Everyday Yumminess: Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Revisted

When I first made Thomas Keller's fried chicken recipe from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook, it was pretty much the most amazing fried chicken I had ever tasted in my entire life. The recipe is pretty simple, especially by Thomas Keller standards, but I get super-stressed-out frying chicken on the bone, worrying about whether or not I will get it cooked perfectly all the way through to the bone without over-cooking it. The solution to this "problem" is the same solution I come up with for most kitchen problems: sous vide!

Everyday Yumminess: Totally Awesome French Fries (and a Tasty Burger)

I've always felt that perfect french fries are an important dish to have in one's making-your-friends-think-you're-a-good-cook repertoire. Historically, I used the method that "everyone" uses: soak in water, fry at low temperature to cook the interior, fry at high temperature to get the exterior crispy, then be sad 2 minutes later when your once-crispy fries have lost all crispiness. (Maybe that last part only happens to me? I don't know...) Poking around the interweb, I can across a lot of blogs (e.g., this one, which has step-by-step pictures) talking about cold oil french fries, a recipe that appears to have originated at Cook's Illustrated (and was inspired there by Jöel Robuchon). In short, they are super-easy to make, incredibly crunchy long after they finish cooking, and even have 1/3 less fat than fries cooked the usual way. Awesome.

Christmas in Portland

I flew back to Portland again this year to spend the holidays with my family. Stanley is back in the States this year, so this was the first time the whole family had been together for Christmas in a few years and it was really nice. As is usually the case with me and my parents, there was quite a bit of cooking going on. We all felt like last year's feast was one of the best we've ever done, but we managed to improve upon it this year with a little help from Thomas Keller.

Cookbook Adventures: World's Greatest Hamburgers

Stanley is staying with me for a few weeks, and I thought it was a great opportunity to make a recipe that's been calling to me for a while: Thomas Keller's perfect hamburgers from the Ad Hoc at Home Cookbook.

Sunday Cookbook Adventures: Ad Hoc Pork Belly Confit

Since first cracking open Momofuku, I've cooked my share of pork belly. I like David Chang's slow-cooked-in-the-oven method, which he notes is similar to a confit, since the pork belly bastes itself with its own rendered fat as it slowly cooks. I love Thomas Keller's sous vide method, with the beautiful flavor of the brined pork and the meltingly tender meat that results. Not content to stop at two solid techniques, though, I decided to check out Thomas Keller's Pork Belly Confit recipe from Ad Hoc at Home.

Sunday Cookbook Adventures: Ad Hoc Fried Chicken

I'll be honest: I find the design of Ad Hoc at Home to be fairly obnoxious. All of the chalkboard sketches and pictures of Thomas Keller grinning like an idiot? Yeah. I could live without those... I guess the idea was to make a cookbook that was more accessible and/or less intimidating, but that's really not what I'm looking for when I turn to Thomas Keller. I'd flipped through the book a few times, but always got irritated and gave up on looking through it before I found anything I wanted to cook. Nonetheless, word on the street was that the fried chicken recipe is awesome, and my friend over at jun-blog had made the recipe at home with impressive results. (The recipe is included in his post, by the way, if you'd like to try this at home...) My parents are in town visiting, so I figured it would be a good time to try the recipe out. (I don't want to fry a whole chicken for myself, and I don't like experimenting with new dishes for people who aren't family or the close-friend equivalent of family...) In the end, it turns out that even Thomas Keller's most annoying cookbook has some great recipes...