Heavily influenced by the Moorish rule of the Iberian Peninsula from 711ad to 1492AD, the cuisine of Spain incorporates many influences from both the Arab world as well as the new world. Moors (a collective term for both the Arabs and Berbers that invaded and ruled the Iberian peninsula) are credited with introducing many of characteristic ingredients to this region … Read More
Here’s What’s Shakin’…
We’re Bakin’ Bacon! You betcha…no fakin’! Ah, bacon…. delicious, glorious, beautiful, crispy, crunchy pork flesh! Just thinking of it make my mouth begin to water. The smell of it could drive a dog to get it himself…if only he had thumbs! The mess it can make when cooking is another story…not so pleasant. If you’re still cooking bacon in a pan on … Read More
Easy As…Tomato Pie!
In the grand Southern tradition of using what is fresh from the garden and mixing it with some form of fat…I present to you: Tomato Pie. Okay, to be truly “southern” you’ll have to work on the pronunciation of “pie” (draw it waaaaaaaay out) but we won’t get hung up on that. If you aren’t familiar with Southern cooking, tomato … Read More
Roasting Peppers
In my last post I explained a couple of options for smoking tomatoes. Today I thought I’d show two options for roasting peppers. Both roasted peppers and smoked tomatoes can be easily frozen in either zip-seal bags or other storage containers so you can enjoy them year round. Great cooking year-round is dependent on having great ingredients at the ready. … Read More
Smoked Tomatoes
Red Ripe Tomatoes…Get ‘em while you can! This time of year I love tomatoes on and in everything. The deep intense red of a plump bulging tomato simply screams “summer” to me! Unfortunately my early spring challenge of trying to keep deer from dining on my roses made me realize that the effort put into a vegetable garden would likely … Read More
Perfect Flaky Pastry
One of the most common frustrations I hear in regards to baking is how people can’t seem to make a nice flaky pie crust. This is exactly what happened with Jason, a recent guest of mine earlier this spring. He and his fiance had joined me earlier in the year and we had started trading emails about cooking questions. When … Read More
Browned Butter
My earliest experience with browned butter (beurre noisette in french culinary terms) was as a kid when we would visit The Old Spaghetti Factory. My absolute favorite item on their menu was (and still is to this day) their spaghetti with browned butter and Mizithra cheese. The saltiness of the dry Greek Mizithra cheese was perfectly paired with the nutty … Read More
Mmm…mmm…TOASTIE!
Recipes will often call for nuts or coconut to be toasted. Even if they don’t, flavor and texture is usually improved if they are toasted. Why You Should Toast Your Nuts: Why?: Toasting helps to concentrate natural oils to improve flavor as well as drive off excess moisture that would otherwise dilute the flavor. It also improves the textural aspects … Read More
Asian Slaw
I love cooking for a number of reasons. First, you never know it all…there’s always something to learn (which I’m sure can be said of every field). However with cooking it’s simple enough to learn from taking cues from the world around you. Second, I love the fact that unlike architecture, rocket science, and any other number of technical fields, … Read More
Food Network: “Chefs vs. City” Mix it Up at 700 Kitchen Cooking School
Note: This was originally posted on May 3, 2010. Due to the website going down with technical issues the April/May posts were deleted from the database. In the interest of maintaining the original content of the site I’m now re-posting. Left to right: Sean Rossi, Kate Blair, Jamie Deen, Bobby Deen, Jonathan Preston, Darin Sehnert, Aaron Sanchez, Chris Cosentino, Danette McGeeney … Read More