So many of you know that I haven’t been posting much. You also know that I was talking about a project in the spring. Well, you may have guessed it by now… I am finishing up a vegetarian cookbook as we speak. I am a huge fan of baking, so the cookbook also has lots of great baking recipes, but it is mostly devoted to vegetarianism. Here’s a sample recipe from the future book.
Spicy Rice and Black Bean Burgers
(Makes 8 mini burgers or 4 large burgers)
The funniest thing about becoming a vegetarian was how much I loved black bean burgers. I was never a burger eater when I ate meat, but there is something so satisfying about vegetarian burgers. I just love them.
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 small jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium red pepper, deveined and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 Tbs. ketchup
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked rice (basmati, white or brown)
2 cups fresh wheat or white breadcrumbs
¼ cup dried breadcrumbs
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
Serve with avocado, tomato, and lettuce
In a medium skillet heat 1 Tbs. olive oil. Sauté the jalapeno, onion, red pepper, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the peppers are soft and the onion is translucent. Add the chili powder, cumin, and cayenne, and ketchup. Cook for 2 minutes.
In the bowl of a food processor add half of the onion and pepper mixture and half of the beans and rice. Process until combined. Place the mixture in a large bowl with breadcrumbs and the remaining half of the onion mixture, beans and rice. Mix well.
Heat 1 Tbs. olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Form patties either into mini patties (3-4 inches) or large patties (6 inches). Cook until browned on both sides. It should take about 3-4 minutes per side. Top with your favorite toppings and condiments.
I don’t normally comment on my personal views on the food world. I try not to dwell in the negative things I see all the time, but today I just couldn’t keep quiet. The biggest news story from the world of food is the firing of Robert Irvine. I can’t tell you how much this bothers me. I can’t believe with all the great things in the world of food, the web is going crazy over something as negative as this. I feel bad that we choose to look at the negative things instead of the positive. There are a bunch of new shows and interesting things out there, but we can’t escape the negative stuff. I can’t understand why people decide to make personal jabs at people simply because they are in the public eye. There are twice as many negative comments as positive comments on all of the food personalities out there. I think that it should be less about the people and more about the food.
Sorry for the rant… I just couldn’t help it. I love food and that’s why I share what I find out in the world of the web. So less about how big someone’s head is and more about why you would choose a skillet over a saucepan…
Here’s to celebrating life one bite at a time. Want to read something positive about food, check out www.slowfood.com
I recently stumbled across this interesting feature over at Food & Wine’s website. They have an update on all of the best new chefs from 1988 to 2007. Click on the picture above to link to their website. You can find out the latest news on chefs like Todd English, Thomas Keller, Rick Bayless, and many others. You can click on the names and see what they are up to now. I think it’s a pretty neat feature. You can even search by name or state. My state, Maine, has two of the best chefs winners. Steve Corry from Five Fifty-Five and Rob Evans from Hugo’s. If you look at the 2007 chefs you might recognize Gavin Kaysen from The Next Iron Chef series on Food Network. You can read his interview along with the interviews of the rest of the 2007 winners. Each of the chefs also have a recipe or recipes listed.
I recently posted a new video recipe demonstration. If you want to make your own pizza dough, then this video is for you. I walk you through all the steps. Enjoy!
The first podcast for deglazing.com is here today! Click here to catch the first episode. It should be available on ITunes in the next few days. Enjoy!
I wanted to supplement that audio file with notes - so you can follow up on some of the ideas.
First off, corrections. In the podcast I mentioned a book Bakewise - it’s actually known as Cookwise by Shirley Corriher. I highly recommend both Cookwise and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. If you geek out on the science of food, then these books are for you.
Now on to the good stuff.
Great books and magazines for holiday planning - these books and magazines should help you with your holiday planning.
Leavening Agents - Let’s talk a little bit more about leavening agents. I don’t think I did the whole subject justice in this podcast, keep in mind this is my first podcast…There are basically two major types of leavening agents - chemical and biological (of course, there are others, but these are the two most common). When you think in terms of chemical, baking powder and baking soda jump out at you first. They are very similar chemically, but baking powder is often double acting. This means that it reacts twice in the recipe, once when the moisture of the mix hits and it a second time when the heat hits it. Baking soda by comparison only reacts once in a mix. The second major type of leavening agent is biological - the big one that comes to mind is yeast. Yeast is actually a lot of fun to work with, so give it a try. Yeast is an actual living thing that we use in baking. There are other leavening agents and these include things like folded in egg whites and creamed butter and sugar mixtures.
I love ice cream. I really love ice cream. My favorite ice cream right now happens to be Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone ice cream, it’s like the grown up version of Drumsticks. It’s absolutely delicious. The caramel flavored ice cream is so smooth and delicious. For anyone who enjoys picking out bits of goodie from their ice cream, this flavor is for you. The chocolate covered sugar cone bits are addictive. There have been many times that I picked a quart of ice cream clean, but Haagen Dazs does such a good job with the ice cream itself I find I can resist the urge to pick out the pieces. Did I mention there is a caramel swirl that runs throughout? If you happen to live in the Northeast you can find caramel cone ice cream on sale this week at Shaws - 2 for $6.00.
I can’t tell you how excited I am that my two favorite chefs are the finalists for Iron Chef. I am not going to say that I am particularly surprised that John Besh and Michael Symon are the last two men standing. I think it was very clear from the beginning that these two guys were the ones to beat. I really like them both, it’s hard for me to pick one over the other. I guess if I were pressed it would be John Besh, by a tiny little bit. Michael Symon has this playful exuberance about him that is hard to ignore, but there is something about Besh that says Iron Chef to me.
I guess we will have to watch the finale to see who wins? Who’s your favorite? If you voted - would it be Besh or Symon?
Well, I picked up The Reach of the Chef today and I have to say thus far I am not as impressed with it as I was with the Making of a Chef (Making from here on out) and the Soul of a Chef (Soul from here on out). I really loved Making and I loved Soul equally. I loved the way that Soul introduced some of the big names of food and shared their stories. The real beauty resting in the pursuit for perfection that drives many of the best professional chefs. This book is filled with commentary on how and why chefs become famous. Something about it comes across as disjointed and negative. I found the other books much more positive. I am sure the topic itself cooking in the age of celebrity chefs leads to some cynicism in the foodie world. The cult of celebrity is evident in everything these days. I am hoping that the book redeems itself as I continue reading. I will probably have a full review for next week if you are interested. Click on the photo above to check it out at Amazon.
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