Spuds - - Page 9

by Edouble

All Hail the Hollandaise of Beef

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…

in Red Meat 4 comments

by BS

What Would St. Patrick Eat?

When holidays come around, the ES mailbag tends to fill up with letters from worried readers unsure how to properly prepare for the coming celebratory feasts. Since it is almost St. Patrick’s Day – one of our most exciting holidays, at least in terms of ingestion – we’re taking this opportunity to address some of these questions publicly. Hence, our newest feature: Ask ES.

Send your comments, concerns and food-related dilemmas to info@endlesssimmer.com

The Feast of St. Patrick:

Dear ES,

March is upon us and I find myself thinking… what would St. Patrick eat? Naturally, green, white and gold must figure somewhere, but aside from pistachio muffins and my own bland tri-colour risotto, I’m at a loss.

So, I challenge ES to concoct something appropriately coloured and tasty… Extra points for incorporating Guinness. Or vodka, just coz I like vodka.

Ailbhe

by BS

Shake Shack it Like a Polaroid Picture

Many apologies to all my Beyonces and Lucy Lius who are sick of reading about this obsessively over-chronicled burger stand, but as an NYC-based food blogger, I am contractually obliged to write about Shake Shack at least once per calendar year. Seeing as how it is December 28th, here goes. The following is an on-the-record gchat with our celebro-food-photog Brian:

Brian: hey, want to meet for cheese fries before the show?

BS: it’s open all year now?

Brian: YEAH!

BS: nice…yeah i’m in…who i am kidding that i will get anything else done today

Brian: haha
we’re dating
dinner and a show

BS: cheapest date ever!

Brian: lets blog it!

BS: oh absolutely

Brian: haha

BS: shakeshake in december is def newsworthy

Brian: bring your camera

BS: done

Brian: awesome

BS: i have a question…am I allowed to get a milkshake or is that too crazy?

***

Reason Number 123,549 why I would rather eat in New York than anywhere else. You can order a black-and-white milkshake at an outdoor cafe on a 30-degree day and no one so much as bats an eye.

in Cheese / Drinks 1 comments

by gansie

Fry, Baby, Fry

Chanukah is mostly about presents. Every kid and wanna-be kid knows that. But it started as a celebration about finding enough oil to light candles. Or something like that.

And like most Jewish holidays, this translates into food. So, we celebrate and cook with oil for eight days. Well, not that every other day I don’t cook in oil , but still, I usually don’t go to the trouble of grating onions and potatoes.

Yes, those lovely potato pancakes – latkes.

Okay, switching stories now, bear with me.

(KOD and me!)

So a few weeks back, I took El with me to see Kim O’Donnel at her book signing for: A Mighty Appetite for the Holidays: Kitchen Tricks for the Feasting Season.

I love me some KOD: I read her blog daily and her chat weekly, so naturally, I had to support her first book. It’s a great, pint-sized, book that takes the reader from Thanksgiving to New Years, ensuring delicious food for the entire holiday season.

And, this collection of recipes receives the first “Seal of Simmer” from the Endless Simmer Book List. Congrats, Kim!

Okay, back to cooking. The first recipe I tried from A Mighty Appetite for the Holidays was latkes. Now, if you’ve followed ES for a bit, you’ll remember my previous potato disaster. Clearly, I was nervous. But, I trusted that KOD could guide me to perfect potato pancakes.

in Eggs 8 comments

by 80 Proof

Sweet Potato Goodness

Sorry to bombard our loyal readers with more posts about my cooking, I’ll try to keep this one short. Over Thanksgiving, our family made a sweet potato dish that was so simple, yet so tasty, even 80P couldn’t screw it up.

I’ve never had a penchant for the orange potato quite like some have. I didn’t obsess over a restaurant that makes fries with them, or drool all over a steaming hot sweet baked potato. I knew plenty of you people, I just wasn’t one of you. They were just fine in my book, but I would have rather found my starch the old fashioned way. But having made this dish twice, I can now say that I too crave sweet potato. I have a small window into the minds of you crazy people, if only for a brief instance.

This dish is not meant to be a main course, nor does it allow you to show off your cooking talents to your date. It’s not going to shock your taste buds and make the next sip of wine taste like Hi-C. This dish will never fail you though, it’s like an old standby you can prepare without thinking, while concentrating on the small pheasant burning in your oven.

6 comments

by gansie

Thanks-gay-ing

Editors Note: Don’t worry, the Thanksgiving posts will soon be over.
Here’s a review of Britannia’s meal of thanks.

Turkeyday in DC, and as the English dude, I’m the *obvious* host. Irony alright. The following is the outcome of mixing a bunch of gays, food, holiday and alcohol.

Roasted Pumpkin Stew

Roast a bunch of vegetables – leek, fennel, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, garlic, onion. Add the roasted vegetables to a pot of wine, water, and porcini mushrooms, and let stew. Strain the stew to create a stock. Turn the stock into a sauce by making a roux. Roast celeriac, parsnips, fennel, carrots, and shallots. Hollow out the pumpkin, added a bit of the aforementioned sauce, and roast in oven with olive oil and seasonings for an hour. Add roasted vegetables to pot of seitan and forest mushroom/chanterelles. Put vegetable/mush/seitan sauce into pumpkin and let roast until hot. Serve.

***

Rutabaga and Carrots Mash

Who said rutabaga can’t be fun and yummy, steam with equal parts carrots, drain, add butter, cream and s&p then mash, mash away. You’ll get this tasty yummy healthy treat. (butter is healthy, damn you)

***

Roasted Potatoes

These roasties are a great alternative to the mash or sweet potatoes, peel and boil the spuds for twenty minutes, drain then shake in the pot until the potatoes are all fluffy, throw in the oven with lots of evoo, fresh chives, garlic and the usual seasoning, s&p. Roast until golden brown, about an hour and a half.

More recipes post jump.

in Desserts / Fowl / Holiday / Veggie 3 comments