Presenting The Faux Gourmet!

The Faux Gourmet has been on hiatus for a while. I began this blog as a creative outlet during law school. After law school, I started other blogs on other topics and no longer needed this as a creative outlet, not to mention my diminishing free time.

But I kept cooking, kept taking food pictures and garden pictures, kept wanting to share the little tidbits of what I'd made. I occasionally did this on my personal blog (to which, I'm sure, people yawned and wondered when I'd post another cat picture). But I started to miss this space. Of all the blogs I have, this format, culled over several dedicated years and incorporating that adorable illustration by Sam Wedelich (see info the left) is by far my favorite.

So I'm back!

Expect short and sweet posts. Less food porn, more recipes and tips. If you want food porn you can look at any of the 5000 million existing food blogs. I don't have good lighting in my apartment and don't have time to style plates. I just want to make something yummy and eat it. If that sounds ok with you, stick around.

Looking forward to being back in touch!

xx

The Faux Gourmet

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    Monday, August 31, 2009

    Playing Ketchup Ball

    From Columbia Crest's 25th Anniversary Celebration, August 2008

    Dressed up Ketchup
    kicks some serious condiment booty

    I've been with my family in Washington State for the past month. It has been a time of abundant food accompanied by bottles of ever-flowing (mostly Washington) wine. We have had feasts galore, both of our own making and at several delightful eateries. I even watched Julie & Julia, a movie about food and blogging about food, for goodness sakes.

    Yet for all this, you've heard nary a peep from The Faux Gourmet. Yes, I snuck in a few short posts at the beginning of the month & wrote a new Chef's Corner column for Airfield Estates, coming soon. But by and large, the past month has been a time for simply enjoying. Even Julie & Julia made me want to cook (with lots of butter) more than blog about cooking. And so my hibernations seem never to end; first the bar exam, then vacation--I'm forever teetering to one extreme.

    Taste & See: Teeter no more. I'm now on my way back to New York to resume "real life," day-dreaming about the dishes I'll make when I get home. It doesn't hurt that I've been watching Eat Drink Man Woman, with cooking footage that puts Food Network to shame. But for all this fancy stuff, I find my mind wandering back the same simple dish I've craved all summer long: a hamburger.

    Oh, you can dress it up with high-grade meat and fancy toppings if you want but at heart all I really desire is a hunk of juicy meat topped with melty cheese in the loving embrace of two cripsy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside pieces of bread. And ketchup. Homemade ketchup.

    From Columbia Crest's 25th Anniversary Celebration, August 2008

    Ketchup is where I get fancy. I don't want Heintz's, or even Annie's organic (tasty though it is). Ever since Gourmet magazine's early summer feature on the ultimate burger I can't stop making homemade ketchup. It's freakishly easy and the homemade flavor so dramatically outshines something from a bottle it is almost a crime not to make it from scratch. Here's my adopted recipe; try it for yourself and if you're anything like me, you'll be dreaming up main courses just to have an excuse to drape your food in gorgeous red.


    Delightfully "viscous" (Gourmet's word) ketchup, on the burger & for extra dipping

    Do It Yourself: Some homemade ketchup recipes call for stewing down fresh tomatoes. Not a chance, with tomatoes $4/lb last time I checked, compared to 59 cents for a perfectly adequate can of tomato paste. Gourmet calls for canned stewed tomatoes but I didn't feel like cleaning a blender & took the easy road; ketchup made from tomato paste tasted pretty darn tasty to me.

    1 small can tomato paste
    1/2 onion, diced
    3 cloves of garlic, diced
    1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
    Allspice
    Cinnamon
    Paprika
    Chili Powder
    Apple Cider Vinegar
    Brown Sugar
    Salt

    Here's the easy part: Saute down the onion & garlic til they're soft & brown, making your house smell wonderful. Empty the tomato paste into a bowl and stir in the onion & garlic.

    Here's the less-easy part: Season to taste. Oh, I know you want precise measurements but the truth of the matter is you probably like yours seasoned differently than I do. If I tell you how I do it & you don't like it, you may just go off ranting about my poor taste in condiments (not you, that *other* reader) and never give homemade ketchup its proper due.

    But since you insist, here's how I play:
    1/4 cup Brown Sugar
    1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
    1/2 Tsp Chili Powder
    1/4 Tsp Paprika
    1/8 Tsp Allspice
    1/8 Tsp Cinnamon
    Dash of salt.

    Then I season to taste.

    Enjoy!

    2 comments:

    Grace Like Kelly said...

    my mouth is watering! This looks sooo yummy! Here in hawaii a lot of condiments get "infused" or kicked up with local flavors and its always sooo awesome. Its always a surprise!

    The Faux Gourmet said...

    Grace Like Kelly- interesting! What kinds of flavors? Would love to hear some examples!