Miscellaneous Items

Cream of Turnip Soup

November 15, 2021

Turnips have a reputation for harsh, biting flavor. While larger, mid-winter specimens are indeed pretty sharp, requiring long cooking to soften them, the Tokyo turnip is smaller, gentler, and mildly flavored. Simmered into a soup with potato and cream, it is amiable and surprisingly sweet. I confess to modeling my…

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Ah, November. The container ships are in backed up in the harbor, and with them, some of the holiday craziness normally upon us by now. Am I a grinch to be grateful? Not that I hate the holidays. I don’t. But the enforced cheer is wearying, especially when it starts…

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Pate IK

October 23, 2021

Anthony Bourdain, ever irreverent, has this to say of paté-making: You’ve made meat loaf, right? You’ve eaten cold meat loaf, yes? Then you’re halfway to being and ass-kicking, name-taking charcutier. ‘Oooh…paté, I don’t know.’ Please. Campagne means country in French. Which means even your country-ass can make it.” Les Halles…

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Seitan at home

September 6, 2021

Prior to encountering seitan in How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, on page 668–when Bittman says everything, he means it–I’d met it once before, in a Chinese restaurant on University Avenue in Berkeley, California. (The name of this place eludes me. Nor could I find it on the net.) Technically it…

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I began writing this post two weeks ago. The world was a completely different place then. Here is a link to agencies assisting Afghan refugees, from the New York Times. Here is a link to help those impacted by the earthquake in Haiti, from National Public Radio. — It’s late…

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Savouries, like the Foot Guard Uniform and cream teas, are a uniquely British institution. Modern eaters will recognize these salty, spicy, small bites as appetizers, commonly appearing before the meal with drinks. Famous savouries include angels on horseback–that’s a bacon wrapped prune–and Fergus Henderson’s bone marrow and parsley salad. Not…

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Pickled Onions

July 14, 2021

Once again your hostess would like to apologize for being such a laggardly poster. It’s not lack of interest in the blog, or in you, my readers. The truth is the same dull reason it’s always been: my health. More precisely, my back. Last week I had yet another cortisone…

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Corn, Bacon, and Shallot Salad started as a riff on a Pepper Teigen recipe, but fridge contents forced some detours. Besides, as Laurie Colwin so presciently noted in More Home Cooking, all plans go to hell during the summer. Then again, Colwin had no way of knowing that all plans,…

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Uighur Lamb Kebabs

May 27, 2021

It is our misfortune to inhabit what is politely termed a “mixed” area. Meaning there are lots of apartment buildings mixed in with single family homes. AT&T has terrible difficulty with this. Every time somebody moves out of an apartment, a tech comes out to the nearby box and instead…

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Still Here…

May 4, 2021

Apologies for my miserable posting history this year. Real life has been challenging, to say the least. There’s a term for this kind of excuse (irritating?) but I’ve forgotten it. Anyway, here we are, for the moment. Two things, while we wait for the next post. The first concerns The…

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