29 Feb
Recipe: Smokey Sweet Beans and Quick Chicken Sausage
It’s miserable outside; 34°F, snowing, windy and cold. I was drenched walking the dogs this morning, in spite of all my wet weather gear. I know the snow won’t stick, and I’m grateful for the crocuses, cherry blossoms, extra day light and the early tulips at the farmer’s market. But spring still feels a long way away.
15 Feb
Recipe: Potatoes with Tart Lentils and Winter Greens
My dog Max has a passionate love for seafood; salmon, trout, shrimp, lobster, and especially tuna. The only time he indulges in countertop surfing is when we have fish on the menu. He once jumped into the back of fisherman’s truck parked on the street. When my cousin Mark made sushi in our kitchen a few years ago, Max was never far from his side.
I’m like that about Indian potato dishes; K.M.’s black pepper potatoes, and the aloo dom (pressure cooked potatoes in yogurt sauce) I had in Darjeeling more than 10 years ago, and still dream of. The first time I made a successful aloo gobi (check out the video from Bend it Like Beckham), I felt like I had finally achieved novice status in Indian cooking.
26 Jan
Recipes: Satsuma Apple Marmalade and Dark Chocolate Almond Marmalade Tart
Marmalading: it really is a word. The Oxford English Dictionary says so, citing C.S. Lewis’s diary. Granted, the entry is marked as a rare usage, but still. That’s what I’ve been doing this week – making marmalade.
At first, I was afraid I wasn’t actually making marmalade at all, since my recipe doesn’t involve first boiling orange seeds to release the pectin contained within. Rather, (Satsumas are nearly seedless oranges), I chopped up an apple, tossed it in the pot, and hoped for the best.
11 Jan
Recipe: Tamarind Tofu Noodles
Last week it was lemon ice cream – today it’s tamarind noodles, and Friday a post about a lemon shallot shrimp salad. Maybe it’s a salt hangover from Charcutepalooza. (Have you seen the contest winning post? It’s really something special.) All I know is that I’m all about sour flavors right now.
I love tanginess almost as much as I love the heat of chilies – which probably explains my strong attraction to South Asian food. Sour and hot? Hand it over, now.
6 Jan
Recipe: Tart Lemon Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream
After two full years of making my own ice cream, it’s become second nature; easy even. If I have eggs, sweetened condensed milk, half-half, and whole milk in the house, I can come up with almost any flavor, and end up with a creamy, yet firm texture.
I’m ridiculously proud of this skill. It’s a case where practice has made, if not perfect, at least a huge difference. I can look at the warm custard and tell if it is going to freeze properly – not too hard, not too chalky, but with just the right mouth feel.
15 Dec
Recipe: Chicken with Red Chilies
K.M. and I tend to make the same few Indian favorites, over and over again. Chicken Rolls, Chicken with Almonds and Sultanas, and Shrimp in a Dark Sauce, (both from Madhur Jaffery’s Indian Cooking), and Alu Kabli. They are all spectacular dishes – but how did we end up reducing the cooking of one of the worlds’ most vibrant and interesting countries down to four dishes?
It’s not like K.M. grew up eating just these four dishes. Not one of them is even a Bengali recipe. So one of my goals for the New Year is to break out of the rut – use the cookbooks I have and look for some new ideas. I went to a food photography workshop back in November and was lucky enough to meet Sala – the talent behind the blog Veggie Belly. I was blown away by her photos and her Indian recipes – and I’m excited to start cooking from her blog.
6 Dec
Recipes: Duck Prosciutto Fig Spread, Mostly Poultry Cassoulet
It’s been a year of living dangerously: curing raw meat, making cheese, tending bread and yogurt starter, making sauerkraut in crock that belonged by my great-grandmother – a year of re-defining normal. And I owe the attitude that fueled all that to Charcutepalooza. I started out nervous. And I’m ending triumphant, with a renewed enthusiasm for all things culinary.
Would I have started making my own cream cheese if I hadn’t signed on? Would I have decided my diet is best defined by a proactive standard, i.e. humanely raised, locally grown, fair trade, etc. versus just drawing an arbitrary line in the sand and eating “no mammals” without Charcutepalooza?
1 Dec
Recipe: Duck Salami
Charcutepalooza is almost over. And with the second to last challenge we’ve come full circle – back to curing. I choose the apprentice challenge this time, curing Salami. It’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time.
My mother’s mother and her step-father were both great cooks. My grandmother, who was born in 1910, never saw a reason to pay for something she could make or grow at home and so largely missed out on the food that was normal in my childhood years – Wonder bread, Tang, Hamburger Helper, and frozen peas. My grandparents had a large garden, fished in Puget Sound, ate seasonally, and cooked with butter, olive oil, and lard. Grandma Blanche lived to be 87, Grandpa Con, 91. Continue reading
15 Nov
Recipe: Celebration Potatoes
This year is the Food Network’s first ever virtual Thanksgiving. Featuring recipes from all over the web – from food blogs of all sizes and scopes, this compilation is sure to be helpful if you (like me) are still in the planning stages of your Thanksgiving meal. Time has just gotten away from me this year. I know it is mid-November already, but my personal calendar is still stuck somewhere in October.
I’m really lucky the next Charcutepaloza deadline isn’t till December 1st.
10 Nov
Recipe: Chocolate Chip Espresso Shortbread Cookies
I’m excited to be baking for this year’s Will Bake For Food sale. It’s the second year in a row that Jenny Miller (Rainy Day Gal) and Jenny Richards (Purple House Dirt) have organized this blogger bake sale for hunger here in Seattle. This year’s charity is the Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle and King County.
Seattle is home to an extraordinary number of food bloggers and there will be some incredible talent on display. Molly Orangette is baking. CakeSpy created the event logo. Herbivoracious, Not Without Salt, and Seattle Food Geek are all participating along with many more whose food, writing and photography I admire. I’m a little intimidated, but one thing I’ve learned this year is when the food community comes together, great things (Charcutepalooza, A Pie for Mikey), happen. I know I’ll meet some fun people and I’m certainly going to eat well.
Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat 