Archive for 'cooking'
BLUEBERRY TIME
I never developed a true appreciation for blueberries until about 20 years ago, when I spent summer weekends knocking around the New England coast. It was there I had my first taste of the small, intensely flavored wild ones, and soon carried a small plastic pail tied to my knapsack as a matter of course. […]
Posted: August 6th, 2013 under cooking, people + places, recipes, summer.
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PIE CHERRIES
You can never go overboard when buying sour cherries—what my grandmothers would have called pie cherries. Their season is ephemeral, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. So this July, I’ve been buying quarts and quarts. (Quick market tip: Cherries are always sold ripe; green, pliable stems signify freshness.) We’ve enjoyed some of my haul in […]
Posted: July 30th, 2013 under baking, cooking, pantry, summer.
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NOTES FROM AN ARMCHAIR FARMER
Good cookbooks are soothing and aspirational all at once. They fall squarely in the “I can dream can’t I?” department, which must be why many people like to read them before they go to bed. I used to be one of them. A few years ago, though, I branched out with an evocative, beautifully illustrated […]
Posted: June 25th, 2013 under cooking, favorite books, people + places, Union Square Greenmarket.
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A ROSY TIDE OF RHUBARB
I came to rhubarb relatively late in life. It’s not something I grew up with, and a few slices of generically sweet strawberry-rhubarb pie (and one brief encounter with a slithery compote) left me, shall I say, underwhelmed. That is, until about five years ago, when gardening friends from Edinburgh taught me a thing or […]
Posted: June 4th, 2013 under cooking, recipes, Union Square Greenmarket.
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GARLIC CHIVES: A MARKET STORY
I cantered around the Union Square market on Saturday like I was warming up for the Preakness. I came to a screeching halt, though, at the tented tables staffed by Lani’s Farm, from south Jersey. Something smelled really, really good. Sure enough, I found Eugena Yoo (who manages the farm with her brother, Steve Yoo) behind […]
Posted: May 21st, 2013 under cooking, Market Stories, people + places, recipes, spring, Union Square Greenmarket.
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CELERY VICTOR(IOUS)
Apart from Thanksgiving, when it’s pressed into service for stuffing and the relish tray, celery is the old maid of the crisper drawer. A few stalks are used here and there for soups or stews, or cut into thirds and filled with peanut butter or pimento cheese for a quick snack or down-home hors d’oeuvre. But […]
Posted: April 30th, 2013 under cookbooks, cooking, culinary history, recipes.
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LINGUINE WITH NEW ZEALAND COCKLES
The little bivalve mollusks called cockles are found in sheltered estuaries and tidal flats throughout much of the world, and a flourishing cockle bed may be packed with more than a million of them to the acre. Most of those we see at American seafood markets are New Zealand cockles (Austrovenus stuchburyi; known to the […]
Posted: April 23rd, 2013 under cooking, Gourmet magazine, recipes, restaurants, spring.
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WATERCRESS FOR SPRING
Every April, my mother and I would spend hours in the woods, wading in bone-chilling mountain streams to pick watercress before it flowered and disappeared until the following spring. Somewhere, my mother had picked up the knowledge that the plant had been used as both food and medicine in ancient times, and each year, I’d […]
Posted: April 16th, 2013 under cooking, people + places, spring.
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FARRO PILAF FOR SUPPER: A MARKET STORY
April mornings at the Union Square Greenmarket haven’t been quite as warm as the weather reports would have you believe. A light breeze still has the chill of winter behind it, and everyone hugs the sunny side of the street. Tempting pots of jonquils aside, my weekly expeditions remain more about foraging for the least-gnarly […]
Posted: April 9th, 2013 under cookbooks, cooking, Market Stories, recipes, spring.
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ASPARAGUS MIMOSA
The trick to pulling off a dinner party on the fly is the first course: Nail that, and you have everyone at the table in the palm of your hand. This year, my thank-you-Jesus starter (especially appropriate at Easter) has been asparagus mimosa. It is, as my great friend Rick Ellis says, “classic, classic, classic.” […]
Posted: April 2nd, 2013 under cooking, early spring, Gourmet magazine, people + places, recipes.
Comments: 3