Category

Appetizers

  • Molly’s Slow Roasted Tomatoes (Pomodori al Forno)

    Molly’s Slow Roasted Tomatoes (Pomodori al Forno)

    A journey of a thousand miles may begin with one step, but a recipe of several steps begins with precisely 2,408 miles. Specifically: the distance from New York to Seattle. It was on the plane from New York to Seattle that I read last month’s Bon Appetit magazine which featured our friend Molly Orangette’s recipe…

  • Smoked Salmon Dip

    Smoked Salmon Dip

    Cooking is a funny process. If I gave you a spoonful of cream cheese and a spoonful of sour cream and told you to put them both in your mouth at the same time you’d gag and say, “Sick, man, get out of my face.” But if I mixed that sour cream and cream cheese…

  • How To Make Latkes

    How To Make Latkes

    Hanukkah may be over today, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to make latkes. If you’ve never made latkes before, may I suggest you do so tonight? It’s pretty easy and pretty rewarding. Granted, it’s not guiltless food: eating a bunch of latkes is basically equivalent to eating a bunch of french fries, so…

  • Squash Blossom Serenade

    Squash Blossom Serenade

    I’ve always been afraid of squash blossoms. I knew you could cook them–stuff them with cheese and fry them–but somehow that seemed difficult. Plus you have to search inside each flower for bugs and who wants to take a chance that you might miss one? “No thank you,” I used to say to myself. “No…

  • 70 Steps To Foie Gras Torchon

    70 Steps To Foie Gras Torchon

    1. Receive a free lobe of foie gras from Mirepoix USA. 2. Post about it on your website. 3. Consider your options. (Option 1: Go as Foie Gras Head to that Halloween party; Option 2: Sear it and serve it; Option 3: Make a torchon from The French Laundry Cookbook.) 4. Decide on Option Two.…

  • To Cut An Artichoke

    To Cut An Artichoke

    For months now I have watched Mario Batali cut artichokes on “Molto Mario,” demanding the participation of this three guests and charging that “it’s really easy and really worthwhile.” What’s infuriating (but admirable) is that he takes the time, each time, to explain the process to his audience. The religious viewer is left irritated at…

  • When life throws you risotto, make Arancini!

    When life throws you risotto, make Arancini!

    There’s nothing I like less than day-old risotto. When it’s hot off the stove, all the textures and flavors meld together to create a soothing, heavenly mixture. But after a day in the fridge, it turns a bit gummy and then heating it up inevitably makes it gummier. What to do with day old risotto?!…