Tag: Food & Dining

Strawberry Beet Salad With Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing Is a Must This Season

Let me start by saying that I’m not a beet-lover. At all. I don’t know what came over me when I first started thinking about this salad, but it probably had something to do with it being midwinter in New York, when the most color you get to enjoy is blue sky, if you’re lucky,…


Eat Your Greens, the Greek Way

In Greece, eating horta is a way of life. Though their name may literally translate to “weeds,” these wild edibles are considered far from that—they’re valuable delicacies. Horta is a generic name given to a vast variety of wild greens; some 300 edible species grow here, according to Greek and Mediterranean cuisine expert Diane Kochilas….


Homemade Hoisin Sauce Is a One-Pot Wonder

Have you ever looked at the back of a bottle of hoisin sauce? There are a lot of ingredients in it, some of which I’d rather avoid, which is why I prefer to make my own. Hoisin sauce is typically added to stir-fries and soups, and sometimes it’s drizzled over steamed Asian greens like bok…


The Comforts of Congee, However You Cook It

A hard cocktail of rain, wind, and snowflakes assaulted the farmers market last week. It was the kind of prolonged spring squall that has to make a farmer—more of whom showed up than shoppers—question his or her career choices. The only thing that sold out was coffee, because everyone’s hands were cold. A vat of…


Rosé by Any Other Name

My friend operated a retail wine shop. And he was incredulous. It was 1983, and I had just written a wine column praising dry pink wines as a revelation, calling them a great compromise when two diners are having radically different foods, and a great wine to cool off with. When a red wine doesn’t…


It’s OK to Slurp Your Vegetables

When spring and summer bring warm days, I keep our meals light and garden-fresh with a minimum of cooking. Cold soups, abundant salads, tapas, and antipasti are elevated to dinner course level, providing simple and refreshing nourishment, while greedily taking advantage of the farmers market bounty. The trick to eating this fresh is to provide…


The Family Table: Norwegian Pancakes, a Treat for National Day and Beyond

Submitted by Charlotte Christiansen McDonald, Salt Lake City, Utah As the fourth child of first-generation, American-born Norwegians, my siblings and I do a lot of celebrating with traditional Norwegian foods from both southern and northern Norway, especially during Christmas: lutefisk and boiled potatoes, salmon, rice cream, and a variety of cookies. The most beloved food, often made…


From Chocolate to Chicken Nuggets, a Bite-Size History of Favorite Kid Foods

Legend: Genghis Khan came up with an early concept for hamburgers that involved tenderizing meat scraps under the saddles of horses as his Golden Horde ransacked its way to China back in the 13th century. Fact: Nobody knows for sure who first came up with putting beef patties between bread. Such bite-size anecdotes are among…


This Soup Is a Blank Canvas for Practicing Your Garnishing Skills

Sometimes, the simpler the recipe, the easier it is to overcomplicate it. Case in point: carrot-ginger soup, whose flavors often get elbowed out with the addition of other vegetables, fruits, or excessive dairy. But this simple, creamy, pared-down version is velvety-smooth with clean carrot flavor and subtle ginger background notes. Carrots are a long-lasting pantry…


Fresh Peas, a Sweet Springtime Treat

Sweet garden peas always make me smile. There is something about their prettiness and sweetness that is just so charming. Also known as English peas or shelling peas, they are great for all sorts of recipes: stirred into pastas, stews, or risottos; made into dips or spreads for crostini; mixed with eggs in omelets and…