It's almost Summer. Time to get back on the horse.
It's almost Summer. Time to get back on the horse.
These things are so good. I could eat a jar a day. I probably would if Mike's Maine Pickles weren't so hard to find in Boston.
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I came across this recipe in April’s Bon Appétit. Super easy to make and now it is a staple in our house for whenever we want the taste of green. Real people (Jess & Ben) recently from these places (Philadelphia, Utah, Idaho) said, “The soup is good.”
Don’t be afraid of the Tarragon. It tastes similar to anise or fennel, some might say licoricey – What? It tastes nothing like black Twizzlers. It can be overpowering in a dish but the right amount adds interest and complexity that makes it worth the risk. I am usually over cautious so my strategy is to put the amount I think should be in there and then I sneak behind my back and throw some more in when I’m not looking. Feel free to try other herbs, no herbs or adverbs – whatever you prefer!
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I’m slowly making my way through the cookbook Spice by Ana Sortun, chef/owner of our favorite restaurant in Cambridge — Oleana.
This soup makes a warm-you-up, rich treat for cold nights — a good excuse to buy chestnuts and use them for something other than roasting over an open fire and, of course, our favorite part… it delivers lots of cheese. Don’t skip finishing the soup with the Moscato wine. It really makes the dish.
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Tahdig is a Persian specialty. It’s the crispy layer that forms at the bottom of a pot of buttery rice if you let it cook long enough. Why should it be just a Persian thing? I think every pot of rice in America should have a crunchy bottom to it. Why not? Burning food is practically a national pastime.
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The best parts of manicotti and eggplant parmesan duke it out for recognition in this dish. It’s got the fried, saucy, and cheesy basics of american-italian cooking succinctly expressed in a pan of home-cooked goodness. We find it useful to serve this up as an olive branch to any fiercely carnivorous dinner guests who arrive to our home wearing their vegetarian-food-suspicion right and plain on their faces. This is as approachable as it gets unless you are dealing with someone who is staunchly anti-vegetable…and in that case, just make this into manicotti.
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I’ve spent the better part of my life avoiding sumac. Not the spice, mind you, but its poisonous cousin that lurks in the wooded areas of my neighborhood. The accepted misinformation amongst my childhood friends was that within seconds of touching the weird red fuzzy thing at the top of the plant, certain death would commence. Probably through rapid asphyxiation, and CPR won't help because the disfiguring rash enveloping your body guarantees that your would-be saviour “friends” will run away screaming, intent on getting as far from your blistery oozing skin as possible.
Only recently, with great suspicion, did I try the middle-eastern relative of that leafy monster from my youth. It's lemony, tangy, and almost salty. I quickly took a liking to it. Now that I'm no longer afraid of sumac, I find it pretty versatile in Mediterranean cuisine. Lately, I'm quite fond of pairing it with Halloumi, the greek grilling cheese. Since sumac is tart enough to stand up to Halloumi's intense saltiness, it's delicious in a quick marinade that can be brushed on the cheese as it grills.
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Fried pot pie sounds like something Paula Dean dreamed of last night, but it’s not what you think. I invited Michele over for dinner last Wednesday and about an hour before he was due to arrive, Nstar completely quit on us. Our gas range works in a blackout, but our poor oven was kaput. We could have gone to get dinner in a neighborhood with better electrical service, but we were too curious about what would happen if you tried to cook a pot pie on the stove top. None of us predicted that it would work as well as it did. I’m still feeling like a femme MacGyver over it. Part of me hopes our water or gas gets turned off someday.
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I’m not so great at fitting the mold of a food blogger. I have a hard time being effusive when I'm expected to be. Case in point: brown butter. It seems obligatory for anyone writing about food to gush about the transcendental nature of adding caramelly, sensuous, velvety-wonderful brown butter to virtually everything. And, yeah, it is pretty awesome. It can add pleasant nuttiness and depth to almost anything. But. It is not the holy grail- despite what its current trendiness might have you believe. Thus, I was a little disappointed when I started experimenting with it. Brown butter is not a magic elixir that turns ordinary recipes into gold. It doesn't transform so much as it adds a layer of nuance. Use it with that in mind and have fun with its versatility. Get creative! Seldom will you fail to improve a dish by adding butter.
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