Cooking

This week we explore the richness of LA’s dining scene. Marvin Gapultos shares some of his favorite Filipino dishes from his new cookbook The Adobo Road and Roy Choi discusses his unabashed love of SPAM. Los Angeles Magazine Dine Editor Lesley Barger Suter offers tips on sushi etiquette and where to find some of the best sushi in LA. Jonathan Gold enjoys a deconstructed …

This weekend on the show Evan Kleiman poses the question, “Why hasn’t Filipino food caught on in LA?” Compared to Korean, Chinese and Thai food, Filipino food has remained largely off the radar in Los Angeles, but native Angeleno Marvin Gapultos is determined to change that. Since he took his Filipino food truck the Manila Machine off the streets in 2011, he has been …

When you have a successful restaurant, inevitably there are dishes that you can’t ever take off the menu. Such is the case with the Smoked Bucatini Carbonara at Superba Snack Bar. Chef Jason Neroni cold smokes the fresh pasta over smoldering cherry wood chips. He then cooks it until just al dente and tops it with pancetta, parmesan, a perfectly poached egg and plenty …

The more I use my pressure cooker, the more I marvel at it’s usefulness. Once a year, on or around St. Patrick’s Day we have an old-fashioned corn beef and cabbage dinner. I cook the cabbage with potatoes in the resultant broth from cooking the corned beef. The meat is a treat, but eaters clamor for seconds on the cabbage. There is something about cabbage that is cooked in a salty broth until totally tender that is completely satisfying…

I don’t need an expert to tell me that I eat too much dairy.  I live with a 93 year old mom who puts sour cream on everything.  So when I decided to prepare for my interview with Mark Bittman on his new diet book VB6:  Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health…For Good (well that’s a mouthful), I knew …

Sometimes large dried beans never manage to get that soft creamy center you want in a bean. Unless you cook them in a pressure cooker.  Instead of soaking and cooking for hours, in a fraction of the time you get a perfectly hydrated, tender bean. My recommendation is to find a pressure cooker cookbook you like and use it as a guide. Through trial …

I’m in love with my pressure cooker again after too long apart. After hearing from several interviewees (Christopher Kimball, Richard Blais and Maxime Bilet) that the pressure cooker was the single most useful tool to increase flavor and move “modernist” culinary technique into the home kitchen, I pulled my 4-quart Kuhn Rikon out of its hiding place and got to work.
But then the horror …

There is a scene in Gabrielle Hamilton’s autobiography, Bread Bones and Butter, when her sister informs her that she is having chef Andre Soltner over for lunch and she plans on serving him an omelet. Gabrielle tries to stop her. Didn’t she know who Soltner was? This was a man who judged all chefs on their ability to create “the perfect ovoid omelette with tiny curds …

When I was teaching a Passover Cooking Class last week I realized how even the simplest of tips can push your pot roast from just okay (or even barely edible) to excellent.  Take a look at this video I did a couple years ago for The Jewish Federation to get an idea of how easy it really is.  Hint:  It’s all about the vinegar-sugar …

Variations on these intense chocolate no flour cookies pop up all over the internet around Passover, but they deserve some attention all year round as a Gluten Free option.  They are deeply chocolaty and take well to experimentation with additional flavors.  I like to add some of my favorite chocolate friendly flavors like almond, cinnamon and a hint of coffee.  I add coffee flavor …