Let's Talk: The Most Important Kitchen Tool You Own

As you probably know, about five years ago, we left Manhattan and moved to very rural New England. We left the tall buildings for clear air and gorgeous light. We also left this:

That's our Manhattan kitchen. Twelve books were written there. It was five feet wide including the appliances. You couldn't stand in front of the stove and open it at the same time. I always said, if Sylvia Plath had had our apartment, she'd be alive today.

And we ended up with this:

Naturally, Bruce has gotten many more toys for this country kitchen--some of which he's not allowed to use in recipe-testing. (We can talk more about that sometime, if you'd like.) I asked him the other day what was the most important kitchen tool he owned. I expected him to say "my Henckel knives" or "my food processor." Maybe even "my KitchenAid stove." Or something cheffy like "my immersion blender."

His answer caught me off-guard.

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Indonesian-Style Goat Curry

It's official. The goat book is out there and on sale. Early by a couple of weeks. It's available right here. (Bit of a shocking photo, eh?)

If you liked the ham tome, you'll love GOAT: MEAT, MILK, CHEESE. Let me give you the first sentence: "I lied while wearing make-up."

What? It doesn't sound like a cookbook? Oh, but it is: quick guide to butchering, the physics and chemistry of cheese-making, and over 100 of Bruce's killer recipes. Plus some rather salacious stories. One involves a poster of Farah Fawcett Majors. And yes, it's still a cookbook.

To celebrate, I'm going to drop an original recipe here, one Bruce created just for all of us who hang around this blog. This one's not in the book--call it a "blog exclusive": a hot and sour and spicy curry, just a little sweet, modeled less on Thai wet curries than on the savory ones found in Singapore and Indonesia. So let's get to it.

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Grilled Wings

Now that's a heap of wings! And a fine supper they made. As well they should: sweet, hot, spicy.

When I was a kid, we had fried chicken at my grandparents' house almost every Sunday we were there. My grandmother always tried to grab the wings. Even put them on her plate before she set the platter down on the table. And then there was always a show-down: she and her sisters, fighting for the wings. "Oh, Sis, let me have that. You take a breast."

I thought it was martyrdom, saving the best for everyone else. Um, no. Now I know it was rank selfishness--because a wing is definitely crunchier, juicier, fattier, and skinishier. (What would be the adjective for having more skin? Skinnier? That sounds way wrong for chicken wings.) It was one of my favorite parts of developing recipes for THE ULTIMATE COOK BOOK (which you can find here)--so we ended up leaving three recipes in that volume.

Anyway, Bruce made some wings last night on the grill because we had a momentary day of sunshine and warmth, into the low 70s.

Boy, were those things good.

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Vindaloo Paste

It's barbecuing season--and still cold at our house in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. Maybe that's why I'm thinking about vindaloo paste today: a warming spice melange that's been badly interpreted in America. Vindaloo doesn't mean "the hottest thing you can imagine." Rather, it must be first and foremost a balanced blend.

Frankly, I love to slather it on meat or veggies for the grill, let them sit for a few hours in the fridge, and then grill them off, comforting and easy.

Unfortunately, so many bottled blends are nothing more than excuses for too much cayenne, little balance among the ingredients. So here's the blend from COOKING KNOW-HOW:

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