Category: Cooking Freeform

This pasta is a compilation of various recipes and techniques. Saving it here in case my housemates want me to do it again. It came out pretty good. To accommodate my Russian mind craving stories and movies, I organize my mise en place for this Italianish dish the way my first Chinese cookbook taught me:…

These days, it seems like mashed potatoes are everywhere. It is cold. And has been snowing. Couldn’t hold it and made my own mash. With Chicken and Pork Meatballs. The idea for the meatball mix stems from Ina Garten’s Italian Wedding soup recipe in Back to Basics. I substituted sausage for plain pork because that’s…

Summer has never been my time of the year. Demi-seasons are my favorite. But this year, for the first time I’ve seen other people doing actual countdowns to fall — hang in there, people, only a few days left. My daughter’s reaction to my this longing for cooler days manifestation was:— You know what, mom,…

Good jerk hurts — smoke gets in your eyes, scotch bonnets burn from within. Good jerk is hard — hard to find, hard to recreate, hard to photograph. Good jerk takes time — days of marinating, hours of smoking. Good jerk can be so good! When you find a good jerk, try not to lose…

This is probably the most talked about recipe of Russian cuisine — legendary chicken croquettes Pozharsky style. There are many arguments about the history of the recipe, its name, and ingredients:— It is named after Pozharsky family.— No, it’s named after a fire in a chicken coup (“pozhar” in Russian means fire).— Veal is the…

South East Asian flavors would be at the top of my list. I love their heat and the sour-salty-sweet fireworks. However when it comes to wings, I’m a Buffalo purist. Wings are hard to get right. There shouldn’t be too much meat — too dry, not too much skin — too greasy, definitely no breading….

Not sure what moved me to go get oysters. Maybe Saturday. And here they are — Oysters Mornay right off the grill. The oysters are still slightly raw on the inside but bread crumbs create crunchy charred top and the creaminess of cheese and butter compliment the smoke from the wood chips.   WHAT WENT IN…

Grilling days — exploring marinades. Vinegary ones are probably my favorite. They do a quick job — four-five hours tops — flavoring meat. Garlic, mustard, thyme, and lemon flavors are here from the best Julia Child’s dressing. Sugar — to give it some color. Onion — for umami. And the last but not least is mayo:…

Italy meets Columbia meets Vietnam — in my bowl. Escarole with Cargamantos and Ot Hiem peppers preserved in fish sauce. That was a complete improvisation and what a success! At the market, I scored three beautiful heads of escarole. Yes, cannellini would be classic but I did not have them. Instead, I soaked a bag…

There is a word in Russian language — “zavodilovka.” I am not really sure if it’s a real word or my mom made it up. She was great with that — Google Translate got stumped. It means a non-urgent mostly useless undertaking that involves many steps and a lot of unnecessary hassle. This word immediately…