While I do think this penne pasta with beef neck sauce would be an amusing and delicious dish to serve at a vampire-themed dinner party, I'll admit my real motive was to attract some new visitors to the site using some of these extremely popular search engine key words.
Thanks to True Blood and the Twilight movies, America is vampire-crazy, and associated word searches on Google are very popular. So if you are reading this post because you thought it was going to be about vampires, or vampire movies, or vampire television shows, or vampire fashion, or vampire games, well, it's not. (See what I did there?)
This recipe does take a long time, but requires very little effort, and you'll be rewarded with a wonderful, richly-flavored sauce. The hardest thing will be getting some neck bones, but a quick conversation with your friendly neighborhood butcher should be all you need. Just be careful. For whatever reason many real-life werewolves actually make their livings as butchers. Look for the unusually thick ear hair.
By the way, speaking of search engine key words, I can't say for sure, but I think Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Aniston, and LeBron James would really love this pasta recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 3 pounds beef neck bones (ones with some meat on them!) 1 onion 3-4 cups tomato sauce (a prepared pasta sauce would be the best choice) 1 cup water, plus more as needed salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste red chili flakes 2 tablespoon chopped fresh green herbs penne pasta and cheese
Just a quick note to let you all know I'm flying out late tonight to visit my mother, Pauline, and the rest of the family for a couple weeks.
I'm happy to report I have a few new videos filmed and ready to go, like this penne pasta with neck sauce for example. Stay tuned for those new recipes, and of course, the usual fun and filler from the Finger Lakes!
Hopefully you’ve been playing along at home, and now have a nice batch of cured lemons to start experimenting with. If not, you can catch-up in no time – just check out this video recipe for Thomas Keller’s cured lemons posted last week.
I ended up using these lovely lemons in a super-simple, but really gorgeous roast quail recipe. This would make a great special occasion first course, and really shows off the unique flavor of the preserved lemons. The recipe is stark, because I really wanted to taste what the lemons could do.
I usually don't tell you how to eat, but here I'm going to. You want to make sure each bite of quail has at least a tiny piece of the preserved lemon mashed on to it.
You can gauge your own personal tolerance for how much of the condiment to use, but it totally makes the bite. The way just a little bit draws out the flavors of the meat is a lot of fun.
I know many of you will ask, so I'll tell you right up front, you can find quail. Higher-end stores like Whole Foods will carry them frozen, and any decent poultry purveyor can find some for you. If all else fails, you can simply order them online.
If you can’t find quail, you can easily adjust this for game hens, or even chicken breasts (using the slice of cured lemon under the skin). By the way, I was thrilled with how my lemons turned out, especially in this recipe, and would love to hear what your experiences are. Enjoy! Bonus Coverage: If you're as big a Thomas Keller fan as I am, check out this great post by YumSugar about the chef's demo, "The World's Best Preserves," from the 2010 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. That's where this whole cured lemons obsession started for me.
Ingredients: 4 whole quail salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/4 teaspoon coriander pinch cayenne, optional 1 cup chicken broth 1 slice cured lemon, minced fine
So, you know how I'm always saving you time and money by designing these video recipes with a minimum number of steps?
This time we're going the other way. I'm taking a perfectly good roasted potato recipe and adding another procedure.
The secret to these deliciously crusty potatoes is the pre-oven boiling in a salted and seasoned liquid. The potatoes not only absorb flavor and salt, but more importantly the surface of the potato cooks, which is what forms the great crunchy texture in the oven.
This is sort of the same idea behind the twice-fried French fries we featured in a video last year. By the way, it's very important to let the potatoes really dry well before coating with the oil. This will ensure a great crusty skin.
You can use this same technique, and flavor the cooking liquid any number of ways. If you like this recipe, you'll have lots of experimenting to do.
I hope you all have a fun Fourth of July planned! I'm almost done with the cured lemon quail recipe, so stay tuned for that soon. Have a safe and fabulous rest of the weekend, and as always, enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 pounds new yellow potatoes 3 sprigs rosemary 3 cloves garlic, whole, peeled, bruised 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoon salt 2 tablespoon olive oil pinch of cayenne
Since we recently reposted that fabulous cherry clafouti recipe video, I thought I'd also share this great trick for making a homemade cherry pitter from the guys at Hands On Gourmet (via my friend Darya from summertomato.com). Enjoy!
I've received what I consider to be an inordinate number of emails requesting sandwich videos. A sandwich video? Why would anyone want to watch a sandwich video?" Since the bread for my sandwiches is earned in large part from video views, these things have to be considered.
Well, a few things have changed my attitude towards doing a sandwich video. One would be the shocking success of the inside-out grilled cheese sandwich video (done mostly as a goof), which showed me that these things could put butts in the seats.
Secondly, I received a panini press from IMUSA that I really wanted to try out. I decided to create a sandwich worthy of such a test, and what you see here is the delicious result – a ham, cheese and peach panini, or as I now call it, my new favorite sandwich.
The lightly smoked ham, sharp white cheddar, and sweet/tart peach preserves pressed between the crunchy, buttery bread was an absolutely stunning combination. I know I say this all the time, but I really hope you give this a try. Enjoy!
About the IMUSA Panini Press Grill
You know I don't do a lot of product endorsements, but once in a while I get to test something that I really like, and when that happens I like to share the info. For the record, IMUSA sent me this press free of charge, so you can take that for what it's worth. By the way, the letters going around the grill don't relate to anything, I just thought they looked cool.
This grill heats up quickly. It was ready to go in just a few minutes. There are no controls. It's on or off, so there's no guesswork with temperatures. Just put in the sandwich and check back in 5 minutes. That was it.
I also like that it's a flat, not grooved grill. You can argue the grooves make for a better appearance, but this model is clearly easier to clean (I just used a paper towel).
I don't like to look at product reviews until I've formed my own opinion, so after I finished the video I popped over to Amazon and saw that this model was very well received. That's what I expected, but it's nice to have my findings corroborated. For more info, here's a link to the product page.
While I do think this penne pasta with beef neck sauce would be an amusing and delicious dish to serve at a vampire-themed dinner party, I'll admit my real motive was to attract some new visitors to the site using some of these extremely popular search engine key words.
