This is a slight simplification of the recipe in Tony Gemignani’s The Pizza Bible, in which I used two different canned tomato products instead of three. (The original had 2 oz. of hand-crushed canned tomatoes, which I replaced with additional ground tomatoes.) The sauce worked very well on a pepperoni pizza, and demonstrated the difference Read More …
This easy and tasty cold soup is adapted from South African Cooking in the USA. I chose to make it vs. some similar recipes since it did not call for any herbs which I did not have. (On the other hand, some dill would have been good in it.) I used a hothouse cucumber, but Read More …
These tasty bars are an adaptation of a recipe in Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes: Cookies. For this batch, we sprinkled milk chocolate chips on the top vs. the coconut flakes in the original recipe. Mud Cake Layer ¾ cup butter (1-1/2 sticks) 1-3/4 cup sugar ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa 4 large eggs 2 tsp. vanilla Read More …
Epicurious.com recently had an article about Chicago chef Paul Kahan who likes to dip meat that he is grilling back into the marinade twice in order to get an additional depth of flavor. I tried the technique last night and it did work very well. The Asian marinade I used has some sweetness, and the Read More …
This is a favorite way of cooking spinach, which we have served many times over the years. The original recipe came from Efrain Martinez’s book, Classic Spanish Cooking with Chef Ef, which features a number of regional specialties, such as this dish from Catalonia. Essentially, steamed and chopped spinach is mixed with a variety of Read More …
I like meatballs, and this is a recipe which I have made many times over the years. It was originally from the Triton Bar/Restaurant in Barcelona, as recorded in one of my favorite cookbooks, Penelope Casas’ Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain. This will make ~ 40 one-inch meatballs, which is about 6-8 servings. The Read More …
Back in February, the Wall St. Journal published a “Slow Food Fast” recipe about making a variation of salad nicoise suitable for the winter, since it used only pantry ingredients and broccoli, which is readily available in the winter. I thought this was a good idea since it was a salad based on a vegetable Read More …
Successfully grilling potatoes is really about technique vs. recipe. Here is how I did this batch of grilled potatoes for two persons last night, following some ideas in realsimple.com. 12 small Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and cut in half 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 Tbs. olive oil ½ tsp. dried oregano Salt Bring the potatoes Read More …
On Amanda’s most recent visit, she asked for this dish, which we made based on Wendy Hutton’s Southeast Asia’s Best Recipes, on page 101. This included making the green curry paste from scratch in our food processor. One difference from the book is that we included Thai eggplants since Carol really likes them. We kept Read More …
The grilled peppers and onions are one of the best parts of fajitas, but they are a bit tricky to get just right. You want a nice (but not excessive) amount of char, and you also want everything to be cooked through and to be in suitable sized pieces. I have tried a number of Read More …