This is a very telling salad. In the intro to the recipe, author Becky Selengut writes that Salade Nicoise is a dish where cooks show their personality types: "Anal types will place each ingredient in efficient, color-coordinated piles, most likely not touching each other. … [Read more...] about Salade Nicoise à la Selengut
All Recipes
Curried Pumpkin Seeds with Garam Masala
When you cook something with pumpkin or squash (such as Thai pumpkin stew) and you spend all that time removing the seeds and the muck, it's a shame to just throw out all the protein. Ok, chuck the muck, but keep the seeds. I went through a pumpkin seed stage and then realized I … [Read more...] about Curried Pumpkin Seeds with Garam Masala
Thai Pumpkin Curry with Mackerel and Fish Sauce
I wrote about how I was gifted a pumpkin at a farmers market. Well, a girl can't live on pumpkin smoothies alone, try as she might. And I didn't try very hard. So I ended up with half a pumpkin to cook. And that, dear reader, called for pumpkin stew. but I don't really like your … [Read more...] about Thai Pumpkin Curry with Mackerel and Fish Sauce
DIY Blueberry Cereal Bars from “Wonderland Kitchen” and Recipe Exchange
Remember when you were young and wanted to share a recipe with someone, and you had to write it out for them? It took time and effort, and then the copied recipe would (probably) be dutifully tucked into a recipe collection to be used at a future date. When I was young, the most … [Read more...] about DIY Blueberry Cereal Bars from “Wonderland Kitchen” and Recipe Exchange
Thumbprint Cookies and Slow-cooker Sugar-free Raspberry Jam
What I learned from a rotary evaporator was that reducing liquids at very low temperatures saves their flavour. Not that the rotary evaporator stood in front of a classroom of able-minded cooks and told me that. Instead, I tasted it in the spherified orange juice that looked like … [Read more...] about Thumbprint Cookies and Slow-cooker Sugar-free Raspberry Jam
Thanksgiving 2012 – The Photos
Wow. What a dinner. The brined turkey tasted like amazing pho' broth soaking into the most tender meat. The stuffing with gluten-free bread absorbed it all too, with just a little smokiness (others said. I couldn't taste the smoke), maybe from the oven, which was smoking, or from … [Read more...] about Thanksgiving 2012 – The Photos
Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
When you're gifted a sugar pumpkin from an organic farm as thanks for using their leeks in a cooking demo at a farmers market, the world becomes your culinary oyster. Okay, maybe my world. Maybe most people's worlds turn into a black hole of worrisome thoughts along the lines of, … [Read more...] about Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
Remaking a Champion: Seared Mackerel and Mango with Ratatouille
This is a far cry from Becky Selengut's original recipe, but when I saw her make this at the Queen Anne Farmers Market in Seattle with peaches instead of figs, I knew I could get away with a few changes. Now, she used peaches because they were in season, but as peach season had … [Read more...] about Remaking a Champion: Seared Mackerel and Mango with Ratatouille
Bourbon and Maple Syrup-Soaked Japanese Pears (and Peaches)
At the Columbia City Farmers Market in Seattle I met a man selling Japanese cucumbers. Now, I have a friend in Montreal who asked me to grow him Japanese cucumbers once because they're impossible to find there. So when I saw them at the market, I was intrigued. They're less … [Read more...] about Bourbon and Maple Syrup-Soaked Japanese Pears (and Peaches)
Vacuum-Sealed Pickles, Quick Fermentation, and Ultrasonic Baths: Cucumbers, Chanterelles, Maple Syrup Pears, Fennel and Chili Peppers
I went on a bit of a pickle roll when I was at the Modernist Cuisine Cooking Lab... "Can you quick-ferment cucumbers?" I asked. I'd heard they made their own sauerkraut and I wanted to know if there was a way to do it in one day instead of two weeks. Turns out you can't actually … [Read more...] about Vacuum-Sealed Pickles, Quick Fermentation, and Ultrasonic Baths: Cucumbers, Chanterelles, Maple Syrup Pears, Fennel and Chili Peppers