I shot this grill marks tutorial before rushing off to New York in anticipation of the Memorial Day weekend, and all the grilling that traditionally goes along with it.
Now, I'm not saying that unattractive grill mark anxiety (UGMA) has ever prevented anyone from grabbing a pair of tongs and heading out to the grill, but it is a nice technique to know.
Invariably, if you're grilling in front of a group of people, and turn over a chicken breast sporting a nice set of diamond-shaped grill marks, someone will say, "Man, I wish I knew how to get those." Well, here's how.
Whether you’re doing the cooking, or are in charge of "quality control," I wish you all a delicious and wonderful long weekend. Enjoy!
Weather permitting, we'll be back in San Francisco tonight after a great trip to New York City. The meetings with the publisher went very well, and I got to check the final proofs of the cookbook. By the way, I'll be posting soon with much more specific details. There are some very exciting things in the works.
Here you see my newest food obsession, Venezuelan sandwiches called Arepas. We enjoyed these at a place called Caracas Arepas Bar in New York's East Village, and I was completely blown away. How is it possible I've only now just discovered these amazing buns? If you have any information, recipes, tips, or tricks you'd care to pass along, please do. Thanks, and stay tuned!
YouTube's "Moderator" feature allows a YouTube publisher (me) to collect commentary, questions, or ideas (hopefully in the form of very creative videos) on our channel, and then watch the best ones rise to the top, as voted on by the Food Wishes faithful.
To celebrate the launch I'm running the first ever official Food Wishes contest, called "The Summer of You." What is that, and how do you play? Watch the video, and then do what the guy with the mustache says. Enjoy!
Later tonight I will be posting a video and making an announcement about an exciting new feature that's launching on YouTube. I can't say anything yet, but be sure to check back later tonight for details!
Michele and I are having a great time in the big city, and will be back in San Francisco on Thursday. By the way, I was at Parragon Publishing today, proofing the final layouts for the cookbook. Everything looks great, and it should be going to press soon!
We dropped in last night to Pulino's, the city's hottest new restaurant, where our cousin, Tony, is the sous chef under star chef Nate Appleman.
We had an incredible Margherita pizza, and the photo you see was the view from our booth, out the front door of a Shepard Fairey mural across the street on E. Bowery and Houston. You may know him as the creator of the now famous Obama "Hope" poster. Thought it was a cool shot. Enjoy and stay tuned.
Michele and I are in New York City! I had to fly in to do some PR for the book with my publisher at the BEA Bookfair. The event will be in the Javits Centre on Wednesday. I'm happy to announce that I'll be checking the final proofs for the book, and soon thereafter it will go to press! The standard Food Wishes travel advisory is in effect, so any unanswered emails and comments should be forgiven and/or resubmitted. We'll be back Thursday. Probably won't have time to do a real post from here, but as always, you can follow along on Twitter. Thanks, and see you soon!
This lovely bowl of spring is a perfect example of when recipes are, and are not, important. The ricotta gnocchi part of the plate requires a fairly precise formula. If any of the three main ingredient amounts are altered, you could be looking at quite a mess. That's certainly not the case for this sauce.
If I made this same combination of ingredients 100 times, each version would be different, which I how I believe these things should work. When I buy peas at the farmers market, I'm not thinking I need 2 cups, I'm thinking I need to buy some peas. The same goes for the mushrooms. Grab a handful and keep moving.
Here's the recipe. Take some mushrooms, preferable wild morel, and saute in olive oil until they smell meaty and delicious. Add some garlic and cook for a minute. Add some vegetable broth, about a 1/2 cup per person, and bring to a boil. Add some peas and cook until tender. Season, add a little cheese and fresh herb, and use as a sauce for the gnocchi.
Besides a general guess at how much broth you need, there's no reason to measure anything else. You could halve or double what I used and argue either way that your sauce is better than mine. Of course, we'd both be right.
There's a common belief that chefs never use recipes, which in the case of the sauce is totally true. But, when a specific texture, density, or viscosity is required in a dish, like for these delicate dumplings, chefs have no problem whatsoever following a formula.
What's my reason for pointing all this out? I don't really have one. You should make this. It tastes good. Enjoy!
For the ricotta gnocchi: 1 pound really good ricotta cheese 3 large eggs 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1/2 teaspoon black pepper pinch of fresh nutmeg Makes enough for about 6 servings
For the sauce: Splash of olive oil handful of mushrooms some fresh peas few cloves of garlic salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste about 3 cups of vegetable broth grated Parmigiano-Reggiano chopped parsley, mint, and/or basil
I shot this grill marks tutorial before rushing off to New York in anticipation of the Memorial Day weekend, and all the grilling that traditionally goes along with it.
