recipe Archives - Page 6 of 30

recipe

Mole coloradito brightens any early winter meal

Posted on January 2, 2021December 31, 2020 by Pat and David

As one of the seven classics, mole coloradito occupies the sweet spot between the bright punch of mole amarillo and the luscious richness of the darker moles. Brick-red in color and somewhat thinner than many other moles, it is straightforward to prepare. This recipe uses only guajillo peppers, a moderately hot chile with thin walls and a smoky, fruity flavor. The sauce is fairly harsh when you first start cooking but becomes smooth and mellow somewhere around the two-hour mark. The finished mole is surprisingly fruity and pairs nicely with cold sauvignon blanc wine. Coloradito is very versatile when it comes time to serve. Traditionally, it's ladled over a pork roast, over roasted leg and thigh of chicken, or over enchiladas. In Oaxaca, the sauce...Read More

Mole amarillo meets champagne for New Years Eve

Posted on December 26, 2020March 2, 2021 by Pat and David

If there's one shortcoming of Mexican mole sauces, it's that many of them are not exactly wine-friendly. Mole amarillo, however, is an extreme exception. It's a bright, sprightly sauce with a nice acidic tang and a heady combination of sunny spices. Amarillo is a perfect riposte to the cold and dark days immediately following the winter solstice. It also pairs spectacularly with sparkling wines, champagne included. One of our favorite choices is Gruët Brut, a terrific American sparkling wine from New Mexico made by a family with roots in France's Champagne district (gruetwinery.com). They blend it from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grown at 4,000-5,000 feet of elevation between Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico. (The company's Blancs de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs also go...Read More

Starting on Oaxaca’s seven moles with mole rojo

Posted on December 19, 2020March 2, 2021 by Pat and David

For many years we cooked a Christmas Eve spread for around 25 family members. Since we have only our own palates to please this year, we decided to make the holidays festive by beginning a marathon of cooking dishes often associated with good times and holiday cheer, at least in Mexican and Latinx households. We're talking about tamales and moles (MOH-lays, in case you were wondering how to pronounce it). This will be the beginning of a series with recipes for our versions of the seven classic moles of Oaxaca and some ways to serve them. Why Oaxaca? Mexico has a rich variety of regional cuisines, but we think of Oaxaca as the mother kitchen for them all. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec was the spice...Read More

Our modest addition to the Christmas cookie canon

Posted on December 12, 2020December 11, 2020 by Pat and David

A plate of Christmas cookies isn't the same without some form of shortbread cookie. We love traditional Scottish shortbread and fondly recall Pat's mother's chocolate chip shortbread bites. But our personal favorite is the saffron shortbread we first concocted nearly a decade ago. We hope it could become one of your favorites, too. When we could travel, we often purchased saffron in Spain, which is one of the world's largest producers. This year we had to resort to mail-order. One good choice is the Afghan saffron from Vanilla Saffron (www.saffron.com) in San Francisco. The best buy is by the ounce (28 grams). We find the flavor virtually identical to Spanish, and the Afghan product from Vanilla Saffron is of the highest grade, with very few...Read More

Finally, vegan cookbook whose recipes hit the spot

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Pat and David

In the foreword to her new cookbook, Karoline Jönsson writes, ‶Happy Vegan Comfort Food is the book I needed when I decided to quit eating animals. It would have saved me years of finding my way in the green jungle.″ To that, we'd add that Happy Vegan Comfort Food (Pavilion/Rizzoli, $19.95) is the vegan cookbook we've been waiting for. We're omnivores, but we eat less and less meat and other animal products. This book broadens our culinary horizons with some really tasty dishes. Instead of being all about what the author doesn't or won't eat, the cookbook is a wholehearted embrace of really good food that—oh, by the way—is entirely plant-based. Rarely does Jönsson fall back on meat analogs. She does use tofu and seitan,...Read More

San Marzano DOP tomatoes to the rescue

Posted on November 13, 2020November 13, 2020 by Pat and David

When our garden was hit with the first killing frost (and four inches of snow) on Halloween, we were lucky. We had harvested all our green tomatoes and a bucket of partially ripe cherry tomatoes before the mercury plunged. So we will still be cooking with fresh tomatoes for another week or so. But end-of-the-season tomatoes can't hold a candle to the sweet, juicy beauties of summer. Ditto the greenhouse tomatoes that we buy over the winter. Every year we talk ourselves into their virtues and overlook their faults. At some point great canned tomatoes are superior to just okay fresh ones. Finding the best canned tomatoes in the world We look for cans labeled ‶Pomodoro San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP.″ Sometimes it's a subtitle...Read More

Timely ‘Soupology’ arrives as the weather cools

Posted on October 20, 2020October 17, 2020 by Pat and David

As soon as we catch the first whiff of frost, we mentally switch cooking modes from salads, stir fries, and grilled vegetables to ragouts, daubes, and rich stocks. In perfect synchrony with the falling thermometer, the North American edition of Soupology: The Art of Soup from Six Simple Broths by Drew Smith (Rizzoli, 2020, $29.99) launched last month. Earlier in his career, Smith was a deft restaurant reviewer for The Guardian and for many years edited The Good Food Guide, an annual review of Britain's best restaurants. This volume is more about home cooking and the tone is friendly and intimate. It's easy to imagine looking over his shoulder as he shows how to make a delicious range of soups. Don't be put off by...Read More

Pastry can whisk you back to Paris

Posted on October 13, 2020October 12, 2020 by Pat and David

We love to visit Paris for the sales, for the museums, and for the sheer ambiance. But as long as we're being honest, we love to visit Paris for the patisseries. Small French pastries are always a highlight of any trip to the City of Light. Combine our love of French pastry with our longing for far-too-distant Paris, and Petite Patisserie couldn't have crossed our desk at a better time. It gives a shot at baking our way back into the Bois de Boulogne—or at least one of our favorite pastry shops in the Marais. Petite Patisserie: 180 Easy Recipes for Elegant French Treats by Christophe Felder and Camille Lesecq (Rizzoli, 2020, $45) is a 350-page guide to financiers, madeleines, Napoleons, petit fours, tartlets, and...Read More

Pastitsio ends our Greek sojourn with comfort fare

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Pat and David

Our nearly four-month exploration of Greek cuisine has netted us some dishes that we expect to stay in the rotation for years to come. Most rely on the goodness of fresh local produce, so we thought the arrival of autumn was an auspicious time to conclude our research. Frost is on the way, and outdoor grilling gets harder and harder as the temperature drops and darkness falls earlier and earlier. We decided that the best cool-weather Greek dish for us to perfect would not be any of the many variations of Greek lamb stews, but instead the dish sometimes called ‶Greek lasagna.″ A baked casserole, pastitsio contains layers of tubular noodles, a meat sauce, and a cheese-laden béchamel. While the tomatoes in the meat sauce...Read More

Apple of concord: a Greek cake for autumn

Posted on September 29, 2020September 23, 2020 by Pat and David

We've always thought of apples as the quintessential New England fruit brought from Old England. But apples lie at the heart of some of the best of the ancient Greek stories. Gods and humans alike coveted the golden apples that Gaia presented to Hera and Zeus as a wedding present. They were said to confer immortality and promised immunity to hunger, thirst, and illness. To cause trouble, the goddess of discord (Eris) stole an apple, inscribed it ‶to the fairest,″ and lobbed the Apple of Discord into the wedding crowd. Goddesses scrambled for it, arguing to whom it should belong. Paris was drafted to decide. In the Judgment of Paris, he awarded it to Aphrodite, who in turn awarded him Helen of Troy. Cue the...Read More