My buddy Lenny from ChezUs turned me on to this video lecture by Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell on the subject of spaghetti sauce and the nature happiness. I've used these TED Conference videos before when traveling to pick up the slack in content, and always find them fascinating. I hope you do as well. Enjoy!
Clara Chappaz, the US Community Manager at Wikio, has given me an exclusive opportunity to reveal the December Wikio Top 10 Health Blogs, before their official publication date. Food Wishes comes in at a very respectable number 17! Thanks for your continued interest and support.
Here are the Wikio Top 20 Food and Wine Blogs for December:
Pulled pork shoulder is such an easy recipe, and a great item to enjoy with your sample of SFQ, that I wanted to get this video up before I left for New York. As some of you know I'm headed out to help my mom for a little while and won't have an opportunity to post much from there.
The conventional method for cooking pork shoulder is low and slow, but this recipe is really low and slow – like 210 degrees F. low and 12 hours slow. The result is an incredibly soft and succulent piece of pork, perfect for pulling.
Since I don't have a smoker (at the time of this posting), and most of you don't either, I thought I would show you a little trick I would have learned in the Army had I enlisted. As you'll see, I cook the pork in a covered Dutch oven with a couple of ramekins of water into which I've added a small amount of liquid smoke.
I've never been a big liquid smoke guy, but this method seems to scent the meat with a nice subtle smokiness without getting in the way. The extra moisture also allows for a very humid cooking environment, always a good things when doing pork shoulder. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
3 1/2 lb pork shoulder roast
3-4 tbsp dry rub
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
barbecue sauce as needed
This video recipe for Maryland crab cakes is the first official full-length clip posted using the new Canon HD SLR camera. In addition to watching what I hope you find to be a delicious looking crab cake recipe, I would also like to know if you have any suggestions for the video specs.
I saved this in iMovie at a size of 1280 x 720 HD, set at 24 frames per second. It looks good, but a little "jumpy." Would 30 frames per second be better? I also saved it at "High" quality, not "Best," which would have made the movie like 800 MB!
Anyway, back to the food! This video will hopefully show you what crab cakes are supposed to be like. A real crab cake is basically a fried lump of crabmeat, held together with a minimum of filler.
As I explain in the video, this makes shaping them a little challenging, but once they are in the pan and browned on both sides, they are far superior on every level. Your basic restaurant crab cake is probably less than 40% crabmeat, which is why they are generally tough and bready.
These are closer to 75% crab, which is a blessing and a curse. Since the crab content is so high, you really can't make these unless you have a nice pile of super fresh, sweet, high-quality crab. Even using the correct technique, these special occasion appetizers will only be as good as the crabmeat used.
So if you can't get real lump crabmeat consider this video recipe food porn. Watch, enjoy, and just imagine yourself in the scene. However, if you can get your claws on some fresh crab, give these cakes a try. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh crabmeat, the lumpier the better, well drained
8 saltine crackers
1 egg beaten
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp Worcestershire
1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
salt to taste
cayenne pepper, optional
butter for frying
Never has a pun been more intended.
To raise money for the site last year, I offered a DVD of some of my favorite video recipes. Despite the fact the videos were available to view free online, many showed support by ordering one. It was a much-needed and appreciated boost to the site.
This year we have something a quite different. If you are able send us a donation, you'll be sent a very special thank you gift box (shipped free). Inside you'll get a jar of SFQ, the San Francisco-style barbecue sauce that my wife Michele and I have been working on the past year. But, that's not all.
In addition to being the first foodies anywhere to get a taste of this unique product, you'll get a package of Michele's special dry rub to use with your sauce. The sauce is in an 8-oz jar, and while based on a traditional Kansas City-style recipe, it also has hints of chocolate, coffee, red wine vinegar, and exotic spices from around the globe. But, that's not all.
In addition to the SFQ and the dry rub, you'll be getting something that others can only dream of stirring with. Your very own freakishly small wooden spoon! That's right! No joke! Your very own freakishly small wooden spoon!
Imagine the looks of envy on your foodie friends faces when they see you stirring something with your very own Chef John approved freakishly small wooden spoon!
This year's been a fantastic one for growing traffic, as well as getting some much needed recognition from the online food blogosphere. However, it's still a financial challenge to keep the site filled with free and entertaining content. We've also invested in some great new equipment, which will improve what we hope is an already enjoyable experience.
So, if you're willing and able, click on one of the buttons below and show us some love with a $45 donation (fyi - $10 of that goes towards the shipping). If you think of it as a voluntary yearly subscription for all these video recipes it seems like a steal! If not, we understand and hope you continue to enjoy this website as always.
SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED! We only have so many freakishly small wooden spoons, so when they're gone we'll have to change the gift box to include something else – act now!. Thanks!!
Sorry, but we are only able to ship this to U.S. addresses (and territories) at this time.
I want to give a sincere thanks to all you smart, funny, interesting, dedicated (and I'm sure very attractive) readers of this blog. You make publishing this blog the wonderful pleasure it is, and thanks to your support 2010 promises to be Food Wishes' best year ever!
Don't be afraid to eat and drink a little too much today. Remember, you can always burn it off by watching football on the couch later. Enjoy!
I finally got a new camera! A beautiful Canon T1i (thanks for the advice Danielle!). I've been dying to improve the still photography on the blog, as well as have something that can take decent low-light plate shots with when I'm in restaurants.
When I got home from the store I went immediately to YouTube to get some tutorials for using it. Thankfully there were lots of photographers who had posted videos on what all the buttons do (so many buttons), as well as some pretty good SLR photography basics.
It was during this initial research that I discovered something wonderful and unexpected. My new camera apparently has a really nice HD video feature! Bonus. So this quick and sticky video recipe for huckleberry jam was basically done as a test to see how much better the quality would be.
In addition to not really knowing how to make jam (I just winged it from memory of one I made like 15 years ago), I have very little experience with HD anything. Some folks on YouTube already commented on the video, regarding how to save the video in iMovie to take advantage of the higher resolution. I saved it at 640 x 480, but have been told I need to save it at 1280 x 720.
I know I also have to change the movie settings to letterbox to match the camera's video dimensions. If any of you former A/V clubbers want to chime in with recommendations for using this camera for HD video, I'd love to hear it! Thanks and enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 quart berries
4 cups sugar
1/2 lemon
1 box pectin powder (1.75 oz)
* You should refer to the box directions for best results. I was more interested in the camera, and so I just made this from memory. It tastes great, but at the time of this posting it hadn't chilled long enough to analyze the firmness, or lack there of.
I wanted to do a brief post today to get you up to date on all the newest developments, and also to give you a heads-up on my plans for the holidays.
I Guess They'll Let Anyone Write a Cookbook!
If you follow me on Twitter you probably know, but I'm officially announcing here on the blog that I've signed an agreement with Parragon Publishing to do a cookbook!
If everything goes as planned, it will eventually be four cookbooks , all focusing on American food (or at least what I consider American food).
I can’t give any firm dates or titles yet, but you will be the first to know. In addition to the regular distribution channels, I'll be able to sell them here for a special discount price, only available to my loyal Food Wishes fans. Stay tuned for more info in the coming months.
The Open Sky Project
I was contacted recently by an ecommerce start-up call Open Sky, and asked if I would be interested in being a "Shopkeeper" for their Home & Garden category. Their mission statement is "to connect consumers to experts and the products they love and use." Since I get so many emails about what products I use and recommend, I decided to go for it.
My Open Sky store is just getting started, and they only have a few products sourced so far, but eventually you will be able to find a wide range of my favorite kitchen and cooking-related products. By the way, the shopkeepers are given a share of the revenue, but NOT paid to endorse specific products.
One reason I decided to get involved was the company's founder is John Caplan, who was one of the founders of About.com. They've also signed on some very high-profile foodies including one of my blogger role models, Michael Ruhlman. Stay tuned!
Now Warming Up in the Bullpen…
My mother Pauline is having some work done to her shoulder in a few weeks, so I'll be traveling to New York to help her out, and steal more of her recipes. I keep telling her she is too old to become the first female short reliever for the Yankees, but she just won't listen. She thinks this surgery will add at least 5 mph to her fastball, and who am I to argue.
SFQ and a Very Special Surprise Package
I will make the official announcement on Cyber Monday, but this year's "please send me some money because I'm going broke doing free videos" holiday gift offering will include a sneak preview of my wife Michele's soon to be famous San Francisco-style barbecue sauce, SFQ. The package will also include a small wooden bonus gift that will be sure to cause a "stir" (literally, that's your clue).
Last year many of you supported the site by forking over your hard earned cash and purchased the Food Wish Favorites Vol. 1 DVD, containing 12 recipe videos that you could have watched for free online. I hope we can expect the same fantastic effort this year. It makes a huge difference. Stay tuned!
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
If you've been following the blog for a while you know things always slow down a little bit around the holidays. That will certainly be the case this year, especially with the unexpected travel back east, the cookbook project, gift package sales, and all the other normal holiday distractions. So, if you see a few days go by in between posts, do not be alarmed! I'm fine. Just really busy. Enjoy!
