I love bacon. It’s hard not to. Sweet, smoky, salty, chewy, crisp, rich… Good bacon hits on all cylinders. But I’ve always considered it a pain to cook. Standing over a skillet, laboriously flipping each floppy strip, grease spattering everywhere – even if you’re using a splatter screen, because you can’t flip without removing it….
Spam Ramen, or Rescuing a Terrible Recipe
Cooking has been my passion since college. For more than twenty years I’ve spent a huge amount of my time reading cookbooks, trying recipes, learning methods, combining ingredients. I’ve gotten good at tasting “in my head,” having a pretty good idea of what a recipe will taste like before I try it. Usually I can…
Korean Shiitake-Beef Lettuce Wraps
It’s NaBloPoMo on Unfussy Epicure! NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month. Bloggers who choose to participate post to their blogs every day. As with NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month, where participants write a minimum number of words every day – it’s a little hard to pin down what month actually is the official month…
The Crispy Chicken Chronicles: Spicy Korean Fried Chicken Chunks
As I discussed in the first installment of The Crispy Chicken Chronicles, I have been craving all kinds of crispy, crunchy, spicy, sticky chicken lately. But the one preparation that I keep coming across, that haunts me, that I just cannot keep out of my mind – that is KFC. No, not that KFC – I…
The Crispy Chicken Chronicles: Double-Fried Chicken Wings
Lately, there has been a particular type of recipe that keeps catching my eye: Fried chicken. But not typical Church’s or KFC (unless, of course, by KFC you mean “Korean Fried Chicken”). I find myself daydreaming over pictures of crisp, Asian-inspired chicken, most often doused in bright, sticky, spicy sauce. Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, or…
Braised and Grilled Beef Short Ribs with Sticky, Spicy Beer BBQ Sauce
Last week, I was suddenly possessed by the need to make the Sticky, Spicy Beer BBQ Sauce I blogged about almost exactly one year ago. I grabbed a can of Santa Fe Brewing Company Imperial Java Stout (which we always have on hand because of its long standing as one of Arne’s very favorite beers) and…
Chicken with Beer BBQ Sauce over Creamy Calabacitas Salad
I had to figure this dinner out in a hurry. It was 5:30. A pot of Sticky, Spicy Beer BBQ Sauce was simmering on the stove, thickening to perfect glossiness… and I had just discovered that the racks of baby back ribs in the refrigerator would need several hours to cook to tenderness. I…
Sticky, Spicy Beer BBQ Sauce with bonus recipe: Perfect Baby Back Ribs
I’m sort of a barbecue sauce fanatic. Though we skipped it this year because last year’s entry line was hours long, we love to attend the annual Fiery Foods Show, paying special attention to barbecue sauces. And that’s a lot of barbecue sauces – enough that the official name of the event is “National Fiery…
Roast Chicken Thighs with Grapes and Olives
It’s fun to roast a whole chicken. There’s something elemental about it; like baking your own bread from scratch, it provides a sense of accomplishment that outstrips its actual difficulty. But roasting a whole chicken has pitfalls. For one thing, it needs to be in the oven for almost an hour. Also, it can be tricky…
Easy Paella with Chorizo and Chicken or Shrimp
I have a feeling you’re looking at the title of this post with some skepticism. Easy paella? Isn’t that an oxymoron? We all know paella as a complicated dish so time-intensive that many Spanish restaurants ask you to call your order in ahead of time. Well, thanks to Mark Bittman’s wonderful cookbook The Best Recipes…