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 …
On a recent visit to my daughter Sophia in New Orleans, I discovered in her pantry nine tiny tins of anchovies she purchased several months ago to add rich umami flavor to certain savory dishes but she was unsure how to use the remaining tins. Various recipes came to mind for sauces, dressings and pasta– …
Pissaladière – French Onion, Anchovy and Olive Tart Read More »