Cucumber-Radish Raita
Raita is a simple yogurt-based sauce that can be served with almost any Indian meal. It makes a cooling condiment when a curry gets a little too spicy, but the real beauty is when it is mixed with basmati rice. I find that combination so tasty that I will often skip dessert to make …
Chana Masala (spicy chickpeas) is one of those ten dishes you will find at pretty much every Indian restaurant in America. You can understand why: it is inexpensive to prepare, delicious, healthy and satisfying. The mass prepared versions are usually pretty good, but you can make a similar dish at home and enjoy fresher, more …
Slow roasting tomatoes is alchemy. You put base metal in the oven and a few hours later, you've got gold. In this case, we had a pile of Early Girls that had my rapt attention throughout July as they hurtled towards ripeness. But when they arrived, they were… kind of bland. I knew the Purple …
Peach and Nectarine Crostata
Crostata: pie without the fuss. With a pie (or tart), it can be hard to make one as pretty as the picture I have in my mind, either cooling on Grandma's window sill or on the cover of Gourmet. Crostata takes my inability to make a precise pie and makes a rustic …
An instant-read thermometer might seem like one of those kitchen gadgets you don’t really need. Most of us cook by the seat of our pants anyhow, right? Maybe it seems a little too “cheffy?” But I think you’ll find that if you get one, even a basic $12 model like I have pictured above, you’ll …
On the way home from the farmer's market, Sarina and I joked that I wouldn't be able to resist playing with the molecular gastronomy toys, turning the zucchini into gel, the tomatoes into powder, spherifying the cukes and making the corn into a tableside sorbet with liquid nitrogen. But it was just a joke. With …
The traditional recipe for arroz verde involves cooking your rice with a puree of poblano peppers and herbs. It is truly delicious, and I'd choose it in a heartbeat over the typical red rice you find nearly universally at Mexican-American restaurants.
When I went to make it yesterday, I thought to myself "now why am I …
