Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter. Hi, I’m Amanda.packed with tips on food, travel and shopping, Food52 activities and other topics that catch your attention. Get inspired: sign up here to receive their emails.
I can’t let tomato season pass without promoting my favorite tomato recipe: Browned Butter Tomatoes. They taste like lobster, I can’t explain why!
Attention all tomato lovers: Food52’s Tomato-thon is now underway
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And this week I learned two great dessert tricks.
The first is that if you replace the cream with sweetened condensed milk, you get a super silky ganache that is almost stretchy. Try it! Place 1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat a can of sweetened condensed milk over low heat. Pour this over the chocolate, add some salt and vanilla, stir until smooth, then thin with water until it has the consistency of frosting. Ta-da! This excellent tip comes from chef Charisse Ledres.
Photograph by Amanda Hesser
Photograph by Amanda Hesser
Photograph by Amanda Hesser
Photograph by Amanda Hesser
Second, there’s the olive oil whipped cream epiphany, which I learned to make from Lauren Calhoun, a private chef. She adds salt and sugar to the cream, whips it until it forms soft peaks, and then adds a delicate, fruity olive oil. This produces a wonderfully light and fragrant whipped cream. And it gives you an excuse to cut up some nice peaches, spoon the cream over them, and call it dessert.
These are the ratios that worked well for me: ½ cup heavy cream 2 teaspoons sugar A generous pinch of salt 1 teaspoon fruity or herbaceous olive oil
Photography by Elvin Abril
A functional and stylish cookbook stand. Thanks Virginia Sin!
Photography by Elvin Abril
My husband’s family has had a Dansk salad bowl since the 1960s. It is used as a serving piece for almost every meal, often for salads, but sometimes for pasta or cereal dishes. It is sturdy, has a beautiful tulip shape, and is made of teak that has darkened over the years due to the absorption of oils.
A large salad bowl responsibly crafted by artisans using sustainable wood is an investment. An investment in art and an investment in family gatherings.
Last week we launched the Dansk Slope teak salad bowl, which has been out of production for decades. Its shape is simple, safe and modern, but it has the weight of something that is here to stay.
I heard it from a LOT of you! And you really know your cult classics: the line, “I’ll do whatever I feel like doing, oh my God!” came, as almost everyone knew, from Napoleon DynamiteAnd there was a tie! The first two emails had the same date and time, so both Jennifer from Birmingham, Alabama and Cari from Des Moines, Iowa will receive a pair of these glasses.
Photograph by James Ransom
Being a recipe developer is like being a food critic. Everyone sees it as a dream job and doesn’t want to hear your complaints. But we want to hear just one: what’s the hardest part of being a recipe developer?
Recipe development is something I’ve always wanted to do, but never quite figured out how to do. Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, I’d say the most daunting challenge is the constant juggling act between being innovative and practical. The testing and tweaking required to ensure consistent results for a diverse audience with varying levels of comfort in the kitchen, coupled with the pressure to stay ahead of trends and produce new content, can be overwhelming. Being a recipe developer is a balancing act between being creative, meticulous, and adaptable, while also pushing boundaries and ensuring accessibility for all home cooks.
What is your most underrated recipe?
I would say that my braised pork with kiwi-tomatillo salsa is a dish that has amazing flavor and some techniques and components that can be used in other ways. The kiwi-tomatillo salsa alone is worthy of being made by anyone who likes to dip their fries in it, or who likes to put salsa on tacos, sandwiches, or eggs. This pork can also easily be replaced with any protein that benefits from a long braise.
Where should out-of-towners eat in New York?
I highly recommend visitors leave the “cool” neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Manhattan and head to Jackson Heights, Queens. No neighborhood better represents the melting pot of cultures that is New York. I go at least once a month, and within a radius of a few blocks, you can sample dozens of Latin American, Southeast Asian, and other less accessible cuisines.
Favorite tool?
My all-time favorite kitchen tool is a classic wooden mortar and pestle. Having grown up in a Puerto Rican home, pylon As I knew, it was the center of preparation for almost every dish, whether it was to make a garlic paste or to make sofrito for rice and stews. My first culinary task as a child was to prepare sofrito for my mother after school while she was still at work so she could get a head start on dinner preparation.
May your day end with a spoonful of whipped cream with olive oil,
Amanda
