This side dish accompanied Chinese Braised Beefin the photograph. The mushrooms were a good addition since they really soaked up the sauce. This is an adaptation from Cook’s Illustrated’s “All-Time Best Chinese Recipes”. Sauce 2 Tbs. water 1 Tbs. soy sauce 1 Tbs. dry sherry 2 tsp. brown sugar 2 tsp. grated fresh ginger 1 Read More …
This Central European classic was an accompaniment to a pork roast, the comfort food of Carol’s childhood. It was easy and very good. Note that this was started the day before, rested overnight in the refrigerator to meld the flavors, and then reheated the second day. This version is adapted from a favorite cookbook, The Read More …
This condiment from the Israeli cookbook Sababa is essentially a quick way of making preserved lemons. I just used it in another recipe from Sababa, Lemony Tuna Pasta. 1 lb. lemons (3 large or 4 medium), washed 3 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 1 small jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced 3 Tbs. kosher salt Read More …
This tasty and easy salad is adapted from Nancie McDermott’s book Quick & Easy Thai. Like many Asian salads, there is no oil in the dish, so this is quite low calorie. I made it with chopped peanuts (vs. dried shrimp) so that I did not have to go to a specialty grocery for any Read More …
This is a good accompaniment to smoked chicken and other barbeque dishes. This recipe is adapted from Cowboy Barbecue, a book based on Davila’s BBQ in Seguin, TX. The original recipe used russet potatoes, but I like using the thin-skinned baby gold potatoes, so that no peeling is needed. 1-1/2 lbs. baby gold potatoes 1 Read More …
In recent years, I have gotten lazy (or have not planned ahead) and have generally microwaved my “baked” potato. It was ready in 7 minutes, vs. the 1 hour+ that it takes for the oven, and that seemed like a good deal. I recently read an article in www.thekitchn.com extolling the virtues of actually baking Read More …
For a family dinner, I was recently looking around for a good way to serve carrots, and I spotted a Pierre Franey recipe on the NY Times recipe website. It was both simple and very tasty. 1-1/2 lbs. of carrots, peeled and thinly sliced ½ tsp. sugar ¼ cup water 1 Tbs. lemon juice 2 Read More …
Fugazza con queso is an Argentine variation of pizza. This version is adapted from Ross Dobson’s and Rachel Tolosa Pas’s cookbook The Food of Argentina. Ingredients have been sized for a half recipe of the dough from Pepperoni Pizza from The Pizza Bible , which will serve 2-3 people. The contrast between caramelized onions (and Read More …
Gazpacho, a chilled liquid salad, is a Spanish classic for high summer when tomatoes are at their best. This straight-forward version is adapted from one of my oldest and most well-worn cookbooks, The Time-Life International Cookbook. It will serve 6 to 8 and needs to be made a few hours before serving to meld and Read More …
One of the first cookbooks I bought many years ago was Better Than Store Bought, which was about making at home foods which Americans normally purchase. This was a very useful idea when I lived in Thailand and many American products were unavailable or very expensive. One of the recipes in the book was about Read More …