Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

Fine, the title doesn’t really make any sense, since we were in Myrtle Beach, SC, and even less sense because we didn’t grill at 4 in the morning just so the American viewing audience could tune in. It just rhymes, ok??

A few (couple?) weeks back, I took a long weekend down to the South Carolina beach in celebration of the passing of one Jackson (Jeb, AJ) from basically married life to married life. To most attending, however, it provided an excuse to open a beer in the AM. After one long afternoon of Par 3 golf, we passed a local produce stand and decided to grill. The corn and shrimp you will see after the jump are from that stand, while the rest came from that great Southern supermarket that will never be as good as Harris Teeter, Kroger.

• Continue reading or Comments (8)

It’s come to our attention here at ES that despite all these food blogs, there are only so many things a person can actually cook. I mean, it takes a lot of hard work to come up with an original, tasty combination of ingredients, and even when you do, chances are someone’s already thought of it before anyway. Just ask Jessica Seinfeld. So what’s a snarky food blogger to do? Why, judge others of course. On that note we introduce our newest feature: Who Cooked It Better?

Inspired by Us Weekly’s in-depth examination of celebrity costumery, Who Wore It Best? we’ll be browsing the food world each week to bring you a head-to-head match-up in which you, the readers, get to decide Who Cooked It Better?

It’s only fitting that our first culinary clash is a fishfight between the Food Network’s two sultriest chefs. Anyone can wrap a simple broiled scallop in bacon and make it taste pretty great, but not everyone can produce the beautiful succulence that is emitted by Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis on a daily basis.

Pictured in the left-hand corner is the entry from our first cheftestant, the New York-born, former Macy’s candy counter clerk and aspiring queen of all media, Rachael Ray. Thankfully, RayRay resisted the urge to make an entreetizer or stoup this time and went semi-classic with her scallops, which are marinated in Teriyaki sauce, wrapped in thickly-sliced bacon and served on a tantalizing toothpick. Rachael gets creativity points for adding a slice of water chestnut and piece of pickled ginger to each scallop. Full recipe here.

In the right corner is our challenger, Rome-born, Hollywood-raised brand new baby mama Giada De Laurentiis. Giada went for a refreshing take here, blending up a tomato-basil-olive oil rub for her scallops, and kicking it up a notch by wrapping them in prosciutto. These scrumptious shellfish look pretty gushingly gourmet on their bed of fresh arugula, although perhaps a little hard to handle. Full recipe here.

So, dear readers, your thoughts please…

 Loading …

• Comments (13)

I know, lame title. Total cop-out. My bad.

Like Evo Diva has ranted before, I like to vary my meals between bloody steaks and salad greens laced with whole grains and vegetables. 80, my normal dining partner however, still likes to see a cut of meat on his dinner plate. So it took all of my debate team skills to convince him to eat a totally vegetarian dinner.

Oh, and I’m totally lying. I just think it would sound cool if I actually knew how to win an argument by debate skills. I actually spent my after school hours playing field hockey in the fall, lacrosse in the spring and watching my then-boyfriend play video games in the winter.

Anyway, as I pride myself in keeping a well-stocked pantry, on my walk home from work (with 80) I tried to piece together a meal without having to go to the store for anything. And I almost made it. After I decided to make a lasagna, but with eggplant strips instead of noodles (thanks, Vi), the only way I could sell 80 on the idea was to stop by the store so we could cover the whole thing with mozzarella cheese.

Real quick on the eggplant, so I bought it to use for this DC food bloggers potluck. But I was too hung over and just couldn’t get it together, especially after belmontmedina was bailing. Luckily, though, Mr. So Good filled me in on some of the details. I promise to be a better part of the community and attend the next one - headache and all.

Read on for what I guess I could have made if I wasn’t playing flip cup like a 20 year old the night before.

• Continue reading or Comments (10)

Who could say no to the Hollandaise sauce for Steak?! Yes, Bernaise is a sister to our egg-stra special friend Hollandaise, both made with whisked egg yolk and clarified butter. Bernaise, however, adds a savory mix of vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and chervil (a pretty little spice I hadn’t heard of prior to my first attempt cooking up this sauce) and forgoes the lemon found in Hollandaise. As you may or may not be able to see in the photo, I added chopped up baby bellas to my bernaise. It added a nice, complementary flavor and allowed me to feel like I was eating “more healthy” (despite the beef and bernaise, of course).

More after the jump…

• Continue reading or Comments (4)

I assume I’m ineligible for the prize winnings, but my competitive streak won’t let me pass up the gauntlet gansie threw done with the varmint cooking contest.

Unfortunately, the food co-op was sorely lacking in the squirrel, mole and chipmunk departments, so the craziest thing I could find was wild boar. I know, not exactly scurrying folk, but really, it might not be a wild boar, it might be a rodent of unusual size.

Anyways, it’s from D’artagnan, so I jumped. Aside: can we talk about how awesome the D’artagnan brand is? I’ve already told you about their duck bacon. But I’ve been stockpiling their other fancy-pants provisions too, like chicken truffle sausage, dried porcinis and more. Plus, they are apparently all earthy and sustainable to boot. I swear this is not paid promotion, I’m just blown away by their meat.

And, this particular wild boar mini-roast is made from the knuckle of animal, and while I’m not exactly sure what that means, it sounds pretty damn varmint-y to me.

Back to the boar…

• Continue reading or Comments (2)

UPDATE: Good idea, Margot…consider this “Lakshmi-Spiegel Green Chutney” entered in AFAM

I never spend much time with dead tree cooking publications. After I get through all the blogs, there’s just no time left. Plus, as you can probably tell, I’m not one for following recipes.

However, as Gansie mentioned previously, every time I go down to D.C., she sends me back on the bus with a pile of Bon Appetites, Gourmets - and if I’m lucky - Cook’s Illustrateds. Because she’s strangely obsessive a truly dedicated co-editor, she even steals little arrow flags from her office and marks every page for me that mentions pine nuts, phyllo or Padma Lakshmi.

It was this way I learned that the December issue of Gourmet featured the famed cookbook author/Top Chef host/2nd runner-up for Eater of the Year, and offered a few of her chutney recipes. The new Gourmet.com doesn’t seem to have this one in their archives, so here it is:

• Continue reading or Comments (5)

Editors Note: I love matzah ball soup, I love begals and cream cheese and lox, and I love latkes. One thing I don’t love: brisket. Now I know my Oma made a killer beef dish at all of our Holiday feasts, but I stuck with the chicken and mashers. Who knew that it might take a Brit to convince me to retry this particular cut of cow. Here is Britannia’s take on Brisket with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce (though not a Kosher combo.)

My house mate, 30MinuteAbs, was having a birthday and he wanted a party (nothing new there). I’ve never really cooked for more than twelve to fifteen people before, but on this occasion I was set a challenge–a party for fifty people.

Usually my vegetarian friend from Brooklyn would take on the duties, but this time the guest of honor wanted meat and he wouldn’t cook with meat…So, I was set to task. I considered the variables: oven space, cost, time, quality of product. The best option that I could come up with was brisket: it’s easy, it’s reliable and it’s not steak.

4 x 5lbs of brisket is what was cooked, yes my math got that to 20lbs too! I was unsure on how this was going to turn out. Using the logic that cheese makes everything better (and so the meat wouldn’t dry out,) I made a Gorgonzola cream gravy to go with it. I had gone to a friend’s party two nights before the event and there was a filet topped with blue cheese, this was my inspiration for the gravy. I have to say this was one of my finer culinary moments, catering company anyone?!?!

The recipe is for forty servings; maybe divide everything by 4 or 8 depending on people, for normal usage. Recipe post jump.

• Continue reading or Comments (20)

I’m sure you noticed, but ES did not take part in any New Year’s resolution crap. Know what 80 and I did New Year’s Day - we sat at a bar and drank, went to dinner and drank, went to another bar and drank, and then went home and drank. There were no salads involved and the only exercise we got was stumbling from place to place.

Sure, I used to make a resolution. Same one every year, in fact - lose ten pounds. I’m old now, though. I’m done resolving. But, as I still live in America, with ab-fucking-surd standards for women, I’m forced to eat right sometimes and work out once in a while.

Pictured above is my first healthy meal of 2008. Recipe is post jump.

• Continue reading or Comments (16)

BS and I totally act like we’re the messiah when it comes to cooking. Well, there’s one person that can top us every time.

So I don’t think we’ve really talked about it in this forum, but in the old neighborhood, back when BS was a District resident, we held Iron Chef-like contests. The rules changed a bit each time, but the basic scenario was 80P and my old house-mate Julie would pick three ingredients. They would then text them to the contestants at about 5:30 (post-work) and we’d have to use each ingredient at least once over two courses - no recipe/internet searches allowed. We’d then serve our creations, later that night, to the gathered neighbors, explaining dishes and methods. At the end of the delicious meal, the diners would vote.

BS and I both had our unfair share of wins, but Vio would always kick our ass in some sort of fashion. She’s a master: she bakes, fries, grills and experiments with crazy taste combinations. I hate her, of course, because everything she cooks is absolutely awesome and gorgeous. Her downside - we’ve yet to convince her to join the blog.

Last night during our weekly Project Runway dinner and watch parties, she grilled (yes, taking advantage of the warm January weather) an amazingly tasty swordfish. And since she won’t blog, I’ve stolen her makeshift recipe:

Coconut-Curry Swordfish

Marinate the swordfish in: lite coconut milk, red curry paste, minced garlic and ginger and just a pinch of salt. (The garlic and fresh ginger were pulverized in her new toy - the mini Cuisinart.)

Let it soak up the mixture for about 30 minutes on each side and then throw it on the grill, making sure you char on cross-hatches.

• Comments (1)