Fills 10 standard silicone muffin liners or pour into 8×8 baking dish It’s wiggly. It’s jiggly. And it’s in your drink. Jellooooo for adults. You can thank Japan for their love of mixing textures – there’s nothing quite like slurping up jello squares into a round straw, along with a bit of milk. Gulp. Slurp. Chew. Note: If you substitute hot cocoa for the coffee, you won’t need the sugar as long as your mix is sweetened. Ingredients: For the jello: 1 1/2 cups hot, fresh brewed espresso (or coffee, or hot cocoa mix) 1/2 cup cold water 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin 1/3 cup sugar, or to taste (not needed if you use sweetened hot cocoa) For the drink: chilled, evaporated milk, to taste extra wide straws Method: First, dissolve gelatin powder over cold water. The water will thicken up into goup. Then, stir that goup and the sugar into freshly brewed (hot) espresso or coffee. Whisk until totally combined. Pour everything into mold(s) and refrigerate until set. A few hours is usually good. To rock out Japanese style, …
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Makes 6 rolls (on 1/2 sheet nori seeweed) – serves 2 Do you have a yearning to be creative? An artist? Do you want to release your imagination into the wild? Are you also hungry? The answer is sushi. While sushi making is an art that requires years of training to master, everyone can play the game. It’s like I tell my husband – you don’t have to be Michelangelo to paint a personal masterpiece. Similarly, you don’t have to be a sushi chef to fill your belly with satisfying sushi. Today we’re tackling futomaki. Futomaki is a large sushi roll, typically filled with vegetables and/or cooked fish. I thought this was a good place to start for those of us who don’t have refrigerated work spaces for handling raw fish. After all, let’s be honest. This is all about fun. Not tummy troubles. So let’s get our art on and make some sushi. Once you get the hang of it, I highly suggest having a sushi themed small dinner party. It’s super sushi fun. Here’s what you …
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Serves 4 There’s no way around it. Jerk chicken is supposed to be blacker than a starry night – and more sizzlin’ than that smokin’ hot hotty you wake up to every morning (Hi, Keith!). Typically cooked in a barrel smoker, Jerk gets it’s distinctive flavor and color from low, slow cooking over smouldering all spice wood. The long cooking time gets the jerk seasoning extremely caramelized. Now, for those of you who want to go all out, you can easily get your meat much darker than mine (and spicier), by basting the chicken with extra jerk seasoning as it cooks. I had a toddler to feed, so I kept it a little lighter. Ingredients: 1/2-1 recipe Jerk Seasoning 4 lbs chicken legs and wings, or other dark meat For smoking: 1/2 cup whole allspice hickory wood chips, as needed OR Allspice wood chips, as needed Method: So exactly how black is Jerk chicken supposed to be? Blacker than Jamaica’s Black River. (and tastier, too) To get the most flavor, marinate the chicken pieces for …
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Makes one large trifle (Serves at least 8) Your day was hard. Maybe you have a party coming up. Or you are out of ice cream. Perhaps your favorite DVD got scratched. Or your 20 lb cat left a 1lb hairball on your favorite sweater. I have the answer for everything: make tiramisu. Trust me. After a hard day, tiramisu is easy. It’s the perfect dessert for fancy parties and casual parties. Plus, you won’t ever crave ice cream again. Well… not while tiramisu is hanging out in your fridge. After one taste, you’ll be so in love that you won’t care about the DVD or the sweater. It’s just stuff, after all. Tiramisu, however, is glory on a spoon. Glory that you can scoop up at midnight, when no one is looking. Plus I have a few little secrets that’ll make it the prettiest tiramisu you’ve ever seen (or tasted). NOTE: Please start this recipe the night before you need it. Also, you can make caster sugar (aka fine sugar) by putting some in a …
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Makes enough filling for at least 150 standard ravioli I have fond memories of curling up on the basement stairs, hanging over the railing, watching my great-great, very distant I’m-not-quite-sure-how-we’re-related cousin, Alfred, make ravioli. I’ll never forget the way the ravioli rolling pin zipped out dozens of ravioli in a heartbeat. Alfred lived to 103 and I attribute that partly to the fact that he continued making ravioli two-three times a year, well into his nineties. He’d make a few hundred at a time, spreading out the work over several days (you can read his letter below to see exactly what he did). Here’s my recommendation: Day one: Eat pork chops for dinner. Save leftovers. Day two: Make the dough and filling. Refrigerate. Day three: Roll the dough and make the ravioli. Dry overnight, turning once. Day four: Freeze. Ingredients: 3 bone-in pork chops, grilled and cooled 1 lb frozen chopped spinach, defrosted 4 large eggs 1 cup plain breadcrumbs 1 cup Parmesan 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp pepper 1/4 cup whole milk 1/4 cup …
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Serves 6 Take a look around you. I mean really, really look around. Every little thing – that weathered window sill, the sparkly vase, even that fuzzy gray pillow – they can all be your inspiration. Your muse. The catalyst to the next great idea. Take this Persian Sour Cherry Rice, for example. When I look at this masterpiece in form and taste – I can’t help but wonder what inspired someone to create such a dish. Who was the clever soul that first made this tower of deliciousness infused with cinnamon, nutmeg – punctuated by soft pistachio nuggets, sour cherries and sweet caramelized onion? What were they looking at that sparked the idea? There had to be something. Let’s see if we can make some guesses… Recipe adapted from The Silk Road Gourmet by Laura Kelley. You can find more recipes and fascinating history on her blog Silk Road Gourmet. Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups uncooked basmati rice 2 Tbsp butter (or vegetable oil/vegan butter) 1 medium onion, sliced 1 tsp gr0und cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg salt …
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Makes 1 block of cheese Cheese lovers, come closer. I have a secret to tell you. I never thought I’d be able to do this. I thought it would be hard. I thought I’d just waste a bunch of milk. I didn’t. The truth is, the only thing standing between you and great cheese is a half gallon of milk, salt, and a little lemon juice. That’s pretty ridiculous. And empowering. Trust me. If you’ve never made homemade cheese before, you’ll delight in the simplicity of Indian Paneer. And it just might make you feel better if you’re having a rough day. Ingredients: 2 quarts (8 cups) whole milk 1 1/2 tsp salt 4 Tbsp strained lemon juice Cheesecloth Method: Every once in a while life gets frustrating. Everything just… drags. Like you have too much on your shoulders. Maybe you feel a little bit lonely. Maybe you’re bored. Or maybe you’re just hungry. It’s hard to know for sure, sometimes. On days like this it’s nice to take a stroll in the desert – to …
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So you feel like something unsual for lunch… but you just don’t feel like you’re up to Iceland’s famed putrefied shark flesh called Hákarl? You know… the dish made up of poisonous shark flesh that’s been fermented and hung to dry so that it’s no longer poisonous? The one that was traditionally buried and exposed to several freeze/thaw cycles until naturally fermented? The one that tastes like cheesy ammonia? Yeah. Let’s try something simpler. A little more tame. Perhaps something you could bake with? How about rhubarb “raisins”? This is one of those ingenious, resourceful Icelandic dishes that anyone can make at home. All you need is a very hot day (95-100F), or a barely warm oven (150F). Chop up a pile of rhubarb and set it out in the sun (or in the oven), until dried up and shriveled. If you leave it outside, you might cover it lightly with a thin cloth to keep dust and gunk away. Once the rhubarb dries up, pack it in sugar until needed. They get really small, so …
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Makes 2 quarts There’s an old Icelandic saying: “Even though you are small, you can still be clever.” Teeny weenie blueberries, fresh from the bush may be small, but they make the most adorable and extraordinary purple ice cream. And, as you drown in bite after bite of cold, sweet, glorious goodness, you also consume a quarter ton of antioxidants. Clever, indeed. So, churn up a batch. Stick around to watch as it freezes in the belly of your ice cream maker – you’ll be all smiles as the violet blue blends with the rich cream and sweetened by a light touch of sugar and cardamom. Make ice cream. Let joy overwhelm you – become a child, yet again. I’m honored that this recipe was featured in Penzy’s Spices’ 2012 early summer catalog. Ingredients: 2 cups blueberries 1 Tbsp water 1/2 tsp fresh, crushed cardamom (the seeds of about 15-20 pods) 2/3 cup sugar 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup milk Method: Ah, blueberries. There’s no quicker way to revive the inner child. Especially when the winter …
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Stars poke holes in the black sky. Crickets chirp. A campfire crackles. A few dear friends sit in a circle, chattering. They laugh until they cry and cry until they laugh. And, since they’re Hungarian, they’re holding bacon. Giant cubes of bacon. On sticks. Welcome to Hungarian summer. Campfire bacon kabobs, a.k.a. Gypsy Bacon (Cigany Szalonna) are an integral part of any Hungarian barbecue. In Planet Barbecue Steven Raichlen states: There once was a time – perhaps it’s true still – when Hungary had the highest per capita calorie intake of any country in Europe. Lard and Goose fat undoubtedly helped Hungary achieve this distinction, but the real culprit was […] grilled bacon. Now I know why mom and brother, Damien, always loved to “chew the fat” – literally. Our Hungarian roots all but require it. Here’s how it works: 1. Buy the biggest piece of rind-on slab bacon you can find. Unsliced. I had to call about 5 butchers before I found it at Perry’s in Tulsa. Even then, they tried to slice it up …
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Serves 4 Hello. I realize it’s summer, but let’s shut our eyes for a moment and daydream about winter. In Guyana. Are you ready for Christmas? Shall we deck the halls? (do people really do that?). Ready or not, today’s recipe is going to take you to December 25th, Guyanese-style. Read this: The kids got their little presents, got their pictures taken on my lap, and everyone ate fried rice, chow mein, and chicken curry. You know, traditional Christmas food. From Mark Hejinian’s travel blog Guyanese Mark My first reaction? I want to spend Christmas in Guyana. Immediately. It doesn’t help that it’s a zillion degrees here, but a nice cool winter day would be welcome right about now. And that menu? Yes, yes, yes. So let’s dig into what this dish is all about. While Chow Mein might sound like a stretch for the South American dinner table, Guyanese love this dish with a passion. It’s not a straight up copycat operation, however – they add plenty of unique touches, to make Chow Mein …
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