If Alton Brown builds it...

...chances are I've made one too. The latest items inspired by Alton Brown is what he called an "oven fish" in I'm Just Here for More Food. It is basically a wooden dowel with notches to push and pull the hot racks of an oven in and out. In IJHFMF, AB explains he made his from a broken broom handle that he whittled a V notch in the top and another notch on the side.

Well after years of wanting my own, I finally made one:

Starts with a stick...



After making the side notch and top notch...



What an excuse to go bake something, just to try it out mind you. :P

Alton Brown's chicken and dumplings

The next new offering from Alton Brown is the Chicken and Dumpling episode of Good Eats on Monday 3/22; therefore I found this the perfect time to discuss said offering from AB's cookbook and my "discovery" of it.

Like all good Southerners, I knew of this traditional soup from an early age. But, oddly, my mom never cooked the dish. I remember it being a staple for my grandma but I after became older and spent less time at her house the dish all but disappeared to me. My mom had always balked at chicken and dumplings telling me they were nasty and pasty--akin to AB's phrase of library paste I suppose. So I never ventured to make the dish since mom was so adamant about disliking it.

A few years ago, while on a trip, my friend ordered a plate of chicken and dumplings at a little restaurant called Jane's Lunch Box in Johnson City, Tenn. I will refrain from waxing poetic about the amazing chicken salad at this locale. Anyway, she got an equally fabulous meal with the chicken and dumplings. Seeing they looked mighty tempting, I asked to try some. Despite what my mother told me, chicken and dumplings were good, not pasty and something I certainly would enjoy making at home.

Next step find a trusted source. Since a family recipe was obviously out of the picture, I went to Alton's cookbook I'm Just Here for More Food vaguely remembering putting a sticky tab on a recipe for chicken and dumplings. Sure enough, I had marked it for something to try at some later date. This was perfect and I headed off to discover why chicken and dumplings were so hated by my mom.

In Alton's version from IJHFMF he discusses the two types of chicken and dumplings, dumpling style and noodle style. Whenever the dish did appear around me, it was always the dumpling style so I chose to opt for the familiar.

A quick perusal revealed this was going to be unlike the chicken and dumplings mom described as nasty and pasty. A traditional mirepoix (1 cup of celery and onion and 1/2 cup of carrots) started off the process, with a little garlic added to the mix. Once the mirepoix cooks for 5-7 minutes, add 6 cups of chicken stock--I admit to sometimes using packaged stock if my freezer doesn't contain homemade stock--and simmer for 10 minutes.

In the dumpling department, I did change AB's use of lard to solid shortening for the dumplings. The dumplings are constructed using the biscuit method. Thanks to Alton's great instruction on making biscuits in "The Dough also Rises," this step is simple and worry free. With the dough completed, make balls of it (using a disher or small circular cookie cutter) and drop then into stock and cook (covered) for 10 minutes over medium-low heat.

This version of chicken and dumplings quickly became a favorite for the addition of herbage. AB notes you can add parsley, tarragon, thyme or chive to the sage and ground mustard in the recipe. I have played around this part and find the inclusion of tarragon (one of my favorite herbs) to be a welcome addition and elevates the dish.

And because of this version of chicken and dumplings it changed my mom's opinion of the dish. She was won over by the cream, but not pasty, gravy, the veggie and herbal addition and the soft fluffy dumplings.

I am very interested in seeing the GE treatment of the dish on Monday!

Alton Brown at Campus MovieFest 2008

Huge thanks to my friend Anne for digging up a gem of a video with Alton Brown. In 2008 he received the Golden Tripod Award from Campus Movie Fest, the world's largest student film festival.

I found this especially fabulous because I spent my fair share of time doing student productions. My undergrad degree was in mass communications and the better half of my college career was in the studio or editing bay. One of the reasons I admire AB so much because he says he's still a filmmaker at heart. To me, that shows in his projects and that greatly appeals to me, besides the passion he has for cooking.

And as a former film student, I know what he meant by eyeline (not makeup, btw) and the location audio! I still have problems with that! And I want to say: AB, I used film too and no computers so don't feel too old.

Anyway, enough babble on to AB's video...

Caramels from the dark side

Although Alton Brown tells us salt and sweet treats can go together, remember those salt demos he did for Valentine's Day last year?, I was still unsure about this combo. But the more I thought on the subject, I realized yes these make a wonderful pair--chocolate covered pretzels anyone? So in the newest Good Eats episode on salty and sweet, the caramels were the one item that caught my attention.

At first, it was still foreign sounding to add salt to something as sweet as caramel but I trusted that AB would not be steering us wrong on this. Therefore, I dove into making the candies.

This was my first attempt at making caramels, however, fudge and hard candy are very familiar items I have made so the process was a well traveled path.

Creating the caramels is amazingly simple. Cook the sugar, water, corn syrup and cream of tartar mixture until it reaches 340 degrees. You do need to be very attentive as the mixture reaches that temp because it can quickly go from deep amber to burnt! And though the thermometer reads not quite to the target, remember the temp will still rise after it saucepan is removed from the heat so tread with care.

Slowly add the heavy cream/soy sauce and butter. At this point adding the cooler items to the hot mixture causes the to froth and fuss a lot. Once calmed, return to the heat and cook until it reaches 255 degrees or the soft ball stage. Now pour into the prepped pan and wait 30 minutes to sprinkle on the salt.

In finally deciding to make this completely as AB did, I had to add the salf to the top. But I used a finer grained sea salt, not course, because I didn't have any on hand. The finer grain sea salt did seem to dissolve in places, but did well overall.

Then to taste the salty sweet creations. Oh by the way, using a pizza cutter is a great method and makes it very easy to cut!

Back to tasting. I called it an OMG moment. The salt does elevate the taste. It makes the candy almost pop with an extra level of flavor. Wow!

And these candies are... well plain and simply... evil. I'm serious. As I write this, they are beckoning me to try a piece (or two).

Try your hand at AB's Dark Salty Caramels

Shameless plug for...

MYSELF! The video I did showing everyone the awesomeness of smoking fish I learned from Alton Brown and the smoker I made like his was featured on CNN's iReport yesterday!

The report is here: Online chefs serve up cooking advice, expertise

My big quote is why I enjoy Good Eats so much.

Tasty Awards broadcast

For the lucky Alton Brown fans on the West Coast, TasteTV announces that the first broadcast television airing of the 2010 Tasty Awards Show is March 13 at 10 p.m. on KOFY-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area. AB was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement award and the award for best male host in a series (and really, wasn't that an easy choice for the committee )
National broadcasts follow later in March on the America One Network (I'm baffled, never heard of it. Will look on DirecTV to see if I have it) and on Hulu.com.

The 2010 Tasty Awards celebrate the best in food and fashion programs on TV, in Film, and Online.

Buff Smoothie from Alton Brown

Fans are still a buzz over Alton Brown's weight loss and thanks to the Good Eats episode Live and Let Diet we have a few ways to have some healthier items to enjoy.

I have enjoyed smoothies for awhile, but usually find the ones purchased to be overly sweet. When AB presented his version, I was excited and intrigued to create the drink at home. However good this smoothie would taste or the fact that Alton himself recommended purchasing a smoothie maker, I am still not convinced this is needed, never mind the fact that it is a huge honkin' unitasker!

The smoothie making works perfectly fine in a standard ol' blender. At least for me it has.

To make a version of AB's buff smoothie, I began with doubling the amount of blueberries--8 oz--then used the 4oz of peaches and 4 oz of bananas. For the liquid, I used grape juice and light vanilla soy milk. I am considering a change here, from soy milk to rice milk.

Overall, the smoothie has a lightly sweet taste. The banana has a delightful addition to the drink, this was probably my favorite component of the drink.

Smoking trout like Alton Brown

Over the weekend I submitted a video to CNN's iReport on making your signature dish. I just had to give a shout out to my culinary idol, Alton Brown, and the one cooking technique he inspired me to become interested in. Some time ago, I built a smoker similar to AB from the trout episode and the Opryland demo.

Here's my video:



I will give a full report on the making of the smoker and photos later. But I just wanted to share with everyone my video and it possibly will be featured on a CNN segment!

Alton Brown talks salty & sweet

Reminder, new Good Eats episode on Monday. Alton Brown talks about salty sweet treats.

The Ballad of Salty and Sweet contains a few oddities:

Dark Salty Caramels
Grapefruit Brulee
Praline Bacon

Alton Brown UGA commencement speaker

As an alum of the University of Tennessee it pains me that Alton Brown is a University of Georgia grad but he is and this year will be the spring commencement speaker for UGA.

Read the press release here.

PS, thanks to my friend, Anne for alerting me to this event!

Alton Brown to host James Beard Awards

The 2010 James Beard Awards ceromony will have a little fook geekery at the party, Alton Brown is set to host the event, along with Wolfgang Puck and Lidia Bastianich. The James Beard Awards, AB is a winner himself, acknowledges some of the culinary field's best and on May 3 AB and et al. will present the latest crop of winners.

Thanks to read, Kayleigh, for the tip!