Food recipies

Due to loud, non-rhythmic pounding from a construction project next door, today's video, featuring a Super Bowl party-inspired chicken nugget, will be delayed until later this evening, or tomorrow morning. I hope/predict it will be worth the wait. Stay tuned! 

Don�t let the catchy name fool you; this sloppy Joe-inspired dip really shouldn�t cause that big a mess at your Super Bowl party, just as long as your guests aren�t too sloppy themselves. You can test them by having them pronounce, �sloppy dip.� If they say it more like, �shloppy dip,� cut them off. For me this checks all the boxes for a hot party dip. It�s relatively cheap, and easy to make, but maybe more importantly, it�s great hot, warm, or room temp. It�s also incredibly versatile, and I can think of about two-dozen things off the top of my head that would be great in this. Like I said in the video, you don�t have to present this as a baked dip. You can just leave it on the stove, on low, for guests to dip into. People are always hanging out in that area anyway. Otherwise, you can broil it in any oven-safe casserole dish, or do it in a sauce pan like I did, which can also be kept on low heat after browning the cheese. No matter how you serve it, I hope you give this great, and sl...

Spanish rice was one of the first recipes I made for my parents after returning home from my first semester at culinary school. Ironically, I didn�t learn the recipe in class, but rather at a Mexican restaurant I worked at part-time. I don�t remember much from that job, or decade, but I�ll never forget how that rice was put together, and that�s exactly how we�re doing it here � except for one minor detail. We�re not using rice.   I really love farro, and have used it in various rice preparations, always with great results. This was no exception, and maybe my favorite so far. This larger, meatier, �ancient� grain pairs perfect with the spices, and I find it even easier to cook perfectly than rice. If you don�t have a pan like the one used in the video, simply prepare everything in a skillet. Once your broth starts to boil, transfer it into a 2-quart casserole dish, wrap with foil, and proceed as directed. Either way, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!   Ingredients...

I don�t do a lot of sandwich videos, which is a shame, since the blog posts are pretty easy to write. Anyway, as promised during the last bread video , here�s how I like to build a Cuban, or Cubano sandwich. From the early, non-troll feedback, I hear we did a pretty good job, except apparently I was supposed to serve some mojo sauce as a condiment. We did a beef mojo , which would not be great in this, but I don�t think we�ve ever filmed the sauce. Consider it on the list. Slices of citrus-roasted pork seem to be very common in the sandwich, but I prefer more of a pulled pork. I used our paper pork recipe, which was great, but carnitas , generously moistened with some of its own fat, w ould also work quite well.  I've always assumed that day-old bread was perfect for grilled sandwiches, but I've heard that real Cubans are made on fresh bread , and that people who u se stale are crazy. What say you? Regardless of how fresh your bread is , I really hope you give this Cuba...

I didn�t think I liked Cuban s andwiches, and even went so far as to publicly call them overrated, but it turns out I was eating them on the wrong bread.  You can�t just use any old sandwich roll, and this fact was lost on me until I had one on the real deal. Shortly after finishing, I recanted every negative comment I�d previously made. By the way, if you�ve never heard of a Cuban sandwich, stay tuned, because that will be the star of our next video. If you want to get a head start, besides practicing the bread, you�ll need some type of roasted, or pulled pork; and I�m happy to report we have many recipes that would work, including our famous paper pork, pulled pork , or carnitas . One thing that makes this bread unique, besides the addition of lard, is the double-hit of yeast. We use dry yeast to start the dough, as usual, but also add a starter that we let ferment overnight. I assume that�s to provide a little extra flavor, as well as a some additional lift, but I didn�t want ...

Another long, holiday weekend has come and gone; and so another Tuesday video won't be posted until Wednesday. Hopefully it will be worth the brief wait. Stay tuned! 

Every once in a while, I get a food wish that has nothing to do with a specific recipe, but rather it�s a request to post something complicated, and challenging to do. Well, this country-style p�t� is about as close as we�re going to get. Calling this recipe complicated is sort of a stretch; "involved� would probably be more accurate. There are many steps, and the ingredient list isn�t short, but none of the techniques are very difficult, or particularly time-consuming. Coarsely grinding the meat is probably the most crucial step, but as you saw, if the meat is very cold, the attachment on your stand mixer will do an adequate job. If you don�t have one, you can pulse on and off in a food processor, and as long as your meat was partially frozen, this will work. Another option is just to place your meat order with a real butcher, and ask them to coarsely grind it all together for you, after which you can simply process the rest of your ingredients, and add them to your already grou...

I saw a charred broccoli salad online somewhere recently, and for whatever reason I had the idea to try the same technique for a fairly classic version of broccoli beef. Getting to burn food on purpose is always fun, and in addition to adding a whole extra layer of flavor, I love how this looks. There�s never been a pretty broccoli beef, but I�d say this is at least handsome, and to make it even more attractive, feel free to double the sauce. The amounts below make just enough to glaze, plus a few extra tablespoons, so it you want lots of sauce to saturate your rice, you should probably make extra. As I mentioned in the video, never use cooking sherry for cooking with sherry.   Just use sherry. The kind you drink. The good news is, we�re going to let you buy the cheapest bottle at the wine store. Cooking sherry tastes horrible, and has salt added to it, which was originally there so cooks wouldn�t drink it. If you do make this, and you�re wondering why it doesn�t taste as good as t...

It was one of those weeks. The holiday pushed me off schedule by a day; they�re doing construction next door, which means I can�t record at certain times; and if that wasn�t enough, this amazing looking soup was a total disaster � a temporary disaster � but a disaster nonetheless. The good news is, I saved it in the end, and hopefully we�ll all be better for it. Turns out a cheesy crouton, like one you�d enjoy on a French onion soup, is a terrible idea, if your soup is extra thick, and bordering on a pur�e. I came close to tossing everything, and ordering pizza, but what kind of example would that set? So I thinned it out, passed it through a fire mesh strainer, and g a ve it another try. This made it significantly better, and the ingredient amounts seen below have been adjusted, so you should get a texture similar to my final version. I�m not sure when/if I�ll try this again, but if I do, I�ll use small croutons, so I can eat it without drenching all the cheesy bread with the first fe...

As you may have noticed, due to the holiday on Monday, Tuesday's video was published on Wednesday, which means that Friday's video will post on Saturday. Stay tuned!

I try not to do recipe names that sound way better than they taste, but I went with coconut cream French toast anyway. I didn�t think �coconut French toast� did this justice, and while certainly not pie-like, the flavor profile was kind of close, and I was very pleased with the results. I was debating whether to coat the soaked bread with raw coconut, and toast it while the slices were frying in the butter, but decided it would be smarter to do it separately. That way we get perfect golden-brown flakes, without having to risk it getting too dark in the pan. By the way, I can� t stress how important it is to not use fresh bread. The drier the bread, the better the French toast, since you�ll be absorbing the maximum amount of our creamy coconut batter. So, the next time you have half a loaf of bread leftover from a dinner, slice it up, and leave it out overnight to dry. If you want to cheat, you can lightly toast fresh bread beforehand, which, after cooling, will sort of simulate stale b...