food & cooking

Sichuan Crawfish

September 21, 2011
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Sometimes I screw up even the simplest of recipes. Usually it’s because I mis-measure an ingredient, or make a substitution that just doesn’t work. In this particular case I screwed up due to a lack of attention at least six months ago. When I see something unusual while food shopping, I’ll buy it and file [...]

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French Toast Ice Cream

September 19, 2011
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Ice is the enemy of ice cream. More specifically, large ice crystals are the enemy, which create a grainy, crunchy texture instead of the smooth, creamy consistency you expect in good ice cream. I usually don’t manage to keep a batch of homemade ice cream around long enough for ice crystal formation to be a problem, [...]

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Pan-Roasted Mussels with OS

September 9, 2011
Mussels

When I was an undergraduate, there were no options for late-night dining in Cambridge, and only a few for those willing to cross the river into Boston. Having had our fill of Buzzy’s Roast Beef, a sketchy all-night sandwich joint in the shadow of the old Charles Street Jail (now the boutique Liberty Hotel, with [...]

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Staff Meal

September 7, 2011
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Although I do the majority of the cooking at Chez Belm, I don’t do all of the cooking. Occasionally She Who Must Be Obeyed steps in and cooks something that she likes that isn’t something I usually think of when planning dinner menus. Such was the case when she announced that she wanted to make gazpacho. [...]

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It’s a Gouda Thing

September 2, 2011
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Having successfully made – or at least processed – cheddar cheese, I decided to try making gouda, which differs from cheddar by being a washed curd cheese. I’d take advantage of the heat wave which had rendered my kitchen almost unusable to maintain the incubation temperatures the cheese required. I started by heating the milk [...]

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St. Julia’s Day 2011

August 31, 2011
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In my mad rush to complete a head cheese I almost forgot that St. Julia’s Day – Julia Child’s birthday – was August 15, and I had promised to cook one of her recipes on her birthday each year. A bit of scrounging in the Belm Utility Research Kitchen and the Deep Storage Facility turned up the [...]

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A Better Banh Mi

August 29, 2011
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As I mentioned at the end of my recent head cheese post, there was a sandwich in my future. I didn’t have all of the ingredients that were available to Peter, but I figured I could replicate his basic intent. To begin with, I’d have to approximate his black trumpet mushroom/black peppercorn compound butter, which [...]

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48 Hour Short Rib

August 26, 2011
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It’s hard to turn down boneless short ribs at a good price, even if you can’t immediately think of a use for all of it. I knew that some would be reserved for grinding (along with chuck and brisket) into hamburger patties, but I also wanted braised short ribs without heating up the Belm Utility [...]

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Sweet Corn Soup with Jalapeño Sorbet

August 24, 2011
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I love summer sweet corn, but sometimes I want it in a form more elegant than boiled, roasted, grilled, or in a salad. This recipe is a mash-up of three different ideas from three different sources, and is about as simple as you can get. The basic soup has only four ingredients: the kernels from [...]

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Going Whole Hog

August 23, 2011
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Before a car crash derailed their summer dining season, Journeyman had instituted a Saturday afternoon barbecue lunch, setting up a grill outside and serving to the crowds that passed through Union Square on the way to and from the farmer’s market. They’re up and running again, but, inspired by the success of the Saturday experiment, [...]

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