My blogger friend Stefan, of the blog Stefan Gourmet, has been help and inspiration to me for years. And I even got the chance to meet him in person, so I feel a special connection with him. He’s an expert cook, loves to experiment, and he was my original resource for cooking sous vide. His
Tag: white wine
Recently I was browsing through a little cookbook I’d been gifted, Risotto, published by Williams-Sonoma. It’s a sweet, unassuming cookbook, only 119 pages, published in 2002. The first chapter covers classic risottos, and following chapters discuss vegetable, meat, seafood, and even dessert risottos. It’s a great cookbook, especially if you’re a risotto virgin. For me,
When I prepare meat, it’s usually for my husband. I don’t dislike meat, I just prefer avocados, and fish. I even eat tofu. On a special occasion I will certainly enjoy a good filet with my guy, but it’s just too heavy for me. So this lovely spring risotto with peas and a little bacon
Risotto is one of my favorite dishes to make because, like polenta, it can be made so many different ways depending what you put into it. Basically, it’s a rice dish, but made with a special starchy rice that creates a creaminess when cooked the proper way. Today I wanted to make a risotto using
I think my husband could live on risotto alone. Well, steak and risotto. So I make risotto often, creating different varieties to keep life interesting. It’s the kind of cooking I like to do, in any case, like when I made a Thai-inspired risotto a while back. My Italian ancestors are probably rolling in their
A while back when I made cabbage bundles, I only used 12 of the larger, outside leaves of the one green cabbage I purchased. And there was no way I was going to throw away the rest of the par-boiled cabbage. So what to do? Even though it’s January, I’m still in a festive mood.
You all know by now that I love vinaigrettes, and I always make them with different ingredients. To me, it’s really fun to mix and match seasonal ingredients and flavors in pairing a salad with a vinaigrette. Whenever I purchase canned beets, which happens when I run out of my own pickled beets, I always
In yesterday’s post on fruited duck breasts, I mentioned that I served them with a “fruited” sauce. After completing the duck breasts and the sauce, there was just too much information and too many photos for a single post. So here is the sauce I made for the duck breasts, using dried fruit. This sauce
The French really know how to do vegetables. So do the Chinese, for that matter, but today I’m making peas inspired by a French recipe I’ve made over the years. The recipe is essentially braised peas, but lettuce is included. I wish I knew the origin of using lettuce because it does seem a little
Most people who know me would be surprised to know that I have never cooked with chestnuts, or even had roasted chestnuts sold to me by a street vendor during the holidays. You know, like the song. Chestnuts have always seemed a little strange to me, even though they grow on trees just like the