January, 2010 -

by BS

Plantains Three Ways

Fruit is pretty great and all, but how much better is it when deep-fried? Am I right?

Well, I know I am. Having grown up on Nuyorican restaurants, I’ve been a pretty rabid plantain fan for a long time. But one longtime frustration was that I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to recreate these delicious little fritters at home. But, after much experimentation and web browsing, I’m happy to report I’ve started to get the hang of it. The secret turns out to be the same secret as every other delicious restaurant food: you’ve got to throw all delusions of semi-healthiness to the wind. Oil, baby. Lots of it. Like seriously, gallons. Cooking plantains in a tablespoon or two of oil always resulted in bland, starchy discs with not-quite-right texture, but once I worked up the courage to really douse them in oil, I’ve been able to make both sweet, rich plantains from super-ripe bananas, as well as crispy, more hearty ones from green bananas.

You don’t necessarily need a deep-fryer, but you need to cut those plantains thin, fill your saucepan up with a whole lot of the golden stuff, get it nice and bubbly, then let ’em fry for just a few minutes.

That dilemma solved, obviously I was ready to start getting a little wacky. As much as I love eating plain crispy plantains with the simple garlic sauce they serve at Puerto Rican places, I wondered if they couldn’t stand for a little spicing up at home, so I took three different attempts at crafting a more creative plantain. No, this is not a lame, haute cusine “three-way” dish, but merely three different ways they can be prepared…

by Russell Warnick

Haiti Food Relief

We wanted to take a moment to bring to you a few of the charities that are providing relief to the people of Haiti, specifically those providing food aid to those whose lives have been devastated by the 7.0 earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.

World Food Program has deployed to Haiti. The agency has sent 86 metric tons of food to provide half a million emergency meals, in addition to high energy biscuits to those without access to cooking facilities. For more information go to www.wfp.org

Operation USA is an international aid agency that is providing health care, food supplements and water purification for the people of Haiti. To learn more and ways to donate go to www.opusa.org

Food for the Poor works in Latin America and the Caribbean improving the economic, health and social lives of the people it serves. Food for the Poor is sending a crew to Haiti and they are leaving the morning of January 14 and flying to the Dominican Republic. Helicopters will take them to Haiti, to donate go to www.foodforthepoor.org

American Red Cross has a simple way to donate, text “Haiti” to 90999 and $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill. All proceeds will go directly to sending supplies and staff to Haiti, in addition to the $1 million dollars ARC has already contributed to Haiti relief. You can also go to redcross.org

Of course the are the other major aid agencies, The International Committee of the Red Cross, Medecins sans Frontieres, Clinton Foundation, Yele and CARE.

in Personal 1 comments

by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: Everything’s Coming Up Gail

The latest and greatest news about celebrity chefs, served up buffet style.

– Sweet News: Smörg fave Gail Simmons will be the host of Top Chef: Just Desserts.

– And she’ll also be a regular judge on the second season of Top Chef: Masters beginning April 14th.

After the jump…taking shots as Alice Waters, the Jersey Shore crew contributes to our knowledge of the mixology and Food Network gets muy caliente!

in Celebs / TV 4 comments

by gansie

We Love To Cook. And It Shows.

I’m a terrible, terrible gift receiver. And I really hope my family isn’t reading this post. For Chanukah last year I asked for a creme brulee set with a mini blow torch. I don’t know what intrigued me to light food on fire, but I couldn’t wait to caramelize everything that came out of my kitchen.

But because that beautiful set has not been used yet, I didn’t request any gear for the kitchen. I still landed two cutting boards (thanks Mommy and 80P); two books, Watching What We Eat (thanks 80P’s parents) and Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food (thanks Justin); a pizza peel (thanks Scott); and a bagel guillotine (thank’s 80P’s parents). And I’m sure I’m forgetting some things.

So besides the neglect of my 2008 presents, I also didn’t ask for anything because I binged purchased for myself recently (and there is >>thismuch<< room left in my cabinets). I cannot deny the allure of thrift store kitchen items. So cheap, so cute, so unique, so unnecessary, which is actually part of the charm.

Above you will see the set of 6 mini bakeware dishes. I don’t know what that kind of canoe-like shape is called, but it was just too cute. I love sets of things. I love that green. And when I have a dinner party for 6 everyone will be able to have an individual side of um, something. I actually already used one for a shallow dip bowl.

More purchases from unexpected brands post jump.

in Holiday 4 comments

by Miss K

Foolproof Fruit Crisp: A Dessert Even an ESer Can Bake

Like the rest of ES, I don’t do desserts. Which is not to say that I haven’t tried. My torrid history of dessert disasters goes back many years. I’m sure my mom still remembers the day my fifth grade best friend and I attempted chocolate chip cookies. Amateurs both, we used the recipe from the back of the package of chocolate chips. Careful adherence to the directions left us with a concoction that was more early-December-snowfall than Pillsbury doughboy. So we tapped into some sandbox wisdom – we added water. Baking the resulting quicksand yielded a burned, slippery looking substance that firmly coated the doomed cookie sheet. Mom was more upset about the wasted ingredients and the lingering smell of burning than the charred cookie sheet, which was logical given the infrequency of her own cookie baking.

Undaunted, through the years I have managed to produce (accidentally) sugarless banana bread, baking-soda-flavored butterscotch cookies and Rice Krispie treats so hard that they actually made someone bleed.

My friend Sarah received a cake-making book for Christmas in order to carry on her family tradition, wherein the birthday honoree gets to choose a cake from the book for their party. The cake is made from scratch, of course, with a long, scary list of ingredients and Mensa-approved instructions. And that doesn’t even take into account the frosting. My children better either ingratiate themselves with Aunt Sarah or learn to love brownies from a box.

All this poses a problem, though, when I am asked to bring dessert to a friend’s dinner party. Believe me, visions of artfully arranged Chips Ahoy have danced in my head, but high fructose corn syrup freaks me out. Fortunately, discount farmers’ market produce has led me to seek out (and find) a dessert that is not only practically foolproof, but also meets some of my beloved recipe criteria: few ingredients, use of food just this side of the compost pile, and general crowd pleasure.

in Desserts / Recipe 2 comments

by Russell Warnick

Burns My Bacon: Hey Hey, Ho Ho, That Lettuce Leaf Has Got To Go

I’m an appetizer kinda guy. There is nothing more satisfying than ordering a couple of apps instead of an entree; the variety alone makes the trip worth it. However, there are many downfalls in ordering apps. The quality can be somewhat diminished: fried and often just thrown on a plate without much thought. Despite that, bar apps are my favourite, especially potato skins, nachos and chicken tenders. All deliciously fattening!

My biggest gripe with appetizer dishes is the presentation, mainly lettuce. Why does the kitchen feel the need to serve my chicken, potato skins, guacamole, shrimp…On a bed of lettuce? This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. If there is a reason for this please enlighten me, but for the time being I’m going to bitch…

in Personal / Rants & Raves 16 comments

by Bliz

Putting It All on the Line

We’ll it’s been far too long ES readers. I sure have missed the Endless Simmer gang and the requisite bacon-themed snarkiness!

Please forgive the absence, but in fairness, I’ve been kinda busy. After all these years of tinkering around in my own kitchen, building the cookbook collection and even writing about the exploits on the Interwebs, I decided to put up or shut up. So I took a full-time cooking job working the line in a real restaurant (a good one), with real line cooks (that speak mostly in Spanish and just call me ‘gringo’), with real chefs screaming at me about how awful my shit looks (really awful. I still fuck up a lot). No culinary school, no previous experience, just trial by fire…very much literally.

But I knew most of that going in. What really surprised me while making the shift from my lazy 9-5 to my new, bone-crushing post was how many fellow aspiring chefs out there in Yuppieland admitted to having their own dreams about giving up their 401(k)s, social lives, mental stability, weekends and all major holidays so they can work a lot more and earn a lot less.

So I figured I’d offer a few observations about the last few months of my life and put a little unsolicited advice out there for anyone hoping to make an appearance on Top Chef 16. My own little Kitchen Confidential if you will…except without the heroin…at least for the moment anyway.

in Personal / Restaurants 8 comments

January 2010

Plantains Three Ways

Haiti Food Relief

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: Everything’s Coming Up Gail

We Love To Cook. And It Shows.

Foolproof Fruit Crisp: A Dessert Even an ESer Can Bake

Burns My Bacon: Hey Hey, Ho Ho, That Lettuce Leaf Has Got To Go

Putting It All on the Line