Results tagged “recipe”

KFC, which guards its secret recipe so closely that it's kept in a safe at corporate headquarters, can't be too happy about this: A Long Island man says he's all but figured out the secret to KFC's distinctive taste. Two years ago Ron Douglas quit his job as finance manager at JP Morgan to fully devote himself to his website, which publishes recipes that aim to recreate menu items at chain restaurants like Applebee's and Denny's. But the Colonel's secret is the holy grail of recipes, and Douglas has spent years trying to figure it out, even going so far as to try to bribe a cook at the chain. (The cook declined.) His new cookbook features his sixth attempt at replicating the top-secret recipe, and he tells the Post, "Nobody knows what those 11 herbs and spices are. But if you taste my chicken, you would find the flavor very similar to KFC." But 'very similar' sounds like an understatement (or an attempt to avoid a trademark lawsuit); after a taste test the tabloid deemed his chicken "an exact match" with KFC. Okay, but is it worth rioting over?

Nearing the end of meyer lemon season, now is the time to make your last batch of meyer lemon sorbet. Meyer lemons are sweeter and more floral in flavor than regular lemons. Not quite tart enough for lemonade, but spectacular in curds, tarts, sorbets, and other desserts. Here, the meyer lemon sorbet pairs well with a lusciously moist saffron turmeric cake.

These sweet and savory meatballs make good use of the fresh eucalyptus you can sometimes find at the local greenmarkets. The eucalyptus in this recipe must not be eaten—the toxic leaves can cause adverse health effects if consumed in large quantities—but as the skewer is right up against your nose when nibbling the kofte, the eucalyptus scent radically changes the way you experience the flavor of the kofte itself.

These truffles were inspired by Goat Lady Dairy, a Greensboro, NC farmer who makes chevre truffles using a blended ganache of about 60% chocolate to 40% chevre, with a bit of vanilla and salt.

This recipe was inspired by Wildman Steve Brill, who has a foraged, vegan version in his Wild Vegetarian Cookbook. The Wildman uses cashews for their creamy texture and actual sassafras roots foraged from city parks for their vivid flavor, but our civilized ovo-lacto interpretation can be made with ingredients actually purchased in city stores.

As part of their long-running campaign to ban foie gras, PETA has launched their "Fine Faux Foie Gras Challenge." The animal rights group hopes top chefs will join their effort to ban the force-feeding of geese, and to sweeten the deal, they're offering a $10,000 prize for the best vegetarian faux foie gras that's "comparable in taste and texture to the real glob of prized bird fat." Sarah DiGregorio at the Voice nominates the portobello mousse at chef Amanda Cohen's Dirt Candy (friend of Gothamist). The critic cautions that while Cohen's mousse is not as delicious as actual livers from force-fed ducks, "it's awfully tasty, and inventive too." But what to call the stuff? Grub Street fears "Tofoie," or "Champignon Gras" lack the cachet demanded by a delicacy derived from ducks and geese with painfully engorged livers. (Detect any bias on this one?)

Everyone loves romanesco, the green fractal cauliflower that has been appearing more prominently in stores and greenmarkets over the past few years. It's gorgeous, in a geeky sort of way, and very tasty, especially when you let it get a good pan sear during the cooking process.

Can't swing New York's top rated restaurant, Per Se, for Thanksgiving? Enjoy chef Thomas Keller's cuisine at a fraction of the cost with this selection from his cookbook, The French Laundry. Some of these meals can take hours of preparation and require obscure ingredients and advanced cooking techniques, but there are also plenty of simpler, shorter recipes here; you just need to know where to look.

As a break from our home-developed recipes, this fall soup comes from Philippe Bertineau, Executive Chef at Payard Pâtissserie & Bistro. The touch of cranberry and juniper make it a perfect first course for Thanksgiving dinner.

This stuffing, with the nutty flavor of wild rice brightened with fresh rosemary and thyme, is perfect stuffed into a whole duck before roasting, though it should go well with turkey, too.

Our fourth Thanksgiving recipe is for the main course—turkey wing confit— and it doesn’t require a lot of labor or time. But the real beauty of this recipe is twofold in that you don’t need a whole turkey, and that the ‘leftovers’ will last a lot longer than the typical post-holiday binge week. All you really need is a big pot of duck fat, salt, garlic, a few turkey wings, and a 200 degree oven.

Kenny Shopsin of Shopsin's (read the background story here) just came out with a fantastic new book, Eat Me. More than a cookbook, it includes a wonderful collection of tales of the restaurant and his family, and a lot of insight into Kenny's views on food and cooking. The real value in the book lies in Kenny's explanation of how he deconstructs dishes and puts them together in unexpected but perfectly reasonable (once he explains them to you, that is) permutations.

Making fresh pasta at home is fast and easy, and with filled pasta like this, you can freeze it for later meals as well. This latest iteration of our pomegranate walnut sauce is by far the most delicious and intensely flavored. If you don't feel like rolling out pasta, try just braising the pork and serving it with this sauce and store bought pasta instead. Click through for the full recipe!

Instead of serving a raw salmon tartare, you can take a few days to cure your own salmon in your fridge at home. It adds a much greater depth of flavor and a more interesting texture.

     

Have you ever dreamed that you could have a multi-course lunch at the home of an amazing chef, hang out in his kitchen while he prepares it and pick up some cooking tips and recipes along the way? It’s possible. One way is to befriend (or maybe even date) a chef. Another is through By Invitation Only events, open to platinum American Express card members. Chef Cyril Renaud of Fleur de Sel opened up his Brooklyn kitchen to some Platinum AmEx cardholders, many of whom had used their reward points to attend the event. If you've been saving your reward points for a rainy day, now's a great time to use them.

This simple vegetarian dish is exquisitely flavorful, with all the small touches coming together to make something marvelous. The sweet potatoes are, well, sweet. But in this dish they also become tart and spicy, and the yogurt raita is richly flavored with roasted rice powder and a final touch of freshly infused clove oil stirred in at the end. Full recipe after the jump!

A security firm run by former New York City police detective Bo Dietl has been hired by KFC to move the fast food chain's secret "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices, which has been not been moved from its safe in corporate headquarters for 68 years. The single sheet of notebook paper, yellowed by age, lays out the entire formula, and was written in pencil and signed by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940.

Gridskipper may have a round-up of where to find New York's best black and white cookies, but forget them, just make them yourself! They turn out to be very easy to throw together, and far, far tastier than any you can buy, even in Brooklyn. "Look to the cookie, Elaine!" Recipe after the jump.

These crostini make wonderful appetizers and snacks, a rich bright complex flavor for very little time and effort.

The NY Times revisited the continuing saga of the the culinary lawsuit against Jessica Seinfeld and Jerry Seinfeld. Cookbook author Missy Chase Lapine has accused Mrs. Seinfeld of plagiarism, swiping ideas from her proposed cookbook about making recipes using pureed vegetables. Lapine's detailed proposal was rejected by HarperCollins, which released Seinfeld's seemingly similar cookbook six months after Lapine's was published. Her lawsuit also claims the iconic comedian defamed her, calling her a "wacko" and likening her to an "assassin" on Letterman. So far, Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook Deceptively Delicious has sold 2.4 million copies (with a big push from Oprah), while Lapine's The Sneaky Chef has sold over 200,000.

Homemade marshmallows are a cinch to make, and these lemon marshmallows will make your s'mores more interesting this year.

Sour cherry trees in Brooklyn (and yes, there are a few) are just at their peak, and the greenmarkets are flooding with cherries now as well. Sweet bing cherries are better for eating fresh and plain, but sour cherries (also known as pie cherries) are more flavorful and better for baking.

Ochazuke is a Japanese dish comprised of rice and various toppings (often leftovers) served as a soup with green tea poured over it. It makes a wonderfully simple breakfast.

Since April, the Lower East Side Girls Club has been operating their La Tiendita (The Little Store) booth at the Essex Street Market. The Girls Club reaches out to economically disadvantaged girls and young women between the ages of 8 and 23, offering athletic, cultural, life-skills and career oriented programs.

This tomato jam is adapted from a recipe for a Moroccan chicken tagine. Sweet and savory, this jam is best served with hearty entrees. It is not suitable for home canning, so please don't use this recipe to preserve your gorgeous summer tomatoes without adapting it to make sure the acidity level is high enough to keep it safe.

It turns out that you can buy duck hearts at Ottomanelli's Meat Market (285 Bleecker Street) in 5 pound bags for something like $3-4 a pound. Just order a bag and in a few days you will have an abundance of duck hearts to play with! Thaw them just enough to separate them into ziplock bags with maybe 1/2 pound duck hearts in each, label the bags with the date and contents, and freeze whatever you don't cook immediately.

This cake is light and luscious, like a barely cooked chocolate mousse. It's best served with strawberries, which are coming in gorgeous from New Jersey to the Greenmarkets right about now. Full recipe after the jump.

These are dead simple, very tasty, and enjoyably audible – both the pop rocks and people's reaction to them.

Everyone knows that ramps and bacon go well together. Everyone who knows about ramps, that is – and if you don't, get down to the Union Square greenmarket or the Park Slope Food Co-op sometime in the next few weeks before they disappear for the year!

If you're wandering what to do with the rhubarb that's starting to appear in stores lately, try pairing it with these shortbread cookies filled with nicoise olives. Alternating sips of rhubarb soup with crumbly, salty bites of olive cookies is a wonderful way to start a spring meal. Recipe after the jump.