Kitchen Epiphanies

KITCHEN epiphanies

Exploring diverse foodways...

Pork

Kapusnyak – Ukrainian Sauerkraut soup

Ukrainians love soup — hot, cold, meat or vegetable-based.  It’s served daily in homes and restaurants regardless of season.  Borshch, the quintessential Ukrainian soup, is a culinary staple recognized worldwide and inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2022.  While borshch is consumed year-round, cooler weather restores the taste for …

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Yucatecan Grilled Pork

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 …

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Pizza Rustica – an Italian Indulgent Easter Pie

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 …

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Sou Fassum –Sublime Stuffed Cabbage, French Style

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 …

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Pulled Pork Vindaloo with Indian Coleslaw on Naan

This Pulled Pork Vindaloo with Indian Coleslaw on Naan combines the pulled pork preparation of America’s South with the flavors of Goa, an Indian state located along the west coast on the shore of the Arabian Sea. Recently I hankered for pulled pork, a dish I hadn’t prepared in a long time.  As I fantasized …

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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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Spicy Rice Cakes with Pork and Vegetables

This Spicy Rice Cakes with Pork and Vegetables stir fry resulted from an exploratory shopping trip. I love experimenting with new ingredients, especially from different ethnic cuisines.  I refuse to get into a food rut, recycling the same menus repeatedly and I am fortunate that Weldon enjoys trying out new tastes. To get new meal …

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