February 10th
2007
The possibility of finding a (new) definite keeper or killer recipe is what keeps me going and spending -probably too much- time on the culinary end of the net. A trait many food lovers - especially food bloggers - have in common, continuously striving to find yet another fantastic new recipe. Which also serves nicely as a handy excuse to allow one's cookbook racks to gradually take over what you used to refer to as your apartment. But cookbooks - in many ways - can't compete with online recipe sources and in particular with food blogs. For a couple of reasons:
We write because we love our food, which, photographed or not, will land on our plates afterwards. Usually. I dare to claim food bloggers are epicureans, so by no means would someone add hairspray to a painstakingly prepared feast, right? RIGHT? And the inexorably melting ball of ice cream showcased on the plate is real ice cream - likely to have been documented by the bloggers' cursing about how difficult it was to capture the perfect scoop. It's all real.
Immediate feedback. Sometimes not the recipe per se attracts the reader's attention, but perhaps the through-the-roof positive reviews it has received. Expressed appraisal and appreciation by the readership and other food bloggers can be the golden seal of approval. It's a good sign that a recipe truly works and has the potential to knock you of your feet.
With the unbeatable side effect: Little flaws in recipes are likely to be discovered by your attentive readers which adds that extra level of quality insurance and encourages food bloggers to be careful and precise about each recipe published online. Mistakes happen, all the time - after all we are human - but it's far easier to correct it online than it would be in a printed book, ultimately resulting in a higher accuracy of a recipe.
Why am I telling you this? Because the number of my recipe bookmarks has skyrocketed over the last months. Not a single day goes by without adding one or two new alluring recipes - most of which I haven't tried yet (and truth spoken, I may never get to). A fault confessed is half redressed! So from now on, similar to Zarah Maria's Dinning with the bloggers, I'll try to re-cook or -bake as many of my bookmarked recipes in one day, now whenever that day is. Simply to find out, if there are some real keepers out there and I have a strong feeling there are!
How about you? Have you recently discovered drop-dead fabulous recipes online? True keepers? 'Love to hear about your experience, what made the dish so special and who wrote about it!
English muffins
The same recipe was bookmarked twice, Barbara's, as well as Sam's attempt to bake these little breakfast treats. I found the dough a tad too sticky to work with and decided to add a bit more flour, which worked well: Fluffy crumb, crisp on the outside, next time perhaps with an extra pinch of salt - a keeper, I'd say!
Gougères
Cheese-y, fluffy, cute. Anyone out there who doesn't like them? Thought so ;) Jennifer raved about them, Deb had before and I'm doing it now: Little delights, easy to prepare, the secret star of every party buffet. Original recipe by Jacques Pépin, Food & Wine
Potato arugula soup
Luisa's encounter with Leslie Brenner's Arugula And Potato Soup was not exactly what she had hoped for. Yet her thoughts on how to go about making a proper version planted a seed in my brain and I - an absolute arugula aficionado - had to see for myself.
'Sautéed some shallots in butter, followed by the potatoes, added the chicken stock, seasoned it with salt, fresh black pepper, nutmeg, a dash of cayenne and a generous dollop crème fraîche before finally adding the arugula and blending everything. Help! I never had anything like this. Pungently bitter in taste and slimy in its consistency, I quickly came to my senses and kept repeating to myself that arugula is just not meant to be heated AND pureed...
Semolina pudding with oranges, syrup and pistachios
Petra writes one of those blogs I'd trust blindfolded, each and every recipe, seriously, I kid you not. Concise in her description and steps, her culinary taste never disappointed me, which is probably why her blog is the one I cooked most recipes from over the last years. Putting aside what I just wrote, this recipe instantly convinced me just by its looks, so colorful and juicy, it was screaming my name - or was it the blood oranges on our window sill, desperately waiting to be eaten? I cooked the pudding according to her instructions sans beaten egg-white (I don't like the taste of it in my semolina puddings), reduced the orange juice together with brown sugar until syrupy and garnished everything with pistachio halves. Mmmmh-yum! A visual epiphany with a oriental undertone, which I'd like to emphasize even more so next time with additional cardamom and cinnamon.
The Gougeres are Fantastic! First visit, great blog! If, by chance,you're accepting links, check us out @ Famiche - Family Kitchen and Fashion Niche. Thanks!
Nicky,
these Gougères looking good! I made them 1-2 years ago, but never looked so round as on your photo. I will make them too in the coming days........Gougères-food-blog-hopping!!
Liebe Grüße aus Berlin,
Martin
You make it all look so easy. And the Gougeres are very well shaped! I bookmarked the recipe now, too ;)
[...] Misses Delisches fragt, was wir so aus Blogs kochen und backen. Mein jüngster Erfolg: der Orangenmohnkuchen von Frau Fool for Food (meine kleinen Änderungen: Kuchen vor dem Beträufeln rundum einstechen, Sirup bis fast zur Marmeladenkonsistenz einkochen – dann wird der Kuchen nur saftig und nicht matschig). [...]
I used to have a special favorite folder in my browser named "recipes from foodblogs", which contained hundreds of links, I kid you not... With last weeks PC-crash and the following lost of my hard-drive, now they are all history... These links and 6 months' worth of (not yet blogged) pictures (thousands!) made me sit there and weep like a baby.
We've published a few cookbooks, but it's true that these days it's hard for print to keep up with the variety that bloggers provide
Not sure if you like Southeast Asian food, but I love this website, lots of original and beautiful recipes.
Really gorgeous !
Breads are the favorite around here, I make my own pita but have never tried English muffins. I'll give these a go.
Hallo Nicky,
ich stimme dir absolut zu - Foodblogs sind eine Inspiration! Ich liebe die persönlichen Schilderungen, die kleinen Hürden, die genommen werden wollten, die persönlichen Abwandlungen und dann das echte (und anders als in vielen Kochbüchern) ungeschönte Ergebnis zu sehen. Beim Lesen vieler Rezepte möchte ich am liebsten gleich in die Küche laufen und sofort mit dem Kochen oder Backen anfangen. Wie du dir vielleicht denken kannst, werde ich mich nun auf die englischen Muffins (ich hatte bisher nur welche mit Sauerteig gebacken) und die Gougères stürzen!
Vielen herzlichen Dank für die so freundliche Erwähnung von Chili und Ciabatta, ich habe ja richtig rote Ohren bekommen ;-)
Mein zuletzt ausprobiertes Rezept von Bloggern war übrigens die sehr gelungene Gâche vendéenne von Le Pétrin.
I'm a web recipe junkie. I love being able to see real pictures, read reviews of what worked, what didn't, etc.
Beautifully written post! The English Muffins look incredibe and you're right, time to spend more time cooking all those recipes we've bookmarked!
YAY! How great is this!? Only now I have even more recipes to bookmark! Keep it up, you know I'll be following intensely!:-)
I'm honoured to get a mention. I'd like to nominate one of Farmgirl's recipes - The Blueberry Breakfast bars. They are sensational and other bloggers have made them and gone as far as to describe them as orgasmic. http://winosandfoodies.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/ive_heaps_of_ot.html
Homemade english muffins - does it get any better than that? I used to make homemade hamburger buns for my veggie burgers. It is really hard to go back to store-bought. xo-h
I'm afraid to count all my recipe bookmarks! And now I'll have to bookmark these wonderful Gougeres, too ;)
There are too many cookbooks, and those written to be sold off the back of TV series always lack the individuality of books written because of the passion and commitment of the author, which is why my favourite contemporary authors are people like Simon Hopkinson, and Marcella Hazan.
The best food bloggers show these same qualities, but I have yet to create a good file or other index of recipes I have found on the web that I can flick through to get inspiration. I think I also rather like the ramshackle collection of hand-written notes and yellowing newspaper clippings that is my main recipe index. I also have my mothers and grandmother's files too, which I treasure even if I consult them infrequently.
I was planning on making Melissa's pao de queijo this week, so perhaps I'll also make these gougeres and have a cheese-bread face-off!
Hey - for us foodie-noobies, can you give us an idea what a "tad more flour" constitutes? Are we talking about 1/8th-1/4th cup or so? Or spoonfuls? I'd love to make these this weekend...
Ich lieeebe Gougeres! Ein guter Tipp zum Abwandeln: Gehackte Kräuter zum Schluß noch mit untermengen, z.B. Schnittlauch oder auch ausgelassenen Speck. Sehr fein.
Whitelady, That is so true! Having been able to peek behind the scenes of an end to end cookbook creation process, I came to realize how much time and effort can be spent on tiny details, which pays off if the book's recipes really work.
Kaltmamsell, Ist auch gleich gebookmarked worden, gerade bei saftigen Kuchen werde ich schwach. Und bei Mohn sowieso!
Hande, Try to see the positive side effect: Your bookmarks folder got some early Spring cleaning and you have the chance to start afresh with all the tempting recipes out there - you should have any problems filling your brand new Magnolia folders quickly ;)
James, I'm totally with you on "hand-written notes and yellowing newspaper clippings". I once attempted to re-type these recipes, but gave up pretty fast. The recipes would have lost some of their personality and history ;)
Jim (trapped in the Netherlands), Barbara has a photo showing the consistency of the dough and in comparison, mine was less sticky after I added the little extra amount of flour. We're talking about an additional half cup I used for this recipe - at least. But remember, if the dough still feels too sticky, you can always add a little more flour to it.
I've made this tomato bisque a few times and it is simple and perfect each time.
Shaker Tomato Bisque.
that semolina pudding looks divine, thanks for bringing it to my attention! I finally found a market where i can buy both fine and coarse semolina and have been wondering what to do with it aside from making pasta. I no longer have to wonder...
the pudding looks absolutely delicious! unfortunately my German is non-existent, is there an English translation?
I will be attempting to make my wife and I some Gougères as soon as possible.
P.S. - We just found out that we're having twins!
lovely writing there. and i wish my photos could look a bit more like yours.
Jelena,
Petra prepared a very basic semolina pudding with scraped out seeds from half a vanilla bean and some egg (optional). She fillet some oranges and reduced the juice she gained from it with brown sugar until syrupy, and decorated the pudding with slices of orange and some pistachios. That's it ;)
By the way, Babelfish provides a pretty decent service (free) for online translation of complete websites into a number of languages. It's not perfect, but quite useful.
[...]  RawSugar  reddit  Wink  Yahoo MyWeb   There is an interesting discussion going on over at Delicious Days over how cookbooks cannot compete with recipes sites and especially food blogs. But cookbooks - in many ways - can’t compete with [...]
Gougeres are my favorite party food, my recipe contains also some chopped chives. Love your photos!
... I muchly prefer food bloogers to cookbooks too. Because of the aspect of reality, which really really is important.
I once worked at a rather unimportant cookbook publisher, who published relatively cheap cookbooks (5 Euros each). Working at a publishing house is really rather disenchanting: For example, when the recipe seemed to have too much garlic in it, the boss simply changed the amount of garlic in the recipe. Without trying it beforehand.
Also, when something looking splendid in a cookbook simply does not work out when you yourself try it, it could be because the object depicted had a different recipe than the one standing in the book (e. g. more baking powder etc.). (That is to say, my former boss never used artificial elements, they were very proud of the fact that they took pics of the real food.)
My conclusion is: Never again will I buy a cheap cookbook.