food & cooking

Fried Chicken, Again

September 30, 2011
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Once again, He Who Will Not Be Ignored demanded fried chicken for dinner, and did so with less than twenty-four hours notice. I was inclined to indulge his whim, but didn’t have the time to make something as time-consuming as the Ad Hoc recipe. The fried chicken recipe in Momofuku promised crispy chicken in less than [...]

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The Son of Dr. Dreadful

September 23, 2011
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If you’re a fan of old-school horror movies, then you know that the names of sequels to the original followed a specific progression, rather than the current trend of slapping a Roman numeral after the original title. That explains the title of this post, the sequel to The Return of Dr. Dreadful, which is turn was [...]

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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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