May 2012
1 post
Khao man gai burger
Khao man gai is my favorite Thai dish, a careful balance of boiled capon (chicken), rice cooked in the resulting broth, a crucial garnish of cucumber and cilantro, and the miracle ingredient: the sauce, oh dear lord the sauce. You should definitely make the whole thing from Leela’s recipe at She Simmers, but that’s not what we’re doing here today. What we’re doing here is...
April 2012
1 post
Fennel Drinking Vinegar
I understand - you probably think the idea of drinking vinegar is weird. But vinegar is just an acid, and every good soda has an acidic component. (In Coke, it’s phosphoric acid. I’m not saying that’s bad, I’m just saying it sounds even weirder than vinegar.) Here in Portland, Pok Pok Som makes great drinking vinegars in some obvious fruity flavors, and some unexpected ones...
February 2012
2 posts
Tomato sauce with tuna and peas
This is the first “recipe” I ever prepared myself. It all started when my mom saw me heating up jarred pasta sauce for a late-night dinner. (I could do that much without assistance.) She suggested it would be more interesting if I fried up some onions and canned tuna, then added the sauce. She was, as always, right: this was way more interesting. I now had options to choose from, ingredients to...
December 2011
1 post
Oven-dried Tomatoes
It’s here again, tomato season. As we established in our tomato-butter sauce post, you’re best off eating tomatoes one of two ways:
Fresh when in season
Preserved when not in season
The sauce is one way to lock in their flavor, cooked down and frozen for later use: a bowl of fresh pappardelle in February.
My favorite method, though, is oven-drying tomatoes and storing them...
September 2011
3 posts
Preserved cherries
“Last week for cherries!” the fella at last weekend’s farmer’s market crowed, and I knew I had to do something. I ended up taking home six pounds of the last of the season’s Rainier and Bing cherries.
Here in Washington, we grow more sweet cherries than just about any place else. When I first moved up here, these things flummoxed me — they weren’t tart like the cherries I knew back east. And...
Summer squash 'pasta'
Chances are, you or someone near to you — a neighbor or a coworker, perhaps — has a garden full of yellow and green zucchini, the never-ending summer squash. And by now, you might be a bit tired of zucchini bread and grilled rings of squash that kind of turn to mush after five minutes.
One of my favorite ways to quickly cook these oft-maligned veggies is to turn them into a faux...
Vegetable Confit
Confit is a fancy food-word. If you’re eating confit, there’s probably Salad Périgourdine and beurre blanc on the plate, and a Côtes du Rhône or something on the table. And sure, confit is a high-point of fancy cooking, but its roots are humble. If European farmers could invent it and then use it for centuries, we fancy, modern people can use it in the fancy-free dishes we make in our...
August 2011
1 post
2 tags
Kajmak
Growing up in Croatia and Bosnia, I ate a heck of a lot of kajmak (say it fast: kai-muck). Gallons and gallons of this rich, fatty, savory, goes-with-anything cream at the intersection of milk and cheese. It’s the region’s cream cheese, mayo, and ketchup all in one. I can’t think of a widely available US product that would serve as a workable substitute, so here’s a recipe...
June 2011
2 posts
4 tags
707 Fried Chicken
This recipe is inspired by the extremely satisfying “808 fried chicken” at Portland’s 808 Grinds Hawaiian cart. Theirs is better because it’s battered and they serve it with the best mac salad in town, but mine is healthier (probably?) Cucumbers instead of mac salad - I mean, come on. Scroll down for a photo or trust me and read on.
You will need:
4 chicken thighs,...
April 2011
2 posts
7 tags
Sugar snap peas with mint
I tend to cook most nights and am fortunate to have one of the most supportive partners, in eating and life, one could hope for. She greets everything with wide eyes and an “Oh, baby!” before it even gets to the table, even the misfires like my ongoing trials with thai peanut sauce. It’s pretty rare that I get to genuinely surprise her, though, as was the case with this side dish of sugar snap...
The official Salt & Fat t-shirt
It’s a dilemma you’re probably already familiar with: you love to cook and eat, but you don’t know how to look good doing it and help support one of your favorite food blogs.
Friends, we’ve heard you and we’re here to help. Starting today, you can become the proud owner of a limited edition Salt & Fat t-shirt, designed by our own Neven Mrgan and printed in...
February 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Roasted beet and blood orange salad
When you’re cooking to make an impression, as I suspect some of you may be this Valentine’s Day, it’s especially important that your dish look as good as it tastes. The expression “you eat first with your eyes” wouldn’t be cliche if there weren’t some truth to it.
This roasted beet and blood orange salad is certainly colorful but it also brings together...
5 tags
Pissaladière: funky French pizza
It’s a cruel trick of the brain that the things we can’t easily reach become so much dearer to us by that quality alone. Consider one of the recent additions to the list of my favorite foods ever: pissaladière, Provençal pizza. It has all the makings of a Neven Pleaser: rich, salty, satisfying. Yet I can’t think of a single restaurant in Portland that serves in (on a regular...
3 tags
Sectioning a citrus
There are two reasons to section1 a citrus. The first is for presentation, an elegant way to use lemons, oranges and grapefruit pieces in all kinds of recipes, from salads to cakes. The second is to remove the tough, often bitter, pith and inner membrane so that the flavor of the fruit can shine.
As we’re at the height of citrus season, with exotic blood oranges and meyer lemons in the...
January 2011
1 post
4 tags
Hoppin' John
Editor’s note: We desperately wanted to get this up before New Year’s but an east coast blizzard, two airlines and four airports conspired against it. We think it’s still worth your time, even if you have to wait until January 2nd.
New Year’s is as good a time as any to add a little luck, whether you think you’ve got use for it or not. Where I’m from that...
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
4 posts
Thankful
Neven and I started Salt & Fat back in January because we both love food and cooking. I thought our friends and a few stragglers would read it, I never imagined there’d be thousands of you tuning in. The response continues to be a bit overwhelming.
We don’t get a chance much to say thanks to you and this day, full of food and family, is a good one to take a minute to do just...
4 tags
Turkey
There’s probably no greater pressure on a cook than Thanksgiving, and no more high-profile dish than the turkey. It gets a bad rep — “all turkey tastes the same”, the haters insist — but there are things you can do to make sure your turkey stands out. Here are few tips to help.
Start with the bird itself. Avoid the mass produced brands like Butterball if you can and definitely avoid anything...
Unwrapper
Here at Salt & Fat, we want to help people become better cooks and better eaters. Part of that means becoming more conscious about the food you buy. Unfortunately, the packaging our food comes in can be confusing, sometimes intentionally so for marketing purposes, sometimes because jargon just tends to persist. We decided to help fix that with a new mobile app we’re calling Unwrapper.
...
“To get food with the green and fruity flavor of good olive oil, it seems more...”
– Harold McGee thinks it’s time for an oil change in the kitchen. We couldn’t agree more!
October 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Collard greens and potlikker
Traditionally, collard greens require two things the modern home cook seems to find in short supply: time and a ham hock. This is unfortunate for a number of reasons, chief among them being that collard greens are awesome and should be enjoyed regularly, even by those of us short on time and pork shank.
Here you may be tempted to ask what a collard green is, anyway. In the States, we associate...
Corn stock
I’ve got a quick mini-recipe to share just before the summer ends and fresh veggies get a little harder to find here on our sliver of the globe. Hopefully you can still find local corn in your town - we’re making corn stock. You should prepare this if you’re already using fresh corn for something. Perhaps cornbread, creamed corn, fried corn cakes, or coconut sticky rice pudding...
September 2010
1 post
4 tags
Fresh Tomato-Butter Sauce
There’s still some summer left, right? It’s not too late to pick up some peak-o’-the-season tomatoes, is it? There’s no time to waste! Let’s make some tomato-butter sauce using fresh tomatoes this time. Then we can freeze it and enjoy it on January pasta or pizza.
As a reminder, check out our original posting of this recipe. That one used canned San Marzano tomatoes....
August 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Cold sesame noodles
The heat reached 96 degrees in Portland yesterday. I wasn’t built for this sort of thing, I tell you. I knew I’d have to prepare something cold for lunch, but I also had a bit of a salty tooth, as I usually do. Cold food usually covers the creamy and sweet parts of the flavor spectrum; what about salty, spicy, and pungent?
Presenting: cold sesame noodles with fried anchovies.
We...
1 tag
Allergies
Like, I suspect, a number of foodish types, I’ve tended to be a bit dismissive of food allergies. I’d hear reports of school-wide peanut butter bans and unapologetic parents canceling play dates because there was milk in the house and roll my eyes. I’ve been tempering this attitude, though, as I discover that a number of my friends and people I care about bring their own food...
July 2010
2 posts
4 tags
All-butter pie dough
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I make pretty decent pie dough; not because it impugns my manhood but because from-scratch pie crusts, especially flaky pie crusts, are supposed to be difficult. You’ve probably heard about tricks like using vodka or other such sorcery but I’ve always had luck with just the basics. I really wish I had a trick of my own to impart.
Before we get started,...
2 tags
Fava bean soup
We’re right in the middle of fava bean season here in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a recipe to enjoy for the next few weeks and hopefully greet these guys with next year.
When shopping for fava beans, look for decent-sized pods with thick, solid peas. While you can sometimes buy shelled favas, it’s probably not worth the extra cost; I find shelling easy and fun anyway.
...
June 2010
4 posts
2 tags
The Slavonian Burger
Jim has already written a fine post on traditional, all-American burgers; I won’t mess with his wisdom on his homeland’s favorite summer lunch. Instead, I will tell you about mine.
I grew up on the border of Croatia and Bosnia, in a region whose culinary weapons are onion, pork fat, and paprika. If you can fry one in the other and dust it with the third, you’re golden....
4 tags
Pancakes
At the store this weekend, I counted no fewer than a dozen different varieties of pre-packaged pancake mixes. And this was a fancy, highfalutin store that doesn’t even bother to stock the aerosol or otherwise weaponized shake-and-pour varieties. What’s the lesson here? That pancakes are hard; here, gentle consumers who are far too busy to bother making from scratch, just add water.
Pancakes are...
2 tags
Turkey, Brie, and Cucumber Sandwich
Sometimes even a sandwich can get pretty complicated. And sometimes a “complicated” recipe won’t have you searching for scores of obscure ingredients or washing countless bowls. Sometimes it’s just that a “sandwich” typically means a fresh stack of things between slices of bread, and the atypical is a bit more involved, but surprisingly tasty.
This is an...
5 tags
Burgers
Memorial Day kicked off the unofficial start of grilling season here in the US of A, which no doubt means many of you are going to be pattying up some hamburgers over the next few months. A good burger is a thing to take pride in and a little extra attention will help get it just right.
(photo courtesy of SeoulBrother)
Start with the meat. We usually experience ground beef encased in styrofoam...
May 2010
8 posts
2 tags
Processing salt
The New York Times has a fascinating page one story today about salt. It’s an interesting piece of reporting about the effect of salt on food, particularly processed food, and how the food industry has not just embraced but become addicted to salt over the decades. It’s also a peek into how the government regulates the food we eat and the tension between scientific research, the food...
2 tags
Probe thermometer
I don’t really consider a probe thermometer in the first tier of kitchen instruments, like I do a sharp knife and a sturdy pan. It’s a nicety, something you acquire when you want to add a little more precision to your cooking — you don’t need one when you’re roasting a chicken, but it sure does eliminate the guess work.
The basics of a probe thermometer are these: a...
2 tags
Blue Ocean's guide to eating fish sustainably →
And oldie but goodie. Blue Ocean rates fish by abundance as well as common methods used to fish or farm your favorite seafood. There’s even a mobile render and text message service for when you’re standing in front of the fish counter or contemplating that Chilean sea bass special.
4 tags
Grilled salmon on a plank
There are plenty of great reasons to live in the Pacific Northwest, food being high on the list. We’re awash in all things local and sustainable and surrounded by interesting, creative chefs. One of our more noted regional fares is salmon, particularly the Copper River variety that just came into season. The story of the Copper River is that because it’s a long, glacier fed river that...
4 tags
Asparagus
If your farmer’s market has been anything like mine of late, it’s been exploding with the promise of spring. Which means lots and lots of asparagus. The rhubarb is tempting but it’s not quite ready yet, the carrots are still tiny and the salad greens are, well, still there — the endless stalks of asparagus, though, are prime. Here are a few things you should know.
This...
Vegan Co-op Luncheon
The office of Panic Inc. includes a full kitchen, which occasionally turns into a battleground as yours truly and one Les Pozdena compete in a format similar to TV’s Iron Chef™. Our co-workers judge us - not very harshly, I must admit - on presentation, taste, and use of the sort-of-secret ingredient.
The last such event took place two weeks ago and it was both heartwarming and a little sad...
1 tag
A couple of updates
A few quick updates to some recent posts.
My pal Dan Wineman, who is smart, sent me this super nerdy page with even more on the science of seasoning a cast iron skillet. The post’s author talks all about fat polymerization and recommends flax seed oil instead of the more traditional shortening or lard. The process is certainly involved and a bottle of edible flax seed oil will cost more...
Schnitzelwich
Say it: schnitzel.
When it’s not filling its primary role as a surefire comedy word, schnitzel is a delicious Austrian treat of breaded, fried meat. Before we proceed, a clarification is in order: yours truly does not eat veal or pork, two most common schnitzel vehicles. Chicken schnitzel is totally a thing, though - if you don’t believe me, ask my parents. In any case, the directions...
April 2010
6 posts
2 tags
Biscuits
Biscuits are one of those foods that we’ve somehow convinced ourselves we can’t make from scratch, that we need either an insta-pop tin full of doughy chemicals or a southern grandmother at the ready. The very idea of “made from scratch biscuits” conjures thoughts of kneading and a kitchen dusted in flour, something we’re all far too busy to attempt on our own, here’s a dough boy to the rescue....
1 tag
Durham goes local
I love this New York Times story about local food in Durham, North Carolina. I grew up a few hours west and went to school in nearby Chapel Hill - reading this made me ache for some buttermilk biscuits with country ham or Crook’s Corner’s shrimp and grits.
Mostly, though, I love the simplicity of the food and its elevation to high art with a focus on fresh, local ingredients. We seem...
3 tags
Quinoa
I do this thing once a week where I don’t eat meat — vegetarian Wednesday. It’s based on some impossible to verify stat I read somewhere that if everyone in the U.S. gave up meat one day a week it’d be equivalent to taking some untold millions of cars off the road, in terms of environmental impact. Sure, sounds great, it’s also a helpful check on my diet and a fun...
2 tags
The cast iron skillet
As far as kitchen utensils go, it’s certainly hard to beat the utility, affordability and time-testedness of the cast iron skillet. It’s one of the few pieces of kitchenware that has resisted improvement for centuries; it’s an apostasy to the modern cult of the kitchen gadget obsessed. If you don’t own one, you probably should, though this directive isn’t without...
3 tags
The grilled cheese sandwich
I love foods that evolve with the cook, that are simple enough to be embraced early but improved upon indefinitely. Consider the grilled cheese sandwich.
Grilled cheese is one of the first things I remember piloting on the stove. Three Kraft singles cheese-product slices between limp pieces of processed white bread slathered in spreadable margarine. At least one side was guaranteed to have...
3 tags
Blood orange marmalade
This winter (citrus season, as we all know) I had a mild obsession with blood oranges. They’re magnificent looking and tasting fruits, whether muddled in the bottom of a rocks glass for a twist on an old fashioned or sectioned for a citrus salad. But as winter has now made its way to spring, they won’t be with us for much longer, at least not as plentiful and (relatively) cheap as...
March 2010
15 posts
4 tags
Leftover Chicken Paprikash for Two
There is often half a roasted chicken in our fridge at night, and that’s because there is often half a chicken on our plates in the evening. Given that we like our chicken with a delicious side dish or two - mashed potatoes, green beans, mushrooms - half a bird is all we can eat. The rest becomes sandwiches, salads, and a recent favorite, leftover-based chicken paprikash.
Paprikash: the...
4 tags
Fish Sandwich
“Fishy” is one of the great, underused flavors. Those who know and love it must perform lingual acrobatics to describe what they mean and why it’s a good thing: we speak of fresh sea flavor, of salty air, of garlic’s pungency; of bacon, even. And these terms are helpful; a good fishy fish indeed has all those components. But so specific and irreplaceable is the dominant...
3 tags
Coffee
I struggle with sleeping in much more than she so I’m often the first one up and certainly the first one in the kitchen. She’s a coffee drinker where I prefer tea or juice most mornings but I still love to ritualistically pull down the burr grinder, carafe and French press from their top shelf and start a kettle. I fill the carafe with water as hot as the tap will allow, fill the...