Cooking

A quick-and-simple (15-minute) dinner: boil soba (3-4 minutes), saute broccoli and minced garlic in sesame oil (just a few minutes), combine along with a bit of soy sauce for a minute more, serve with sriracha and avocado.

A quick dinner from mostly free-to-me ingredients: I sauteed some fresh ginger and moroccan spice[1] in peanut oil, then added crookneck squash[2], coated it in the spiced oil, and cooked for about 5 minutes. In parallel, I boiled the wide flat beans[3] for a few minutes (they turned bright green). I added the drained beans to the squash for a minute, emptied them onto a plate, then fried a duck egg[4] in the oil left over in the pan. I served them with lemon[2] and avocado[3]. Not bad! ...

This is the first time I’ve made a dinner for friends with courses each paired with / inspired by a specific beer. Some of them worked well together, some didn’t, but it was a good evening overall. Appetizers: a slightly bitter, slightly floral beer (Upright Flora Rustica) with a collection of snacks: bread, cheese (Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam), radishes, fresh-pickled fennel (an interesting concept), Boccalone orange-fennel salami and pepper salami, salted almonds, and three kinds of pickled carrots (carrots pickled for a week with dill, vinegar, and salt, carrot quick pickles (overnight with lots of vinegar, mustard seed, cloves), and some Happy Girl spicy carrot pickles I bought). ...

This is great sliced thick and used to make a sandwich or luxurious toast (but with soup, I prefer whole wheat bread). I used to make this monthly but haven’t in many years– I just found the recipe card recently. White sandwich bread (two loaves, takes 4-5 hours total including cooling) Mix and let stand 5-10 minutes: 4 tsp dry yeast 1/4 cup warm water Meanwhile, mix: 1 cup warmed milk 1 cup warm water 2 Tbsp melted butter 2 Tbsp honey 1 Tbsp salt Combine the two mixtures. Gradually add: ...

Scones are one of the only things I’ve made where I’ve tried (and kept track of) many changes to a recipe over time and gradually evolved it. Here’s my current favorite version: Maple-Pecan Scones(makes 16) First, preheat the oven to 425 (don’t you hate recipes that don’t tell you to preheat the oven until late in the recipe?) You’ll need: 2 & 1/2 cups white flour 1 cup whole wheat flour (I’ve tried more– this is about as much as I can fit in) 1 & 1/2 cups chopped pecans (for even better scones, chop half of these pecans coarsely, and grind the other half into a powder, almost a “pecan flour”, in a food processor). 2 Tbsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 11(!) Tbsp cold butter 1 cup milk 1/3 cup maple syrup (plus a little extra to brush on) (real maple syrup, of course) A cast iron skillet The process: ...

Just a simple mayonnaise-free variant on potato salad I make from time to time: Wash and boil small russet potatoes with the skins on (20-30 minutes, until done). Toss some green beans into the water a minute before the potatoes are done (to blanche). Drain and rinse the potatoes and beans. Add plenty of mustard and olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh dill and chives.