It’s a ubiquitous side on the sushi restaurant menu, but “seaweed salad” is just weeds from the sea, tossed with dressing. Often, it’s made from dried and reconstituted seaweed sheets, shred into ribbons. You can get packages of the dried stuff at any Japanese grocery. Or, if you’re at the beach, you’ll come across it, fresh, for sure.
I can’t think of too many other proteins you can’t try this same dish out on — whether it be fish, a pork chop, or a hunk of firm tofu. It’s simple: a seared steak (of some sort) brushed with a little sauce while it finishes in the oven. But I’m lucky, because the protein I have most readily on hand happens to be wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon.
Two weeks ago, I invited food bloggers to a challenge: to cook (and blog about) a unique recipe from their home kitchen to our computer screens. The incentive? To win a ticket to Let Us Eat Local, the food-filled annual fundraiser party put on by Just Food. And, publication in the non-profit’s upcoming Veggie Tipsheets handbook, a how-to on everything you might come across at the market, or in your CSA share. Four brave bloggers took it on, and here’s … Read More
If you had to name two things that go brilliantly when thrown together in a pot, especially when you’re at the shore in the last throes of summer, you might not immediately pick clam and tomatoes. Lobster and corn might come to mind, with potatoes a tagalong or alternate. But it’s the first combo that I’d go with from now on. It was the basis of the best soup I’ve had in a while, just in time for chillier nights.
Just another fun way to serve up eggplant, fresh and simple. Because it’s got to be cooked, eggplant tends to get weighed down in heavier preparations — parm, or an Asian stir-fry with lots of gloppy brown sauce. But I love just roasting a skinny eggplant half, face down like a spear, and eating it straight-up like that afterwards, soft and gooey inside. This was more or less what I did for cooking demonstrations two weekends ago at New York … Read More
I was inspired to do this by one of my favorite Chinese condiments, pickled mustard greens. The greens are finely shredded, brined with salt, vinegar and soy sauce, sometimes chiles, and in some cases, slightly fermented before going into a can or a jar to be preserved. Then, they’re served with almost anything: stir-fries with tofu, a bowl of noodle soup with sliced pork, and, when I was little, sometimes just sprinkled on top of a bowl of hot, soupy … Read More
First it was this on a plate with leftover roasted almonds strewn about, a salad. Then it was this, transported to crisps of leftover bread, a crostini. Next it was this, stuffed into my cold burrito from a take-out place that I didn’t even go to (somebody else did, and gave me their leftovers). Soon it will be this, on leftover rice that’s stuck to a pot in the fridge. Basically, this is really good. Any way you serve it.
It’s back to school time in the city, and it’s my favorite season for eating. Pumpkins and other winter squashes are fattening on the vine while heirloom tomatoes and outdoor barbecues are still going strong. It’s no wonder Just Food has chosen this time of year to hold its annual fundraiser feast, Let Us Eat Local. This year’s party is on September 16th, and it’ll be outside, at the South Street Seaport Water Taxi Beach. And it’s truly going to … Read More
I was at a backyard party in Brooklyn a few weeks ago hosted by my friend June. I’d been to her paella party at about this time of year last summer, and so I knew what kind of yumminess to expect from this event. I got there a little late, again. June was just adding the shellfish to a paella pan, plunking clams and mussels hinge side down into the rice. The wide, cast-iron pan was placed on top of … Read More
We’ve gotten our first whiff of fall in New York City this week. This morning, I actually put on socks. But now that summer is beginning to fade (and soon, too, will my flip-flop foot tan), it’s officially okay to start thinking about baking, specifically pies. There is so much good fruit around.