July 2011 Archives

At a bar this past weekend I was trying to impress some Indian girls, so I told them I could make a mean curry. At first the response was "Psh, white boy curry", but after I name dropped some ingredients, "white boy curry" went from an insult to a compliment! The funny thing is that this wasn't the first time someone has said this phrase to me. I decided I needed to give this title a meal to go with it. So what would be in White Boy Curry? Meat and potatoes of course. White boys around here seem to love marinated steak tips, and also pairing meats with peppers and onions. Mix in a bit of curry paste and you have a great dish.

I sure have a lot of crap in my cabinets and freezer. This was the first clean out the kitchen meal where I didn't even buy one thing. I wasn't even going to cook, but I got hungry and started poking around for food. An unopened jar of marinated artichokes, a bag of egg noodles, some chicken thighs in the freezer, and a carton of cream I bought a month ago that was still good. The ingredients pretty much wrote the recipe for me.

Bacon pineapple jalapeno, or "BPJ" as my friends lovingly call it, has been a favorite flavor combo of mine for years. It started on pizza, but in the past few years I've done it to near death, with apps, ravioli, wontons, and even a cocktail. But a new contender has entered the ring to challenge BPJ as the fruit-heat-salty champion. The flavors of banana with habenero have blown my mind on multiple occasions. Pair it with something super savory like fried chicken or pulled pork and you have flavor magic! I decided to pit these 2 flavors against each other this past weekend in a burger showdown.

No seriously. What is it? I set out trying to make a pesto with sesame seeds and arugula. Cause honestly arugula and sesame seeds taste exactly the same.  So after I started with that, I added garlic and some dried chile and it started to taste more like harissa, with a little hummus/shwarma flavor from the sesame seed. It was becoming super bitter, so I added some lemon, a little sugar and a big scoop of yogurt. Now it was starting to veer into tatziki territory. So what is it? harrzimusto?

This cleaning out the cabinets thing has been fun and delicious so far. I cook with wasabi every so often, but always seem to have a bit left in the cabinet. I always have sesame seeds laying around. This seems like a burger that would be made with tuna or something, but these flavors actually pair surprisingly well with the beef. I was actually sort of shocked just how well it all went together! Not sure if the sesame seed crust was somehow able to seal in extra juice, or if it was just a fluke but this was one of the juiciest burgers I've had in a while. (P.S. there is more than one photo this time)

Fresh heirloom tomatoes are finally starting to pop up at the farmers markets here in Boston. I love eating during farmers market season, but it is kind of hard to blog the recipes. That's because when you have such amazing ingredients this time of year, you don't want to mess with them too much. Eating a tomato with some salt and olive oil isn't really an exciting blog post. This recipe however showcases the freshness of the tomatoes and doesn't really smother or cook them to death (or at all).

It's always a big event when Curb your Enthusiasm comes back for another season. Larry David seems to make episodes whenever he feels like it, often resulting in fans having to wait 2 years between seasons! Its ok though, because it's always worth the wait, curb never disappoints. I wasn't sure what to cook for the season 8 premiere last weekend. I first thought of making the Larry David Sandwich, but it sounds awful, and the whole point of that episode was him trying to trade sandwiches with Ted Danson. I also pondered whipping up a batch of Benadryl Brownies, but most people I know who get sick are more than willing to take medicine on their own. I finally settled on kung pao shrimp from the classic season 2 episode "The Shrimp Incident"

This summer has been a crazy busy time for me so far. On top of all the busyness, I am moving not once but twice before the calendar reaches fall! As you guys know, I cook new foods on a daily basis, so I have a lot of shit in my cabinets a well stocked pantry. I am making a serious effort to clean a lot of this stuff out by cooking it rather than having to move it all. The first recipe in this series of cleaning out my kitchen is a sloppy joe with a ton of sriracha in it. These posts will be really lazy and sloppily put together only one picture and a quick description if it is as easy to make as this one is.

Now it's getting dark and the sky looks sticky, more like black treacle than tar.

The new Arctic Monkeys album has been in non stop rotation in my headphones since it came out about a month ago. One of my favorite songs is named after a popular British ingredient black treacle. Black treacle is a syrup that is similar to molasses and is commonly used in baked goods over there. I decided to grab some and feature it in a quick BBQ sauce that I could glaze salmon with. Most people might have trouble finding Black Treacle in their local grocery store, but luckily there is a large Irish community in my neighborhood, so many of the stores stock Irish and British products.

The smell of charcoal and roasted pork in the air. The sun shining on 40 of my friends in my backyard. Kreayshawn blasting from the stereo. Feeling a happy buzz from a mixture of a few different craft brews floating around in my belly, I pause and take in the moment. How did I get here?

This pig roast materialized out of nowhere. As improptu as a pig roast can possibly be, some friends suggested that we host it only 11 days before the actual event. These are the same guys that got me to make a turducken last fall. I think they knew that the mere mention of a pig roast over email would be enough to make things happen.

And sure enough, here I was, 11 days later and everything in motion. Not only was this the first pig roast I have ever hosted, it was in fact the first pig roast I have EVER BEEN TO!

Did everyone have a good holiday weekend? I for sure did. I attended a few awesome BBQs, and was even the host of one! It was one of the best parties I have ever thrown, and full coverage of the main event I am saving for Friday, but today I want to talk a bit about 3 different mac and cheeses I made as sides. Everyone knows I am famous for mac and cheese, so I really had to deliver. The cool thing about this idea was that I was able to make one massive pot of cheese sauce, then just add stuff to the different pans of pasta. The first was chipotle, jalapeno, and tomato, the second an herb puree, and the third I left plain.

A new fish market has popped up in Allston. And no, not the hip sushi restaurant called Fish Market, but an actual legit Japanese fish market. Let me tell you, this place was everything I had dreamed it could be and more! I feel like I have been looking for this place for years, and now here it is in my own back yard. You will probably see me at the intersection of Cambridge St. and Soldiers Field Rd. holding up a sign next time you drive by. "Spent all my money on raw fish, please give me spare change." This is not because the fish is expensive, in fact it is very reasonable considering the extreme freshness. This is just because last time I went I ended up buying pretty much one of everything since it all looked soo good! This is what I made after my first trip to Sakanaya.