Family Dinner with JP

Look at that picture above. As a friend noted, perhaps the best selling point of this recipe is that this is a crusty fish recipe with no added breading. This recipe comes straight out of the Thomas Keller Ad Hoc cookbook, a wonderful coffee table style cookbook with beautiful photographs to accompany the aspirational recipes. Which is not to say the recipes are difficult to make, so much as difficult on the wallet. The first time I tried this recipe was years ago, when Josh made it for me for a fancy lunch. I readily admit that when I saw how much oil he used in the pan, I kind of scrunched my face at him. There must have been half an inch of cooking oil! Was he trying to deep fry this thing? Clearly mistakes had been made ... how much wine had we all been drinking? But no, Josh was correct, the instructions were correct, and, despite the wine (or perhaps because of it), the fish ended up amazing! By cooking the hearty halibut in a deeper amount of oil, a thick crusty bottom for...

Fried chicken is one of those inexplicable things in the universe - the general rules of culinary mastery don't necessarily apply. While delicious fresh, why is it actually better after a night in the fridge? Why is Royal Farms fried chicken better than anything I've ever paid for at an actual restaurant? Why is the drumstick (handle chicken, according to some kids I know) the absolute most desirable piece of the bird? And why is a 12 pack of drumksticks the cheapest pack of chicken you can buy, while boneless, skinless, bland-ass chicken breast is the most? Fried chicken isn't something we made at home growing up (even though we had a Fry Daddy). It wasn't until I received the Ad Hoc cookbook one year that my friends Tim and Kate told me I HAD to try the fried chicken recipe. Since I first made it, I've scaled it down and also made some slight changes (example: hot sauce in the buttermilk). I like this recipe. I won't make any claims that it's the bes...