Food Historian

Please welcome Hank Shaw as he takes is through the steps of grilling a whole fish, using sustainably farmed branzino. ~Elise

Branzino. Sounds kinda like a the name of a 1940s prizefighter. If it’s ringing a bell, that’s because this fish is popping up in American supermarkets for the first time. Also known as European seabass, the fish – now farmed throughout the Mediterranean – has been a prized item on European menus since the days of ancient Rome. The farmed variety began appearing on American restaurant menus a little less than a decade ago, when the European farming operations ramped up production.

Continue reading "Grilled Branzino with Rosemary Vinaigrette" »

Have you ever cooked with radicchio? Until recently I have only had it in salads. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, radicchio looks like a small head of red cabbage; you can usually find it in the produce section of your grocery store. It's actually not a cabbage, but a chicory, and it has a just slightly bitter, crisp taste.

Continue reading "Grilled Radicchio Salad" »

You know one of the reasons why hot dogs are such favorites with kids? Well, at least when I was a kid we got to choose our own toppings. The act of getting the toppings on just right, without making a complete mess, was challenging. But we had such a feeling of accomplishment, keeping the mustard or ketchup inside of the bun instead of all over the floor. Of course, eating the hot dog was another matter. Hard to avoid that mess. ;-) My favorite topping, next to mustard of course, was sweet relish, which I would pile on with gusto. I do believe the reason they wrap hot dogs in paper at ball games is to catch the relish, so you can still eat it, and not waste a morsel. Right?

Continue reading "Corn Relish" »

Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I almost ate the whole batch" dishes, only reluctantly shared with my parents who agreed they were terrific. Peperonata recipes come in many versions; some get cooked a good long time, some get cooked with potatoes, or without tomatoes. This dish is certainly open-for-improvisation. Rather than cooking the peppers until they were stew-like, we opted for a light sauté so there is still some crunch in the vegetables. A perfect side dish for chicken or fish, great on bread, and great on its own too.

Continue reading "Peperonata" »

The trick to a good stir-fry is working with a very hot, relatively stick-free pan. I say relatively stick-free because you don't want one of those stick-free pans with the coating that peels off, but say more like a well-seasoned wok or a cast iron frying pan. Hard anodized aluminum will work too, as its surface is bonded into the pan and can take high temperature cooking. Cooking on high heat allows you to get a good sear on the meat and vegetables without overcooking them.

Continue reading "Stir Fry Ginger Beef" »

Have extra basil in your garden right now? Here's a quick and easy vinaigrette dressing you can make with it that you can use not only as a salad dressing, but also as a sauce for fish, chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, or white beans. Here's an idea, use this dressing with some chopped fresh tomatoes and drained canned garbanzo beans. Presto jammo, instant basil-y bean salad. Enjoy.

Continue reading "Basil Vinaigrette" »

Please welcome Garrett McCord, who came by the other day to make these melon sorbets. So good! Refreshing on a hot summer day. ~Elise

Melons are one of those rare ingredients that are practically perfect as is. While they do take well to being tarted up a bit (maybe a light dusting of salt, few lashings of lemon juice, or some chopped mint), they certainly don't need to be overdressed. No, with melons like cantaloupe and honeydew you want to preserve and highlight their sweet, musky flavors.

Continue reading "Melon Sorbet" »

Ground turkey has to be one of my favorite meats to work with. It's lean, takes to spices well, and is relatively inexpensive. We were brainstorming ideas for something that would use ground turkey, potatoes, and onions the other day and were inspired by a classical Indian dish called "Aloo Keema", made with minced meat (most often chicken, beef, or lamb), potatoes, and Indian spices like garam masala and turmeric. Our ground turkey version was delightful, warmly spicy and satisfying. Made for great leftovers too. Feel free to play around with the spices. If I didn't have garam masala in my pantry I would have used some curry powder and maybe a little cardamom. Not that that's a substitution, it's just that the idea is not to complicate things too much, but to work with what you have, and note that "curry" is broadly defined.

Continue reading "Curried Ground Turkey with Potatoes" »

Hank made this seafood bisque for us the other day and it was so outrageously good I begged him to make it again. I served some of it to a friend from Provence whose eyes lit up upon tasting it, "This is just like we have at home! 'Bisque de Fruits de Mer'". The saffron is essential, and even though I usually don't like saffron, this soup has turned me into a saffron lover. I hope you make it. ~Elise

This is a curious, blended fish soup I’ve been making, in various forms, for many years. I like blended soups, which can seem creamy even without cream – although this one does have a little cream added at the end. They’re just, well, more refined than a typical country soup. And sometimes I feel the need for a touch of elegance, even on a busy midweek night.

One of the things that makes this soup so lovely? It only takes about 30 minutes to make. Yet, eaten with fresh bread and a glass of wine, you feel like you’re sitting at an oceanside bistro in Provence; there is a similar soup made like this in the South of France.

Continue reading "Provencal Seafood Bisque" »

The first time I heard of making pizza on a grill all I could think of was, why would anyone want to do that? Now that I've done it more than a few times I can think of several reasons. Who wants to heat up an oven to 450°F or higher on a hot summer day? If you use a grill to make pizza, you can keep the heat outside where it belongs. Grills also better mimic a wood fired oven than your conventional indoor oven. Whether using charcoal or gas, the smoke from the grill will help give your pizza more flavor. It's also dead easy. No, the pizza dough does not fall through the grill grates. Assuming you've properly heated the grill, your dough will form a lovely lightly charred crust. The trick is that you cook the plain dough first, on one side, on the grill. Then remove it, flip it, brush the grilled side with sauce and toppings, and return the pizza to the grill for final cooking. Easy peasy.

Continue reading "How to Grill Pizza" »

My young friend Audrey was over today. She's 15, and she is the official summer intern of Simply Recipes. For the most part, Audrey's job has been to cook existing recipes on the site that for some reason or another I've decided need work, or need a new photo (e.g. from this to this). This arrangement has been a lot of fun for both of us as you can imagine. Cooking, eating, singing show tunes, and generally acting silly? Yes, in her words, "it's the best summer job ever." (Oddly, Audrey appears to take direction better from me than from her own mother; I sympathize, my mom can't tell me anything. This hasn't escaped Suzanne, Audrey's mom. Audrey credits it to the fact that I'm paying her.)

Continue reading "Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Orange Pecan Cookies" »

If you have friends growing zucchini, right about now they are probably delighted, bordering on desperate, to give some of it away. Especially problematic are those huge, baseball bat-sized monsters, that appear out of the blue when you've neglected to check the garden for a few days. This soup is made for such occasions. It uses lots of zucchini, it cooks up quickly, perfect for a midweek meal, and it keeps for at least a week in the fridge. I like it just as well chilled as hot.

Continue reading "Spicy Zucchini Soup" »

I've been on a frozen yogurt kick lately. Not only because it's so darn easy, but also because the tanginess of the yogurt seems to just give any flavor you pair it with a big boost. It's still high season around here for blackberries, which churn up beautifully in frozen yogurt, with a little lemon zest, cardamom, and cinnamon. You can skip the spices if you want, but they do add a lovely touch to the berries. These also make terrific popsicles.

Continue reading "Blackberry Frozen Yogurt" »

Mmm, mmm okra! Yes, some people shy away from this odd little vegetable, usually because depending on the preparation it can be a little slippery slimy. Personally I love okra, any which way, including slimified. Alas, not everyone shares my affection (it's a texture thing), but the good news is that okra can be a perfectly un-slippery vegetable if it is sautéed quickly, on high heat. That way you get all the benefits of the crunch and flavor, but without the slurp. This recipe is one such preparation. The pairing of okra and tomatoes is classic. In this recipe, inspired by one in Donald Link's Real Cajun, sliced okra is seared first on high heat, before being simmered together with tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

Continue reading "Okra and Tomatoes" »

When it comes to the grill or barbecue, I defer to my colleague Hank, especially when it concerns meat. Here he shows us how to cook pork country ribs, slow and low. ~Elise

Country ribs. Big slabs of porky goodness cut from the shoulder of the hog. Sold boneless or bone-in, these are nothing like a rack of ribs. They are pork logs, laced with fat, and require slow, low-temperature cooking to become delicious. That’s the downside: You can’t do a fast country rib. The upside is that they are all meat, so you only need one to fill you up. In fact, I slice them in half because a full rib, which can weigh a pound, can be too much for some people.

Continue reading "Slow and Low Country Ribs" »

Please welcome Hank Shaw as he continues on his tour of barbecue sauce recipes with this Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce. ~Elise

Cooking with cola or root beer is common, so we figured why not cook with Dr. Pepper? Using soda as the base for a barbecue sauce does two things right off the bat: You get sugar and you get acid. You can literally make a glaze out of nothing more than soda. We went a little further with this recipe, making it a full-on BBQ sauce.

If you don’t like Dr. Pepper, you can substitute another dark soda; I’d recommend root beer. And you don’t technically need to put the sauce in the blender, but it does make a smoother sauce that goes on meats better.

Continue reading "Dr. Pepper Barbecue Sauce" »

Years ago, my first job out of college was in Boston; I lived in the North End, above D'Amore's Italian restaurant on Salem Street, right across from a little fish market. This was a magical time, to be in one's early 20s, exploring the back streets of Boston, feasting on the sights, sounds, and smells, alone or with friends. I was amazed that I could buy fresh lobster across the street from where I lived, at the fish market, for $4.99 a pound, still a luxury at that time, but within reach. (This summer, 27 years later, I bought lobster for $5.99 a pound, a bargain for this Californian!) That summer as often as I could I rounded up friends to enjoy a lobster feast. I still have the big aluminum pot I used.

Continue reading "How to Boil and Eat Lobster" »

Recently I had the privilege of dining with one of my favorite food bloggers, Carol Blymire, who after cooking her way through the French Laundry cookbook and blogging about it, is tackling an even more absurdly wonderful but complicated project with her blog Alinea at Home. Hank, his girlfriend Holly and I met up with Carol at Bouchon Bistro in Yountville, north of Napa. One of my favorite dishes of the evening was a simple side in which corn kernels had been slowly cooked in butter and Pernod and tossed with fresh tarragon. This is my attempt to recreate the dish and I think we've come pretty close. With all the fresh tarragon growing in my garden I've been on the lookout for recipes that would use it well. Who knew corn and tarragon were such a perfect match? The tarragon just seems to make the corn taste more exquisitely sweet, without being overbearing.

Continue reading "Tarragon Corn" »

In spite of the oddly cool weather here in Sacramento, my tomatoes are growing swell. And there is nothing better to do with fresh home grown tomatoes on a summer day than have them in a cool, colorful salad. While most summer tomato salads rely on basil, this one uses fresh parsley and dried oregano, along with onions and avocados. It comes from my friend Michelle (we've known each other since age 13) and is one her favorite salads to bring to summer potlucks and family gatherings. Michelle comes from a large extended Italian American family that truly loves food. This salad is like a traditional Italian tomato salad, but with avocados instead of mozzarella.

Continue reading "Tomato, Onion, Avocado Salad" »

Please welcome Hank Shaw, who made this Moroccan-inspired chickpea salad for us the other day. It was outstanding! ~Elise

I’ve always been a huge fan of North African food, and Moroccan food in particular. Moroccan culture is an old culture, and the spice combinations and juxtaposition of sweet and savory are not much changed from a thousand years ago, when these flavors dominated both Europe and the Arab world.

Everything in this salad could have come from Morocco, and the barley is something of a Berber touch: Barley is a mainstay of Berber cooking. I have no idea whether anything like this salad exists in Morocco, so let’s say it is Moroccan-inspired rather than an attempt at anything authentic.

Continue reading "Moroccan Chickpea Barley Salad" »