Gambas al Ajillo was one of the first Spanish dishes I ever ate, and it has long been one of my favorites. With some good bread, a salad, and good white wine, it makes about a perfect dinner, and is fairly quick to put together since it is essentially just a shrimp saute with lots Read More …
Rice pudding is a real comfort food dessert, and is easy, although a bit time-consuming to make. This is the way I usually make it, which is an adaptation from Cook’s Illustrated’s book, The Best Recipe. The rum gives a lot of flavor to the final pudding, but it can be omitted if you do Read More …
This is a stuffed pizza from the Calabria region in southern Italy which is very much like the large empanadas of Spain. The filling is made from tuna, tomatoes, olives, etc., and is very tasty. The same basic idea can be done with other fillings as well. This was adapted from Aglaia Kremezi’s Mediterranean Hot Read More …
Pork chops are perfect to cook in the sous-vide technique since they are much better when not overcooked, which is so easy to do. I salted the pork chops with kosher salt on both sides (like a light dusting of snow), and had them rest in the refrigerator over night. This process led to the Read More …
This is a pizza variation which originated in Trenton, NJ, so it is sometimes called a Trenton Tomato Pie. In a conventional pizza, there are three distinct layers on top of the dough: sauce, then cheese, then toppings (pepperoni, etc.) A tomato pie is constructed differently. First is the cheese, which is applied more Read More …
Chicken tikka masala is justly one of the most popular Indian dishes in the US. It is very flavorful and uses a boatload of spices, but is not really chili hot, so it can appeal to a wide audience. This recipe is adopted from Serious Eats and has an extra level of flavor from grilling Read More …
This is an example of French home cooking. It produces a very tasty dinner with no exotic techniques or ingredients. This posting is adopted from a Wall St. Journal article on March 26 about a cooking instructor, Susan Hermann Loomis, who emphasizes in her classes that French food does not have to be fussy or hard Read More …
This main dish is like a cross between a Yorkshire pudding and a quiche. It is an eggy batter enriched with bacon and onion which puffs impressively in the oven. The name “matafan” is from an old French slang term meaning “hunger beater”. Interestingly, there is a very similar term “Matambre” or “hunger killer” Read More …
As the name implies, Pane Francese is a northern Italian version of a French baguette. It differs from a standard baguette because it enriched with milk and olive oil, which softens the crumb and thickens the crust. This posting is an adaptation of recipe posted in Leite’s Cuinaria, which was in turn adapted from Zachary Golper’s Read More …
This mustard vinaigrette is an adaptation of a recipe which appeared in the Wall St. Journal in November 2014. I have now made it a couple of times. There is a certain amount of elapsed time to let the chopped shallot mellow with the vinegar, and to generally meld the flavors, but this takes only Read More …