The New Yorker recently had an article “The Irresistible Allure of Snacking Cakes” which raved about the cookbook Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings written by Yossy Arefi. The idea behind the book was to develop recipes which could be simply mixed together with a single bowl and spoon and then baked. The article Read More …
Caramelized pork is a Vietnamese classic which is popular for the Tet holiday. I found recipes for this dish in most of my Vietnamese cookbooks. It is normally made with pork belly, to get the richness of pork fat into the dish. I followed a recommendation in one book to use half pork belly and Read More …
Focaccia di Recco is a thin and crispy focaccia stuffed with cheese which is a specialty of the town of Recco, which is near Genoa. It is more of a snack or appetizer than a meal. This version is based on an article in Serious Eats. In Recco this would be made with a local Read More …
This dish was described in a novel by Amor Towles, “The Lincoln Highway”. I found it in omaha.com, although it is apparently on the author’s website. It is a relatively quick dish suitable for midweek. I used 4 oz. per person of my very meaty cottage bacon, and I would cut that back to 3 Read More …
This is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on thekitchn.com which they called “French Onion Domino Potatoes”. The idea is to layer thin slices of potato with caramelized onion and Gruyere cheese so that it is a lot like the flavors of French onion soup on potatoes. I made this last night to accompany Read More …
This is another variation of the Basic No-Knead Bread from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery and which was popularized in the New York Times. This variation includes chopped Kalamata olives and excludes any added salt because of the saltiness of the olives. Once again, this takes 18-24 hours and involves working with a Read More …
Carol asked for some sweet cornbread to go with the Venison Chili with Beans , and this is what I made based on a recipe in King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking. The original recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour, which I did not have, so I instead used Irish-style whole wheat flour, which Read More …
Polenta can be the Italian equivalent of mashed potatoes, a great comfort food, especially for cold winter nights. This required two pots and the oven and took in total about an hour, mostly waiting for it to complete cooking in the oven. It is thus suitable for a weeknight dinner. This version is an adaptation Read More …
I used 4 lbs. of meat from a venison haunch to make a version of Venison Ragout in which the carrots were replaced by a large container of mushrooms which were quartered and separately browned in olive oil before being added to the ragout. It turned out very well.
This is our second version of using part of a leg of venison by making chili, in this case with beans. My starting place was a recipe in StaffMeals from Chanterelle about how they would use up odds and ends of the venison served to the customers. The biggest changes are that I started with Read More …