Category

Sides

  • Lemony Greens on Garlicky Beans

    Lemony Greens on Garlicky Beans

    Trader Joe’s has always been a mystery to me. People love the place, they start to cheer when one opens up in their neighborhood, but I’ve always been stumped by what to buy there. I’ve done well with trail mix (because it tastes more like candy), and it’s nice to get a decent bottle of…

  • Diana’s Butter-Roasted Potatoes

    Diana’s Butter-Roasted Potatoes

    Now we all know the concept of the student beating the master and I don’t want to imply that my friend Diana was ever my student or that I was ever her master (though I was her roommate, which is kind of the same thing with me); what I’d like to imply, however, is that…

  • Toasted Garlic Couscous with Preserved Lemon

    Toasted Garlic Couscous with Preserved Lemon

    There’s something thrilling about inventing a recipe. And though I’m not 100% sure that I invented this (it may very well have existed, somewhere, before me) let’s pretend that I am to this recipe what Isaac Newton is to gravity. No apple fell on my head, but garlic toasted in my head as I tried…

  • Cauliflower Gratin with Gruyère and Goat Cheese

    Cauliflower Gratin with Gruyère and Goat Cheese

    Call me a freak, but I get excited about cauliflower. It’s got great texture and, when cooked properly, can yield lots of big flavor. Most often I roast it in the oven or I caramelize it in a pan; not very often do I boil it, but even boiled cauliflower can hold its own. On…

  • Farmer’s Market Wild Rice Salad with Miso Dressing

    Farmer’s Market Wild Rice Salad with Miso Dressing

    It’s funny how, when a partner goes away on a trip, you start to cook things that you wouldn’t cook if they were there. For many people, that might be something really decadent (rib-eye for one, for example) but for me, lately, I move in the other direction: I go healthy. Which is not to…

  • Braised Endive

    Braised Endive

    It was just a small rectangle on the cheese plate at The French Laundry; a single bite of braised endive to complement the other elements on the plate (apricot, a square of pistachio cake, a sour ale gastrique). But that single bite stayed with me. It was memorable because endive, which is normally bitter, becomes…

  • Pan-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Garlic and Mustard

    Pan-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Garlic and Mustard

    Every year, Craig’s dad, Steve, makes the most amazing prime rib for Christmas dinner (see here) and every year I help out the best I can, usually volunteering to make a side dish. Last year I made a gratin but this year, since mashed potatoes were already on the menu, I offered up a vegetable.…

  • Sexy Cabbage Sexytime

    Sexy Cabbage Sexytime

    Let’s face it, cabbage is a tough sell. Even though it’s what makes coleslaw coleslaw and it’s a crunchy companion to a fish taco, most people associate it with their grandmother’s boiled cabbage fouling up the air with its death-like aroma. That’s why I’m titling this post Sexy Cabbage Sexytime because the other night, I…

  • Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples

    Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples

    If there’s a time of year to break out Molly Stevens’s new Roasting book, this is it. Thanksgiving dinner is all about roasting. If you deep-fry your bird, you’re missing out on one of the great aspects of Thanksgiving–the lovely aroma of a slow-roasting bird wafting through your house or apartment. Keeping in the spirit…

  • Chicken Fat Fried Potatoes

    Chicken Fat Fried Potatoes

    It occurred to me last Thursday that one of the best recipes in my repertoire isn’t even something that I consider a recipe. It’s a thing that I’ve done for years and years–I talked about it in my video “How To Roast a Chicken”–and, yet, when I look at it by itself, separate from the…