I read a lot of food related materials – magazines, blogs, newspapers, and the like. When I come across a dish I’d like to recreate or a recipe I want to add to my never-ending list, I have various methods of saving it. If it’s an actual hard copy (old school, I know!) I tear it out and put it in a manila folder by my desk.

When it’s a website, I file it in Google Chrome. You may notice I have an entire folder dedicated to hot wings, and yes, I find that humorous as well. I don’t plan on following each of these recipes word for word, but I often review these papers and these links for inspiration. Maybe I’m in the mood for soup, so I’ll peruse that folder. Or I’ll type a word like “squash” in the search field and see what comes up. Digging through the pizza folder, I’ll notice there’s that “no knead” recipe I’ve yet to try, maybe tonight’s the tonight!

I wish the magazines were as easy to index, or my cookbooks for that matter. I’m sure there are a lot of great recipes I’ve forgotten about that would be perfect, if only I had the time to look through forty books every time I wanted some new ideas.

Anyone else have useful ways to use technology to save recipes you’d like to make, and subsequently recall them?

** Update **

There are some good ideas for the filing of electronic data in the comments below, but the problem I’ve really been thinking about is hard copy cook books. It would be awesome if there was a central source (so formatting would be consistent) of cook book indexes. Maybe a PDF I could download of the recipe index, to be filed away in a folder on my computer. OS X and Windows 7 perform full text indexing of PDF files, so I could just pull up that folder and easily type in my advanced search.

Or if the index only resides online, I could go to this recipe index website and search, let’s say, for popular Asian recipes utilizing pork belly. I’d be given a list of recipe titles, with the name of the cookbook and the page number where the recipe resides. If I own it, I’m money. If I don’t own that cookbook, there’s an Amazon link to purchase it, or a way to download an e-Book (if available for purchase).

This would generate more sales of the cookbooks, AND make it easier to find recipes in hardcopy cookbooks.

Really, Amazon could easily do this. They already have access to the texts and the eBooks. And they could offer previews. Hell, if the publishers got on board they could even sell individual recipes downloadable to a Kindle application. The iTunes model for cookbooks.

If I find a recipe title that sounds enticing, but I don’t want to lay down $30 for the whole cookbook at that moment, maybe I could just purchase that one recipe for $1-2? A media rich recipe with background text, recipe, photographs, etc.

It allows the user to cherry pick recipes, but I can’t afford to buy every single cookbook I want. My Amazon wish-list of cookbooks is at least twenty deep. Would the publisher/author rather have $2-$4 of my money, or zero? And if I really like what I see, I’m more inclined to buy the whole thing.

Since I got my Mac Book Pro, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at video, so here ya go, my first attempt at a video blog post. Be gentle.

Not anymore! I may be a bit behind (my last BA post was from the February issue), but with the help of Microsoft Outlook Tasks I am committed to this charge to which I have assigned myself. I finally got around to picking a recipe from the March issue this past weekend, did some much needed grocery shopping, and got into the kitchen.

The recipe I chose is called Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks, but let’s call it what it really is: Macaroni and Cheese. I love me some mac ‘n cheese, any way I can get it, and this was a slight variation from the mac that I’ve cooked the last few times. For one, the recipe uses leeks, which have been high on my veggie list as of late. The smell of leeks sautéing in butter is outrageously good. Dare I say, better than shallots in butter. Secondly, the last few times I’ve created a classic roux as the base of the cheese sauce, using butter/flour/cream as the base then adding the cheese. This recipe starts off in a similar fashion, but we incorporate egg, resulting in a texture that is somewhere between the lush, creamy roux-based version and the classic Southern mac ‘n cheese that is somewhat casserole-like.

These two differences were enough reason for me to justify making more mac ‘n cheese – it’s only for the sake of experimentation and experience, I swear!

Here are your leeks – we are only using the part between the bottom of the leaves and about 1 inch from the root. No sense in washing them until after you cut off the top and bottom.

I cut newly trimmed and washed leeks into 1/2” rounds, then cut each round in half creating a semi-circle of sorts.

Then I shredded 1/2lb of sharp white cheddar cheese in my box grater. I called it the leaning tower of cheeza. Literally, I said it out loud while I was cooking by myself. Yes, I realize how lame I am.

The recipe doesn’t call for it, but I decided to add some chopped fresh oregano. Fresh oregano imparts a much different flavor than its dried counterpart, and it’s not nearly as intense.

I didn’t add the oregano until the leeks were almost done cooking in the butter.

Then in goes the flour, whisk continuously, add the milk, add the hot sauce, then the cheese. I only had plain soy milk on-hand, so that’s what I used. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but it seemed to be just fine. The sauce was probably a bit sweeter than intended, but no biggie as far as I could tell.

The recipe doesn’t go into much detail, but this is the point at which you add the eggs. You don’t want to take an egg out of the refrigerator, beat it, and add it directly to this sauce. The egg is cold, the sauce is hot, and you end up with scrambled eggs. So what you do is called tempering. First of all, you will want to have already have your eggs out and beaten before you start the recipe to help bring them to room temperature.

Then, what you want to do is take roughly a cup of the cheese sauce, and add it bit by bit to the eggs, whisking all the while. Once you have introduced the sauce to the eggs, and you have confirmed that you don’t have scrambled eggs, you add the tempered eggs/cheese sauce to the rest of the sauce and whisk it in. Done!

Now mix your cooked pasta with the cheese sauce and pour everything into a greased baking dish. The recipe calls for penne, but I used the Cavatappi that I had on hand (via Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market).

I guess I can take some photos while I wait for this bad boy to cool.

The mac had a slightly creamy texture, but the egg structure definitely shone through without giving off too much of that egg flavor. The leeks were great, but I was glad I added the oregano to give it a slightly more complexity.

The recipe doesn’t call for any salt or pepper, so if you’re like me, be sure to hit it up generously when you eat it.

It didn’t reheat as well as some mac ‘n cheese, which perhaps is due to the egg, but it was still pretty damn good.

[nggallery id=40]

The Boiled Beef Slices in a Fiery Sauce was damn good indeed, but the excitement part may be a bit of an overstatement.

Regardless, using my intensely amazing internet skills (as well as the Contact form on Fuchsia Dunlop’s blog), I inquired about posting a few recipes from the cookbook, and within one day the publisher (W.W. Norton & Company) let me know I could do so!

I recently read an interesting post by David Lebovitz regarding copyright and Recipe Attribution issues, so this is why I decided to try to get official permission. It appears that there are a handful of ways to somewhat post a recipe without entering into copyright protection issues, such as changing a few of the recipe’s ingredients. Reprinting the recipe exactly as it appears in the cookbook, however, is clearly infringement if you do not have permission.

So I’m proud to offer you the recipe exactly as it appears in the cookbook, and would like to thanks W.W. Norton & Company and Ms. Dunlop for allowing me to share this recipe with you.

In addition! The other announcement is that in honor of the publisher being kind and answering a lowly blogger like me, I’m going to give away two Land of Plenty cookbooks to the first two Eat It, Atlanta readers that contact me. This promotion wipes out my ad revenue for the last two months, but the goal of this site has never been to make money, but to further my abilities and interest in cooking/eating/dining, as well as those of the people who are interested enough to check this site out every once in a while.

On that note, here’s “the catch”. If you ask for the cookbook, you will be required to cook one meal from this cookbook, sourcing all the proper ingredients, cooking exactly as directed, photographing every step of the way, and you have to send the pictures/write-up to me with permission to post everything on this site.

Up to the challenge? Contact me.

Update 4/13/2009 – We have our two challengers – Sarah E. and Ted S. I look forward to seeing the results of their exploits.

I used flank steak as specified, but it was quite thick and I had to smack it with the mallet for quite a while. The pieces were still thicker than I would have liked.

Be sure to get your mise en place ready, including the potato starch/water mixture. Once you start cooking, this whole process takes 5 minutes or so.

You start by creating the garnish of red chiles and Sichuan pepper. I’m beginning to really love the smell of sautéed Sichuan pepper in peanut oil.

Stir-fry the vegetables.

At this point I’ve created the sauce and am boiling the beef.

Plated!

I really liked this dish, and I was very proud of it. The texture of the meat was awesome, purposely soft and tender, juxtaposed against the crunchy vegetables, all in a tasty and not overly spicy sauce.

My terracotta soldier loved it.

[nggallery id=37]

I was reading The Food in My Beard yesterday and up comes a new post featuring one of my favorites – Buffalo Wings. It’s really quite incredible. Everything that Dan (my culinary brother from another mother) posts about on TFIMB is something that I crave, love, or would make. Italian food, pizza, meat, frying things, and otherwise greasy-goodness are high on my list, so his site really hits the spot. 

Viewing this in depth wing post made me really crave the buttery spicy perfection that is anything buffalo style, but I didn’t want to run out to the store. Checking out the fridge, I did see I had all the makings for buffalo shrimp, so within minutes, we were off to the races. 

First I let the shrimp thaw (Trader Joe’s peeled, uncooked shrimp with tails – pretty decent), then I let them soak in a mix of salt, cayenne, and buttermilk for about 75 minutes. I then took them out and patted them dry (above). 

Here I’m getting the sauce ready – almost half a stick of butter, Frank’s RedHot cayenne sauce (the best I think), and a little Cholula for some variety. 

While I heated the canola oil (enough to fully submerge a shrimp), I dredged the shrimp in the flour, cayenne, and pepper. Leave the tails on, they are perfect for grabbing the shrimp when eating later. 

Frying the shrimp. I turned them over after 1-2 minutes, but they may not be necessary. They only need a 2-3 minutes total, depending on the size of your shrimp. 

Tossing them in the buffalo sauce, then ready to eat. The plated shrimp picture is at the top of the post. 

They were fantastic; extremely satisfying, a little crunchy, with perfect buffalo flavor. I would have liked a little more “batter” on the outside of them; maybe next time I won’t shake off so much of the excess flour while dredging, but that’s just a personal preference. 

My only problem was, I was still hungry as I only had 8 shrimp or so. AND, I still had some buffalo sauce and a pan full of hot oil. What to do, what to do….

…Buffalo fried quesadilla

I still had some cubed/steamed potatoes, some black beans, tortillas, and cheese, so I decided to try something new. 

First I sautéed the beans and potatoes in the remaining buffalo sauce.

Zapped the tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds to make it softer, then got my cheese ready. 

Folded it over, then dropped it right in the frying oil. It wasn’t deep enough to cover, so I had to give it a flip. It cooked for a total of 1 minute each side. 

Served, with some drizzled buffalo sauce on top. I’m not playing it cool…this was the real deal…glorious, in fact. The crunchy outside, opening into an explosion of gooey cheesy bean and potato goodness, with awesome waves of buffalo flavor attacking from both the outside and inside of the quesadilla. 

I made a special trip to the gym that evening to punish myself for the sins which I have committed. But it was worth it.

One of my favorite things to make is Sunday gravy with meatballs, Italian sausage, and sometimes braciole. For the past few years I’ve always used the same recipe from the Rao’s Cookbook. It’s simple, fresh, and tasty. 

Finally I decided to try something different, after reading some posts on The Food in My Beard. I used their recipe for meat sauce and the recipe for meatballs, and went to town. 

Starting with San Marzano tomatoes from Costco. These Nina tomatoes are above average and this giant can costs less than $3. If you look for real San Marzano’s at Whole Foods a can that is 1/4 of this size will cost you $4 or $5. Don’t be confused by San Marzano “style” tomatoes; they ain’t the same. 

Sweatin’ it out

I usually hand crush the tomatoes because I like the resulting texture, but I went with their recipe and quickly pureed the tomatoes. I must admit it was convenient. 

Frothy looking tomatoeyness. 

Similar to the Rao’s recipe, you cook in some tomato paste before adding the tomatos. It’s a good way to start any tomato sauce. Careful to not let it burn. 

Adding in some cheese, basil, and oregano. 

I let the sauce simmer for about an hour. While that’s going on I started the meatballs. I had some ground pork and ground beef, and I would have use ground veal if I had it. I didn’t have the Italian parsley on hand either, so I really bastardized their recipe. 

Mixin it all up. Getcha hands all up in that mess. Work it just enough to mix the ingredients. 

Shaping out some cute little meatballs for the broiler. This is another new step to me. I’ve always cooked the meatballs 100% in the sauce, poaching them and creating a very tender meatball, but also imparting some of the meat’s flavor and fat to the sauce. I was curious how they would turn out. 

The finished product. They cooked quickly and got some nice color to them. They weren’t as soft and delicate as the poached meatballs I am used to, but I liked them, they were above average meatballs and had a more firm texture than I’m used to, which would be good for various meatball uses. What might those be? Well, of course I had some meatballs with pasta, but I surely didn’t stop there and you’ll have to find out what happened to these little guys tomorrow….

I’ve been craving Mac ‘n Cheese for a few weeks now,  so Sunday I ran a few extra miles to justify eating 1.5 pounds of cheese in one sitting. Some people workout to stay healthy, I workout so I can gorge and imbibe like a caveman. Yeah, cavemen eat a lot. Brontasaurus burgers and mead?

There is a buffalo mac recipe I saw in Bon Appétit last year, which I made and I thought was worth another try.  One area of concern – the original recipe had fried chicken in it, which doesn’t bode well with holier-than-thou vegetarians. So I decided to change up the recipe a bit and use tofu instead of fried chicken. 

The second part of the recipe is unchanged – cooking the mac, creating the roux, adding the cheese, etc. The only step I changed is that I didn’t use fresh oregano. 

So below is my recipe for the veggie equivalent of the fried chicken – buffalo fried tofu. It was great. I actually preferred the tofu by itself, rather than mixed in with the mac ‘n cheese. The crispiness was lost a bit in the baking and I could really taste the tofu and the seasoning by itself. 

Oh, and I didn’t take any pics of the mac prep, just a few poor shots of the mac after it came out of the oven. 

Buffalo Fried Tofu

• One block organic tofu – drained and pressed
• 3 tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tbsp cayenne
• 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Cutting the tomatoes thin. The first time I made these I cut them too thick and wasn’t happy with the result. 

The prep “stations”. First the tomato goes into the flour with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Then it gets some egg, and finally some bread crumbs. 

Into the pan on medium heat – careful not to burn. 2-3 minutes each side. 

Plated and served with a relish of lemon and lime peel (and juice), corn, and jalapenos. I actually didn’t like this relish much. Having lemon/lime peel in it was a bit too much for me. It added a bitterness. Seasoning it with more salt helped balance it out a bit. 

Extreme close-up. Whooooaaaa!!!!

Last weekend I had some people over for our win against Boston College, and I wanted to grill out while the weather was nice. I put together some burgers with feta and shallots, but onion rings were what I decided to focus on that morning. I’ve only made them once before, and am not sure how it popped in my head, but I’m glad they did.

I pulled up an old recipe I’ve used (which was from the restaurant Zoom in Park City, Utah) and modified it a bit. Here’s what I came up with:

Spicy Southwestern Onion Rings

• Vegetable Oil (enough to fill pot about 1/2″ or a little more)
• 2 cups flour (White Lily preferred)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp cayenne powder
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 3 tbsp ground cumin
• 4 cups buttermilk
• 2 large Vidalia onions

First I cut the onions into 1/4″ rings (some were a little larger). Using Vidalia onions is key – they’re the best sweet onion. The Varsity vidialia onion rings is one of my favorites. Then I filled a large bowl with the buttermilk, dropped in the onion rings, and let it sit out for about 1/2 hour. (gack – blurry photo)

While that was sitting I put together the seasonings. I mixed all of the dry ingredients in another bowl for use when it came time to fry the rings up.

The only thing worth mentioning for this step is that for the first time, I used my coffee grinder to grind the cumin. I recently purchased whole cumin seeds at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market, and this step really paid off. When I ground it up, the fragrance was immediate and filled the whole kitchen (a friend who had just arrived asked if we were eating tacos). The cumin flavor was really emphasized in this spice mix, and I thought this helped differentiate the rings from your everyday onion ring.

When I was ready to fry, I would take a few rings out of the batter and coat them in the spice/flour mixture and stage them on a plate where they were waiting for frying. I could only put 5-7 rings in at a time so I had to do 7-8 batches of the rings. I had the oven at 175 degress and placed the completed rings on a pan where they the excess oil could drain and they would stay warm.

I was very happy with the result. They were seasoned very well – the batter was very spicy and the onions were sweet. The texture was on the mark and was everything I was looking for in an onion ring. While the burgers didn’t really wow anyone, I received some high accolades for the rings (awww, it warms my heart). This awesome gameday side is inexpensive, quick to make, and perfect when some unhealthy grease is needed – I need to remember to do this again sooner.

The Houndstooth Gourmet: Corn Fritter with Corriander Cream & Basil Oil

The Culinary Sherpas: French Onion Soup for the Soul

Be sure to read the article and check out the hurricane video!)

Blue Kitchen: Watercress Vichyssoise

(more on Vichyssoise here – my understanding is that a Vichyssoise is cooked and then chilled, while a gazpacho is never heated at all; please correct me if I’m wrong)

For the Love of Cooking: Meatball Sandwich (this one’s for you, Mom)

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Gallery: Bacon Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Dragon’s Kitchen: Potato, Leek and Gruyère Tart

The Second Pancake: 10 ways that puttanesca got its name

(The story I have always heard is not even in this top 10! I heard it was because puttanesca is a sauce that is quick to make, the men would go to their Comare (aka goomar) and have a quick lunch and put on some Al Green if you know what I’m talking about. Sex. That’s what I am referring to.)

A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen: Butter Beans – I’ve never had these but they look awesome. I wonder if it’s in the Lee Brother’s Cookbook in my kitchen.

Slashfood: Krispy Kreme cheddar bacon cheeseburgers at Google – OH. MY. GOD.

Elizabeth’s Edible Experience: New Tube (Smoky Shrimp and and Parmesan-Polenta Cakes)