Bon Appétit (August 2015)
Egg and eggplant. There's something about that pairing that strikes us as funny, but also a bit revolutionary. Egg. Eggplant. How have we never before put those together in a dish?
Well, our long national nightmare is over. Because this dish pairs eggs and eggplant -- and it's delicious.
Continue reading "Grilled Eggplant with Fresh Hot Sauce and Crispy Eggs" »
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Bon Appétit (April 2014)
"CHOCOLATE!!"
That's what Zach's sister Cassidy texted us last week, after we'd asked what sort of dessert she'd like us to make for her birthday. We were heading out to Annapolis to spend the day with her and her husband; she planned to cook dinner, but we wanted to bring a dessert to help celebrate her special day.
But here's the thing: Food magazines don't really write much about chocolate in their summer issues. July and August -- the issues we're cooking from right now -- are all about summer fruits and popsicles and ice cream.
We were with Cassidy on this one. Sometimes, you just want a big ol' piece of chocolate cake for your birthday.
So we dove into the Bon Appétit archive and found this Salted Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake.
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Bon Appétit (July 2015)
Let's list off some things we loved from the past week:
1. We saw Taylor Swift in concert last night at Nationals Stadium in DC. She was amazing! Lorde made a surprise appearance! We screamed our heads off.
2. We both just read/reread To Kill a Mockingbird, in light of Go Set of Watchman's being published today. We'd forgotten what a beautifully written book that is. [Though we must confess to being very nervous about Watchman...]
3. We treated ourselves to some gelato from Dolcezza, in Dupont Circle. We had a scoop of Valrhona Chocolate Amargo and a scoop of Georgia Butter Pecan and it was phenomenal. Gelato in the summer makes everything right with the world.
Yep, those are some things we really loved about the past week.
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Now let's talk about this pork.
Continue reading "Honey-Turmeric Pork with Beet and Carrot Salad" »
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Bon Appétit (June 2015)
In college, Zach had a roommate for a few years named Mevan.
Mevan was from Sri Lanka and, though he was fairly worldly, he hadn't been to the United States until he arrived for freshman orientation. Thus began a rich cultural exchange. Mevan taught Zach about Buddhism and the Sri Lankan Civil War. Zach taught Mevan about "Friends" and how to shotgun a beer.
And Mevan also taught Zach about mangos with chile salt.
Fresh mangos dusted with chile salt were Mevan's favorite snack. Zach had never tasted the pairing before. (It was East Tennessee in the '90s -- he'd barely had mangoes on their own.) But the cool, sweet mangos spiked with the heat of chile salt were revelatory.
When we saw this salad, which Bon Appétit says is inspired by chile salt-sprinkled mangos, we knew we wanted to try it.
Well, at the risk of spoiling the ending here, we don't think Mevan would approve.
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Bon Appétit (May 2015)
We are suckers for a crazy salad. We still think about that wacky Kohlrabi, Fennel and Blueberry Salad we made a few years ago. And we loved the Fattoush Salad we tried last summer.
Does this Snap Pea Salad count as "crazy"? Well, it's the only salad we've ever made with shaved coconut. And anything with pea shoots, lime, chives and fish sauce is at least slightly crazier than your standard iceberg-lettuce-and-tomato-with-vinaigrette.
As it turned out, though, this salad wasn't crazy enough.
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Hi, there! Welcome to Magazine Club -- so glad you could make it! Was traffic awful? Your hair looks really cute like that, by the way. Here, we'll take your coat. You just grab your magazine, have a seat and pour yourself a glass of wine (or, if you're reading this during work hours, white wine).
Okay, now. Bon Appétit, 2015. What did we love? What did we not enjoy?
We'll kick things off by sharing some of the bigger items and themes that jumped out to us from this issue. We hope that serves as a good starting point for you to share your own reactions to the magazine.
-- Cover story: Cook Like a Pro. Bon Appétit has done this Cook Like a Pro issue for a number of years now. We're fans, and we're impressed that they're able to come up with fresh new pro-tips from food experts every year. (This feature was the best part of this entire issue, in our opinion.) Of course we've already talked about that crazy steak on the cover, but there were other good tips in here, too. For one, we really love the simple idea of layering salad dressing instead of tossing it all together. It's mentioned in the sidebar to that gorgeous Little Gem Salad with Lemon Cream and Hazelnuts, from Joshua McFadden, the chef at Portland, Ore.'s Ava Gene's restaurant:
McFadden doesn't believe in vinaigrettes -- at least not the whisk-together-and-dump-all-at-once kind. Instead, he layers dressing components onto the salad in parts so no flavors get lost.... You should be able to taste both acid and fat separately.
Of the recipes in Cook LIke a Pro, which is most appealing to you?
-- CatererGate: Though it's somewhat out-of-character for the magazine, we really enjoyed the wedding feature near the front. It first came to our attention because we saw the magazine issued an apology via their Facebook page, in reaction to their advice about why you shouldn't hire a caterer. It's not frequently that food magazines issue apologies. Do you think an apology was warranted here?
-- What Happens in Vegas, Ends Up in this Magazine? Let's talk about that weird, random feature where The Mindy Project actor Ike Barinholtz eats his way around Las Vegas. It seemed ill-fitted for Bon Appétit (Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen & Bar? Really, Bon App?). But then we saw the sidebar at the end promoting the upcoming Vegas Uncork'd food and wine event, of which Bon Appétit is a major partner along with -- hey! -- all the hotels and locales mentioned in this entire feature. So it turns out the whole thing was maybe just product placement? Hmm.
-- Let's All Go to London: We loved -- loved -- the Lauren Collins feature on eating in London right now. She's a terrific writer; we love reading her in The New Yorker. This feature made us want to bop around London drinking Regent's Punch with Lauren, or share a languid, boozy lunch gossiping about Pippa. Seriously, let's take a moment to appreciate Collins' writing style:
The stripped-down set menu [at Lyle's], at £39 ($60) for dinner, is like an ambitious Ph.D. student’s acknowledgment to his beloved advisor: Smoked Eel & Horseradish, Blood Cake & Damson, Mutton & Turnip Broth, served in a gorgeously spare room. You want to applaud [chef James] Lowe’s seriousness, but when Asparagus & Walnut Mayonnaise turns out to be four spears to be shared between two people, you’re left hungry enough to eat an ampersand.
-- We Want All The Lamb: We also really enjoyed the feature on spring lamb dishes, "On the Lamb." That Olive-Stuffed Leg of Lamb? Woah. Those Chile-Cumin Lamb Meatballs?? Yes. Those Lamb Ribs with Rhubarb and Radish Salad? YUM.
-- Bravo, Marcus Nilsson: Our favorite photos from this issue were definitely in the feature on composed salads called "Compose Yourself." Each one of those three photos is a work of art. You can see more of photographer Marcus Nilsson's work on his website.
-- (Ending with) Starters: Okay, now let's back up to the Starters section at the front. It's always a fun hodgepodge of foods, restaurants, recipes, and more. Our two favorite things from this month: The idea of swapping cot wine for Malbec (apparently it's the same grape, just grown in France instead of Argentina). And that insanely delicious-looking Croissant Loaf from Buerrage bakery in Chicago. Holy. Moly.
-- Our Top 3: The 3 things we'd most like to cook from this issue (other than the steak we already made):
Now it's time to hear from you.
What did you love? What didn't you care for? Favorite recipes? Favorite photos? Maybe you disagree with something we said?
Let Magazine Club begin!
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Bon Appétit (April 2015)
When we chose this month's Bon Appétit as our first-ever Magazine Club entrant (this Thursday! More details at the end of this post!!), we didn't have any specific recipes in mind. In fact, we hadn't yet received the issue in our mailbox.
But when we did, and we saw this decadent, delicious-looking steak on the cover -- with an absolutely bonkers method of cooking -- we knew we had to try it.
Normally, here are the steps we take when making a steak:
Here are the steps involved with this Bon Appétit steak:
Needless to say, this steak is a committed endeavor. Freezing? Basting? Frying -- twice?? How good could it possibly be?
We had to find out.
Continue reading "Slow-Roasted, Twice-Fried Porterhouse Steak" »
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We've never been good at Book Club, but we think we're going to kill it in Magazine Club.
A friend who works in the magazine industry recently mentioned to us that he and some colleagues have begun gathering once a month to discuss the latest issues of magazines. As magazine-holics, we loved that idea, so we're going to try it with you.
We're proposing that we all -- yes, you! -- read the April issue of Bon Appétit, and then we'll meet back here in a couple weeks to discuss it. We're choosing the April Bon App partly because we haven't received or read it yet (prepare for surprise!). If we all like the inaugural meeting of Magazine Club, we'll try it again another month with a different magazine.
So here's the proposal: Get yourself a copy of the April 2015 issue of Bon Appétit, either from your mailbox, the newsstand or digital download. We'll all read it -- and we do mean read it -- the stories, the recipes, even the ads.
We'll regroup on Thursday, April 16 to chat and share our impressions and thoughts. Between now and then, we'll figure out how high or low-tech we'll go (if you have suggestions, we'd love to hear them!).
Unlike Book Club, we're afraid you'll have to supply your own wine....
[photo from Bon Appétit's Instagram feed]
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Bon Appétit (February 2015)
There's always something that strikes us as summery about golden beets. And can't we all use a bit of summer right now?
Maybe golden beets remind us of summer because of their sunny hue, or their milder flavor.
Or maybe they just remind us of a beautiful summer beet salad we made years ago, when we first fell in love with golden beets. At any rate, golden beets always bring to mind long, warm days.
This recipe for Marinated Beets with Pistachios and Tarragon says you can use either red or gold beets.
But as winter keeps dragging on, we need all the summer inspiration we can get.
Continue reading "Marinated Beets with Pistachios and Tarragon" »
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Bon Appétit (February 2015)
Have you ever asked a restaurant for a recipe?
Though we've asked dozens of home cooks who have hosted us for dinner to share their recipes, we've never done so in a restaurant. (Instead, we just ask the servers enough creepy ingredient questions so we can try to recreate it on our own when we get home...)
Bon Appétit has a long-running feature -- "r.s.v.p." -- at the front of each issue in which the magazine helps readers find recipes for dishes they've eaten in restaurants and loved. We're glad they've kept the feature as the magazine has been overhauled over the past few years. Though we rarely cook from the "r.s.v.p." column, we love reading the questions.
(And although we're always skeptical of the veracity of reader-submitted questions in magazines -- we're looking at you, Parade and Food Network Magazine -- we think the questions in "r.s.v.p." are legit, or at least legit enough for us.)
In the newest Bon Appétit, a question appears asking for a recipe for Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts.
They had us at Kung Pao....
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