make up for any loss of moisture by pairing it with the soft beans and juicy greens. So, I cooked the pork uncovered and at a higher temperature than usual. After chilling overnight, I sliced it into thick steaks and browned them well, in olive oil.
The cold, sour salad was a perfect condiment for the rich meat and every bite of this garlic-scented pork was a joy. I hope you give the recipe a try -- I think this would make for a wonderful, end-of-summer meal. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 3 1/2 lb pork shoulder roast 6 cloves garlic, halved salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp dried Italian herbs 1 tsp dried rosemary cayenne to taste cooked white beans handful of baby romaine handful of cherry tomatoes 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
This somewhat rough around the edges, but hopefully entertaining video recipe was shot at the Historic Santa Maria Inn on our recent culinary field trip to the central coast.
This stars Chef Alex Araizaga making a very unique almond-crusted salmon recipe featuring a sauce using the area's famous strawberries.
As you'll see, I don’t have the proper A/V gear to do a great remote video, but I wanted to film the chef making one of his signature dishes, and I'm glad I did. It was surprisingly good -- I don't mean that is an insulting way, as if I didn’t expect him to do a good job, it's just I have never been a fan of fruit sauces with seafood, and would have never expected to enjoy a salmon filet on a strawberry sauce, but I did! It really was enjoyable.
I've posted a home cook-friendly version on my American Foods site on About.com, so you can check that out for the ingredients and procedure, which I tweaked ever so slightly from the one you see here.
Thanks to Chef Alex for a great demo (and breakfast afterward!), and also thanks to the Santa Maria Inn for letting me shoot in their busy kitchen. Enjoy!
It's late, very late, and I'm packing for my return to San Francisco after six wonderful days in New York. The video shoot went well, and we finished an amazing seven video recipes in 48 hours.
The rain finally stopped this afternoon, so I went for a nice long walk through the City. I was traveling through Little Italy when I happened upon Lombardi's.
The super-heated coal-fired oven gave the impossibly thin crust a great crisp, chewy texture that is the hallmark of New York's famous pies. It was delicious, but I won't call it the "best" yet, since I still have a couple days to sample.
This short and not-too-sweet granola video recipe is a sort of test run for another video I'm going to be shooting for About.com when I'm in New York City this week (details tomorrow). Granola is amazingly simple to make, and significantly cheaper than those "gourmet" varieties sold at the local health food store.
I prefer a looser, crumbly, barely-sweet granola, but if you do want yours a bit sticker, simply double the maple syrup called for below. Also, as I mention in the video, if you don't already have a silicon baking mat, making this recipe would be the perfect excuse to get one -- they are so incredibly useful, you won't regret it.
I mentioned gremolata at the end of the recently posted Fresh Corn and Shelling Bean Ragout video recipe, and here it is. This sharp, fresh, and very green Italian condiment is the perfect garnish to those rich, stick-to-your-ribs recipes that dominate fall and winter menus.
Time was very short, so I ran out to the corner market, which only had bunches of curly parsley. The horror. I'm sure you've heard me making fun of chefs that still garnish plates with curly parsley on videos in the past, and in general I always use the flat leaf Italian variety. But, I have to admit, ridiculous garnishing aside, it was fine.
At a recent dinner at Ramblas in San Francisco, Michele and I enjoyed an incredibly simple, yet deeply flavorful shelling bean ragout. Ramblas is our favorite Spanish restaurant in the City, and the big, meaty beans were stewed with corn, citrus, and currants.
As you watch this video, I can understand if the combination of ingredients seems a little strange, but trust me, this is a fantastic vegetable dish. It's my new favorite side dish, which is funny since I can't seem to wait for the main course to eat it.
This video recipe for Beef Shanks Braised in Three Onion Broth is the fourth in a series of videos I'm doing that focus on cooking various cuts of grass-fed beef.
It was better than pretty good -- it was fantastic! The collagen-rich shanks broke down beautifully and the combination of those succulent chucks of meat, sweet melted onions, buttery marrow, and rich aromatic sauce over the soft polenta, made for a very impressive bowl of food.
Excuse me for generalizing, but whenever I hear the term, "surf and turf," I think of a small bland filet mignon sitting next to a small dry lobster tail. For me this combination epitomizes dusty, dated faux gourmet food -- the polyester leisure suit of classic American cuisine.
I think seafood and mushrooms are really great together, and when you add the smokiness from the grill, you have yourself a great autumn meal. Speaking of a smoky grill, it was raining the day I filmed this, so you're not going to get much of a grilling lesson, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, Michele and I have been working on a San Francisco-style barbecue sauce, called SFQ. It's quite an unusual, but still familiar BBQ sauce that features hints of chocolate, coffee, and red wine vinegar.
I was envisioning a beautiful, glossy finish when I turned it on to the serving platter. As you'll see, it wasn't quite as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped (it was ugly). But hey, this is quick and dirty, fast and half-assed, home cooking. It may not have looked good, but it tasted fine!
We got to see and sample so many great recipes on our recent trip down to California's Santa Maria Valley, but my favorite may have been this Santa Maria-style salsa recipe.
In addition to this great salsa, she also made a batch of Santa Maria-style pinquito beans, and her husband Paul showed me the real way to do a barbecued tri-tip (on a custom-made barbecue pit in the middle of the house!) I will be posting both those videos as soon as I can.
Susan joked about the Santa Maria-style salsa being, "the ketchup of Santa Maria-style BBQ," since it's always served along side the area's famous barbecued beef.
She had a big beautiful bowl of ripe tomatoes which she could have used in this video, but she said that canned tomatoes also work, and since most of you won't have regular access to big beautiful bowls of ripe tomatoes, I had her use the canned ones in the demo.
One of the best things about understanding the best ways to cook something is the freedom to ignore them. This incredible garlic-studded, herb-rubbed, roasted pork shoulder recipe is a great example of how you can be rewarded for doing something "the wrong" way.
This somewhat rough around the edges, but hopefully entertaining video recipe was shot at the Historic Santa Maria Inn on our recent culinary field trip to the central coast.