Slashfood

Stuffed Eggplant - Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

For some reason, eggplant is often neglected by home cooks. Maybe because it's hard to get excited about it visually (dull brown when you want something bright green or red or orange), or because the texture and flavor can be unappealing if cooked incorrectly, or because it doesn't groove with the protein you took out to defrost, or just... because.

This dish is a game changer. It capitalizes on eggplant's plump shape, brings plenty of color into play, uses Middle Eastern ingredients to boost flavor and incorporates chopped eggplant flesh into the lamb stuffing, so texture isn't an issue. Deliciously clever.

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Squash and Goat Cheese Pizza - Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Features

Photo: Dumin, Flickr.

This is a beautiful example of less being more. Rough-shaped pizza dough brushed with a bit of oil and topped with squash, goat cheese and herbs -- simple yet delicious. What more could you want?

Create something similar in your own home, tonight: Pizza dough (fresh or frozen) is available at most supermarkets or at your local pizza place, and, if squash and goat cheese aren't your thing, choose a topping combination that is, such as tomato and mozzarella, mushrooms and fontina or roasted red peppers and ricotta. Go crazy . . . no one needs to know.

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Spinach & Flank Steak Salad - Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Features

Photo: adashofsass, Flickr.

The blogger herself says it best: "I subscribe to a ton of food blogs, and generally get a handful of recipes delivered to my inbox each day. The gems get filed away under the bulging To Make list. Very rarely do I receive a recipe that sounds so good it produces a Run-Don't-Walk level of urgency. This salad is of the Run-Don't-Walk variety."

It's a satisfying main-course salad, especially with addition of black-eyed peas and black beans, but light enough for a warm summer day thanks to the bright, tangy dressing, sweetened with agave nectar (talk about a great secret weapon!).

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My Love For You Is... Explosive?

Cheryl Brown — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features

Photo: WENN.

The Slashfood team always has their eyes open for off-the-beaten-path Valentine's Day gifts, especially of the chocolate variety, which is how we stumbled across this particular item: a 3-ounce hollow MK2 Fragmentation milk-chocolate hand grenade.

This is what happens when a group of guys -- guys who hunt, guys who camp, guys who don't bathe for days at a time -- start thinking about crazy things to do with a surplus of Belgian chocolate. Grenades might not be the first thing that comes to mind for many of us, but, then again, if our day jobs involved selling chocolate fountains (and the chocolate to go with them) to high-end Vegas resorts, it just might be.

The wood-crate tin packaging is an inspired finishing touch (it even locks), and we love the Martha Stewart-esque suggestion of storing your real ammo in it once the chocolate is gone. Plus, who could resist the heartwarming notion that this grenade offers "a more peaceful way to resolve any conflict"? The company also makes chocolate bullets and chocolate guns, in case this doesn't do the trick.

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Chickpeas with Garlic and Bay Leaves - Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Features

Photo: Patent and the Pantry, Flickr.

When you see something as delicious looking as this, becoming vegetarian not only seems perfectly feasible, but desirable.

All it takes to transform a humble can of chickpeas into this elegant dish is garlic, shallot, bay leaf and olive oil (oh, and some time in a 400-degree oven). The cook responsible for the above masterpiece also has a thing for Swiss chard, and thus stirs some in on occasion for a completely satisfying side dish.

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Grapefruit Peel -- Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Features

Photo: stetted, Flickr.

The very essence of citrus is captured in its peel. There's something so elegant about its simplicity, about the volume of flavor hidden a part of the fruit that's typically discarded.

Once you carefully remove the bitter white pith, you're left with pure rind, and the culinary options unfold: julienne it for marmalade or candied zest, finely grate it for salads or pastas, or cut wide swaths of it to infuse cocktails or stews.

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French Macaroons -- Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes

Photo: jillsp, flickr

Yup, we know it's going to sound incredibly clichéd but there's really no other way to describe this: An edible rainbow.

French macarons (or macaroons) are not even vaguely related to the dense, tear-drop shaped coconut concoctions common here in the U.S. These light cookies are crispy yet chewy, made of almond flour, powdered sugar, egg whites, and food coloring, and they sandwich a luscious buttercream filling (or ganache, or jelly).

They're a true classic -- refined in looks and taste (and a pain to make) -- which is why they've proudly held their place in French pastry shops for decades, and will continue to do so for years to come.

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Salmon Burger - Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Features

Photo: ilmungo, flickr.

Tired of your usual beef burger? This Asian-inspired salmon version is a wake-up call for the senses. The recipe cleverly incorporates pickled cucumber, fresh ginger, scallion, hot pepper flakes, mustard seeds and soy sauce for bright flavor, and the aroma is appealingly fresh and spicy. As for the color? Well, let's just say sandwiches around the world are envious.

Put it on whatever bread you have on hand -- the original recipe calls for pumpernickel, but this sesame bread does the trick as well, as would a plain old hamburger bun .

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Anyone Can Be a Cooking Show Star -- Even Barbie

Cheryl Brown — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: New Products, Features

'I Can Be TV Chef' Playset. Photo: Amazon.com

When a colleague mentioned she bought this doll for her niece (who loved it, for the record), we were mesmerized with horror and glee. Barbie has come a long way from the basic townhouse days when we knew her -- now she can be anything from a fashionista to a race car "cutie."

Barbie has apparently become a foodie as well. Her kitchen is fully stocked, and she has all the camera gear needed for a full-on cooking show. To be honest, we think her skirt is questionably short for actual cooking, but that aside she could conceivably pass as a Sandra Lee-Giada hybrid. And yes, we kind of want one for the office . . .

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Homemade French Fries - Feast Your Eyes

Cheryl Brown — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Features

jwannie, Flickr.

If this doesn't give you the urge to go into the kitchen and fry something right now, we can't imagine what would. You can almost feel your teeth breaking through that delicate golden crust, taste how those grains of salt work in perfect balance with the tender potato inside. Everything we bite into should be this dreamy.

Try making your own homemade fries following method in Tyler Florence's fish and chips recipe.

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Slashfood Gets a Makeover

Cheryl Brown — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: On the Blogs, News

The new Slashfood.

Feast your eyes on the fresh new look of the most widely read food blog in the nation.

We know you rely on Slashfood for breaking food news, smart takes on food trends, recipes, reviews and chef interviews you won't find anywhere else.

And now, after our first ever redesign of this blog (launched in July 2005), you can easily find your favorite content. The new look brings even more luscious food photography to the table and and lets us show off contributions from some of the most exciting, opinionated writers in the business.

Continue reading Slashfood Gets a Makeover

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