Gena's peachy bread pudding. Photo: Erica George Dines Photography
Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.
Growing up in Georgia, my summer jobs always revolved around produce. From the time I was eight years old, I worked selling boiled peanuts, silver queen corn and peaches on the side of the road.
Once I turned 16 and could drive, I began working at a local packing shed, Lane Packing, selling peaches and peach ice cream in their retail department. At the time, it was not air-conditioned, and you can only imagine how sweltering it was in July. I gave tours to Northerners, who were fascinated by the process of packing peaches, and was always entertained when I had to explain exactly what boiled peanuts were.
Needless to say, peaches were ample in our household and we never ran out of ways to cook with them. Fresh peaches not only pair well with grilled meats and seafood, they are also delicious simply grilled on their own.
Three of the state's top-producing peach farms are within a 15-mile radius of my hometown. Lane Packing Company, Taylor Orchards and Pearson Farm all produce top quality peaches, and you are missing out on the taste of summer if you don't order a box to enjoy yourself.
Get my Bourbon Peach Bread Pudding Recipe after the jump.
Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's. Photo: William Couch/ Flickr.
Frankfurter maestro Doug Sohn, the man behind the beloved Chicago eatery Hot Doug's, is a stickler for putting the same care into his hot dog toppings that a top chef would a béarnaise sauce.
Sohn is a trained chef who bypassed life in a haute restaurant to grill haute dogs. He's been on the wiener beat for nearly a decade, and remains an undeterred champion of foie gras in the wake of a since-overturned Chicago-wide ban. His sought-after pups feature tantalizing names like the "mighty hot" Keira Knightley and the "mighty, might, mighty hot!" Salma Hayek andouille sausage.
Gazpacho is always in Gena's fridge during the summer.
Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.
Tomatoes are in season and that means summer is officially here! Homegrown tomatoes straight from your garden or farmers market are so full of flavor; something as simple as a drizzle of oil, good balsamic and fresh herbs are all you need to make a spectacular side dish.
Rarely will you not find a big bowl of fresh gazpacho in my fridge during the summer months. It is easy to make and will stay fresh for several days.
Why do I love this chilled Spanish soup so much? You can easily make any recipe your own by adding or substituting different herbs, vinegars, fruits or vegetables -- so no batch will taste the same. Create a thicker gazpacho by pureeing toasted bread in the soup or serve fresh focaccia on the side for dipping.
NYU chemistry professor Kent Kirshenbaum. Photo: Jeff Potter
Like many inquisitive scientists, Kent Kirshenbaum regularly scans the ingredient list of prepared foods to uncover the chemical composites lurking within. The substance that most recently piqued the New York University chemistry professor's curiosity is liquid smoke. "My immediate thought was that it was a horrible mix of chemicals," he told us.
After distilling the concentrated smoke and liquid mix (often sold at the grocery store by the bottle to enhance barbecue) down to its roots of water and more than 400 chemical compounds, the scientist (who in person comes across as one part Einstein, one part Malcolm Gladwell) learned that liquid smoke is actually "safer [for human ingestion] than untreated wood smoke."
Kirshenbaum discussed his discovery last week during a monthly gathering of the Experimental Cuisine Collective -- food nerds who love to make things like edible foam. We caught up with him to chat smoke, bongs and homemade liquid smoke. What is liquid smoke? Liquid smoke is very simply smoke in water. Smoke usually comes as a vapor, but there are ways to condense it and turn it into liquid and that liquid can then be carried in water.
Politicians are used to getting grilled, but when Bobby Flay dropped by the White House for a private lesson, the tables were turned. The chef schooled President Obama on his corn technique and the importance of not flipping positions on meaty matters.
Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.
Cooking and entertaining outdoors pairs perfectly with nice summer wines. But the traditional Pinot Noir you drink with your sautéed salmon doesn't complement grilled salmon quite as well. Grilling gives foods a rich, woodsy flavor, so in return, the wine you drink should have a little more body.
For tips, I visited Athens' own Gosford Wine, which is co-owned by Hugh Acheson, a local chef and two-time James Beard Award nominee. There I met Taylor Carmichael, who is full of wine knowledge. He gave me a step-by-step lesson on pairing wines with my favorite grilled foods.
Get Taylor's suggestions and Gena's filet mignon recipe after the jump.
As promised, we're beginning our recap of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party this past weekend, featuring 15 of the best pitmasters from around the USA. After you take a dip in the barbecue sauce fountain, courtesy of Mike Mills and Amy Mills of 17th Street Bar & Grill, click on the post to see our photos. "Peace, Love & Barbecue," everyone!
According to industry research, the majority (58 percent) of grill owners use them year-round (I'm one of them, and have been known to dust a foot or so of snow off the barbie in the middle of January), but summer is really when grilling gets smokin' hot. With Father's Day and the whole "let's grill a big juicy steak for dad and buy him a tie" cliché less than a week away, let's talk a bitmore about barbecue-friendly wines. (And be sure to check out our expert grilling tips here).
Wine and grill pairing basics and four recommended vinos after the jump.
Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.
In a perfectly organized world, I would love to plan summer grill-outs several days in advance so I could spend hours thumbing through magazines and cookbooks and dream up amazing menus to try. Of course, my world is hardly perfect when it comes to planning meals in advance.
Take today for example. As I am driving to work, my husband calls and tells me we are spending the weekend at his parent's mountain house with some friends. While I realize I am not obligated to cook the meals, considering my profession and the fact that I do love to cook -- I feel like it is my duty. All of my friends are so generous with helping, so I am lucky in that respect.
When I need a last-minute grilling menu, but still want to cook something spectacular, I choose a good quality meat or seafood and pull out one of my fresh salsa recipes for the topping. This always seems to wow the crowd even though it takes so little effort.
This is the first in a series of blog posts by grilling expert Gena Knox.
Although it is a little early for summer tomatoes, I discovered beautiful red and yellow beets, huge heads of Bibb lettuce and fresh eggs at the farmers market here in Athens, Ga., last Saturday. My garden is already full of herbs such as parsley, basil and oregano, so adding them to what I found at the market created a fresh, seasonal menu that didn't take all afternoon. The minimal time I spent in the kitchen reminds me that if you cook seasonally with fresh ingredients, the less you have to do to make them taste delicious.
Memorial Day kicks off summer and (hooray!) grilling season. Outdoor entertaining, summer garden parties and casual, last minute burger grill-outs consume my summer months and I love every minute of it. See what I cooked up with my finds (blue cheese-and-bacon deviled eggs for starters) and the recipes after the jump.
Carrots in their natural state are pretty gorgeous, with their weird bumps and silly trailing roots and vibrant green fronds. So we love how Cathy at Not Eating Out in New York immortalized the homely beauty of these carrots, contrasting their striking colors with a bright blue plate. These carrots are the antidote to those bags of shiny, vaguely embarrassed looking nubs that go by the misnomer "baby carrots," making those look like Kraft singles alongside a wedge of Lincolnshire Poacher.
Cook Cathy marinated and grilled them, and paired them with pea shoots for what was undoubtedly an excellent and beta carotene-packed meal. We like to imagine them blended into a simple, silky carrot soup, grated into a vinegary cole slaw or just peeled and dunked whole into hummus.
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.
The distinctive smell of barbecued provolone topped with chili and oregano will forever remind me of a barbecue I went to in Buenos Aires. Before being served a series of different meats in a typical Argentinian asado, grilled provolone is often eaten with a savory chimichurri sauce that's made with parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, onion, and paprika with olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar.
In supermarkets thoughout Buenos Aires, you can find frozen provoleta that you can simply heat up in the oven or microwave. Sometimes you can even find it stuffed with ham, bacon, red peppers, and tomatoes. This incredibly rich and crispy treat makes me think of the salty Greek appetizer Saganaki - fried Greek cheese. I'm wondering if one can find these frozen provoletas in supermarkets in the United States. Although it's easy to make, the frozen ones I purchased in Argentina were absolutely delicious!
While both recipes seem identical, the first one also offers an excellent recipe for chimichurri sauce. When entertaining, I highly suggest you make this dish as an appetizer. It's sure to be a crowd pleaser.
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.
We can change the way we make eggs -- scrambled, poached, fried -- but what about changing the eggs themselves? Mix up your scrambling routine with quail eggs.
Nothing tastes like a good blackening. And it's not even hard.
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