Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's. Photo: William Couch/ Flickr.

Continue reading Unusual Hot Dog Toppings for Fourth of July Barbecues - Q&A with (Hot) Doug Sohn

Corn relish. Photo: bookgrl/ Flickr.

As you lug all of your fresh produce home, don't worry -- as always, we've got your back. Beyond the jump is an original recipe to use that corn, those peppers and those onions to make a quick, fresh corn relish.

This relish has a Southwestern twang, but it can accompany virtually anything coming off of your grill for Fourth of July barbecues, from juicy burgers and seared steaks to perfectly smoked chicken. And if the summer corn is too irresistible to resist buying a bushel, you can double the recipe and send some home with your guests.

Continue reading Corn Relish for Fourth of July Burgers

McIlhenny Co.

Continue reading Tabasco Hottest Chef Competition Wants Your Recipes

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

Continue reading Flashback to the Seventies: Pickled Beet Dip

Continue reading Better for You Barbecue Sauce

While on weekend food safari (scored: manchego, kraeme kase, smoked mozzarella, soppresata, genoa salami and muffaletta for Oscars antipasti), I was reminded that there is nothing like a Manhattan supermarket. If you only experience the city through media, you might never think that urban superpeople on the move need to buy groceries, so somehow it's touching to be among us when we do. For those who've never had the pleasure: picture a supermarket where there's barely room to maneuver yourself, let alone a cart, and then picture that space full of lifers piloting push-carts filled with whatever can be stored in tiny kitchenettes.

Another secret of urban foraging is the Roland Corporation, a New York City-based food importer whose offerings grace my cupboards in every format from tinned anchovies for Caesar salad to fragrant pumpkinseed oil for the accompanying pasta. Someone at Roland knows me and my kind: we orthodox mustardphiliacs cannot enter a space where condiments are vended without investigating what treats the mustard aisle is offering. And that's how, in a Chelsea Gristedes, I discovered Roland Tarragon Mustard.

Continue reading Roland Tarragon Mustard

• Banana and Nutella Crepe
• Butternut Squash Ravioli with Nutella Sauce
• Creme au Nutella and Macarons - This gorgeously seductive dessert is certain to increase your taste for love this Valentine's Day.
  
• Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream
• Nutella Champagne Shooter - Okay, the title of this recipe is misleading. This is an exquisite cocktail made with chocolate and hazelnut liqueurs, and a sparkle of Champagne (no Nutella). It's more of a tribute to Nutella worthy of making the list.
• Nutella Espreso
• Coffee Macarons with Nutella Cream
• Nutella Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
• Creamy Nutella Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache and Toasted Hazelnuts
• Cinnamon Nutella Cake

Continue reading CHOMPr Hamburger Grasper

Quick: what field crop comes to mind of when you think of the Napa Valley? If you immediately thought "mustard," you're not wrong, and you're not alone. In the right circles, the Napa Valley is as well known for its mustard as it is for that other crop which does well there. Those fields of endless yellow are celebrated in festivals, are a staple of local cuisines both formal and informal, and are a welcome sight in the great client-relations tradition of the Napa Valley gift basket.

It was in one such that I recently received a jar of Napa Valley Mustard Company mustard. I received the gift basket around the holidays but what with getting blotto on New Year's Eve and a more recent mishap involving a brace of oysters on the half shell, I just got around to tasting it. Wow. This jar was Whole Grain with Chilis and Garlic.

Continue reading Napa Valley Mustard Company Mustard

• Importers are fudging the country of origin to avoid tariffs and taxes.
• There's no legal definition of what constitutes pure honey, which makes it increasingly difficult for government agents to get bad honey off shelves.
• Until 1997, China was the largest supplier of honey to the U.S. That year, the Chinese hives contracted a bacteria that slashed production. Instead of killing the hives, Chinese beekeepers applied an antibiotic that is illegal in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Now all the hives are tainted and the contaminated honey continues to find its way into our supply.
• It's impossible to tell via laboratory testing where honey comes from, and so while much of the honey on store shelves is labeled, that information is unverifiable and thus suspect.
  

400 Sauces is a a British publication (Hermes House) so some yankee readers will have to adjust to a terminology in which a rocket is not a spaceship but a leaf (arugula, if you didn't know) and measurements are given in metrics as well as ounces. There are some distinctly British offerings that may disorient stateside users: where, outside of a hunting lodge, have you last encountered Cumberland sauce (pages 66, 343); where (perhaps The Inn at Little Washington?) would you find not just a recipe for watercress cream (page 58) but the correct dishes with which to serve it (salmon or sea trout, if you're wondering). Begin by mastering sauce basics (ingredients, measures, prep) and continue by mastering basic sauces (beurre blanc, veloute, bechamel, et cetera). The book moves on to great sections on chutneys, salsas, pickles and relishes, dessert sauces, salad dressings, jams and jellies, marinades and dozens of additional sauces, condiments and virtually every other thing you can serve alongside, atop, or surrounding another food.

Continue reading 400 Sauces - Cookbook of the Day

Continue reading Your Reserve Food Shelf

Continue reading Secret Easy Dip Recipe - Tip of the Day

Quick: what are the four fruit species native to North America?

You probably immediately got blueberries and cranberries, for an instant two of four. After speculating about pumpkins before remembering that they are not exclusively indigenous to the Americas, you might have had a eureka moment about concord grapes (three of four). And if you grew up in the American south or plains, and if someone remembered to point them out, you deserve the back pat you gave yourself for remembering pawpaws (four of four, with extra credit if you've ever actually partaken).

Some hate on blueberries, which share the same genus as cranberries, but this time of year, everyone loves the species Vaccinium, whose call name is the cranberry. To Native Americans who introduced cranberries to hungry pilgrims, the plant was called sassamanash, and was known for the same cleansing properties that your urologist and your mother cite today. So, yes, we drink cranberry juice all year long, but along with stuffing (filling if you're Pennsylvania Dutch, or dressing if you're southern, or "pass the platter" if you're an avuncular distant uncle on his second beer before kickoff) cranberry sauce is the signature side dish of Thanksgiving. Here is a crash course on cranberries.

Continue reading Cranberries - A Crash Course

When new bloggers join the Slashfood team, we like to make sure they get a proper introduction to our readers. You've met Mike Pomranz, Annie Scott, Monika Bartyzel, Stefani Pollack and Alanna Kaufman. Now meet the latest addition to our team, Eric Diesel.

Do you have a personal blog?

No.

What is your day job, or rather, what do you do when you're not food blogging?

I'm a writer and a homekeeper.

How long have you been blogging with Slashfood and what is your favorite post?

I just started with Slashfood but I've written a couple of pieces for AOL Food. I still get email from a piece I wrote last autumn about cafeterias, that wound up also being about my grandmother. I guess that, to me, they're linked.

Do you have any non-food-related, non-blogging hobbies?

I love classic films, especially women's pictures from the golden era of Hollywood, 50's melodramas, 30's musicals, exploitation flicks and midnight movies, the French New Wave, and silents. I also love contemporary art and I follow that scene. And I love books, especially Beat literature and anything related to the Beat literary movement.

Continue reading 20 Questions for a Slashfoodie: Eric Diesel