Last Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the James Beard Book, Broadcast, and Journalism Awards because Kitchen Vignettes was one of three nominees in the Video Webcast, on Location category. What an honour that was! Especially being a finalist alongside two of my favourite fellow foodie video producers, Dark Rye and Perennial Plate! And finally getting to meet the PBS Food team in person!
The evening got off to a wobbly start as we discovered how utterly impossible it can be to find a taxi on a busy Friday evening in Manhattan. After some frantic waiving and whistling and everything in between, we finally found a free cab and scrambled in, only to be promptly booted back onto the street and told he was headed a different direction from where we were going. Feeling very much like two lost farmers in the city, we managed to jump on the nearest subway and then proceeded to undertake a rather frantic, un-elegant 'walk-run' all the way to the venue. We made it to our table just in time for dinner and the beginning of the awards announcements, phew!
The soirée was a blast, with a Southern-themed dinner and all the excitement of the awards announcement. It was a thrill to be sitting in a room filled with so many foodie personalities... even Martha Stewart was there to receive the award for Best Television Program. The Video Webcast on Location award went to the amazing world-travelling duo at Perennial Plate and my only disappointment was that they weren't there to congratulate in person (because every single one of their videos makes me want to hide in their suitcase and be their travel buddy on their next trip). If you haven't already seen their work, you've got to check them out… though it's hard to choose just one, this is probably my all-time favourite:
The awards dinner was followed up by the Lucky Peach after-party at Momofuku's which was a blast. Three floors of all you can eat and drink madness. My favourite was the seafood-covered table decked out with jars of mysterious tiny pickled fish, mountains of crawfish (maybe one day someone will teach me how to actually eat those buggers, though I did my best with my limited skills…). And then there were crab legs. Muchos crab legs. I ate a lot of those crab legs. They made my night. This photo captures a bit of the glistening seafood raunchiness. It was really a rather crazy scene.
My adventurous date dared to venture into the equally crazy sheep-inspired cocktails being whipped up. I'm not sure I'll ever have another chance to taste a sheep yoghurt cocktail. We had fun. But possibly the best part about New York was seeing leaves and flowers on the trees.
Fancy that! Up here in the north pole, we barely have daffodils yet. So a little taste of actual spring was a most delightful break from the endless days of rain and cold we've had here. Oh New York, you're always such a charmer. Thank you for the memories and until next time, fair city.
Happy May, friends! I have a special spring giveaway for you today. Emile Henry is generously giving away one of their gorgeous 7-quart figue-colored (I like to call it aubergine) ceramic Dutch Ovens to a lucky Kitchen Vignettes reader.
Made of a special heatproof ceramic, Emile Henry Dutch Ovens can be used directly on a gas or electrical stovetop or right in the oven. These beautiful Dutch Ovens are basically indestructible, you can heat them up to 930F and they're resistant to thermal shock, which means you could take one out of the freezer and place it directly in a hot oven.
Emile Henry Dutch Ovens are made in Marcigny, France, from high-fired burgundy clay. I love this video showing how the Dutch Ovens are made:
Please note, this giveaway is only eligible to residents of the United States. To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below. I'll draw a winner on May 15th. Bonne chance mes amis!!
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Spring has finally sprung! Easter is coming. So I made these little celebratory morsels of delish the other day.
They're so fun to make, it's almost embarrassing. And while it must be said that for optimal entertainment, these should be made with your friends who are younger than 12, if you can't round up any kids for this one, don't worry, your own inner child will thank you when you pull those brightly-colored eggs out of these easy homemade dyes.
The dyes are made using foods that you'll probably have readily on hand in your kitchen: beets, red cabbage, and turmeric. Of course, this is only scratching the surface of the vast possibility of colors you can create from common foods (onion skins, hibiscus tea, black tea are just some of the other ones to try), but I wanted to keep it to three colors and relatively simple. Read how to make these easy dyes below. But first, the chickens deserve some thanks and acknowledgement.
This recipe happened because there's been an overflow of eggs around the farm lately and I've been making every egg dish I can think of. We've been "chicken-sitting" for friends, so the chicken population suddenly doubled.
Not to mention this is the time of year when chickens suddenly go into marathon egg-laying mode.
One thing to keep in mind if you have access to farm-fresh eggs is that fresh-laid eggs don't peel very easily, so when making hard-boiled eggs, it's best to use eggs that are at least a few days old. (* flash update: Or as a reader pointed out in the comments below (thank you Carol!!), to hard boil day-fresh eggs that peel easily, simply STEAM them using a basket steamer, for 12 to 13 minutes, then immediately plunge in ice water to cool and peel under running water while they are still warm).
So here's how I went about making these deviled eggs. First… the dyes.
For the pink dye:
Combine 2 cups of water and 1 cup chopped beets. Cover and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes. Strain the solids out. Add 1 Tbsp vinegar and 1 tsp salt and stir.
For the blue dye:
Combine 2 cups of water and 2 cups chopped red cabbage. Cover and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes. Strain the solids out. Add 1 Tbsp vinegar and 1 tsp salt. To turn the mixture blue, add 3/4 tsp. baking soda and stir.
For the yellow dye:
Combine 2 cups of water and 1 Tbsp turmeric. Cover and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes. Strain the solids out. Add 1 Tbsp vinegar and 1 tsp salt and stir.
To dye the eggs, you will first need to hard-boil them and peel them. You then plop them in the dyes and let the magic begin. The longer you leave them in, the brighter the colors. I left mine in for about one hour and this is how they turned out.
And this is what one of my cutting boards looked like once I was done with this recipe.
Once your eggs are dyed to your liking, you can go ahead and make the deviled eggs as you normally would. Use your own favourite deviled egg recipe, or skip the mayonnaise and try my easy Greek yoghurt recipe on PBS Food. (I promise these are so good you won't even miss the mayo!)
Happy Easter!
