When I do culinary talks, I often hand out a sheet I call “The Art of Refrigerator Triage.” It’s about letting your refrigerator make your dinner-making decisions for you so that the pressure is off both you and your wallet — if you make use of what you already have while it’s still fresh and [...]
Our favorite foods are all about contrasts: sweet flavors make savory flavors more savory, soft textures emphasize crunchiness, and the visual appeal of different shapes adds to the “yum!” factor. In this omelet, the umami-rich, savory bacon is the perfect foil for the slightly sweet peas, just as the creamy egg is the ideal opposite [...]
Nothing screams “SOUP!” like an oxtail or two. Of course, you can still whip up an impressive pot of stew without oxtails, but browning the tails solo and then simmering them into your soup is a fantastically inexpensive way to impart a rich, meaty flavor to your base broth. Individual oxtails are a little smaller [...]
As much as I love seafood, I don’t often have the chance to make crawfish — it can be difficult to find, and if it’s still in the shell, it can be difficult to clean. But last week I finally thought to browse through the frozen section of my local seafood market to see if [...]
Lately, paneer has started popping up in mainstream markets. This is fantastic news for anyone who likes Indian food, cheeses of all kinds, or likes to try out new ingredients. You can substitute a firm fresh cheese like queso fresco for paneer — or even tofu, if you’re so inclined — but paneer is tops [...]
I’d never made the connection between custards and soufflés until I was listening to a podcast of “The Splendid Table.” The topic of discussion was how to go about cooking custards — in a tray surrounded by water or on a dry rack? I’d wondered the same thing myself from time to time but had [...]
Americans tend to think of pizza as Italy’s national dish, but Italians — particularly northern Italians — would probably beg to differ. Wheat fields in the south give way to rice paddies in the north, and where you find rice, you’re more likely to find risotto on the menu rather than wheat-based pastas, breads, and [...]
Now that there’s actually snow on the ground (the horror!), I’m thinking about the Caribbean. Hearty stews are a superlative winter dish, of course, and it’s always fun to haul out the fondue pot, but what I really want during the wintertime is to be warm, and what better way to do that than come [...]
Just before I slipped off to sleep last night — a surprisingly sound one considering that I’d just watched another two episodes of my new favorite show, True Blood — I had a culinary ephiphany: the term “leftover” needs to be revamped. (Pun intended.) “Leftover” sounds distinctly unappealing, doesn’t it? I mean, who wants what’s [...]
“Casserole.” Just seeing the word can conjure up uncomfortable childhood memories of gelatinous, salty tuna and noodles drowned in processed and canned soup. (“Soup” in this case being somewhat euphemistic. “Liquid cardboard” might be a more apropos description.) But casseroles don’t have to be that way—like the Moroccan tagine, the word “casserole” refers to the [...]
