Drinks / Giveaway

May 6, 2012 | by Ben 11

I’ve recently developed quite an appreciation for cocktails. During an unseasonably warm 90 degree day, I whipped up a Tipsy Arnold Palmer (using homemade lemonade) that truly hit the spot. And I gained a new appreciate for egg whites and sours from Michael Ruhlman’s Rye Whiskey Sour post.

During all this, I started to doubt my dedication to beer. What could compete with the refreshment of the first cocktail or the complexity of the second?

As Spicehound points out, the roasted malts of beer make it equal (at least) to wine in terms of both complexity and food pairing. And there are plenty of good summer beers for hot weather.

So here’s the giveaway, for two free tickets to the IX center international beer fest. Explain your appreciation for a specific beer in one of the following categories:

(1) Complexity. Example: Dogfish Head’s Santo Palo Marron is the best beer I’ve ever tried. The combination of carmelized woodiness (from the Palo … continue reading

Black Ginger Lager

April 15, 2012 | by Ben 0

As a blogger, I tend to be quite concerned with presentation. The key to food and drink, though, is flavor. The picture below of the beer I just brewed isn’t great, and I didn’t take the old labels off any of the bottles I used.

Despite this, though, it’s been one of the tastiest and best-received original brews I’ve made.

Black Ginger Lager

6 lbs. dark malt extract 1 lb. extra dark malt extract (or more dark extract) 1/2 lb. black patent malt 3–4 oz. freshly grated giner 1 oz. Perle hops (boiling) 1/2 oz. Perle hops (flavor) 1/2 oz. Perle hops (bitterness) 1 oz. Tettenang hops (flavor) 1 oz. Tettanang hops (aroma) 1/2 oz. Cascade hops (flavor) 1/2 oz. Cascade hops (aroma) 1 vial liquid lager yeast 3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling

Combine black malt with 1.5 gallons water and bring to 150–160 degrees. Hold for 20 minutes, then strain water into a different pot. Add malt and boiling hops. Boil for 30 minutes. Add half of flavor … continue reading

Better Waffles

March 13, 2012 | by Ben 0

Waffles usually disappoint me. The perfect waffle should be crisp–almost crunchy–on the outside but light, fluffy and moist on the inside. Most waffles, even at restaurants, tend to be too heavy and lack much distinction between outside and inside.

The secret to perfect waffles is yeast, which results in highly risen, flavorful and crisp waffles. Unfortunately, yeast batter recipes (called “overnight waffles”) do not generally allow for a quick waffle fix. However, using inspiration from Alton Brown’s English Muffin recipe, I realized that I could speed the process to a little over 30 minutes. The ingredient list is from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. His overnight recipe can be found here.

We had these for dinner, but they could easily be made quickly enough for a weekend breakfast or brunch.

Quick Yeast Waffles (serves four hungry adults)

2 cups whole milk 8 TB (1 stick) butter 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 envelope yeast, active dry or instant 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 … continue reading

Bogtrotter’s Doorstep

March 11, 2012 | by Ben 0

Bogtrotter’s Doorstep is a new sandwich shop that recently opened on the corner of West 25th and Bridge. We were on our way to lunch at Ohio City Burrito and realized that we had parked in front of Bogtrotter’s. We’d read good things about the place, so we thought we’d try it out.

The establishment is basically just two counters, one for ordering and another with one stool for eating. Sarah ordered the Porkopolis ($9) with shaved pork loin, greens, provolone and jus. I had the Haight ($9) which included provolone, banana peppers, porcini mushrooms, greens and house marinara. We both got ours “wet,” meaning jus is poured over the sandwich. Sandwiches are also available soaked or dry.

Our food came quickly, and, as we were planning to eat in, the owner suggested we take our food to the Old Angle next door. I ordered a Bass Ale and Sarah had ginger ale, both of which went well with the sandwiches.… continue reading

“You’re Doing It Wrong”: Chili, Brownies, Granola

February 22, 2012 | by Ben 4

Slate, my favorite news / commentary site, recently introduced a cooking column called “You’re Doing It Wrong.” America’s Test Kitchen has a similar mentality, that many traditional recipes produce inferior results and that there are better approaches. While ATR produces reliable recipes, I’ve always found their approach a bit stuffy and elitist. Their focus also tends to be what tastes familiar and American, which isn’t always what I want.

I was hooked into the column because writer L.V. Anderson makes homemade pizza almost exactly like I do: thin crust, lots of olive oil, very high heat, toppings light enough not to weigh down the crust. It took me years to get to that point, so I was immediately curious about his other recipes.

The chili, which I tried first, was initially disappointing. While I liked his “kitchen sink” flavoring approach—chipotles, beer, mushrooms, chocolate, etc.—the tempeh created an off flavor in the mix, like adding Lou Reed to Metallica. That said, … continue reading

Glazed Chicken and Swordfish

January 25, 2012 | by Ben 0

A couple years ago, my mom got us some exotic jams and marmalades from Swaziland for Christmas. Somehow she placed a double order for the price of one, so we’ve been going through them pretty slowly. Inspiration struck, though, when we were asked to bring some flavor boosters for grilled chicken to Sarah’s brother’s place and didn’t have time for something like, say, mole.

My favorite was the Mango Sriracha Glaze. The recipe calls for chicken thighs but was really good on breasts, and we used leftovers for wings. The sauce took all of three minutes to make, and we didn’t add it until after cooking (although I did boil the sauce briefly to meld the flavors). The combination of sweet mango, hot sriracha and rice vinegar was awesome.

Sarah was partial to the Peach Ginger Soy Glaze. The recipe calls for peach jam and fresh ginger, but our jam was ginger peach, further simplifying an already … continue reading

Mezcal Cured Salmon

January 14, 2012 | by Ben 2

Inspired by The Cage Free Tomato and Sarah’s idea of blogging on our cultural heritage, I home cured some salmon.

My dad’s side of the family is Jewish, and most breakfasts when we visited family in New York were lox, bagels and cream cheese. I never understood this as a kid–fish for breakfast?–but I’ve gotten a taste for it as an adult.

I used farmed Atlantic salmon from Whole Foods (farmed seems safer for a raw preparation) and part of a 50 ml bottle of mezcal brought home from a recent vacation. I basically followed this recipe, substituting mezcal for the Scotch.

The results were quite good, at least as good as most commercially bought lox or gravlax but a bit cheaper. Despite the almost unpalatable smokiness of straight mezcal, there was very little smoke flavor in the finished dish. That said, the recipe did only call for a little bit (1.5 t. for the 1/2 lb of salmon I used).

Next time … continue reading