This year we wanted to have a seafood feast for two for New Year’s Day. Usually, we would make some variation of the San Francisco-style Italian-American soup Cioppino, such as Cioppino for the Beach . This time, for variety, I based our feast on a recipe in a new cookbook I got for Christmas, Food Read More …
This fish, potato, and olive oil spread is a variation on a Venetian classic Baccala Matecato and similar Italian and French spreads. The key difference is using smoked trout instead of dried cod as the fish element. This version is adapted from a recipe in Saveur. Since olive oil is a key ingredient, it is Read More …
This Catalan dish is like a simplified and quicker paella in which pieces of thin broken pasta take the place of rice. This version is adapted from an article in Milk Street Magazine and will make 4 servings in about 35 minutes. Thus this could be a weeknight dinner. It requires a 12 inch skillet Read More …
This is a quick and easy fish stew which gets its special character from preserved lemons (or as an alternative 24 Hour Salted Lemon Spread ) and green olives. This is an adaptation of a recipe in Cook’s Illustrated. It will serve 4 people with rice, and will take about 40 minutes. 1.5 lb. cod Read More …
We frequently eat Salade Nicoise, usually with good quality oil-packed canned tuna. I had seen an article on cooking tuna sous-vide in oil and decided to use that for the tuna part of the salad. That involved sprinkling the two sides of the tuna with kosher salt and letting it dry brine in the refrigerator Read More …
This is the first dish we made from Esteban Castillo’s cookbook, Chicano Eats. It makes a flavorful but not spicy sauce to go with pasta. We made it with scallops, but it would also be good with shrimp, fish or chicken. The amount of sauce is intended for 1 lb. of pasta, and is expected Read More …
Photo pending Since many of my backpacking main courses use pasta, this is an attempt to get some variety by using rice. We experimented with instant rice to save stove fuel, but were unimpressed by the result. In this version, we are incorporating some techniques from the making of rissotto, adding hot water to the Read More …
This is a dish from the Basque country of northern Spain (the former kingdom of Navarre). It would be most commonly made with jamon serrano or prosciutto, but I made it with cottage bacon. Two trout will serve 2-4 people depending on their appetite and the size of the trout. This is an adaptation of Read More …
This is a good quick dish which is especially suitable for a weekday dinner. Almost all the ingredients are in a well-stocked pantry, except that you need fresh basil, which is currently plentiful in my garden. Use good oil-packed tuna – it makes a difference. This is adapted from a recipe in The Splendid Table, Read More …
There are many different fillings for a musubi (a rice sandwich) in addition to the popular Spam Musubi. Today for lunch, we had a tuna musubi. An important piece of equipment for making musubi is a rice press, which can be bought on Amazon for less than $10. Here is how we made 3 servings: Read More …