How to Mutilate a Chicken like a Professional Chef
October 22nd, 2007Whole chickens can be found dirt-cheap at any respectable market, but it takes some elbow grease to chop it up into manageable parts. However, you’re left with a carcass that is perfect for making chicken stock with, and you save tons of cash as well.
I’d planned to do a walk-through on cutting up a whole chicken, but there’s other blogs that have already done this better than I could ever hope to. Cooking for Engineers has an excellent one, as does Nook & Pantry – both have tons of pictures and an excellent step-by-step explanation.
Super-Easy Crock Pot Beef Stew
October 19th, 2007
I lamented the under-use of the crock pot in the every day kitchen a few days ago, and for good reason — the crock pot, or slow cooker, is a versatile tool that can be used to create a varied range of dishes easily.
One of my favorite crock pot recipes is Beef Stew.
Thursday Links: 10/18/07
October 18th, 2007Cheap Healthy Good has started a series of apple recipes: All-Night Apple Butter and Chunky Apple Sauce are the first two.
Serious Eats has posted a great article about the bacteria-killing prowess (or lack thereof) of microwaves.
There’s two great-looking recipes at Two Yolks: Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup and Whoopie Pies, which look like giant Oreos.
Delicious: Days makes cooking crepes look easy.
Crock Pot/Slow Cooker Magic
October 17th, 2007I’ve seen many slow cookers sittin’ on top of refrigerators, a fine layer of dust collected on the lids — many people receive this magical household device with no idea how to use it. This is a sad state of affairs, to me, because slow cookers are indispensable tools.
I often cook chicken, beef, or hamburger stew in my crock pot — and there’s recipes for chocolate pudding cake and clam chowder to be found online, as well. I’ve seen soups, sauces, and chili done in a slow cooker for good effect, and the slow heat of the crock pot is perfectly suited 
for BBQ or pulled pork.
I use a 6.5 quart Rival Crock Pot because it’s study, its stoneware pot is removable for easy cleaning, and it is large enough to fit big slabs of corned beef or pork without spillage. The controls — OFF, LOW, HIGH, WARM — are simple enough as to not warrant confusion, but varied enough for a large variety of different dishes.
Older models of crock pots do not have a removable pot, which makes cleaning a hard (and often dangerous) chore — be sure to get a model with a tight-fitting lid, as well.
As for what to cook in these vessels? Betty Crocker makes an excellent slow cooker recipe book and there are tons of great websites with crock pot recipes: A Crock Cook is one of my favorites, and Slow Cooker Recipes has even more recipes for consumption.
Tuesday Random Photo: 10/16/07
October 16th, 2007
Food Films, Reviewed: Tampopo
October 14th, 2007When I’m not spending quality time with my wife, lazing around at the beach, or cooking, I immerse myself in what is now called cultural studies — I love literature and poetry (my personal library of books has outgrown my bookcases and overflown onto the floor), I have an encyclopedic knowledge of television and music from all eras and genres, and I watch movies — lots of movies.
There is an often overlooked aspect of film, though — food. How food is photographed, how food is made, how food tells stories — food in film is a delicious thing to see, and from here on in I’ve decided to highlight some of my favorite food films.
The first one of such is a Japanese comedy from 1985 called Tampopo.
