It’s nearly New Year’s Eve, and chances are you’re looking for a tasty and quick appetizer to serve your guests. One of my recent favorites involves just three ingredients: chickpeas, berbere or chili powder, and extra-virgin olive oil. That plus 15 minutes of occasionally shaking a pan will get you deliciously unique bite-sized appetizers to [...]
When you think of a banana, chances are you think of a Cavendish banana: yellow, curved and long, typically eaten when sweet and soft. But there are hundreds of varieties of bananas — albeit from one genetic source that has been replanted from cuttings for thousands of years — that range from small to large [...]
Nothing adds an easy touch of elegance to holiday desserts like freshly whipped cream. (Skip the aerosol can!) Be sure to chill your beaters and bowl before whipping away, either by putting them in the fridge for a good 30 minutes or by popping them into the freezer for a quick 10. I like to [...]
Unless you live near an international border, going to a country you’ve never visited before can cost hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars. Even seeing a new movie that’s just come out can cost around $20. (Which is why I quit going to evening shows a long time ago.) But you can try [...]
Continue reading about Beautiful Flowers Make Delicious Roots
For all those gluten-free folks who miss puff pastries and croissants and eclairs, baked mochi is a culinary godsend. For wheat-eating folks who love trying new things and are endlessly curious about food, baked mochi is a fun treat. For folks who love mochi in its more common forms — like ice cream and sweet [...]
Cold weather = a great time for hot soup. (And hot chocolate!) Hot soup with a Caribbean flair is an even better way to ignore the outdoor chill. I was lucky to have tinned conch on hand when I decided to warm up my evening with hot Caribbean soup, but you could just as easily [...]
It’s funny how tastes change — when I was a kid, I used to hate wild rice (I thought of it as “funny rice,” and I don’t mean funny in a good way), but now it’s one of my favorites. Granted, what we see called “wild” rice is actually a cultivated variety grown in California; [...]
If you grow or make a miniature version of something, people invariably call it cute. Just think of fingernail-sized champagne grapes, baby cherry tomatoes, and the Mini-Cooper. (I’d say the cutest car in the world is the VW Bug, but since it only comes in one size, it doesn’t make the list.) The one jarring [...]
Continue reading about Never Underestimate the Power of a Sprout
I don’t have many fancy gadgets in the kitchen — sous-vide cooking and flavored foams just seem like too much work to me — but I consider my ice cream maker to be an indispensable culinary aid. Ditto for my blender. If you have those two kitchen helpers, making ice cream becomes ridiculously easy. Not [...]
When it comes to the fruit-and-veggie world, at least, the old adage “Good things come in small packages” really is true: little strawberries have a lot more flavor than the bigger ones do, little blueberries are more tart and blueberry-esque than their bigger cousins, slim stalks of asparagus are more tender and tasty than the [...]
Continue reading about How’d You Like Them — er, These — Apples?
