© Stephanie Meyer
Yam neua just might be my desert island beef salad. I discovered it about 23 years ago, when I spent a few months doing some restaurant-kitchen consulting work with Brian McNally, who owned Indochine and 150 Wooster—at the time, two of the most popular restaurants in New York City. Read more >
© Stephanie Meyer
In the Zimmern house, when the weather turns steamy in Minneapolis, we always keep a glass pitcher of cold soup in the fridge. We alternate between my gazpacho recipe and this cucumber yogurt soup of Turkish origin. While everyone thinks of cukes as an American farmhouse staple, Turkey is the third-largest producer of cukes in the world.
Warning: Test Kitchen Tease snapshots may cause cravings, lip-smacking and an unshakeable desire to cook.
Justin Chapple
This week, while working on a terrific story for our December issue, F&W's Grace Parisi tested this phenomenal cheesy version of Parker House rolls from The Greenhouse Tavern's Jonathon Sawyer in Cleveland. They were supertender and we loved pulling apart each buttery piece. One secret to the recipe's awesomeness: Old Bay Seasoning. We know what you're thinking—how can a spice blend that's typically served with seafood be at all tasty with bread? You'll have to wait a few more months to taste his clever recipe, but in the meantime, try Grace's pull-apart Caraway Parker House Rolls.
Related: Breads of the World
© Stephanie Meyer
In the early days of my travel life, I fell in love with Malay food and with the island of Penang. Pound for pound, this little island may have some of the best food in the world. On Kimberley Street or New Lane in the central city of Georgetown, the hawker stalls come alive at night and they serve some of the best chow in town.
© Stephanie Meyer
Bo la lot is one of my favorite Vietnamese foods and a global fan favorite as well. Whether you use wild betel leaves, grape leaves (which I think work equally well) or even chard or kale, the authenticity meter won’t redline. This is one of those treats that you can truly make your own way, just like every Vietnamese grandmother does.
Warning: Test Kitchen Tease snapshots may cause cravings, lip-smacking and an unshakeable desire to cook.
Justin Chapple
This week in the F&W Test Kitchen, we enjoyed a double dose of figs when testing this superb recipe for grilled figs with fig jam and blistered jalapeños.
First, we made the jam by simmering dried Black Mission figs and brown sugar in red wine until soft and plump, then we coarsely pureed the mixture to form a savory-sweet accompaniment to what comes next—grilled figs! What's so clever about these grilled figs? We halved each one, then dusted the cut sides in sugar before marking them on a scorching hot grill. The result: A crème brûlée-style crust that was perfectly caramelized and just lightly charred.
To contrast the sweet figs and jam, we added salty feta cheese, cilantro leaves, lime wedges (for squeezing) and grill-blistered jalapeño peppers. This recipe won't be published for a few months, but in the meantime, this Fig, Orange and Pistachio Conserve would make a great alternative to fig jam in an easy grilled fig salad. It's also a fantastic summer starter, especially when served on grilled bread with fresh ricotta cheese.
Related: Fig Recipes
F&W's Ultimate Guide to Summer Grilling
© Susan Spungen / Chicken-and-Avocado Soup
Instead of packing snacks for a road trip, The Smithsonian’s blog suggests roadside foraging. For many drivers and bikers, the idea conjures distressful images of The Beverly Hillbillies, but the fun guide reveals that travelers in places like Europe and Southern California can find luscious figs and fallen avocados that are not on private property. Most of us have to forage at supermarkets for the buttery fruit, but no matter where you find them, make sure to snag a couple extra. Two pureed avocados add silky richness to this fast Chicken-and-Avocado Soup with Fried Tortillas.
© Rick Poon / Thai Chicken Soup
London is full of amazing restaurants, but Olympic athletes can’t entrust their diets to just anyone. The U.S. team installed its own nutrition center and dining hall with staff who know exactly what an athlete needs—like a recovery shake for an underweight wrestler or a calorie-packed dinner for an exhausted swimmer. But it’s not just protein shakes and plain pasta. The center provides a wide selection of foods so that the athletes will actually enjoy refueling. “About seven years ago, we took nutrition science and merged it with culinary arts, and we now call it our performance-based menu,” says the U.S. Olympic Committee’s associate director of food and nutrition services to Outside Magazine. “We’re the only country in the world that is providing this level of food service.” While there are burgers, a full salad bar, a deli and more, the most popular dish in the dining hall is a Thai chicken noodle soup. F&W’s version of the tangy, spicy soup uses rice instead of noodles and creamy coconut milk for a filling dinner that's also superfast.
Related: Delicious Chicken Soups
Fast Thai Dishes
Healthy Asian Recipes
© Stephanie Meyer / Chicken Skewers
Tonight, F&W contributing editor Andrew Zimmern will host the 100th episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel at 9/8 p.m. CST. The season six premiere will be preceded by an hour-long retrospective featuring highlights from Zimmern's quest to travel the globe and sample the world’s weirdest, tastiest and at times squirmiest foods (like giant coconut worms). In his Kitchen Adventures series for foodandwine.com, Zimmern likes to adapt some of his exotic finds into delicious, never-scary recipes for home cooks. He found inspiration for these Golden Coin Chicken-Shrimp Skewers with Peanut Sauce in Guangzhou, China, but likes to serve them Thai-style in lettuce wraps. They're the perfect finger food for a Bizarre viewing party.
Related: More Recipes from Andrew Zimmern
Street Food Adventures
Wild Seafood
© Stephanie Meyer
As a young boy growing up in New York City, we would spend our summers on the South Fork of Long Island. My dad would take me down to the beach at low tide, we would walk a mile down to the jetties and he would lower me by my ankles into the crevices between the massive boulders to grab at huge ropes of mussels. We would crab on Georgica pond for fun, pull clams out of Gardiners Bay, fish for porgies and snappers and make up any deficits for our Saturday dinners at the local seafood store. I thought we were foraging, but now that I am a dad, I realize this was my pop’s way of staying sane on rainy days with a seven-year-old to look after. We would haul our treasure home and my mother would make a superb summer fish stew out of whatever we brought in the door. My mom was as brilliant a cook as my dad is. She passed away a few months ago, and I am recooking my way through her recipe bin. My mother went to college at Mills, in San Francisco, and she roomed with Trader Vic Bergeron’s daughter. Vic taught them to cook late at night in the kitchen of the original outpost of the international Polynesian restaurant concept that still bears his name. Vic loved to eat, according to my mom, and while pupu platters were more his thing when it came to selling food, he loved the cuisine of northern California and made sure my mom knew how to make a simple cioppino before she graduated.
This easy and simple tomato-and-wine-spiked seafood stew is a Bay Area staple. Cioppino was supposedly created in the late 19th century by Portuguese and Italian fishermen who settled in the region from Genoa, Italy. Like all these types of dishes, it was first made on the boats while the men were out at sea and then found its way into the Italian restaurants that exploded on the scene in San Francisco. The name comes from ciuppin, a Ligurian word meaning “to chop” or “chopped,” which described a fisherman’s chore of chopping up scraps and bits of the day’s catch that weren’t sellable.
This recipe has been in my family since the early ’50s in one way or another and I love it. Serve it with plenty of toasts made from sourdough boule and a large, bracing green salad.
Go to Recipe: Cioppino with Mussels
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