Keep It Simple, Smarty: Sesame Sugar Snap Peas

Read recipe headlines or captions and you might think cooking has turned into a version of Name That Tune. Take any dish, let’s say a salad in this case. Can’t you just see it, opponents stand across from each other on a cardboard cut out game show set, sizing each other up, looking for tells. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly practically plays in the background. “Jim, I can make that salad in 7 ingredients,” says Contestant #1. “I can make it in 5,” replies Contestant #2. #1 rocks from left foot to right to left again. “Uhhh, Jim, I can make it in 3.” Sensing uncertainty, #2 points, “Make that salad.” Alright, let’s do it. Easy peasy Sesame Sugar Snap Peas.

ByMichelleMay 29, 20140Comments

Main Course

Rice & the Ramen Renaissance

Ramen is going through something of a renaissance, a resurgence. Whether on the kitschy side with ramen burgers or the explosion of ramen joints in NYC, most notably Ivan Ramen on the Lower East Side, the food world is paying attention again to those squiggly noodles in broth. And for the first time in years, we’re seeing new entrants to the ramen market on grocery store shelves, like Lotus Foods’ Rice Ramen.

ByMichelleMarch 12, 20140Comments

Cooking Recipes

The Rule of Fried Rice

Grandmas are liars. There, I said it. Look inside their recipes boxes or the careful cursive recipes on scraps of paper stuck inside other cookbooks and you’ll know their dark hearts. Lists of ingredients, no amounts, sometimes no instructions. These lies aren’t intentionally meant to deceive. Or to maintain an illusion, like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. These lies are lesser crimes, crimes of omission. But lies nevertheless. Like with my Grandma’s Fried Rice.

ByMichelleMarch 2, 20141Comment

Cooking Main Course Recipes

It Was Savannah, Not New Orleans: One Pot Jambalaya

The other night Wolf and I were watching House of Cards and talking about Kevin Spacey. We’re doling out the episodes, one per evening rather than gorging on the whole season. When was it that Kevin Spacey broke out? We reckoned it was the trifecta of The Ref, Usual Suspects and Swimming with Sharks that really put him on the map. Two years later, in 1997, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil came out. Now I admit, I haven’t seen this film in years, and really all I could remember about it was that it was set in New Orleans. So I looked it up on IMDB and I haven’t stopped laughing since. Look at that ‘stache!

It turns out Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was set in Savannah, not New Orleans. Quirky characters walking invisible dogs, antebellum architecture, wrought iron gates, seersucker suits, you can see how my memory might have interchanged the cities after so long. Did my entire opening just get blown up? Well, whatever. We’re still having One Pot Jambalaya with Andouille Sausage.

ByMichelleFebruary 26, 20141Comment

Recipes Side Dishes

Bhutan Red Rice with Chickpeas & Currants

The other night I decided what to make for dinner around 5 o’clock. For someone who likes having a plan, that was late. A bag of chickpeas was thawing the in the fridge, so I made half a batch of hummus and then had to do something with the rest. Flipping to the index in the Jerusalem cookbook there it was, Basmati and Wild Rice with Chickpeas, Currants and Herbs. I went to the cupboard. No wild rice. Just as well, I wasn’t gonna wait around for 45 minutes for it to cook anyway. Currants? Check. Herbs? Well, cilantro. Close enough. Time to riff.

ByMichelleApril 9, 20131Comment

Recipes

Persian Crispy Rice & Lamb Kebabs (Polo Tahdig & Koobideh)

Polo Tahdig, Persian Crispy Rice gets its crunchy layer from yogurt colored with turmeric and scented with saffron. During our trip up to Tofino, we watched a show with Bob Blumer, you know, the Surreal Gourmet guy, where he faced off with 2-3 Chinese chefs in Vancouver in a Xiao Long Bao battle. Dumplings themselves are…

ByMichelleJuly 11, 20113Comments

Recipes

Chilled Banana & Pistachio Rice Pudding

There’s no meal that rice is excluded from at my house – breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, appetizer, entrée, dess--errrr-–no. I’ve never been a big fan of rice for dessert. I didn’t like Botan Rice Candy growing up, but its got its own Facebook page, so apparently a lot of people do (at least 1,955 as…

ByMichelleMay 17, 20111Comment

Photo One-offs

Sunday Morning Char Siu Royale

Char Siu Royale w/ Brown Rice

ByMichelleJanuary 10, 20100Comments

Recipes

Fried Rice for Breakfast

Fried rice falls into the "Grandma food" category -- aka dishes that came from my Grandma that you have no hope of ever getting an actual, exact written recipe. It's not a new phenomenon - every family seems to have a dish that you can't pinpoint why it comes out so wonderfully when your [INSERT…

ByMichelleMarch 25, 20070Comments