American Food: the top ten “must taste” food!

USA : 10 cooking experiences

By Léna JAHABI & Elodie WITTNER

After 3 months of research and test of American food, we have concocted the TOP 10 culinary experiences not to miss and that you absolutely must try when you go to the United States.

 

Our top ten consists of:

• Pancakes
• Cupcakes
• Cookie shot
• Pickle roll ups
• Hot Dog
• Big Burger
• Pork Ribs
• Easy Cheese
• Corn Dog
• Beer Butt Chicken

 

1.   Pancakes

You have trouble getting up in the morning? You never cant to wake up right away? Then taste the pancakes, they will get you out of bed because you’ll want to devour them right away! This type of pancakes that are served at lunch in North America. They are usually sweetened with maple syrup, jam, honey or salted with butter on top (to melt on hot pancake), eggs, bacon.

We can find the best pancakes at Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant. This is located in the Lower East Side. The Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant bakery has repeatedly received the title of “Best New York Pancakes”.

You can also find the best pancakes at THE ORIGINAL PANCAKE HOUSE. It was founded in 1953 in Portland, Oregon. The establishment uses high-quality products and is run from the very beginning by the same family, cultivating the authentic and national identity.

But here is a recipe for pancakes, which we tested and which is a REAL RECIPE!

 

Ingredients (for 18 pancakes):

• 250 g flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 tablespoons wheat germ
• 3 eggs
• 30 g butter
• 5 l of fermented milk or natural yoghurt drinks
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 30 g butter for cooking

 

First of all, make sure that you have a mini-stove 10 cm in diameter.

Prepare your pancake dough by mixing the non-liquid ingredients in a bowl.

Make a well in the middle.

Pour in the beaten eggs, the cooled melted butter and the milk, mix quickly with the spatula.

Then let the dough rest at room temperature for 45 minutes.

Heat your slightly buttered pan.

Put a small ladle of dough in it.

Leave to cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, return to the spatula and leave to brown for another 2 minutes.

Keep the pancakes warm in a warm oven while you cook the others.

Serve these pancakes with maple syrup and chantilly, redcurrants and fresh or frozen raspberries.

You just have to enjoy yourself!

 

2.   Cupcakes

A cupcake is of American origin. It is often very colorful in individual servings. Looking like a muffin but having a different composition, is cooked in a paper mold and is usually covered with icing and is even sometimes decorated. Originally, the icing is cream cheese but it has gradually turned into a sweet frosting with, for example, butter cream or whipped cream.

 

You can find cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery. It is the most famous cupcake chain in New York thanks to its appearance in Sex and the City. Magnolia Bakery has several pastries in New York, but the best-known store is the one located at Bleeker Street. It is a boutique in soft colors where you will find pastries of all kinds. The best-selling cake is the Red Velvet cupcake. If you go there, you should definitely try the Hummingbird cupcake (banana and pineapple) and the Pistachio cupcake. Cupcakes cost between $ 2.75 and $ 3.50 a piece.

 

We found a great recipe for you. This recipe is the basis for all cupcakes.

Ingredients (for 12 cupcakes):

• 200 g of sugar
• 200 g cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 spoon of whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

 

Prepare the muffin molds by placing paper trays and preheat the oven to 170/175 °.

In a bowl, combine sugar, flour, yeast, baking soda and salt together.

Add milk, eggs, oil and vanilla, and beat at medium speed for one minute. Add the boiling water, the paste will then be more liquid, do not worry it is the desired consistency.

Fill the muffin molds 2/3 and bake for 18 to 22 minutes (you will have to watch the cooking, which may vary depending on the oven).

Allow to cool completely before proceeding with the icing.

 

Have fun for the frosting!

 

3.   Cookie Shot

The cookie shot is another way to eat cookies, another way to look at them too.

It is a cookie shaped like a small pot, hollow, like a small glass. They are often filled with milk, the ideal taste. One can find the best cookies in the pastry shop of a Frenchman in New York, that of Ancel. But if you do not have the opportunity to go, we give you a simple recipe to make.

Ingredients (6 people):

Cookie dough

• 1 pinch of salt
• 120g chocolate chips
• 240g of sifted flour
• 2 c to c of vanilla extract
• 100g of powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 90g of butter

Training

• 1 tsp of liquid vanilla
• Milk
• 100g of dark chocolate

STEP 1:

In a salad bowl, beat the sugar and the butter. Add the egg yolks and vanilla. Mix.

2ND STEP:

Add the sifted flour twice and then the chocolate chips. Mix again. You get a rather crumbly sanded dough.

STEP 3:

Butter generously enough muffin molds. Place a strip of parchment paper in the middle of the mold, making it protrude on each side to facilitate demolding. With your fingers, take a first piece of dough that you place at the bottom by tamping it well. Then build, little by little the turn. The dough must be 1 cm thick. Then book in the freezer 15 minutes.

STEP 4:

Preheat the oven 180 ° C or Th.6.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Let them cool a little before unmolding.

STEP 5:

Heat the chocolate cut in pieces in a bain-marie to melt it. Pour the chocolate a little chilled in the center of each cookie and hit to leave well inside until the top. Allow to cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

STEP 6:

Mix the milk and vanilla and set aside. When serving, pour your vanilla milk directly into your cookie shot. Begin by drinking the milk, before crunching in your cookie.

 

Bon appétit !

 

4.   Pickle Rollups

They are rolls with ham, cheese, cream and pickles. It is an excellent appetizer. Lena found them in a supermarket. They are not very expensive. But we can make these small appetizers at home. It’s easy to make.

For this recipe, you will need:

• Ham
• Cream
• Cheese
• Gherkins

Spread the ham on a clean plate. Spread the cheese and cream. Place the pickles and roll. Put a tooth pick so that the rollup remains tightly bound. Place some in the refrigerator and enjoy.

In addition to being simple, it’s quick to do! So, hurry up, invite your friends to eat and prepare this stuff!

 

5.   Hot Dog

.

A hot dog is a type of sandwich which consists of an elongated bread that is often brioche, grilled or steamed. It stuffed with a cooked sausage. It is sometimes accompanied by mustard, ketchup, relish, onions, sauerkraut or mayonnaise sauce.

You can find hot dogs on every street corner in New York, Chicago, or another city. Merchants have stands, like food truck. But you can also get some in restaurants.

Here is a recipe for Hot Dog that you can do at home.

Ingredients:

Hot Dog Bread

• 20 g baker’s yeast
• 25 cl warm milk
• 25 g sugar
• 500 g flour
• 1 whole egg
• 50 g butter room temperature
• 1 C coffee salt

Faded Cheddar Sauce

• 1 C butter soup
• 1 C to Soupe flour
• 120 ml Milk
• 4 slices Cheddar
• Salt and pepper
• Caramelized onions

 

6.   Big Burger

The hamburger is THE American dish par excellence, a notch above other emblems of the US kitchen that are hot dog, fried chicken or cheesecake. 50 billion hamburgers are sold every year in the United States! You can find burgers in fast food like McDonald’s, Five Guys, Wendy’s, Burger King, Shake Shake …

Here’s a very appetizing burger recipe!

Ingredients for 4 hamburgers:

 

• 1 kg of ground beef (at least 15% MG)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 slices of cheese (optional) such as Emmentaler, Gouda or Cheddar cheese
• 4 hamburger buns (buns)
• Mustard to taste
• From ketchup to taste
• 1 tomato sliced
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 4 to 8 green salad leaves

 

Method of preparation:

Gently shred 4 chopped steaks with chopped beef, making sure they are not too compact, so they remain juicy during cooking. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a normal frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Place the steaks in the frying pan and cook for 6 minutes for a rare cooking time, 8 minutes for a cooking time, and 10 minutes for the cooking. Turn steaks back halfway through cooking. Add the cheese 1 minute before the end of cooking (if used) and let it melt. Remove the steaks from the pan.

Spread the mustard and ketchup over the lower half of the bun, place the steak on top and add a little lettuce, tomato and onion. Then cover with the other half of the bun and serve immediately.

For a barbecue:

Preheat the barbecue to medium-high heat and grease the rack. Cook the same time as indicated in the recipe, according to the desired cooking, not forgetting to turn the burgers halfway through cooking.

 

Enjoy your meal!

 

7.   Pork Ribs

The pork loin is a piece of pork meat and cut in butchery, which corresponds to the ribs of the animal present at the level of the rib cage under the anterior limbs.

It is prepared in dishes simmered in European kitchens, smoked or smoked in Guyanese cuisine and Reunionese cuisine, grilled, especially in Chinese cuisine and American barbecues.

We found great restaurants that make pork ribs perfectly! These restaurants are all located in New York. There are: Mighty Quinn’s, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Blue Smoke and Jongro BBQ.

 

We found a recipe if you are unable to go and taste these pork ribs in these restaurants!

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 1 1/2 pounds of pork loin (large eaters: one whole rack, small eaters: one half);

If your croquettes are not already marinated (it is difficult to find unmarinated tricks):

• salt pepper;

Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

If your croissants are not marinated, salt, pepper and put paprika on both sides of the meat. Place all the pig rack in a large baking dish. They can be stacked.

Cover with aluminum foil. It must be closed at the edges.

Direction the oven for 2 ½ hours.

Barbecue sauce:

• 120 ml (1/2 cup) ketchup;
• 1/2 cup (1/2 cup) veal stock;
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice;
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) balsamic vinegar;
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) white vinegar;
• 60 mL (1/4 cup) Worcestershire sauce;
• 1 tbsp brown sugar / cane;
• 1 tsp mustard.

 

Place all these ingredients in a saucepan and heat on your plate over high heat. Stir with a whisk until well blended. Put aside.

When the meat is ready, heat your grill.

Place the pork ribs on the grill and brush them with a barbecue sauce brush. We turn over the meat, we wash, we go back, we brush and we monitor the coloring well.

There, the barbecue sauce will allow the meat to caramelize. A pure delight.

It’s ready!

Accompaniment: baked potatoes and green salad.

Share with your friends and enjoy your meal!

8.   Easy Cheese

Kraft easy cheese cheddar is cheese spray! Some will say that it is plain and yet we defend that it is great, super practical and in addition it is good! You can use it to embellish your sandwiches, your crackers or to decorate your appetizers and dishes of a pretty cheddar cheese … guarantee effect on your guests!

This spray is found in cheeses, grocery stores and supermarkets in the United States.

But you can also find it in France if you can not go to the United States. On some sites like mylittleamerica and myamericanmarket may have found this spray.

 

You can also make a sauce that looks like this. Simply grated cheddar as you spread on “Springles” chips and put all this in the oven about 5 minutes.

And enjoy yourself!

 

9.   Corn Dog

It is a great classic American fairground, much like cotton candy! A sausage on a stick is a smoked sausage coated with batter, all planted on a stick after cooking. It is eaten when it is hot. You can usually accompany it with mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup or honey according to the taste of each one. There is the possibility of varying the taste according to the dough and the kind of sausage that are used.

You can find this specialty on the streets because there are merchants with food trucks that sell them. But they can also be found in the fairground.

But we can make it at home with this amazing recipe!

Ingredients for 6 corn dog:

• 6 sausages from Frankfurt
• 50g of wheat flour
• 60g of corn flour (organic bean)
• 10g sugar
• 1 egg
• 10cl of milk
• 2 tbsp. Of baking powder
• salt pepper
• frying oil

 

Preparation:

Heat the oil to 180 ° C.

In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt, pepper and yeast.

Add milk and egg and mix until smooth and homogeneous. Pour the donut dough into a high, thin, type-to-doser container for easy sausage dipping.

Poke the sausages until 3/4 with a wooden pick.

Dip the sausages into the donut dough to coat them thoroughly, dip them into the hot frying oil and fry for about 3 minutes so the dough is golden brown.

Place on absorbent paper. Serve with the sauce of your choice.

Eat well!

 

10.  Beer Butt Chicken

The “Beer Can Chicken,” is a cooked chicken sitting on a can of beer. It is surprising and it will entertain your guests! The original recipe uses either the oven or the barbecue. If you opt for this method, your barbecue must be able to close to cook the chicken standing inside the barbecue, this requires height!

The original recipe is simply to roast a standing chicken with a little fat to brown the skin. The beer inside allows the meat of the poultry not to dry and remain tender.

Here’s a recipe.

Begin by opening a can of beer and pour a little bit into the bottom of a baking dish. After inserting the can into the chicken belly hole, place the can on the can in the middle of the oven dish.

Coat the chicken with a mixture of 2 tablespoons of crème fraiche and 1 tablespoon of mustard. Be sure to cover it with this appliance.

Sprinkle chicken with herbs of Provence, curry, paprika, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, cumin. Spread olive oil.

Place in the preheated oven and cook for 1 hour 20 minutes at 160 °.

Invite friends and enjoy!

 

 

In this difficult period, with all these changes of governments and principles which divide people… Food, dinners, breaks snacks and small breaks between friends or with our close relations, are what bring us closer. Hence, now that our article made your mouth water, take your loved ones, buy your tickets and go ahead, test all these dishes in the United States. Fully take advantage of the last thing which remains faithful and unifying whatever the times and the systems: THE FOOD.

 

Hopefully this article will give you more to think about!