Here’s a hearty and wonderful summer friendly recipe for Chef Rick Moonen’s Catfish Sloppy Joe from Esquire. Tilapia can be substituted for the catfish if you prefer.

Ingredients:

8 oz skinless catfish (or tilapia) fillet, cut into 1/3-inch dice
Coarse salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced (about 3/4 cup)
1 small green bell pepper, diced (about 3/4 cup)
2 tsp paprika
1 cup barbecue sauce
Unsalted butter
2 oversized burger buns (or other soft rolls), split horizontally

How to Make Chef Rick Moonen’s Catfish Sloppy Joe
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Here’s a list of famous actors, artists, film directors, and other celebrities who have been either been chefs or cooks or are passionate about cooking. Quite a few of the names will surprise you.

Celebrities Who’ve Worked Professionally as Chefs or Cooks

Sebastian Cabot: Actor
Played Mr. French on the TV series, Family Affair

“After leaving school at age 14 he never had another day of formal education, and later worked as a chef - which helped precipitate his growth to 260 pounds. He also spent three years as a professional wrestler in London before World War II, an activity ended by an injury.” (Source: His IMDB Page)

Daniel Craig: Actor
The current James Bond. Star of the movies Infamous, Sylvia, and Layer Cake.

He used to work as a chef in a pub before he hit the big screen.

As Daniel Craig says:

“I love to cook. But because I used to work in the hostelry industry, I can’t cook for a few, because I’m used to cooking for 20 or more at a time. So there are always a lot of leftovers. Cooking is something that is in your blood. Even now, when I go into a working kitchen, a shiver runs down my spine.” (Source: Waleg.Com / Hello Magazine)

Danny Kaye: Actor, Comedian
Starred in The Court Jester and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“Danny had been long known for his expertise as a Chinese chef, picking up recipes and gourmet knowledge in his 20s when traveling the Orient. One story indicates that the Greek shipping magnate, Stavros Niarchos, after sampling Danny’s cooking, offered him a job as his personal chef. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Danny had just been offered a starring role in the musical “Two by Two”, said no. Danny’s specialty was Chinese and Italian cuisine, but he gained most recognition for his rendering of many classic Chinese dishes like Roast Duck with Orange Sauce, Lion’s Head, Chinese Stir-Fry Oysters with Shrimp, Chinese Poached Chicken, and Chinese Chicken Salad. The poached chicken was a favorite of PBS chef and author, Jacques Pepin, who still uses the recipe, and is still impressed by how moist the chicken is. Pepin believed that Danny’s skill in the kitchen was on par with any professional chef. French chefs Paul Bocuse and Roger Verger have claimed that the best restaurant in California was Danny Kaye’s house…

As recounted in her book, Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl remembers dining at his home once and enjoying an extraordinary meal prepared using hand-made cleavers and giant woks. The supper included a clear soup flavored with lemongrass, slices of fresh liver with onions, (’like little pillows of velvet between satin slivers of onion, and so sweet it was as if it had been dusted with sugar.’) home-made noodles in a lemon cream sauce, followed by a ‘high, light, rich and eggy’ lemon souffle. The period, or exclamation point to the meal was a rich espresso.” (Source: DannyKaye.Org)

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne: Theater Actors
Also ran the Stage Door Canteen in NY to benefit WWII servicemen

“In real life the famed theatrical pair worked tirelessly in the New York canteen. Lunt was considered ‘the chief cook and bottle washer of the American Theatre Wing,’ according to critic Alexander Woollcott, and was so often the emptier of the garbage cans that actress Katharine Cornell declared him to be ‘the only man who succeeded in putting glamour into garbage.’

Alfred Lunt was an excellent gourmet cook who not only procured food from area restaurants and stores for the soldiers, but gave cooking classes (six lessons for $10) for aspiring canteen workers.” (Source: Port Halcyon.Com)

Matthew Modine: Actor
Star of Birdy, Vision Quest, and Short Cuts

“After high school, Modine dropped out of BYU and worked several odd jobs before moving to New York in 1979. He landed a job as a chef at Au Natural in Manhattan, where he met his wife, Cari.” (Source: His IMDB Page)

Dominic Monaghan: Actor
Starred in The Lord of the Ring Trilogy

Worked as a saute chef at a place called Quincey’s in Didsbury, Manchester. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Michael Pare, Actor
Star of Eddie and the Cruisers

Studied at the Culinary Institute of America and was working as a chef when he was discovered. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Julian Schnabel: Modern Artist, Film Director
Directed Basquiat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Before he was famous, Schnabel worked as a short-order cook.

Celebrities Who Are Passionate About Cooking
or Who Wanted to Cook Professionally

Josh Brolin: Actor
Star of No Country for Old Men.

Once aspired to be a chef. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Pat Conroy: Author
Author of The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and The Water is Wide.

Also wrote the excellent cookbook, The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life.

Tobey Maguire: Actor
Star of the Spiderman movies, Wonder Boys, and The Cider House Rules

Originally wanted to be a chef, but he turned to acting after his mother offered him $100 to take drama rather than home economics in high school. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Vincent Price: Actor, Cookbook Author
Star of The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, Edward Scissorhands

Avid gourmet cook. Co-authored the cookbook, Mary and Vincent Price’s Come Into the Kitchen Cook Book: a Collector’s Treasury of America’s Great Recipes. (Source: Slate)

Vincent Schiavelli: Actor, Cookbook Author
Appeared in Batman Returns, Amadeus, and People Vs. Larry Flynt

Authored the books, Bruculinu, America: Remembrance of Sicilian-American Brooklyn, Told in Stories & Recipes, Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa, and Papa Andrea’s Sicilian Table: Recipes from a Sicilian Chef as Remembered by His Grandson. (Source: His IMDB Page)

James Spader: Actor
Star of Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Secretary

Loves cooking and is an excellent chef. (Source: His IMDB Page)

Christopher Walken: Actor
Star of Brainstorm, Pulp Fiction, and Catch Me If You Can

Is a very skilled chef. (Source: His IMDB Page)

My banker, Trent, glanced furtively through the glass wall of his office. Satisfied that no one was watching, he leaned across his desk slightly, indicating I should do the same. I drew in closer; when your banker want to give you insider advice, you pay attention.

“Duke’s,” he said quietly. “It isn’t fancy, but if you want the real thing, that’s it.”

“What do you mean, not fancy?” I asked.

“Well, it’s just big long tables and paper plates and you go up and help yourself. And they don’t have much. Just barbecue and hash and rice and cole slaw. Oh, and pickles. Couple kinds, I think. And tea.”

Pay dirt.

Trent and I had had a relationship going back, oh, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes before I started squeezing him for tips on good eats. I’d just moved to Charleston from Upstate NY and was getting set up, but I knew from past experience that when you’re new in town and want to find the best places to eat, you keep your eyes open for a certain type of big guy. Not big-around-the-middle big - more like farmboy big. I’d sized Trent up immediately, and my suspicions were confirmed when the wall clock, edging toward the lunchtime hour, began to draw his glance more and more often.

At first, he mistook my inquiries about “good” restaurants to mean those kinds of places where nice people dress up and drape napkins across their laps.

“No, Trent. Where are the joints?

“Joints?”

“Yeah, you know: joints, shacks, roadside diners?” I was looking for those places that serve great food, exotic and interesting food, legendary food, on rundown side streets and in slant board shacks. Places with eccentric atmosphere and an authenticity that corporate restaurant chains can’t even dream of reproducing. The sort of places where the locals always go but for some unknown reason, don’t always admit to.

He thought for a moment. “Well,” he said hesitantly, “Do you like barbecue?”

Now, those were the magic words…

The soulful, unstrung sound of gospel organ seeped through the white cinderblock wall from the storefront revival chapel next door just as a room-filling guy in a faded marlin tournament shirt stepped inside.

“You hear that, bubba?” the counterman said smiling, nodding in the direction of the sound, “They’re tryin’ to tell you you need to get right with Jesus.”

“Jesus?” the customer chuckled, “Hell, I’m already right with Jesus - I just need to get right with two sandwiches and some hash and rice to go!”

Duke’s Bar-B-Que is that increasingly rare thing: the traditional, neighborhood barbeque joint. A place that knows its customers. A place beyond the reach of that artificially flavored world of food fashions and focus groups. A place with an elemental purity and, in the truest sense of the word, refinement. Duke’s figured out a long, long time ago what it was put on this earth to do and has kept on doing it the same way for 56 years.

The range of offerings is shockingly minimal by today’s standards, but it’s all you could want: pork barbeque, rice, hash, cole slaw, pickles (sweet and dill), crispy pork skin, sauces, sweet tea, Sunbeam bread, a few desserts. And that’s it.

Check that list again:
See any burgers?
Fries?
Sodas?
No?

Imagine that.

Like many legendary places - Shangri-La, El Dorado, Xanadu, etc. - Duke’s can be hard to find. The white stucco building is so easy to drive by that you almost have to triangulate it when giving directions. And don’t bother looking for a professional sign with spotlights shining on it; the only identifying marks on the place are the small hand-painted letters on the window and the faded, Pavlovian “OPEN” signs.

It’s also not in the most genteel of neighborhoods, but that doesn’t stop the faithful from flowing there on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Things are quiet when they first open, but soon the parking lot fills with everything from pickup trucks to Jaguars. Handicap parking is informal, i.e., on the sidewalk right in front; you may have to step around an octogenarian’s shiny-new Sedan De Ville to get to the door.

Inside, it’s disorienting; a bit inside-out, and a bit like time-travel: fluorescent lights, concrete floors, whitewashed walls. Long green picnic tables covered in off-the-roll red & white checked tablecloths, the edges nearest the windows bleached a pale pink. At the far end, speckled Formica counters, a well-worn sink, a vintage home stove, a couple of refrigerators and ice chests. A paper bag sign announces the availability of banana pudding. Another sign, just in front of the antique cash register, is a gentle reminder of our less well-mannered age: “We will be glad to help you when you get off your cell phone.”

Once you’ve got your bearings, though, everything becomes simple: after you pay, just grab a foam plate and a fork, and help yourself.

Start by laying in a foundation of white rice and ladling on some of their fine hash. Step to your left and you’re in front of a tray of freshly pulled and chopped pork that’s moist and flavorful, with a nice amount of tasty, crusty edges. Pile some on, leaving room for cole slaw, and look for the bowl on the left with Duke’s sweet, golden, mustard-based BBQ sauce. The red squeeze bottle near it is their homemade hot sauce, which they describe as “real hot - but real good!”

Some habanero-munchers might think it too tame, but I found it just right and the perfect accent flavor for the mustard sauce. Snag a pickle or two as a palate refresher before you move on to their freshly ground, very lightly sweetened cole slaw.

Now, you may be tempted to ferally dart to the nearest horizontal surface and dig in, but wait - you’re not quite finished. Just to the left of the slaw, there’s a small dish of crunchy pork skins the color of burnished mahogany. Take one or two (more would be impolite, as there’s only a limited amount.)  If the dish is empty, ask if there’s any left. They do go quickly, but sometimes there’s a secret stash in the kitchen. Now, grab your sweet tea and find a spot on a bench. Salt, pepper, bread, and napkins are on the table. Sit. Eat. Repeat.

“Everything here is homemade from scratch - except the pickles,” Miss Lisa, grand-daughter of the folks who started the business, tells me when I ask about the sauces. Miss Lisa is busy, but friendly, so I take a long-shot, “Tell me about the hash. What exactly is it?”

Now, many places act like their hash recipe is the formula for Coke, but Miss Lisa was unexpectedly candid, “It’s just four things: ground up barbecue, potatoes, onions, and ketchup.”

“That’s it? No secret ingredients?” I was shocked.

“No, that’s it. Just those four things.”

Obviously, some sort of alchemy was involved, some arcane and mysterious process she wasn’t telling me about, but since she was so nice I decided not to press for details.

I did decide to have dessert, something I never do at barbecue places, but those homemade goodies, right there on the counter, were a siren’s call I was too weak (but somehow not too full) to resist. It was the plaintive song of the moist, rich, red velvet cake that snared me. Twice. Resistance, as they say, is futile.

Simplicity has an elegance of its own. A glass of sweet tea. A plate of good food. A slice of bread from a communal loaf. These few things - elemental, pure, and refined in a way that’s would be impossible to explain - are both filling and fulfilling at the same time, especially when seated at a long picnic table with friends-not-yet-met, united by a Southern heart’s need for these things.

In the 3 years since I moved here, I’ve been to many barbecue places. Some may have better this or that, but none has helped me feel the depth and importance of South Carolina barbecue tradition the way Duke’s has.

The romanticized vision of the “Old South” - formal dinners and crinoline and polished silver -  is nice of course, but for folks visiting from “off” (that is, anywhere other than the South) and “comeyahs” (folks who moved here from “off”) I recommend seeking out the small, local places like Duke’s that aren’t fancy, but in their way are more truly Southern than any soiree. And don’t try to change them; let them change you.

Forgo the finger bowls and fancy attire. Grab a plastic fork and find a spot. This right here? This here’s the real thing.

Duke’s Bar-B-Que
4428 Spruill Avenue
North Charleston, SC
843-554-1110

Open Friday & Saturday Evenings only.

This could be The Next Big Thing. I can picture it already: the smiling NYC street vendor takes a spicy Moroccan sausage-on-a-stick off the grill, dips it in falafel batter, and deep-fries it right on the spot. He hands it to his anxiously awaiting customer, who blows on it for a moment, takes that first bite… and has to steady himself on a nearby parking meter as he becomes weak in the knees from sheer pleasure!

Like the New York Lottery ads used to say, “Hey, you never know…”

The idea came as a result of thinking about corn dogs, i.e., how ridiculously delicious they are (I’d never had one before moving to the South; so many wasted years!) but also, sadly, how alarmingly bad they are for you. If Fettuccine Alfredo is, as someone once famously referred to it, “heart attack on a plate”, then corn dogs are arteriosclerosis on a stick. Still, they are awfully good, and I’d had it in the back of my mind to work on some healthier variations.

So I found myself one evening with a package of beautiful ground lamb in one hand, a box of falafel mix in the other, and the proverbial light bulb over my head. I was so intrigued by the idea that I had to make it immediately. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right sticks for the task (only thin bamboo skewers), nor did I have enough oil for deep frying. Dead end, you say? Not likely.

So, the full-sized, deep-fried version of my bound-to-be-famous-someday Falafel Dogs will have to wait because, impatience being the mother of compromise, I used what I had available and made a very tasty, shallow-fried, appetizer version.

You can use any Moroccan merguez recipe for these. My merguez recipe below is not as spicy as most, and I left the traditional cilantro out (I made a cilantro/yogurt dipping sauce instead) and added a touch of sweetness with the dried apricots (golden raisins would be nice too) and a note of astringency with the celery leaves. Also, I used Fantastic Foods’ falafel mix, but I think any other mix should work just fine.

Here’s a photo of the Mini Falafel Dogs With Creamy Cilantro Yogurt Dip below.

Ingredients:

1 box falafel mix (I used a 10 oz box)
2 eggs, beaten

2 lb ground lamb
2 or 4 inner stalks of celery with leaves, finely chopped (about ½ cup)
3 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup minced parsley
1 1/2 Tbsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted
1 1/2 Tbsp cumin powder
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp cayenne

32 short wooden skewers, or 16 long skewers cut in half

Oil for frying

PREPARATION:

Prepare falafel mix according to package directions, with the addition of the two eggs. Set aside.

In large bowl, mix together the next 13 ingredients (lamb through cayenne). Divide the mixture into eighths, and form 4 small cylinders out of each eighth (for a total of 32). Insert a skewer into each sausage and grill or broil until just done. Allow the sausages to cool a bit while you heat up the oil to the temperature recommended for the falafel mix. You’ll need at least half an inch of oil to shallow-fry them.

When you’re ready, add a little additional water to the falafel mix to get a very thick batter consistency. Mixes vary, so you will have to eyeball this; start with a couple of tablespoons and take it from there. If you accidentally thin it too much, add a little plain flour to fix it.

Take one of the sausages and swirl it into the batter, trying to get a good thick coating. If it’s not adhering well, try dusting the sausage with a little flour first. Again, mixes vary so you’ll have to see what works best for you.

Fry a few at a time (you don’t want to crowd the pan or you’ll lower the temperature of the oil too much and your falafel dogs will turn out greasy). Cook until nicely browned, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

Serve plain or with a dipping sauce. A slightly thinned mango chutney would be nice, or you can make an easy yogurt sauce in a food processor by mincing together one clove (or more) fresh garlic and a small handful of cilantro leaves, then mix in a cup of plain yogurt, half a teaspoon of ground coriander, a pinch (or more) of salt, a pinch of sugar, and a pinch of cayenne.

Enjoy!

You Can Read More of Doug’s Recipe Corner Here.

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Fake menus. No staff. No wine cellar. No customers. A reserve wine list featuring selections from some of the lowest-scoring Italian wines ever reviewed in Wine Spectator.

If this article from Osteria L’Intrepido di Milano is true, it’s apparent that even fictitious restaurants are eligible to win the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, an award thought by many to recognize restaurants for the quality of their wine lists.

As it says in a recent article about the hoax by the San Francisco Chronicle:

“The program asks restaurants to submit their wine lists and menus and charges for the evaluation. Many restaurants proudly crow about their results, though two-thirds of all submissions win an award. But evaluations are done on the wine selections rather than through in-person visits, and focus on the lists, not necessarily overall service. The program remains a major income source for the magazine’s publisher, M. Shanken Communications. At $250 apiece, the 4,128 restaurants in the 2008 list would have grossed more than $1 million total.”

The fake restaurant and its wine lists were dreamed up by Robin Goldstein, author of The Wine Trials.

As Goldstein says:

“The main wine list I submitted was a perfectly decent selection from around Italy that met the magazine’s basic criteria (about 250 wines, including whites, reds, and sparkling wines–some of which scored well in WS). However, Osteria L’Intrepido’s high-priced ‘reserve wine list’ was largely chosen from among some of the lowest-scoring Italian wines in Wine Spectator over the past few decades.

While it’s interesting that the reserve list would receive such seemingly little scrutiny, the central point is that the wine cellar doesn’t actually exist. And while Osteria L’Intrepido may be the first to win an Award of Excellence for an imaginary restaurant, it’s unlikely that it was the first submission that didn’t accurately reflect the contents of a restaurant’s wine cellar.”

Of course, Goldstein isn’t the first to question the methodology of the Wine`Spectator awards.

In the July/9/2003 issue of the New York Times, Amanda Hesser points out inconsistencies in the judging process even for nominees and winners of Wine Spectator’s obviously much more prestigious Grand Award, a process described as requiring an in-house evaluation by a Wine Spectator editor.

As Hesser wrote in 2003:

“These restaurants are not inspected every year. Montrachet, which has kept the Grand Award since 1994, has not been reinspected since. Galileo, an Italian restaurant in Washington that advertises its Grand Award on its on-hold phone message, won the honor in 1998. It was reinspected in 2000. But Rotisserie for Beef and Bird in Houston, which has had a Grand Award since 1988, has never been reinspected.”

Join us tomorrow to find out more about how to make Mini Falafel Dogs With Creamy Cilantro Yogurt Dip, Doug DuCap’s original recipe which features savory falafel breaded lamb, dried apricots, and more.

Here’s a look back at the posts that appeared earlier in the week here on HuggingtheCoast.Com…please join us tomorrow for the start of next week’s exciting food features!

Looking Back: 8/18/2008-8/24/2008

Monday: Breakfast of Champions: Grits and Eggs Fuel Olympic Winner

Tuesday: 20 Blogs Guaranteed to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

Wednesday: Pork and Shrimp Cabbage Rolls With Butter Poached Shrimp Recipe

Thursday: Chefs Gone Wild: Feuds, Freakouts, Blowing Off Steam

Friday: Fish For Friday Recipe of the Week: Chipotle Lime Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp

Saturday: Weekend Video Spotlight: The Crabs of Christmas Island (Amazing!)

Sunday: You are here

TravelOZ has made a fascinating video about the crabs of Christmas Island (especially Coconut Crabs, which can climb trees and crack coconuts in their massive claws) which you can see below (or here).

If you enjoyed that video, you won’t want to miss the one below which shows what a massive influx of tiny baby crabs into the area looks like. The streets literally run red with millions of new baby crabs…quite an extraordinary sight!

Here’s a wonderful, delicious recipe for Chipotle Lime Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp from Simply Recipes.

Ingredients:

12 large, raw, peeled and deveined shrimp
2 Tbsp olive oil
Zest from 1 lime
Juice from one lime (about 2 Tbsp)
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (or more to taste)
6 strips thin bacon, cut in half (12 pieces)
Skewers (for grilling) or toothpicks (for oven)

How to Make Chipotle Lime Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

If you’ve ever read Anthony Bourdain’s, Kitchen Confidential or Bill Buford’s, Heat, you know that a professional kitchen can be a steamy place ruled by men with knives facing a mountain of orders to cook; people with very little time or space for the conventional niceties commonly found in more egalitarian professions.

As George Orwell described in Down and Out in London in Paris which was published in 1933:

“The kitchen was like nothing I had ever seen or imagined–a stifling, low-ceilinged inferno of a cellar, red-lit from the fires, and deafening with oaths and the clanging of pots and pans. It was so hot that all the metal-work except the stoves had to be covered with cloth. In the middle were furnaces, where twelve cooks skipped to and fro, their faces dripping sweat in spite of their white caps. Round that were counters where a mob of waiters and plongeurs (dishwashers) clamoured with trays. Scullions, naked to the waist, were stoking the fires and scouring huge copper saucepans with sand. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry and a rage…

The time between eight and half past ten was a sort of delirium. Sometimes we were going as though we had only five minutes to live; sometimes there were sudden lulls when the orders stopped and everything seemed quiet for a moment. Then we swept up the litter from the floor, threw down fresh sawdust, and swallowed gallipots of wine or coffee or water–anything, so long as it was wet.”

Apparently, not much has changed.

Here’s three videos featuring famous chefs blowing off steam…

Mario Batali Vs. Marco Pierre White: The Risotto Incident

Gordon Ramsay Vs. Chef Michel Bardavid

Anthony Bourdain Vs. The Food Network

(Photo Credit: Fire! by CmBellman)

Green cabbage is the plain-jane librarian of the produce aisle. Nobody gives her a second glance - until she takes off her glasses and lets down her hair, then…wow! Suddenly, she’s hot! Try this dish and you’ll start looking at cabbage very differently…

The flavors of the savory pork & shrimp filling in these treats is echoed in the rice because you use the cooking stock to make the Zesty Lemon Rice. And the buttery, lobster-flavored shrimp sauce on top of it all is so good it should be classified as a controlled substance!

For the best results, buy the best quality lobster base you can find, one that contains lobster, butter, sea salt, and little else.

Here’s a photo of the Pork and Shrimp Cabbage Rolls With Butter Poached Shrimp below.

Ingredients:

For the Rolls:

1 head green cabbage
1 lb lean ground pork
1 lb uncooked shrimp, peeled and coarsely chopped (divided in half)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tsp seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay)
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 finely minced scallion
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

1 ½ cups water
1 ½ Tbsp lobster base

For the Shrimp Sauce:

4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp lobster base

For the Rice:

1 1/2 cups medium grain rice
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
2 Tbsp finely minced parsley

PREPARATION:

Separate the cabbage into leaves (you’ll need about 15 or so; don’t worry if they tear) and steam them for about 10 minutes in a deep, lidded pot with just enough water to cover the bottom. You want them to be soft enough to bend easily.

While the cabbage is steaming, mix together the pork, half of the chopped shrimp, and the next 9 ingredients (from the beaten egg through the bread crumbs) and cook a small piece of the filling to test for salt & seasoning. Adjust if necessary.

Take about 1/3 of a cabbage leaf (approximately palm-sized) and roll up a generous tablespoon of filling (don’t worry sealing up the sides, etc.; think open-ended cigars rather than packets. You want the flavors to mingle in the pot.)

Layer the rolls in the pot. Combine the water and the lobster base, and pour over the rolls. Bring just to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 - 20 minutes. Remove the rolls (reserving the cooking stock) and keep warm.

Strain the cooking stock and add enough additional water to equal 3 cups. Add the rice, lemon juice, lemon zest, and parsley, and bring just to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

Just before the rice is done, melt the butter and the lobster base in a small saucepan; gently poach the remaining chopped shrimp until just cooked. To serve, top the rice with the cabbage rolls, and spoon over some of the buttery shrimp.

Serves 4 (or two if you’re hungry/greedy like us!)

Enjoy!

You Can Read More of Doug’s Recipe Corner Here.

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Here’s a list of 20 sugary blogs guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth that celebrate the world of cakes, candy, chocolate, ice cream, cup cakes, and other good (if somewhat guilt inducing) eats.

As Don Kardong once said, “Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”

Here’s our list, in alphabetical order…

Blognut

Ah donuts. As someone who’s spent more than their fair share of time haunting various donut shops up and down the East coast and drinking gallons of coffee, Blognut is definitely my go-to site for all things donut-centric. Boston cream or French crullers, anyone?

Cake Spy

Covering the world of baked goods with articles on such topics as how not to make chocolate chip cookies, exploring the historical difference between cake and gateau, as well as travels to baked good meccas in such places as Philadelphia, Seattle, New York, and the Jersey shore, the Cake Spy blog is also sprinkled with Jessie Oleson’s delightfully whimsical sketches of cupcakes visiting the circus and the Chrysler Building.

Cake Wrecks

Whatever you do, don’t visit this site while you’re at work unless you want to be caught laughing at cakes with hilariously inappropriate designs, unfortunate misspellings, frightful frosting, and much worse.

If you’d like to read more about the joys of Cake Wrecks, we’ve covered it all here.

Candy Addict

As you might suspect, Candy Addict is a very comprehensive blog about candy, with reviews of such nostalgic candies as Boston Baked Beans to newer confections as pomegranate flavored Tootsie Pops, Reeses Hazelnut Creme, Chocolate Creme de Menthe Altoids, and the truly terrifying Chum Bucket Mints.

Candy From Strangers

Currently in Grenada, after three years of saving up for the trip, blog author Malena travels the world sampling sweets and sharing what she’s seen. Part travelogue and part candy review site, this blog offers an interesting look at international candies and the countries that make them.

Cannelle et Vanille

With its sensual photographs and quality writing, Cannelle et Vanille offers a sophisticated exploration of the many delights of baked goods as well as the techniques and ingredients necessary to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Charmaine’s Pastry Blog

Former ophthalmologist turned pastry cook Charmaine shares her passion for all things pastry as well as her adventures in cake decorating here.

Cheesecake Recipes

Since my wife and I are originally from the New York area, it’s no wonder that we’d be more than happy to eat cheesecake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The new Cheesecake Recipes blog could be the first step in finding inspiration towards making that dream happen.

Chocablog

Care to debate the merits of Belgian chocolate over Swiss, compare the offerings of Lindt, Ghirardelli, Godiva, and Isis to those from Cadbury, Nestle, and Hershey? You’re just one click away from the perfect place to do just that.

Cookie Madness

Double trouble potato chip cookies? Peanut butter and chipotle cookies? Ricotta cheese and Wheaties cookies? All this and more can be found on this blog that mainly focuses on the sharing of cookie recipes.

A Daily Scoop

If it’s made of ice cream, the folks at A Daily Scoop review, announce, and discuss it.

Dessert Buzz

If you have a sweet tooth and are planning a trip to NYC you might want to hit this site first so you don’t miss out on any treats when you tour the Big (candied) Apple.

Dessert First

As Ernestine Ulmer said, “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” Apparently, the creators of this site couldn’t agree more, with their emphasis on the sweetest meal of the day. Don’t miss their post about and recipe for Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream.

How to Eat a Cup Cake

Each week, the readers of How to Eat a Cup Cake vote for which cupcake recipe from the book Cupcake Heaven gets featured and made on the blog. This week’s winner: Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes.

Japanese Ice Cream

From the title of this blog it’s easy to get an idea what the Japanese Ice Cream site is about, but have you ever tried those delicious red bean, green tea, and black sesame flavored ice creams lurking in the coolers of your local Asian food market? If not, you should.

Kitchen Cakes

With recipes for such down-home favorites as peach cobbler, oatmeal raisin bars, and chocolate rum cake, this blog is a comfort food compendium of recipes from the sweeter side of life.

Peanut Butter Boy

While not strictly speaking a sweets-only blog, how could we not list a blog in which every post and recipe features peanut butter in a starring role?

Sugar Plum

Sugar Plum likes it sweet. From Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Pie to Rainier Cherry and Crumb Crostata to such delights as Buttermilk Frozen Custard With Bourbon Roasted Peaches and Brown Sugar Walnuts Emiline’s definitely not afraid to explore the sensual side of working with fresh ingredients.

Sugar Savvy

A true sugar lovers blog, this site is junk food central, full of reviews of new and old favorites from the candy and ice cream aisles.

Sweet and Simple Bakes

If you’re just getting started out with baking, this is the site for you. With monthly baking blog roundups, this site is an excellent way to find the inspiration and motivation one needs to just off one’s cookie sheet and start baking with confidence.

Southern style grits. A five egg omelette. French toast. Chocolate chip pancakes. Three fried egg sandwiches and two cups of coffee.

Not exactly part of a heart-healthy breakfast, but according to this article in Britain’s Times Online, eating this mammoth breakfast is one method multiple gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps uses to replace the many calories he’s depleting while competing in the Olympics.

Phelps, also known as the Baltimore Bullet, swims as much as five hours a day as part of his six day a week training regimen.

As the article says:

“The average man of the same age needs about 2,000 calories a day, but with Phelps due to swim 17 times over nine days of competition in Beijing he is bringing a whole new spin to the phrase breakfast of champions.”

Each one of Phelps’ meals over the course of the competition clocks in at approximately 4,000 calories. That’s roughly equivalent to eating 10 McDonald’s Quarter Pounders three times a day!

I wonder if his Mom makes him wait an hour before going in the pool?

Click here to read more about the foods Phelps fuels himself with for lunch and dinner.

(Photo Credit: Pork Chops, Eggs & Grits at Waffle House - Tallahassee, Florida by Marshall Astor)

Here’s a look back at the posts that appeared earlier in the week here on HuggingtheCoast.Com…please join us tomorrow for the start of next week’s exciting food features!

Looking Back: 8/11/2008-8/17/2008

Monday: The Bright Side of the End of Bennigans

Tuesday: Cool Down With These Refreshing Chilled Soups for Summer

Wednesday: Culi