So Many Recipes, So Little Time
As many versions there are of French ratatouille, Italian caponata, or Greek tourlou, that many there are of Georgian ajapsandali. Georgians cook vegetables together with roots, add enormous amount of herbs and usually in two stages: when cooking and once finished. The dish is equally good hot, warm, or cold. It can stand on its…
Another great find from my oldest Thai cookbook — Kaeng Jeut Wun Sen Muu Sap, or vermicelli soup with minced pork. No complicated ingredients or fancy techniques. Regular mushrooms can easily stand in place of black fungus and spaghettini or angel hair in place of bean threads. It seems that key ingredients to the flavor…
Thai Khao Tom Kung Lae Kai, or rice soup with shrimp and chicken, is similar to Chinese congee but it is much lighter, brothier. Without any particular Thai ingredients — no fish sauce or lemongrass, no galangal, no lime or makrut leaves — it’s unmistakably Thai. This is probably the best soup I have ever…
Ruth Reichl’s My Kitchen Year resonates with me like no other book on food and cooking. The concept of kitchen year should be entered into a dictionary with a proper definition as a year of recovery, reset, a year of pulling thoughts and getting acts together — a preparation to move on in a different…
My go to at Xi’an Famous Foods have always been B2 and L1 if you know their efficient menu system — Cumin Lamb Burger and Tiger Salad. For some reason, L1 is no longer on the menu but it doesn’t matter — I now have the book and make it at home in unreasonable quantities…
One certain thing I can say about my two weeks in China — I did not have enough Chinese food. But I have a couple of Chinese cookbooks now — about two shelves. Almost three? And this trip helped me understand this food a little better so there will be more Chinese food here. Here’s…
Cauliflower is my favorite vegetable and definitely don’t make it often enough. It’s great just steamed with a little salt or dressed up like in this slightly upscale stir-fried version. Karifurore variety with its long open stems, airy florets, and a chewy texture seemed to suite better for this treatment. WHAT WENT IN— olive oil—…
I love ground meat everything — burgers, meatballs, meatloaves, sausages. You name it. That goes back to my mom’s kitchen. Cooking on empty, she would put all available meat scraps through the meat grinder, pump up the flavor with whatever was on hand — salt, pepper, mustard, horseradish, garlic, onions — pump up the quantity…
Here’s an interesting way to take velveting to the next level and create that particular silky slippery texture so characteristic of Cantonese dishes. This chicken with fermented black beans was prepared in a steamer which produced especially tender and not greasy texture. For the side, I stir fried some water spinach with garlic and hot…
For a while, I have been craving congee, an Asian version of rice kasha. As much as I dislike the sweet form of cooked rice known as rice pudding — painful memories of Soviet kindergarten breakfast — that much I love its savory one. Especially with meatballs. And spinach. And especially with Nam Pla Prik….