Foodie Videos

It's with much joy, pride, and humility (well, two out of three ain't bad) that I officially make the announcement this blog has won the "Best Video Blog" at the First Annual Foodbuzz Blog Awards! I think Homer Simpson put it best when he said, "Woo Hoo!" I can't express how much all your support over the last year has meant to me, not because I can't find the words, but because I'm way too hung over. I also have to run off to the last event of the weekend, a farewell brunch at Restaurant LuLu, featuring a make-you-own Bloody Mary(s) bar, which should really help with this headache. Speaking of which, I haven't had the time or brain waves to find any real photos of the event, so I grabbed this picture of some guy named Rick Best posing with a borrowed Oscar statue at 1989 Academy Awards to simulate the scene. A million thanks to Foodbuzz and everyone involved. Stay tuned for a recap and links to the other winners! Here is the actual iPhone video footage I took of the announcement: Photo by Alan Light

Have you ever been enjoying a nice pastrami sandwich and thought to yourself, "This is good, but I really wish it had some bones in it." Well, this recipe was an attempt to solve that age-old desire. I've taken a spice rub traditionally used on a beef brisket to make pastrami, and applied it to America's favorite appetizer, chicken wings. This resulted in a pretty nice chicken wing recipe, which tasted nothing like pastrami. I guess I'm asking for trouble calling it "Pastrami Wings." If your palette is set for some rich, fatty, smoky pastrami, you will be disappointed. As I joke in the video, a chicken ain't a cow, and no chicken wing will ever taste like real pastrami. Having said that, so what? They're just chicken wings. Perfect for this time of year, since for sports fans this is the ultimate sweet spot on the calendar. You can watch baseball, football, basketball (I wish the Bay Area had a team), hockey (Go Sharks!), golf, and several other minor sports (like college football). What better way to veg on the couch for 14 hours, than with a plate of chicken wings that don't taste like pastrami? Honey, can you grab me another beer? My fingers are all greasy. Enjoy! Ingredients: 1 tbsp vegetable oil 2 1/2 pounds chicken wing sections 2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper 1 1/2 tbsp ground coriander 1 tbsp smoked paprika pinch of cayenne, optional 2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste 2 tsp flour *serve with Russian dressing as a dip Note: I thought these were fairly mild, and would actually increase the spice amounts next time. If you experiment, please let me know the results!

The recent post which featured Denise from ChezUs' beautiful dark chocolate macarons with bittersweet ancho chili ganache reminded my wife Michele that it'd been a while since she'd whipped up a batch of her famous chili chocolate cookies. These dense, dark, and dangerously addictive cookies feature a dose of black pepper and cayenne, which to some may seem like an odd addition. But one taste and you'll understand the method to this madness. Just like adding a pinch of salt to dessert recipes makes them even sweeter and more delicious, the addition of pepper in this cookie really makes the chocolate even more chocolaty. The cookies aren't really "spicy," but you can definitely tell something strange and wonderful is happening. I'm terrible with keeping my secret ingredients, secret. As soon as someone says, "Hey, what's in these?" I spill the beans. However, if you're one of those sadistic cooks that loves tormenting your foodie friends by not telling them what that certain something is, then this recipe is for you, since the spices are very hard to identify. A couple notes about the recipe ingredients below. I use kosher salt for just about everything, but I always have to remind myself that it has a much flakier, larger grain, so 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt is really like 1/4 teaspoon of fine table salt. The measurement below is for fine salt, so double it if you also use flake-style kosher salt. Also, Michele decided to reverse the chocolate blend in the original recipe by using 2 parts unsweetened chocolate to 1 part bittersweet. If you like really sweet cookies use 2 parts bittersweet to 1 part unsweetened. If you're not sure, make 4 or 5 batches and experiment with different combinations. You really can’t practice too much when it comes to these strange, but spectacular cookies. Enjoy! Ingredients: 1/2 cup dried currants 2 tablespoons Kahlua 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper 2 room temperature eggs 3/4 cup sugar 2 tsp vanilla 1 cup chocolate chips Note: Special thanks to Sigve Hoel who gifted me a sweet new set of OXO mixing bowls! He saw them on my Amazon Wish List (in the sidebar in case you're wondering). Thanks Sigve! We LOVE them.

Eric prepares for the food demo

David Sax is the author of Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen. As David puts it, the smoked meat sandwich is a food that is as Canadian as it gets. Back bacon wasn't invented here, neither were donuts, but smoked meat sandwiches as we know them, well they were. sandwich, "that was basically invented there." In Toronto, David met the Book Club at Caplansky's, where he gave us his top rules in making the perfect deli sandwich.

The Brooklyn Chowder Surfer does a Martha's Vineyard tour! He hits up three places, gettting fish from one clams from another and the veggies from the last. His final destination is an amazing 4 mile walk through the woods on a secret island where you will find no motorized vehicles or power! This is a chowder mission in a major way.

I was at it again – taking a perfectly good recipe and putting in way too much of something just to see what would happen. In this case it was a basic meatball recipe that was the object of my curiosity. I wanted to know what would happen if I put in a relatively large ratio of ricotta cheese. What happened was tasty, very tender, and fairly light meatballs. I feared the extra mixing required to incorporate the ricotta make the meatballs tough and rubbery. I'm happy to report it did not. The cheese actually gave the meatballs a very nice texture, and ironically, this recipe could end up being a cure for the chronic over-mixers among us. A recipe that eliminates the problem of over mixing by using an ingredient that forces you to over mix it? Is that a paradox? While you're googling "paradox," I'm going to finish off the last of these delicious meatballs that I served with the customary spaghetti. And, by customary I mean in America, since our Italian friends still refuse to admit how great these two things are together, and remain adamant about serving them at different courses. Hey, their loss! Enjoy. 1/2 onion, minced 2 tbsp olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup ricotta cheese 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley 1 egg, beaten 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 3/4 tsp table salt) 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper cayenne to taste 1 pound ground beef (85% lean) 1/3 cup plain breadcrumb 1 (28-oz) jar prepared marinara sauce 1 cup water