Globetrotting flavors and history: Lamb Meatballs with Saffron, Lavender and Paprika

Lamb meatballs are seasoned with a global mix of flavors and served over pasta—or made smaller and served as a canapé. Recipe below.

Terry’s comment last week about always liking the flavors of a braise, whatever the weather, had me asking myself how to achieve that depth of flavor without several hours of stoveness. At the same time I happened to be reading Roger Crowley’s City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas, about the way Venice was a prime mover in the growth of global trade, “the first virtual city,” “the central cog that meshed two economic systems—Europe and the Orient—shunting goods across hemisphere, facilitating new tastes and notions of choice.” And reading about this adventurous time, when “Venice was the middleman and interpreter of worlds,” started me looking at medieval recipes that involved great wallops of flavors like saffron and combinations that are unfamiliar to us today.

This dish is about travel and the global economy. It is a hat tip to the Venetian merchants of the Middle Ages, when trading could mean being gone for years, at enormous personal risk; when the great empires, so long in isolation, were getting their first little views of each other; and when cooks boldly began mixing together newfound flavors, in part seeking cures and in part because they came to love these daring new tastes. These were the first fusion cooks, picking and choosing flavors from a lush global toybox. Continue reading “Globetrotting flavors and history: Lamb Meatballs with Saffron, Lavender and Paprika” →

Heat up flavors, not the kitchen: Spicy Grilled Pork Chops with Mango Cilantro Salsa

Grilled chops flavored with chili powder, cumin and cayenne pepper are topped with mango, cilantro, tomatoes, red onions and jalapeño pepper. Recipe below.

Harry S Truman famously said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” I took the 33rd president at his word last week, although probably not as he intended. When the temperatures finally (and temporarily) dropped below dangerous levels last Friday, but were still high enough that I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen, I fired up the grill instead. Continue reading “Heat up flavors, not the kitchen: Spicy Grilled Pork Chops with Mango Cilantro Salsa” →

Happy Birthday, Julia: Celebrating the woman who changed how we cook

To mark the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birth, PBS.org recently invited a number of chefs and food bloggers to share tributes to Julia, to tell a little about how the seminal cookbook author, TV personality and larger than life person had influenced them. They were kind enough to include me on their list.

You’ll find Julia sprinkled throughout the pages of Blue Kitchen (and it’s interesting that we all feel comfortable enough with her to call her that, not Ms. Child—but that was the kind of warmth and comfort she always inspired). There are actual recipes, of course, starting with Potage Parmentier, the simple six-ingredient potato leek soup she made for her beloved husband and collaborator Paul almost every day. And there was Skate Meunière with Browned Butter and Capers, based on the life-changing sole meunière Julia ate on her first day in France with Paul. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Julia: Celebrating the woman who changed how we cook” →

The heat goes on: Fight back, with Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup with Radish Garnish

Cucumber, avocado, potato, buttermilk, Greek yogurt, half and half, chicken stock and lime juice create a cool, creamy, tangy, refreshing summer soup. Recipe below.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Dry. Hot. Right now is a breezy, refreshing 98. We are crawling around on the surface of the planet like miserable bugs.

As Terry has sometimes mentioned, I used to address weather like this by making cold cucumber soup. The trigger for this was the legendary cold cucumber bisque we would have at the former Balaban’s in St. Louis. My versions varied tremendously, and they were always interesting, but they were never like Balaban’s. That recipe was a closely guarded secret—one of those instances when everyone who worked there would get all coy and diffident if you asked about the ingredients. “Oh, I don’t know, some people think it has summer savory in it,” they would say in a demure tone. “I’ve heard it might have yogurt in it.” Sometimes they would turn it into a question: “Sour cream?” Continue reading “The heat goes on: Fight back, with Cold Cucumber Avocado Soup with Radish Garnish” →

A Herbivoracious side dish: Potato and Green Bean Salad with Arugula Pesto

This warm, garlicky potato and green bean salad is bursting with summery flavors of mint, arugula and lemon juice. Recipe below.

We’re trying to eat less meat these days. It’s healthier for us, some would argue, and definitely healthier for the planet. We sometimes do it by having meatless days. And we eat smaller portions of meat when we have it; this is an approach Mark Bittman urges us all to take, to use meat as a flavoring or move it to the side of the plate, with vegetables taking the starring role. In an interview this spring on NPR, he envisioned a scenario in which meat “could resume its proper place in our lives, which is as a treat rather than as something we can eat whenever we feel like it.”

I’ll admit I’m not there yet. When I go more than a few days without eating meat, I miss it. A lot. So when author Michael Natkin told me he’s been a vegetarian for 30 years now, it was almost more than my brain could take in. Marion and I were at a book tour event for Natkin’s excellent new vegetarian cookbook, Herbivoracious: A Flavor Revolution with 150 Vibrant and Original Vegetarian Recipes. Continue reading “A Herbivoracious side dish: Potato and Green Bean Salad with Arugula Pesto” →

Why your food will cost a lot more, starting soon

The weather. More than half the United States is in a drought right now. What had looked like a world record corn crop is now vanishing before our eyes; across the Plains, many farmers are plowing under what little they have left—not enough has been growing to pay for the cost of harvesting. US soybean crops are failing too—on foreign exchanges, the price of soy is nearing record highs.

The biggest reason for this is drought; when drought is accompanied by drastic temperatures, as it has been, things get worse. For many of our typical crop plants, when the mercury climbs, photosynthesis can slow and even stop. That means the plant is dying. Continue reading “Why your food will cost a lot more, starting soon” →

It’s too darn hot: Six cool recipes for when it’s just too hot to cook

With temperatures hovering around 100º for the foreseeable future, I’ve dipped into the Blue Kitchen archives for some no-cook and minimal-cook recipes.

THE RECENT HEATWAVE HAS THE COLE PORTER CLASSIC “TOO DARN HOT” running through my head—as sung by Ella Fitzgerald, of course. What the heat doesn’t have me thinking about, despite my best intentions, is the kitchen. Here are a few ideas for some cool foods that require little or no cooking. A couple are complete meals. Others can be paired with sandwich makings—cold cuts or a store-bought roast chicken, for instance—so you can eat well without overheating. Continue reading “It’s too darn hot: Six cool recipes for when it’s just too hot to cook” →

Small Bites: 5 cool grilling tools and celebrating LGBT Pride Month in the kitchen

Five cool tools for summer cookouts and honoring the contributions of gay and lesbian chefs for LGBT Pride Month are subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

A fun, exhausting weekend road trip and a surprisingly debilitating summer cold are conspiring to keep me out of the kitchen this week. I’ll return next week with a recipe.

Grilling equipment used to consist of a fire and a sharp stick. Or maybe two sharp sticks, so you could use one to protect your meal from a saber-toothed tiger. Things have certainly evolved since then. Our tandem loves of grilling and of gadgets have converged to create a dazzling array of tools and accessories for outdoor cooking. Some come with a princely price tag—how many pizzas would you have to grill in your artisan fire pizza oven to amortize its $6,500 cost? Others are just, well, silly. Do you seriously need your grill thermometer to alert your smartphone when the steaks are done? Continue reading “Small Bites: 5 cool grilling tools and celebrating LGBT Pride Month in the kitchen” →

A barely warm dinner for hot nights: Butter Poached Tilapia with Thyme and Mixed Greens

Chunks of fresh fish are poached in butter and olive oil over very low heat with fresh thyme, salt and pepper and served over a simple salad for a quick, cool summer meal. Recipe below.

Summer didn’t just arrive in Chicago this year. It squeezed its big, hot, sweaty self between us on the couch and settled in, kicking off its shoes, radiating heat and acting like it had no place else to be for a while. In weather like this, you don’t want to heat up the kitchen cooking a big, hot meal that no one feels like eating anyway. Poaching in butter isn’t necessarily a hot weather cooking technique, but in this case it was perfect for the heat.

I stumbled on the technique when I was looking for more traditional fish poaching methods that I figured might involve white wine and broth. When I read Melissa Clark’s informative and charmingly confessional piece on the topic in the New York Times, I was hooked. Continue reading “A barely warm dinner for hot nights: Butter Poached Tilapia with Thyme and Mixed Greens” →

One versatile spice rub, two recipes, part 2: Tandoori-spiced Pork Tenderloin

Last week’s spice rub of cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric and cayenne flavors a one-pan braised meal: Tandoori-spiced Pork Tenderloin with Chickpeas and Spinach. Recipe below.

Don’t you hate it when a recipe tells you to reserve the rest of some ingredient “for another use?” Usually, I end up with half a jalapeño pepper or something dutifully wrapped in plastic and stowed in the fridge until it rots. But that’s exactly what I did last week—told you to reserve the rest of the tandoori spice rub from the Tandoori-spiced Grilled Salmon recipe “for another use.”

Unlike most times when recipes tell you to do that, though, I’m going to show you what to do with that reserved spice rub right now. This use points up the rub’s versatility. Last week, it was grilling and salmon; this week, it’s stovetop braising and pork. It could as easily be roasting and chicken or stir frying and shrimp or tofu. Continue reading “One versatile spice rub, two recipes, part 2: Tandoori-spiced Pork Tenderloin” →