This Rustic Cheesecake illustrates an ancient way of making cheesecake, producing a delectable dessert with simple ingredients. Unlike most American cheesecakes made with cream cheese, this Rustic Cheesecake (syrna zapikanka —сирна запіканка — which means “baked cheesecake” in Ukrainian) is made from fresh unaged cheese, a staple of Ukrainan home cooking for generations. Although specific …
This Tomato Goat Cheese Tart is my home lockdown project. During the pandemic lockdown, I expanded our small low-maintenance, urban perennial and shrub garden in Chicago by tucking in a few pots of tomatoes and herbs. This small pot enhancement to our garden provided a welcome diversion between streams of on-line activities. The herbs — …
Serendipity often affects what I cook. So, it was with this Watermelon Radish, Citrus, Cucumber & Feta Salad. Recently the local produce market started carrying watermelon radishes. Seeing a basket of these unusual radishes reminded me of a trip to Beijing. As a radish lover since childhood, I had to try them. I first saw …
Watermelon Radish, Citrus, Cucumber & Feta Salad Read More »
I recently enjoyed Yucatecan Grilled Pork –poc chuc (which means “toast over wood coals”) at a restaurant serving regional cooking (comida regional) in Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. The complex salty-sour flavors of this dish was quite a surprise. After having visited several Mexican regions and its restaurants for many years, I thought I’d …
Preparation of Vietnamese summer rolls, also called fresh spring rolls, is not as simple as it appears. These flavorful, transparent bundles of vegetables, rice noodles, a few bits of shrimp or pork with spicy sauces which often set the tone for a wonderful Vietnamese meal are difficult to assemble. I tried my hand at making …
This Strawberry Corncake with Labneh and Cream is my re-creation of a menu description I imagined but never tasted. On a recent trip to Louisiana, the New Orleans Museum of Art was advertising a fundraiser in City Park with food catered by Pat White, a local chef. The inspiring four-course dinner menu was filled with …
Several years ago, as I was searching through youtube’s food videos in the middle of the night during a bout of insomnia, I stumbled upon a Pizza Rustica recipe on Silvia Colloca’s Cook Like an Italian channel. What caught my attention was that this pizza was not the usual red-sauced, mozzarella-covered disk, but a crispy-crusted …
Mulligatawny, an Anglo-Indian dish, comes in many guises. For some cooks it is a spicy broth, for others a soup of various densities and for still others a stew. For me, mulligatawny is a silky curried soup with a garnish of chicken, vegetables and herbs, a perfect warming meal on a snowy night. Mulligatawny was …
Sou Fassum is a sublime stuffed cabbage, a creation of French peasant cuisine. I found it while researching alternative methods of stuffing cabbage. I knew I had to try it as soon as I saw it. Stuffed cabbage rolls, a classic comfort food, were a beloved dinner of my immigrant childhood. We had them at …
Sou Fassum –Sublime Stuffed Cabbage, French Style Read More »
I first heard about Red Velvet Cake from Bobbie Lou, my Baltimore elementary school classmate. Bobbie Lou was a pretty, plump, dark haired girl who lived a block away with her colorful grandmother who raised her because Bobbie Lou’s mother worked night shifts and slept during the day. Bobbie Lou’s family had recently moved to …