Vietnamese fish sauce adds a subtle unifying umami hit to the crisp green beans and sweet apricots in this colorful, seasonal side dish. Recipe below.
We don’t do enough side dishes here. Unfortunately, we only tend to think of this when we actually post one. So when this recipe showed up in a recent Food & Wine email, we made it pretty much the same day—of course with our own variations. Continue reading “Green beans get a surprising seasonal refresh: Charred Green Beans with Apricots”
Besides meat, beans and various spices, this weeknight-quick chili includes surprises like red wine and coffee. Recipe below.
FOR MANY PEOPLE, CHILI SEASON IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER. For us, it’s always chili season. While a steaming bowl of chili may be especially comforting when winter’s chill settles in, we are always up for a good bowl of red. Like the one you see here. It’s from a batch I made the other night, with the temperature and humidity both flirting with 90. Continue reading “Too good to save for cold weather: Marion’s Simplified Three-bean Chili”
Ten bucks can buy any number of little indulgences. In the hands of Feeding America, it can also feed 100 hungry people.
It was recently announced that, by 2020, a woman’s face will grace our ten-dollar bills. That got me thinking about what a Hamilton (or Tubman or Roosevelt or…?) will get you these days. Continue reading “What $10 can buy—and what it can give”
Greek yogurt and lime juice lighten up and brighten up a traditional Polish blueberry cake. Recipe below.
We are getting a lot of amusement out of describing this roller coaster weather. On Friday night, it was so clingingly muggy and hot that we turned on the air conditioning. On Saturday night, after a day of plunging temperatures and changing clothes every couple of hours to stay warm and struggling around comically in pretty much maritime gales, we had to turn on the furnace. And when we went out to a surprise party Saturday night, I wore boots and a light down jacket. Continue reading “The bright, fresh promise of summer: Blueberry Lime Yogurt Cake”
Roasting cauliflower mellows its flavor and adds a bit of color to this hearty, delicious pasta. Roasted andouille sausage, olives and shallots also star. Recipe below.
It’s still not warm yet. And, although the weather folks are threatening above-average temperatures in the nearish future, I am sorry, but now it’s still just cold. When I went out this morning, I was wearing my little down jacket—little, and just a jacket, but still down. Continue reading “Roasting adds depth to Fettuccine with Cauliflower, Andouille Sausage and Olives”
Start marinating pork in the morning with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, mirin and Korean red pepper paste. In the evening, add green beans for a quick, flavorful stir fry. Recipe (and a vegetarian version) below.
I STARTED COOKING CHINESE FOOD BACK IN THE DAY—back before the day, really, when exploratory cooking was not quite a thing yet in North America. I lived in a small college town with a lot of international students, so there were a couple of tiny shops where one could get ingredients like soy sauce (real, actual soy sauce), tofu, chili paste, all these products that today are an ordinary part of our pantries, but back then were… odd. Whatever. I loved trying to figure it out. Continue reading “Chinese cooking made weeknight-quick: Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry”
Dried tart cherries and a batter made with olive oil and flavored with star anise and almond extract create a dense, delicious, not-too-sweet dessert—or an illicit breakfast. Recipe below.
FIRST, I AM ONE OF THOSE JERKS WHO, after it’s been cold for a while, I go around saying, oh, I don’t think it’s so bad! Lately, this jerk attitude has been exacerbated because I spent a few days in upstate New York, where it was biting cold—so cold that, on Tuesday night, I saw the aurora borealis (it was a huge, white, pink and red fluttering curtain) and Wednesday morning, when I woke up, it was ten below zero. Coming back to Chicago seemed like coming back to a tropical isle. Continue reading “A cure for uncommon cold: Dried Cherry Upside Down Cake”
Lentils cooked with an international mix of spices and aromatics and topped with poached eggs make a satisfying vegetarian lunch, light supper or, as served by April Bloomfield, robust breakfast. Recipe below.
WE WENT ALL OUT FOR THE HOLIDAY FOOD EXTRAVAGANZAS this year at our house. At one point, our in-house supplies included chocolate mascarpone brownies, a pound cake baked by Laurel, moon cakes from our favorite Chinatown bakery, a cheerful assortment of donuts from Stan’s, Rum Ball ice cream and Lime Cardamom frozen yogurt from Jeni’s, butterfly cookies, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry-flavored “French cookies” from Japan, a box of truffles from Moonstruck, some violet-scented chocolate my sister brought back from France, plus an unclear number of other chocolates, plus several luscious cheeses, plus a pie—I am so jaded by all this that I don’t remember what sort of pie. Continue reading “A delicious break from holiday excess: Curried Lentils with Poached Eggs”
Mushroom pasta, porcini mushrooms, leftover duck and duck stock combine to create an earthy, peasanty meal. Recipe below.
Weeks ago I promised you a recipe using the carcass of the roasted duck and leftover duck meat. I hope you put that duck in the freezer, because this week, in the lull between Thanksgiving and the next round of holiday frenzy, I got a bright idea. Continue reading “Using flavored pasta to add depth: Mushroom Pasta with Duck”
Chestnuts, potatoes, aromatics, butter, chicken stock and cream turn into a rich soup that stirs warm memories of Paris. Store-bought, vacuum-packed roasted chestnuts make it simple. Recipe below.
The first time I encountered the chestnut vendors of Paris, on a cold November night walking down the Rue de Rivoli with my sister, I was hooked. To me, that has become one of the key Parisian experiences. The night street, thronged with Parisians heading home or to dinner or just having a stroll, the Algerian vendor, his neck wrapped in a knit scarf, the charcoal fire in a metal drum, the improvised metal plate that is the roasting surface, handing over my two euro to the vendor, who hands me a little newspaper cornet packed with fragrant, dark, freshly roasted chestnuts, then walking down the avenue, peeling the chestnuts one at a time, looking at the passing crowd, wondering what I will have to drink with dinner, being back in France. Continue reading “Chestnut Soup and memories of Paris”