I have neglected to post an entry on cookies for nearly two years. I finally got around to making shortbread, so I no longer have an excuse.
Tag Archives: recipe
Zucchini cilantro soup
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
At one of our favorite fanschy-schmancy restaurants, The Village Pub, I had a lovely zucchini soup lightly flavored with something lemony: lemon zest, lemongrass, or lemon verbena — I wasn’t sure which. But this got me thinking of another way to get through our large supply of zucchinis: make soup! My recipe is an adaptation […]
When summer overwhelms you with zucchini, make pancakes!
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Once again I’m reminded of what happens when I turn my back and not do anything with zucchini for about five days: I get nearly six pounds of summer squash, looking up at me, threatening to explode into space-aged proportions. A remedy: Perform the summer version of the tuberous pancakes! The recipe is basically the […]
Zucchini & rice gratin
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
The annual zucchini inundation has been going on since last month. Usually we chop then dry-sautée three or four of them in olive oil, and serve as a side dish. But if we skip cooking zucchini for a week, we accumulate a bagful which sits forlornly in the fridge. So what do you do with […]
Optionally upside down apricot cake
Monday, 29 June 2009
During the peak of last year’s plum season, Elise Bauer’s upside down cake recipe provided us with numerous delicious desserts. The apricots had been long gone, so I was eager to apply her excellent recipe to one of my favorite fruits. This year, it worked out quite well, thank you very much. Rightside-up upside down […]
Sautéed fava beans with shallots
Monday, 8 June 2009
Yesterday I harvested the last of the fava beans (a.k.a., broad beans). This task reminded me of something: that I haven’t posted a recipe where said legume is the main ingredient. I’ve long been inspired by an appetizer, foul moukala, that we had at a Lebanese restaurant, Al Waha — all the way in Bayswater, […]
Two winter gratins: squash and leek, cauliflower and fennel
Sunday, 15 March 2009
[I nearly forgot about this article, so with winter is coming to a close here in California…] Gratins are an excellent merging of comfort food and decadence. I mean, what do you do with leftover winter squash or root vegetables? Add cheese! Add cream! Bake until bubbly! Members of the onion family, such as leeks […]
Miso sauces and a marinade
Monday, 9 March 2009
I enjoy reading Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen, which includes a very useful collection of ingredient tips. She provides nearly two dozen sauce and broth recipes, which are fun to improvise on, such as the dashi I wrote about a while back. So today I present my trusty miso marinade, along […]
Chai, version 2.0
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Okay, I think this is an improvement over version 1.0 of my chai recipe. While the spices still need optimization (i.e., to attain southern Indian resto quality), it is better. Part of what greatly helps is the use of evaporated milk (but not sweetened condensed). You might ask, “Why not use fresh whole milk, rather […]
Meyer lemon curd
Friday, 6 February 2009
My first memory of lemon curd is a recent one — that is, from adulthood rather than childhood. My friends and I used to frequent Lisa’s Tea Treasures, to satisfy our hunger for afternoon tea. Ultimately, I found the tea, food and atmosphere, too expensive, not fresh enough, and too damn twee. But they served […]