Archive for 'cooking'
WINTER WARMTH: TURKEY CHIPOTLE CHILI
I’m a purist about a number of things, but not about chili. I like it with ground, cubed, or shredded meat. With or without beans. With or without tomatoes. I do prefer really good soft tortillas as an accompaniment, but tortilla chips, rice, or the spaghetti (and oyster crackers) that folks in Cincinnati are crazy about […]
Posted: February 24th, 2015 under cooking, Gourmet magazine, people + places, recipes, winter.
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TRUE BLUE: COLSTON BASSETT STILTON
January is typically devoted to fresh starts. We all know people who have vowed this month to exercise more, eat or drink less, and otherwise curtail the excesses that began at Thanksgiving. Good for them! I’d be more inclined to join in if I hadn’t discovered that my favorite Stilton—from Colston Basset Dairy (estab. 1913), in Nottingham, England—is […]
Posted: January 13th, 2015 under cooking, obsession, winter.
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TIME FLIES!
And how. It’s been way too long since I last posted—I was typing as fast as I could for folks who pay for it—but here’s hoping in the meantime you’ve made Chicken Marbella at least once, and are contemplating your journey into the new year. Here at the Lears, we have a delicious few days ahead. There […]
Posted: December 30th, 2014 under cooking, culinary history, Gourmet magazine, recipes, winter.
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CHICKEN MARBELLA: WELCOME TO THE CLUB
In 1978, the year I moved to New York, the Upper West Side was still gritty and rough around the edges. Except, that is, for The Silver Palate, a valiant little shop that had opened the previous year on Columbus Avenue, at 73rd Street. Its concept—elegant yet accessible take-home food for dinner parties, picnics for […]
Posted: October 14th, 2014 under autumn, cookbooks, cooking, people + places, recipes.
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ZUCCHINI: THE RAW & THE COOKED
Zucchini has quite the reputation. The plants are prolific as hell, and with the effortless pick-up of a sports car, their offspring zooms from the cute, almost-ready-to-pick stage to the size of a cricket bat (see above) in no time. Garrison Keillor, chronicler of the small, fictional town of Lake Wobegon on A Prairie Home Companion, has […]
Posted: September 30th, 2014 under cookbooks, cooking, culinary history, early autumn, kitchen equipment, people + places, recipes, restaurants.
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BARBECUE SHRIMP
For years, I’ve avoided buying jumbo shrimp (one of my favorite oxymorons), because I’ve never known how to bring out their best. My default method—a few minutes in a small amount of simmering water—is more suited to small or medium shrimp. In my hands, jumbos handled this way become simultaneously tough and mushy on the outside before […]
Posted: July 22nd, 2014 under barbecue, cooking, people + places, recipes, restaurants.
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FAST-TRACKING CHICKEN SALAD
Aside from the “fiesta” or “Oriental” versions found at some chain restaurants, chicken salad has pretty much been relegated to the Nostalgia Department: suitable fare for tearooms (of the Woman’s Exchange variety and otherwise), drug-store lunch counters (here’s a marvelous Lewis Hine image), and southern porch suppers, circa 1955. I don’t know why. I suppose people […]
Posted: June 10th, 2014 under cooking, people + places, recipes, restaurants, summer.
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ASPARAGUS WITH PANCETTA AND PARM
In the realm of spring vegetables, asparagus is the cook’s greatest ally. It can be steamed, boiled, sautéed, stir-fried, roasted, or grilled. It comes elegantly thin or fat and juicy. It’s impressive on its own, as a first course; as a side to chicken, fish, ham, pork, or beef; or worked into pasta primavera, risotto, […]
Posted: May 27th, 2014 under cooking, recipes, spring.
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DUKKAH FROM A PARIS KITCHEN
The subtitle of the recently published My Paris Kitchen: Recipes and Stories, by David Lebovitz, may lull you into putting the book on top of your bedtime-reading stack. That’s perfectly fine—it’s a terrific read—but you must be prepared to climb out of the wrapper at, say, 11 p.m. and go into the kitchen to eat something delicious. […]
Posted: May 13th, 2014 under cooking, favorite books, people + places, recipes.
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SCRATCH SUPPER: BROCCOLI RABE WITH PASTA AND OLIVES
If it’s April, I’m eating broccoli rage. Drat—Wordpress autocorrect did it again—I mean broccoli rabe. Despite its name (the last bit is pronounced rahb), it’s more closely related to turnips (Brassica rapa) than to regular broccoli (Brassica oleracea), and although it’s commonly described as a bitter green, I happen to think it has more of […]
Posted: April 29th, 2014 under cooking, early spring, pantry, recipes, restaurants, scratch supper.
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