Last weekend, I hosted a wedding. The bride, of Mexican heritage, wanted food reminiscent of her childhood. The groom, a meat and potatoes kind of man, has milder tastes in food. As I was in charge of the kitchen, I opted for a happy medium that was gluten and dairy-free, without being obviously so, and … Continued
OK, by now, you’re probably thinking, “enough travel photos already, Stormy! Let’s get back to the food.” Well, I have a recipe for you. It’s not my own. But it is pretty delicious and inspired by the Sichuan peppers I ran across in China. Sichuan peppers, if you haven’t had them, are an interesting experience. … Continued
The last place I expected to find a good recipe for Cochinita Pibil, was in the comments of an English-language website that recaps Spanish-language telenovelas. If you’re asking yourself how I wound up reading the comments on that site, I have both an easy and a more complicated answer for you. The easy answer is … Continued
My grandpa Carlos was quite the hipster in his day. He owned a nightclub called El Matador, drove a corvette, and loved his bling. Of course, this came later in life – after years of working hard for others. Less flashy, more family, he was also the cook in the house. Two of the recipes … Continued
Deconstruct: To break something down into its component parts. For a recipe, this means looking at the recipe and determining the essential ingredients – the ones that make the dish unique, satisfying, and flavorful. Deconstruction is one of my favorite ways to reinvent a dish when I want to experience its flavors AND tailor the … Continued
Cubes of pork shoulder marinated over-night in milk and quartered oranges. A 5-gallon pot with pounds of lard and the pork chunks heated to the brink of boiling, and stirred every so often by a 3-foot, home-made wooden paddle. Pork that is extremely tender, has a slight crisp to the outside, and can easily broken … Continued
Beets, broccoli and garlic bulbs (cloves, really)…some of my favorite vegetables. I don’t know why it took a dearth of fridge contents for me to realize that the three vegetables I had could be cooked up together for a perfectly delicious dish to accompany some smoky, pan-fried pork loin chops!
I finished Nicole Mones’ The Last Chinese Chef last week. Two ideas, in particular, from the book struck me. The first, the idea of simplicity – how simple food nurtures and comforts us. The second, is the relationship that food creates between cook and eater, and how that relationship can delight both. To celebrate these ideas, I’ve prepared a simple meal of delicious ingredients that I hope will delight you and those who eat with you. Enjoy.
This is a salad for the meat-and-potatoes folks in your life. It is rich, hearty, and great for a cool fall evening. Not much fanfare here, just good eats.
Tomorrow is another Iron Chef night. The ingredient: garlic. I have no idea what the complete meal will entail, but we are preparing the entrée. With vegetarians and omnivores and food-sensitive folks in attendance, we opted for a garlic and parsley pork roulade with a balsamic glaze, and a roasted garlic and baby bella risotto – which I’ll get to in another post.
