Ben Starr

The Ultimate Food Geek

Category: Vegetarian

  • The easiest way to turn a whole pumpkin into food

    I know you. Because you’re like me. You pulled out all the stops for Halloween, but now there’s still a few uncarved pumpkins sitting in your front yard. They’re okay there for awhile. (Maybe people will think you’ve decorated for Thanksgiving. Riiiiiight.) Most pumpkin varieties will even endure sub-freezing temps for a few nights, so…

  • One-Bowl No-Mixer Pumpkin Muffins

    So it’s no secret that I’m enamored with pumpkin, and I have dozens of pumpkin recipes that get busted out in the fall.  But for many folks, the idea of setting up the stand mixer to cream butter and sugar…or having multiple bowls and measuring cups to clean up afterward…it’s just too much to contemplate…

  • Hatch Green Chile Peach Pie

    It’s that time of year again!  Grocery stores all over Texas have the unmistakable spicy-smoky aroma of roasting Hatch chiles out front, and the big chile roasters are rolling almost nonstop during open hours.  It’s my favorite culinary time of year. While most recipes for Hatch chiles are savory, I decided to post a sweet…

  • Crispy Cheese-Crusted Omelet

    Just imagine it…a delicious, fluffy omelet chock full of your favorite ingredients, but wrapped in a crispy, crunchy, savory crust of cheese.  It’s way easier than you might think. I’ve recently been making a lot of these unique omelets for breakfast, and decided to post the method, even though it’s pretty simple.  But I haven’t…

  • Cinnamon Masa Pancakes (with gluten-free option)

    So I make pancakes 2 or 3 times a week for breakfast, and that gets boring.  Yeah…you can add chocolate chips or nuts or berries.  Yeah…you can make gingered citrus syrups to pour over them.  You can top them with whatever.  But after a few years, they get boring.  So I developed a new pancake…

  • Tobacco Chocolate Ice Cream

    Tobacco is little-used in cooking, which is a shame, because it has a marvelous flavor.  Tobacco contains nicotine, a stimulant that is deadly in the right dose, most folks shy away from cooking with it.  But the National Institutes of Health has done plenty of research about nicotine toxicity, and I published an article that helps consolidate…

  • Homemade Chevre (Fresh Goat Cheese)

    The pungent, goat-y chevre you get in the grocery store is an acquired taste.  I’ve definitely acquired it.  But many people haven’t.  Part of the reason it’s so pungent is that it’s old.  The longer goat cheese sits, the more pronounced its flavor becomes. This flavor is caused by an enzyme called “lipase” that exists…

  • Buttermilk Sweet Potato Ice Cream

    At FRANK recently, we did an Americana menu, and needed to conceive an ice cream to go with our bourbon pecan pie.  Chef Jennie suggested a sweet potato ice cream, but that just sounded too sweet to me.  After all, pecan pie is very sweet, and to pair it with a super-sweet ice cream would…

  • Chocolate Chili Pots de Creme

    Makes 6 six-ounce servings, or 8 four-ounce servings. I’ve always been uneasy with the title “Pots de Creme,” probably because it sounds so pretentious.  But it’s just French for “cream pot” so I don’t know why it bugs me so much.  A pot de creme is a sort of intermediate step between pudding and custard. …

  • How to Make Aged Cheese: “Black and Bleu” Ricotta Salata

    I’ve been making cheese at home for about 3 years now, and SO many fans have begged me for instructions on how to make cheese after I’ve posted photos of exquisite homemade cheeses. Cheesemaking is a specific hobby with it’s own set of necessary equipment and supplies.  It’s sort of like wine making or beer…