Sides Recipes
Chana (Chick-pea) Blueberry Chaat
Chaat are sweet, sour, tangy, spicy, crunchy, Indian snacks served from food carts, roadside stalls, and restaurants. Recipes for chaat are numerous, but the basic elements are fairly consistent: a carbohydrate base, a vegetable, an umami element, a sauce, and a crunch. My thanks to London based, Angela Malik for the inspiration and permission to…
Barbara Tropp’s Tangy Cold Noodles
My friend, Barbara Tropp, left us all too soon. Barbara was a Princeton Chinese scholar studying Chinese poetry when she arrived in Taiwan in the 1970s. Her experience there transformed her into an avid taster and translator of Chinese cuisine. My copy of her 1982 cookbook, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking, is stained, marked, and worn….
Roasted Root Vegetables
Roasted root vegetables are so simple to prepare. They add a deep, earthy heartiness to a meal. The vegetables above graced our Thanksgiving table. I recommend them as a satisfying side for roasted meats, such as turkey, ham, or beef. Our vegetarians guests found them filling and comforting, too.
A Fast, Simple Way to Cook Corn on the Cob
My favorite way to cook corn on the cob? In the microwave! This technique could not be easier. Place your unhusked ear of corn in the microwave and cook it for two minutes per ear on high. That’s it! You can check if the corn is done by pulling back the husk to check if…
How to Cook an Artichoke
I have to thank my husband, David, for this entry. He’s the one who discovered this cooking method for artichokes. I came to love artichokes when I lived in Northern California. Artichokes can’t be grown just anywhere. They need certain soil and the right growing conditions. Those conditions exist in Southern Europe and, fortunately, in…
Simple Baked Winter Squash
This one is for Ronda. Nothing could be simpler than this recipe for baked winter squash. I used carnival, also called dumpling squash recently. (It’s the yellow and green squash on the upper left corner in the photo above.) I did so because the size of the squash was perfect for the amount of puree…
Mushroom Stuffing
My nephew, Sam, is a vegetarian. If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t have developed this recipe. As you know from my previous post, I’m a big fan of stuffing cooked inside the turkey. Of course, one can’t do that for a vegetarian stuffing, so I had to come up with one cooked outside the…
Fresh, Simple Zucchini with Mint
A gardener friend once said that if she were ever a castaway on a deserted island she would want to have a squash seed with her. One seed and she could grow a large vine and plenty of food! If you’ve ever grown zucchini in your garden you know what she meant. A healthy zucchini vine…
Ibu’s Curried Butternut Squash
A friend recently asked me for a recipe with pumpkin. Truth be told, I don’t cook with pumpkin that often. I use other winter or hard squashes more frequently. So I’m offering up this butternut squash recipe in lieu of a pumpkin recipe.