Thai-Style Stuffed Cucumbers
Thai cookbooks abound in recipes for geng jeut mara yord sai, or pork-stuffed bitter melon soups. “Soups,” plural, as this recipe has countless variations. Some cooks stuff cucumber instead of bitter melon; others abandon the vegetable container in favor of squid. Yet another variation of geng jeut mara yord sai abandons…
Mock Porchetta
Judy Rodgers, writing in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, describes mock porchetta as A very modest, very manageable interpretation of the Tuscan “big pig” that few Americans, or Italians, could ever manage at home. Indeed, this comparatively diminutive roast is nothing if manageable–making it my go-to dinner party dish for decades….
Velvet Pork Pie
As the new year begins with its resolutions to diet, go vegan, or otherwise engage in punishing cleanses, the IK brings you meatloaf, Chinese style. Meatloaf, aka velvet pork pie, isn’t very exciting, but sometimes not very exciting is good. I mean, I don’t know about you, but around here,…
Stir-fried Rice Cakes with Pork
As lunatics in the wider world wielded guns and mailed pipe bombs, your hostess was busy dealing with crooks and idiots. It’s been that kind of few weeks. Or maybe that kind of two years. (Not indicative of above.) — Stir-Fried Rice Cakes with Pork comes, in part, from Georgia…
Mu-Shu Pork
When I was a child, I knew a woman who collected penguin figurines. When the local fish place went out of business, she acquired their namesake, a ten-foot tall penguin, and had it installed in her yard. The interior of her home was equally penguin (penguinic? penguinesque?): the garbage…
Miso Steak with Noodles
This is a fermented paste made from soybeans and grains, and it is used as a base for sauces and soups. Look for it in Japanese groceries or natural foods stores. Mollie Katzen, defining miso in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Until the early aughts, most Americans knew miso as the…
After Anthony (Macau-Style Pork Burgers)
Anthony Bourdain’s recipes were so deeply enmeshed in my kitchen life that I gave them little thought, which is to say I took them, and their author, for granted. I don’t apologize for that. It didn’t make me feel any better when I heard the news. — Macau-Style Pork Burgers…
Mexican-Style Ground Beef
Mexican-style ground beef–a terrible title for an excellent dish–came about by accident. So many recipes do around here. After a recipe fail, a plumbing mishap, and the last-minute cancellation of oral surgery, dinnertime had the temerity to roll around. Your hostess was on prep duty. Of course. The IK currently…
Beef stir-fry with leafy greens and rice sticks
Beef stir-fry with leafy greens and rice sticks began as “Beef Slivers With Water Bamboo” from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. Korean rice sticks, called tteokbokki are stubby, chewy, and completely addictive. I keep mine in the freezer, where they tend to crack. This has no impact on their better qualities. I used…
Mandarin Beef Stir Fry
So, hi. It’s a new year. The holidays are behind us. However you spent the past week, we can all heave a sigh of relief: the fuss is over until next December. You’re wondering about the stir-fry. Even as we vaccuum up those pesky Evergreen needles, here I am, fussing…