The Tomato Sandwich: Why You Don''t Always Need Bacon to Be a Glutton

Adventures with buttered toast, ripe tomatoes, and Duke's mayonnaise.

Most people return from the beach with tans; I returned with tomatoes. It was a half-bushel, to be exact, and they were stashed in the back of a car as it wound its way from North Carolina, through the Great Smoky Mountains, and, some 16 hours later, finally to Chicago. Why such extravagant measures for tomatoes?

When it comes to tomatoes, I don't suffer fools, and I simply can't accept sub-p...

Introducing The Soft Shell Crab Sandwich...with Bacon

Getting a head start on the season

Soft shell crab season is here, generally considered to begin at some point in May.  So we here at The Paupered Chef decided it was time to take advantage.  Generally, the soft shell crab  is dusted with flour and fried up in a skillet, and I'm not sure there is a better way to prepare this crustacean than this recipe by David Lentz from Food & Wine magazine : stuffed into a crusty baguette...

Is Salad Dressing the Perfect Sauce?

Throw away those bottle salad dressings.

I've been thinking about salad a lot lately, which is strange, because how inspiring can a salad really be? The salads I grew up with were made of lettuce with a bunch of chopped vegetables--carrots, mushrooms, peppers, whatever--doused with a dressing from the fridge door. Everyone put their favorite dressing on, and that worked pretty well. It was the typical "your-choice-of-dressing" side s...

The Quick-Flipped Fat Burger

Keep that spatula at hand.

At first everything was fine. Taking a cue from Adam Kuban , we decided to make our own onion rings instead of the normal burger pairing of fries. The recipe was taken from Simply Recipes , which soaked the onions in buttermilk and coated them in flour and cornmeal.

We fried them in canola oil set to 350 degrees for a few minutes, until nice and golden brown.  We stashed them i...

Crab Cakes On the Cheap

On my way home from work every day, I walk down Lexington Avenue and risk the smell, squeeze, and auditory onslaught that is the Grand Central station subway stop.  I never get to see the beautiful, soaring interior of the actual terminal , which looks like a starry night's sky.  No.  Only the passage where everyone else shoves into this awful, grubby stairway under a Strawberry clothing...

Skirt Steak with Red Potato Salad and Greens (A Harmony, Starring Limes)

Sometimes all you can hope for at the end of a long day is a little bit of harmony.  Whether through yoga, walking your dog, or blasting Bona Drag , you find it and somehow the day washes away.  Often I find this harmony by cooking (sometimes with the Morrissey at the same time)--a chance to relax, create, and then have something delicious to show for it.  I have a recipe that, while dec...

Clams Marinières (And More Thomas Keller "Building Blocks")

I'm no stranger to clams.  I'm no stranger to the whole bivalve genus.  I think that we've cooked mussels more than any other dish for this website, even going so far as titling a post " Because You Can Throw Just About Anything In the Pot with Mussels and It Will Taste Glorious ."   Clams are cooked much the same way: you make a simple broth with herbs and usually a little butter...

Mexican Chopped Salad with Avocado Dressing

Ah, the avocado.  I'm not sure where it can't be used--sandwiches, tacos, burritos, soups, or salads.  The last, particularly, has been of interest lately, as it adds some healthy heftiness (is that a real thing?) to any otherwise wimpy salad.  But not content to merely place it in my salads, I wondered what it might be like on it.

But I was worried it might go too far.  When it comes...

Egg Mayonnaise and Cress Sandwich

Recreating a fond memory from being poor in London

Though egg mayonnaise is essentially the same thing as American egg salad, it doesn't taste like your average pitch-in.   The mayonnaise was creamy but it had a lightness to it, which probably has something to do with the proportion of ingredients.  Instead of deli-style New York sandwiches where a literal pound of meat is thrown on each sandwich--"It's like a cow with a cracker on either side,...