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.
Sweet Corn Pasta Sauce
It’s the end of summer, or so the autumn-lovers among us hope. Most days are still hot, but there are hints of fall: a brush of yellow in the trees, cooler mornings and evenings, the scent of roasting green chile in the air at the growers’ market. And, at the store, piles of ears of…
Spicy Penne with Broccoli and Garlic
I was in my hometown – Urbana, Illinois – talking to Inga, one of my oldest and dearest friends. We were discussing gardening and cooking, as we inevitably do, when she said something simple that brought me up short. Something like: “I grow a lot of broccoli, because we eat a lot of it, and…
Summer Salmon and Berry Salad with Cardamom-Honey-Lime Dressing
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…
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…
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…
Easy Braised Greens with Creamy Polenta
There is nothing revolutionary about this dish. It’s just southern greens and pot likker served over cheese grits. I make it often, and have never shared it because it’s so simple. I’ve always figured if this is the kind of thing my readers want, there are a million recipes out there. The only thing is,…
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,…
Easy Braised Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage
I’d never eaten braised red cabbage until three nights ago – and I’ve already made it twice. On a whim, I had bought a pretty little head of red cabbage, and I needed a side dish to go with a beef Stroganoff I was making. It seemed to me that the astringency of a sweet-and-sour…
The Best, Easiest French Fries at Home!
These French fries are so exciting. We came across the instructions in a video (embedded below) for the online food science class we’re taking. Basically, Dan Souza from America’s Test Kitchen proposes a simpler method than going through the trouble of double-frying French fries – the classic method to make fries that are creamily cooked…