Polish Grandmothers and the Pure Joy of Pierogi

I like cheese, I love pasta, and I adore mashed potatoes, so you can image the pure bliss I experience when I get to eat pierogi. They very well may be my favorite non-meat food.

Pierogi are a classic Eastern European potato and cheese stuffed dumpling traditionally made for festivals and celebrations.

There are thousands of versions using different fillings, dough, and garnishes, but this one made for an About.com assignment is fairly typical.

Above and beyond the ingredients, there are also many different ways to engineer the dish. You can make a few big ones, or lots of tiny ones (guess which is easier). You can use lots of stuffing, or just a little. You can boil and toss in melted butter, or you can fry to get a crispy crust as I did here.

My grandmother Sophie, on my father's side of the family, was from Poland, and every time we would drive to New York for a visit, the highlight of the trip was a big plate of her pierogi.

The fact that the trip was seven hours, in the back of a station wagon, in the middle of summer, with no air conditioning, with my father chain-smoking the entire trip, did nothing to diminish my joyous anticipation.

I hope you give these pierogi a try. These would make a great snowy, or rainy day project, and they can be made ahead and frozen for future use. Enjoy!

Note: This video was shot for About.com, so when you click on the video below, you'll be taken to the recipe page there.




















Filling:
1 pound russet potato
1/2 diced onion
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Dough:
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
pinch of salt
1 cup flour, plus more as needed

Butter to fry in, sour cream and chive to garnish

Chew Chew Train

A friend I met in Colorado sent me this video link showing Chef Ned Archibald's "Chocolateville." Ned's the pastry chef at Keystone Resort, and every year builds this town from thousands of pounds of chocolate.

My father was a train conductor, and when I was a kid I always wanted to build a huge toy train set-up complete with little town and all the fixings. Of course, the fact that this one's made with chocolate, and lives in a resort surrounded by powdery snow sort of completes the fantasy for me.

By the way, my mother Pauline is doing much better after her shoulder surgery, and I'll be heading back to San Francisco on Dec. 14th. Thanks to everyone who sent their regards and good wishes!

Holiday Discount Coupons Available at OpenSky – Just Tell Them Chef John Sent You

I just found out that if you register your email at OpenSky by midnight on Wednesday, you'll receive coupons ranging from $15 to $100 off and 10% to 50% off.

To take advantage, go to the OpenSky Holiday Promotion Page, and when you register enter CHEFJOHN as your favorite shopkeeper.

I've been told every user will receive a coupon, but the first 50 people to sign up using the code above will get a Premium Coupon.

OpenSky is a new online shopping site where I've been invited to be a shopkeeper. You can read a little more about it in this post. My store is still being stocked, but there are lots of great stores already up and running, and the coupons will work in any of them. Enjoy!

Photo credit (c) Flickr user desi.italy

This Arroz Con Pollo Recipe (Chicken and Rice) Could Save Your Life

I wake up in a strange kitchen with no windows. I have no idea how I got there. All the doors are locked. I am alone. There is a note on a nearby table.

"You're to cook dinner for six people tonight, using anything in this fully stocked kitchen. You will not be told who'll be eating your food, or even what country you are in.

When it's ready, ring the bell on the table, and then lock yourself in the room at the back of the kitchen. There's a selection of old People Magazines for you to read while you wait.

If they enjoy your offering, you will wake up back in your San Francisco kitchen with no memory of this evening. If they do not like what you've made, you'll be terminated."

Well, that's just great – and I never even got to see the first season of Mad Men. Okay, so the preceding science fiction scenario is a little far-fetched, but if that were my predicament, what would I prepare? That's a no-brainer –Arroz Con Pollo, also known as Chicken and Rice.

Everybody likes chicken and rice. Just about every major culture has some sort of version of this archetypal recipe (by the way, people from minor cultures please save your emails). This is pure down-to-the-bone comfort food that I'm sure my mysterious captors would love. In fact, I'd bet my life on it. Enjoy!

Tech Note: This video recipe was filmed a while ago on my regular, non-awesome HD equipment. I used to think this stuff looked pretty good, but now, not so much.




Note: To see how I cut up a chicken into serving size pieces, watch this Buttermilk Fried Chicken video recipe!

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut in serving pieces
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp smoked paprika
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1/3 cup sliced green olives
2 tbsp capers
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp fine table salt)
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cups white long grain rice
4 cups chicken broth

An 18-Minute Lecture on Spaghetti Sauce?

My buddy Lenny from ChezUs turned me on to this video lecture by Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell on the subject of spaghetti sauce and the nature happiness. I've used these TED Conference videos before when traveling to pick up the slack in content, and always find them fascinating. I hope you do as well. Enjoy!

Exclusive: December Wikio Food and Wine Blog Rankings

Clara Chappaz, the US Community Manager at Wikio, has given me an exclusive opportunity to reveal the December Wikio Top 10 Health Blogs, before their official publication date. Food Wishes comes in at a very respectable number 17! Thanks for your continued interest and support.

Here are the Wikio Top 20 Food and Wine Blogs for December:

1 Eater 2 Diner's journal by Frank Bruni - New York Times 3 Ed Levine Eats 4 Slashfood 5 Eater LA 6 Eater SF 7 Wine Library TV 8 101 Cookbooks 9 Orangette 10 Eating L.A. 11 The Girl Who Ate Everything

12 The Amateur Gourmet 13 Serious Eats New York 14 Kalyn's Kitchen 15 Starbucks Gossip 16 VittlesVamp 17 Food Wishes Video Recipes 18 Baking Bites 19 Not Eating Out in New York 20 Bay Area Bites Wikio Blogs

"Oven Smoked" Pulled Pork Shoulder: Featuring SFQ – The Original San Francisco-Style Barbecue Sauce

Pulled pork shoulder is such an easy recipe, and a great item to enjoy with your sample of SFQ, that I wanted to get this video up before I left for New York. As some of you know I'm headed out to help my mom for a little while and won't have an opportunity to post much from there.

The conventional method for cooking pork shoulder is low and slow, but this recipe is really low and slow – like 210 degrees F. low and 12 hours slow. The result is an incredibly soft and succulent piece of pork, perfect for pulling.

Since I don't have a smoker (at the time of this posting), and most of you don't either, I thought I would show you a little trick I would have learned in the Army had I enlisted. As you'll see, I cook the pork in a covered Dutch oven with a couple of ramekins of water into which I've added a small amount of liquid smoke.

I've never been a big liquid smoke guy, but this method seems to scent the meat with a nice subtle smokiness without getting in the way. The extra moisture also allows for a very humid cooking environment, always a good things when doing pork shoulder. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
3 1/2 lb pork shoulder roast
3-4 tbsp dry rub
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
barbecue sauce as needed