Ben Cooks Everything

As I’ve said before in this space, I’m not much of a baker. But Bittman’s crisp is barely baking, an incredibly forgiving recipe that can be put together in minutes with any type of fruit you’ve got on hand. Right now, with blueberries and nectarines all over the market, is a fine time of year to throw one together. (more…)

Hi there! Has it really been three months since last post? That’s ridiculous. Sorry, everybody. It’s been a busy few months! I left my job, stopped writing Apps Only, restarted writing the Greenmarket Report, celebrated a first anniversary with my boyfriend, started a new job, went to Montauk, fixed my grandma’s computer, all sorts of stuff. Not that this is any excuse, because none of it has stopped me from cooking. But it has stopped me from blogging. Point is, I’m back, and it’s now hot enough that all I can do is chop up some fresh tomatoes, garlic, and basil, toss them with salt and pepper, throw it on some toasted bread and top it with a little soft goat cheese chevre. (more…)

Ramp season is here, as you can see from my Greenmarket report on Serious Eats: New York. In addition to the fervent excitement, and the backlash, Kenji at Serious Eats has chimed in with a thoughtful rant, setting up the backlash to the backlash, and even providing a few recipes. Check them out; they all look good. Below, one that I like to make. If you’re looking for more ramp inspiration, the most versatile thing you can do is make ramp butter, and stash it in the freezer. It lasts forever, long past the terribly short ramp season, which lasts only about a month. (more…)

Gwyneth Paltrow has been getting a lot of press lately for My Father’s Daughter, her new cookbook. A lot of people seem pretty steamed that Paltrow would write a cookbook. I’m not sure why: the celebrity cookbook is hardly a new idea, and Paltrow’s been moving towards this realm for years now with her GOOP e-newsletter. Yes, this book can be annoying at times, like Paltrow herself. But I think she knows she’s got this annoying, unrelatable streak, and I think she’s genuinely comfortable with it. She’s not fake, but she is Hollywood royalty, she is friends with Beyonce and Jay-Z, she does have two wood burning pizza ovens in two of her homes in Long Island and London. The matter at hand, though, is that her cookbook’s full of good, sensible recipes and smart tips. It tells you how to dress up recipes for company, make them vegetarian or vegan, replace processed white flour with more healthy alternatives, and make recipes kid friendly for people who eat like kids (people who eat like kids, by the way, can be any age).

Sounds a little like How to Cook Everything, no? I’m not saying My Father’s Daughter is as good, or that Paltrow will be replacing Bittman as my culinary idol, but I do think that if a few people buy this cookbook out of some misguided admiration for Paltrow and end up making the recipes in it, that’s a good thing. It’s a solid place to start if you want to make more recipes in the kitchen, and it’s at times more entertaining than How to Cook Everything, because while you’re reading it and using it, you can also make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow, a favorite pastime of many. Or you can admire her, if that’s your thing. Either way, it’s a pretty useful and fun cookbook. It’s occasionally unintentionally hilarious. What’s wrong with that? As I see it, with this cookbook, Paltrow is using her cult of celebrity for good, not evil, and I think that’s really cool. (more…)

Matzoh balls are great, but they can get kind of heavy and dense in the middle. That’s what happened last year when I used the recipe in How to Cook Everything. Yes, Bittman says that for lighter balls you can separate the whites, beat them, and add them separately. But that seems like a lot of work. I decided to try Deb from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for matzoh balls. I think it’s a family recipe, as it’s not attributed anywhere else, and Deb mentions her mother and mother-in-law’s balls in the post. In this recipe, they turned out nice and light but didn’t include the egg white step. The trick is seltzer in place of stock or water, which really did the trick. These matzoh balls were light and fluffy–I couldn’t believe I had made them. It was like my grandmother took control of my body, and when I came to, I was eating the matzoh balls she’d made. (more…)

Ever notice that I never make dessert? I’m just not much of a dessert guy. I don’t know why. That being said, bread pudding is one of my favorites, and Bittman’s is dead simple. And really good.

Combine milk, butter, cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt and warm in a saucepan just until the butter melts. Then this mixture gets poured over chunks of bread (I used some leftover, going stale no-knead bread), and the whole thing gets tossed with some chopped apple and raisins (I used dried cranberries, because that’s what I had on hand, and because they are generally superior). Beat eggs and mix into the bread mixture. Bittman tells you to bake this off in a water bath, but I skipped that part, and it came out fine. Better than fine: great! So good that I couldn’t wait to take a picture, hence the image you see of a half eaten bread pudding. (more…)

I couldn’t get any sleep last night. I was too full. And even when I closed my eyes, memories of dinner at M. Wells were burning too brightly in my brain to get any rest. The restaurant has gotten a lot of press lately, including this rave from Ed Levine at Serious Eats. You may know the story: Chef Hugue Dofour, an alum from Au Pied Du Cochon in Montreal (another source of one of the best meals of my life) and his wife Sarah Obraitis (formerly of Heritage Meats) have renovated a diner in Long Island City and been serving lunch/brunch for almost a year but recently started serving dinner three nights a week. Their menu is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and the restaurant has a casual, genuinely friendly vibe. 11 of us ate together to celebrate my friend Jen’s birthday (you may remember her from the pork CSA we shared). Last year on Jen’s birthday we were being brutalized and delighted at the Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, so this was a change of pace, but certainly no less memorable a meal. And I was allowed to take pictures! Check them out and more on M. Wells after the jump.

(more…)

Last night, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Village Voice’s Choice Eats event at the Lexington Avenue Armory. Now, food events like this are a mixed bag, and I always go into them with the lowest of expectations. Sometimes these things are just a series of infuriatingly long lines for not a lot of food that doesn’t necessarily favorably compare to what you’d get in the restaurants represented. So, you know, if it’s good, I’m always pleasantly surprised.

Well, take note for next year: Choice Eats is about as robust, well organized, and fun as one of these events can get. Close to 100 restaurants set up in the enormous space, each serving bites of their food. The variety was downright staggering: places from Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Astoria, and even Newark, NJ were all there along with the usual suspects from the East and West Villages and more trend-saturated parts of Brooklyn. There was plenty of food, and if you got there in the first hour the place was practically empty, making it easy to gorge oneself before the hordes descended. By the time that happened–and it happened in a big way–I had already had a chance to eat just about everything I wanted. So, pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. This was a great event, and considering the swath of restaurants I was able to sample, I’d say it definitely would have been worth the price of admission, had my ticket no been comped thanks to a friend. Thanks, Robert!). After the jump, a few highlights. (more…)

Pearl couscous–I always see it labeled as Israeli couscous, it’s the same thing–cooks really fast (ten minutes or less) and makes a really nice, substantial side that if you add enough veggies and some protein, it can be dinner in and of itself.  Here, you sautee some onions and the couscous until toasted, then add garlic, reconstituted dried tomatoes, and olives and cover with stock, then cook until it’s all done. It’s really good this way, and even better with a bit of diced apricot thrown in.   (more…)