Foodie Faves: How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Technologically speaking, I am not an early adapter. To this day, I don’t own an iPod, and I won’t even tell you how long I used a dial-up modem. But some technology speaks to me loud and clear. The first time I saw an ad for the iPad, I could picture it on my kitchen counter. I just knew it would eliminate those mad dashes upstairs to my desk to look up a recipe I can’t find, or to check out a cooking technique I haven’t yet mastered, or maybe just to see what sorts of substitutes might work for an ingredient I don’t have. And I was right. Moreover, it’s smaller than a PC, so it’s easier to move around; it didn’t cost as much as my laptop; and that smooth glass cover is relatively impervious to the occasional splash of tomato sauce or salad dressing.

But I never could have imagined how much fun I could have with a cooking-specific app until I found the one based on Mark Bittman’s book, How to Cook Everything. I’ve been reading Bittman in The New York Times for years, and I always appreciated the simplicity and flexibility of his recipes. But much of the charm of this app is in the technology.

Here are some of my favorite features:

1. The “Constant-On” button in the bottom right corner of the screen. The one flaw I find with the iPad is that annoying habit it has of fading out just as I’m ready for the next step in a recipe. Bittman’s app lets you keep the display running for as long as you need.

2. Touch the circled number of whatever step you’re on, and the text for that step is highlighted in blue, so it’s easy to find your place when you come back from sautéing the onions.

3. Say you’re using the app to make Caesar salad, pasta with Bolognese sauce, and lemon mousse for dessert. (Yum!) A tab  for “Bookmarks and Timers” at the bottom of the page lets you jump back and forth from one recipe to another, and with that blue highlighting on each recipe, you can multitask with the best of them, and avoid stirring the onions into the dessert.

4. Notice I said the tab was for Bookmarks and Timers. If the lemon mousse recipe calls for you to cool the gelatin for a minute, you touch the little timer icon at that point in the recipe, and a timer will pop-up that will keep track of your gelatin. You can even have several timers going on at once.

5. Variations are a hallmark of Bittman’s recipes. For the lemon mousse, he offers the tweaks to make it pomegranate mousse or lemon yogurt mousse. For the Bolognese, which normally takes 3 hours, he tells you what to do to make a 30-minute version.






6. Any special techniques you may need for a recipe are illustrated in easy-to-follow pop-up displays.

 Bon appétit!

My Favorite Lamb Recipe – Aye, There’s the Rub What’s cooking? Amazing Roast Leg of Lamb

Last week’s New York Times Magazine contained a piece by Mark Bittman with three yummy-sounding recipes for leg of lamb.

As I read them, I thought, I should try one of these. And then I remembered why I probably won’t: I have my own concoction that lifts lamb to a height I should probably call Amazing Taste. So flavorful that my friend Ellen – who says she doesn’t really like lamb – will dig into it with gusto.

The key is the spice rub, which I discovered in my early single days in Manhattan. It comes from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook, the original edition (1961), and the first grown-up cookbook I ever owned. It appears in the book to be almost an afterthought, but I fell in love with the list of ingredients that at the time encompassed almost every condiment I had in my larder.

Amazing Roast Leg of Lamb

6-7 pounds bone-in leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat (also works fine with boneless leg, which is easier to carve and may take less time, but is not quite as flavorful)

The Rub:
2-3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 bay leaves, crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons salad oil

Mix well the ingredients to the rub. Make small slits all over the lamb, and massage the rub into the meat. Let sit 30 minutes to an hour. (You can let it sit more; if so, refrigerate the lamb while it sits).

Preheat the oven to 450º. Set the lamb on a rack in a roasting pan, and roast 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350º, and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. After that, using an instant meat thermometer, check the temperature of the meat every 10 minutes, until it reaches 145º in the thickest part. It should not need to cook more than 1½ hours. Let it sit for 5 minutes before carving.

Kitchen Goddess note: You can test for doneness by pressing the meat with your fingers – it will be slightly resistant at rare/medium rare, and more resistant for medium. Also, if you prick the meat with a fork, the juice that comes out will be rosy for medium-rare, almost clear for medium.