“Wild rice” is one of those culinary misnomers that says what it doesn’t mean — the true plant grows wild rather than cultivated, and it isn’t rice. And actually, most of what we see labeled wild rice isn’t wild, either, because most of it is a cultivated cousin to the original wild rice. (“Buckwheat” is [...]
Continue reading about Culinary Sleuthing: Will the Real Wild Rice Please Stand Up?
Mung beans are the cutest beans you can imagine! They’re my latest little favorite finds in the Grains & Legumes department. I’ve been wanting to make a dish with them ever since an Indian friend made a wonderfully simple lunch for us involving mung beans, paneer cheese, and cauliflower. I hadn’t had mung beans before, [...]
Continue reading about Fragrant Curries and Enchanting Beans
Now that we’re heading into fall and then winter, jamming and canning are on a lot of people’s minds. Mine, too — it sure would be great to enjoy summer’s ripe fruits in January! I haven’t quite gotten up the nerve to jam or can full-tilt (although both are near the top of my to-do [...]
I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again because it’s just too delicious to ignore: real-deal mozzarella cheese, made from buffalo milk. Like the fresh mozzarella made from cow’s milk, Italian mozzarella di bufalo is also a cheerful roundish knob of cheese that is packaged in its whey. (The whey is the cloudy liquid [...]
Continue reading about Waiting for the Buffaloes to Come Home
Traditional fats are one of the building blocks of food: they carry flavor, they provide a creamy taste and texture, and they have more nutrients per gram than their cousins carbohydrates and proteins. (When I say “traditional” fats, I mean fats from whole foods — both plant and animal — not man-made, refined fats that [...]
Continue reading about Of Macadamia Nuts, Salad Dressings & Oil Labels
Dates are fabulously useful! Just don’t confuse them with figs, which are also lovely but which don’t have the staying power or sweetness of dates. (And don’t confuse fresh figs with the gritty stuff inside Fig Newtons — an actual fig tastes much lighter and fruitier, plus it beautifully shades from pink to cream to [...]
There’s a new crust in town, and her name is Polenta. She’s an oldie-but-goodie — although polenta dates back to Roman times, it’s still on market shelves today. It’s basically a cooked cornmeal mash. Originally, it was served as more of a porridge; nowadays, it can be cut into slices and then grilled, or it [...]
Maybe it’s a childhood memory or maybe it’s something I dreamed, but it seems to me that super-tiny shrimp were popular in cold salads when I was a kid. I have absolutely no idea what they were called…I just remember thinking they were the cutest things ever. Can’t remember what they tasted like, either.
Whether it [...]
In the world of natural sweeteners — i.e., unrefined sweeteners like maple syrup and molasses — there aren’t as many solid sweeteners as there are liquid ones. Normally, this works out fine when baking, because most baked goods include liquids (which allows you to tinker with the overall total amount of liquids), but some baked [...]
Continue reading about Creating Tasty & Healthy Chiffon Cakes (Amongst Other Things)
