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 …
I spotted a recipe in the Food Network Magazine which I thought was worth trying since Carol likes barley, which is a low-glycemic and high fiber alternative to rice. It turned out well, including being surprisingly creamy. Since we had whole barley (vs. the quick-cooking pearl barley in the original recipe), that is what I Read More …
Louisiana barbecued shrimp are very tasty, but they are not at all what their name describes, since they are actually shrimp cooked in a skillet with a spicy and buttery sauce. This version is adapted from a recipe in Food52, which I noticed because it used a moderate amount of butter vs. the extravagant amount Read More …
We just got home from a week in the Caribbean and were looking for an Ash Wednesday dinner which would be easy on our stomachs, which are a little worse for the traveling. This was a successful improvisation using “Char’s Maine Fish Chowder” in Cook’s Country: Best Lost Suppers as a starting point. Many fish Read More …
Shrimp Etouffee, or smothered shrimp, is a Louisiana classic. This is a rather simple, low spice version, suitable for family dining midweek and is adapted from an Ann Maloney recipe in the Washington Post which was reprinted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Carol liked it quite a bit. I pumped up the heat in my bowl Read More …