When I began waiting tables at The Provinces during my college days, I already a très sophistiqué understanding of French Cuisine from my tenure as a professional Crêpe Assembler (actual job title) at the Magic Pan. Additionally my authority was bolstered by my mastery of "Instant Haute … [Read more...]
CELERY TWO WAYS: RECIPE SSD #2
The second in our series of easy recipes (Simply Spectacularly Delicious if you missed it the first time with Honey Broiled Grapefruit.) Celery Two Ways is braised celery hearts atop a bed of mashed celery root. Lifted from Daniel Bouloud. If you're going to steal recipes, why not from the masters? BTW, Bouloud recipes are always way better in a Bouloud … [Read more...]
BAY LEAF ROASTED NEW POTATOES: LORENZA DE’MEDICI
If ever I need to retreat to a happy place, I can turn to my well-thumbed copy of "The Renaissance of Italian Cooking" by Lorenza de'Medici. Her roasted baby potatoes, each with its own blade of bay leaf riding high across the top like a dorsal fin, makes me smile. I believe this was her first cookbook (I got it in the … [Read more...]
BRUSSELS SPROUTS HASH WITH BACON
You want drama? I'll give you drama. Brussels Sprouts Hash with Bacon recipe drama. Bring one of these bad boys to your Thanksgiving feast preparations with your trusty mandolin and you'll put on quite a show. Dream-boat Celeb chef Tyler Florence demoted this recipe at the S.D. Culinary you might recall I was posting about a few weeks ago. This is his … [Read more...]
BAKED PAPAYA: 100 MILES.COM “CHEF WALLY” RECIPE
There's something so intrinsically mid-century California about this Baked Papaya recipe originally created by "Chef Wally." When our spoons broke through the cheese-encrusted top to the warm and savory pudding-like depths below, we were transported to Palm Springs in the 1960s. Perhaps at a cozy supper at Lew … [Read more...]
HUITLACOCHE MAC AND CHEESE
Huitlacoche: the corn smut that is Mexico's proud answer to Europe's finest truffles. If you likes yourself some funk, here it is in spades in this recipe for Huitlacoche Mac and Cheese. Huitlacoche fungus tumors (or "cuitlacoche" as spelled on the label here) are not a pretty site on the cob; I recoiled in … [Read more...]
ZUCCHINI BOATS: GOURMET STUFFED ZUCCHINI RECIPE
Though relatively simple, little canoes of stuffed squash, such as this recipe for zucchini boats, carry vaguely dark Teutonic memories flavored with Mittel-European elegance. Laden with earthy parsnips and hearty Emmenthaler cheese, they are equally appropriate at a Baron's banquet as on Burgher's buffet. While filming the … [Read more...]
PICKLED SEABEANS (SALICORNIA)
Down at East Hampton's Three Mile Harbor, already mentioned about 100 times in S.D. posts about clams and oysters and the like, I've long eyed the lush clumps of Salicornia. This stalky succulent thrives in the salt marshes at water's edge, and now, at long last, I've been turned onto a great new recipe … [Read more...]
TOSTONES ZOILA
Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis yells downstairs to a sleeping Zoila: "Zoila, ZOILA! Wake up, get up here, we need you." "Cheffrey, I sleeping. I'm in pajamas. I not wearing a bra." "Get up here, now, we need you." Recently House Beautiful editor Newell Turner and I were invited to Valley Oak to talk about the Rock Center … [Read more...]
CORN RELISH
This recipe for corn relish is a flagship of Springy Banks Cannery (a.k.a. my kitchen). Rather than elaborate with frills and filigrees, as is so often the case when I repeat recipes year after year, this minimalist treatment is the Mies van der Rohe of corn relish recipes. Hey let's drag in another pretentious reference! Coco Chanel is on record … [Read more...]