Spice & KissesDifficulty level: easy (can be made post-call)
It’s that time of year again… when even a few minutes at the stove can leave you drenched in sweat… and the tomatoes are overrunning my kitchen (admittedly not a bad problem to have).
Hello August!
The AC situation in our home has improved since last summer, so cooking doesn’t leave me as overheated as it used to, but I’m still not super-excited about stirring a pot on the stove top for long periods of time. Enter gazpacho.
Difficulty level: Easy (could manage after overnight call)
Note: I wrote this post back in early November, when it made more sense to talk about pumpkins being in season. Several side projects distracted me from posting. The prospect of trying to rework this blog to fit a holiday theme (it could work! The salad has that red-and-green — if we consider magenta to be a shade of red — look) nearly made me abandon posting it. But as mentioned later, I took far too long to put this up, even though it ought to have been one of my earliest posts. Then I decided that since I’m not a professional blogger, but a hobbyist, that the post could go up as is, since there’s no reason at all that anyone besides myself should be concerned that it’s coming out a few weeks late. And even though it’s December, my grocery store still has pretty good beets, so you haven’t missed out much anyway – find some and make this salad!
I accidentally ended up with a vegetable garden this year, and it all started with the long beans.
We knew the previous owners of our new home gardened. When we first saw the house, I recognized the remnants of the okra plants and recognized some sort of garlic/onion/chive growing in a bare patch of soil on the periphery of the backyard. (They turned out to be a type of small yellow onion sought after by Indian home cooks, including my mom.) I did not, however recognize the long beans when they sprouted this spring. Luckily, my mom happened to be with me as I cleared out some invading poison ivy, and she pointed the plants out in the nick of time. Otherwise, they would’ve been tossed out with the ivy.
Difficulty level: easy (only prep work – peel and cut carrots; then hands-off roasting in oven)
This recipe may sound fancy, but guess who I make it for most often?
That’s right, the resident toddler. I offer this tidbit as proof that the recipe is both easy to make on a regular basis and will satisfy the pickiest taste buds with its tanginess, sweetness, and (depending on how much pepper you use) heat. My mom originally made this recipe for us adults to eat using baby carrots—actual young carrots, not the machine-made nubs with cracked skin—and a hefty dose of pepper.
We make eggplant frequently. Until recently, I had two main ways of preparing it: eggplant parmesan or a stir fry. Thanks to Milk Street (and Karthik’s request that we try this new recipe), I’ve now got a third favorite way to cook it. Charred eggplant with pops of coriander and cumin seed, fresh herbs, heat from harissa, and a hint of sweet and sour: these bold flavors are meant for adventurous palates.
The strawberries are here! The strawberries are here!
“We are proud that our food is always made from fresh ingredients, never frozen,” the restaurant’s menu proudly proclaimed.
That’s great for those pro chefs who know how to hunt down amazing fresh produce in the dead of winter. For the rest of us, however, the produce section of the grocery store’s freezer aisle can be a lifesaver in the dead of winter. Especially when off-season, frozen vegetables (often harvested and frozen at their peak ripeness and freshness) can bring more flavor than “fresh” produce sitting in the grocery store for several days after being imported from thousands of miles away.