We always have Thai sweet chili sauce around the house. It is more sweet and tangy than spicy, but with just enough kick to add some interest. Sure, you could make it yourself, but the beauty is in having it in your refrigerator for those moments when you need to turn some basic ingredients into dinner …
Mini-me started the morning with my favorite refrain: "want make something!", which means she’d like us to cook something together. I was a bit bored of our regular muffin routine, so I pulled out Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s HomeBaking thinking of scones and settled on something related but a bit different, the "Welsh Cakes" …
Young coconuts are very different from the mature brown-husked specimens you may be familiar with. The edible interior flesh is tender, thin and custard-like, with the purest coconut flavor imaginable. Seek them out at Asian markets or in health-food stores that cater to raw foodists. Keep young coconuts refrigerated until just before serving.
I’m not generally a …
Tabbouleh is one of those dishes that usually loses its identity when it crosses the oceans. In the Middle East, it is an herb salad with a little bit of bulghur wheat for texture. In the United States, it usually becomes a soggy bulghur salad with a sad speck of parsley for garnish.
The star ingredients …
What if you picked the very best things from the last of your garden, or the farmer's market, and just barely manipulated them?
This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy produce at its peak. I thinly shaved the summer squash, cucumber and Parmigiano-Reggiano with a vegetable peeler, quickly blanched the carrots so their texture …
Dave Arnold from the French Culinary Institute recently invented a technique for infusing just about anything (herbs, vegetables, chocolate, …) into booze, water or oil, using nothing fancier than a cream whipper. It is a genius idea because it takes two minutes, requires no special culinary talent, and produces beautifully clear, fresh, brightly flavored results.
Read …
This is one of those dishes that is good out of all proportion to the difficulty of making it, which is virtually nil. It is totally dependent on using great tomatoes and olive oil, and home-cooked beets (don't even think about using canned). The only thing you need is enough foresight to boil the beets …
