Spotted lately: fully equipped outdoor kitchens for plein air dining (no trips to the indoor fridge or sink required). Here’s our roundup of standout examples.
Above: An outdoor kitchen by NY-based Bates Masi Architects, members of the Remodelista Architect & Designer Directory. Above: Cooking essentials hang from an exterior wall in a courtyard kitchen at March in San Francisco. Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista. See Steal This Look: The Deconstructed Outdoor Kitchen on Gardenista. Above: A sleek teak and steel outdoor kitchen from Italian company Mebart.
Above: An outdoor kitchen via Ikea, grill included. Above: Made of modular components, the WWOO kitchen by Dutch designer Piet Jan van den Kommer offers ultimate flexibility; photograph from VT Wonen. See also Steal This Look: The Ultimate Outdoor Kitchen over on Gardenista. Above: The WWOO kitchen in anthracite. Above: An indoor/outdoor kitchen by VT Wonen at the Woonbeurs exhibit; photograph via Vosges Paris. Above: An outdoor kitchen in Red Hook, Brooklyn, by New Eco Landscapes.
The latest food and beauty fad doesn’t just look good on Instagram, it comes with dubious health claims too. Is it just a gimmick to absorb maximum cash from gullible consumers?
There are two kinds of food that exist solely to be Instagrammed. There’s the gregarious type, prefixed by “unicorn”, striped through with bright colours and dusted with glitter. And then there is its surly cousin, which exists in simple, stark monochrome. Over the last few years, the trend for black food has been growing. Burger King was an early pioneer, offering a “kuro burger” in some of its Japanese stores in 2012, sandwiching a patty between a sliced black bun, with a sliver of black cheese, and a black sauce made from squid ink. Since then, social media-savvy food outlets have increasingly turned to the dark side. You can now get your hands on black hotdogs, black smoothies and black desserts – LA’s Little Damage ice-cream parlour caused a frenzy in press coverage with its black soft serve on a black waffle cone. Waitrose recently released a limited edition antipasti pizza made with a black sourdough base, having launched a Heston-endorsed salmon and cream cheese black bagel last year. There is one key ingredient infusing these snacks with the hue of a teenage goth’s bedroom wall: charcoal.
“Charcoal was an ingredient we started to see emerging in restaurants and food pop-ups last year. With its earthy, slightly smoky taste and dark colouring, it gives a premium feel to food and makes it a real talking point,” says Jonathan Moore, executive chef for Waitrose. But while it may be appearing on buzzy menus and the plates of more adventurous MasterChef contestants with increasing regularity, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to nab a barbecue briquette from the shed and sprinkle it on your salad. Activated, food-grade charcoal is a modified form of the stuff, which means its surface area has been maximised to make it more porous. It’s popular in powdered or capsule form in many natural food stores, and is usually made from coconut shells or bamboo.
Is it a hug? Is it a kiss? Cartoonist Sarah Glidden had to navigate the confusing world of greetings many times during her travels – and there’s just no way to avoid feeling embarassed
Michael König's Sun is a spectacular time lapse compilation of our star from the Solar Dynamics Observatory from 2011 to 2015. It includes fantastic clips of solar activity, coronal rain, plasma eruptions, planet flybys, eclipses and more in jaw dropping clarity that you feel like it's alive, in an omnipotent God-like burning orb sort of way.
Call me a blaster-bolt-happy unoriginal action-sequence heathen, but my favorite 20 minutes of Star Wars remains the Imperial invasion of Hoth. Now, imagine if you took the AT-ATs and TIE fighters, and dropped them over Los Angeles instead.
by Casey Chan on Sploid, shared by Casey Chan to Gizmodo
One stroke painting is such an impressive skill that it's unbelievable even when you see it happen. These artists from Kousyuuya in Nikko, Japan have been mastering their craft for over four generations. The amount of detail they can put out with one stroke is just unreal.
I think i’ve previously said that bresaola is always made with lean pieces of meat. This is true traditionally in Italy, but some discussion with other home curers made me wonder why, and what if I were to make a bresaola using a fattier piece. Would it be tastier? Would the fat taste funky? I wasn’t really sure, so I had nothing left but to try it.
I started with a bone in standing rib roast. this is basically a ribeye roast on the bone.
The meat was removed from the bone, and trimmed just a little bit. This is one side of the rib roast
The other side of the rib roast. Looks fantastic. Nice marbling.
The curing mix. I kept it purposefully very simple to be able to taste the meat.
The rib roast was coated with all the curing salts and spices, and vacuum packed. I’ve been doing this for a little while now and i really like that it keeps everything contained and in contact with the meat, and there is no chance of meat juices leaking all over the place.
About 3 weeks in the fridge and the meat is nicely cured .
The meat is quickly rinsed and dried. It’s now ready to be cased and put into the fermentation box and then the curing chamber.
The odd shape of the meat made casing a little tricky. I had some casings which are unavailable here in the US, which are made from the membrane surrounding the organ cavity. They’re called “pelle di sugna” in italian. I’ve used them before in my capocollo di Calabria and they work nicely. If i didn’t have these i would split open beef bungs and layer them like sheets over the meat. Should work perfectly.
The other side of the meat, just before going into the chamber.
I sprayed this with M-EK4 mold solution and put it in the fermentation box for about 48 hours at 71 deg. F.
I don’t have a picture of it, but a nice bloom showed up on the meat.
After about 2 months the meat had lost about 33% of it’s weight. Didn’t take long. The chamber was held at about 55 deg. F and 75-80% RH.
I think it' dried pretty quickly because it has a large surface area and the pelle di sugna casing is very thin.
Had to slice this longways because of the grain. It’s AMAZING. It’s incredibly tender, the beef flavor is very evident and delicious. It’s MUCH more flavorful than an eye of round bresaola. The fat melts in the mouth and has a nice flavor as well. The few spices put on shine nicely without interfering with the beefyness.
It’s a little salty, so next time i would reduce the salt to 2.75% or so.
Thanks to blog reader Carl for pointing this video out to me. It's a great demonstration on how to tie larger caliber salami (for example in a beef bung).
I think i’ve previously said that bresaola is always made with lean pieces of meat. This is true traditionally in Italy, but some discussion with other home curers made me wonder why, and what if I were to make a bresaola using a fattier piece. Would it be tastier? Would the fat taste funky? I wasn’t really sure, so I had nothing left but to try it.
I think i’ve previously said that bresaola is always made with lean pieces of meat. This is true traditionally in Italy, but some discussion with other home curers made me wonder why, and what if I were to make a bresaola using a fattier piece. Would it be tastier? Would the fat taste funky? I wasn’t really sure, so I had nothing left but to try it.
