SPICED PORK BELLY

If you had to eat just one food every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? That’s not a hard choice for me. This is it.  Ingredients: 1 (1 and 1/2 pound) pork belly, about half lean, with a thick layer of fat on top Dry Rub: 1 tablespoon coarse salt 1 tablespoon ground fennel seed 1 tablespoon ground allspice 1 tablespoon ground black pepper Braising Liquid: 1 medium onion (7 oz), chopped 1 large carrot (3 ½ oz), chopped 3…

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BACON AND LEEK SOUFFLE

    It is very rare to find a recipe in a major magazine that is almost perfect as it is. I made only a few small changes in the gorgeous soufflé pictured in the June/July issue of Fine Cooking. The recipe says it makes 6 servings, but the two of us ate half of it for supper with just a green salad and finished off the rest for breakfast the next morning. Although the recipe warns that it will deflate if not served at once, mine was still…

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EGGS EN COCOTTE

Yet another study has exonerated saturated fat and cholesterol of any link to heart disease and fingered the real culprit. The new research, just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found no evidence that eating saturated fat led to an increase in heart disease or coronary events. The researchers evaluated the best evidence to date from almost 80 studies with more than half a million subjects. They looked, not only at what people reported eating, but the composition of the fatty acids in their fat tissue…

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RETHINKING BACON AND THE BEST WAY TO COOK IT

Cooking bacon in oven   Ready to eat It seems we just can’t resist bacon. Sales for bacon have held steady in spite of the fact that most people believe it is the most dangerous of all foods. It is a guilty pleasure that borders on addiction and the Kryptonite that has weakened the resolve of many a vegetarian. The basis for our fear of cured meats rests on some misconceptions about the nature of nitrites/nitrates. Did you know that one serving of arugula, two…

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KURABUTA HAM FOR EASTER

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It was our turn to have the family over for Easter dinner today. Since I needed to prepare everything quickly after coming home from church, I decided to serve my favorite ham, a Kurabuta from Snake River Farms. These hams come from Bershire hogs, a heritage breed that was “discovered” 300 years ago by Oliver Cromwell’s army, in winter quarters at Reading, the country seat of the shire of Berks in England.  (They were “discovered” in the same way that Columbus “discovered” America – the people who lived in Berkshire obviously…

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GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS

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The February issue of Reader’s Digest features a smiley face made out of two eggs and a strip of bacon. The headline reads: “Eat This, Lose Weight; The New Science of Dieting.” The bacon and egg face is a parody of the frowney face on the cover of the March 26, 1984 Time Magazine. The headline then was: “Cholesterol, and Now the Bad News.” Inside, an article titled, “Hold the Eggs and Butter,” started with the following statement: “Cholesterol is proved deadly, and our diet…

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CELEBRATING “FAT,” A NEW BOOK BY JENNIFER MCLAGAN

Jennifer McLagan, winner of the prestigious James Beard Cookbook Award for Bones in 2006, has taken a courageous stand in her latest book titled Fat. My first exposure to Jennifer was at the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) conference in Seattle where she was also nominated for an award. I attended a workshop on food photography and at the awards ceremony on the closing day, found myself seated next to one of the presenters from the class. He had warned against using images with…

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MORE N’AWLINS FOOD: CREOLE GUMBO

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GUMBO, (c) 2008, JUDY BARNES BAKER Gumbo is the perfect metaphor for New Orleans: a rich, steamy, spicy, mélange of diverse ingredients that combine into an experience that is unique to this place. A place that feels distinctly foreign, while at the same time epitomizing the melting pot that is America. French, Italian, Native American, Creole, Cajun, and African—all share a part in the history of the Louisiana bayou region, intersecting, interacting, and blending into a one-of-a-kind, savory stew. Gumbo may contain a variety of…

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