Pay close attention or you may think this sweet pea dip is guacamole. It’s texture and color are spot on and the flavor, not quite avocado — it’s not fatty enough — is not peas either. Michael Roberts created this recipe as a self-challenge after a lady commented on how less-reputable restaurants used peas to dilute guacamole. The recipe is in Roberts’ Secret Ingredients cookbook and was posted many years ago to the Prodigy Internet service.…
Michael Roberts was known for his audacious flavor combinations: shellfish and vanilla, peas and lime, or pickled pumpkin. His skills at combining flavors were on display at Trumps, his West Hollywood restaurant. Late night, he would amuse celebrities and guests by creating appetizing dishes from perversely mixed fresh ingredients that friends would bring in from California farms. I had never heard of Trumps or Roberts until I stumbled on his cookbook Secret Ingredients in a used bookstore.…
Calories give us pleasure. That seems obvious: ice-cream, french fries, spring rolls, or halva are all in the yum category. But there is pleasure even if there is no flavor. This is a recent discovery that hints that great food goes beyond good flavor. It needs to have calories. How we can manage that requirement and not promote the rise of obesity is a challenge every cook needs to confront.…
Grilled pineapple is delicious: sweet, slightly acid, and full of the richness of caramel. For the blogging event TGRWT I tried matching it with sweet gorgonzola using chocolate and caramelized sugar for decoration and extra flavors. The tenth TGRWT is being hosted by David from Eat Foo. The idea of TGRWT is to combine two ingredients that share a few chemical compounds that can be smelt and it was started by Martin from Khymos.…
The knife skills of cooks are as personal as their hand writing. As a recent accident made it clear, my “penmanship” needs improving, from chopping onions to carving meats. I started with a copy of Knife Skills Illustrated: A User’s Manual by Peter Hertzmann, watched some of the many online videos, and made sure my knifes are sharp. That is when a laser pointer came in handy. My knifes are sharpened at a local store.…