If I could wave a magic culinary wand and make one aisle in the grocery store disappear, I’d probably make the cereal aisle vanish. Even when you find a cereal that truly is whole-grain, unsweetened, and tastes as good as it is healthy, you’re going to be paying a lot more for store-bought cereal than [...]
I know not everyone is going to be with me on this one, but poached eggs have always been my favorite. Scrambled eggs are nice, and so are hard-boiled eggs, but for me, the creamy poached-ness is where it’s at. Poached eggs are easy to make, too: just crack an egg into boiling water, set [...]
Remember Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle Soup? I used to love that stuff when I was a kid. The egg-shaped bouillon “Golden Flavor Nugget” was weirdly fascinating. (I still find it weirdly fascinating, but in a clinical what-the-heck-is-IN-that?? kind of way rather than a let’s-have-it-for-lunch! kind of way.) It turns out that you can take a [...]
Something new — at least, new to me — is going on the citrus world: sweet limes. Citrus fruits have long been cross-it-over favorites, of course, like the tangelo. (Although I haven’t seen those in a while, I can still remember when they were the “in” fruit.) That deliciously juicy hybrid is a combination of [...]
Is there anyone who didn’t love Rice Krispy Treats as a kid? Even the thought seems un-American. Rice Krispies and S’mores: the two best desserts you could make yourself, both entailing minimum fuss and maximum delight. Nowadays, even though I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I still savor the memories of crunchy RKTs. [...]
Toasting and roasting. Both techniques are simple and add incredible depth to whatever ingredient you’re emphasizing or dish you’re serving. Recently, it occurred to me that toasted nuts have such a deep flavor that they could probably stand in for cheese. I’m a huge cheese fan, but for those who can’t have cheese, toasted nuts [...]
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
Chowder is one of America’s great culinary contributions: a hearty one-pot meal that you can customize to your stomach’s delight. While many chowders sprang out of a seafood tradition (think Manhattan and Boston clam chowders), there are also vegetable-based versions. I created this one to make use of plentiful summer crops like corn and tomatoes [...]
There’s something ever-so-charming about edible little packages: tamales, spring rolls, pasties, grape leaves…every culture seems to have a neatly-wrapped specialty. (Maybe they appeal to our sense of orderliness?) Not only are these wrappables practical to eat and fun to make, their central position in any given cuisine means that centuries of tradition have fine-tuned their [...]
