Maxim knows there comes a time when every man must learn to fend for himself. So instead of sending you on the road to fill your belly, this year’s food awards are sending you into the kitchen, with help from the country’s best chefs. Try not to set anything on fire.
Friends sticking their faces in your fridge again? How about feeding them this time? These comfort-food staples will make your guests feel at home, and rev them up for scattergories.
CHEF: Graham Elliot Bowles
Graham Elliot, Chicago, IL
“I’m always trying to hit that emotional connection to childhood in my food,” says Chicago chef Graham Elliot Bowles, who’ll be a judge on Fox’s amateur cook reality show, MasterChef, this month. While for some that might mean baking their mac with a crunchy breadcrumb crust, Bowles’ velvety concoction was inspired by a junk-foodier source: “Nine out of 10 people I know grew up on Kraft Macaroni & Cheese,” he says. “That blue box with the orange powder, it’s reminiscent of home. Shit, we use Cheez-Its in a dish at the restaurant. It’s food people understand.” And if this recipe doesn’t take you back to your grade school (or bong-infused frat house), Bowles says feel free to experiment. “Just start with the foundation of a noodle and some kind of cheese—I like Gruyère for flavor and provolone for richness—and take it from there. You can do so many things with this dish.” Including adding liberally to your spare tire!
MAC ’N’ CHEESE UPGRADE
How do you improve on a classic? Add a can of soup, some truffle oil, and ’shrooms, of course.
From Chef Graham Elliot Bowles
Serves: four to six
Ingredients
2 cups strozzapreti or other pasta
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
1/4 cup shredded provolone
1 Tbs. white truffle oil
1 oz. olive oil
12 cremini or button mushrooms, whole
1 Tbs. sherry vinegar
1. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat cream of mushroom soup in a medium pot over low heat. Alternate whisking Parmesan and provolone into the warmed soup, making sure the texture is smooth. Add truffle oil. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Preheat a large sauté pan and add olive oil. Once oil is nearly smoking, add all of the mushrooms. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes until tender. Add sherry vinegar and continue cooking, about 2 minutes.
3. Heavily salt the large pot of boiling water and add the pasta. Cook the pasta for 10 to 15 minutes or until it’s al dente. Using a slotted spoon, remove pasta from water and place directly into the cheese sauce. Add the cooked mushrooms into the mixture and simmer for 2 to 3 more minutes to incorporate all flavors. Serve individually or on a large platter.
BEST DAMN PORK BUTT, PERIOD
Season this massive shoulder and stick in the oven. Five hours later, dig into the fattiest, juiciest, most tender hunk of pig known to man.*
Prep time: five hours
Serves: six
Ingredients
20 sage leaves
3 thyme sprigs, stems removed
3 rosemary sprigs, stems removed
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 Tbs. fennel seeds, slightly toasted
11/2 tsp. medium-coarse sea salt
11/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
4 lbs. boneless pork shoulder, skin on
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry white or red wine
1. Heat oven to 250ºF. Chop sage, thyme, rosemary, and garlic together. Place in a bowl; add fennel, salt, and pepper. Stir.
2. Score pork skin in a crosshatch pattern, making 1/8-to 1/4-inch-deep cuts about an inch apart. Make 10 1/2-inch-deep incisions and stuff them with 1/3 of herb mixture.
3. Tie pork tightly with twine, brush olive oil over skin, and rub with remaining herbs. Set skin-side up and roast for 2 hours.
4. Pour wine over pork and baste with juices. Continue roasting, basting every half-hour, until skin is well-browned, 2 1/2 to 3 hours more. Let rest for 15 minutes.
5. For crispy skin, slice off cap of skin and fat. Broil, skin-side up, 3 to 6 minutes.
6. Slice roast and skin and serve together on a platter or a crusty roll.
*adapted from Olives & Oranges: Recipes & Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus & Beyond, by Sara Jenkins and Mindy Fox, Houghton Mifflin, 2008
LAZY DOES IT
Don’t want to cook? Let someone else do it for you!
Kreuz Market
If you want to get a taste of Texas heat without the 100-plus-degree temperatures, order a couple dozen jalapeño cheese sausages from Austin’s celebrated, century-old barbecue joint. Each 1/3 lb. ring is stuffed till bursting with chopped peppers and cheddar, then smoked to perfection.
kreuzmarket.com
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese
The mac at this Seattle cheese shop ain’t named “world’s best” for nothing. The super-creamy cheddar-and-jack concoction has a chipotle kick that contrasts perfectly with cold beer or wine. One 9"x13" pan will feed eight to 12 of your friends’ fat faces for $75.
beechershandmadecheese.com
Interstate Bar-B-Q
This Memphis institution has been beloved by locals since 1978 for its pit-smoked ribs smothered in “secret sauce.” Now you can order them in five-or 10-slab party packs or sample some of founder Jim Neely’s other meaty delights, from brisket to pork shoulder to whole BBQ chickens.
interstatebarbecue.com