Cookbooks make the best gifts, especially if you love to cook new recipes and learn more about cooking. My daughters have always gifted me cookbooks and they typically know my style and favorite chefs. They know, for example, that I am enamored with Gordon Ramsay. He’s an expert chef, has had many restaurants, holds many
Tag: butter
In my lifelong experience with chocolate mousse, thanks to my mother, two versions come to mind. One is thick and dense, almost like soft fudge. The other is like the first, but aerated with whipped cream or egg whites, or both. My preferred version is the dense one. I mean, if you’re going to eat
A Monte Cristo sandwich is a ham and cheese sandwich with a layer of strawberry jam, that is then egg-dipped and pan-fried in butter. The sweet and savory flavors, along with the melty cheese and crispy bread are heavenly. I’ve only had a Monte Cristo once, but I remember it well. My stepfather had come
Traditional Irish colcannon is a comforting and delicious potato mash that includes cabbage and green onions. There are many variations, however. This recipe takes basic colcannon, and modernizes it with some cream, more butter, and crispy leeks. According to Melissa Clark, from New York Times Cooking: “The fried leeks aren’t traditional: Usually, the alliums are
I love all forms of charcuterie, but I’m especially enamored with pâtés, terrines, and rillettes. It’s something about their rustic, picnic-like nature. On my sister-friend’s cooking blog a while back, I saw something I’d not made before – potted ham! I knew I’d love it. It’s a simple recipe, not much different than making rillettes.
By definition, truffles, the chocolate kind not the fungus, are made of chocolate and cream only. These I call truffle balls, which are a throwback to the rum balls of the 1950’s. I enjoy making truffle balls, because for one thing they’re way easier than real truffles. They’re also more “stable” and less temperamental, because
We have a new member of our family – our British son-in-law. My daughter and he have been at our home for Thanksgiving the last two years, but because of the pandemic, they won’t be back in 2020. In fact, they married in Brighton, England, and of course we couldn’t attend. My daughter said I
Doro Wat, which translates to chicken stew, is a traditional Ethiopian dish. It’s very simple to prepare, only require sautéing and poaching. But it must be made with the spice paste and the spice-infused butter to create the really unique flavors of Ethiopian cuisine. Unfortunately, I’ve never conquered the method for making injera – Ethiopian
Niter Kebbeh is a spice-infused butter. Along with berberé, niter kebbeh is an essential element of cooking Ethiopian cuisine. The recipe I use, and have for years, is from the Time-Life series called Foods of the World. I made this spiced butter after the lockdown in March. It’s typically made with butter, then clarified. I
Did I need another French cookbook? A resounding NO, but when I read about this one, Dinner in French by Melissa Clark, published in 2020, I knew I would love it. I love personal stories, so the introduction in this book was a great read. Ms. Clark tells the story about how her Great-Aunt Martha