Wednesday, December 15, 2010

How to Make Horseradish Sauce and Giving the Gift of Summer

You Curb Your Enthusiasm fans may find this post, "a little saucy." First up, we have a quick and dirty tutorial for making homemade horseradish sauce. It makes me a little sad when I see someone in the market buying a jar of horseradish sauce. 

You know I have nothing against the convenience of using the occasional prepared sauce, as a good jar of marinara or carton of organic broth can save hours in the kitchen.

However, a cold sauce like this only takes minutes, and the results will be noticeably superior to even the least picky. It will also include about 12 less ingredients. If you are doing a Prime Rib, or other roast beef, you may want to seriously consider whipping up a batch of this classic horseradish sauce.

As I mention in the video, sour cream is the standard base for this sauce, but if you can, I recommend trying some crème fraiche. Most big grocery stores will carry it, usually in the cheese department. It's basically the same thing as sour cream, but a little richer and slightly tangier. You can also make you own, which I demonstrated in this "How to Make Crème Fraiche" video.

I was fortunate enough to use a homemade batch created by my buddy Jesse, from Beer and Nosh. He was selling these at the New Taste Market, where Michele debuted her SFQ barbecue sauce (see next item). It was awesome, and reminded me just how great crème fraiche is. Enjoy!

Giving the Gift of Summer

This is your last chance to order some SFQ – The Original San Francisco-Style Barbecue Sauce. If you get your orders in by Saturday, Dec. 18th, Michele will be able to deliver your sauce before Christmas.

I know what you're thinking – sure, some of the world's best barbecue sauce would make a great gift during grilling season, but why give this to someone in the dead of winter? 

Because, it will make the recipient think of summer, and sun, and fun, and hey, I can't believe she's wearing that bikini, and put some more beer on ice, and who's up next in the horseshoe pit, and do we have time for another rib before the baseball game comes on, and…well, you get the idea.


How to Make Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sour cream or crème fraiche
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
pinch of cayenne
2 teaspoon thinly sliced chives
2 tablespoons extra hot pure horseradish (not horseradish sauce)

Apple Cake with Cranberries

Gluten free apple cake with cranberries
A gluten-free cranberry apple cake- with a sweet-tart kick.

No philosophy today. Instead, a cake. A beautiful gluten-free cake to bake for the holidays- or any day you feel like celebrating. So dust off your cake pan, Babycakes.

This is a moist and tender apple cake laced with a hint of cinnamon and studded with fresh tart berries. After seven eight nine years of baking various gluten-free incarnations of my tried and true Jewish apple cake recipe, this could be our favorite. Maybe it's the sweet-tart combo. The subtlety of flavors. In a food culture obsessed with kicking up recipes with more for the sake of more (white chocolate peanut butter bacon swirled maple mouse drizzled in dulche de leche coconut marshmallow and dusted with sugared lime zest and shaved dark chocolate, anyone?) the clean and classic flavor contrast of apples and cranberries is somehow new again. Even, refreshing. 

I don't need dessert to taste like candy. I like my cake to taste like cake. 

How about you?


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Monday, December 13, 2010

Holiday Gift Idea: Homemade Herb Salt – Remember, You're Not Cheap, You're Creative!

Homemade, edible holiday gifts are kind of tricky. There is a fine line between giving a unique, thoughtful, carefully prepared gourmet goodie, and giving someone something that looks like it was just an easy way out. Hopefully, this beautiful looking and smelling fresh herb "finishing" salt will be seen as the former.


If this looks familiar, I did a similar version a few years ago for About.com, and since I needed a Holiday-themed gift idea to film for this year's YouTube Holiday Solution Center, I decided to give it another go.

As you'll see, I used rosemary and lemon thyme, but other hearty green herbs will also work. By "hearty," I mean herbs that are sturdy and resinous, like savory, oregano, and marjoram. Fragile herbs like dill, chervil, and cilantro, just don’t work as well.

Answers to a few common questions: Yes, the color will fade within a few weeks, but the herby flavor and aroma will remain intact for much longer. There is no shelf-life limit, and this can be kept indefinitely.

I described this as a "finishing salt," meaning it's used to season cooked food at the table; however, it can also be used in place of regular salt in any recipe preparation. So, if you're looking for a cool, creative foodie stocking stuffer, or, well, you're just cheap, I hope you give this a try. Enjoy!



Ingredients (makes about 1 1/2 cups):
1/2 cup packed fresh herb leaves (I used rosemary and lemon thyme)
1/2 cup course sea salt
1 cup regular sea salt, or a flaky kosher salt

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gluten-Free Cranberry Bread Recipe

Gluten free cranberry bread
Gluten-free cranberry bread for the holidays.

Christmas and cranberries. The two go together like Beatles and Sunday. Brad and Angie. Milk and cookies. I was imagining a tea bread that might work for gluten-free French toast, you see. The sort of breakfast you'd like to wake up to on Christmas morning. Something warm with melting butter and cozy cinnamon. Something festive. Special. Not your average grab-on-the-go with coffee nosh. A gluten-free bread worthy of a holiday. That's how it all started. When it dawned me. Cranberry bread. Why not? It's simple. And not too sweet. It flirts magically with maple syrup. So I started daydreaming about the tart little berry that is a bog's ruby jewel.

And a gluten-free cranberry bread recipe was born.


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Eight Great Christmas Appetizers

It's about time to plan your Christmas menu, and no matter how marvelous your main courses are, the appetizers need to be just as special. Here are eight of my favorite holiday entertaining ideas. Enjoy!

Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus
Savory Chocolate Crostini
Turkey Cocktail Meatballs
Artichoke Hearts Gratin
Candied Bacon Strips
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Clams Casino
Calabrese Lollipop

Saturday, December 11, 2010

You're a Viewer and Have a Choice: Please Vote for Chef John in the Tasty Awards!

One problem I've always wanted is not being able to keep track of which online awards I'm up for, and which contests I should be asking people to vote in. Well, my wish has come true.

As many of you may know, I was nominated for a 2011 Tasty Award in the "Home Chef in a Series" category, but I forgot to inform everyone that there is also a Viewer's Choice Award, which quite frankly is my best shot at heading down to Hollywood and taking home a trophy. So, if you would like to help make my Tasty dreams come true, please click here to vote! It's the fifth category. Thank you so much!