Egg-ceptionally Weird

Ok, for those interested in something really unusual, check out this article from last week's New York Times Dining section. An excerpt below to pique your interest:

"Some of the eggs were the size of a miniature marble; others as large as one fully matured inside a shell. Some yolks had already begun to form the albumen, the white, and a couple, one of the farmers said, would have had a shell by the next day."

Read the rest of What the Egg Was First by Marian Burros

Warm salads are the new "chicken caesar"

[Originally posted on my 43things]

It seems that warm salads (specifically grilled romaine) are showing up more frequently on restaurant menus these days. I first encountered grilled romaine cooking at an Outstanding in the Field event, and have been noticing it menus ever since.

I just enjoyed my own spin on the basic technique, by topping a bed of grilled romaine (cut into thirds, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper before placing on a hot grill, flipping once) with smoked trout, capers, and slivered hearts of palm. A killer homemade creamy, garlicky dressing made the meal.

This homemade “caesar” dressing is easy to make, and cut through the rich, smoky fish quite nicely: two smashed garlic cloves, minced mixed with juice from one half a lemon, about a teaspoon of dijon, and salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle olive oil to emulsify (1/4 cup? But who’s measuring…) and then whisk in about 1 tablespoon (adding in thirds) of non-fat, Greek style thick yogurt.

Photo: Me finishing my first grilled romaine salad at O.I.T.F. © James Chan 2006

Take my word for it

Seriously. Trust me here. Go make this sandwich now:

Peanut butter, cucumber and mayo. Yes, you read that correctly, but just for emphasis - peanut butter, cucumber, and mayo.

The peanut butter provides the roof-of-mouth-stick-effect, the thin layer of mayo delicately balances said effect, and the cucumber provides a toothy crunch. Some tips on constructing this gem of a sandwich follow. I'll be sure to add photos the next time I fix one of these for myself.

This sandwich is somewhat of an adopted family recipe, and works best on an adopted family bread - Gifford bread. Now, Gifford bread is not readily available in your local grocery store (in fact, not available in any grocery store), but what you're looking for is a hearty, whole wheat-ish, molasses bread that will provide a tacky surface for the peanut butter to stick to - wonder bread won't get the job done here folks.

Also, English (seedless) cucumber works best here, peeled to remove any bitterness, and sliced medium thin.

Now on to the spreadables - while i generally prefer crunchy peanut butter to smooth, the latter seems to work better in this application, and definitely get the salted kind. Whatever you do, make sure it's natural peanut butter, which shouldn't have any ingredients other than peanuts and salt (this is generally good advice, btw, in order to avoid those nasty hydrogenated fats). As for the mayo, i actually use a low-fat mayo here in place of a full fat variety, which may be too rich in this setting. And don't slather on the mayo! Save the slathering for the peanut butter. We're going for more of an oil-slick effect here.

Order of operations (ask me about the peanut butter sandwich construction technical specification some other time): generously spread peanut butter on one slice of bread and top with peeled cucumber slices. Thinly coat the other slice of bread with mayo. Sandwich the two together and nosh away.

What to do with that 2-buck Chuck

Have a couple of bottles of $2-chuck sitting around? Don't want to go through all the trouble of making sangria? The Basques of Northern Spain (sangria is a Southern Spanish libation) have come to the rescue: make Calimotxo. That's "call-ee-mo-cho." There are more than few variations on theme, but the essential combination is 50% Coca Cola, 50% red wine. Let me qualify that: 50% Coca Cola, 50% cheap red wine.

For more on this "unexpected" combination check out:
MattBites
Wikipedia