With news that the world may or may not be on the verge of a swine flu pandemic, Bloomberg is reporting that the World Health Organization is dropping the colloquial term for the H1N1 virus, due in part to objections from the pork industry. The World Organization for Animal Health called Egypt’s decision yesterday to slaughter every pig in the nation “inappropriate” and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack confessed to eating pork twice in the last 24 hours as part of an effort to demonstrate that the combination human/avian/swine flu is not a food-borne illness and has not at this point been found in any actual swine.

So has the news affected your cooking or your appetite this week? Is it business as usual in your kitchen or does the thought of bacon give you pause?

For longer than any of us have been alive, cooks have been finding uses for leftover bread. If you find yourself in this predicament, here are 10 delicious ways to salvage bread before it goes to waste.

(more…)

To mark Obama’s 100 days in office, we’re making this bold, complex and nutritious One Hundred Almond Curry with chicken from Niloufer Ichaporia King’s My Bombay Kitchen.

Domenica Marchetti is a food writer, recipe developer and cooking teacher who specializes in seasonal Italian home cooking and the author of The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy. Visit her website at www.domenicacooks.com. You can find more of her recipes here.

The first time I took my children to George Washington’s Mount Vernon they were quite young and, honestly, not all that interested in our first President, or Martha Washington, or the mansion. After a tour of the house, we headed over to the Mount Vernon Inn, on the grounds of the estate, for lunch.

I wasn’t expecting much from the Colonial-themed restaurant, with its faux-pewter mugs and costume-clad servers, whose garb reminded me more of my old Mrs. Beasley doll than of Colonial couture. But we had a delightful meal, and I fell in love with Virginia peanut soup.

(more…)

This morning in Paris, I was waiting in line at the police station next to Notre Dame to get my visa renewed as I do every year with the foreign-born Parisian masses requesting permission to stay. It was chilly but the purple lilac trees were in bloom and the two policewomen doing crowd control were passing the time trading recipes.

Specifically, they were discussing the fine points of Quiche Lorraine, the French classic that is a simple mixture of eggs, lardons and cream. “I’m from Lorraine and I make a real Quiche Lorraine,” French policelady number one was faintly bragging to her sidekick. “Pas de fromage!”

“Oh, really?” said policelady numéro deux, before being treated to a blow-by-blow of the recipe by her colleague, down to oven temperature and the correct number of eggs (it was three).

All of which just goes to show you that nothing is sacred when it comes to cooking — and even French people don’t always know that an authentic Quiche Lorraine doesn’t include cheese. Nevertheless, we say skip the fromage — the real thing is rich and creamy enough without it.

Recipe: Quiche Lorraine (Cookthink)

Béatrice Peltre is the Boston-based French blogger, photographer and food stylist behind La Tartine Gourmande.

Sweet or salty?

Salty, and anything that involves dark chocolate.

Which ingredient(s) do you use most?

Olive oil, all kind of fresh herbs, lemon, zucchini, carrots — all sorts of vegetables, in fact.

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

The sound of sautéed vegetables.

(more…)

Hair of the Dog is Cookthink’s Monday morning cocktail column by Rob Chirico, the author of the Field Guide to Cocktails. Read more about Rob here.

This threadbare cocktail made from brandy or cognac and white crème de menthe clearly belongs to another era, and those of us who abhor sickly sweet cocktails would unanimously agree that this is a darned good thing.

The original Stingers that were popular in New York in the early 1900s were made exclusively with brandy, while cognac is often substituted nowadays. Over the first half of the last century, the Stinger developed a reputation as a sophisticate’s drink, and it eventually attained an international appeal. Like Grasshoppers, Spiders and other beastly beasties intended to give you a buzz, the Stinger is built around white crème de menthe — and there’s the rub.

(more…)

The Sunday Dinners project is a collaboration between Andrew Schloss and Cookthink. (For more on this, read Andy’s introduction to the project.)

There is endless inspiration in the flavors of the Mediterranean — coriander and cumin in North Africa; lemon and mint in the Middle East; oregano, basil, fennel and lavender along the northern coast and the pungent stench of garlic and olives everywhere.

(more…)

Photo: Focaccia With Fennel, Prosciutto And Fresh Mozzarella (Cookthink)

Chewy, olive oil-enriched Italian focaccia is filling and delicious, either on its own, as an accompaniment to a meal, or with a green salad for a light lunch. The pizza-like flatbread tastes great plain, or with anything you want to add — herbs like rosemary, nuts, fruit or prosciutto, fennel and mozzarella. Start with our basic recipe for focaccia. Then go wild.

Mark Bittman started a lively discussion about the merits of TV cooking vs. real cooking on his Bitten blog recently, calling the demonstrations by most celebrity cooks baffling, intimidating and a charade. He harkened back to the days of Julia Child, whose producers allowed her to make mistakes on camera from her very own Cambridge kitchen, now eternally preserved in the Smithsonian.

What good does it do to watch a celebrity chef show off his bionic onion-chopping abilities, Bittman argued, and anyone who watches his cooking demonstrations on the New York Times website knows that he has attracted a cult following precisely by not showing off, creating an if-I-can-do-it relatability by demonstrating the pared down recipes and simple techniques that define his persona as The Minimalist.

Watching a turbocharged celebrity chef coast his or her way through a dish (”Bam!”) usually means consuming a load of empty calories. Depending on the charm of the performer, the exercise can provide a welcome time-wasting distraction or feel as cringe-worthy as watching a lousy magician pull a rabbit from a hat.

(more…)