They say shakshouka, a common Israeli breakfast dish, is difficult or taxing to make, or that canned tomatoes are the best option to create a thick and savory sauce. But it was the first thing I could think of to whip up when I could find little else but ripe tomatoes and fresh eggs in the icebox one morning last week. I don’t mean that in a nostalgic way, using the word, “icebox” — for the past couple weeks, I’ve … Read More
I’m getting spoiled by all the good produce in the West Coast. Not that the farmers’ markets and CSAs of the Northeast don’t have their own charms (harvest time for Upstate NY apples, the best ever, is just around the corner) but the abundance of colors and flavors out here can have a kaleidoscopic effect. My first instinct was to cook as much as I could in California — but how does one do that without a solid home and … Read More
Big, floppy discs of eggplant begone. Sad, soggy flaps of squash stay away. It’s summer, and there’s so many types and sizes of seasonal produce about, why not grab all the good ones instead? Like these tiny, tender, baby eggplants and pattypan squash, a fun change of pace within their familiar family of plants.
Here’s a great recipe for what to wake up to: a thin fog clearing over a stretch of golden, sun-baked hills, the chortle of a horse in a barn nearby, the sour smell of manure and fresh scent of wild fennel wafting in through the window, and farmers making you breakfast with newly dug potatoes, greens, and enormous blue eggs. Over the course of my second week in California, I’ve really woken up to what real farms (i.e. not Brooklyn … Read More
Warning: if you’re looking for a rich, roux-thickened, sausage-studded gumbo this recipe is not for you. If you’re looking for a thin, herbal, summery gumbo with a hint of spice and fresh chunks of its namesake vegetable, okra, step right in. I’ve got a treat for you.
We’re not in Kansas anymore… if you can equate that with “home” in any case. Driving up and down the steep, scary hills of San Francisco in a borrowed car, I’ve actually passed a road called Kansas St. but none named after New York. It’s good to get away. I’ve taken off for the West Coast, leaving my apartment to a friend and the garden in good hands, to sink into a different vibe. This is my first report from … Read More
Perhaps you’ve tried one or another of these cold side dishes at Japanese restaurants: slips of seaweed dressed in a sweet sesame dressing, or crisp-tender green beans tossed in a savory, miso-based sauce. Well, I decided to put one and two together, with a fresh clutch of not-so-green beans from the market.
I’ve been trying to perfect this recipe for a while. Not so much a recipe, but the technique to a perfect fish sandwich. What type of fish to use? How to batter and fry the fillets? What to serve on it? Well, each of the three variations made over the last three Saturdays were all pretty darn good, regardless. It’s a fish sandwich, with fresh toppings. What can go wrong?
In my experience (and I’ve been to lots of them), local food cook-offs don’t get much better than this. Twenty-four obsessive people finagling over hot grills and their creative toppings/hot dog treatments, beer funneling into the audience from the kegs at Kelso Brewery, and 100% of the event’s proceeds being donated to the Food Bank For NYC… I’m not sure why this event is held only once a year, but it’s now in its sixth enactment, and bound to be … Read More
What do you do when it’s too hot to cook, but you only have vegetables that don’t work so great raw? You stir-fry them, and stick them in a fridge to cool down. It only takes a few seconds of cooking, promise. And they’ll taste great with cold, slippery noodles coated in sesame oil.