Kitchen Epiphanies

KITCHEN epiphanies

Exploring diverse foodways...

Author name: Slava

Turkish pide — Variations on a Theme

My inspiration for blog topics often comes from unusual origins.  The idea for preparing this Turkish flatbread —pide (pronounced “pea-day” in Turkish) — was born in an airport business lounge.   Over the years, I’ve traveled to Istanbul dozens of times and enjoyed pide throughout Turkey in various forms, but I never considered baking pide until …

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Italian Oxtail Stew – Coda alla vaccinara

Curiosity often drives what I cook and this Italian Oxtail Stew post arose from my preoccupation with learning how to prepare unusual meats. Watching Andrew Zimmern eat off-cuts and internal organs, or “variety meats” as they are euphemistically called in America, for years touting them as delicious has repeatedly piqued my curiosity and presents me …

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Starlight Sugar Crisps

I always looked forward to my mother-in-law Solie Johnson’s visits to Chicago, usually in early February for our daughter Sophia’s birthday.  Solie would arrive with a suitcase laden with Weldon’s favorite cookies and lefse, a Norwegian potato flatbread.  Her presence was a blessing. It meant that for the time of her visit, Weldon and I …

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Savory Rye Crackers – Plain and Smørrebrød

With the holiday season fast approaching, I am determined to ease the stress of entertaining family and friends.  As I was preparing for my annual holiday cookie baking, it occurred to me that I should experiment with savory rye crackers, which can be baked ahead like cookies and which can be a base for hors-d’oeuvres …

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Cranberry Cream Tart

I created this Cranberry Cream Tart to highlight cranberries, an underutilized fruit which plays a secondary role to savory dishes and rarely in desserts.  Since learning about the importance of wild cranberries to the diet of Native Americans in my third-grade lesson on the first Thanksgiving and their use by Pilgrims as a ubiquitous condiment, …

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Grape Focaccia – Savory and Sweet Versatility

This grape focaccia was inspired by crates of deep purple, vibrant green and ruby red grapes which caught my eye at the farmers’ market in September, a welcome sign of approaching autumn after a blistering summer.  In the early morning light, the glistening grapes еstablished a gorgeous image highlighting nature’s abundance.  It was impossible to …

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Malaysian Chicken Curry Kapitan with Roti Jala

This Chicken Curry Kapitan is a product of centuries of migration to, and colonization of, the Malay Peninsula by Indians, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and British and is an inspired adaptation by Malay cooks.  I first encountered this curry near Phuket, Thailand on the Malay Peninsula close to the border with Malaysia, a region where a …

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Revitalizing Ukrainian Cooking with Masterchef Evgeniy Klopotenko

The most interesting experiences often arise from serendipity.  I recently shared a kitchen and an evening of Ukrainian cooking with 31-year-old Evgeniy (Zhenia) Klopotenko, winner of the 2015 Ukraine’s Masterchef contest, a graduate of Paris’s Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, a Ukrainian TV personality and producer of jams and marmalades. Young Zhenia is a trained …

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Peruvian Causa – Colorful and spicy mashed potato starters with chicken or shrimp

l never thought of eating cold mashed potatoes flavored with various citrus juices and hot peppers as a salad or appetizer until I discovered la causa rellena (literally translated as “the stuffed cause”) in Cusco, Peru’s imperial city high in the Andes Mountains. Until I traveled in Peru, I was dismissive of leftover mashed potatoes.  I …

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