Re: 660 Curries

I went looking for 660 Curries: The Gateway to Indian Cooking after hearing Raghavan Iyer on The Splendid Table describing how to cook dal. (This, by the way, is an especially good episode of the show, as it includes an interview with Jim Lahey of My Bread and a general method of cooking soup.) The […]

Squash Hot Pot

One of the ways I survived my cold was to make lots of hot soups and stews. They tasted so good I’m still making them. This is the latest, a hot pot with squash and vegetable and noodles from Japanese Hot Pots. That book has been a life-saver.

Three recipes

This essay by Mark Bittman has me thinking about how I learned to cook. He suggests three basic recipes — the stir-fry, lentils and rice, and chef’s salad — as three basic ways of fixing a meal that lead to endless variation. While I find the actual recipes totally not the way I would make […]

Hopping John on New Year’s Day

I first encountered black-eye peas years and years ago, when a housemate introduced us to the custom of eating Hopping John, or black-eye peas with ham hocks and rice, on New Year’s Day. Aside from the inherent virtue of such a simple dish, I was amazed at how good beans can taste. I’m still amazed […]

Tofu with bok choy and straw mushrooms

This is one of my go-to dishes. I don’t even remember where I got this combination, but it’s quick. You can make it while the rice cooker is going. And if you’re the sort of person who will eat tofu, I’m guessing you have a rice cooker. You probably have a wok too, but I […]

Arroz con pollo con tomates frescos

Tonight the tomatoes have met their fate: I chopped them up and made a big pot of arroz con pollo. My method was loosely based on this recipe, and considering how it’s written, loose is the only way you can follow it. And it’s loosely based on all the other times I’ve fried up some […]

Bread!

It’s cool enough to bake again. Actually, it’s been cool enough for a while, but I need to add enough motivation to overcome my work function of inertia. Anyway, I made a nice big loaf of multigrain bread. And since I forgot that the recipe I’m working on usually makes two loaves, I baked a […]

Why a bread like a peony?

Today’s bread came out all pretty and plush. It’s as plump as a peony.

Are they celebrating my bread?

I will admit to doing a little happy dance over how well this crusty chewy yummy loaf of bread came out. But why am I hearing fireworks? Is that real? The weird thing is this is not the first time I’ve heard mystery fireworks this week. But fireworks again? Really?

Simple wheat bread

Now that I’ve settled into a couple of bread routines that work for me, I’m starting to do variations. Like this wheat bread. Nothing to it.