May 2006 Archives

(Photo: TPCs Scaryaki Halibut Salad)

This is one of those "Here's what you got, make something up" dishes that totally kicked butt. I call it "Scaryaki" because it was spicy and flavorful enough to peel paint!

I started by marinating some halibut filets (thanks, Lloyd!!!) in more or less equal parts of soy sauce, chili garlic paste, and Sriracha hot sauce, stuff that should be in your refrigerator at all times, I think. Make extra, so you have some to use as a dipping sauce.

I got a cast iron skillet really hot, added a touch of oil to it, then fried my halibut filets. Warning: you might want to stand back a bit, the spicy aroma is a bit intense. I, of course, breathe it in like Vapo-Rub...

The salad couldn't be simpler. A small head of butter lettuce, washed, outer leaves removed, and broken in half. An amazingly simple but incredible oil and vinegar from two parts Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva and one part Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Bianco, kosher salt and pepper. I still haven't topped this extraordinary combination and I've tried, believe me. A few snipped organic chives from the herb garden and then plated it all up.

It blew me away. I'm really trying to watch my diet these days, eating healthy stuff all week so I can splurge a bit on the weekends, and this dish really reinforced the idea that big, bold flavors can do a good job substituting for a lack of fillers.

(Photo: TPCs Tiramisu)

I made some tiramisu for a party Saturday night, and it turned out really well.

Tiramisu, which means "pick me up", is a classic. Savoiardi, or lady fingers, are dipped in expresso and some sort of alcohol, generally marsala wine, brandy, amaretto, coffee liquor, or rum, then layered in a dish or parfait glass with a decadent blend of marscapone, which is an Italian cream cheese; egg yolks, sugar and whipped egg whites. Alternating layers of bittersweet chocolate make it something to savor.

Though incredibly rich, a good tiramisu is lighter than you might imagine it. The lady fingers, if dipped or brushed properly don't become compacted under the weight of the egg/cheese mixture, and when the egg whites are folded in properly to the marscapone, it gives it a light, fluffy texture.

There's a lot of bad tiramisu out there, don't let it keep you from seeking out the real thing.

What did you cook for Memorial Day?

We had a ridiculous amount of spam over the Memorial Day weekend, so I've really cranked up the spam filter to stun levels. If your comment doesn't appear after you post it, please email me. Remember, you have to delete "REMOVETHESEWORDS" from my email address to send it.

I DON'T LIKE SPAM!!!!!!!!!

... from Desert Island Foods™.com, enjoy it and have a safe holiday.

What's on the menu today? Keep those cameras by the grill!

(Photo: Mary)

I don't want to flog my "day job", but just a reminder that our BBQ Lovers gift basket is up at Desert Island Foods.com.

It's the perfect gift for Dad! It contains:

• A tin of Survival Spice™ along with a booklet with tips for use.
• Our popular DIF Logo Apron.
• An E-Z Hook®.
• A nifty Survival Spice™ refrigerator magnet.

The packaging includes a cool dual tone basket, with clear cellophane wrapping (it looks colored in the pic, I know, it was shot against a light gray background), and tied up with colorful raffia.

Only $29.99, so it's a great value, I think. We also have cool DIF T-shirts, plus everything in the basket is available seperately, too.

Hiya, hiya, hiya. Happy Friday, everyone! This is probably an unfair thing to do on a Friday, but here's a quick quiz sent in by Joe, thanks! I think. The snarky comments aren't mine, or course, I could never be that cynical, could I?

I actually got most of these, let's see how you do!

Have a great Memorial Day, everyone. Keep your camera by the grill and email me your pics.

And seriously, please take a moment to reflect on what this holiday is about. Then cook something good, willya?

(TPC's Penne Arrabbiata con Pollo)

Here's another delicious and easy dish. This is great baked in an over for an hour or more, but I'm giving you the quick version.

I used chicken thighs because I had them on hand, and I really like them. They work well in a simmered dish like this because they have enough fat to keep them moist. If you make this with breasts, you'll want to cook them off almost entirely then remove them while the sauce comes together, adding any juices from the meat to the skillet, of course. Adding peppers and onions (some add mushrooms as well) would make it a cacciatora, but I didn't go that route.

To define a few terms, Arrabbiata means "angry", referring to the spiciness in the dish. Cacciatora is an Italian word for "hunter", inferring a rustic style of cooking.

Easy, easy, easy. Here's how it came together.

(Photo: Biggles, of his Ball Tip roast with butter, rosemary and Survival Spice™)

Man, I'm lame. A great blog buddy had his third blog-birthday and I was too busy stupid to note it at the time.

I know most of you know Guy Prince, aka Dr. Biggles, from his Food Fight entries and great comments, so I won't introduce each of you individually. Plus, that would take a really long time, but Guy is really passionate about great ingredients and taking the time to prepare them properly. His blog is filled with fantastic pics and a folksy writing style that communicates well his intensity and passion for food. He's never been a pro cook, though I know a lot of fans in the Bay Area that wish he was!

Get over there and wish Meathenge a Happy Birthday, will ya? And take a few minutes (or a few days) to peruse his wonderful archives full of meaty goodness, if you've never taken the time to do it. I'm honored to know him.

This came via email from Julie, thanks! I don't know anything about the site, topfive.com, but this was really funny, with a food theme so ya gotta love that.

Rumination of the Day

I don't know how many types of beans
he had to go through before the guy who
invented coffee came up with the right one,
but I'll bet his pinto latte and caramel
mochagarbanziatto tasted pretty nasty.

(Brad Wilkerson)

(Photo: Mary)

Update: The gift basket is up at Desert Island Foods.com and at Amazon.

Father's Day is coming, and we have the perfect gift for Dad! I'll have more info soon, but this cool BBQ Lover's basket contains a tin of Survival Spice™ along with a booklet with tips for use, our popular DIF Logo Apron, an E-Z Hook®, and a nifty Survival Spice™ refrigerator magnet. The packaging includes a cool dual tone basket, with clear cellophane wrapping (it looks colored in the pic, I know, it was shot against a light gray background), and tied up with whatever-you-call-that stuff.

Price? Only $29.99. How do we do it? VOLUME!!!! Okay, that's overstating it a bit, but we've been able to buy in larger quantities, and we're happy to share the savings with you.

I'll have a link up later in the day. Seriously, this is really great quality stuff at a really great price. Take care of the old man this year, wouldja?

From the Chicago Sun-Times that I found over at CBI:

Chicago Sun-Times: Willie Jacobs, a 69-year-old retired machinist, was doodling on a napkin while rehabbing from a heart attack when he came up with the concept for a tilted soup bowl.

Seven years later, with a patent and mold in his possession and a manufacturer under contract, Jacobs and his wife, Linda, now find their product listed in one of the largest professional rehabilitation catalogs in the country and on the shelves at local Walgreens stores.

Very cool idea, I think, and not just for the elderly and kids. I don't know if I would buy them, but I have to admire him for his creativity!

Here's an email from Chris, past Food Fight winner and Desert Island Foods™.com fan:

I made a couple simple things today, and thought I'd share.

First up was breakfast. This is mini bagels with a salmon cream cheese and fresh spinach. I was wishing I would've added a little red onion and capers. A step further would've been plain cream cheese and more smoked salmon.

Next up lunch. After getting some exercise in, we just wanted simple. This is bow tie pasta, with a little red onion, handful of black beans, and pesto, romano cheese. Maybe I like red onion too much. Could've left the black beans out, though.

As I read Chris's email, being the hedonist that I am, I kept thinking of things to add- grilled sausage to the pasta, sauteeing the spinach and adding a poached egg to make a sort of Eggs Florentine, etc., but then I stopped long enough to admonish myself; "Hey, idjit, he's trying to cook healthy!"

I need to do more of this myself. Thanks, Chris! His breakfast is below the fold.

Got food pics to share? Email me!

(Photo: John's Veal Piccata)

John really nailed this. I wish I had taken a picture of it plated, but after a long, frustrating day of engine trouble on my flight, which resulted in a six hour delay in Kansas City, I was ready to relax and drink some wine.

John makes his piccata the old fashioned way, pounding out veal cuts, dredging them in flour and sauteeing them off, then making his pan sauce with butter, capers, parsley and lemon juice, then adding the veal back to the skillet and bringing it all together.

The frites he served with the piccata were spectacularly good, I'll post them next week.

Update 6/1/06: The Survival Frites are posted here

Happy Friday, everyone! This week we have some things to think about, courtesty of Val. Email me jokes you think can make the Friday Funny, please!

Have a great weekend, and cook something good, willya?

(Photo: Butch's Red Pepper Soup)

Busy day here, but I want to continue with some pictures from a great dinner I had while in Chicago for the Fancy Foods Show. Sorry I don't have more info on this yet, but I'll update this when I get it. It's a really nice pepper-based cream soup garnished with a fried shrimp and I think some julienned leeks. I easily could have made a meal out of this and Carolyn's awesome salad, but there's more to come!

(Photo: Carolyn's Salad Nicoise)

I'm back. Tired yet invigorated by all the great food and experiences of the last 10 days.

Pathetically, I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did have my camera with me one night at a dinner party with some friends in Chicago. They have a great loft downtown with a huge kitchen, perfect for a pro cook like John. The menu was a red pepper soup, salad nicoise, veal picatta, frites, and chocolate mousse. I was done with my camera by dessert, so no pics of the mousse, but I'll post a few pictures over the next week or so.

Carolyn made a great salad Nicoise, which means in the style of Nice, and because Carolyn is French, so much the better! Filled with organic greens, corn, potatoes, cucumber, olives, tomatoes, green beans, eggs, thinly sliced onion and chopped parsley, she made a wonderful vinagerette of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and mayonaisse to dress it.

It was a great party, casual, great wine and conversation with cool people I hadn't met before, and with the priority where it needs to be- the food, IMHO. Carolyn's salad was a great start, more soon...

Dave DeWitt, publisher of Fiery Foods magazine which hosts the Scovie Awards each year, and his cohort Ray Lampe set out recently on an exploration of North Carolina barbecue. Check it out, especially if you're living vicariously through them like I am! I'd definitely love to take a trip like that one of these days, though personally vinegar sauces aren't really my preference.

I've had people ask me how I would classify Survival Spice™, and to me anyway, it's a Tennessee meets Texas meets Arizona kind of blend. I guess that makes it unique, don't you think?

No, this isn't a picture of my breakfast as I'm breaking camp...

This was sent in by Val, who thought it would be appropriate. Hey, this is a classy blog, it's full of good ideas and great food, I'm offended!

Okay, not really. It's Monday and I'm still on the road, but I'll be home late tomorrow night. I've got pics of a great meal I had in Chicago, but for now we'll have to entertain ourselves with this. It could use a caption though, don't you think?

I'll start:

"Biggles was incredibly disappointed once the loving restoration of his new mega-smoker was complete."

Your turn!

Here's another one from the archives that I really enjoyed. I think this is a good example of having something in mind that you'd like to make, then using whatever you have on hand to achieve it. I'll definitely make this again, it's a Southwestern tip of the hat to a great French classic.

Here's the original post:

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm still on the road until Wednesday, but ya gotta have a Friday Funny, right?

Here's a good one from Janella. Have a great weekend and cook yourself something good, willya?

I mentioned that I'd post some "greatest hits" while I'm out of town, but this might have to qualify as a "greatest miss."

It was delicious, but I think it's important to have some humility as a cook, and to always be aware that a potential disaster is right around the corner! As you become a better cook, you have more tools in your bag to mitigate a disaster and even create something new and cool out of it.

Er, this wasn't one of those times...

My cowboy cupcake recipe was posted here.

The original post follows:

(TPC's Standing Rib Roast with Salt Crust)

I'm traveling until the 17th, so here's something from the archives that I thought merited updating. It's been a year since I wrote it, and one thing I would add is how important salt is to cooking.

Salt increases the succulence of food by stimulating saliva production on the tongue and in your mouth. More saliva spreads the food you're eating over more taste buds, so more taste bud contact, more perception of flavor. This is why even sweet foods like fruit and dessert benefit from light salting. There are so many types of salt out there that the topic deserves its own post at some point, but whatever salt you use, get rid of the table salt! If you need iodine in your diet, fine, supplement it but at least upgrade your pantry to include kosher salt!

What's your favorite salt? I have some Hawaiian Sea Salt from a friend's back yard that just blows me away every time I use it on a great steak.

Here's my original post:

Dig this:

The Great American Dessert Expo is co-located with Coffee Fest in Las Vegas. For the dessert industry not only was the show an opportunity to showcase some of the best products in the multi-billion dollar dessert industry; it was an opportunity to take advantage of a significant common visitors base of the premier coffee show. The show attracted 4,000 retailers, chefs, food service operators, gourmet shops, coffee shops, caterers, restaurants and wholesalers.

I can't even imagine going to the Dessert and Coffee show. I'd come home in a twitching, diabetic coma.

Well, another day of bedlam, snacking and talking to food folk. The Fancy Food Show and the Organic show struck me as being bigger this year, but a few people I talked to remarked about how the big food distributers commanded more space. The FF show shares a hall with the Produce show, which was definitely larger, so I think that might have had an impact on my perception, too. I tried quite a few things I thought might be appropriate for Desert Island Foods™.com, so I'll certainly be evaluating those more closely.

The Organic show was definitely more impressive than last year. It seems like the big boys are getting into the all natural/organic biz in a major way, which is a tribute to the success that the 'good food' movement is having. It seems like the "fad" of healthy food, filled with things you can pronounce, at a reasonable price, is catching on! Who knew?

(Photo: TPC)

I haven't had much of a chance to do much cooking, let alone take pictures of it, because I'm heading out of town tomorrow for 10 days. I had to cook something before I left, though, and you can't go wrong with pizza, right?

Here's the latest in a series of pizzas I've been making, and this one is a twist on a classic. It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but the entire pizza is covered with sandwich sized slices of pepperoni.

This week's Friday Funny comes from Kathleen, the joke machine!

Have a great weekend, everyone. Cook something good, willya?

FYI, I'll be traveling until the 17th but I'll be posting on a more or less regular schedule, though I might put up a "greatest hits" post occasionally, which I think it would be fun to see again anyway.

Got food pics and jokes? Email me!

The latest edition of the Desert Island Foods™ newsletter, Island Currents, is now up! In addition to mentioning that we're now selling on Amazon.com, we also remind you that Mother's Day is coming.

Check it out, and if you aren't on the mailing list, which gives you discounts and special offers but NOT spam, go to our Desert Island Foods™.com main page, and click in the bottom right Newsletter section to subscribe.

We do not share our mailing lists with anyone.

Paul, aka Chilebrown, has sent in another really creative dish. Naturally, I have to applaud anyone with the good sense to use Survival Spice™ on ribs, of course...

This is a creation I call Methusela. It was ribs coated with Surival Spice. I baked it in a spiral, in the oven. and served it with Fresh Asparagus and Rice Pilaf. The Tri Tip came marinated from the butcher. It was a sweet marinade with flavors of Soy Sauce. The Truffled oil was served over the Pilaf and Asparagus.

Nice, Chile! His truffle oil was made from Oregon truffles and our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva. Truffle oil is a great thing to have in your pantry, it gives a lot of dimension to a dish without being too intrusive, plus it's much more cost effective than buying truffles, though Paul mentioned that they were pretty reasonable.

Here's his marinated tri-tip, cooked just right:

Email me your food pics! We love to see them, especially because I'm going to be too busy to be cooking much for the next few weeks.

I'll be headed to Chicago for the 2006 Spring Fancy Foods Show again this year. The cool thing about the spring show is that it's actually 5 shows in one, and I'll be spending a lot of time again at the Organics show, too.

What's at the Show:

Over 350 domestic exhibitors from around the country. In one place at one time, you can discover new lines and items to add new distinction and appeal to your establishment. Most exhibitors are entrepreneurs who developed the recipe and started the company, so you can learn about the products and do business with decision-makers. And at this Spring Show, you'll find many local Midwest exhibitors with regional or ethnic products.

International Pavilions presenting exotic new specialty foods from all over the world.

A wealth of Special Events. Previous events included Chef Cooking Demonstrations and a Beer and Cheese Tasting.

Focused Exhibits® offer you a targeted area where you can find products that appeal to a certain segment of trade. There are currently five

Focused Exhibit categories: What's New?, Gift Avenue, Natural and Organic Foods, Kosher Foods and Foodservice Spoken Here.

Focused Tastings® offer you a chance to taste and compare products in three hot categories, such as Olives and Olive Products, Salsa or Tea.

Seminars and Workshops. The NASFT presents up to a dozen seminars, four workshops and several events at each Fancy Food Show.

Plus, there's lots of tasty snacks...

(Photo: Carin)

Carin sent me this shot of the Dutch Baby she made recently. The original recipe I posted is at the link above, and Carin's turned out beautifully. She used strawberries instead of the fruit compote I made, which sounds like a great idea. The dough itself isn't sweet, but you could easily make this more of a dessert by adding whipped cream.

Carin didn't say much, but here's her review:

It was de-lish :)

Short and sweet.

Thanks, Carin! If you have a picture of a dish you'd like to share, email me.