One of the best dishes we had at a recent dinner to a Georgian restaurant in DC was a carrot, cucumber, and Feta salad. After a few tries, this is close to what we enjoyed at the restaurant. The key step is to boil the carrots just until crisp-tender. How long this will take depends Read More …
A frequent problem in cooking is what to do with a partially consumed avocado. Cut avocados are quickly oxidized by contact with the air into an unappealing brown color. I recently saw an article suggesting storing cut avocados in water, and it does work. Because avocados are high in fat, they do not mix much Read More …
To improve my pizza game, I recently bought Tony Gemignani’s The Pizza Bible, and I carefully followed the very detailed instructions for his introductory recipe, the classic pepperoni pizza. It was very good. (Following the instructions carefully was hard since one of my 2 year old granddaughters very much wanted to help me make the Read More …
This is a slight simplification of the recipe in Tony Gemignani’s The Pizza Bible, in which I used two different canned tomato products instead of three. (The original had 2 oz. of hand-crushed canned tomatoes, which I replaced with additional ground tomatoes.) The sauce worked very well on a pepperoni pizza, and demonstrated the difference Read More …
This easy and tasty cold soup is adapted from South African Cooking in the USA. I chose to make it vs. some similar recipes since it did not call for any herbs which I did not have. (On the other hand, some dill would have been good in it.) I used a hothouse cucumber, but Read More …
These tasty bars are an adaptation of a recipe in Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes: Cookies. For this batch, we sprinkled milk chocolate chips on the top vs. the coconut flakes in the original recipe. Mud Cake Layer ¾ cup butter (1-1/2 sticks) 1-3/4 cup sugar ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa 4 large eggs 2 tsp. vanilla Read More …
Epicurious.com recently had an article about Chicago chef Paul Kahan who likes to dip meat that he is grilling back into the marinade twice in order to get an additional depth of flavor. I tried the technique last night and it did work very well. The Asian marinade I used has some sweetness, and the Read More …
This is a favorite way of cooking spinach, which we have served many times over the years. The original recipe came from Efrain Martinez’s book, Classic Spanish Cooking with Chef Ef, which features a number of regional specialties, such as this dish from Catalonia. Essentially, steamed and chopped spinach is mixed with a variety of Read More …
I like meatballs, and this is a recipe which I have made many times over the years. It was originally from the Triton Bar/Restaurant in Barcelona, as recorded in one of my favorite cookbooks, Penelope Casas’ Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain. This will make ~ 40 one-inch meatballs, which is about 6-8 servings. The Read More …
Back in February, the Wall St. Journal published a “Slow Food Fast” recipe about making a variation of salad nicoise suitable for the winter, since it used only pantry ingredients and broccoli, which is readily available in the winter. I thought this was a good idea since it was a salad based on a vegetable Read More …