Grilled pepper and wild chanterelle salad
Appetizers Mushrooms Salads Wild Foods

Grilled Pepper & Chanterelle Mushroom Salad

  This rather unusual salad is one of those dishes that comes together quite naturally in the early fall. The first frost has not yet arrived and while nights are cool, the days are still sunny and warm. Colder weather is just around the corner though. Days are growing shorter and backyard gardens are winding down, yielding the last few sweet, sun-ripened peppers of the season. But while tame, cultivated crops are ending, wild mushrooms are exuberantly bursting forth from …

Korean Seafood Jjigae
Asian Seafood Soups & Stews

Warm Up with Spicy Seafood Jjigae, Hearty Korean-style Seafood Stew

  Think of this savory stew as a sort of spicy Korean bouillabaisse. It’s based on the kind of traditional, home-style soup that’s a staple in Korean households. We’ve perhaps taken a few liberties with the ingredients, but we’d like to think that our version is still true to the spirit of the original recipe. This is the kind of warming soup that’s just the ticket for a cold, raw & rainy afternoon. It’s also a soup that’s perfect for …

Patatas Bravas in Dish
Appetizers Potatoes

Patatas Bravas, Bold & Spicy Tapas

fo Tapas, the popular Spanish snacks or appetizers, come in many forms. Often simple, occasionally complicated, served both hot and cold, over the centuries tapas have evolved into an integral part of Spain’s sophisticated cuisine and culture. Tapas are frequently strongly seasoned with such ingredients as garlic, chili pepper and good Spanish olive oil. Patatas Bravas, meaning “bold or ferocious potatoes,” is just such a dish. The name may not refer to the potatoes themselves, but to the fact that it takes …

Wild Mushroom and Fava Crostini
Appetizers Mushrooms Wild Foods

Wild Mushroom & Fava Bean Crostini

Wild mushrooms and fava beans are the perfect combination of forest and field, robustly earthy and delicately sweet at the same time. This dish offers some of the best that the late summer harvest has to offer, flavors so good and so satisfying that it’s worth a little extra effort. These elegant crostini are equally well-suited to a casual dinner party, a light lunch or a healthy between-meal snack. While there are several steps involved in making them, they’re not difficult to prepare, and to make …

Shishito Pepper Tempura
Appetizers Asian Cheese Eggs Any Style Sauces & Condiments Vegetables

Four Things to Do with Super-cool Shishito Peppers

They’ve been popping up on appetizer menus of trendy restaurants for a while, but tiny, tasty shishito peppers have fully entered the mainstream and are now seen frequently at farmer’s markets and grocery stores around the country. Shishito peppers are a favorite snack food in Japan, where this thin-skinned mild breed of pepper was developed. While similar to the Spanish Padrone, the shishito has a distinctive flavor and appearance all its own. The slender, finger-sized peppers are bright green in …

Balaton Cherry Mousse
Desserts

Balaton Cherry Mousse

Mousse! Lighter than pudding, airier than ice cream… certainly nothing like jello. Mousse has a reputation as a complicated, rich and decadent indulgence for special occasions. While our recipe for Balaton cherry mousse is something of an indulgence and does make any occasion special, it’s not really that complicated. Yes, there are several steps involved, but none of them are especially difficult, and with some practice and a little organization, this wonderfully summery dessert can take less than 45 minutes …

Grilling Ahi Tuna
Asian Sauces & Condiments Seafood

Grilled Ahi Tuna with Yuzu Kosho-Miso Glaze

Until very recently, many classic Asian ingredients were practically unknown to Western cooks. That’s all changed now, with cutting-edge chefs introducing exotic flavors to an eager audience. Now the curtain has been pulled aside and some, at least, of the secret ingredients used in their culinary wizardry have been revealed.  One of these is yuzu kosho. Yuzu kosho, a traditional condiment with an amazing 1-2-3 punch, comes from the southeastern corner of Japan. Originating in Kyushu prefecture (hence the name kosho), …

Poultry

Grilled Balsamic Chicken Wings

  The genius of this recipe lies in its simplicity. There are really only two important ingredients here: chicken wings and balsamic vinegar. There are a couple of caveats, however: first, use fresh, not frozen, chicken wings. We’ve tried both and there is a noticeable difference. Second, use a good quality balsamic vinegar – an authentic balsamic from Italy, not a cheap, bargain-aisle imitation. A six year old balsamic is perfect; anything fancier would be wasted. Our favorite is a …

Grilled Salmon with Black Beluga Lentil & Mushroom Salad Featured
Mushrooms Salads Seafood Vegetables

Grilled Salmon with Black Lentil & Mushroom Salad

As deeply colored and glossy as black pearls, tiny uncooked black lentils have a flavor that is earthy, nutty and satisfying. Black lentils are very like lentilles du Puy, also known as French green lentils. Both varieties differ from common brown or green lentils in significant ways. Black and green lentils take less time to cook and they both hold their lens-like shape better, making them perfect for salads and side dishes (although they’re both wonderful in soups, too). Black lentils …

Truffled Brie with fresh summer truffles
Appetizers Cheese Wild Foods

Truffled Brie

There is nothing more elegant than a snowy-white wedge of creamy, savory Brie, the famed soft cheese named for the French region where it originated – unless it’s brie layered with paper-thin shavings of fresh truffles. Brie’s remarkable journey from milk to plate begins with a unique process, including an inoculation with a special cheese mold, a critical step in producing brie’s distinctive flavor and signature white “bloomy” rind. The rind (yes, it IS meant to be eaten) has a mild, faintly mushroom-like …