Tasty Tangents

Food, life and other morsels

April 29, 2010
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Comments Off on Recipe showdown

Recipe showdown

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of Iron Chef America. Two chefs get an hour to prepare five dishes that showcase the day’s secret ingredient…then they are judged.

And other competitive cooking shows, think Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Chopped and Top Chef to name a few, can be very entertaining.

But apparently there’s a new competition that is playing out among some recipe and food publishing heavyweights.

The article Pestles at dawn? Food52.com and Cook’s Illustrated face off in recipe throwdown is the start of a competition to determine whether “professional test kitchen protocols or the online consensus of multiple cooks” is the best way to judge how good a recipe really is.

Each system has been used to come up with a recipe for sugar cookies and pork shoulder, and starting May 5, people can try the recipes out themselves and vote for their favourites at slate.com.

I for one, will be interested to find out what happens. Right now, I’m equally likely to pick the most popular reader submitted recipe on a site like allrecipes.com as I am to try a chef’s recipe on epicurious.com.

What do you say? Do you put more trust in other home cooks or in the words of a professional chef?

April 28, 2010
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The ‘Foodie’

Recently I blogged about the term “authenticity” when it comes to food.

Today I read an interesting article about the term “foodie” on theglobeandmail.com called Foodies: Culinary democrats or cultural snobs? It considers a new book about the term and different points of view about what it really means.

I’ve certainly been called a foodie, though I don’t think I’d ever define myself using that term. I love food, I love to cook, I love to try new things from different countries and styles of cooking. But, I also love the burger and fish and chips at the little mom and pop cafe down the street from me.

How you define a foodie appears to depend on who is trying to apply the label. The same can be said for authenticity, which is also examined in the new book.

All I know is I like to eat, and I’m trying to do it in a responsible way. But I think I’ll leave all this definition stuff to the experts, which I’m not…yet.

Would you call yourself a foodie? How do you define it?

April 27, 2010
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Cake Wrecks

I followed a link on a friend’s blog and wound up on this hilarious site that had hubby and me laughing our butts off over the weekend.

Cake Wrecks is a blog that looks for hilarious, strange, silly and downright puzzling cake decorating disasters.

My favourite so far may be an entire series on ways to misspell “Happy Birthday.” I would have never thought, after all that baking effort, that “wreckerators” could do so much damage.

There are weekly posts on beautiful confections, and they really accentuate the terrifying nature of the Cake Wrecks.

So if you’re in the mood to see some sugary sweet chaos, you should check it out.

April 26, 2010
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Comments Off on Apple Chutney

Apple Chutney

Apple Chutney

Apple Chutney

As I mentioned in my last post, I had an abundance of apples that were beyond their best before date for a crisp snack, but still had a lot sweet apple goodness to boast.

So after making apple muffins, which only called for two apples, I opted to make some Apple Chutney and I found a great recipe on AllRecipes.com.

This delicious recipe called for a few ingredients I didn’t have so I made a few subsitutions, MOST of which worked exactly like I expected.

I used white vinegar instead of cider vinegar, California instead of golden raisins, and yellow mustard instead of ground mustard, all in the exact same amounts.

I also used cayenne powder instead of curry powder, also in the same amount, and I think I got a little more heat than I bargained for.

It was still delicious with some oven baked pork chops, and I even liked the extra kick at the end of each bite, but I think next time I’ll stick to curry powder or cut waaaaay back on the cayenne.

April 25, 2010
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Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins

I looked at some very sad looking apples in my refrigerator drawer and decided something needed to be done with them. So I was on the hunt for something to bake.

I wasn’t in a pie mood, so I was looking for a cake or muffins, and below is a very nice recipe from one of my favourite, go-to cookbooks.

The cookbook, “The New Canadian Basics Cookbook” is one that I got early in my cooking years, and it has been the source of some of my biggest hits, including the best coleslaw ever.

This recipe is yet another simple, quick and delicious recipe, and the book always provides for variations to make finding alternative ingredients and ideas easy.

Unfortunately, the recipe didn’t call for nearly enough apples, so coming up soon…apple chutney!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup peeled, chopped apples
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tbsp lemon juice or grated rind

For optional topping combine:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in fruit.

In separate bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil and lemon juice. Add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened.

Spoon into greased muffin tins, filling almost to top. Add topping.

Bake in 400F oven for 20 to 22 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Makes about 12 muffins.

You can substitute blueberries or chopped cranberries tossed with 1 tbsp sugar for the apples.

Excerpted from The New Canadian Basics Cookbook.