Non-Food Post - VOTE!

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Originally from Slice by Serious Eats. I normally don't republish other people's content, but this is too good (and too important) not to.

Granola Mishap

My knife is gone. That's my excuse.

Ever since I shipped my baby to Japan for sharpening, I can't seem to do anything right in the kitchen. Even things that don't require a knife! I just know that if I needed it, it's not here. That's how messed up I am.

Knifeless Goof #1: I was trying to fry an egg to top a bacon, avocado, lettuce and tomato sandwich, and I spilled bacon grease, nearly starting a fire. While cleaning up, I overtoasted the bread. The roof of my mouth hurts.

Knifeless Goof #2: I forgot about the pot of black lentils, and cooked them to a weird sort of desiccated mush, nearly burning the bottom of the pot.

Knifeless Goof #3: I tried to make granola. Look at that beautiful shade of burnt.















And I was stupid enough to think it would be ok, and mixed in the raisins and dried dragonfruit before I tasted it. Ugh.

I want my knife back!

Cutting Board Advice Needed

After my last cutting board split, I replaced it with what I thought would be a great one - a Joyce Chen bamboo. It's good, not cracking or splitting, but whatever finish they use is coming off. See?















I've taken care of it, doing the whole mineral oil thing ("once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, once a year for a lifetime"), but I still have the disappearing coating problem, and I'm only at about the 9-month mark. Kind of reminds me of when Teflon pans get old (or people used metal(!) utensils on them), and the Teflon gets feathery and flakes off into your food. I don't want Teflon-flavored food, and I don't think I want cutting-board-coating-flavored food either.

So does anyone have any recommendations for a wood cutting board? I've always been partial to bamboo, have been eyeing end-grain maple, but I'm open to suggestions.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Goodbye my beloved.

The next two weeks will be the longest of my life. Every second will be filled with longing for you.

Every time I walk into my kitchen, I'll think of you. Every time I need to perfectly mince garlic, or slice a ripe tomato, my heart will ache because of your absence.

You're barely gone, and I'm already anticipating your return.

'Cause you'll be wicked sharp when you come back from your beauty treatment in Japan.






(Picture courtesy of Kyocera because I was too distraught to remember to take a parting photograph.)

Gingersnaps

I was craving cookies last night, which is a rarity for me, so I figured I better make them. But what kind? I didn't have any chocolate, didn't want anything with nuts. Spicy is always good, so I settled on gingersnaps, using a recipe from Erin of Erin Cooks.

For the first tray, I rolled out little dough balls, coated them in sugar, and baked. For the second tray, I rolled the balls, flattened them, then tossed in sugar. For the 3rd tray, I rolled the balls, coated in sugar, then flattened them on the tray. I couldn't tell the difference between the 2nd and 3rd trays, but the 1st (non-flattened) tray was obviously different:

Not flattened:
















Flattened:















Both versions were good, with the non-flattened ones being cakier, the flat ones chewier. House consensus is that the flat ones are better. My cookie craving is now satisfied. Thanks, Erin!

I'm submitting this to Ruth at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments for her weekly Bookmarked Recipes event.

Peruvian Cilantro Stew

A while back, I bought some frozen aji amarillo chiles from a local market. I didn't know what I was going to do with them - heck, I had never seen them before. But I bought them because they were a beautiful orange, and chiles are always good.

What do you do when you have an unknown ingredient? Check out the internet, specifically other food blogs, of course! So that's what I did, and found Peruvian Cilantro Stew from Gretchen Noelle of Canela y Comino. Her blog is one of my favorites, and I figured that since she lives in Peru, I could trust her judgment when it came to these brightly colored chiles.

















My only hitch with the recipe was when it came to pureeing the cilantro. A cup of cilantro puree is quite a lot, so I figured my blender would be helpful. I figured wrong. The stupid leaves just spun up and stuck to the sides of the blender. I tried pushing them back down, but they spun right back up again. So, cutting board and big knife. I chopped and chopped and chopped, until the sound of the knife cutting through the cilantro was less of a crunch, and more of a mush. (What I wouldn't give for a mezzaluna.)

This isn't a quick recipe, and there's a lot of hands-on, but it is so worth it. Beef marinated and then browned. Onion is sauteed, then cooked down with a puree of aji amarillo chiles, onion and garlic. Then beer and the cilantro "puree" are added, and it's cooked down further. Then you add the beef back, cook for about an hour, then add in carrots and peas, and cook until the veggies are done.

The sauce is so amazingly good, I couldn't stop myself from dipping pieces of bread into it as it was cooking. Think pesto, but cilantro. And beefy flavored. Mmm...

The meat ended up perfectly tender, due to its braise in beer, and the chiles added just the right amount of heat. I had originally planned to serve this with rice, but MIL came home with a bunch of sourdough loaves, so we had it with bread. I loved sopping up every last bit of the sauce with the crusty bread. However, I'm dying to know what the sauce tastes like over rice, so I guess I'll just have to make it again to find out.

Thanks, Gretchen Noelle, for a great recipe!

Baked Chicken and Potatoes with Cider and Parsley

Once again, through my blog-hopping addiction, I came across another great recipe. This time it's Baked Chicken and Potatoes with Cider and Parsley, from Linda of Thinking About Food.

















You slice some potatoes and put them in a casserole dish, top with chicken pieces and bacon, pour over a mix of apple juice (or cider), water and butter, and bake it. When it's almost done, you pour off the liquid, which you reduce for a gravy. The chicken and potatoes go back in the oven at a higher temperature to finish cooking and get nicely browned. When it comes out of the oven, you top it with a gremolata.

Linda, thank you so much for this recipe! The flavors work so well together - the apple juice tenderizes the chicken and prevents it from getting dry. The potatoes get a little crusty on the bottom, with a beautiful chickeny-appley stickiness. And the gremolata - I love the little punches you get from the parsley, lemon zest and garlic. Top it all off with a moistening of the gravy, and you're in heaven.

This is definitely a keeper.