Things tagged with cooking:

I cooked up a ragu Bolognese last night for the 3rd time. Don’t let the name throw you off, that just means a meat sauce originating from Bologna, Italy. Here is my mise en place: white wine, chicken broth, canned tomato puree, chopped onions and garlic, diced celery and carrot, pancetta, butter and a pound…

I’m probably not cooking as much I used to and I think part of it is that I hit a plateau. I was so excited to learn new recipes and discover that my own two hands are capable of reproducing some pretty interesting food as long as I had the recipe in front of me….

Yesterday I threw out some of the worst smelling leftovers I’ve encountered in quite some time. Mercifully, the food still looked normal but it just smelt like meat farts and sweat. Once upon a time, this was a shrimp noodle dish and she and I were lovers. But, the past being the past, she was…

The first pie I ever baked turned out to be so delicious.

I’m actually feeling ok today, thank you for asking.

Cooking and burning my arm on the oven wall.

I bought a cast iron frying pan off Amazon recently. It came pre-seasoned and all for less than twenty bucks. The damn thing also weighs a ton. In an unrelated incident, when Lachlan was visiting he had brought a six pack of beer and we had drunk five of the six before he left. And…

Doggy bags are a big deal for me. I don’t remember restaurant portions being quite this large in Australia (or maybe I’m just eating less) but these days, restaurants seem to be serving me a dinner that is about 1.5 times the optimal size. I have a hard time stopping in the middle of a…

There’s steak to be cooked! Prime Rib, USDA Choice, sitting in the fridge. It’s come out of the freezer, she says, it’s defrosting. She doesn’t want to cook it because the idea of a slab of meat bleeding, cooking in its own juices, fat rendering, pink and squishy in the middle. She’s ok with eating…

Jack is dead. Or very close to it. I am, er, Jacque. ‘ere to post ze bloggings in a very racist French accent! Mais oui! Ok, I’m lying. I’m heading to Vegas for the first time this weekend. I skipped out on buying a ticket to the Cirque du Soleil show with all the naked…

Ok so it’s 1:15am on a Sunday/Monday and I’m still awake. Why? Because I’m an idiot. After sleeping in and waking up late, I decided to crank out a little breakfast at noon. Breakfast for me is awesome because it just means frying up whatever and it’s pretty much the only time of day I…

So over on Kottke, he’s linked to a post in the NY Times (free registration required) about why we should smother our pasta in sauce: …it’s widely agreed that highly refined grains — a group that includes the semolina flour from which the best-tasting dry pasta is made — do us little nutritional good. From…

From Serious Eats: Mario Batali on the saucing of pasta You probably saw this link posted earlier today but really it deserves mention on its own. There is nothing I like more than properly cooked pasta with a delicate amount of sauce. I wish more people would learn this. I know, I know: tastes are…

So I’m up-to-date on Top Chef now. All two and a half seasons. I even kind of vaguely remember that All Star special that was on TV months ago. Watching all this cooking TV has certainly had an effect on me. My chopping board What is so much fun for me is watching the creative…

Dear Jamie Oliver and Italy, Forgive for I have sinned. Tonight I was feeling good so I decided to make a risotto bianco and have something on the side. Unfortunately I was a little short on ingredients so I committed some cardinal sins. I used jasmine rice instead of arborio rice. I added parmesan cheese…