52 Foods

I’ve probably attempted these in ignorance at some point in the past, but I’m counting them as new because this time I looked up what I was doing, and was successful. This dish was inspired by Too Many Leftover Boiled Potatoes from the Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner I made a week ago. I froze those the next day with this use in mind. 

My potatoes were fingerlings, boiled (a little bit too long) and buttered, then frozen the next day. Yesterday I thawed them. Today, I took them out of the freezer bag and cut them into smaller pieces, releasing some water, which I drained.

Yeah, that’s congealed butter fat. It’ll be OK.

A little olive oil in the pan, medium heat. Add some salt and pepper, add some parsley:

Let them cook until they brown and start to stick, then turn in batches. Repeat until crisp enough, add cayenne if desired, et voila:

To go with the spätzle I just posted, I wanted to try making chicken paprikash. I chose a route roughly halfway between J. Kenji López-Alt’s Easy 4-Ingredient Chicken Paprikash and his Best Chicken Paprikash, both at Serious Eats. Credit also goes to the good people in the spätzle thread at MetaFilter, whose comments made me want this.

To start with you need paprika. Mine was good, but in the end I suspect it would’ve been better had it been fresher. If you’re making this, consider it a great occasion to buy fresh paprika.

I really only do the mise en place thing when I’m cooking for this project, you know.

The cooking itself was simple: get the meat good and brown,

soften the veggies,

add the paprikash,

then return the chicken, add broth, simmer, and serve. I forgot to take a photo at this stage, but I did take one of the finished product:

Another MetaFilter inspiration, here, and a HighEdWeb inspiration as well—I tried this dish at breakfast with friends in Milwaukee the morning after HighEdWeb 2015, and the discussion and video at MetaFilter revealed that it’s not that hard to make (though making it well might prove to be another matter).

I based my preparation on the Serious Eats recipe by Kumiko Mitarai. Essentially, spätzle is a simple pasta, made of flour, salt, and herbs...

...to which are added eggs, butter, and milk, until the mixture reaches the necessary consistency.

This mixture will be divided into small pieces, boiled until firm, cooled in ice water, and drained until dry, then later fried briefly to hit and finish before serving. It sounds harder than it is, but it does take a little time because the boiling process has to be tackled in small batches. 

First, I got everything ready.

Then I spread the dough on a moistened cutting board.

Next, and this is rather the tricky bit, I cut small strips of the dough into the boiling water. 

This is not the only way to get little bits of dough into the water. Some people force it through a colander, others use a potato ricer, and some even buy spätzle-specific gadgets for the task. The video in that MetaFilter thread inspired me to try it this way, however. It’s worth a watch.

My spätzle were definitely fatter than they ought to be (good thing I’m already married) but they boiled just the same.

Messy-looking, I know. Here’s one on its way out of the hot water.

Next, into the cold, in order to stop cooking.

Then I spread them to air-dry on a cookie sheet until I was ready to heat and serve. 

The final preparation was easy: oil, a skillet, and whatever else you may wish to add.

I added green peas as in the Serious Eats recipe, but left out the speck because I was making chicken paprikash to serve with this. Here’s the spätzle:

And here it is with the paprikash:

I heard about Gigi's Triple Ginger Cookies on the You Are Not So Smart Podcast and knew I wanted to try baking them. Then I heard about the annual cookie swap at MetaFilter and knew I’d better try baking them soon. I hadn’t made cookies for a long time, but it was pretty straightforward.

There’s lots of ginger in this recipe.

Lots of sugar, too. And molasses.

A single batch of dough mixes easily in my stand mixer.

And forms easily without sticking too much to your hands...

...while remaining sticky enough to cover with more sugar. 

I cooked them as long as the recipe said, and even a little longer but they still came out a bit soft.

Delicious, but maybe a little too moist. Undercooked.

What did I do wrong? 

Oh, several things:

I used baking powder instead of baking soda.

I forgot to include one of the three gingers (grated fresh ginger, which I had specifically purchased and forgotten about).

Oh well. We ate these anyway, and I made a second test bake a few days later.

Better. They did fall a bit after baking, though.

They need a minute or two more time in my oven than the recipe calls for.

Still, definitely a success. I used what I’d learned when I baked them a third time, this time a double batch, for the internet friends I’ve never met in my MetaFilter cookie swap group. 

These were the best batch, I’m glad to say. I will certainly bake these again.

I overpacked them a bit to try and keep them intact.

I’ll definitely do the cookie swap again too.

As always, Deb Perelman’s photos and writing on Smitten Kitchen made sound so appealing I just had to try her recipe (seriously, go look at her photos, they’re so much better—she’s a pro). 

I like my sandwiches highfalutin’ and I like them simple, and I can enjoy them on almost any bread, but this sandwich seems to call for good bread and I started with a nice whole wheat sourdough: 

The same logic applies to tomatoes, and since I had the option I sliced up some nice heirlooms:

Spread the mayo,

And we’re ready to fry some cheese. Actually I’m not sure I’m ready. I’ve just straight up fried a slice of cheese. Here goes: 

It seems pretty melty, like it’s going to just liquify and spread out all over the pan. I pushed the edges in a little bit but I’m not sure I had to. The trick was flipping it. The recipe says that a thicker slice and a thinner spatula will both help, but I worked with what I had. The first one I did actually flipped the best:

So I tossed it on a slice of bread:

And topped with slices of tomato:

One down, three to go:

When all of the sandwiches were assembled I sprinkled them with salt and pepper:

And served:

I like my eggs sunny-side-up but rarely have the patience to cook them that way. The same goes for poached. So Linda Wertheimer’s basted egg recipe intrigued me, and a couple of weeks ago I gave it a try. i wanted to serve mine on a tortilla, but all I had was flour (shh, don’t tell Linda!):

Ok, starting to brown on one side ... turn ...

Add the egg and some water or, in this case, salsa: 

and then...

Shoot. The damn flour tortilla started to burn before the egg started to cook. 

OK. With the smoldering tortilla transferred to the sink to cool off, I put a second tortilla in the toaster over to just warm a little, and started over with just egg and salsa in the pan: 

Then covered it: 

I’m supposed to watch for a color change. The egg is supposed to look a little pink. What is that supposed to look like? I honestly wasn’t sure, but it turns out that it looks like this:

Or, under the lid, like this:

Turns out, this is pretty good, and I’ve repeated it since. I still keep forgetting to get corn tortillas first (cut me a little slack—I live in Massachusetts.)

Bear with me here — the light over the range was out and those photos were terrible. The rice was good. 

This recipe is from Cookie and Kate and it’s another one I discovered on Pinterest. It made the second half of a good meal a little while back, but it could make a great meal on its own, and a vegetarian one at that. 

This cooks up pretty quickly so as the recipe advises I took the mise en place more seriously than I usually do:

I’d cooked that rice 90 minutes ahead of time and cooled it in the fridge. This was my first attempt at fried rice and I’ve since been advised that things will come out better with rice that’s been in the fridge for a day or two. Next time! Not that I need another reason to prepare more rice than I need. 

The recipe also calls for long-grain brown jasmine rice. I could only find rice that met two of these qualifications, and went with long grain white jasmine since I could prepare it faster.

Then (in terrible light) I cooked the eggs

the pineapple and peppers:

the other veggies:

and the cashews:

Not so appetizing, right? It’s the light, I swear! 

The finished dish was very nice, a fine blend of textures and flavors. The rice clumped and didn’t crisp as much as I’d like, but it wasn’t left-over enough, and it didn’t keep things from tasting good. I ate leftovers of this dish for several days, and it kept on being tasty. 

And here it is, plated with my number 16. Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers:

It’s been a while since I made this dish and the next one. Time to post them. 

I found Kitchen Meets Girl’s Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers recipe on Pinterest and thought it’d be half of a tasty dinner. It’s simple enough: mix up the marinade: 

Soak the skewers in water and the chicken in marinade; wait; and grill:

Et voila:

We enjoyed these with my number 17. Thai Pineapple Fried Rice:

I’m a coffee aficionado (to put it mildly) and have tried quite a lot of brewing methods, but while I’ve enjoyed cold brew made by professionals I’d never tried making it at home until a few weeks ago. My first experimental attempt is presented below. 

Based on my first survey of recipes I decided to go with a 10:1 water to coffee ratio. I measured cafefully:

I went with a coarse grind, halfway between drip and French press:

In fact, I used a French press as the steeping vessel, for the convenience of separating the grounds the next day.

I covered this, and put it out of the way on the counter.

After 12–15 hours or so:

I pressed the coffee, then poured the liquid through a filter to get things good and clear.

It’s amazing how much particulate coffee is suspended in this liquid even with a coarser grind. I can usually put up to a liter of water through drip-ground coffee in one of these V60 filters but this time the pores got clogged and I had to actually squeeze the last of the liquid through the paper.

The resulting concentrate was pretty, and tasted good by itself:

But it was far too weak to water down 4:1 or even 2:1 before optionally adding milk and enjoying.

I found I liked this recipe best mixed 1:1 with milk. I made another batch the same way and these helped me wake up for a couple of weeks of early morning workouts, but ultimately the result wasn’t very satisfying.

There is huge variation among cold-brew recipes. Whereas pourover coffee is great at a 17:1 water to coffee ratio, I’ve seen cold brew ratios anywhere from 10:1 to 4:1. Steep times vary from 12 to 24 hours. Some recommend room temperature, others <40ºF chilled water in the fridge. Grind recommendations vary from a medium drip to a coarse perc/press grind. I would be grateful for your recommendations (here, at @svenaas or elsewhere)!

After last weekend’s beef ribs experiment I had a hankering to try making these. Working from a Southern Living recipe I got a small (2.7 pound) rack, split it, and rubbed it with lime halves

and a mixture of kosher salt with red and black pepper (use less salt than this)

I was cooking on a gas grill. I lit one half, oiled the other, and stacked the ribs on the unheated side:

After 40 minutes I swapped and rotated them:

After another 40 I rotated them again without swapping them. I decided to move them to the back of the grill and heat the front instead at this point, though, as the back burner doesn’t seem to generate as much heat.

After a third 40-minute interval things were looking pretty good:

So it was time to lower the heat and start basting with barbecue sauce:

(At this point I began cooking the boneless chicken breasts and hot dogs for the non-rib-eaters in my family.) Half an hour later we were ready to eat!

I like to grill, but there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t tried grilling before. This was my first time over the fire with boneless beef ribs. I started with a dry rub, cooked slowly with indirect heat at about 250ºF for about two and a half hours, turning periodically and brushing with barbecue sauce for the last few turns. 

There’s the rub:

The back of the grill:

It’s slatherin’ time!

Until:

And inside:

It’s been a while since I posted one of these, so here are two in one, from Sarah Ryder’s recipe in the Two Sisters Recipe Collection. I’d been thinking about cooking something with bok choy for a few weeks and couldn’t resist when Sarah posted this one. 

The mise en place, including beer:

First, the rice. I’d never cooked coconut rice before. Looks kind of suspect. Will this really work? (spoiler: yes).

Then into the skillet w’ye, one:

Two:

Three:

I probably should have let the rice get farther along before starting the skillet. Back to the rice, whose normal looks mask the rhapsodically delicious taste and immense caloric load of the coconut milk:

Time to mix it up, with chives:

And succulent mango:

So good. I double the recipe. I really shouldn’t have. I know this, after adding up the nutritional info, which I’ll spare you. Don’t add up the nutritional info. This is too good for that sort of knowledge.

The bok choy lost a little vibrant color while I was finishing the rice, but lost nothing in flavor. This is a very good dish, and a very easy dish. I’ll definitely try this again.

I’ve been wanting to try bread-making for a while now—I love everything about bread—and the combination of a simple no-rise quick bread recipe and beer felt like just the right way to start.

First, the mise en place:

Quick or not, I’m doing this right:

And then:

(as one does) until

Then just drop it in a loaf pan

bake

(eeeeeerie), remove

cool, and serve

This is really quite good, and very, very simple. I think I took it out of the oven about five minutes early—it was a little too moist in the center, and a little bit crumblier than I expected (tending towards a cornbread texture) but it tastes really good, with or without butter, the kids like it and asked for more, and it’s Gonna Be a Thing.

Brussels sprouts are one of the rare unpopular foods that I happen to like. Most of family doesn’t, though, so I only bought a few.

I’d never prepared these before, ever. I hope I trimmed them right!

I substituted shallot for the yellow onion in my recipe. Can’t go too far wrong with shallot and garlic.

Blanching the sprouts is important.

You can go wrong with shallots and garlic if you overcook them. Fortunately I caught this before it went too far:

It’s sautéin’ time.

Oh, yeah. Then we add the balsamic vinegar and things get acrid and foggy and so, so caramelized.

Whoops, too hot! Yummy, but a bit sticky.

We've been making pizza at home on and off for a decade now, but I've never tried to make real Chicago-style deep dish pizza like I've had at Giordano's on my visits to that city. I made the sauce from scratch and assembled everything in the kitchen, but I did use store-bought dough to lower the prep time and consequent cost of failure for this first attempt.

Sauce ingredients (minus the olive oil) before mixing, above, and after:

Kind of lurid, isn't it?

Incredibly, we were completely out of flour so I dusted the pastry board with cornmeal before rolling. It worked fine.

I'm not so sure you're supposed to toss the dough for deep-dish pizza, but a) it wasn't relaxing quickly enough, and b) I learned how to do this, so:

I wasn't going to make two of these for the four of us, so I put pepperoni in half the pie:

In the pan that really does look like a lot of cheese.

I couldn't put my hands on a 14" deep dish pizza pan, so I used a 12" cast iron skillet. You can see below how the still-elastic dough pulled away from the sides even before baking, making for a doughier crust around the outside. It was delicious, though, and it held together just fine. 

After baking to a golden color:

Beer can for scale, so you can see how tall this pizza is (also because it's really good with the pizza):

Et voila: 

Honey Garlic Chicken in the Slow Cooker, adapted by Jess Ryder from Just a Taste and published with other tempting stuff as part of the Two Sisters Recipe Collection.