They say that real men don’t eat quiche. But would real men eat not-so-real quiche instead? I don’t know; I made this pair of not-so-real quiches for a party celebrating the engagement of a lovely girlfriend of mine, where only women attended. I can say with certainty that real women eat not-real quiches when that not-real component speaks specifically to its crust.
Do you have a lot of curious condiments lurking in the fridge? Like a strange bedfellow that you had a one-night stand with, but for whatever reason, life moved on, and you don’t feel the need to connect? Maybe it’s that Thai green curry paste that you thought was exciting and adventurous, but has since dried up and gone stale. Maybe it’s a bottle of salad dressing that you once genuinely loved, for a time, which is now squarely in … Read More
I’ve been seeing a lot of folks drinking green smoothies these days. By folks, I mean women, for the most part, and those living in NYC, by geographical default, and, in particular, again by sheer observational default, those coming from and going to their offices for a morning or midday pick-me-up-instead-of-coffee. So I feel a sort of social pressure being of this class to partake in green smoothies (or juicies), too. But I prefer to eat, not drink, my greens. … Read More
It occurs to me that this might as well be named Butternut Squash Curry with Eggs. But I was inspired by the notion of making egg curry, a staple peasant dish of India that can incorporate as many spice blends and vegetable additions as to envelop winter squash from a foreign terrain. It is a decidedly vegetarian main course in a distinctively vegetarian (and vegan)-friendly cuisine, and I first learned about egg curry from reading short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, … Read More
Here’s a breakfast that won’t put you right back to bed. I love Eggs Benedict, in all its drippy, sticky, bread sop-worthy mess. But I rarely bother to make Hollandaise sauce, which is poured liberally on top of the open-faced sandwich. For practical reasons, it’s fussy and complicated to make; and you’d have to make a bigger batch than suitable for just one serving, since it requires at least one egg yolk. And since I’m already having runny, poached eggs, … Read More
Things are looking sunny side-up in Brooklyn. First a month of rain, then a scorching week of heat, now it’s clear and mid-seventies, and the first ears of sweet corn from local farms have arrived. All of which inspired this rather hearty breakfast (and, of course, the inspiration of huevos rancheros). But the secret ingredient of stinging nettles in the sauce, and the incredible eggs, were sourced from a grocery delivery startup new to NYC called Good Eggs. Read on … Read More
Winter squashes can seem intimidating to cook. They have thick, hardened skins often scuffed with dirt, and their dense flesh can make for quite a dangerous job of cutting it if you’re not careful with a big knife. Their seed pockets are stringy and stick to your fingers. They take a long time to soften — or do they? Not when using these red kuri squashes, in thin slices for instance.
I’ve been learning about all sorts of things tea lately; did you know that matcha derives from the words mo cha, to grind tea, in Chinese, and that doing so was customary during the Song dynasty? The practice fell out of fashion in China afterwards, but has continued in Japan, where tea drinkers can whisk up a frothy cup of jade-green matcha from the finely milled powder of green tea leaves. And thanks to its being so refined, bakers and … Read More
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
It’s that time of year again — deviled eggs weather is back. Picnics, now, are even plausible and get ready for lots of backyard barbecue smoke. Not that winter is terribly inappropriate for making one of my favorite (read: Cheap! Easy! Quick!) party snacks. But sometime hovering around Easter, when there’s not much else to play with other than chives, just seems more fit. Let the Devil in.