One of the most celebrated dishes in Houston was the green sauce at Ninfa’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant chain, now largely gone. (Ninfa Laurenzo died in 2001). I made a batch yesterday to go with the Sous-vide Carnitas , using an adaptation of the recipe in Robb Walsh’s excellent The Tex-Mex Cookbook. This recipe makes a Read More …
Carol and I were recently in Galicia walking the Camino de Santiago. In Galicia, empanadas were commonly available at both restaurants and bakeries, and tuna is by far the most common filling. (If the filling is not specifically identified, you can be confident that it is tuna.) This version is a large empanada to be Read More …
This is similar to Smoked Trout Pate , except that it was made with smoked whiting I found at Wegmann’s, and it used sour cream instead of cream cheese, because that is what I had on hand. A smoked whiting yields about 8 oz. of smoked fish once the bones and skin are removed. Read More …
This traditional Armenian soup pushes a number of buttons for me. It is based on yogurt, which I like to make, and is full of cucumbers, which Carol likes. I thought it would be a good warm-weather dish which would be an alternative to a traditional salad, just like gazpacho is. Here is my Read More …
I served this as an appetizer at our Super Bowl party this year, as an alternative to Buffalo wings. 6 whole chicken wings (or 12 half wings, about 2 lbs.) 1 Tbs. butter 1 Tbs. vegetable oil ½ cup soy sauce ½ cup cane or rice vinegar 4 cloves garlic, smashed 2 bay leaves Read More …
I served this as an appetizer at our Super Bowl party this year. This is adapted from a recipe in Garden and Gun magazine. As you can see in another post, I followed a similar procedure to make adobo wings as a non-spicy alternative. 6 whole chicken wings (or 12 half wings, about 2 Read More …
This classic appetizer is a French take on a Greek way of fixing mushrooms. This recipe is adapted from Craig Claiborne’s Gourmet Diet, which was published in 1980 after Craig Claiborne, then the food editor of the New York Times, was advised that his blood pressure was way too high and he needed to do Read More …
I spotted an article on a new book Paladares: Recipes Inspired by the Private Restaurants of Cuba, by Anya von Bremzen, who has written several cookbooks that I liked. I quickly bought it, Amazon Prime quickly delivered it, and I have now cooked two recipes from it. These curried chicken empanadas were popular at two Read More …
Chopped chicken livers is essentially a kosher version of liver pate, which has the extra benefit of being easier to make. Chicken fat (schmaltz) is a key ingredient, but can be hard to find. We were able to buy duck fat at Wegmann’s, which is what we used in this batch. I also made a Read More …
This clever and very easy variation on the classic Spanish tapa is courtesy of celebrity chef Ferran Adria. It uses potato chips instead of starting with fresh potato and slicing and frying it. This substitution makes this a very quick dish, suitable for week night dinners. I have a set of frittata pans, which Read More …