I have a confession to make: I’m not a fan of plain-Jane, eaten-as-they-are almonds. I like to toast sliced almonds and include them in all sorts of dishes, and I love to grind sliced almonds into flour and use them in a wide variety of baked goods, but the idea of munching on unadorned almonds [...]
If salads were clothing, they’d be mix-and-match separables — nearly any combination of ingredients can become a great salad. It’s just a matter of choosing complementing contrasts: salty/sweet, soft/crunchy, earthy/bright. Those contrasts are what makes each ingredient a noticeable part of the whole. In this salad, for example, the lettuce is crunchy, but the papaya [...]
Dressings are probably the #1 Best Thing to Make Instead of Buy. All you need is an oil, an acid, and maybe some spices or condiments. Oils can range from extra-virgin olive oil (great with everything!) to unrefined peanut and sesame oils (fantastic with Asian dishes) to delicate nut oils like walnut and pistachio that [...]
Tomato season is nearly over! Good thing the pumpkins and apples are in full force. (Yesterday’s trip to the cider mill was a treat even though it was rainy and chilly.) But while there are still a few tomatoes clinging to the vines, we might as well use ‘em. Better yet, we might as well [...]
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 [...]
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
Grill them, stuff them, use them as hamburger toppings … portabello mushrooms are a favorite summer treat. But my favorite way to enjoy them is to slice them very thin and sautée them with extra-virgin olive oil and a pinch of sea salt so that you wind up with portabello crisps. It’s the perfect base [...]
Continue reading about Crispy Portabellos Make the Best Salads
Scandinavians do a lot with crisp, sweet vegetables and fruits. So do Russians and Pols (and anyone else who lives in cooler climates where you’re more likely to grow carrots than bananas). I drew on those sweet-and-cool traditions to make a simple summer salad featuring two of Michigan’s best crops: apples and cucumbers. Nothing beats [...]
The arugula piles up sometimes, doesn’t it? (Especially now that we’re getting into lettuce-growing season.) Even if you don’t have a lettuce garden, I bet you’ve stared down a half-full container of baby greens and wondered what to do with it. Salads are great, but no dish can tickle your gastronomic fancy 100% of the [...]
Have you ever thought about the classic burger “periodic table”? You know: your burger, your bun, your pickles, tomatoes, cheese, mustard, lettuce, and ketchup. If you deconstruct the ingredients, you wind up with the Holy Burger Trinity of tomatoes, cheese, and pickles. (Ketchup and tomatoes are redundant, especially if you have juicy, fresh tomatoes, and [...]
Continue reading about An All-American, Three-Ingredient Salad
