RCE: Heat and The Nasty Bits: Food Pairing!

You didn't think that just because we were reading memoirs regarding two celebrity chefs this month that don't actually include recipes that I was going to leave you out in the cold, did you? Of course not!

A little hunting and digging on the web has brought you four recipes to attempt - one fairly straightforward and the other a little more involved. Two each from Mario Batali's Babbo Restaurant and two from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. All look absolutely amazing and I really do hope you give at least one of these a try. Remember to take a picture if you can and post it to a site for us to take a look at (or email it to me and I'll just pop it up on Blogger's system).

Babbo Ristorante

Bucatini All'Amatriciana
Pumpkin Lune with Butter and Sage

Les Halles

Boeuf Bourgignon
Moules Mariniere

(Please note that all copyrights for all recipes and names remain those of the owner, not of this site - if anything goes wrong with the recipe, blame them - not me.)

Podcasts
Just so you have something to listen to whilst you're cooking up these little treats, I dug up these podcasts for you!

Podcast with Bourdain
Radio Show with Bill Buford
Buford on McGee on NPR

Reading
And finally, some things to read as you wait for your dishes to be ready...

An interview with Anthony Bourdain on Bookslut
An interview with Bill Buford on NPR
A review of Heat on NPR
A review of Heat on Slate

Finally, I don't know if anyone's noticed yet but I've just opened the Amazon.com Read.Cook.Eat. Bookstore (link on the right below my profile). This month's books and a few other niceties are listed there for purchase either here or somewhere else. My intention is just to provide a nice little place for some culinary inspiration, not to actually make profit. For the one person who did actually make a purchase through one of my links, THANKS!!! I'm not ever expecting to make any money, more that I can provide a service to some of our readers who don't have such available access to great bookstores and shopping experiences.

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires: Hash Browns!

Poor Melanie... The poor dear has been struck with yet another of the poorly written and perhaps completely untested recipes from Garlic & Sapphires...

I must post this swiftly and regrettfully, with most of those regrets to Eric. Last night, the last day of August, I attempted to make the hash browns from Garlic and Sapphires. They were abysmal. I don't know how a person could f**k up freaking hash browns, but I managed to achieve this quite easily with a spare list of ingredients (8 new potatoes, an onion, salt, pepper, butter). I think I didn't boil them long enough. I think I used too much potato. I think I need to stick to what I'm good at, which is deep frying and pressing the button on a rice cooker.

Anyway, my bf thought they were good, although they needed more salt he said, and then he said they were like really good baked potatoes in a cake form, and then he said I'm going to put some salt and butter on these ok? And then he was throwing slabs of Plugra on it like frosting. Holy shit is it that bad, I said. And then he said, no! They're great!, but with a mouthful of the sort-of hash browns, so it was more like Mfno, fey're gwate! We ate them all, so they were tasty overall, but believe me - they weren't pretty.

So no picture for now. Sorry, Eric! I've failed the RCE club, and think I may be forced to renounce my membership.

If the two shots on Marcus' cameraphone end up being not so horrific, I'll post them later...but if I don't, just imagine the Texas Chain Saw Massacre -- with potatoes.

Goodness me, Melanie! You're so not going to be allowed to renounce your membership! Perish the thought! The entire purpose of the club is to read, cook and then eat. You did all three - sadly, with less than desireable results, but results nonetheless.

I think that we have a few more possible recipe tests to come up in the next few days but suffice it to say that in the end I think we can all agree that most of the recipes from Garlic & Sapphires fared less than acceptably. Perhaps a summary of our results should be sent to Ms. Reichl? Think I might take that task on... In the meantime, Melanie, I hope you like the next assignment - because its September and time for new books!!!