Buttermilk Potato Gratin
Buttermilk potato gratin came about by mistake. I’d purchased a bottle of buttermilk for another recipe, which never got made, and now it was down to the wire: use up the buttermilk or let it go off and toss it. So I poured it into a potato gratin. The result…
Long-Cooked Broccoli
Long-cooked broccoli comes to us from Paul Bertolli’s Chez Panisse Cooking. I cooked it for years, forgot about it, then recalled it when I began making Paula Wolfert’s green beans with tomato, another recipe calling for long cooking. “Long-cooked” isn’t a euphemism for pap. Prepared with attention and care, long-cooked…
Omelet with Chinese pickled vegetable
Soaring fuel prices are forcing many people, myself included, to reconsider everything we were taught about “good cooking.” Especially now, when we would normally be starting to prepare stews, bone-in roasts, and soups, dishes demanding hours of slow cooking. Gourds. Official harbinger of Fall. Well, these and pumpkin-spiced coffee drinks,…
Summer Squash Soup
I know, summer squash soup now? In September? Well, yes, summer squash soup now, in September. Because zucchini (courgettes to my English friends) are piled high in the markets, along with all manner of yellow summer squash. And my instagram feed is full of posts from my gardener friends, who…
Niloufer’s Tomato Chutney
Chutney was the result of feeling in a cooking rut and wanting to make something different. Granted, this isn’t (fill in complicated recipe here), but it’s new to me. Yes, they need replacing. The original recipe comes from Niloufer Ichaporia King’s My Bombay Kitchen, a book that’s accessible even to…
Green Beans with Mushrooms
Green beans with mushrooms is an easygoing, undemanding dish. Anyone searching for dazzling summertime fare is advised to look elsewhere. I mean, I suppose one could fancy things up with expensive mushrooms or cold-pressed olive oil, but that would lose the point, which is simplicity. Nobody needs some fancypants dish…
Spicy Oven Roasted Fries
Spicy Oven Roasted Fries began as Batata Harra, a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty More. I’ve prepared Batata Harra a few times, and it is delicious. I strayed from the original for reasons both personal and environmental. Springtime in a world gone mad. Ottolenghi and Company live and cook in…
Savory Cheddar Cheese Muffins
Ah, November. The container ships are in backed up in the harbor, and with them, some of the holiday craziness normally upon us by now. Am I a grinch to be grateful? Not that I hate the holidays. I don’t. But the enforced cheer is wearying, especially when it starts…
Green beans with Tomato Sauce
At first glance, green beans with tomato sauce doesn’t sound especially appetizing. And after two hours in the oven, it doesn’t look all that appetizing, either. Never mind: I nearly ate the entire batch myself, straight from the pan. The recipe comes from Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of the Eastern…
Stir-fried bok-choy with seitan/stir-fried Chinese pickles with seitan
As promised, recipes incorporating seitan. The first, bok-choy with seitan, calls for widely available ingredients. The second recipe calls for Chinese pickled vegetable, which I’ve never seen sold outside an Asian market. I am fortunate to live near Asian megamarket 99Ranch. Others may not be so lucky. I posted these…