Chef Erica Wides joins us today to talk about how to cook radishes, how to use soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and toasted sesame oil to enhance your home cooking, and to answer the question that vexes us all, why does restaurant food taste better than my home cooking. Plus Erica’s thoughts on knife sharpening, good saute pans, and more.
You can find Erica on twitter here, and on facebook here.
photo by roganjosh
Looking for a pesto recipe? or how to make pesto? Watch our Pesto Recipe with a new twist, we’ll use parsley instead of basil. This same recipe works great for basil pesto BTW. Parsley is super healthy and easily found in the store or your backyard garden.
Eric’s Parsley Pesto Recipe
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley
2 cups grated Romano cheese
1 cup walnuts, whole or chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
quality extra virgin olive oil
Grab your bunch of parsley and swish it around in a large bowl of water or you salad spinner filled up with water.
Cut off about 2 inches of the stem end off the parsley bunch. Then cut the parsley bunch into thirds, drop into a salad spinner and spin away. You want to remove as much of the water as possible. If you don’t have a salad spinner, you can roll up the parsley leaves in a dish towel to dry them out.
Add the parsley to your food processor, and pour in about 1/4 cup of the olive oil. About 6 glugs, I think.
Turn on the food processor and get the parsley cut up and mixed in with the oil.
Take the walnuts and toss them into a pan and toast them lightly. Don’t forget them on the stove, as they burn easily. I know this from experience.
Take the grated cheese and walnuts and crushed garlic and add to the food processor.
Top off with more olive oil, 6 glugs or so, and turn on the processor. If the machine sounds like it is bogging down, add more oil. Process to the consistency you like. I like it not over-processed.
You can now add this to pasta or spread on bread or garnish soups with. Its real good.
What do you think? Do you have a pesto recipe or suggestion or idea? Let us know below:
In the Gardenfork version of Car Talk, Mike talks about replacing the spark plugs, We update Tyler’s Storm Chasing, How to Make Donuts and Doughnut Recipes and we talk about when your food is expired. Your Food Will Tell You When Its Old says a GF viewer.
Eric talked about Gabfire Themes who have a new restaurant wordpress theme.
photo by Alvimann
Looking for an easy donut recipe? here it is: The Super Simple Doughnut Recipe. This is Eric’s version of the Pillsbury Biscuit Doughnut method of making donuts without the time and yeast. We will make donuts the traditional way soon, but I had to try out this cheater doughnut recipe which uses biscuit dough you buy at the grocery store. Next up will be yeast doughnuts and cake donuts, but we have to do the donut hack here first.
This easy donut recipe works best when the dough is cold, so keep the tube of Pillsbury dough in the fridge until ready. It is harder than it seems sometimes to open up the tube. Be Careful!
Kids like to play with dough, and while you have to teach them a healthy respect for hot oil, they could be involved with this easy donut recipe
My favorite donuts are the ones you buy at the gas station on the highway exit ramp. Those chocolate donuts in that little package, six donuts all covered with that fake chocolate. But you know it’s fake but you want to eat them anyway. Recently I bought some of those, it was late at night we were driving up the house and they were really good. But these cheater donuts are really good as well, and they might even be healthier for you than the chocolate covered gas station on the highway off ramp donuts. So let me know what you think below do you make these donuts are you making of the kind of donut would be good to hear from you
Do you have a great donut or doughnut recipe? And what about this spelling issue between donut and doughnut? Let us know below
Thanks to Eric and Tony, I’m poaching eggs like a line cook at a country club brunch.
My local grocery store has a bin for the food pantry. I looked in my pantry and saw five cans of chicken noodle soup. I can’t remember the last time I ate soup from a can, because we make our own. It’s more likely that those cans expire before we ever use them. There was just a lot of good food and my grocery store couldn’t make it easier for me to donate to our local food pantry.
I had an open bag of quinoa that if I didn’t use, I would have to toss. Quinoa is a grain that is packed with good stuff. It taste like couscous, but has more protein and fiber. The only problem I’ve found with quinoa is if you over cook it, it will get gummy and can turn slimy.
First, soak Quinoa for at least 15 minutes. Then strain it through a very fine mesh sieve. Quinoa is very fine and it will run right through most colanders. Using a ratio of Two to One Water to Quinoa, bring quinoa to a slight boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer for 30 to 35 minutes or until tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
I mixed half quinoa with beans, baked onions, and fresh spinach and topped it with a poached egg. Very filling and tasty!
For more information about quinoa, check out Daniel Delaney’s WTF show and blog. http://danieldelaney.com/wtf/quinoa/
My Grandmother and Mom made Rugelach for the Christmas holiday. We also called Rugelach ‘roll-ups’ not sure why, maybe it was easier to say. But, Rugelachs are easy to make, and with Eric’s recipe for rugelach, you can too. Our family’s version of rugelach used the classic nut – sugar mix, but we also used jam or jelly. Its important not to use too much jam or jelly; when you bake the rugelach, some of the jam may seep out and burn you cookie sheet. Not a good thing.
Eric’s Rugelach Recipe
2 cups all purpose flour
2 sticks butter – cold – cut into 1/2 cubes
3 teaspoons sugar
8 ounces cream cheese – cut into 1 inch blocks
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped walnuts
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
lemon zest – optional
Preheat oven to 350F
In a food processor, pulse the flour and butter together until the flour coats the butter and the mix starts to look like large cornmeal.
Add in the cream cheese and pulse to mix it all together, it should start to form small marbles, and also just some fine powder as well. ( it never looks like it does on the food TV shows, don’t worry )
Put the flour mixture into a large bowl, and start to add small amounts of ice water, about 2 tablespoons at a time. Mix the water into the flour until you get a dough that is wet, but dry enough to handle.
Shape the dough into a big disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and put in the freezer for about 10 minutes, or the fridge for 30 minutes. You can also leave the dough in the fridge until the next day if you want.
Mix the walnuts with the brown sugar and cinnamon. You can also add lemon zest to the nut mix.
On a floured counter or plastic wrap, or whatever you like to use for dough, try to shape the dough into a big circle, like a pizza. If it isn’t perfect, don’t worry, use a pastry scraper to cut out a rough circle, save the extra pieces.
Pour the nut mixture onto the circle of dough
Cut pizza slices into the dough. the outside of the slice should be 1.5 – 2″ wide.
Roll up the slices so they look kinda like croissants.
Place on a greased baking sheet, bake at 350F for about 30 min. The crust should be slightly golden, you can bake them more if you like, just don’t burn them.
I usually don’t like auto play videos embedded on a web page. but i couldn’t stop watching this one about Tartine Bread book featuring Chad Robertson
I ran across this after reading a tweet by Mike Senese @msenese about his Halloween Pizza Bash. In my head I’m building a backyard pizza oven and i was intrigued by his Weber grill pizza oven. His oven plan came from PizzaHacker, and on the Pizza Hacker site was this video about the cookbook Tartine Bread
written by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson, co-owners of the Tartine Bakery in San Fransisco
You can order the Tartine Bread Book here from an independent bookstore
Oyster Mushrooms we found on a hike in the woods. Part of our Mushroom Identification series. For a mushroom identification video click here. Below the photo are some Mushroom Foraging Books I use to identify mushrooms, The Audubon Field Guide
is small enough to put in your pocket while hiking, and then you can cross-reference with the larger Mushrooms Demystified
book, which is also good.
Click Here To Buy From IndieBound
One of my best friends drove over from NY state yesterday and arrived with a bag full of interesting mushrooms. He and his wife have become quite adept at finding Morels and Oyster mushrooms.
He had found these near their house, down the road a mile or so, and stopped to pick a few.
We brought them into the house and I pulled out my mushroom books. We found the mushroom, identified as the Chicken Mushroom ( Laetiporus sulphureus ), in my favorite book, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms.
But to make sure we knew what this was, we cross checked with our other mushroom books, and confirmed that the mushrooms were indeed Chicken Mushrooms.
Always make sure you know exactly what you are doing with mushrooms found in the woods, if you’re not sure, don’t eat them, OK?
Considered Choice Edible by the Audubon Guide, we first simmered them in salt water, as suggested online, and then sauted them with a little butter. They were quite good. Not amazing, but good enough that we will pick these again and add to a meal.
What fun mushroom or wild food finds have you found lately? let us know below:
Super easy cornbread recipe that’s kinda cheating, hence the name, Jiffy Mix Cornbread Recipe Hack. Lets take a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix and throw in a can of creamed corn to create a not-original recipe for pretty a darn good Creamed Corn Corn Bread Recipe. I’ve heard about different Jiffy Corn Mix hacks, and I wanted to try out one I had heard of from many people. The Creamed Corn Recipe Hack.
Full Recipe at the end of this post. Here are some of our other cornbread recipe videos:
I have a few corn bread recipes, but this one works for me and many people have commented that it works for them as well. There’s something in that comfort food vein that is evoked with Jiffy Corn Bread Mix. Hope they never change the box, who knows what the uproar would be? The idea for this recipe hack comes from my friend Charlie Shaw, and it sat in the back of my head for several years until I had the lightbulb moment to put a can of creamed corn into a box of Jiffy Cornbread mix. And you see what happened here. Cornbread Splendor.
Do you use Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix in your cornbread recipe? What do you add to mix it up? Let us know in the comments below:
Thanks for watching, eric.
Why did Mike point his antenna to Milwaukee? You’ll have to listen to this week’s GardenFork Radio to find out. Tyler , CEO of Allison House, joins us. Then we talk about Facebook Privacy, pole beans and peas, sink toilets, insect attractant plants, canning and applesauce, apple butter, and Carbon Monoxide detectors.
Tyler’s blog is www.mychicagogarden.com
an article on Facebook Privacy here
Marisa’s blog post about her blueberry butter recipe is here
You can watch a how to video and applesauce recipe, and learn how to can applesauce on GardenFork.TV
Caroma’s Sink Toilet, learn more on their site
antenna photo by wallyir
Last week, someone posted on Twitter that they didn’t get the hype about certain ‘foodie’ foods, and ramps being one of them. I concurred.
Then last weekend, we had dinner at the camp, and I sat down to a plate of ramps.
WOW
For these ramps, the recipe was simple: Saute in olive oil.
That’s it. The cook apologized for not having any garlic to add to the dish. It didn’t need it. They taste like a cross between garlic and scallions, and sweet and buttery.
According to Wikipedia : Allium tricoccum, commonly known as ramps, spring onion, ramson, wild leek, or ail des bois (French), is a member of the onion family (Alliaceae). Found in groups with broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems and a scallion-like bulb strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible. They are found from the U.S. state of South Carolina to Canada and are especially popular in the cuisine of the US state of West Virginia and the Canadian province of Quebec when they emerge in the springtime. A common description of the flavor is like a combination of onions and strong garlic
Ramps grow on the East Coast of the U.S. in wooded areas. So last Sunday, on our hike with the Labradors, I kept my eyes out for ramps, but found none. But I will keep looking, as my neighbors down in the valley have ramps, so I’m thinking they are up at my house as well, maybe they sprout a bit later. ( i’m hoping )
My Brooklyn neighbors, Food52.com, interviewed Hubert McCabe of Windfall Farm on their blog here, and he says: “They’re like a present … You stumble on them, and nobody will tell anybody else where their secret spots are.”
Thanks to Food52, I met a new Brooklyn Food web video person, Lisa, of The Funny Side Up, and here is her video about ramps, direct from her kitchen.
some other food bloggers who have written about ramps are listed below, please check them out.
What do you know about ramps? How do you cook them? tell us below:
I’m not a great baker, so this easy cake recipe appeals to me. This is called a Dump Cake Recipe.
Watch here as we make this peach dump cake that tastes good and is quick to make.
This all came about as I had a can of peaches and wanted to make a dessert with them. So I asked on Twitter for a peach dessert recipe, and @writersinthesky answered with this peach cake recipe.
What I like about this cake recipe and dump cakes in general is that they’re a great emergency dessert. If you forgot to plan a dessert or you just decide that you want to add a simple dessert to your dinner, you can make it happen. Because you, like me, always plan ahead, you can keep a can of peaches or a can of pears or other fruit (ideally in a light syrup not the heavy syrup) in the kitchen. Pull it out, add flour, and boom you’ve got a cake.
This easy cake recipe comes together in minutes. All you really have do is remember to preheat the oven. I like to use a glass cake pan, I think the crust is more crunchy, but you can use a metal pan as well. Use what you got is what I say. You can do this, it’s easy, it’s quite good and it’s wicked simple. So go ahead make this and tell me your thoughts.
Peach Cake Recipe
1 cup self rising flour
OR 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt
1 stick of butter
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar – you can use less sugar, this cake is pretty sweet
1 can of peaches, drained, light syrup preferred, 20-24 oz
Preheat the oven to 375F
Put the stick of butter in a 9×9 baking dish, preferably a glass dish, and place in the oven to melt the butter.
Mix together the dry ingredients, then add the milk and mix.
Pour the batter into the heated baking dish with the melted butter, then add the can of peaches.
Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. The cake is done when a knife comes out clean.
recipe ©2014 Eric Rochow all rights reserved
While making biscuits for the Biscuits and Gravy Recipe Show, we were using a short glass to cut the biscuits.
The biscuits came out OK, but I was underwhelmed by the rise. Watch the video here to see the epiphany of using freshly made baking powder.
But I was also thinking about the glass we used to cut out the biscuits. I was wondering if the glass, which is fairly thick, was actually kinda pinching the biscuit dough as it pressed down and twisted the glass.
On the Gardenfork.tv website, I read some comments that a thick glass does indeed pinch the biscuit and that you should not twist the cutter either, as that also binds the edges of the unbaked biscuit dough.
I thought I should go buy a stainless steel biscuit cutter, but I’m in the woods here ( in more ways than one ), and not into filling my kitchen with more stuff.
I looked around the kitchen for what was round and similar to a biscuit cutter. Online someone suggested a tuna fish can, but still it seemed the lip on the tuna can might hinder rise.
I then saw one of my salt shakers, and had the eureka moment.
I pressed out my biscuit dough, and cut the biscuits with and without twisting. Its much easier the get the biscuits to cut with the twist.
I put them on parchment, marked the biscuits sans twist, and baked them
None of the biscuits in this batch of dough were amazing, but they were not bad. But my very unscientific test ( we’re not America’s Test Kitchen here ) shows that twisting the cutter has no difference on the rise of the biscuit. A number of the biscuits that were twisted were taller than the non-twist biscuits.
I still need to work on cutting the flour and butter together. Maybe I can find a food processor at a garage sale. The bowl of mine seems too big for the blades. Not sure why, might have to embark on more America’s Test Kitchen style adventures. Where’s my apron….
Added:
Pat, who commented below, makes a good point. You can just use a pastry blender to cut together the flour and butter. But you’ve got to have a good pastry blender, like the one Pat has linked to.
I’ve met Cathy Erway a few times, the first was at Emily Farris’ Casserole Crazy competition ( we made a GF show about it here ) She’s well known in the Brooklyn Food world, and I really like her blog about cooking in. Its not fancy food, its home food, but thought of in a few new ways.
Like right now Cathy ( according to her blog posts ) is really into using apple cider as a braising liquid. Something I would not have thought of – but then I don’t get many original ideas in the kitchen.
Now Cathy has published a book, The Art of Eating In:
Rediscover the joy of home cooking through the eyes of one Brooklynite who swore off restaurants for two years. The story behind the scenes of Not Eating Out in New York, The Art of Eating In chronicles Cathy Erway’s journey through the underground of NYC eating, and her favorite recipes along the way. Two years, three apartments, countless food events and some strange restaurant-free “dates” later, she was able to turn eating in into something of an art, rather than mere survival.
You can learn more about Cathy’s book here, and read her blog, Not Eating Out in NY here.
I volunteered to bake chocolate chip cookies for the barn’s xmas party. Not brain surgery, I can do this.
I pulled out my mixer, which i bought at a tag sale a while back. I invisioned the cream and butter creaming really nicely in the bowl, just like on TV. I added the 2 sticks of butter, but I didn’t cut them up, I just dumped them in. The butter wrapped around the blades of the beaters. I added the sugar and then the eggs, but most of the mix stayed stuck inside the beaters.
Adding the dry ingredients helped, and I cranked up the mixer to power thru the dry ingredients. This worked great for a few seconds, then there was this mechanical gear grinding noise and the blades stopped moving.
I turned off the mixer and unplugged it to find one of the beaters had bent itself around the other beater. Not Fun. I got most of the batter out of the beaters, and finished the job by hand.
I was on the last cookie sheet of cookies when I realized that a small piece of the broken beater was missing. The small nylon washer that is at the end of the one beater to move along the bowl was gone from the beater.
And that missing piece was probably somewhere in one of the cookies. We carefully examined each cookie, but could not find the broken piece. We couldn’t bring these cookies to the barn party.
We drove down to our local bakery, which is run out of the walk in basement of Wendy’s house. Wendy has great cookies, and we bought a pound of sugar cookies with dried cranberries in them. Off to the party the cookies went.
Later on, a friend was over, we were in the kitchen, and he noticed Charlie Pup had something in her mouth. He fished it out of her mouth, and there was the missing nylon piece from the mixer.
Now I have a nice batch of chocolate chip cookies in the freezer, ready for the long holiday weekend. Have you ever had something like this happen? Let us know below in the comments.
