I love Chinese black bean sauce. I love mussels. And the first time I heard about this combination (thank you, Hanne Blank!), I knew it would be brilliant. The salty, pungent earthiness of the fermented black beans and the heat of the chile against the plump, slick, sweet, briny mussels – this was something I…
Archives for April 2010
Sichuan Hot-and-Numbing (Ma La) Cucumber Salad
Following my great success with Fuschia Dunlop’s second cookbook, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province, I decided to go back to her first book, Land of Plenty, on Sichuan food. I love cucumber salads and am always on the lookout for a new one. (The old salt-sugar-chile-vinegar one pales after a few hundred variations.)…
Potato and Sunchoke Gratin with Leeks
This light, elegant gratin is perfect for spring. The oven-baked gratin form acknowledges still-chilly spring evenings; the delicate flavor of leeks and sunchokes evokes visions of the first green shoots of spring. Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are the tubers of a flower that looks like a small sunflower. They are dug in the…
Butter-Braised Radishes
Early spring can be a frustrating time in the kitchen. There’s a warm breeze and the world seems to be exploding with new life, but the produce aisle is full of the same old root and cruciferous vegetables you’ve been eating all winter. What’s a cook to do? Last week, I turned to radishes. A…
Olive Oil Poached Shrimp with Garlic
In my hurry to get food ready for this weekend’s Easter picnic, I foolishly failed to take a picture of these beautiful shrimp, swimming in a golden pool of garlicky olive oil. So instead, I bring you this silly picture of my friend Joe about to enjoy one. Seriously, though, these shrimp are luxurious. Their…