This Meatball Chili is my make-ahead-keep-in-reserve dinner this month. Each December, I focus on baking cookies, breads, and cakes, pickling herring, making pâtés, and curing meats for our traditional Scandinavian and Ukrainian Christmas celebrations. Other meals throughout this month are often thrown together at the last minute from leftovers and pantry ingredients. This year, I …
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 …
It’s soup time! The autumnal equinox just passed, and days are getting shorter and cooler; the rainy season started. Slowly I am replacing the cooling meals of a record-breaking hot summer with warming dishes. Fall rain triggered reminiscences of my first mushroom-picking venture and this Romanian Mushroom Soup. One rainy fall day when I was …
In my childhood home, a bowl of Green Borshch and a piece of Egg, Scallion and Dill Tart were the harbingers of spring – a sign that the meat and potato dishes of winter months were put aside for lighter meals. Green Borshch or sorrel soup (Ukrainian: зелений борщ or щавелевий суп) is a variation …
I would not have enjoyed this Khmer Rice and Pork Soup (transliterated as borbor, bo bor or babor), and other Khmer dishes but for a lenient Cambodian border control agent. On one of our trips to Thailand, an unscheduled opportunity cropped up that was too tempting to pass up. A local TV ad touted Bangkok …
I had another post planned this month, but the start of Russia’s horrific, unprovoked war against Ukraine on February 24, caused me to reflect on my culinary heritage, and I prepared a pot of Ukrainian Borshch, Ukraine’s national dish, in solidarity with my countrymen who are fighting to preserve life, country, culture and democracy. Ukrainian …
I don’t remember every great meal I’ve ever enjoyed, but some meals are more memorable than others. The Wisconsin Corn Chowder I enjoyed at the home of my sister Maria’s in-laws, Arlene and Edward Oliver on a fall day decades ago in Albany, Wisconsin made a lasting impression and I’ve often tried to replicate it …
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 …
This Portuguese Monkfish and Shrimp Rice — Arroz de tamboril com gambas — is a perfect fall dish. As the weather is slowly cooling and leaves are coloring, I long for warmer fare, but I’m not yet ready for meat stews and braises that bring comfort in colder months. So, I turned for inspiration to …
Monkfish and Shrimp Rice — Arroz de tamboril com gambas Read More »
Some people remember the places they visited by what they saw or the people they met. I catalog my travel memories by locations of memorable food and those without. History and culture often draw me to explore a place, but I rarely travel for just a specific dish or restaurant. Once there, however, food and …