Los Angeles Times
Cookbooks I buy on the road have always been my idea of trips that keep on giving. Continue reading
Post Category → actual cooking
Cook, memory
Saveur (published in altered form)
Sometime after I got out of restaurant school and started writing about food, my next-older sister unexpectedly sent me the closest thing to an heirloom from my bleak childhood: my mom’s 1956 “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book.” Continue reading
Good to the bone: short ribs
Los Angeles Times
Every few years a dish seems to come out of nowhere and spread like kudzu.Continue reading
That essential flavor: salt
Los Angeles Times
In 20-some years of professionally obsessing on food, I’ve come to realize some innovations in ingredients hit like a thunderclap (panko — where had that been all my life?) and others are more like a steady rain. Continue reading
The big dip
Metropolitan Home
Cheese fondue is the Danish furniture of food: It always seems on the verge of a comeback when in reality it never goes out of style.Continue reading
A simple, smoky solution
Los Angeles Times
Globalization is not always a bad thing. These days you can go off to an Argentina-born friend’s birthday party in Italy and come home with a California solution to one of the universal kitchen mysteries: how to cook fava beans without seven hours of prep work.Continue reading
The fine art of ribs
Los Angeles Times
Purists insist there’s only one way to cook ribs: Rub them with a salt-and-spice blend and let them smoke and smolder over live coals for a little less time than it takes to sit through “Gone With the Wind.”
Purists must have charcoal to burn.Continue reading
Fancy grits cause a stir
Los Angeles Times
Six years ago this spring I ordered a fish for its side dish in a restaurant in Charleston, S.C., and I have not been the same since. Continue reading
Duck for all seasons
Los Angeles Times
As someone who cooks by the calendar, I’ve always wondered why strawberries and corn on the cob are socially acceptable any time of year while duck is usually perceived as food for fall and winter. It’s a great ingredient naturally available in any month, and yet it’s trapped in a season-warp.Continue reading
Magic mushrooms
Metropolitan Home
If Ray Kroc had had Portobello mushrooms, beef cattle all around the world would be grazing easier today. Mushrooms have all the juicy flavor of meat but none of the heaviness. Grilled, topped with cheese and tucked into a bun, they make a burger so satisfying no fries are needed.
But Portobello burgers are only the most obvious example of how mushrooms can pass as meat. All the wild varieties becoming increasingly common even in supermarkets markets can go just about everywhere beef or pork or chicken can. Continue reading