So the next week I brought home another head of cauliflower and got to work. With both Milk Street’s tahini-raosted cauliflower recipe and Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe for the amazingly delicious “Xie Laoban’s Dan Dan Noodles” in front of me, I set about moving the flavors of the latter into the technique of the former.
Amaranth Porridge: Not a Success
We tried amaranth porridge for breakfast yesterday. It didn’t go well. We embarked on this path a few days ago, when Arne sent me this article by Mark Bittman, a long-time champion of sensible eating, and David Katz, founding director of Yale’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center. It didn’t contain much information we didn’t already know,…
Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Sesame-Lemon Dressing
On our way home from a Thanksgiving family reunion in Phoenix, Arne and I stopped in Flagstaff for lunch at a place called Pita Jungle. It’s an Arizona chain (with one location in California). It sounded like a pleasingly healthy, vegetable-focused option – just what we were in the mood for. As soon as we…
Eating ABQ: Gatos y Galletas, the Cat Cafe
Update: Gatos y Galletas closed in November 2016. There’s a new cafe in town, unlike any other. Meet Gatos y Galletas, the only restaurant in Albuquerque where you can sip your coffee surrounded by cats.
Homemade Moo Shu Pancakes
I don’t eat Moo Shu Pork – or vegetables, or chicken – very often anymore. Which is a shame, because Moo Shu is a tremendously fun thing to eat. We just so rarely eat out anymore at the kind of Chinese restaurant that serves it. (Chinese restaurants of any stripe are not the most common…
Fresh Corn and Green Chile Fritters
Oh, the end of summer. How I love the cooling days, the longer evenings, the patches of yellow leaves in the cottonwoods. And how I love the harvest. This is the most wonderful time of year to just go to the growers’ market, co-op, or grocery store, see what’s fresh and beautiful, take it home,…
Super-Rich, Super-Easy Vegan Chocolate Mousse
This is one of the greatest bang-for-your buck recipes I have ever come across. It rests quietly in the pages of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything under the unassuming name “Chocolate Tofu Pudding.” I don’t even remember why I first decided to try it- it must have been because he said it was the…
Homemade Thai Yellow Curry Paste, plus Chicken or Tofu in Yellow Curry
My friend Michelena makes incredible Mexican mole, from scratch. Friends beg her for jars of the thick, luscious sauce. (Well, I did, anyway.) The process takes her two days.
The riddle of Ethiopian injera: Is sourdough starter the answer?
Ah, injera. Ethiopian food is unthinkable without injera, the flexible, sour teff-flour flatbread that doubles as both edible utensil and plate. (And, at the end of the meal, is the best part, soaked as it is with the juices of all the stews.) I remember the first time I saw injera, folded and tucked in…
Spiced Apple Cider Caramels
Caramel is magic. Caramelization (and its close cousin, the Maillard reaction; colloquially we use the term “caramelization’ for both) takes bland foods and makes them incredibly complex and delicious. It’s responsible for so much of the deliciousness of cooked foods. And you can just unwrap all that and pop it in your mouth. Recently, caramel…