Slashfood

Flashback to the Seventies: Korean Barbecue

Bruce Watson — 2009-06-05T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Lunch, Dinner, Beef, Asia, Recipes, Frying, America, Retro cookery, Meat

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

Over the last few years, Korean barbecue has gained fresh relevance in the United States. Whether served on hot dog buns in Manhattan, tortillas in Los Angeles or rice in Korean restaurants around the country, the sweet, oniony flavors of bulgoki, japchae and galbi are incredibly delicious and increasingly popular.

When I was a kid, bulgoki (also spelled bulgogi, pulgoki, pulgogi and any number of other ways) was a staple in my house. My parents, who lived in Korea before I was born, loved the stuff and would cook it on an electric griddle at our dinner table. As my sisters and I got older, we got involved in the fun; some of my first cooking experiences involved flipping bulgoki with a pair of bamboo tongs.

I've played with amounts and ingredients, but my mother's basic bulgoki recipe is fantastic. In fact, my only major change is in the dipping sauce: while my parents used light soy sauce with a sprinkle of pepper, I prefer a more traditional garlic/vinegar sauce, which I've included below.

Get the recipe for bulgoki after the jump.

Continue reading Flashback to the Seventies: Korean Barbecue

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Sid Wainer & Son Chili Oil - Product Spotlight

Alex Van Buren — 2009-04-23T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Baking, Frying, Raves & Reviews, Grilling, Spices, Artisan Foods, Dining at Our Desks

Some cooks reach for Sriracha, the ubiquitous Thai hot sauce, in a pinch. Others swear by soy sauce. And then there are those who refuse to reveal (*cough, cough* butter) what made the dish you just demolished delicious. For our part, we've developed a tiny -- OK, midsized -- crush on an infused chili oil, and we need to talk about it.

Sid Wainer & Son's Domaine de Provence pepper-spiked oil is fantastic. A drizzle of the fiery goodness rescues storebought and homemade guacamole alike with a heady, late-blooming heat on the palate. According to owner Henry Wainer, it's also tasty on bruschetta. We plan to carry it on our person all summer -- potentially awkward in the 90-degree swelter -- using guerilla tactics to douse any crustaceans and pork we spy sizzling on the grills of party hosts. (Brooklyn, consider yourself warned.)

Wainer has been equally passionate about the oil since meeting its producer at a dinner in France 18 years ago. Such culinary serendipity, he declares, "enriches the world." Can't argue with that.

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Yummy Yuca Fries

Monika Bartyzel — 2009-03-12T03:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Vegetables, Frying

If you devour Terra chips and wonder why potatoes are the only veggie that gets such beloved treatment, or if you love everything fried, you must try yuca fries.

Yuca is that large, kinda scary looking vegetable that pops up all over the place now, but still isn't getting its culinary due. It's starchy, full of good calcium, and even a taste of Vitamin C -- basically a sweeter sort of potato with a slightly different flavor and texture. Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy to prepare as our ol' potatoes. The skin is much firmer, and cutting it is more like a butternut squash than a potato.

Nevertheless, when you throw it into some hot oil, then spray it with salt and seasoning, it's french fries with a twist -- familiar enough that it's almost like old-hat, with a new and fresh flavor that ups the ante. Since it's quite a firm root, yuca is often boiled first, although the above fries were just thrown raw into some oil cooking away on med-high heat until they were crunchy. And of course, like potatoes, they can be made into some rather tasty chips.

As an eating and cooking culture, we're super-glued to our potatoes, and with good reason: They're delicious, versatile, and easy to prepare. But even as great as the taters are, sometimes other roots need their time in the spotlight.

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Culinary Degradation, Part IV - Monster Burger Gluttony

Bruce Watson — 2009-03-09T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Restaurants, Business, Frying, Food Oddities, Trends, America, Comfort Food, Fast Food

My Culinary Degradation post, which ran in February, inspired a fair bit of competition among my readers. While I managed to come up with a few moderately-disturbing food choices, my readers really ran with the idea, suggesting outrageous beer and ice cream combinations and fried foods that bordered on blasphemy. Last, but not least, they also suggested some monster burgers that strained the imagination, not to mention the digestive system.

I'm no stranger to big burgers, having worked my way through Red Robin's entire menu, but the Heart Attack Grill's Quadruple Bypass Burger is far, far out of my league. With four 1/2-pound patties, four slices of bacon, three slices of cheese, lettuce, and tomato, it is estimated to contain 8,000 calories. While I can't think of a lot of reasons to visit Chandler Arizona, I may still have to make a visit.

One reader, Astin, recommended Dangerous Dan's, a restaurant in Toronto. Their "Colossal Colon Clogger Combo" contains 24 ounces of beef, a quarter pound of bacon, a quarter pound of cheese, and two fried eggs. For $23.95, it comes with a large shake and a side of gravy and cheese curd-laden fries.

Continue reading Culinary Degradation, Part IV - Monster Burger Gluttony

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Fried Bologna - The West Virginia State Sandwich

Bruce Watson — 2009-02-25T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Frugal Food, Frying, Food Oddities, America, Comfort Food, Meat, Guilty Pleasures, Sandwiches

In a recent marketing campaign, Oscar Meyer proclaimed that its "Deli Creations" flatbread sandwiches were "blogworthy."

I beg to differ.

Nobody likes to be manipulated, and I would argue that bloggers like it less than most. There's something about spending a few lonesome hours a day cranking out content that really ups the curmudgeon quotient and makes us a mite persnickety about our production process. While other blogs, including Gawker, might not be too picky about where they get their tips, I tend to get mighty cranky when multimillion dollar corporations tell me what is and is not blogworthy.

With that in mind, here's something that really is blogworthy: fried bologna sandwiches. For anybody who hasn't tried this backwoods delicacy, the concept may sound a little questionable. However, the combination of bologna and heat produces a dish that is incredibly delicious and startlingly different from a basic bologna sandwich.

Continue reading Fried Bologna - The West Virginia State Sandwich

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Deep-Fried Apple Sweetness - Foodie Flicks

Monika Bartyzel — 2009-02-16T13:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Frying, Foodie Flicks

We always think of the delicious potatoes falling into the sizzling hot oil, but what about apples?

Above you can watch Chef Jason Hill make apple fries. Oh yes, he takes apples, slices 'em like fries, fries 'em up, and tops them with some cinnamon sugar. Unlike potatoes, which benefit from the double-frying technique, these guys are simple and quick -- just a coating of corn starch and into the oil they go. The simplicity and speed of this makes it perfect for that wow-treat for company. It won't take hours to make, and your guests will get a pleasantly sweet surprise.

Hill pairs the fries with a quick sauce of marshmallow and cream cheese, but I'm thinking a delicious yogurt-based dip would be perfect with this.

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My Newest Toy? A 30-Year-Old Deep Fryer

Amy McDaniel — 2009-01-15T11:57:00+00:00

Filed under: Frying, Southern States, Comfort Food

From my great-grandmother (called MaMa by her descendants), an inimitable Southern cook and hostess, I inherited a wooden spoon and a set of Chantilly silver that she purchased for herself from wages earned on the Singer Sewing Machine sales floor. Recently, I found out that another piece of MaMa's kitchen is still in the family: her West Bend Deep Fryer, which she purchased in the mid-1970s and passed along to my mother when my parents bought their first beach condo.

As an over-active child, I paid no attention to the equipment my parents used to fry the bream and bass that my brother and I caught in a lake near our condo. Fast forward two decades, during which my family indulged in fried foods less and less. The fryer had fallen into disuse until a few weeks ago, when I decided to try my hand at homemade French fries to accompany some rib-eyes that my cousin sent for Christmas. I was spending a week with my family at our current condo on the Florida panhandle, and my mother mentioned that I could use the old deep fryer.

Heirloom silver and an old wooden spoon are one thing, but antique appliances? Between the fryer's advanced age and my complete inexperience with fries, I was apprehensive to say the least. Find a picture of the results after the jump.

Continue reading My Newest Toy? A 30-Year-Old Deep Fryer

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Makin' Bacon! - Tip of the Day

Annie Scott — 2008-11-25T06:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Breakfast, Pork, Frying, Tip of the Day

Want to cook up perfect bacon every time? Check this out!

Continue reading Makin' Bacon! - Tip of the Day

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Big Tex: The ultimate in deep-fried food

Bruce Watson — 2008-10-29T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Food Porn, Frying, Food Oddities, Trends, Food Quest, Southern States, New Products, America, Comfort Food, Fast Food, Festivals, Local Eating, Guilty Pleasures, Fall

I generally try to eat wisely and well. I avoid greasy foods, turn my back on excessively processed ingredients, constantly rail against high fructose corn syrup, and try to eat all my veggies. Unfortunately, however, just as my day-to-day dietary Dr. Jekyll is upright and intelligent, I also have a culinary Mr. Hyde, who comes out when I find myself confronted with particularly delectable deep fried delicacies. Generally, this isn't much of a problem, as the fried food in my neighborhood mostly consists of unmentionable pig parts and the occasional codfish pancake. Moreover, since I've moved away from Southwest Virginia, I am no longer tempted by the Salem Fair, a horrifying assemblage of rides, petting zoos, and oil-soaked goodies that used to be the highlight of my year.

Recently, however, I came across a website for Big Tex, the Texas State Fair. While I will always maintain a warm spot for the food options at Salem, it is painfully clear that Southwest Virginia's yearly orgy of deep-fried wonders pales in comparison to the pure, unrestrained genius of Texas' chefs. With items like "Chicken Fried Bacon," "Texas Fried Jelly Belly Beans," and "Fried Pop Rocks Fundae," the Lone Star state has staked an unquestionable claim to national fryolator dominance. I was particularly impressed by "Fire and Ice," a battered, deep-fried pinapple ring that is covered in banana-flavored whipped cream that has been dipped in liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen? These guys are GODS.

Anyway, the fair is over for this year...but I'm looking ahead to next fall. Only 330 days to go!

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Pots and pans, what to buy?

Annie Scott — 2008-10-09T19:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Frying, Newspapers, Boiling

There are a lot of different kinds of pots and pans out there, and everyone's singing the praises of one or the other. Ignoring makers, Harold McGee of The New York Times put the different metals to the test.

We know aluminum pans to be the cheapest and lightest. Stainless steel looks beautiful forever and functions well at very high heat. Cast iron holds heat longer and is safe for popping in the oven after you've done what you need to on the stove--and it's even rumored to add nutritional iron to foods! Copper, the usual cream of the crop; typically the most expensive and prettiest, conducts heat evenly and quickly. Most copper pots and pans are coated with stainless steel (older copper pans coated with tin or nickel may be harmful, check your pans).

According to McGee's home test, electrical or open flame on your stove doesn't make much of difference, but the pans definitely all behave differently. His conclusions? To each his own.

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How to blacken catfish

Annie Scott — 2008-10-06T09:03:00+00:00

Filed under: Lunch, Dinner, Fish, Broiling, Frying, Grilling, Braising

Nothing tastes like a good blackening. And it's not even hard.

Many people shy away from blackened foods, thinking that blackening means charring the meat, the vegetable, whatever is being blackened.

Au contraire! Blackening refers to what happens to the Cajun spices! The spices get really hot and kazaam! They explode in the heat, turning black and infusing your fish, meat, vegetables or what-have-you with their flavor. Cajun, delicious, and a lot better for you than frying.

Check out instructions on how to make two seriously delicious blackened catfish fillets after the jump.

Continue reading How to blacken catfish

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Not afraid to fry

Emily Matchar — 2008-10-05T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Dessert, Recipes, Magazines, Frying

"Fear of both fried food and the act of frying means that doughnuts are strictly outsourced," writes Kelly Alexander in the New York Times Magazine. But it wasn't always so. For centuries doughnuts (and crullers, and fritters, and beignets) were staples of home cooks, who weren't afraid of a little hot lard. And there's no reason you should be either, says Alexander - doughnuts, a combination of flour, eggs and milk with baking powder or baking soda, are easy to make.

The article includes recipes for churros (Mexican stick doughnuts) with bourbon-spiked chocolate sauce, basic powdered cake donuts, and Earl Gray tea flavored donuts.

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Tasty taco adventures

Monika Bartyzel — 2008-05-01T08:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Dinner, Beef, Recipes, Frying, Mexico

With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.

My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.

Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.

Continue reading Tasty taco adventures

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Tip of the Day: season a new cast iron pan

Emily Matchar — 2008-03-13T10:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Frying, How To, Tip of the Day

If you haven't discovered the joys of cast iron, now's the time to start. It's cheap, distributes heat evenly and, if properly seasoned, is nonstick. Seasoning the pan involves filling in the invisible cracks and pores in the pan's surface by sealing on a layer of grease. Here's a quick method for seasoning a new pan:

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Rub pan with a thin layer of lard or vegetable shortening. Place pan upside down in oven with rack positioned beneath it to catch extra drippings. Cook for 2 hours.

Repeating this seasoning method several times helps create a better nonstick surface. Also, try to wash out the pan while it's still warm and dry with a paper towel to preserve the seasoning.

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An offaly good dinner at the Astor Center

Jonathan M. Forester — 2008-03-10T17:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Tastings, Parties, Wine, Beef, Pork, Frying, Raves & Reviews, Trends, Roasting, Slow cooking, Braising, Meat, Artisan Foods, Head to Tail

Not long ago I posted about an event at the Astor Center in NYC, the annual Head to Tail Dinner put on by Chris Cosentino of Incanto restaurant in San Francisco. I was lucky enough to attend and want to tell you all about it. We'll go behind the scenes in the kitchen before, and just prior to the meal; and follow all the way through the dinner itself. It all started three days prior when I was invited to join the chefs in the kitchen as they started prepping for the dinner.

Chris and his pal, Chef Jonnatan Leiva of the Jack Falstaff Restaurant in San Francisco had flown in on a red-eye after finishing work late the night before. With what little sleep they had on the plane, they went straight to work in the Astor Center kitchen, as they engaged on a three-day binge of Red Bull to keep them alert and local microbrews to keep them sane. Other chefs from around New York state showed up to volunteer and help put the event together.

Forward to next page

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A deep fryer, a bowl of batter and a White Castle slider

Marisa McClellan — 2008-02-29T15:35:00+00:00

Filed under: Frying, Food Oddities, Fast Food

Once more, an intrepid home cook has taken a innocent food item and elevated it to a place of crunchy, fried goodness. Today I offer you the battered and fried White Castle slider! I find this concept disgusting and yet there's a part of me that is whispering, "You could try that at home, you have a deep fryer!" Mostly, I just want to try a single bite, in order to be able to say, "Yes, I tasted that!"

Okay folks, I must ask. What's the craziest thing you've ever fried?

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Food Network contestant wins with chicken and yucca

Ellen Slattery — 2008-02-19T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Site Announcements, Vegetables, Poultry, Recipes, Television/Film, Frying, Roasting, America

Roasted chicken with fried yucca root was the obvious winner for judges at the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe: Chicken Showdown (just so we're clear, the contestants were battling it out, not the chickens). Grand Prize Winner Amparo Alam of Syracuse, Utah, swept the competition, winning 99 out of a possible 100 points for her original dish.

The recipe, listed here, uses ajies (Peruvian chilies) and huacatay (a Peruvian herb) to enhance the flavors of both the bird and the veggie.

Other category winners included Eboni Williams' Battered Chicken Wings with Pomegranate and Mango BBQ Sauce and Lauren Wyler's Chicken, Tasso, and Andouille Gumbo.

What do you think? Do these recipes sound good to you? Or could you do better? Put your money where your mouth is and submit your recipe by March 31 for the next competition.

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Super Bowl Week: Sarah's Sticky Chicken Wings

Sarah J. Gim — 2008-01-29T18:31:00+00:00

Filed under: Lunch, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Poultry, Asia, Recipes, Frying, How To, America, Super Bowl XLII

Like they say, ain't no thang like a chicken wang. Er, rather chicken wing.

I realize that we're posting about main dishes all day today for Slashfood's Super Bowl Week, and traditionally, chicken wings are eaten as appetizers. However, if you eat two dozen chicken wings the way I do with a small bowl of rice on the side, you can pretty much consider these chicken wings a main course.

These wings are based on a recipe that I first manipulated out of a college roommate, who got it from her friend's mother. I took lecture notes, my roommate gave me the recipe. Now, it's a very loose set of instructions, since I first got it form a Korean mom, and there's no such thing as "recipes" for Korean moms. There is always room for customization, which I had to do last night because my guests are on a low-spice diet. I know. Could there be anything worse than a low-spice diet?

Continue reading Super Bowl Week: Sarah's Sticky Chicken Wings

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PETA causes flap with anti-KFC tombstone

Joe DiStefano — 2008-01-16T17:02:00+00:00

Filed under: Poultry, Frying, Southern States

Folks at Kentucky's Cave Hill Cemetery have a bone to pick with PETA over a tombstone that the animal rights group recently placed near the KFC founder Col. Harland Sanders' grave to mark the anniversary of his death.

At first blush the marker seems to contain little more than a loving poem addressed to "Kind Friend of Chickens." As you can see from the above photo it actually contains an acrostic that reads "KFC TORTURES BIRDS." Officials at the Louisville cemetery say they were tricked and want the headstone removed. "We do not believe in being part of any political message at all," said Mac Barr, board chairman of Cave Hill Cemetery. "We believe that this is directed at Col. Sanders and KFC, and again, if we had known this in advance we would not have permitted this." Well, by gum I l think you might be on to something there Mac.

The plot was purchased by Matt Prescott, the brains behind the group's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, which takes aim at KFC because its "suppliers cram birds into huge waste-filled factories, breed and drug them to grow so large that they can't even walk, and often break their wings and legs." Even if such horrific claims are true PETA's taking its campaign to the boneyard is particularly dastardly.
[via Neatorama]

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Heart-stopping excess in a neat, deep-fried package

Marisa McClellan — 2008-01-10T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Cheese, Pork, Frying, On the Blogs

I do my best to offer up posts with good recipes, tasty links and interesting food-related news events. I really try not to turn Slashfood into a culinary News of the Weird. However sometimes, the insane excesses that people out there dream up are just too nutty to ignore. The crazy wedding cake doppelganger I posted about earlier in the week fell into that category. And so does this--a burger made out of ground bacon, filled with mozzarella cheese, coated in beer batter and then put in a deep fryer until crispy and cooked through.

A heart-stopper for sure, although I must admit that I'm sort of curious to know how it tasted. Sadly, I don't have the grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, so I fear I will never find out (I don't actually think I could bear introducing my body to this much saturated fat all at once, but darn if I'm not intrigued).

[via Phillyist]

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