B FRESH Photography

Cheo Smith at work in his kitchen

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kochtopff/flickr

Celebrate the joys of pasta all month long.

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Not only is Nick Eldorado a member of the hard rockin' band LIKEHELL, he also loves hotdish so much (even more than Michele Bachmann) that he started his own group to celebrate the stuff. Since March is National Noodle Month, we checked in with Eldorado, who shares one of his favorite hotdish recipes and a pasta recipe made by his Italian papa.

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Zoe Francois

Make them for the first night of Chanukah

With the first night of Chanukah coming up fast (it starts next Tuesday, December 20, at sunset), the Hot Dish started asking around for some great recipes by local chefs. We got a chance to get up close and personal in a two-part interview with pastry chef Zoe Francois last week, and we also got her to share some the sweetest ways that her five-minutes-a- day method can be applied. Her recipe for sufganiyot, a classic Chanukah dessert, uses the Brioche dough from her Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook. Here is Francois on one of her favorite Chanukah treats:

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Courtesy Robin Asbell

​Robin Asbell, cooking instructor, culinary advisor to the Whole Grains Council, and author of Big Vegan: More Than 350 Recipes, No Meat/No Dairy, All Delicious, will be appearing at the Kitchen in the Market (in Midtown Global Market) on December 11 from 1 to 3 p.m. The author will be signing books, giving a short cooking demonstration, and handing out samples of her innovative vegan dishes. Asbell's latest cookbook has recipes for every meal, including Griddled Oat Polenta with Smoky Maple-Tempeh "Bacon" for breakfast, Seitan Burgundy Stew with Parsnips for a hearty lunch, and Red Lentil Masala Burgers with Curry Ketchup for dinner. The Hot Dish caught up with the multitalented Minneapolis resident and got her to share a recipe for a holiday party appetizer she calls "seasonal, colorful, and fun." It also makes good use of the leftover bag of cranberries you might still have in your fridge from Thanksgiving.

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Baking cookies with the "Pie Guy" JML

​Now that the turkey is done, the relatives have made themselves scarce, and the cranberry sauce stains have been addressed, it's time to kick this holiday season business into high gear. It's time to get our bake on. 

For ideas we turned to area cookbook author, chef, and television personality John Michael Lerma. You may recognize him from the small screen as the Pie Guy, or perhaps you've found yourself searching his recipe-stuffed blog or easy-to-follow cookbook, Garden Country Cooking.

We asked JML to share one of his favorite holiday cookie recipes, and he sent us this gem.

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Wikipedia

The Haiga Sophia and Blue Mosque: Cooking in a foreign city can create an intimate connection with the local culture

Istanbul is a city with great narrative. It has style, romance, history, and food, an exploding music and art scene, plus a caressing Mediterranean climate. But after you've looked and tasted and examined and thought, the urge to do is inviting.

Cooking classes in a foreign town are a sure bet for the curious traveler. It's a tasty way to explore the city through its food. Cooking a country's food lets you start with the local foodstuff--the panoply of produce, spices, and herbs filling the bins and barrels of the local markets--and figure out how the odd vegetable and local grain combined to forge the foodways of a culture. And since most often cooking classes are held in a private kitchen, taking a class also gives a coveted peek into someone's private home or office, a look inside normally not available to tourists.

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A few of Etoll's ghastly creations

​Filmmaker Mike Etoll knows a little something about blood and guts, having made the movie Sewer Baby and videos for bands like the Meat Puppets on the tightest of budgets. Etoll, who is also the creator of The Butcher Shop House of Gore, shared a few of his most grisly Halloween recipes with items found in the kitchen (cue the scary laughter).

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Applesauce and apple butter home-style.

​The lovely sight of apples hanging from the trees is a fine reason to hit the orchards this week. We are a big fan of buying bags of "seconds"--apples with slight blemishes that are sold at a deep discount. Finding ourselves with 12 pounds of apples this weekend (at 99 cents a pound from Aamodt's), it was time to get crazy in the kitchen. Here are three of our favorite creations.

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​This week we've been chatting with chef Jorge Guzman, executive chef at Solera. Thus far we've covered his growing years and career. (Get caught up here and here). Today we wrap up our conversation talking about what really matters: food--Spanish food, Mexican food, comfort food, and shrimp heads. 

What was the first food you learned how to cook?

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Joy Summers

Joia Sodas premieres at Strip Club Meat & Fish

​Monday evening Tim Niver and staff hosted a party to celebrate the launch of Joia sodas, the new effervescent beverage with all-natural ingredients developed by resident mixologist and onetime City Pages Best Bartender Dan Oskey. The kitchen created dishes to pair with each of the distinctively flavored sodas. 

Niver poured glass after glass of the sodas straight, as well as a few cocktails spiked with the Strip Club's usual flair, using recipes authored by Oskey.

The four sodas came about when Boundary Water Brand founder Bob Safford mused that while mixologists were infusing alcohols with herbs and tinkering with bitters, nonalcoholic offerings floundered in the wasteland of high-fructose corn syrup and coffee sludge. After testing over 100 herb, spice, and fruit flavor combinations, they decided on four flavors of sodas.

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