The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving 2016: Southern-Style Buttermilk Cornbread Dressing

A Bitten Word Recipe

Way back in 2008, for the very first Thanksgiving we ever wrote about on The Bitten Word, we made a dressing using a recipe from Zach's mom. It's the kind of dressing we both grew up eating at Thanksgiving -- cornbread-based, flavored with sage and other spices, and wet and dense and cakey, with almost a brownie-like consistency.

This is the kind of dish that rarely shows up in food magazines. Over the years of cataloging Thanksgiving trends, we've seen only handful of dressings in this style.

So for our final Fakesgiving this year, we wanted to circle back to that classic Southern dressing that we both loved so much.

But this time we decided to give it a twist.

Fried Chicken Cook-Off: Garden & Gun vs. Clay's Mom

Garden & Gun (October/November 2016) 

One of the first big projects we ever did on The Bitten Word -- all the way back in September 2008! -- was a fried-chicken cook-off that pitted famed chef Thomas Keller's extremely complicated fried chicken recipe against Clay's mom's recipe, which was decidedly simpler and more straightforward.

Now that we've decided to wind the blog down, we knew we wanted to do one more fried-chicken face-off before we say goodbye.

So this past Sunday, we had 9 of our friends come over for another good ol' fashioned chicken fry. (And to pose for chicken-leg portraits.)

This time around, we paired Clay's mom's chicken against the North Carolina "Dipped Chicken" recipe on the mouthwatering cover of the current issue of Garden & Gun.

Fire up your fryers, Bittens! This one's a barn-burner.

Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Vinaigrette

A Bitten Word Recipe

For our recent dinner with Mark and Ryan, we had the main dish -- Coconut Chicken Curry with Turmeric and Lemongrass -- and we had the side, that deliciously addictive Persian-Style Rice with Golden Crust.

We needed a salad.

With the global flavors of the meal as inspiration, and specifically the Persian rice, we decided to improvise a Middle Eastern salad. Using a few things we had on hand, we made a basic vinaigrette dressing with a Middle East twist: pomegranate molasses. We've mentioned this ingredient before, but if you're not familiar with pomegranate molasses, it's a thick, syrupy reduction of pomegranate juice. It's popular in Turkish and Iranian cuisine. Don't let the "molasses" fool you: This isn't sweet. In fact, it's mouth-puckeringly tart. A little goes a very, very long way.

We're fortunate enough to live less than a block from a Middle Eastern grocery store. But you may be able to find pomegranate molasses in the International aisle of your supermarket, or at a specially food store. (And there's always the Internet.)

For the salad itself, we kept things very simple: fresh spinach, some chopped dates for sweetness, and pomegranate seeds for variety and color (and to complement the pomegranate in the dressing).

The finished salad was exactly what we wanted: fresh and bright and slightly exotic without overwhelming the other foods on the plate. It turned out great!

 

 

On Grandfathers and Egg Custard Pies

Last week, my grandfather Tot passed away.

We wrote about Tot and his passion for Egg Custard Pies years ago here on the blog, so I wanted to share the news with you Bittens. I don't share the news of his passing in sadness; my grandfather lived a happy life, marked with laughter and bringing joy to hundreds of others. He loved his community deeply, and did wonderful acts of kindness, big and small, for those he came across in his life. 

I've never spoken about this here on The Bitten Word, but I have a somewhat complicated relationship with my family. Without going into all of it right now, I'll sum it up by saying that we speak very infrequently, and it's a source of great sadness for me. But my grandfather, especially in his final years, showed me great kindness, and was welcoming in ways that surprised me. I'll always remember him and be thankful to him for that.  

And in my memories, he loved to eat. He had strong opinions about where to buy the best country hams. He loved making mutton. He was the only Kentuckian I know who actually made burgoo at home. And he cranked out hundreds of these Egg Custard Pies during his life, giving them to friends and serving them to guests as a way to show his love for them. 

We've been thinking a lot about Tot, and Egg Custard Pie, over the last few days.  We plan to make a few and give them to friends. If you're in a pie making mood, we'd love for you to do the same. And if you keep the pie for yourself, as Tot often did, just think about something nice you'd like to do for someone this spring. Tot would love it. 

~ Clay 

Kale and Apple Salad with Garlicky Dressing

A Bitten Word Recipe

 

We know, we know. Kale Salad. It's ubiquitous. It's overdone. And we've already hit "peak kale."

But at our house, kale salad remains a staple. Sure, we're ardent kale fans, but really it's just the accessory here. 

This salad is all about the dressing: a potent garlicky concoction that makes kale salad an absolutely delight without having to add a bunch of salad toppings to hide the kale. 

The 10 Best Food Magazine Recipes We Made in 2014 -- Plus Our 5 Other Favorite Dishes

   

    

   

Happy New Year, Bittens!

We are so excited to start cooking in 2015!  But first let's take a quick look back at 2014.

In our ongoing quest to test-drive food magazine recipes, we tried out a lot of dishes last year. Some were good; some were duds. Here are the best things we made all year long, in chronological order. First up are our favorite food magazine recipes, followed by a few other favorites from last year.

 

The 10 Best Food Magazine Recipes from 2014...

1. Pork and Squash Stew with Chiles 
Tender bites of pork in a savory broth with a warm, comforting heat. It's the perfect dish for winter -- and, as we wrote back in February, an ideal make-ahead dish. 

 

2. Herbed Faux-tisserie Chicken and Potatoes
We have roasted a LOT of chickens in our day. This one is absolutely one of the top three ever.

 

3. New Orleans–Style BBQ Shrimp
Spicy and buttery and delicious. The next-best thing to actually going to New Orleans.

 

4. Edamame-Miso Tuna Salad Sandwiches
This is probably the one dish we've made the most since posting about it last year. The mix of miso, hot chile oil and edamame is a great new spin on tuna salad. We've made this (especially for lunch to take to work) more times than we can count.

 

5. Ayam Jeruk (Grilled Chicken and Toasted Coconut Salad)
We debated whether to include this dish in our year-end roundup, because we'd made so many substitutions in the recipe. But who cares? This dish was to die for, and we're sure it's even better if you can find fresh galangal. And shaved coconut. And candelnuts. And Asian shallots. And Balinese long peppers...

 

6. Asian Marinated Tomatoes 
These tomatoes are really more of an accompaniment or a condiment than a stand-alone dish. But they're marvelous. If we may quote our own post from last summer: "Imagine if a bowl of salsa spent a semester abroad in Thailand, and got really into meditation and mystic Buddhism and lemongrass, and then came home and hopped up on your grilled chicken." Who doesn't want that??

 

7. Spiced Lamb Burgers
Nothing we made last year was as drool-worthy as these lamb burgers. As we said back in July, "The lamb is flavorful and full of wonderful spice from the coriander, cumin and cinnamon. The fat from the lamb melts into the pitas, soaking them with flavor and making them crispy and amazing." If you're not salivating at that, there may be something wrong with you.

 

8. Vietnamese Pork Chops with Pickled Watermelon
In August, we solidly declared this the "DISH. OF. THE. SUMMER."  We stand by that. This salty/savory/sour/sweet/pungent/crispy/juicy dish is everything you want in a grilled entree.

 

9. The Barefoot Contessa's Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes
It's highly possible that no dish we've featured has ever elicited a greater response than these potatoes that we made for our Fakesgiving test-run of recipes. We heard from countless -- countless! -- friends and family and Bitten Word readers who made these for Thanksgiving. And just about everyone has told us these are the best mashed potatoes they've ever made.  

 

10. Maple Syrup Pie with Crème Fraîche
This delicious pie was the crowd favorite at our Fakesgiving meal this past year. We could eat it morning, noon and night. 

 

... Plus 5 More of Our Faves.

 

Spring Salad with Carrots Three Ways

adapted from Bon Appétit (April 2014)

The April issue of Bon Appétit is all about "cooking like a pro." The issue includes tons of notes from restaurant chefs about how to take your food to the next level. There are lots of chef profiles, restaurant entrees, and tips for cooking restaurant-style food in your own home (apparently we should all be brining our fish).

But is there anything cheffy-er than serving something "three ways"? "Duck Three Ways," or "Mushrooms Three Ways," or "Chocolate Three Ways." One ingredient, three preparations: it's always going to look impressive on a menu.

Serving something "three ways" at home is a way to show your guests that you seriously have your act together. "What, this old salad? Oh, I just threw it together to highlight the bounty of the season. I mean, I guess you could say it's like three dishes in one, and I guess that's super impressive, if you think about it. But it really hadn't even occurred to me. More Sav Blanc?"

Cauliflower "Rice"

A recipe from The Bitten Word

 

The Paleo diet continues to be a consistent topic of conversation among our friends.

Who's doing it. Who's cheating on it. Who's tired of doing it. Who's thinking of thinking of doing it. Who really needs a chocolate chip cookie right now. 

You know, that kind of discussion. 

We've discussed the diet with you once before, after we hosted a Paleo dinner last year and lots of you chimed in with your opinions, many in support of the diet and how it had worked for you. 

We are not on the Paleo diet. However, we frequently eat that way when cooking at home, with meals that would largely qualify as "Paleo" (lean proteins, simply prepared vegetables, no grains). We've learned a lot about Paleo from our friends Drew and Ralph, who not only did sober January, they also went strictly Paleo at the same time, the diet equivalent of pulling the sugar-fat-salt-bourbon rug out from underneath oneself.  

At their restaurant, Beau Thai, there was even a Paleo menu for the first part of the year. We ate and loved lots of things on that menu, but we were especially smitten with a new concept they introduced us to this year -- Cauliflower "Rice" -- which they had learned about from the website Nom Nom Paleo (who didn't invent the dish, but definitely helped popularize it). 

The idea is simple but genius: Chop cauliflower finely, the same size as rice, and stir-fry it until lightly browned. Like rice without the carbohydrate content, it makes for an amazing, tasty little side dish. We especially love serving Cauliflower "Rice" with fish -- next to a filet of roasted salmon.

Though this sounds like something that a person on a diet would say to make themselves feel better, we'll go ahead and say it anyhow: We actually prefer this cauliflower "rice" to the real thing.

Try it and let us know if you agree. 

Thanksgiving 2013: Winter Greens with Preserved Lemon

A recipe from The Bitten Word

While we were furiously cooking in the lead up to our Fakesgiving, we found ourselves with a whole mess of turnip greens. We had gotten the turnips for the Turnips with Pickled Mustard Seeds and Bacon from our CSA, and they had the greens attached. We had removed the greens from the turnips and stored them seperately. Rather than wait and use the greens some other time, we decided to improvise a simple dish that would use them, and opted for making Winter Greens with Preserved Lemon. 

This was a completely selfish decision, as we had made Preserved Lemons following this year's Cover to Cover Challenge. The lemons have been giving us the stank eye every since they've been properly brined, as if to say, "WHY AREN'T YOU USING US??? WE ARE DELICIOUS!!" (Oddly, they say this in a British accent.) 

For our Fakesgiving take on this dish, we used both the turnip greens as well as the dinosaur kale that was growing in our garden. We did a quick sauté of the greens in a large pot, then simply tossed the greens with chopped preserved lemon. 

We opted to use one entire preserved lemon for a pound of greens. It's Thanksgiving we're talking about, and we wanted big flavor. The salty, sweetly sour preserved lemons are perfect paired with bitter winter greens. 

While we are advocates for decadence at Thanksgiving, we also enjoy having a few dishes that are on the lighter side. This one fit the bill for us -- hopefully it will for you, too.

 

Thanksgiving 2013: Sweet Potato Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

A Bitten Word recipe 

Clay had a vision. A vision of a cake. A very special Thanksgiving cake. A cake unlike anything the world has ever known or will ever---

Okay. It's basically a carrot cake except with sweet potatoes, and with marshmallow frosting instead of cream cheese. 

Still, it was an idea we loved that we could wait to try.