One day, I hope to live in the Chocolate Belt: that narrow strip around the equator where cocoa trees grow. How great would it be to have your very own cocoa pods dangling outside your front door? The process of transforming the raw bean into a chocolate bar is a very long and complicated one, [...]
Continue reading about Making Modern Chocolate Beverages in an Ancient Way
When I was a kid, I thought cranberries were sweet — after all, cranberry juice sure was! But then I finally tasted an honest-to-goodness whole cranberry and realized that good ol’ Ocean Spray had added a fair amount of sweeteners to make the juice palatable for the American tongue. Now that I’ve veered off the [...]
It’s cold. I realize that when we’re in the depths of January, we Michiganders will look back at the good old “warm” days of October with fondness (and a touch of bitterness mixed with desperation), but to me, right here, right now, it’s cold. Last week I was riding my bicycle my usual 30 miles/week [...]
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 + [...]
The first time I made popcorn with chili powder and olive oil, I thought I’d found snack nirvana…but last week I tried the same combination on crispy walnuts and ascended to post-nirvana sublimity. The butteriness of the walnut perfectly compliments the spiciness of the chili powder; in the meantime, the fruitiness of the olive oil [...]
“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 [...]
Middle Eastern cuisine is famous for its rich flavors and liberal use of garlic, lemon and spices…cumin and coriander, anyone? The fact that almost every town boasts a Middle Eastern restaurant also testifies to the cuisine’s universal appeal. (When I was living in Germany, my favorite dish was the Turkish Döner Kebap. My second-favorite was [...]
Here’s a twist on taco salads: Ethiopian lamb salads! Simple, satisfying, and significantly lighter than its North American cousin, this salad was a happy meeting of leftovers and inspiration. (I had cooked ground lamb with berbere spice mix, chopped onions, minced garlic and diced tomatoes the day before.) When I saw the lettuce and Greek [...]
It’s easy to make potpourri, and I guarantee your own will smell better than the commercial, chemical-laden types. Just throw the following in a small pot of water (1-2 cups) and let it simmer on a low setting:
2 cinnamon sticks, each broken in half
6 whole cloves
8 cardamom pods, lightly smashed (you can smash them with [...]
The jicama acts like water chestnuts by giving this dish a bit of a crunch. If you don’t have jicama, use the chestnuts. Adding the fresh herbs at the end of the cooking ensures that they will maintain their flavor.
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 c. sliced mushrooms
1 medium carrot, sliced
½ cup frozen peas
½ of a [...]
Continue reading about New Twist on: Asian Vegetable Stir-Fry
