I keep my spices in alphabetical order. I’m not that anal; it makes finding spices quicker when the number of spices exceeds a couple dozens. I notice that I have quite a few spices under ’c’: Cardamom Cajun seasoning blend Cayenne Chili powder, Bolsa Cinnamon: stick & ground Cloves Coriander Cumin: whole seeds & ground more…. »
I made this “Sea Bass In Papillote” recipe today. I used dried thyme (about 1/4-1/2 tsp for two) so I “toasted” it along with the garlic and capers and tomatoes in olive oil beforehand. My twists were a bit of red pepper flakes, and a tiny bit of butter on each fillet (about 1/2 tsp each). more…. »
…or so goes the famous Ralph Waldo Emerson quote. Not so with certain culinary quests, I say. For example, I bake French baguettes. A lot. I bake all the bread for our family of two. My issue is regardless of how fastidious I am with my ingredients and methods, the end result is never exactly more…. »
I had five teeth pulled recently in preparation for getting braces. Food-wise, I prepared by making a huge pot of cháo, the Vietnamese version of “congee”, or rice porridge. Since I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be up to chewing anything, I opted to purée everything into a soup-like dish. I cooked rice, with twice more…. »
I did another simple salad for dinner, modeling it after a similar salad that my multi-talented sis-in-law made when she visited us recently. Julienne and boil yellow beets until fork-tender. (I only used about 1/2″ of water in the saucepan to boil/steam the beet, keeping the pan tightly covered.) Hull an slice strawberries about 1/8″ more…. »
Dire straits often yield interesting, innovative, inspired, outcomes. My kitchen dire straits often arrive at week’s end, just before we buy groceries for the coming week, when the cupboard is at its barest. OK, so my “bare” may be many people’s “laden” but that’s another topic altogether. Today, I need to make a veggie dish more…. »
My wife and I had the honor of being invited to a Persian New Year celebration. It was an amazing experience. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be up close and personal with a crowd of Iranians and their customs and food. I had two big revelations about Persian customs and food. The first is more…. »
I heart Zojirushi stuff, a lot! We’ve owned two Zojirushi appliances: a rice cooker and a 5-liter hot water boiler. My sis-in-law gave us the rice cooker as a housing warming gift when we moved down to Austin over twenty years ago. You read that right: twenty, as in, two decades! The rice cooker still more…. »
I don’t understand why garlic bread recipes always call for “rubbing halved garlic cloves on bread”. I find doing so either doesn’t impart enough garlic flavor to the bread, or, if I do it too vigorously, would break up the crumb. My method is to squeeze garlic with a garlic press into some olive oil, more…. »
I’m close to achieving a State of Yo with the tart crust! I can now get from ball-of-dough to crust-rolled-and-crimped in about five minutes! Anyway, the current baking procedure is 12 minutes at 400° covered with foil and pie weight, then removing foil and pie weight, piercing crust all over with fork, then bake for more…. »
Still on a quest for that perfect tart crust, I baked another tart over the weekend. Technique-wise, I did pretty much the same thing with the crust as the last tart, except for baking time, which I notched back maybe by ten percent to see if it would dry out less. It looks like I more…. »
I made a vegetable stew recently. A quick Google’ing shows a fairly common set of ingredients: onions, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc. Another commonality is the preparation: sautéeing the veggies together. Many reviews complain of the resulting stew being “tasteless”! One browns the meat beforehand when making meat stew, so why not more…. »
I saw some beautiful figs at the market today. Well, OK, it was more like, we ran into Paul Qui, winner of 2012 Top Chef Texas, and he was tasting a fig, and that gave me the idea. (He asked: “What are you guys cooking?” I said: “We’re roasting some chicken.” He said: “Oh, me more…. »
If at first you kinda succeed, try again! And that’s just what I did this Labor Day weekend: I made another tart. This time, it’s a potato, leek, onion and prosciutto tart, using the same crust recipe as the first one. I sliced the potato thin (1/8″-1/4″) and browned ‘em. I sweated/sautéed the leek and more…. »
I made ratatouille for the first time this past weekend. It was a ratatouille tart and having never made pie/tart shell before, it was also my first time making a from-scratch tart shell! I followed this recipe at epicurious.com for the tart crust. I did not have any shortening so I used some margerine. I more…. »
We celebrated my birthday at my fav sushi joint, Uchiko. One of the sushi chefs at prepared a sake drink for us of cold sake in which he soaked a salted cherry blossom. Yes, those cherry blossoms . They’re called “sakura-no-shiozuke. Fresh cherry blossoms are pickled with salt and vinegar and then preserved in salt. more…. »
We did an omelette for lunch today. We had eggs from hens raised by one of my wife’s colleagues and scallions from the garden of our neighbor across the street. We added red bell pepper and onion (remainder of which to be used in a stir fry later in the week), left-over lunch stuff from more…. »
We skipped the usual turkey and went with semi-boneless Cornish hens and semi-boneless quails. The quails were already deboned; I deboned the hens myself. I brined them for eight hours in a brine of: 4 qt water 1/2 C salt 2 C sugar 2 Tsps + 2 tsps green peppercorn 4 tsps juniper berries 8 more…. »
One of my “go to” multi-meal dishes that I cook on weekends for dinners during the coming week is Fine Cooking’s “Arroz Con Pollo”. I mostly follow that recipe, with variations in the protein I use (chicken, sausages, etc.), addition of home-roasted bell peppers (charred under the broiler & peeled), and addition of olives.
What’s for dinner: Linguini e tonno (OK, so the “tonno” was StarKist!) While boiling linguini, sweat chopped red onion. Add capers & chopped garlic and brown. Add julienned sundried tomatoes and tuna. Deglaze with white wine and reduce. Add red pepper flakes. Using a pasta fork, fish linguini out of pot (boiled for 2 minutes more…. »