Don’t Stop Sous Vide-ing | Endless Simmer

One lastsous videpost for‘ya!

When we last left our humble SousVide Supreme machine, we had learned that cooking sous vide is not quite as revelatory as Top Chef had led us to believe, although it is pretty darn impressive forcooking meat exactly perfect through every bite. Now you know we weren’t gonna send this bad boy back before finding out how it canhandle an egg.

And once again, the answer is“perfectly…if you’ve got all day.”

Set at the correct temperature, the SousVide supreme can cook a soft boiled egg with a perfect, runny center every single time— no more risks of overcooked yolks! The problem is that it takes 45 minutes.

FYI– I took my sous vide egg and threw it over a crispy tostada, topped with some black beans and sriracha sauce, for a sort of crazy play on juevos rancheros.

We tried out a few hard-boiled eggs too, and while they took an hour, every egg was indeed cooked perfectly— with a beautiful yellow yolk, no graying whatsoever. So, if it’s breakfast for one, the SousVide Supreme seems a little inconvenient. But if you’re having a crazy soft-boiled egg party, or have to make egg salad for your entire extended family, then this guy is your best friend.

Previously:
Sous Vide Cookie Dough
The Sous Vide Supreme

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Summertime Recipes | Endless Simmer

Gansie’s recent post aboutavocados, citrus trees, and Hollywood celebrity sightingshad me envious of all that is SoCal, including the seemingly perpetual 75 degrees and sunny forecast. I woke up this morning and it was 49 degrees outside! You see, I live in a part of Pennsylvania where it also snows or flurries every day from December to March, so my envy was coming from the fact that summer is quickly coming to an end.

School busesare beginning to pop up on every block, some leaves are becoming slightly tinged with yellow, andpolitical ads are everywhere. Fall does have its culinary benefits; things like pumpkin pie, green chicken chili, agave and cinnamon acorn squash, pumpkin ravioli with sage butter, fresh orchard apples and the roast chicken with sausage and apple stuffing that I make with those apples….OK so maybe fall’s not all bad, but I am getting off track.

It is stillsummerand in the hopes of filling the remaining weeks of it with delectable meals for all those in ES nation, I thought I would post my top 3“summer” dishes. Summertime food to me does not have to be complex or have exotic ingredients.It is quick, simple, fresh, can often be cooked outside and pairs well with any adult cold beverage (my favorite lately has to beFlying Dog brewery’s Classic Pale Ale).Take a look and feel free to shout out your top summer dishes in the comments.

3. Grilled Sweet Corn with Chili-Lime butter

Variations of this have popped up more and more on many a cooking show, but for good reason; it may be one of the simplest and tastiest sides out there. Corn’s flavor doesn’t last long. As soon as it is picked, the sugars in each kernel start turning into starch, so the key is to get it fresh. Whether it is a farmers market or a roadside stand, you can find it almost anywhere during the summer. I have seen recipes suggest that you should soak the husks in water and other such steps, but I firmly believe that down and dirty is the way to go. Husk the corn, toss it on a hot grill and turn regularly until the kernels have a slight char. While the corn is cooking begin melting a stick of butter and add the juice of 1 lime. I leave the chili powder for everyone to sprinkle on themselves becausesome like it hotand some don’t. If you are feeling up to it, you can always make your own chili powder, which far outshines  any store-bought option.  For this dish, I recommend toastingdried chipotle peppers (smoked jalapenos)in a skillet for a few minutes on medium heat until they become nice and fragrant. After that, just grind them up, sprinkle and serve. If the citrus and heat doesn’t do it for you, make your own butter. Some ideas for flavors to incorporate could be roasted red pepper, green goddess, raspberry, almost any herb….the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

2. Grilled Tomato and Onion Salad

There has been quite a bit oftalk about tomatoeson ES recently so I will share one of my favorite uses. Fairly self-explanatory…hot grill+ olive oil+ your favorite tomato varietal+ vidalia onion= sweet, fresh, juicy deliciousness. Really all that is needed is to slice the tomato and onion, then lay them on a hot grill for a few minutes per side. Try not to mess with them too much but if you lose a tomato or two through the grates, just chalk it up to gaining experience. To up the flavor even more, a quick dressing can be made with: 1/4 cupred wine vinegar, 3 tbspbrown sugar, 1 tbspWorcestershire sauce, 3/4tomato sauceand 1 tspblack pepper. (If needed you can substitute agave nectar or any other sweetener for the sugar.) Mix everything together, put it in a small pan until it simmers and then whisk in tomato sauce and some olive oil to reach the consistency you want.

1. Crabtacular Faux Crab Cakes

So the wifey is from Southern Pennsylvania, near enough to Maryland that crabs were a regular part of her life growing up…she may hurt me for the way I phrased that, but it is staying in! However, now that we live in the Pa mountains, it is an ongoing challenge to find quality seafood. Because of this, in the summer we often utilize a great recipe for faux crab cakes, using fresh zucchini. It is a great substitute for the majority of us who may not be able to get fresh and reasonably priced crab meat. The ingredients and prep are simple.

Take the following: 2 1/2 cupszucchini(peeled and grated), 1 beatenegg, 1 tbspmelted butter, 1 tspOld Bay seasoning, 1/2 tsp preparedmustard, 1 cup seasonedbread crumbs, 1 smallonionchopped fine, a few choppedscallions, salt and pepper to taste. Mix all ingredients, form loose hockey puck sized patties and then cook. You can fry them stovetop in oil or just bake at 450 until golden.Saucingis up to you but I stick with just a little squeeze of lemon.

So there you go, some summer dishes beyond the typical coleslaw, potato salad, hot dogs and beans that are often pictured on checkered picnic tablecloths. With all of the fresh produce and cooking options in the summer, this list could be endless…so what are your faves?

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I’m Comin’Out Cake Batter | Endless Simmer

“I shot my load,” I replied to my friend Jon after he insulted my abundant pour of frozen yogurt, leaving little room for toppings. I thought the sentiment was particularly clever, as I simultaneously winked at the clerk.

At a *fat free* frozen yogurt shop in West Hollywood/BoysTown the flavors are homo-suggestively named, but more, are insanely delicious. This is anti-Pinkberry, the shop noted for starting the tangy froyo craze. Yogurt Stopis an X-rated yet A+ tasting TCBY, the bland frozen yogurt chain dominating suburban strip malls.

Cake batter won my taste buds over with its searingly sweet and familiar flavor. I have a thing for batter, as you may remember from mysous vide brainstorm of slow and low water bath cookie dough.

Jon, and his girlfriend Elizabeth—who made my trip by spottingJC from‘N Syncduring dinner atDominick’s—swear by the 3 : 1 ratio of toppings to yogurt. And real quick, this is what my friend Thresher had to say about this sighting:

Those nsync boys, I swear. They’re like the Hill staffers of LA–you run into them at every corner. On any given night in West Hollywood, you’re pretty much guaranteed to cross paths with Lance Bass and his fierce cadre of well-groomed muscle lads.

Anyway, here is what a Yogurt Stop snack is supposed to look like:

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ISO: Avocado Orchard | Endless Simmer

When I was planning my trip out for Southern California the number one item on my to-do list was to see an avocado tree. I receive press releases from the California Avocado Commission regularly—and once even was mailed a shipment of the fruit—so I decided to re-engage to see if I could schedule a trip out to an avocado orchard. At first they said yes, and that I could even interview a grower, but then they returned saying no, not at this time, and they were planning a“blogger” event next year. Heartbreak ensued.

So with one day left in Long Beach I’m really trying to make it happen. Although I will be in San Diego over Labor Day, I was hoping to knock that off my list during this trip.

While I am patiently waiting for an avocado tree sighting, I have laid my eyes on some pretty other cool food stuffs out here.

Satsuma.

This citrus tree (at top) grows in my friend Thresher’s balcony in Santa Monica. My friend Jon has a Meyer lemon tree and a blood orange tree growing in his back yard. Are you fucking kidding me? That’s all I have to say.

Sea Vegetables.

I’ve only seen sea vegetables called for inAlicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. Even in Japan I couldn’t identify them. But that wasthe least of our communication problems. I tried them at Real Food Daily, a vegan restaurant open since 1993. My dining partner, Thresher, a PETA employee, warned me that they’re funky. I was determined to try because it’s something I just couldn’t easily find in DC. And the shit was weird. Slimy. Bland. Blah. But cool looking. (Next to the sea vegetables: mashed potatoes with a kick ass nutritional yeast gravy.)

Faucet as Art.

The promotional street flags adorning tall-as-palm-tree poles in Beverly Hills proclaim: Celebrate 90210. I’m doing my my part by celebrating Jon’s highly functional and highly interesting kitchen faucet.

Also in SoCal
Artsy SoCal Photos of the Day
I’m Coming Out Cake Batter

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Artsy Guess the Photo of the Day | Endless Simmer

Found at the Marine Stadium Farmers Market. Long Beach, California.

Hint: This shares the name with a popular candy.

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Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 11 | Endless Simmer

The six chef-testants left were really starting to smell the finale this week. But one got sent packing. We chat with them, after the jump.

Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Her fellow chef-testants had been angling for weeks to see Amanda pack her knives hit the road. But she’s not bitter.

ES: Was it hard to watch your fellow chefs say you didn’t deserve to be there? And did you sense their feelings during the filming?
Amanda: I didn’t feel like that during filming. You know, I guess I’m sorry that they felt that way. I think I deserved to be there and I definitely do not think I got lucky. There’s no getting lucky with those judges.

Speaking of the judges, who was the most intimidating to cook for?
A lot of the other chefs had personal relationships or a history with the guest judges, and I didn’t. I never worked for any of them. So I just tried not to think about who they were, because that can throw you off your game. I just did my thing and tried to put out the best dish I could every time.

The judges gave you some flack for serving tuna tartare at the ballpark. Would you do that differently if you got another chance?
I wouldn’t pick something different. I was trying to stand out from the others. I was trying to take ballpark food and elevate it.  You go to the Staples Center now and you can get sushi. Anything’s available at stadiums nowadays, so I think it was a good choice.

You and Kelly both seemed pretty awe-struck by those gigantic Nationals players.
(Laughs.) I don’t know that I thought they were cute as much as I thought they were massive. I was trying to get ready to serve these throngs of people, that kitchen was really small and Tom just strolls in with these goliaths, and I’m like, what is going on here? Tom, this is not OK.

Who was your favorite guest star that you got to cook for?
Nancy Pelosi! I thought it was really awesome that she took the time to come judge us on Top Chef.

You were also pretty tickled by Angelo getting into Zen this week. Is that a regular ritual for him?
Yeah…(laughs). Yeah, definitely. I like Angelo. The Angelo that I know is kind of a goofball. In the beginning when he came off cocky, I thought that was funny, because that’s not the Angelo I know. He’s a pretty funny guy.

Last week,Alex told usyou were the one chef who could clear his name in the great pea puree scandal.
Alex did not steal the pea puree. He made it right next to me.

(Photos: Bravo)

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DC Dining Guide: Where To Bring Your Tea Partying Parents | Endless Simmer

With this weekend’sRestoring Honor Rallytaking place in DC , we expect many locals will have friends and family members visiting from out of town. Most likely from waaaay out of town. So we here at ES thought we’d do our patriotic duty and make their trip (and your lives) a little bit easier. Here is our guide to where to dine in DC with your not-so-liberal visitors…

Don’t Mess With DC
Finger lickin’ BBQ anddead animals on the wallhanging next to pictures of every Republican president who ever lived— atCapital Q Texan BBQyour parents will feel right at home. Don’t fret, you can join in on the fun and get your hands dirty with those delicious chicken wings, or take an extremely long bathroom break and head next door to party with your liberal brethren atRFD, a beer bar like no other. With over 300 beers you’re sure to find that perfectly brewed import, or perhaps a crisp Northeastern lager.

Something for Everyone
Nellie’s Sports Bardubs itself asports bar with a twist. With the twisted minds of the tea partiers they are sure to take a liking to this place, with fried foods, large beers, and TVs blaring all the sportscasts you could ask for. One might even overlook Mom (or you) gawking at the pretty bartenders and their ever so flamboyant tendencies. Surprise surprise, it’s a gay bar!

Made in America
I like to think ofBlue Duck Tavernas the quintessential upscale DC restaurant. With itsseasonally inspired menuyou’ll not find one item that is non-American, so this will certainly be a hit with any xenophobic aunt. The décor of handcrafted oaks and cold stone slates makes this is a perfect setting to take any cold hearted mother, just don’t tell them the Obamas dined here fordate night.

Old Dominion
If your parents cringe at the thought of spending their hard earned money in the federally funded District, take them across thesewagewater to the Commonwealth of Virginia, to eat atVermilion. Chef Anthony Chittum’s super chic menu will have your parents soon forgeting that Alexandria was once part of DC, and with the super-chic, $70 price tag, they’ll soon be elitist as the next person.

The Safe Zone
Most likely, your tea partying relatives will be too scared to leave the designatedsafe zone. But fear not, just point them in the direction of any street corner or park and within a matter of minutes they’ll have found one ofDC’s famous food trucks. I recommend the Mexican inspiredtacoorempanadatrucks, or my personal favorite, the ever so entertaining Indian food from theFojol Bros.  With any luck, if they wait around long enough perhaps they’ll be picked up by DC cops for loitering…sigh— we can only wish.

Where would you bring your out-of-town tea partiers? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

(Photo:Michelle Wennerholm)

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Carnitas Recipe | Endless Simmer

Editors’ Note: Please welcome new bloggerBorracho, who is joining the ES team to share stories of Hispanic cooking, foodie football fests, and more.

The wifey and I recently ventured out to a new local Mexican restaurant, and due to my almost maniacal obsession with all South of the Border cooking, I was delighted to see a simplecarnitasplate on the menu. However, what came out, while very good, was not exactly what I was looking for. It is tough to find carnitas that are the same at any two places. The word carnitas just means“little meats,” so they can be made of beef or pork and can be fried, braised, put in a slow cooker, thrown on a Foreman grill…you get the picture.

By the time we left the restaurant, my mouth was already watering at the idea of coming up with my own version. For me, ideal carnitas are the crispy on the outside, moist on the inside nuggets of pork gold I had from a street vendor in Mexico. That version had been simmered for hours in a large amount of lard. While I believe lard does not get nearly enough respect, leaving a couple pounds of it simmering on the stove for 10 hours would just be cruel to our dog, Guinness, so in stead I decided to go with amojoas the base liquid to cook my carnitas in.

Mojo is seen quite a bit in Cuban cooking and is a simple marinade that packs a punch of flavor. It has a ton of tart citrusy goodness and is one of my go-tos in the kitchen when I am looking for something that is quick and easy. For the mojo, I started with a quick sauté of garlic in olive oil and then tossed in all the other ingredients listed below. If you can find them in a Hispanic market near you, you should use sour oranges, but our local Wegman’s had none so I went with equal parts orange and lime juice. I let it all simmer for a few minutes to let theflavors blend and then poured it off to cool.

Mojo
1/3 cupolive oil
6 to 8 clovesgarlic, thinly sliced or minced
2/3 cup or equal portionsorange juice andlime juice
1/2 tsp groundcumin
Saltand freshly groundblack pepper, to taste

Carnitas

I decided to go withpork shoulderas my meat and wanted to make sure I had plenty left over because carnitas can be used as the meat in many Hispanic dishes. Our local butcher was able to give me a 5-lb cut which I knew would be perfect for enchiladas, quesadillas, tostados and even witheggs. You can use any cut that isn’t too lean but I like shoulder because it has a nice amount of fat that just melts away and helps keep the meat nice and tender when cooking.

I found a nice deep pot and fired up the stove on high to sear the pork, and then turned it down to a simmer before covering the meat in mojo. ( I made a double batch of mojo but feel free to just dilute it with water to cover the meat.) All that was needed now was time. It takes a few hours to make the pork tender enough to fall apart, so after taking the dog for a walk and getting some things done around the house, I finally checked in on the pot, which had already filled the house with a sweet mixture of pork, orange and garlic.

The meat was falling off the bone tender but I still needed to get that pork crispy enough to make a vegetarian salivate. I drained the liquid, shredded some pieces with a fork and sautéed them on high with just a little peanut oil until the meat caramelized. You can serve them however you want, but with a little lime, pico de gallo and homemade tortillas, my 4 hours of work was gone in 30 delicious minutes.

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Seltzer Works | Endless Simmer

Believe it or not, there was a time when you could not just make sparkling water at home. Long beforeSodastream, households across New York received their weekly shipments of fresh seltzer via deliverymen, just like we used to get milk and eggs (and how many of you have started getting veggies once again).

Today, there is just one seltzer deliveryman left in Brooklyn, down from several thousand 100 years ago.

Earlier this summer, I caught a screening ofSeltzer Works, Jessica Edward’s short film about the last old-school Seltzer man in Brooklyn, at the Rooftop Films festival. It’s a well-made film that bubbleheads everywhere will appreciate.  This week it can be seen on the PBS seriesPOV— Tuesday Aug. 24 at 10pm— orcheck your local listings.

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Artsy Drawing of the Day | Endless Simmer

This came up in a recent pictionary game. Your turn to guess.

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No More Day of Days | Endless Simmer

Memorial Day. Check. Fourth of July. Check. Labor Day. Check. Columbus Day. Eh, Check.

But fucking National Soft Serve Ice Cream Day! Really?!?! In the last few weeks I’ve been hit with a barrage of days, including yesterday’s soft serve. (Coincidently, I did enjoy salted caramel custard atDairy Godmother.)

Earlier this month, August 7th to be exact, the PR folks behind Grey Poupon told me to honor National Mustard Day. And, whoa!, it’s been 30 years since the original snobbery that starts with“Pardon Me…”

But I’m not sure either of these very special days can compare to, get this.

National Bulk Foods Day. On October 23rd we should recognize the 96% cost savings by shopping in the bulk foods aisle.Bulk is Green Council, however, forgot one thing: how the hell am I supposed to remember what I bought in my unlabeled bag-o-grains. Thesearch continues…

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Peaches‘N’Pita | Endless Simmer

As I mentioned earlier in the week, the veggie gf and I are spending the next month or so in San Francisco, while she completes a medical rotation here and I— well, eat. We found a nice little one-bedroom sublet on craigslist that was not a scam at all (phew) and have been spending most of our free time so far wandering the streets casually in search of grub.

Sunday morning, our first full day here, we strolled down the hill (goddamn, they are not kidding around about these hills) and stumbled into the Fort Mason farmers’ market, where the free samples alone were basically a full breakfast. There were about 12 varieties of fresh peaches, plums and nectarines cut up for people to try, and each of them was about 100 times better than anything I’ve tasted on the East Coast so far this year. Needless to say, we left with several different kinds of peaches to take home.

That night, I picked up some coffee before heading home (goddamn, these people are not kidding around about their coffee), and while at the store, grabbed some pita for breakfast in the morning— I like to toast it up and melt a little butter and maybe some herbs on it— a simple but satisfying breakfast.

So while our place is nice, it turns out the girl we are renting from is, shall we say, significantly less obsessed with cooking than I am. She has no toaster. No coffee maker. No microwave. No spices past salt and pepper. It turned out even my simple breakfast of toasted pita was too fancy for this bare kitchen. I had my single-brew coffee maker on hand for emergencies, but clearly, I had to improvise.

Peaches‘N’ Pita

I melted a pat of butter in a saucepan, cut the pita into bite size strips, then fried these up until they were just a little bit crispy.

I cut up the peaches into similarly sized pieces and threw those in the pan, that warmed‘em up with the pita for just a minute or two.

Ground just a tad of salt and pepper on the top. Could have used a pinch of cinnamon, but beggars can’t be choosers, can we?

Breakfast of the year? Not quite— but pretty proud I didn’t have to leave the house.

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The Line Between Simple and Stupid…| Endless Simmer

…is crossed when you spend money on this product.

I found the item above on the clearance table at the Williams-Sonoma store in Princeton, New Jersey. That, boys and girls, is a bottle of simple syrup that you can purchase for the low, low price of $3.99— a deal, mind you, because it’s marked down from $6.99. Sure, Williams-Sonoma is fun for some window shopping and general inspiration whenever you don’t feel foodie enough. It’s always a blast to poke around the gadgets, drool over the Le Creuset that you can’t afford and marvel over the fact that someone is actually willing to drop fifty bucks on a popsicle machine. (Isn’t that what your freezer is for?) But this is going too far.

In these tough economic times, let me save you some of your hard-earned money:

One part table sugar. One part water.  Boil until dissolved.  Cool.  Use. That’ll be seven dollars.

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This Needs to be Dal-ed Up | Endless Simmer

Granola bars. Chex mix. Water bottles. Single portion packets of Motrin. Tissues. Mini bottles of Jack and Bacardi. That was the contents of my friends Katie and Joe’s wedding gift bag. My gift bag, however, included two additional items: black mustard seeds and udad dal split matpe beans.

Just a few weeks ago Katie drove out to the‘burbs of Virginia or Maryland, I forget which one, and hit up an Indian grocery. She picked up extra goodies for me but in the craziness that is the weeks before a wedding we weren’t able to meet up. Brilliantly, she decided to drop it my gift bag. (Future brides take note!)

For a dinner my friend Raya hosted I decided to try out my newly received lentils.

Now I don’t usually pay for iPhone apps, but Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is a gem. I googled around for dal recipes, even using its blog filter search, but I couldn’t find anything I wanted to try. I turned to Bittman. I trust him. And his laid-back, authoritative tone makes for good reading. Plus the app doesn’t require wireless to work.

Anyway, I used his“Simplest Dal”recipeas a guide.

And while I’m encouraged to play around with dal again, I haven’t masted how to up the flavor. It didn’t have a great zing to it and at times tasted of tannins. Here’s what I did but please tell me what I should have done.

First Draft Dal

In a large pot I threw in 2 cups ofudad dal split matpe beans, that have been washed and“picked through” or whatever that means, 2 tablespoons of mincedginger, 2 tablespoons ofblack mustard seeds, 2 tablespoons ofmethi seeds, 1 tablespoon ofturmeric, 1 tablespoon ofgarlic powder, 1.5 tablespoons ofcumin, 1 tablespoon ofcurry powderand 3chillies. I covered all of that with water, I think maybe 6 cups so that there is an inch of water over everything. Then I brought it to a boil and then lowered the heat, with the pot partially covered for almost 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. I tasted it. Bland. So Isalted it,peppered it, plus added more water so as Bittman said, it’d be“saucy but not soupy.” Before serving I dumped in almost 2 tablespoons ofbutter. I was pleased with the consistency, but was not in love with the flavor. It was just kinda blah.

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Spontaneous Summer Giveaway | Endless Simmer

Feeling like the sweltering heat of summer is getting you down? Our friends at Good Commons encourage you to get out of dodge and head to the great Northeast for their Farm to Table Green Mountain Getaway, August 12– 15. Yes, we know it’s in a couple of days, but what better excuse to play hookie than a weekend of farm-fresh cuisine, local excursions, and special appearance and canning workshop by author and“real food” advocate ___________________.

Who is their special guest? Take a look at the itinerary, send your answer to info@goodcommons.com, and you may win a FREE slot for this incredible weekend. It’s all-inclusive, with round-trip transportation from NYC on their private bus, all meals, daily excursions, yoga classes, and more. Winner* will be chosen at random from eligible entries at midnight tonight so his/her great escape can be planned!

*Valid only for Farm to Table Weekend, no exchanges or cash value. Not valid with other offers.

Feeling like the sweltering heat of summer is getting you down? Our friends atGood Commonsencourage you to get out of dodge and head to the great Northeast for theirFarm to Table Green Mountain Getaway, August 12– 15. Yes, we know it’s in a couple of days, but what better excuse to play hookie than a weekend of farm-fresh cuisine, local excursions, and special appearance and canning workshop by author and“real food” advocate ___________________.

Who is their special guest?Take a look at the itinerary, send your answer toinfo@goodcommons.com, and one ES reader who responds correctly will win a FREE slot for this incredible weekend. It’s all-inclusive, with round-trip transportation from NYC on their private bus, all meals, daily excursions, yoga classes, and more. Winner* will be chosen at random from eligible entries at midnight tonight so his/her great escape can be planned!

*Valid only for Farm to Table Weekend, no exchanges or cash value. Not valid with other offers.

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Kale, Corn and Roasted Tomato Salad | Endless Simmer

For real, I’m not just trying to pimp out100 Ways to Use a Tomato. I also am a tomato lover and need ideas on what to do with all of the tomatoes laying claim to my kitchen. Because I am avirtual workerI also have time to cook during the day, or at least be watchful of items while they are cooking.

This means I can finally soak and cook beans and not rely on cans. I can cook down tomatoes for a thick sauce. And while we’re on tomatoes, I can roast tomatoes in a low, slow oven. (And please give me suggestions for other dishes I can cook all day.)

I spied my inspiration in thethird row, second columnof the100 tomatoespost: a parade of shriveled, red splotches.

Kale, Corn and Roasted Tomato Salad

I skimped a bit on ingredients compared to Simple Bites’ version. I only usedsalt, pepper and oilon thetomatoes,omitting the garlic and thyme. I did however, test out a companion for the tomato: tinyonions. I split the onions in half and dressed them the same as the tomatoes. At 225 degrees for over 4 hours, these guys had plenty of time to dry out. The tomatoes worked out well, although I wish I pulled them 30 minutes earlier. The onion (final product here) turned a bit dry on the edges, but was mostlysoft and sweet.

It definitely didn’t need that treatment. I’m not sure if they would have turned out better if kept whole or simply didn’t need that much cooking time. I’ll have to keep experimenting with these abundantly sweet onions fromSmallwood Veggieporiumat theMt. Pleasant Farmers’ Market.

When I started this venture I wasn’t sure where the tomatoes and onions would end up. Eventually they starred in a salad that ended up being stuffed in tacos. The rest of the salad consisted ofkale: kept raw;corn: scraped from the cob and browned in oil with plenty of salt; bell and poblano peppers: charred on a scarily hot pan, then diced; andpurple basil, roughly chopped.

Dress withyogurtmixed with: a variety hot peppers, sliced horizontally to keep in a wagon wheel shape (imagine the membranes and seeds as spokes);white wine vinegar, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

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Friday Fuck Up:This Tastes NOTHING Like a Chip | Endless Simmer

Clearly I was shaken up. Last week I welcomed the news of two engagements of very dear friends. The term“dear friends” is quite obnoxious, I know, but these are like super good friends, well, couples, and I am so excited. That must be the only excuse for this fuck up. Because unlike most other times I open up my oven to face a disaster, I actually followed a recipe.

My friend Hickey, of one of the engaged couples, came to DC from her home in Pennsylvania and I gladly made us dinner. I wasn’t actually sure what to put together but basically I stuffed a lot of crap inside this huge pumpkin-shaped eggplant. It was an elaborate, multi-step experience and while the inside concoction of corn, tomatoes, blended eggplant, ricotta and I forget what else was surely tasty, the outer shell of the eggplant did not cook fully and basically served the function of a ceramic bowl, which is of course not the point of baking food in something edible in the first place.

But that wasn’t even the worst part. Shit, the crappy Cook’s champagne wasn’t even the worst. T’was the kale.

You all know there is a slight kale obsession going on these days. Notice exhibits A through D: Kale.Kale.Kale.Kale. But I always take it raw. For my newly engaged friend I decided to try something I’ve been seeingALotof: crispy kale chips.

I followedSteamy Kitchen’s instructions, who claimed,

And then you call it“Crispy Kale” see if your kids will eat it…Yup!

As a kale lover to start, I knew this would be great if even her KIDS would eat it.

Well I did what she said and washed the kale, dried the kale very well, tore it into small pieces, tossed with oil, placed in the oven and held the salt to the end. I followed it perfectly.

It tasted like grass. Like mushy, burnt, gross, grass. Some pieces were crispy, but it still didn’t taste good. If you got a crispy section with some salt, it wasn’t totally terrible, but nothing I’d deem as addictive, as so many other bloggers declared.

Luckily we had the option to snack on purple basil flecked ricotta, heirloom tomatoes and fresh bread instead.

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Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 9 | Endless Simmer

Top Chef pulled in a political heavyweight this week— Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, but that was by far not the only highlight of last night’s episode. Down to eight chef’testants, we were given what many of us consider the best elimination challenge the show has to offer— Restaurant Wars at Bethesda’sRedwood Restaurant& Bar.

But before you see which chef’testant was sent packing (spoiler alert!), lets take a moment to discuss which pant suit was better!

ES: When you realized that someone from your team was going home, did you think the judges would have pulled a wild card and sent Alex home?
Kenny Gilbert:That would have been the correct decision based on him not completing a dish. I don’t think they wanted to follow through with the rules is what it boils down to. They thought their food was better than ours. Fine. But the rules that we signed up for, we signed up for restaurant wars which was to put out a perfectly executed restaurant. Ultimately the red team should have been disqualified, or at least Alex, because he didn’t conceptualize and make a dish. The right thing would have been to send Alex home.

At judges’ table, instead of defending your own dish and those of your teammates, you went out and attacked Alex— do you think that might have contributed to you going home?
It’s interesting, they asked if there was anything else we wanted to go over and Kevin said yeah— he pointed out that Alex didn’t prepare his own food— that’s when the explosion took place. Kelly and Amanda made their statements and I made my statement, we were all being supportive of each other and what the rules had implied. But what they showed was me defending it.

Frank Bruni compared your dish to Hamburger Helper. Was that the harshest criticism you’ve received?
You know, I felt like he was getting his Simon Cowell kind of fame on Top Chef. To me it was a very ignorant response. One of the judges couldn’t articulate what was wrong with the dish, they just said it didn’t come together. I thought the critique was terrible, especially compared to having a Chef Ripert or Jose Andres or some of the other judges that we had make fairer critiques, not just a bunch of statements that make good TV.

Was the rivalry between you and Angelo that aggressive or was it played up?
I don’t think it was really played up. In the house hanging out we were cool, it was like we were friends from high school. I was a swimmer and diver in high school. I associate it as if my arch rival were in the same hotel and we were there to compete. Yeah, we’d be sitting there having drinks but when we take it to the blocks, it’s like you don’t like me and I don’t like you— that’s what it was like in the kitchen. I think he was most intimidated by me. He told me later that he was nervous because he thought I made things look so simple.

(Photos: Bravo)

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A Half Baked Idea: Sous Vide Cookie Dough | Endless Simmer

You crazy ESers asked for it, and you got it. Afterplaying around with my SousVide Supremeand being rather underwhelmed cooking just meat and veggies, I asked you for some crazier ideas. My partner in crime gansie had a stroke of genius:

What about cookie dough? But don’t cook it long enough where it actually turns into a cookie, just so it heats through and kills any harmful crap. so it could be one gooey, warm, doughy, chocolaty, gushy thing. (Confession – i used to heat up purchased cookie dough in the microwave).

Hmmm…whatabout cookie dough? Honestly, I can never resist the temptation to lick the bowl, salmonella or not, but it does always scare me a little bit, and I know I really shouldn’t be doing it. So could we use the SousVide to cook the dough to just high enough temperatures where it would be safe to eat but still gooey and delicious? Well, we could certainly try…

For the record, let me clearly state that I have no idea if this is really a safe way to cook cookie dough, and Endless Simmer takes no responsibility if someone else tries this and gets sick. Seriously. That said, here’s what I did.

I mixed the chocolate chip cookie batter as instructed by Nestle, then vacuum packed four invidivual packages of it. I set the SousVide Supreme to 160 degrees, because I read online that it’s the temperature you must cook eggs to in order to kill any bacteria. I submerged them all in the water bath and let‘em soak. My idea was to cook them for four different amounts of time, to see what the difference would be, but after a half-hour, additional time didn’t seem to change the consistency of the dough.

The first serving was not a success. I made the mistake of emptying the hot dough from the bag straight into a bowl and giving it a little stir. The melted chocolate chips mixed in with everything and gave it a rather unappetizing color, and the texture was just all kinds of off. I quickly declared disaster on this batch and threw the dough into the oven.

This batch ended up turning into some tasty (although definitely not chocolate chip) cookies. But back to the dough…

Because the 160-degree water made the dough just too-too melty, I decided to take the next packages out and throw them in the freezer before eating. After about an hour, they had taken on a consistency much more like regular cookie dough, and we enjoyed it chopped up with some vanilla ice cream and brandy.

Now I’ve got two packs of cookie dough left in my freezer, vacuum packed so that I can eat them whenever I want. So….what do you think, science-y ESers? Is this really a safe way to get rid of potential salmonella? Would you eat sous vide cookie dough? Am I completely insane? Is anyone listening?

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The Ultimate Recipe: Homemade Bacon | Endless Simmer

These days it’s almost cliché to rant about one’s love forbacon. What’s that t-shirt I’ve seen guys wearing? “I’m a vegetarian except for bacon” or “I put bacon on my bacon.” Yeah, yeah, we get it. Bacon is delicious. I love it, you love it, and the poor vegans are left out in the cold yet again, ignorance being bliss most likely. Of course I love bacon. It’s not a fad. It’s not like bacon is Hootie and the Blowfish and I’m in 5th grade trying to get my first kiss. Liking bacon is kind of like asking someone if they like music or sex or breathing air.

So how to take bacon mania to the next level? I decided to try my hand at making some porky heaven of my own. As usual, I grossly underestimated the amount of work that the process would require. It is a bit of a production so let me put thedisclaimerout there that one needs about a month of empty fridge space, a smoking device of some sort, and of course, several pounds of fresh pork belly. Good luck finding a 5 lb slab at Whole Foods. I’ve tried more than once, so online is your best bet.

Luckily, I was able to talk one of my bosses at the restaurant into ordering me a whole slab of pork belly as well as the freedom to help myself to the pantry. The production is a bit of a pain, but the process is pretty simple: Rub meat with acuremixture and store it in the fridge. Once the liquid has been leached out and the meat nice and firm,soakin warm water to mellow out the saltiness. Finally, and if possible (this I highly recommend to give it that extra flavor and help break down the protein),smokethe cured belly for several hours.

I went about trying to put together one of the more basic recipes out of Micheal Ruhlman’sCharcuterie, using only salt and sugar. The pink salt he recommends is helpful in keeping the fat from becoming rancid, but his timeline of 5-7 days curing in the fridge I found to be way off the mark, and I gave up on the pink salt after the first week. Granted, this was my first attempt, but I ended up having to cure 11 lbs for a solid4 weeks, and I could have let it go for longer.

You see, I started off following his method to the letter; weighing all of my ingredients, adding a bit of garlic and crushed peppercorns, but all the liquid that came out just melted my cure right off. After five days I checked the slab and found it swimming in its own liquids. So I re-cured using only salt and sugar at a ratio of about3 to 1 salt/sugar, and this time elevating the slab on a wire rack to keep it relatively dry. Again, tons of liquid leached out. The cure mix was soaked. Essentially, I found thatevery 5-6 daysI needed to pull the bacon out of the pan, change out the cure for a fresh rub and regularly check the slab for firmness.

So my advice is to keep the slabelevatedon a rack of some sort for the first couple weeks until most of the liquid has been removed and thenbury itin the cure mix to finish it off and get that nice firmness you want. In the future I also plan to try to work in 5 lbs batches instead of a whole 10 lb slab to help cure more evenly and hopefully more quickly.

Once you are finally done with this step, the slab needs abath in warm waterfor about an hour or two. This is a step that I didn’t take and ended up wishing I had. I rinsed the cure off, but the water bath would have gone a long way to mellowing out the overwhelming salty, sweet flavor. The pre-smoked bacon tasted OK, but once I served it with say, eggs, I realized how ridiculously salty the pork was.

At this point you can freeze the bacon and it will keep for months or a couple weeks in the fridge, or…

Smokethat sucker. To me bacon isn’t really bacon without that smoky flavor and I found that ahot smokehelped break down the meat so that once sliced and in a pan, the bacon justmeltsin your mouth. I sliced mine to fit in my bullet (about 7 lbs) and smoked it for about3 hoursat around160 degreesFahrenheit tossing in soaked wood chips every 30-45 minutes. Keep in mind that in order for the smoke to stick to the meat, the belly needs to bedry, so taking the slab from the bath to the smoker is NOT a good idea. Dry the meat the best you can and let the meat cook under low heat for 30 minutes or so before adding the smoke chips. Ideally letting the slab air-dry for a couple days in the fridge would get you the best results.

Finally, and I know this isextremelytempting after all this effort, don’t slice into the belly right after it’s been smoked! Don’t get me wrong, those bites you slice off will be euphoric orgasms of smoky, salty, fatty porkiness, but then the belly is going to leak out all the juices and fat you’ve been working so hard to create. I sliced one small bite offof mine, and almost wept when I saw the fat continue to ooze out 15 minutes later. In the end it didn’t ruin anything, but I hated losing that delicious fat early on.

My bacon didn’t really taste like any bacon I’ve ever had before. Still not sure if that’s good or bad. It was however, unquestionably bacon. The salt hits you over the head and then an unexpected sweetness rounds out the flavor. I didn’t get as much smokiness as I wanted, but the post-smoked bacon dissolves on your tongue so much better than the pre-smoked slab. Like cotton candy bacon…nowthere’san idea. Overall, I’m happy with the experiment. A new belly has already been ordered. Now it’s time to start all over again

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100 Ways to Use a Tomato | Endless Simmer

OMFG, the tomatoes are finally here. Sure, they’ve been here all year round, but there’s nothing more disappointing than sinking your teeth into a mealy, watery, tasteless tomato, which is inevitably what happens nine or ten months out of the year. Then suddenly, in late summer, we head to the farmers’ market and find those beautiful, juicy specimens we’ve been looking for the whole time. Of course, we overbuy and end up with way more tomatoes than we can use. But you don’t have to resign yourself to cooking eight gallons of fresh tomato sauce, because we’ve got the goods on 100otherways to use up all your perfect (or even not-so-perfect) summer tomatoes. You can poach tomatoes, stew tomatoes, roast tomatoes, and pickle tomatoes. We’ve got tomato sushi, tomato cobbler, tomato-tinis and tomato creme brulee. Oh yeah, and there’s pizza and stuff too…

Click on the photos for full recipes.

PS– What did we miss? Have a star tomato recipe? Drop your link in the comments. If your photo makes us drool, we’ll add it to the list.

Previously on ES:
100 Ways to Use Bacon
100 Ways to Cook an Egg
100 Ways to Use a Banana

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