What to Read This Weekend: Pollan on Paleo, Kale at the Super Bowl, and Gastronomic Voyeurism — 10 Weekend Reads from The Kitchn

    Pin_it_button

    Eight good reads (plus a video and a podcast) for your weekend perusal.

    READ MORE »

    Is Lard Truly the Comeback Fat?

    Pin_it_button

    I first began experimenting with lard a few years ago when I became really interested in baking more pie, personally and professionally. I took a pie class from Kate McDermott, a Seattle-based baker and teacher who makes very special pie crust — made with lard. At the time, McDermott liked a mix of rendered leaf lard and butter so after class I set out to pick up fresh lard from our local butcher and gave it a go on my own.

    The resulting crust was flakier and had a slightly savory quality that my all-butter crusts just didn’t have. I was a convert.

    READ MORE »

    garlicky party bread with cheese and herbs

    garlicky party bread with herbs and cheese

    My mother’s standard party donation is a boule of pumpernickel bread with the center scooped out and filled with a spinach dip that includes water chestnuts because, of course. The sides are cut into fingers that remain attached at the base (as “severed fingers” would be unsettling, yes?) and can be torn off when the urge comes to swipe one through the center. The urge will come often, so I try to position myself in any room that the boule is not. Nevertheless, I hadn’t considered that there were other approaches to party bread until I came upon this 1998 recipe for one in Taste of Home, the belly full of dip forwent for a multi-pronged attacked of butter, cheese, scallions and poppy seeds, all toasted until melted and crisp.

    what you'll need (i skipped the proscuitto)
    cut your loaf like this

    But why stop there? You could pretty confidently argue that you’ve happened upon a lucky series of life choices when you get to spend half an hour on a Wednesday morning at Whole Foods debating what you’d like to put on your party bread in addition to butter and cheese. There was so much to consider! I considered rarebit-ing it, with a boiled mess of butter, beer, mustard powder, paprika, cayenne, Worcestershire and a scattering of cheddar that I might dream about tonight. I wondered if we ought to go French, with gruyere, shallots and herbes de provence or style it like an American baked potato, with chives and bacon, sour cream and cheese. And then I realized that I’ve never once covered garlic bread on this site and was suddenly filled with purpose and couldn’t wait to get home and start playing in the kitchen.

    someone asked if I use a garlic press. yes, I do!
    butter. sea salt. so much garlic.

    … Read the rest of garlicky party bread with cheese and herbs on smittenkitchen.com


    © smitten kitchen 2006-2012. |
    permalink to garlicky party bread with cheese and herbs | 4 comments to date | see more: Appetizer, Bread, Photo, Snack