The Best of Food & Wine: A Cook-Through
I don’t post a ton of recipes. Mostly because I’m just not willing to put in the work that you need to do.
I’m not going to make braised short ribs at 9 in the morning so that the lighting is right for photographing.
I’m not going to make a recipe 12 different times, with different substitutions, five different ways, in order to get it just right.
I’m not going to measure everything I use - because I literally never measure when I’m cooking. Baking? YES. With a scale. Regular savory cooking, though? Literally never. Not a scale, not a measuring cup (save for liquids - but even that’s rare).
If I make something and it turns out good, I might make it one more time for the sake of double checking that it wasn’t a fluke. Then I’ll take some mediocre pictures with my iPhone and throw a recipe up.
This is why I will never write a cook book. I just don’t operate that way, nor do I want to. There are people out there doing it, and doing it way better than I would, so I’ll mostly leave it to them.
I cook from the ‘little of this, little of that’ school. I know techniques, and what flavors go together. I freestyle. Then, when I’m stuck with no ideas, or simply having those ‘I cannot think of anything to cook that’s not insanely boring’ - I’ll go to recipes and cookbooks for inspiration.
I’m always wanted to do a ‘cook-through’ - where you make everything in a given cookbook. I’ve started a few times, but always end up deciding that half the recipes are filler and I don’t want to make them. I understand why cookbooks are this way - they have to be. A mix of mains and sides and causes and random apps and super easy things with more complex dishes. Not every single recipe in any cookbook is going to be an out-of-the park winner - no matter how great the author is.
Then the other day I got this email from Food & Wine: a collection of the 40 Best Recipes. In 2018, they celebrated 40 years of the magazine by publishing over 24,000 recipes in the last 42 years, and they picked the ones that most changed the game or stuck in the minds of the editors and readers, alike. When I got the issue in the mail in September, I remember thinking, ‘Oh, that would be fun to make all of these things’. So when I got that email, I remembered that I had wanted to work through the list. Making everything on their of Top 40 Recipes of all time and yes, I’ll blog about it like the millennial that I am - writing about making recipes that no one asked me to make.
There are some things I’m really looking forward to: like Spaghetti with Clams and Greens. There’s also stuff I’m not at all excited about…like anything with Okra. Alas, isn’t that kind of the point?
Here’s the full list of each recipe (which I will add links to the posts once I make them) and a link to the full list at Food & Wine..
Grand Marnier Soufflé
Potato And Egg Pie With Bacon And Crème Fraîche
Poulet au Vinaigre
Soboro Donburi (Gingery Ground Beef with Peas over Rice)
Poached Eggs with Red Wine Sauce
Hakka Salt-Baked Chicken
Ultimate Chocolate Mousse
Shrimp Creole
Grilled Korean-Style Short Ribs
Sizzling Pancakes
Baked Goat Cheese Salad
Mom’s Citrus Meringue Pie
Seared Slamon with Summer Vegetables
Swordfish Sicilian-Style
Ham Steaks in Madeira Sauce
Jerk Chicken
Vegetable Hot-and-Sour Soup
Catalan Tomato Bread
Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken
Pizza With Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraîche, and Caviar
Fried Chicken with Tomato Gravy
Shrimp and Corn Chowder
Chicken Tikka Masala
Breton Butter Cake
Antipasto Salad with Green Olive Tapenade
Crispy Okra Salad
Pan-Roasted Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette
Tiki Snack Mix
Kogi Dogs
Mom’s Chocolate Cake
Kimchi-Creamed Collard Greens
Baltimore-Style Crab Cakes
Farro and Green Olive Salad with Walnuts and Raisins
Almost-Instant Soft Serve
Spaghetti with Clams and Braised Greens
Tomatoes with Herbs and Almond Vinaigrette
Chickpeas and Kale in Spicy Pomodoro Sauce