Recipes on Twitter (the NYT is doing it wrong)
The previous post hinted at this, but I think the NYT’s twitter recipe challenge goes in exactly the wrong direction. They challenge their readers to compact a complex recipe into a type of code that can be tweeted as modeled by @chef140, @cookbook, and @tinyrecipes.
Twitter recipes should not be an exercise in deciphering clues and a complex code. Rather, the constraint of 140 characters should encourage a simplification to the bare essence. The best “twitter recipe” is not the most complex—amazingly reduced to an information-packed puzzle—but an idea that stimulates with possibilities.
Mark Bittman exemplifies this (without the 140 character constraint but keeping most to 4 lines) with his 101 Simple Meals and 101 Simple Appetizers, and, with the ultimate reduction of a recipe to a concept, his tweetable description of fried rice:
“Take cold rice and cook it with enough little bits of things so that it tastes better.”
Out of the people I’ve seen posting recipes on Twitter I think @chef_pete gets the closest to this.
Here are a few of my attempts at readable twitter recipes:
Fried corn: Fry on medium-high heat: 1C corn, 1Tbs butter and minced garlic+salt and pepper until some corn has little brown spots. So good!
My favorite: Place half of a small onion or shallot cut-side down in a ramikin. Add 1/2-inch cream. Top with parmesan. Bake 350 for 30+ min.
Very yummy dressing/dipping sauce: 1 Tablespoon each of soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, sesame seed oil.
Drizzle whole head of cauliflower with olive oil. Generous sprinkle of salt & pepper. 375 for 45min til browned. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
Easy crepe: Mix 1 egg and 2 tsp flour. Add 1 Tbs chopped green onions. Spray or butter pan. Cook on low heat til done. Roll and serve.
Brown 4TB butter on med heat. Add minced garlic clove at end. Add 1TB lem juice. Pour over steamed asparagus. Add lem zest, salt & pepper.
Saute garlic and shrimp in olive oil. Add fresh basil pesto and toss with bowtie noodles, chopped walnuts, chopped tomatoes, and parmesan.
Breakfast tacos: Melt cheddar cheese on two corn tortillas in the mic. Divide scrambled egg between the two. Drizzle with enchilada sauce.
