Good Food

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Anthony Bourdain is one of a rare breed: not only the executive chef at a popular New York brasserie but a published novelist, the infamous author of Kitchen Confidential, and now author, along with Les Halles' chef-owners, of a cookbook as well. Bourdain demonstrates clearly that writing ability is a major component of a successful cookbook; taken purely as a source of recipes the Les Halles Cookbook does little to break new culinary ground. As Bourdain himself says in the introduction, "The recipes, for the most part, are old standards, versions of which you can find in scores of other books."

What you will not find in scores of other books, however, is the combination of entertaining prose combined with clear, easy-to-understand directions that Bourdain brings to his recipes. All the classic French bistro repertoire is covered in the book's 110 recipes, from onion soup through steak frites to crème brûlée. Bourdain clearly knows this territory well and conveys just the right balance between simplicity and authenticity, while simultaneously addressing you as "useless screwhead", "numbnuts", and "sorry-ass bivalve in an apron." Your grandmother probably won't want to get this one for her birthday.

If you don't already have a solid French bistro book, or if you just love to read well-written cookbooks, pick up a copy of the Les Halles Cookbook.

Grilled Home Fries

This is an easy side dish when you're grilling steaks or chicken. A grill basket makes it much easier to turn the vegetables and keep everything from falling into the flames. A better alternative to the garlic powder is to toss in 8-10 unpeeled garlic cloves, but when I'm pressed for time the powder gets the job done.

2 large Potatoes
1 medium Red sweet pepper
1 medium Red onion
3 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp Ground Pepper
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Once the grill is hot, place a grill basket on to briefly preheat.

2 Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Remove the seeds and membrane from the pepper and cut into quarters. Peel the onion and cut into quarters.

3 Place the vegetables in a large bowl, sprinkle with the salt, peper, garlic power, and olive oil. Gently toss to coat.

4 Place the vegetables on the grill basket, making sure that everything is in a single layer, retaining the bowl with the remaining oil. Cook until soft and nicely browned, then turn and brown the other side. The onions will take the least time, 5-7 minutes, the peppers 8-10, the potatoes the longest 12-15 mins.

5 As the vegetables cook, remove them from the grill and return to the bowl. Once all the vegetables are done, toss gently to coat with the remaining oil and serve.

Servings: 4

Waring DF200 Professional Deep Fryer

I consider myself a connoisseur of french fries, and as such for many years I did my deep frying exclusively in a huge Le Creuset dutch oven. Although it performed wonderfully, it took forever to heat up, and I was forced to monitor the temperature of the oil with a clip-on thermometer that was forever threatening to fall into the pot at any moment.

Happily, all that is behind me now that I've found the Waring Professional Deep Fryer. This is a machine for the home cook who takes her deep frying seriously. With 1,800 watts of power, this fryer heats up and recovers its temperature faster than any I've used, including my cast-iron Le Creuset behemoth. It has several useful design features as well, including a nice fryer basket with draining hook, a see-through lid that helps to minimize the frying odors somewhat, and a spout for draining the cooking oil. Cleanup is quick and many of the parts can go in the dishwasher.

The Waring also has an immersion heating element, which has both pros and cons. On the plus side, it produces a much cleaner fry with a minimum of burned particles sticking to your food and contaminating your oil. Crumb-coated and breaded items will turn out much nicer from the Waring than a conventional fryer. The main drawback is that the clearance that the element requires mean that it takes a lot of oil to fill the fryer up. It takes two good-sized bottles of oil to fill it even to the MIN line (conveniently marked on the side of the reservoir.

If the quest for the perfect french fry obsesses you as it does me, do yourself a favor and get a Waring Profession Deep Fryer.

Most cuts of beef that you find in your supermarket or butcher display case are pretty much the same wherever you go. In the past, there was more regional diversity in how butchers cut meat, as shown by the many names that now-standard cuts of meat go by, e.g., the New York strip, Kansas City strip, and shell steak are all the same cut, and the rib eye is a.k.a the Delmonico. However, there are a few cuts that are still hard to find outside of the region where they originated.

A prime example (forgive the pun) is the Tri Tip. Usually sold as a roast, the tri-tip is a triangular cut of sirloin that usually weighs 1.5 to 2 pounds and is about two inches thick. Because only two come per steer, this cut was often overlooked in the days when butchers cut their meat from sides of beef; there weren't enough to fill a tray in the display case. In fact, most butchers even now in the era of pre-cut meat will use the tri-tip for ground sirloin.

This is a shame, as the tri-tip is one of the few roasts you'll find that takes well to grilling and can go from fridge to table in a reasonable amount of time. It cooks up quite tender with a great beefy flavor, reminiscent of a sirloin steak, although since it's a thicker cut you won't have as much of the crusty outside. The tri-tip is the centerpiece of the Santa Maria barbecue, an unusual but tasty combination of grilled tri-tip, beans, garlic bread, and salsa.

I prefer to skip the Santa Maria seasoning (garlic salt and black pepper) in favor of a marinade of salt, black pepper, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Tri-tip is easy to cook, just build a two-level fire in your barbecue (or use gas, as I usually do), sear it over high heat about five minutes on each side, then move to the cooler part of the grill and roast 15-20 minutes until the internal temperature reads 125° for medium rare. Allow the meat to rest 20 minutes tented with foil before slicing and serving.

If you can't find tri-tip at your local supermarket, it's worth asking the butcher if he's got any in the back or can order you some. Your next barbecue will be a memorable experience.

The famous Taste of Chicago is coming in just about three weeks, and I for one can't wait. Since the office where I work is about a block from Grant Park, site of the Taste, I plan on going several times and will blog about what I find. I'll be sure to take the camera too.

Check out the official website for more information if you're going to be in Chicago between June 24 and July 4.

The New Best Recipe

Cookbooks come in three broad types: chef-centric food porn, with gorgeous photography but recipes you can't really make at home, general cookbooks that cover the basics, often with line drawings for cost reasons, and specialty books that deal exclusively with a regional, ethnic, or other specific cuisine.

The New Best Recipe falls into the second group, offering a wide array of recipes from appetizers to entrées , sides dishes to desserts. A follow-up to the original The Best Recipe, the new edition contains over 1,000 recipes, some new and others updated. Another product of the Christopher Kimball workshop (editors of Cook's Illustrated), this volume falls squarely in line with the Cook's Illustrated philosophy—extensively tested fool-proof recipes that rely on science rather than art to produce good food.

The New Best Recipe has a distinctive style that you either enjoy or despise. Readers who are fond of color photography, creative spontaneity, or placing their personal stamp on a dish will probably not like this book. The pictures are spartan, the tone is authoritative and detailed, with an emphasis on understanding what works and what doesn't in a recipe (a good thing) at the expense of exploring unusual ingredients or innovative flavors (probably a bad thing.) The flavors of the New Best Recipe are generally solid but not adventurous, avoiding hard-t0-find items but steering well clear of convenience recipes full of prepackaged food.

Two complaints I have about Cook's Illustrated books in general is the low recipe-to-page ratio (much introductory text for each recipe which is fun to read at bedtime, but largely useless as a reference) and the sharing of recipes between cookbooks. An cookbook on grilling, for example, will overlap to a large extent the recipes already in the New Best Recipe. That makes this volume a better overall value, however, unless you are particularly interested in a specific sub-topic.

Although it probably won't replace the Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything as your go-to cookbook, this is a solid addition to any cook's library and a special treat for Cook's Illustrated fans.

One of the iconic Chicago foods that is somewhat known outside the Midwest, other than Chicago pizza, of course, is the all-dressed hot dog. Unlike the Italian Beef, which I discussed in an earlier post, the Chicago hot dog is anything but simple.

The toppings are what separates an all-dressed from an ordinary dog, but it's worth mentioning the hot dog and bun, which are also Chicago specialties. The hot dog must be a Vienna Beef, an all-beef dog with a good smoky, garlicky flavor. I prefer a grilled dog but steamed is also acceptable. The bun must be steamed and, most importantly, covered with poppy seeds.

As I mentioned earlier, the toppings are the key to a true all-dressed. The typical list includes (in order):

Yellow Mustard
Bright Green Relish
Chopped Onions
Sliced tomatoes
Kosher pickle spear
Sport peppers
Dash of celery salt

Sport peppers, which are small green pickled peppers, are hard to get outside the Midwest, but pepperoncinis or pickled jalapeno rings would do in a pinch. All of these ingredients combine to create a taste similar to a well-topped hamburger, but with the underlying smoky sausage-flavor of the hot dog.

If you're not fortunate enough to live in an area where an all-dressed can be purchased, there are Chicago hot dog kits available from Portillos, Lou Malnatis, and Fluky's. Try them and you'll get a little taste of Chicago at home.