Tag Archives: home cooking

Brunch – Eggs, Hash and Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

Eggs with Leek and Bacon Hash

Jeanine, DD and I have been talking for sometime about planning the big birthday trip – for Jeanine’s 40th and DD’s 30th – coming up in April next year. So we got together last Sunday to talk and plan.  Jeanine’s family is from Grenada, and have 2 beautiful properties on the islands.  We sent out emails, we searched for other accommodations, we looked for tips on what to see and what to do. All the internet surfing was hard work, so we needed some sustenance. Continue reading →

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Chanko Nabe

Not just for sumo wrestlers

Chanko Nabe

Somewhere around the fall of last year, I went on a Japanese cooking jag, inspired by and anticipating our upcoming trip to Japan. We were taking Japanese language courses and I was shopping at Nijiya, weekly. The Japantown neighborhood suddenly became familiar, where it hadn’t before. My mania for Japanese cooking reached somewhat of a turning point when I took a Japanese Kaiseki cooking workshop through the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California in December, and cooked up a multi-course Japanese holiday dinner. Continue reading →

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Kiam Pung, Salty Soy Rice

Kiam Pung

I cooked my mother’s dish on mother’s day.  I was not able to make a trip to Southern California then, but loved that she had made it on the past 2 occasions when I visited last. Kiam Pung translates into Salty Rice, with “kiam” being salty in my parents’ fukienese/ fujianese dialect, which I’m told is very similar to Hokkien, or Taiwanese.  Basically I like to think of this easy dish is a Chinese Paella — it’s open to an infinite number of variations, but should always contain 3 essential ingredients (besides the rice, which is a given):

  • Soy Sauce
  • Some kind of green vegetable
  • Some kind of meat or seafood or meat substitute

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Trippa a la Napoletana

Tripe in the Neapolitan style

If someone wanted to ease a friend or family member into trying offal meats, tripe is probably the most logical starting point.  Properly cleaned and processed, it takes on the flavors of whatever it’s been cooked in and has great textural complexity.  If the person you’re trying to convert can somehow get over the fact that tripe is the lining of a cow’s stomach, it’s one of the tastier, somewhat more innocuous of offal meats.  When Gourmet magazine publishes an Asian tripe recipe, you know its time has come indeed.  Continue reading →

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Mailale al Latte

Pork Braised in Milk

Marcella Hazan, in her seminal Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, wrote that of the thousands of recorded dishes that could illustrate the genius of a cuisine, Pork Braised in Milk would certainly be among the favoured few.  Her recipe is exceedingly simple – start with a pork loin roast (bone included), brown it well in some oil, add around 2 cups milk, and simmer over low heat for several hours until tender.  She also notes that, if we have access to it, and are not averse to the fact that it might fall apart in whilst carving, pork butt, or Boston shoulder, laced with a goodly amount of fat – is preferrable, but perhaps won’t be as pretty on a plate. Continue reading →

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Wild Mushroom Crostini

Wild Mushroom Crostini

DD rambles far and wide in his search for edible wild mushrooms, but he takes every opportunity he can to find them close to home as well.  This past Saturday, he spent 8 hours up north in a rather fruitless search save for half-a-dozen or so candy caps.  On Sunday, a 90-minute ramble through the park with the puppy yielded some nice Agaricus Augustus and Agaricus Lilaceps, which he turned into some beautiful mushroom crostini.

Say what, you mumble… Agaricus what? You were expecting something with chanterelles perhaps? Continue reading →

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Caldo Verde: Portuguese Greens Soup

Caldo Verde

Another old but excellent and easy one-pot standby, this hearty soup makes a regular appearance at our table every couple of months or so.  As with many of these kinds of peasant soups and stews, there are an infinite number of variations.  I believe at a minimum, the soup calls for some sort of green (kale, collards and cabbage are most common in the recipes I’ve seen cited); some sort of starch – usually potato; some form of allium – onion and or garlic; and finally, sausage.  This time I used broccoli rabe (for the first time ever) and while it turned out delicious, perhaps sticking with sturdier greens is preferable.   I also add tomato (which is not classic) since I like the acidity that comes from this component; other recipes that don’t include tomato sometimes call for the addition of a few spoonfuls of vinegar.  Finally, in this last go-round I eschewed potatoes and included a cupful of pearled (fast cooking) farro. Continue reading →

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Pickled Quail Eggs

Pickled Quail Eggs, Alembic recipe

One of our favourite bar bites ever are the pickled quail eggs at the Alembic.  If you’re starving, and find that you possibly can’t wait for the five awesome dishes you’ve just ordered to start to arrive, take heart – you’ll be grateful when these are set quickly in front of you. They arrive almost instantaneously, scooped up from a large jar behind the bar.

As DD narrates – he once (after a particularly stressful day), consumed no less than a mean dozen in a sitting, interspersed with some very good cocktails. And, characteristic of my husband in all the time I’ve known him – once he’s got his mind set on something, that thing is as good as done.  Continue reading →

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Strawberry Season

Oooh mah goodness, soooo good!

Strawberries, Balsamic and Cream

We seldom make dessert at home. I’m not a baker, and would rather prefer to spend my time cooking up savouries rather than sweet things.  But the husband has a sweet tooth, and this has helped us get creative with some quick-to-make items that can easily satisfy that after-dinner craving.   Continue reading →

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Pork and Clams – Surf and Turf

Porco com Amêijoas à Alentejana

Surf and Turf.  Land and sea.  Mar y montagña.  A classic pairing that seems to always work so well… I’ve loved this dish for a while now, having stumbled upon the recipe posted on Leite’s Culinaria several years ago… but this dish it seems, has a long and venerable history, originating out of the Alentejo region in Portugal.  The best description I’ve read of the region comes from this personal account by Miguel de Almeida at West Coast Cooking.  His recipe is slightly different from the one I used; indeed, there seems to be an infinite number of variations one can take with this beautiful dish.  At its base it’s hearty, easy and comforting; however, it doesn’t quite work well if you want to gin up a quick weeknight meal.  You want a bit of time for prep and leaving the pork ample time to bathe in its marinade (overnight is ideal), so it’s probably best to attempt this over a weekend or when you’ve got some time.

Oh – and you’ll want to use some sort of stew pot or large-ish dutch oven for this dish. Continue reading →

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