Epicurious Joins the "Apps" World

More foodie websites are capitalizing on the high interest in new "apps" for smartphones. The latest site is Epicurious, which is one of my favorite websites.

Epicurious just contacted its list of registered visitors to alert them to its app for the iPad and iPhone, which allows users to "sync your personal recipe box to your mobile device!"

It's interesting timing because NPR's "Morning Edition" aired the final part of a series today that essentially said that cookbooks (the actual physical beasts that take up bookshelf space) are likely to survive the digital area. The view is that people will look online for specific recipes for special occasions, but that they enjoy browsing through cookbooks when they have no particular culinary agenda.

A Strange Recipe for Lobster Rolls

I have always drooled over lobster rolls. One of the marvelous things about visiting New England in the summer is trying a lobster roll at multiple restaurants.

I've thought about trying to make lobster rolls at home, but I assumed it would be a whole lot of work. However, I just stumbled on this recipe from Maria Rodale's website. It doesn't look all that complicated, partly because she uses frozen lobster meat and also because she doesn't make a mayonnaise-based sauce.

Both strike me as a little odd. So long as the frozen lobster meat is tasty, this could work. But I cannot begin to imagine a lobster roll without having some of that mayonnaise-based sauce with diced celery and some herbs. (Instead of the sauce, Maria recommends melted butter.)

The frozen lobster meat saves a lot of time and hassle, but I don't see eliminating the mayonnaise-based sauce as much of a time saver. Besides, the mayo, tarragon and other ingredients in lobster-roll sauce add nice flavors. So, I intend to try making lobster rolls at home using frozen lobster meat, but I will not skip the sauce. This Food Network recipe should be a good source for preparing the sauce.

The Pentagon's Brownie Recipe

According to this article at Huffington Post's food page, the recipe is 26 pages long. This is the U.S. military so, of course, there are lots of rules and regs that govern such things as baking temperature and final size -- each brownie "shall not exceed 3-1/2 inches by 2-1/2 inches by 5/8 inch."

The brownies, if baked in accordance to the "specification . . . approved for use by all Departments and Agencies of the Department of Defense," are made to last years, if necessary. But how tasty are the hardy treats?

Penny Karas, owner of the bakery Hello Cupcake in Washington D.C., made the brownies for NPR's "All Things Considered" and concluded: "It's not so great." (NPR host) Guy Razz concurred: "Yeah. They're awful."

Sounds like an industrial-sized box of Duncan Hines brownie mix would be a better choice for a military base.

A Great Marinade for Flank Steak

If you've read this food blog for a while, you know that I'm a fan of grilled flank steak. I've tested several different marinades to use for flank steak, and I think the one I used on Sunday was the best yet. Here's the recipe:

One 2-lb. flank steak, scored slightly with a knife

Marinade:

1/2 cup of soy sauce

1/2 cup of dry red wine (not "cooking wine")

3 T. of tomato paste

2 T. of brown sugar

1 T. and 1 teaspoon of minced or chopped garlic

1 T. of freshly cracked pepper

Juice of half a lime

Directions:

1. Whisk all marinade ingredients into a medium bowl until smooth.

2. Unroll the flank steak and slide it into a large ziplock storage bag. Carefully pour the marinade into the bag and then seal the bag closed.

3. Place the bag in the refrigerator on its side, resting on a large plate. After an hour, turn the bag over and let it marinate for another full hour.

4. Light the grill and remove the steak from the marinade/bag. Place the steak on a hot grill and cook for about 8 minutes on each side for medium-rare, 6 minutes per side for rare.

5. Remove the steak and let it rest on a platter or cutting board for 5 minutes. Then slice the flank steak against the grain. Serve with a salad or grilled veggies.

The soy sauce adds enough saltiness that you probably won't need or want to add more salt. Taste it first -- then decide.

Taking Liberties With Recipes

Improvising can be very tricky when you have a recipe card in front off you. This is especially true when you're making a recipe for the first time -- when adding or subtracting an ingredient can make or break the final product.

I was reminded me of this when I recently made a batch of cherry muffins using dried tart cherries. I had some leftover sour cream in my fridge so I decided to merge two different muffin recipes -- one used sour cream, but the other did not. Although the recipe didn't turn out disastrously, the muffins tasted a lot more like sponge cake than like the normal texture of a muffin.

I think people like me are often tempted to tweak an existing recipe partly because it will somehow make the recipe a little more"mine."

An Enticing Donut Recipe

Check out the cover of the latest edition of the magazine Edible Chesapeake. (No, not the cover pictured to the right.) Yes, that wonderful photo on the cover is of apple cider donuts.

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I adore apple cider donuts. A friend who has the October issue informs me that the donut recipe is inside.

Hmmm . . . considering that the forecast calls for a rainy Saturday, this could be an ideal weekend to park myself in the kitchen and give that recipe a try.

Quick and Tasty

"Even the best cooks have a handful of meals they can whip up on automatic pilot."

So writes the N.Y. Times' Melissa Clark. In this article, Clark offers one example of her own: a recipe for Sauteed Wild Salmon with Brown Butter Cucumbers. I like wild salmon so this recipe may be worth a try.

Cinnamon Roll Cake: Plan B

This past weekend, I tried this recipe for Cinnamon Roll Cake. It came from Abby Sweets' food blog.

She raved about it in her post. On the whole, I would give this cake a "thumbs up" as well, but there are three things I plan to change the next time I make this recipe.

1. I will add either chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter. I just think it would add a nice element to it. (Some people don't like nuts so maybe I will add them to only one half of the baking pan.)

2. I found this cake a little too sweet. For that reason, I would reduce the brown sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup.

3. Last but not least, the icing needs some work. It was bland. Two people who tried the cake (and who liked it overall) agreed with me that the icing was the weak link. I will do some web-searching and see if I can come up with something that's more interesting than the standard powdered sugar-and-milk icing.

This recipe is a keeper. I like the fact that it can be made very quickly because its foundation is a yellow cake mix. With a few tweaks, I think this cake can go from a B+ to an A.

A Recipe Ruse

In case you missed it, a judge recently ruled in favor of Jerry Seinfeld's cookbook-writing wife, Jessica. Another cookbook author, Missy Chase Lapine, had accused Jessica Seinfeld of stealing recipe ideas from Lapine's book.

Not only was Mrs. Seinfeld vindicated, but the judge, Laura Taylor Swain, even described her cookbook (Deceptively Delicious) as "bright and cheerful."

Neither cookbook appeals to me. Both of them offer recipes aimed at sneaking vegetables into kids' food. First, I don't have kids. Second, I'm not fond of deceiving those I love, no matter how well-intentioned the deception might appear. Third, the few recipes that I've heard of sound positively dreadful.

One recipe, for example, suggests stirring pureed avocado into chocolate pudding. What a sacrilege. I love avocado, but it has no business hiding in a heap of chocolate pudding.

Kids: Beware -- if your mom or dad owns either one of these cookbooks, you might want to make that book disappear. Otherwise, your parents will get a lot of pernicious ideas for tinkering with good foods.

Don't Mock Apple Pie

In the category of food-related things that annoy me, "mock" recipes are pretty close to the top of this list.

A recipe like this one for "mock apple pie" -- what is the point? I'm sorry, but what numbskull felt that crackers, simple syrup and lemon juice are an appropriate replacement for apples?

If I was invited to dinner and served "mock apple pie," I would bail -- tell the host I had a terrible headache. Would that be rude of me? Not nearly as rude as serving a phony apple pie to a guest.

Christ, it's enough to make Johnny Appleseed roll over in his grave.

The "Chase Terms" in Recipes

I like to cook, but I usually look for recipes that are less complicated and less time-consuming. I am definitely a full tier below those who cook regularly and who take on the tough recipes. What's a tough recipe?

Well, there are terms that I call "chase terms" -- words you read within a recipe that tend to chase away amateur cooks like myself. These terms signal difficulty. Here is an example of chase terms:

• cheese cloth
• clarified butter
• dry yeast
• bouquet garni
  
• parchment paper
• creme of tartar

Now, I'm not suggesting that every single recipe with one of these terms is necessarily tough to prepare. I'm simply saying that I've learned from experience or observation that a recipe with one or more of these items is likely to be tough or time-consuming. Plus, most of us don't have cheese cloth lying around our kitchen.

I noticed that Cooking.com posted this forum, asking visitors to name "the most difficult recipe" they had ever prepared.

I like to cook, but I also have a busy job and an active social life. Eating and cooking should fit into my life, not control it. So, for the time being, when I scan a recipe, I will keep looking for those chase terms.