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…
Criques de Gramat: French Potato Pancakes
This post began innocently enough: what could be bad about potato pancakes with ham and cheese, via Southwest France? Then, being me, I began poking around in my cookbooks for a little historical background, only to have the entire enormous subject known as “Southwest France And The Potato” nearly engulf me….
Artichoke Caponata
It is weird to admit you miss people you’ve never met, but I do. That chef Judy Rodgers no longer walks the earth frequently pains me. Fortunately, she left us with a single, perfect work, the Zuni Café Cookbook. The Zuni Café Cookbook, together with Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking Of…
Stuffed Cabbage In The Troo Style
Stuffed Cabbage In The Troô Style is a recipe I’ve longed to write about. Yes, cabbage. With its connotations of sulfur, Soviet canteen meals, wind. This recipe is none of those things. We love this dish. Love it. Which is why I’ve longed to write about it. Stuffed Cabbage In…
Potato Cardoon Gratin
Cardoons, which are seasonal for the next ten seconds, have long fascinated me.With their truly brief window–a few winter weeks in Northern California–cardoons remain that rare thing, a truly seasonal vegetable. This rarity means I’ve had little experience with them, and until now, that experience has been of…
Braised Short Ribs
Braised Short Ribs belong to the important family of stews, braises, and daubes, those heartily earthy dishes of winter. In this discussion, the term “stew” is synonymous with “braise,” signifying a dish requiring long, slow cooking, usually in a low oven. My passion for braising began in grad school, while reading…
Chicken with bacon, olives, and tomato sauce
Another blogger would be posting all kinds of holiday recipes now, specifically Chanukah recipes, as the first night is but four days away, and I am a fully-fledged member of the tribe. But… I’m going to assume you neither need nor want another recipe for challah with cilantro or latkes with…
Butternut Squash Gratin
Butternut Squash Gratin is a recipe I tend to forget about for months at a time. Then I’ll remember it, cook it, and wonder how I could’ve forgotten something so wonderful. This recipe comes from the first edition of Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. While the title is truly accurate–one…
Paula Wolfert’s Autumn Squash Soup
You’d think we Californians would have little call for soup. Enter fog. When not suffering unseasonable ninety-degree heat, Northern California often shelters beneath thick layers of the stuff. Said fog is often accompanied by a uniquely bone-chilling damp. While not precisely cold, neither is it warm. And indeed, as the…
Duck Confit
Given the hugely happy response to cheese biscuits (thank you!), it’s tempting to skip writing about duck. I’m not sure why duck makes people nervous, but it does. Tell people you make confit at home and get funny looks. Here is your intrepid author, reflected in her kitchen window at 7am this…