Spring yard sale season is in full swing here in East Hampton with treasures galore to be had for a pittance. Witness my new Wilton kugelhopf pan - never used, label intact though showing the benign neglect earned by long storage under sub-optimal conditions. No matter, it was well worth its 25¢ price tag. And not just any label, but one with a recipe! The Wilton recipe … [Read more...]
SCOTCH EGGS
By all rights Scotch eggs should be a lot more popular than they are. Hard boiled eggs, yolks just barely firm, are wrapped in sausage meat then breaded and fried. What could be bad? I suppose it's the frying part that holds most people back. But why professional kitchens don't whip up Scotch eggs along with the megatons of French fries and chicken fingers they pump out is a … [Read more...]
WHITE CLAM PASTA WITH SEA BEANS – LINGUINI ALLE VONGOLE
Freshly foraged briny little sea beans pair beautifully with just-dug quahogs for a hearty, down-home tangle of linguine alle vongole. And the best part is out here in East Hampton the ingredients are only as far away as the water. At water's edge of our favorite clam bed in Three Mile Harbor is a healthy stretch of sea beans. Also known as salicornia, glass wort and … [Read more...]
CUPOLA di BUCATINI / PASTA DOME RECIPE
Frequent readers will know that Spectacularly Delicious has a fondness for tall food. From croquembouche pyramids to kugelhopf ziggurats, the peaks of Mont Blancs to tumbling cascades of lobster, we take the "haute" in haute cuisine very seriously. That goes for alta cucuina as well. The arching swell of Spec D's Pasta al Duomo is joined by another architectural marvel: … [Read more...]
LOBSTER CASCADE WITH OYSTERS A LA RUSSE IMPERIAL
This magnificent Lobster Cascade centerpiece rising from a platter of Oysters à la Russe Impérial is lifted directly from TV's classiest soap opera, Downton Abbey. Poor Lady Edith, jilted bride, humiliated and bed-bound with despair, bleakly regards a spinster's future. Whilst recognition of her reduced status tearfully dawns, staff scurry to erase all traces of the annihilated … [Read more...]
POPPED CHERRY TOMATOES
You know when you go a restaurant and the food seems simple and straight forward and yet it tastes so much better than you expected it ever could? Out in San Francisco Tyler Florence's Wayfare Tavern and El Paseo restaurants serve up these epiphanies plate after plate, night after night. Having access to the best meats, freshest vegetables and fine butters and oils and … [Read more...]
KUGELHOPF SURPRISE REVISITED
I am very happy to report that SpecD's recipe for the original, authentic Majestic Kugelhopf Surprise stands the test of time. And now you can get a behind the scenes look in this video of How to Make Kugelhopf Surprise. One of the first recipes posted on Spectacularly Delicious in 2009, Kugelhopf Surprise has been a reliable show stopper for at least 20 years. Kugelhopf … [Read more...]