Although sweet pies typically feature fruit enclosed by crust on both the top and bottom, savory pies are made with veggies and/or meat and often sport only a top deck. Shepherd’s Pie, for example, is made with beef and veggies on the bottom and a “crust” of mashed potato on top. An English version of [...]
I used to think the term “curry” meant a specific blend of spices used in a particular way. That turned out to be semi-true. “Curry,” an Indian chef told me a few years back, “simply means ‘sauce.’ A curry can be what you make it.” The way we think of “curry,” then, is kind of [...]
You know what’s great about all the specialty cuisines nowadays? By “specialty,” I mean those that cater to niche — but growing! — interests like vegan, raw, gluten-free, etc. Everyone can sample these cuisines and ideas and benefit from them no matter what our personal food philosophies are. Take raw food, for example. Raw food [...]
Sweet corn, savory herbs, juicy tomatoes — what more could you want? Summer brings out the best on our plates. (Summer also means that my refrigerator tends to be a bit bare since a lot of my future meals are anchored to my garden dirt.) And now that we’re — sniff! — at the tail [...]
Continue reading about Guaranteed Summer Hits: Sweet Corn & Fresh Herbs
Winter days seem a lot warmer and cozier with a bowl of hot soup. (Especially a bowl of hot soup that can go from recipe to reality in 15 minutes.) Luckily for those of us snuggled in for the season, some of the most satisfying ingredients are easy to come by in the winter: earthy [...]
Continue reading about When It Snows, It’s Time to Make Soup
What the heck — tomatoes and watermelons are both pink and round summer fruits, so why not put them together? I admit, I had to be prodded into the idea by a tomato-watermelon gazpacho recipe I spotted in this month’s edition of Food & Wine, but once I started thinking about pairing the two, I [...]
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 [...]
Sometimes you might be in the mood for a crunchy taco, sometimes you might want a soft taco. The only problem with the latter is that it’s hard to find Qualitarian soft taco shells — the majority of the store-bought ones have all kinds of chemicals in them to keep them soft and supple. And [...]
Continue reading about Alternative Soft Tacos (in a French Kind of Way)
Pie pans are great for making pies. (They also make beautiful tortilla presses — the bottoms are nice and wide and the curved sides become handy handles.) But you can make more than pies in pie pans: the roundness of them makes them ideal for laying out scalloped potatoes, for example, or making quiches or [...]
Creamy or spicy, simple or complex, powerful or understated … a meal’s sauce sets its tone. Sauces also provide a sense of place and heritage: take the same basic ingredients, for example, slap a different sauce on them, and all of a sudden you’ve gone from Mexican to Japanese. (Steak + peppers + onions + [...]
