I got a basic recipe from Gourmet and then changed it a bit. The original recipe called for white sugar and unsalted butter; I used turbinado sugar and French style butter (richer than typical American butter, though still unsalted). I also added the fleur de sel, as well as a teaspoon of good vanilla.

The recipe is simple:

• 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter, in chunks
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (you can use about any of the cool salts available; some will give slightly different flavors)
• 1 1/2 cups turbinado or cane sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

The butter and cream need to be mixed, and the salt needs to be dissolved, so I put them together in a saucepan and heated just to a simmer, until the salt was dissolved and the butter incorporated/melted. I set that aside and put the sugar, corn syrup and water in a larger saucepan (I used a 4 quart, just to just sure the mixture never overflowed… that’s a bad thing with hot sugar!). Over medium high heat, I stirred the sugar/water/syrup mixture just enough to get it even, then let it sit, stirring only now and then, until the sugar was dissolved. At that point, I screwed up…

I was on the phone while doing this, and also watching my new kitten, Bucky McKatt, attack everything in sight, and I missed a crucial step here. I took the sugar solution off the heat and added the cream/butter/salt mixture to it, stirring it together. I used a candy thermometer then and heated everything up together, stirring frequently until reaching 250 degrees F. I took the caramel off the heat and poured it into a parchment lined square baking dish to let it cool.

What did I miss? I forgot to let the sugar cook!!! So I ended up with a very sweet, somewhat caramel tasting goop. Don’t get me wrong here, it’s actually good stuff, and will go with fruit or ice cream just swell. But I would have had to pour it into people’s hands to try it as caramels! Not good for office consumption!

So I tried again, this time actually doubling the recipe. The one problem with using turbinado sugar is the color. With white sugar, it’s very obvious when the sugar is browned to the desired degree. Lighter cane sugar would be easier, too. Turbninado sugar, though, is already brown, so I had to be careful and use my nose to tell me when it was just before the burn.

With double the amount of liquid, it took longer to get to 250 degrees F. I actually took it to 252 to make the caramels a bit more solid. For softer, keeping it down at 247/248 would help, too. Right after taking the caramel off the heat, I added the vanilla and stirred it in, and then I poured the caramel into the same parchment lined pan I used in my failed attempt and waited.

It only took about 2 1/2 hours for the caramel to firm up, so I used a pizza blade I have that’s 14″ long to cut the caramels. I cut them into approximately 1″ squares, giving me 64 caramels (the pan was an 8″ square pan).After making all the little caramels from the one big caramel, I started trying to put a bit of fleur de sel on each individual caramel, but it wasn’t sticking. With the aforementioned kitten, I keep spray bottles handy, and got the bright idea of lightly sprizing the caramels, then adding the salt… Worked like a charm!

I cut wax paper squares of about 4″ or so, then individually wrapped the caramels. This took about as long as anything, but it wasn’t tough at all. The result was a heap o’ caramelly goodness! My first bite proved that they came out just about perfect! And they were easy to make, with few ingredients, and the fanciest tool needed was a $3 candy thermometer.

When heating up melted sugar, it’s very dangerous. Don’t have kids messing around or anything that could tip the pan over. Burns can be really nasty with this sort of stuff!

Either I can’t get fond to use for sauces, I can’t use some of my utensils for fear of scratching the pan, or I can’t get a spatula that can actually get under something to flip it.

Enter my new favorite flipper, the Chef’n ZipFlip.  There are different sizes and colors, and the turner is thin enough to slide under just about anything.  I hated frying eggs just because I couldn’t get anything to flip it in a small skillet.  No problem now.

I know this is a short post, but there’s not much more to say… This is a great kitchen tool, especially for nonstick skillet use!

I made 4 burgers from a pound of ground beef, 2 of which got simple salt and pepper; my wife won’t eat burgers any other way. The other two got some creole seasoning. The burgers were added to a hot griddle pan and left alone to cook for a bit. I made the burgers a bit thick so as to fit on the biscuits when they were done, and they shrank up just about the right amount.

The biscuits are in a post over at Just Baking, and they’re very good. I cut them in half and lightly buttered each half while the burgers cooked. I added some bleu cheese crumbles to the creole seasoned burgers and removed the burgers from the pan to rest. While they were resting, I placed the biscuits butter-side down on the hot griddle pan to grill them just a touch.

The end result was a quick, easy dinner with little fuss but lots of flavor. The biscuits were a tad thick for use as buns, but that didn’t deter either my wife or me from digging in!

Food doesn’t always have to be fancy, pretentious, difficult, time consuming or snobby to be just good.

• I can’t run around in a swim suit all summer, just waiting for the lake to open each day at noon so I can swim all day long.
• I have to get up by a certain time to go ‘work for the man’.
• It’s hot, and I have to wear long pants! And socks!

But I also love summer in other ways:

• Since I live in the country, I see how the corn and soybeans are doing.
• No school buses are blocking me every morning on my way to work.
• It’s warm enough in the morning to put the top down on the car.
• Most important, though… I can get really fresh veggies and fruit, right from the farmers.

Corn on the cob is so good when it’s fresh, just cooked enough to melt butter. All I do is add some salt, and apply toothpicks after dinner.

Beans, peaches (imported, but still fresh)… All good stuff.

But is anything better in the summer than a tomato you picked right from your own tomato plant? I don’t think so. And one of my favorite ways to have tomatoes are on bacon tomato sandwiches (I pass on the lettuce… I just don’t think it adds to the sandwich). Of course, toasted white bread and mayo are musts for this sandwich!

Alton Brown had a bit on bacon on his Good Eats show, where he showed how to bake it instead of frying it. I tried this, and it’s the preferred way of doing bacon on my house now:

Put a cooling rack over a cookie sheet. Add bacon strips, making sure the strips don’t hang over the sides of the cookie sheet.

Place the cookie sheet with bacon in a COLD, yes cold, oven, and turn the oven to 400 degrees F. Once the oven is at 400, turn the cookie sheet around 180 degrees and check the bacon every 3 minutes until it’s at the desired crispiness.

The bacon will come out flatter this way, and it won’t make as much of a mess of the kitchen… And you won’t get splattered with bacon grease!

A variation is to add brown sugar on top of each bacon slice, then bake… And you have bacon candy.

The first step is to pull the leg and thigh down a bit, then slice the thigh at the joint, slicing it cleanly from the carcass.

Repeat on the other thigh, removing the dark meat quarters.  If desired, the legs can be removed from the thighs by cutting through the joint in between.  Just locate it with a knife and slice through.

Removing the breast isn’t tough, either.  The keel bone is the bone/cartilage that runs between the breast meat; locat this, then slide the knife along the keel bone, down along the ribs, and remove the now-boneless chicken breast.

Repeat on the other side, and all that’s left is the carcass and wings.  If the wings are wanted, they can also be cut off by cutting through the joint between the wing and the carcass.

That’s about all there is to it!  It works the same with chicken or turkey.  I like to cut the breast medallion style, by laying the breast flat and cutting through, at a slight angle to the cutting board, cutting disks of breast.

If cutting a bird up has kept you from cooking whole chickens on the grill, or cooking only turkey roasts for Thanksgiving dinners, get a couple of birds (they’re cheap), cook them, and try cutting them up for practice.  They are good eating, even if they get mangled in the practice rounds!

Fruit pizza can be done several ways, but the way we make it is to start with 2 tubes of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough (yeah, I cheat a bit here!). I spray a deep dish pizza pan with Pam for Baking, then spread the cookie dough in an even layer in the pan and bake for about 15 minutes in a 350 degree F oven. Once the ‘crust’ is done, I let it cool

This is where my wife steps in… To make cream cheese icing! The recipe is simple: 8 ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese, 1 stick of butter (both at room temperature), and as much confectioner’s sugar as needed (to taste). Once mixed with a hand mixer, we spread the icing on the sugar cookie crust.

The last step is simple, and can be varied to individual tastes. I cut up 5 kiwi fruits and about a quart of strawberries. We spread the fruit over the crust and added blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Just about any fruit will work well, especially if it’s in season.

We cut it like pizza and served… It’s simple and great tasting!

Tucked back behind some of the other shops is a great restaurant/kitchen supply store called Bowery Kitchen Supplies, Inc.

What I liked about this store is how unpretentious it is.  You have to somehow get past a great gelato stand outside the main doors, which is harder to do then one would think!  Once you get inside, you see that this isn’t another Williams-Sonoma wannabe (that’s a good thing).  There are wire racks packed in pretty closely, stacked up pretty high with kitchen items.  The space is limited, but well organized.  Very good quality products in just about all kitchen categories can be found.

Another thing I liked about Bowery Kitchens is that there’s a bit of a blurring of the line between home kitchen and chef.  More professional quality products seem to be in the store than in a typical home kitchen store.  They offer equipment that will suit a small apartment kitchen all the way up to professional kitchens in high end restaurants.

If you’re in the area, you owe it to yourself to visit Chelsea Market, as I’m sure that you’re a foodie, too, just by the fact that you’re reading this blog!  Even if you’re not in the area, they have online shopping, and are willing to help you find whatever you need.

Bowery Kitchen Supply, Inc.

460 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011 USA

Telephone: 212-376-4982 Fax: 212-843-0351

(All images are property of Bowery Kitchen Supply, Inc., and are used with permission)

• Extra Mild Lemon Peri-Peri:  Initial fresh lemon aroma, followed by subtle Peri-Peri flavor that ends with a pleasant lingering mild heat sensation
• Medium Peri-Peri:  The original Peri-Peri sauce with perfect balance between lemon, garlic, Peri-Peri flavor & Herbs that develops into a lasting ex peri-peri ence with Medium Heat.
• Wild Herb Peri-Peri:  Subtle initial herby aroma, followed by earthy Peri-Peri flavor balanced with strong herbal notes that end with a pleasant Peri-Peri heat.
• Garlic Peri-Peri:  Lovely initial roasted garlic aroma followed by a powerful earthy Peri-Peri flavor with subtle hints of lemon with a medium heat level.
• Hot Peri-Peri:  Potent savory sauce with good balance between lemon, garlic and Peri-Peri flavor that develops into a powerful lasting hot ex peri-peri ence
• Extra Hot Peri-Peri:  Robust earthy Peri-Peri flavor with hints of garlic and lemon that delivers a serious Peri-Peri kick.
• Sweet Hot Peri-Peri:  A sweet Citrus Peri-Peri with hints of fresh lime and garlic. Medium bodied & full flavored, with lingering heat.

What’s Peri-Peri?  It’s an African chile, also called the African Bird’s Eye chile.  It’s rated at about 70,000 Scoville units (the measurement of heat)… Jalepanos are in the 3000-5000 range.  Nando’s also has marinades and seasonings.

I have to tell you, this stuff is really great.  What I liked about it was that it’s not just another hot sauce; it has a different flavor that’s got lemon, garlic and other spices, as well as a good heat without overpowering (the medium and garlic, at least!).  There’s a “brightness” to it; it reminded me of how the air smells after a rain.  It’s just refreshing, which is odd to say about a hot sauce!

I tried it on chicken, and I was thrilled (really) with the results.  I liked it so much, I made chicken the next day just to try using it as a marinade.  It was even better the second time.

Do yourself a favor and get a bottle of this.  If you can’t find it locally, you can get it from Nando’s USA.  It also comes in a 6 bottle sampler, either Mild or Hot.  The difference is the mild has Extra Mild with no Extra Hot, and the Hot is the opposite.

(Graphic used with permission from Nando’s USA)

You open to check doneness

It’s not overcooked

What am I talking about?  Simply the most versatile thermometer I’ve ever had, the Thermapen, by Thermoworks.  I’ve gone through a drawerful of thermometers, and none have come close to the usefulness of my Thermapen. I use it not only for barbecued and grilled foods, but also for water for tea and for bread baking.

What makes this thing so great?  First of all, it’s a very fast read thermometer.  For barbecuing, that means that my cooker doesn’t have to be open any longer than necessary for me to check temps, so I don’t lose as much heat in the cooking chamber.  For grilling, it means that I don’t get in danger of burning out those probe thermometers by getting them a bit too hot, having to buy a new one for $20 or so each time.

The tea thing may sound a bit odd, but it’s really not.  I boil water in an electric kettle, but boiling water is too hot for tea, especially white tea (which I drink).  White tea needs water more in the 185 degree F range, so I use the Thermapen to check the water before it gets too hot.

And for bread, I don’t really time things too much.  Partly because I sometimes use different temps in my oven or different modes of convection and baking.  Partly because I’ve learned with barbecue that time isn’t as important as temperature anyway.  So I figure out the right temp for my bread (a lot of recipes include this), and I check the bread quickly so it gets done just right.  Again, by doing it quickly, my oven doesn’t lose all its heat when I check the bread.

Do I have other thermometers?  Sure, but I don’t use them nearly as much as I do the Thermapen.  They’re not cheap, but they’re worth the price!

photo from Thermoworks.com website

I like rustic stews; simple, classic, country foods that are made a bit better than just plain old stew. It starts with the ingredients:

• 3-4 lbs of choice chuck, trimmed and cut into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes
• 3 large sweet onions, peeled and quartered
• 1 1/2 lbs yellow fingerling potatoes, left whole unless more than 2 inches across
• 1 1/2 lbs red fingerling potatoes, again left whole unless more than 2 inches across
• 1 lb. button mushrooms
• 12 medium sized carrots, cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths
• 1 bottle (750 ml) dry red wine
• Fresh thyme and marjoram, destemmed.

After the ingredients, it’s all about what to do when. One of the most important parts of building a stew is to ensure that the meat is well seared. Adding a tablespoon of oil to a hot cast iron Dutch oven is a start, then add the cubed meat. To make sure things sear, only a handful of meat should be added at a time, letting it sear then removing it from the pan to make room for more. Once all the meat is seared, the onions and carrots are added to also sear them. All this searing creates a Maillard reaction, which allows the sugars to caramelize. What this means is simple - Flavor!

Once the carrots and onions are done, the meat is added back to the Dutch oven, along with the potatoes and mushrooms, with the bottle of wine poured over everything, and the herbs added at the end. Salt and pepper should be added to taste. The liquid is brought to a boil, then the stew should simmer for 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat and veggies are tender.

Serve with fresh baked bread and butter, and let the comfort food do its job.