No Images? Click here French Melt (Grilled Cheese With Caramelized Onion and Comté) French Melts start with a big ol' pile of sweet, caramelized onions (see here for an easy technique to speed up the process) melted with a fat slab of Comté cheese. It's like French onion soup in an easy-to-pick-up, extra-buttery package. The Kitchen Essential Nonstick Skillet More Cheesy Griddled Sammies |
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
The French Melt: Grilled Cheese With Caramelized Onion and Comté
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Game of Groans: Pun-tastic Recipes for Your GoT Watch Party
A Song of Spice and Fire No Images? Click here Welcome to Wester...osso buco. With the finale of Game of Thrones fast approaching, it felt important to pay tribute to the iconic show in the best way we know how: with lots of puns. In a similar vein to our Oscar Nom Noms series, Sasha put together a collection of recipes that lean into Thrones-related wordplay and will make great viewing-party eats. Much like one of the most skilled warriors in Westeros, baked Brie has been overlooked and ridiculed for far too long. Do the right thing and use your good hand to knight this gallant cheese with a drizzle of honey. Like Tyrion, this Maryland baked crab dip knows how to party. It's loaded with seasonings, like Old Baelish, lemon, and mustard, and crowned with a crunchy, buttery bread crumb topping. Beef barley soup is a great dish for an aspiring maester with a growing family. Once the beef and vegetables have been browned, all you have to do is simmer them in chicken stock for an hour or two until the meat is tender, leaving you plenty of time to catch up on your ancient scroll-reading. If you prefer to keep your GoT viewing completely alcohol-free, then a mango lassi is a strong beverage candidate. It's safe to say that there will be more dark moments and death in the final Thrones episodes, and this drink will at least bring a little sunny brightness to the mix. View Our Whole Pun-Tastic Menu → |
Essential Equipment for Making Great Bread at Home
The Baker's Best No Images? Click here Essential Equipment for Making Great Bread at HomeBread-baking is one of the oldest culinary traditions on the planet, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a culture that doesn't make one sort of bread or another. But just because our ancestors made do with elbow grease and crude tools doesn't mean we need to follow suit. A handful of tried-and-true essentials can make the bread-baking process far easier and more reliable. No matter the type of loaf you choose, here's what you should plan to have on hand. Get the full list right here. When making dough, we almost always start with our stand mixer and a dough hook. Not only does it guarantee consistent results, it's a lot easier than using your hands. That said, a stand mixer isn't strictly necessary; the biggest mixing bowl in your house will also do in a pinch. The bench scraper is essential when dividing and shaping loaves, and will make cleanup much easier. (For those unprepared, you'll get flour everywhere during the baking process if you do it right. This is part of the fun. Wear some shoes you don't care about, and save your black clothes for a different date.) Once your loaves are shaped, it's time for the proofing and fermentation process. We like to proof bread dough in baskets lined with undyed cloth. Baskets help the loaves keep their structure and shape during the final proof. To actually bake your bread, you'll also need a Dutch oven of some kind. We like to use the slightly unorthodox Lodge Combo Cooker to bake bread at home. Not only does it cost under $40, its dimensions are perfect for making classic hearth-style bread. For our basic country-style white bread, a Baking Steel or baking stones aren't strictly essential, but they can measurably improve the performance of your oven by adding thermal mass. Home ovens lose a lot of heat when they're opened, which is bad for bread because we need that heat to get the full rise out of our loaves. While we're on the topic of ovens, ensuring that yours is hot enough to begin with is a good idea. Many ovens are incorrectly calibrated, meaning that what you're seeing on the dial may not be the temperature your oven's reaching inside. A good, basic oven thermometer is cheap; having an accurate oven is priceless. Get the whole story (and read more equipment reviews) right here! |