Digest
Our favorite products, gadgets, restaurants, bars, wine, beer, and food websites and blogs.
There are a few keys to perfect hard-boiled eggs, say Chowhounds. First, use eggs with a bit of age on them—very fresh eggs can be almost impossible to peel once cooked. To speed the process, leave them out of the refrigerator overnight. “Works like a charm every time!” says julesrules.
Hard-boiled eggs shouldn’t be boiled at all. For perfectly cooked eggs, place them in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil, says alwayscooking. When the water boils, remove the pan from the heat, cover it, and let stand 12 to 15 minutes, depending on desired hardness. She adds a tip for making deviled eggs: Lay the eggs on their sides for a bit before cooking; this will better center the yolks.
When the eggs are done, pour off the water and put them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and cool them. When they’re cold, crack the shell all over by rolling each egg on the counter or agitating them in the pot (this method is very similar to CHOW’s video tip on peeling hard-boiled eggs). The shells will then slip off easily, says LTL.
Practice your skills by making CHOW’s Deviled Eggs with Tarragon.
Board Link: Boiled Egg Frustration–Peeling
Posted
on Thursday, April 30th, 2009
by Caitlin McGrath in Home Cooking Digest |
More like this: eggs, Food and Cooking, Home Cooking Digest
Amazing peanut butter cookies can be made with just four ingredients, say Chowhounds. Peanut butter, sugar, an egg, and baking soda are all you need to make flourless peanut butter cookies.
“This is without a doubt the best peanut butter cookie recipe,” says PamelaD. But maybe it can be improved upon just a tad: free sample addict aka Tracy L loves this chocolate chunk version. Some like to add vanilla to these recipes, or use all brown sugar to sweeten them. Make them small, recommends katecm, who says they can fall apart because they’re so moist.
Board Link: ISO: Gluten free Peanut Butter Cookie recipe
Posted
on Thursday, April 30th, 2009
by Caitlin McGrath in Home Cooking Digest |
More like this: baking, cookies, flourless, Food and Cooking, gluten free, Home Cooking Digest, peanut butter
Pork belly, the rich cut used for bacon, makes a luscious dish when braised until tender. azhotdish calls Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s braised pork belly with shallot-ginger confit “easy and delicious.” The braised filling of David Chang’s pork-belly buns is also great over rice, says BigSal, who adds, “We devoured the pork belly in no time.”
Botch makes it Chinese-style, braised in beef stock with a little soy sauce, 1/4 cup vinegar (Chinese red or black, if available), a few star anise, a cinnamon stick, and a sliced orange, rind on. “It’s just right sliced in thick strips over rice,” says Botch, “with some sautéed veggies (garlic/oyster sauce is nice) on the side. Maybe a couple nice beers to go with it.”
Board Link: Pork Belly Recipe
Posted
on Thursday, April 30th, 2009
by Caitlin McGrath in Home Cooking Digest |
More like this: braising, david chang, Food and Cooking, Home Cooking Digest, pork belly, recipes
MC Slim JB likes to make a cocktail called l’amour en fuite (love on the run). It’s made with Plymouth Gin, Lillet Blanc, and Chowhound favorite St-Germain elderflower liqueur. “Shake over ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass given a rinse of Kübler absinthe (pastis, like Henri Bardouin, will do, too),” says MC Slim JB. “Garnish with a shaving of lemon peel. Very smooth.”
Elderflower liqueur has a nice, light, unique taste, says Cinnamon, and its subtle presence does great things for cocktails. Absinthe, on the other hand, has a very strong flavor—nothing subtle about it. white light thinks that even a wash of absinthe, as in l’amour en fuite, overwhelms the cocktail. MC Slim JB suggests using an eyedropper to add just a tiny drop of the strong-tasting absinthe. JMF has an even more involved process for adding just a hint of flavor: “Try using a spray mister to cover just the surface of a drink with hint of absinthe or bitters, liqueurs, etc. Works better than an eye dropper,” he says.
Board Link: St. Germain Elderflower Liquer
Posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
by Sarah Perry in General Topics Digest |
More like this: absinthe, cocktails, General Topics Digest, l'amour en fruite, licorice, pastis, st germain elderflower liqueur, Wine and Drinks
Wilkin & Sons Ltd. Tiptree Organic Tomato Ketchup is a bottled ketchup that actually tastes like tomatoes, says lisavf. The tomato content is 75 percent, and the other ingredients are sugar, wine vinegar, salt, lemon juice, and spices. It’s thick and very tomatoey, says lisavf, and at $6.99 a bottle it’s definitely an adult condiment; the cheap stuff is fine for the kids, and for baking into meatloaf.
Harters prefers Tracklements Tomato & Pepper Ketchup. It has “a slight backnote of chili. Great with your fish finger sandwiches,” he says. And steakman55 recommends Heinz Organic.
Board Links: I found a really good bottled ketchup
Posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
by Sarah Perry in General Topics Digest |
More like this: catsup, Food and Cooking, General Topics Digest, heinz organic, ketchup, tiptree, tracklements, wilkin & sons
Is there a good off-season alternative to freshly squeezed grapefruit juice? “I like Trader Joe’s Rio Red Grapefruit blend,” says EdwardAdams. “It’s a bit on the sweet side but I’m addicted.” Lots of Chowhounds like Simply Grapefruit. “It is not so sour that it causes my eyes to squinch up, but not so sweet that I feel like I need a water chaser,” says Sal Vanilla. “It is most like freshly squeezed.” Noble Star Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, usually found in the produce section, is a good bet, says kattyeyes, and BarmyFotheringayPhipps agrees. “This is the only grapefruit juice I’ve ever liked,” he says. “Although I should mention that I drink it with gin almost exclusively.”
One of the best uses of grapefruit juice is in a grapefruit margarita. kattyeyes makes hers with ruby red grapefruit juice, fresh lime, Patrón Citrónge, and tequila, and serves them with coarse vanilla sugar on the rim. foodnwine makes them with a silver tequila, lime juice, and Cointreau, with nothing on the rim.
Board Link: Best Grapefruit Juice
Posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
by Sarah Perry in General Topics Digest |
More like this: cocktails, Food and Cooking, General Topics Digest, grapefruit, juice, noble star, ruby red, simply grapefruit
There are two styles of hamburger, says writer J. Kenji Alt in a Boston Globe article called “Burger War!” There is the big, fat, pink-inside grilled East Coast variety, and the thinner, seared, griddled West Coast–style patty. Up until fairly recently in Boston, it was difficult to find anything but the thick, grilled “pub burger,” but the opening of newish, much-praised places like Five Guys in Dedham has changed that.
In the Globe article, Alt crowns the burger at Flat Patties king. jgg13 agrees: “I’ll bite into them and say ‘eh, nothing special’ but then I find that I can’t put the things down and keep stuffing them in my face until they’re gone. It’s like there’s crack in there or something. I’ve never really figured out how something that seems so plain ends up being such a must-have for me.” That’s “because they’re simple but perfectly done,” says BarmyFotheringayPhipps.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries [Dedham]
170 Providence Highway, Dedham
781-326-3352
Flat Patties [Cambridge]
81 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
617-871-6871
Board Link: J. Kenji Alt’s Boston Burger Battle
Posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
by Joyce Slaton in Boston Digest |
More like this: Boston Digest, boston globe, burgers, flat patties, hamburgers, j kenji alt, Restaurants and Bars
Nab likes to cook fish parts cut from the head, but cheeks, throats, and other parts are hard to find unless you have a relationship with a good fishmonger. itaunas nominates Courthouse Fish Market for the job, saying that it sells a lot of hake steaks and removes the heads before the weekend: “So 3ish on a Friday would be a good time.” You can buy them for around 99 cents a pound, although you used to be given them “for free if you bought other stuff.”
Jardinia, in search of soft shell crabs on another thread, gets the same advice: Go to Courthouse, where not only can you buy the crabs to cook at home, you can order them made up into a crab sandwich at the restaurant adjoining the market. Actually, according to Itaunas, anything in the fish market priced at $1 a pound or over can be fried, broiled, or steamed at the restaurant.
Courthouse Fish Market [Cambridge]
484 Cambridge St, Cambridge
617-876-6716
Board Links: Good fish market w/ good prices for picky fish eater
the elusive soft-shell crab?
Fish Bits
Posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
by Joyce Slaton in Boston Digest |
More like this: Boston Digest, court house, courthouse, fish, fish market, fishmonger, Restaurants and Bars
Diep Tran is owner and chef at Blue Hen, a Vietnamese place that’s veggie-friendly, pitched towards the multi-ethnic Eagle Rock scene, and a favorite of Chowhounds and hipsters alike. Now Tran’s opened a new place, the Good Girl Dinette, pitched as Vietnamese diner food. It’s modern, airy, and, like Blue Hen, very veggie-friendly.
The diner side is represented by pot pies; the cauliflower pie is, indeed, excellent comfort food, says Chowpatty, with flaky biscuit crust and a mild vegetarian filling. Chicken pho, and vegetarian pho appear on the menu, along with excellent desserts like coconut bread pudding with whipped cream, and a “wonderful” almond jelly with preserved kumquat, says soyarra.
On the savory side, soyarra’s husband loves the braised tofu stew with brown rice, for its deep, almost curry-like spicing. Spring rolls are OK, but imperial rolls are much better, says tissue.
The menu’s still a bit minimal, but other dishes are due to be added soon, including beef stew and braised pork.
Blue Hen [Eagle Rock]
1743 Colorado Boulevard, Los Angeles
323-982-9900
Good Girl Dinette [Highland Park]
110 North Avenue 56, Los Angeles
323-257-8980
Board Link: Good Girl Dinette: What’s Vietnamese diner food?
Posted
on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
by C. Thi Nguyen in Los Angeles Digest |
More like this: blue hen, diner, good girl dinette, los angeles area, Restaurants and Bars, vietnamese
Boston doesn’t have many Ethiopian restaurants, and those it does have (Addis, Fasika), get mixed reviews on the boards. That’s why NoNatto was so excited to find Habesha, an Ethiopian restaurant in Malden that’s so small and unassuming that it’s easily overlooked. The food, however, is the “real thing,” says NoNatto.
The kitfo, finely chopped beef, was served raw on NoNatto’s request, mixed with spiced clarified butter, it has a “late-blooming peppery kick.” NoNatto also loved the awaze tibs, a spicy and savory stew of marinated beef chunks with onions and peppers, and the quanta firfir, pieces of spongy Ethiopian injera bread with dried beef. The items on the combination vegetable platter, such as collard greens (gomen) and mildly-sauced chickpeas (shiro wat), ranged from “OK to delicious,” but NoNatto preferred the meat dishes over the vegetarian ones.
“Absolutely one of the best meals we’ve had,” says Taralli. “The new combinations of spices had my taste buds popping. Many dishes had a piquant sour flavor note, which we really liked. Several of us commented on how the spices and flavors pleasantly lingered on our palates, afterwards, as we sat around and chatted.”
Prices are very reasonable at $8 to $14 a plate. Habesha is a short walk from the Malden T stop.
Habesha Restaurant [Malden]
535 Main Street, Malden
781-399-0868
Board Link: new malden chow: ethiopian Habesha
Eithopian Restos in Cambridge/Somerville
Posted
on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
by Joyce Slaton in Boston Digest |
More like this: addis red sea, Boston Digest, ethiopian, fasika, habesha, Restaurants and Bars
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