One of the most exciting cookbooks I’ve come across this year is Asha Gomez’s My Two Souths. Gomez spent her childhood in Kerala, at the southern tip of India. She learned to cook with her family there, and was often called upon to hand-grind spice mixes, reveling in the scents of classic South Indian spices like black…
Smoked Trout and Strawberry Salad with Sweet Cream Dressing
The strawberries have been a surprise of the most delightful kind. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I am a deeply lazy gardener. I never remember to water, so we set up an automatic system. I’m terrible about deadheading (as you can see in the photo below, with all that sprouted mustard in the top…
What I’m Reading: Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes
I have subscribed to Lucky Peach, David Chang‘s cooking magazine, since the very first issue. I remember how excited I was when that first issue came, with its cover photo of a plucked chicken being lowered into a stockpot. I felt very, very cool. Like I was a tangential part of a crazy punk-rock cooking scene. Lucky Peach…
Salmon Rice Bowl with Soy-Wasabi Sauce (Sake-Don)
My recent obsession with Kokoro Japanese Restaurant finally bled over into my own kitchen. I wanted more Japanese food, but I wanted it to be as quick and simple as it was delicious. Paging through my copy of Japanese Soul Cooking, I saw a gorgeous picture of a bowl of vibrant red tuna slices brushed…
Tangy Thai Salad with Canned Tuna? It’s Delicious!
I adore Pok Pok, the Thai street food restaurant in Portland that has now expanded to NYC. When I saw that its chef Andy Ricker was putting out a cookbook, I was excited, but cautious. I was concerned that it might be excessively “chefy” – that is, full of brilliant ideas, but terribly complicated…
Singapore Crab Cakes with Sweet and Tangy Red Chile Sauce
I am a sucker for the words “street food.” They call to mind the most exciting and delectable experiences: sizzling fish tacos handed down from the window of a brightly painted truck; smoky grilled meat sticky with spicy lemongrass-chile sauce; colorful drinks in plastic bags, skewered with straws for sipping; steaming bowls of soup slurped…
The Science of Cooking: Harvard EdX, Weeks 4 & 5 (Ceviche Lab)
Week 4 of our food science course focused on elasticity in food, mostly in candy-making and cooking meat. The candy-making part focused on Bill Yosses, the White House pastry chef. There were six videos of Yosses making various things, including strudel, a blown sugar “glass” apple, and an over-the-top dessert that I assume is the…
Sous Vide Shrimp in the Kitchen Sink
Arguably the most coveted object of 2012 for the true cooking geek was Nathan Myhrvold’s mini-opus, Modernist Cuisine at Home. For most cookbook authors, a two-volume (one hardcover with gorgeous photos, one spiral-bound recipe book with special spillproof paper), 11-pound, $100 cookbook would be an opus. But not for Microsoft geek and multi-multi-millionaire Myhrvold; Modernist…
Easy Paella with Chorizo and Chicken or Shrimp
I have a feeling you’re looking at the title of this post with some skepticism. Easy paella? Isn’t that an oxymoron? We all know paella as a complicated dish so time-intensive that many Spanish restaurants ask you to call your order in ahead of time. Well, thanks to Mark Bittman’s wonderful cookbook The Best Recipes…
Quick and Simple Mussels with White Wine, Garlic, and Tomato
My love affair with mussels started in earnest when I went with Arne on a business trip to Europe. His business was in Luxembourg, so we took some time to travel the Benelux countries – Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. We started in the Netherlands, visiting the canals of Amsterdam and the windmills of Zaanse…