Nearly Nicoise Salad
The recipe authenticity argument is a deep, dark hole we’re not going down today. I mean, if you want to go, I won’t stop you, but you’re going alone. Suffice to say the IK is not remotely qualified to call her salads “Nicoise.” She’s never visited Nice, for starters. People who…
Kitchen Note: 7/13. Cortisone Shot
“Your x-rays look fine,” the physician assistant said. “No arthritis.” Saying an x-ray of my knee looks good is akin to saying the surface of the ocean appears calm. Then National G or some other science show, narrated by a fellow with a plummy Oxford accent, sends a pile of…
Mussels in Vermouth
Many food blogs avoid discussing news. It’s easier to avoid politically fraught issues (oh, I can see the Facebook posts now….) and just leap to the recipe. Leaping was never my forte. Over at the Huffington Post, there’s a partial list of the dead. The single most shocking thing about these people–apart…
Tea-Smoked Salmon
Cookbooks are full of suggestions for the smokerless (nonsmokers?). These range from relatively low-tech tinfoil and rice setups to some outright alarming suggestions. I have a book whose directions for a home-built smoker include words like “hinges,” “flexible aluminium tubing,” and “battens.” When you’re to a word like “battens,” I…
Salmon Burgers
Let us agree that “salmon” and “burger” do not belong in the same sentence. So what gives? Well, “salmon slider” sounds like a remnant dance of the disco era. “Salmon patties” like something requiring cleanup. Then again, “salmon slide”….now that could be worked into a Pretenders song parody, or discussion…
Fancying up Fish
For years I avoided both cooking or eating fish, making exceptions for shellfish or sushi, and those only in restaurants. Then I acquired an extremely skinny, fish-loving boyfriend, only to go ahead and marry him. Marriage meant better glassware, matching plates, and legal status. It did nothing for my piscatory…
Japanese Rice Bowl
When I moved to California in 1985, it was rather like being dropped on Mars. Everything–the landscape, the weather, even the English people spoke–was different. I wandered around in a state of perpetual culture shock. The food was different, too. I’d never seen, much less tasted, authentic Chinese, Mexican, or Vietnamese…