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Es werden Posts vom Mai, 2014 angezeigt.

Prison-Style Meatloaf – How to Stretch Your Meat Further

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The main point of this prison-style meatloaf video is to show you what happens when you make meatloaf like your grandparents did. And no, I'm not accusing your relatives of spending time in the joint. During the Great Depression this type of dish was a popular strategy for stretching what little meat you had, into as filling a meal as possible. As times got better, people went back to meatier versions, and now only low-budget, high-volume food service operations feature this culinary dinosaur. I did an Italian meatball-inspired version, which was quite nice, but this method will work with virtually any meatloaf recipe. Most modern meatloaves call for about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of dry crumbs per two pounds of meat, and here we’re using 1 1/2 cups. It makes a significant difference in the texture, producing something much softer and moister. While not as "meaty," this does make for an interesting alternative to play around with. I'm looking at you, family of 10. As I say in

Road Trip: Girl and the Goat --Chicago

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Because we were lucky enough to know we were going to Next way in advance, I took advantage of the opportunity to make reservations at Girl and the Goat as well. Since we were planning so far ahead for Next, I was able to score a reservation at 7:00 on a Friday (you can book up to 6 months ahead if you’re planning). This place has quite the buzz—definitely a pretty loud and raucous place, particularly near the bar, where we started. It’s a big place and the sound carries. Once we were seated at our table though, it wasn’t too bad—and I liked the tables weren’t totally on top of each other so we could still have a conversation with our friends.  The menu is small plates and is divided up by veggies, seafood, meat and then a separate menu with the goat items.  We agreed to get several from each. We went a little heavier on the veg and lighter seafood stuff after our richness extravaganza at Next the night before. You have to decide everything you want at the beginning and then they pace

Next Up: Prison-Style Meatball Loaf

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Strawberry Ice Cream – This is So Not Cheating

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Many people consider this type of strawberry ice cream recipe a “hack” or a “cheat,” because we’re skipping the more time-consuming and sometimes temperamental egg custard step; but even if I didn’t want to save time, and possibly eggs, I’d still prefer this method. To be clear, I’m only speaking about this specific flavor of ice cream. For deep, dark chocolate, or butter pecan, I’ll take the classic French-style every time. But, for sweet, juicy strawberries, I’m not a big fan of the subtle egginess you get with the traditional method. For me it muddles the fruitiness, and coats the tongue a bit too much. When I eat a bowl of this on a blazing hot summer day, I want nothing but pure strawberries and cream goodness. To achieve that you need to include a lot of strawberry puree, and all that extra liquid means the texture will not be quite as luxurious. It’s minor sacrifice. Feel free to skip the 10-second blending of the cream, but I like how it very slightly thickens the mixture. A

Wasabi on 82nd - Revisit (the dim sum edition)

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The family and I had eaten dinner recently at Wasabi (it’s one of our regular sushi places, although usually for carry-out) and noticed that they had a dim sum menu—and as you might have noticed lately I have been on a bit of a dim sum binge lately—well, as much as you can in Indy. We asked our server that night about it and he said it was all made in house daily until it ran out. We were intrigued. We headed over there for lunch the other day with the intention to get some dim sum as well as a sushi roll.  We got one of our current favorites—the Fantastic roll ($16). This is spicy tuna and crunch on the inside and topped with salmon, yellow tail and avocado. They always do this roll well, and the fish is fresh and buttery. If I had a complaint on this particular visit is that I didn’t get a lot of the “crunch” in the roll, and I like my crunch. I don’t know if they didn’t use as much of the tempura flakes or if they just went soft after being mixed in. But still, it’s a great roll and

Next Up: Strawberry Ice Cream

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Celebrating Memorial Day

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I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy Memorial Day, and as usual, ask you to take a few moments in between bites of whatever grilled goodness you’re enjoying to remember all the chefs and cooks that serve so bravely feeding our troops in times of war. I’ve said this before, but it’s the thank-you emails I get from our servicemen and women stationed abroad that I find the most inspiring of all. To be able to provide these heroes with a few moments of entertainment makes my otherwise frivolous existence seem a little less so. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America! Photo above is from our No-Bake Cheesecake Flag Cake video .  .

Asian-Style Grilled Flap Meat Salad – You Heard Me, Flap Meat

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Memorial Day marks the official opening of American grilling season, and what better way to celebrate than with this unique, and delicious flap meat? Hilarious name notwithstanding, this classic “butcher’s cut” is every bit as flavorful and tender as flank or skirt steak, and is usually cheaper as well. This is not something they keep in the meat case, so you’ll have to ask them to cut you a few pounds, but it’ll be worth it, and they’ll think you’re cool. Most people haven’t heard of flap meat or flap steak, but it’s hardly an exotic cut.  If you like Mexican food, and order carne asada, you’ve enjoyed grilled flap meat. While it did make for some extremely tasty Asian-style lettuce wraps, you can use this in so many other wonderful ways. Half the fun is playing around with different marinades and spices, but regardless of how you flavor yours, you should try this in tacos, as well as for an amazing Philly cheesesteak.  Just be sure to get that grill really hot before you slap down

Bluebeard - Revisit

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Wow. Hubby and I had a sitter and I really wanted a good meal—not somewhere new and experimental, but just something really good. And we found it. We got to Bluebeard right around 6:00 on a Saturday and it was already hopping. We got one o the last two tops in the front room—and there were already people waiting for larger tables. We were having a hard time deciding because everything looked so good on the menu but we settled on sharing several things. We started with a small asparagus salad ($8) (they come in two sizes). There was chopped asparagus, fingerling potatoes, lettuce, really thin slices of shallot, tomatoes, slivers of basil and shaved Manchego cheese. All of this is perfectly tossed with a Champagne vinaigrette. Every part of this salad worked perfectly together. The zippy vinaigrette with the buttery cheese and creamy potatoes and the crisp fresh asparagus and lettuce and the slight liquorice taste of the basil were a perfect taste of spring (and early summer). We loved t

Creamy Asparagus & Cauliflower Soup with Hold the Bacon

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It's hard to make a plain old vegetable soup with a well-stocked fridge. You want to make a light, healthy, restorative soup, but as you reach in the fridge for the vegetables, your hand has to pass things like butter, cheese, and crème fraiche; not to mention dealing with bacon’s sweet, smoky, siren song. But this time, I resisted all temptations and somehow managed to keep this fairly pure. I don’t expect you to show the same restraint. However, if you do, you’ll be rewarded with a delicious bowl of soup that despite being dairy-free, looks and feels pretty creamy. We have cauliflower to thank for that. The soup looks like a classic cream of asparagus, and your eyes will fool your palate to a certain extent. In addition to giving it a nice color, the bumpy superfood also provides a smoother texture to the soup than the less starchy asparagus could achieve alone. Speaking of nice color, try to get your hands on some nasturtiums. They are quite safe to eat...I’ve heard from sever

Next Up: Creamy Asparagus and Cauliflower Soup

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Classic Split Top Hot Dog Buns – How We Should Be Rolling

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When we posted our hamburger bun video last year, I received a bunch of requests for hot dog buns. My first thought was, just take the same dough and shape it into logs instead of rounds. I mean, come on…how hard is that? Turns out, that was just the grocery store talking. I’d been so used to eating those insipid side-split rolls, it took seeing a photo of a lobster roll to remember what a real hot dog buns are supposed to be like. Don’t get me wrong; if you hand me a hot dog at the ballgame, it’s not like I’m going to throw it back in your face (unless you have Dodger face paint on), but given the choice, this butter-crisped, split-topped bun is the way to go. Thanks to its genius design, the meat and fixings go in the top, which leave three relatively flat sides to toast in butter. How this thing never got patented is the real mystery. Just be sure to either buy hot dogs large enough to fit your homemade buns, or adjust the size of your rolls to match your favorite wiener. I’m sorr

Road Trip: Next and The Aviary -- Chicago

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Friends of ours have season tickets to Next, which is the second restaurant from Grant Achatz of Alinea (along with business partner Nick Kokonas). We were lucky enough to get invited to go with them recently to try the “Chicago Steak” menu (Next bases the menu around a specific theme and changes it several times a year). Honestly, this was the menu I was least excited about for the year food-wise, but was the only one we could do with our schedule. I don’t know I was just kind of wondering how good a steakhouse menu could be. Well, as it turns out, it can be really, really good. This was no ordinary steakhouse experience, although they gave several nods to classic items. We were first served a perfectly balanced martini (shaken not stirred) with our crudité platter. So their version of crudité was vegetables that were tossed in a ranch seasoning and olive oil—giving you the flavor of ranch but not the creamy aspect. A fun take on it—There was kale, carrots, fennel, cauliflower, cucumb