Appetizers

Showing 44 Result(s)
Sesame-Buckwheat Noodles with Fresh Green Almonds
Appetizers Asian Pasta Salads Sauces & Condiments

Sesame-Buckwheat Noodles with Fresh Green Almonds

One of our favorite spring ingredients, fresh green almonds, are just that – green (as in “unripe”) almonds, picked while the nut is immature and still in the early stages of formation. Green almonds are available only in the spring, usually beginning in late March or early April, and can continue to be harvested into May. In the earliest stages of growth, the entire almond is eaten, fuzzy green outer hull and all. The flavor is surprising; tart, almost citrusy, somewhat reminiscent …

Farro, Wild Mushroom and Chestnut Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette
Appetizers Mushrooms Salads Wild Foods

Farro, Wild Mushroom and Chestnut Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

Farro, an ancient relative of modern wheat, was once called “pharaoh’s wheat,” since it’s been around since the pyramids were still under warranty. It’s kept its appeal across much of the world through the intervening centuries, especially in Italy and the Middle East, but it’s only caught on in North America relatively recently. Once considered rather exotic, delicious farro now pops up regularly on restaurant menus and can usually be found in well-provisioned grocery stores. Farro’s wholesome grain-like flavor makes …

Fresh Chanterelle Mushrooms
All Recipes Appetizers Breads & Baked Goods Cheese Mushrooms Sauces & Condiments

Chanterelle Confit

Confit: Anyone who has the vaguest interest in food and cooking has probably heard this word used (and misused) more than a few times. Many people, even experienced cooks, may be a little hazy about the meaning of the term.  Is it a dish or a cooking method?  Is it French or, heaven forbid, “fancy?”  Does it make you feel uncomfortable and ignorant when your food snob friends use it casually in conversation? Let’s see if we can clear up …

Grilled Sweet Cherry & Apricot Kebabs
Appetizers Desserts

Grilled Sweet Cherry and Apricot Kebabs

Is there anything finer, more perfect than a ripe, ruby-red cherry? Sure, we all love succulent strawberries, plump blueberries and juicy raspberries, but nothing can rival a cherry, that bright red summery globe so beloved of birds and small children. Cherries have a long and tangled relationship with mankind (you could say it’s “complicated”). Cherries, both sweet and tart, seem to have originated in Asia Minor, somewhere in the region between the Black and Caspian Seas. While they appear rather …

Pickled Ramp Bulbs
Appetizers Sauces & Condiments Wild Foods

Preserving the Wild Harvest: Quick Pickled Ramp (Wild Leek) Bulbs

Ramps (or wild leeks as they’re also known), are a wild-growing member of the onion family that have become one of America’s most popular “rediscovered” folk foods. Of course, ramps have never really been forgotten or gone out of style in their heartland, a broad swath of eastern North America stretching from southern Appalachia, west to the Great Lakes region and north into southern Canada. Spring is the season for ramps, beginning in mid-March in their southern range and ending …

Appetizers Potatoes

Crispy Truffled “Smashed” Potatoes

  This simple & delicious recipe for crispy roasted potatoes with truffle oil is guaranteed to be a “smash” hit. Kids and grownups alike will find them just as fun to make as they are to eat. With only 4 ingredients and a few easy steps, they’re perfect for a weeknight dinner, but dress them up with a dollop of sour cream and a pinch of chives (maybe even some caviar) and they’ll be the life of any party. A …

Grilled Artichokes with Morel-Date Butter
Appetizers Mushrooms Sauces & Condiments Vegetables Wild Foods

Grilled Artichokes with Morel-Date Butter

From now on, whenever we cook artichokes, we’ll be finishing them on the grill. A quick trip to the grill transforms the prickly domesticated relative of the thistle into something altogether more subtle and flavorful, with a deep smokey intensity that soars above the simple steamed version. Grilled artichokes are easier to eat, too. Once the artichoke has been steamed, it’s a simple matter to quarter it and pull out the fuzzy inedible “choke” and inner leaves. After grilling, just …

Hungarian Cherry Soup
Appetizers Salads Soups & Stews

Cherries Tart, Cherries Sweet: Two Refreshing Summertime Recipes for Cherry Lovers

Cherries are the fruit of summer.  First to appear are sweet cherries, large crisp globes of juicy flesh, perfect for eating fresh by the handful.  A few weeks later, tart (or sour) cherries arrive, bringing with them a frenzy of pie-baking, canning and freezing.  There are literally dozens (perhaps hundreds) of cultivars of both sweet and tart cherries, many well-known, others grown only in the small towns and hamlets where they’ve been nurtured in obscurity for centuries. Tart cherries are …

Pan-Fried Bread & Sausage with Garlic, Tapas Style II
Appetizers Meat

Pan-Fried Bread & Sausage with Garlic, Tapas Style

In Spain, appetizers are taken very seriously. Spanish tapas, the ubiquitous small plates found in every taverna and dining place, are numerous and varied. With literally hundreds of variations, Spanish tapas are colorful and robustly flavored, full of the bright and bold tastes of the sun-drenched countryside. Like most Spanish tapas recipes, Pan-Fried Bread & Sausage with Garlic uses just a handful of ingredients, each with a bold flavor that stands on its own, yet harmonizes perfectly with the others. This simple, …

Appetizers Tips and Techniques Vegetables

Roasting Fresh Chestnuts (Open Fire Not Required)

  Everybody knows that song about “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” right?  Well, if you have a special chestnut pan you really can roast them over an open fire. Your chestnut pan will have holes in the bottom and a long handle so that you can hold it over an open fire at a comfortable distance. Don’t have a chestnut pan?  Not to worry – you can still easily and successfully roast fresh chestnuts, with no open fire required! There are …