 Clarified butter is used when you’ll be frying something either for an extended period or over high heat. For those times when you want the flavor of butter, rather than oil, you’ll want to use clarified butter can stand being cooked longer, and to a higher temperature, than regular butter. Clarifying butter removes the milk solids, which are what causes the butter to burn if cooked…
A few things to know if you go to Berlin. Don’t cross the street unless the crosswalk light is green (you’ll likely get a scolding), hardly anywhere takes credit cards (cash works everywhere—and people are happy to give change), the coffee is great (so drink as much as you can, since you’ll need it), and the city changes quickly, from being gray and bleak at…
Prunes are serious business in France and unlike Americans, it doesn’t take any name-changing to get the French to eat them. Prune fans, like me, are partial to those from Agen, in Gascony, which are mi-cuit; partially-dried. Their flavor is as beguiling and complex as a square of the finest chocolate. Interestingly, the prunes cultivated in California are grafted from the same prunes grown in…
One thing I’ve learned in France, is that if someone who’s an expert tells you to eat something—you should eat it. (Except squid, of course.) When I lead tours, right before I place their hand on the bible, I make guests promise that if I tell them they have to try something, they will. It’s not that I’m on commission, it’s just I’ve sifted through…
My recent banana windfall gave me the chance to play around a bit with various banana ice cream combinations. Since bananas are such a natural partner for coconut, I reasoned, “Why use milk or cream when there’s coconut milk?” So I reached for a can of coconut. Continuing with that train of thought, I figured it’d be interesting to use jaggery, raw cane sugar that’s used…
I’m happy to be taking care of two things with this recipe. One is that about a week ago, my neighbor gave me two bunches of bananas. He’s in the photography business and needed a few large bunches for a photoshoot. When it was over, he sent me a text message asking if I could use any bananas. Free fruit? I ran over there to…
When I was speaking at the Blogher Food Conference last year, one of the organizers was telling us that on the last day of each month, she carries out what she calls E-mail Amnesty Day. On that day, she deletes all her e-mail in her Inbox, then issues an all-points-bulletin to everyone she knows that if there was anything important in there, to e-mail her…
They say that you know you’re holding a glass of wine from Cahors if you can’t see your fingers on the other side of the glass through the wine. Which is why the malbec wine from Cahors is nicknamed “black wine”. Peer into a glass of it, and it’s easy to see (or should I say ‘not see’) why. I didn’t know much about the…
For the first five years in Paris, I wouldn’t go to Scoop. I’d walk by, scan the selections of hamburgers and “les wraps”, and keep going. Even though I was intrigued with the list of house-made ice creams, I’d always reason to myself, “I didn’t move to Paris to eat a hamburger.” I was reading recently about a site called My American Market that carries…
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