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by BS

The Power of Salt

Remember when salt used to come only from those large cylindrical containers, and it was really just an afterthought, casually sprinkled atop your bland meal? I’m not sure what happened, but somewhere along this crazy foodie journey I ended up with six different kinds of salt that currently live on my kitchen counter (not to mention the salt block, for full-on salt cooking), and deciding which salt pairs with which dish is one of the toughest parts of cooking dinner.

I recently received a package of Salt Revolution’s Aztec Sea Salt, and I have to say this is one of my favorite ones yet. Harvested from Mexico’s Cuyutlán Lagoon over a 45-day period each year, it’s sorted by hand in small packages, and combines a beautiful, subtle salty flavor with just the right amount of crunch — it comes in big, flaky pieces, much smoother than a jagged piece of rock salt, so it settles in your mouth in just the right way. Their small-batch approach means that each harvesting season they sell salt until their supply is gone; you can sign up to find out when the new batch is available.

Adapting a dough recipe from one of my go-to cookbooks, The New Spanish Table, I whipped up this coca-dough flatbread, topped with onions, rosemary, pine nuts, pancetta and goat cheese…and of course, some finishing salt sprinkled on top!

Sea Salt Flatbread

by Katt Kasper

Salad, Please…Hold the Lettuce

As this is my first post of 2013 I’ve brought all of you a special gift: 15 more pounds of me! This is in addition to the extra 6 pounds that I gained LAST year during the holidays. I don’t know what comes over me but during the last 6 weeks of the year I go on an eating, drinking and cooking bender that always results in a resolution of diet and exercise. Except that last year I never dropped the 6 new pounds which means that I am now 21 pounds heavier than I was in 2011.

But fear not ESers, this isn’t going to turn into a diet column anytime soon. I’m simply going to apply the M word to my daily intake and consume food in realistic proportions. From now on, whenever I make a pie I will divide it into equal pieces and down a SINGLE slice instead of just grabbing a fork and eating until the pan is empty. The same goes for pasta. A one-pound bag used to be my normal portion but from now on I will make sure that I get at least 4 servings out of each package. Preferably at 4 different meals!

I will even DRINK in moderation. I’ve cut my alcohol consumption down to 3 days a week instead of 3 times a day. No more shot-and-a-beer breakfasts during the week. From now on it’ll be…uh…whatever everyone else normally has for breakfast! I probably won’t even need the aspirins anymore. I could actually start taking real vitamins instead of telling everyone that my aspirins are vitamins.

OK, wait a minute here. Let’s start with baby steps. I’m going to need food that tastes good and fills me up so that I can stop eating like a termite with a tapeworm. Some healthy side dishes that will help me moderate my serving portions. Something fresh and clean like an oriental cucumber salad, but with more than just cucumbers. Something – like this:

Katt’s Cucumber, Onion and Bell Pepper Salad

in Recipe / Veggie 0 comments

by Katt Kasper

The Bourbon Grilled Cheese Sandwich of Etherus

Hey, guess who I bumped into the other day? Etherus. You know, the Santharian God of Excess. Not to brag but he’s a personal friend. Yeah, we go waaay back. He likes to drop by unexpectedly. Usually whenever I break out the bourbon. That’s a bad habit of his but what can I do? He just doesn’t take a hint. Like the other night while I was watching a football game and sipping on some sour mash when, sometime after the half, who shows up? The E-Man. It seems that E was hungry and thought that a grilled cheese sam’itch might hit the spot. Yeah, that might taste real good about now. But not just ANY grilled cheese. Oh, noooooo. Not for the G of E. He had a reputation to uphold. It was time to step it up! A little cheese between two hunks ‘a bread just wasn’t gonna cut it! It was all in and balls out! The following abomination is what he came up with.

The Bourbon Grilled Cheese Sandwich of Etherus

in Bacon / Cheese / Featured / Personal / Recipe / Sandwich 4 comments

by gansie

Follow the Leader: It’s All in the Twirl

Last summer I snagged an invite to a Bon Appetit book signing party for their 770-page Fast Easy Fresh. While juggling Sweetgreen‘s froyo in one hand, a glass of wine in another, and this book in between my arm and my boob, I made my way over to Barbara Fairchild for a signature. We briefly chatted about my oven’s inability to keep heat and then I was off, lugging this book back to my apartment, wondering where to fit this thick, heavy dead tree.

And that was the last time I touched the book. Until Monday’s dinner. I pulled Bon App and Gourmet’s March 2009 mags, plus this monster.

I had one ingredient in mind: parsnips. Ever since my pizza laced with parsnips, I’ve been wanting to cook them myself. Fast Easy Fresh had one parsnip recipe. It was bullshit.

It told me to peel the parsnips, cut them, season with oil, salt and pepper and roast at 425 for 35 minutes. HOW IS THAT A RECIPE. That is crap. That is not interesting. That is not creative. It is not worthy of half a page. Bon App – I turn to you for inspiration. I could have found this on some generic Cooks.com site.

I roasted them anyway, cut in coins, with the addition of Herbs de Provence. But this was only part of my ad hoc meal. And actually the least important.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments