My favorite food-related obsessions, learnings, and media from the past month.
What I’ve Learned
- Love chicken fresh out of the oven, but hate the funky taste it acquires after a day in the fridge? Check out the science of warmed-over flavor and how hard it is to avoid.
- Everyone claims they have the best way to hard boil an egg, but leave it up to J. Kenji López-Alt to do the ultimate test in his first column for the New York Times: How to Boil the Perfect Egg
- Serious Eats is one of my favorite sites for cooking and baking. Find out everything you need to know about salt with this handy guide.
- I recently purchased crème fraîche to make Ina’s Roasted Duck with Dried Cherries and Port, and then promptly failed to find duck breast at any of local grocery stores. Not wanting to waste the crème fraîche, but having no uses for it this week, I was surprised to learn that you can freeze it without adverse effects.
Ina Cheat Days
My favorite non-Ina recipes of the month
Curry Chicken With Red Hot Pepper Sauce, Lazarus Lynch – Son of a Southern Chef, page 203 with Ain’t That Easy … Roti., page 174 — the list of ingredients for this is long, but it’s a relatively inexpensive and supremely delicious meal. The tender, fall-off-the-bone chicken (along with potatoes, onions, and carrots) swims in a thick sauce infused with Jamaican spices and a spicy habanero. Served this on homemade roti (also Lazarus’ recipe) which was a lot easier to make than expected. The finishing touch was the fiery Red Hot Pepper Sauce – the spiciness of the habanero is tempered with cucumber and mango nectar. It makes a ton of sauce and a little goes a long way. I froze some and have been putting it on everything.
Soy-Marinated Eggs, Sohui Kim, Bon Appetit — I love the soy eggs you often find in a bowl of ramen soup, so when I saw this recipe in Bon Appetit last month, I had to try it. The salty, slightly spicy treats were simple to make and a great addition to many dishes.
Can’t live without
With how much citrus zest Ina includes in her recipes, you know a zester gets a ton of use. I already owned a zester when Cassandra’s Kitchen sent me this years ago… Not long after receiving it, my old zester was in the pile of kitchen gear to donate. This zester is perfectly sharp, easy to clean, and I find that because it’s completely flat it’s much easier to work with. Hey, if it’s good enough for Ina, it’s good enough for me.
Cookbook spotlight
I rarely buy cookbooks anymore – cooking through all of Ina’s recipes really dominates my time in the kitchen. But after seeing Lazarus Lynch’s name popping up everywhere in the lead up to his book release, Son of A Southern Chef, I started following him on Instagram and was drawn in by his infectious personality and some absolutely delicious looking recipe. The cookbook is a piece of pop art and the Caribbean and Southern-inspired cooking had me drooling all the way through. And with shoutouts to Beyonce and Ina, you know he knows his stuff. Looking forward to spending some time this winter really diving into this one. Buy it here.
Can’t wait to try:
- Skillet Turkey Chili with Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread Crust
- Mom’s Saltfish
- Dad’s Mac and Cheese
- Jerk Chicken with Mango Chutney
- Curry Lamb Meatballs in Coconut Sauce
- Pan-Seared Salmon with Whiskey-Honey Glaze
- Guyanese Bake
Who I’m loving
How can you not love, Julia Turshen!?! I first learned about Julia when she appeared on the “Off Duty” episode of The Barefoot Contessa making her Kimchi Fried Rice with Fried Egg – a staple in my house whenever I have leftover kimchi. Since then, she’s released three fabulous cookbooks: Small Victories, Feed the Resistance, and Now & Again. In her first book, each recipe includes a “small victory” – one tip, trick or method you’ll learn that will help improve your cooking. She also includes spin-offs for each recipe for you to play with. Her third book, Now & Again, is full of menu ideas and tips for re-inventing your tired leftovers. Both books have added numerous recipes to my regular rotation. And if she weren’t busy enough, she also started a podcast, Keep Calm and Cook On, where she has in-depth, raw and revealing conversations with people across the food industry.
Her activism and dedication to promoting inclusivity and building community through food is something we should all aspire to. She founded Equity at the Table – an intitative that’s a “practical and proactive response to the blatant gender and racial discrimination that plagues the food industry. EATT is an easy-to-navigate database for food industry professionals featuring only women/gender non-conforming individuals and focusing primarily on POC and the LGBTQ community.” Looking to make your own impact on your community? Pick up her second book, Feed the Resistance, which has plenty of recipes and ways you can get involved. It’s no surprise it was named Eater’s Cookbook of the Year in 2017.
My favorite recipes
- Turkey + Ricotta Meatballs
- Avocado + Kimchi Toast
- Snow Day Udon Soup
- Patatas Bravas
- Curried Red Lentils with Coconut Milk
- Stuffed Mushrooms with Walnuts, Garlic + Parsley
Where you can find Julia
Restaurant Highlights
- Her Name Is Han – By far my favorite meal of the month! I came here with my friend Shirley to celebrate her birthday and we ate our hearts out. The highlight of the meal was the Kimchi Pancake topped with a poached egg, but we also enjoyed their Slow Cooked Pork Belly, Fire Grilled Bulgogi, and the Gochujang Marinated Pork Rib BBQ. We ordered two large plates and three small plates to share and had to be rolled out of the restaurant we ate so much. I definitely will be back!
Food Media
Podcasts, TV shows, listicles, and short articles I loved this month.
- The Worst Things New York Diners Do in Restaurants— Eater Upsell podcast
- The 13 Best Cookbooks of Fall 2019, New York Times
- When We Love Our Food So Much That It Goes Extinct, Luisa Torres, NPR
August Long Reads
- People Say Gullah Geechee Culture Is Disappearing. BJ Dennis Says They’re Wrong – Hilary Cadigan, Bon Appetit. After reading this story, I almost booked a trip to eat my way through the South. It may have to wait until next year, but it’ll happen
- PHOTOS: Vanilla Boom Is Making People Crazy Rich — And Jittery — In Madagascar, Wendell Steavenson, NPR — Check out this photo essay about the vanilla boom and how it’s affecting farmers and communities in Madagascar.
- How Long Before These Salmon Are Gone? ‘Maybe 20 Years’, Jim Robbins, New York Times — How a series of dams and the effect of climate change have drastically reduced the chinook salmon population in the Columbia River.
- Ramen, noise and rebellion: David Chang’s impact on the food world extends to who cooks, what they cook and how we talk about it, Maura Judkis, Washington Post — I can’t get enough David Chang, and it seems either can anyone else. I’m looking forward to his new Netflix show this Fall – until then, this article and his podcast will hold me over!
