Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Welcome Fall With Cornish Game Hen Dijonnaise

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Turn on the oven to warm up the house -- and to enjoy this fantastic Cornish game hen dish.
Turn on the oven to warm up the house — and to enjoy this fantastic Cornish game hen dish.

Summer has turned to fall as fast as the click of an on-off switch.

That means retiring the A/C, and turning on the oven instead without guilt to warm things up.

“Cornish Game Hen Dijonnaise” is a worthy dish to mark that transition.

A succulent dish that roasts in the oven and creates its own lusty sauce in the process, this recipe is from “Feasts on the Farm” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Tamara Jo Hicks, owner of Toluma Farms in west Marin County, and Jessica Lynn MacLeod, a longtime volunteer there who developed the recipes.

Hicks and her husband bought the 160-acre farm in 2003, restoring the land to raise goats and sheep. In 2013, they began making their own farmstead cheeses under the label of Tomales Farmstead Creamery.

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Zeroing In On the Last Days of Local Zucchini

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Chewy, hearty bulgur is the foundation for this zucchini and pea pilaf.
Chewy, hearty bulgur is the foundation for this zucchini and pea pilaf.

Have a few zucchini still languishing in your fridge or lingering in your backyard garden?

Then, the time is now to enjoy “Zucchini, Pea, and Bulgur Pilaf.”

Because it makes use of frozen peas, and can be served at room temperature or chilled, it’s versatile enough to make most any time.

The recipe is from “Sabzi” (W.W. Norton), of which I received a review copy.

This collection of vegetarian recipes is by Yasmin Khan, a British food and travel writer, and human rights activist.

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Get to Know Egg Tofu

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Crispy and custardy egg tofu with chili and honey.
Crispy and custardy egg tofu with chili and honey.

Kristina Cho says that she loves introducing people to egg tofu. Count me in as a new convert who is ever grateful to her now that I’ve made the acquaintance.

While tofu is made by coagulating soy milk, egg tofu is made with a blend of soy milk and eggs that gets steamed. Because of the eggs, it has a more yellow color. What I really fell for is the texture. It is slightly firmer than silken tofu and possesses a wonderful custardy quality. In fact, it reminds me very much of Japanese chawanmushi.

Find it in tube shape like slice-and-bake cookie dough in the refrigerator case of Chinese or Asian markets, beside the usual blocks of tofu.

Cho’s “Seared Egg Tofu with Honey and Soy” is an ideal way to try it, too.

The recipe is from her cookbook, “Chinese Enough” (Artisan, 2024), of which I received a review copy.

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Crunchy and Creamy Thai-Inspired Broccoli Salad

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Broccoli salad gets a lift from plenty of lime juice and creaminess from tahini.
Broccoli salad gets a lift from plenty of lime juice and creaminess from tahini.

With a newly opened jar in my fridge, I’ve been on a tahini kick of late.

So, when a review copy of the new cookbook, “Sesame: Global Recipes & Stories of An Ancient Seed” (Ten Speed Press), landed in my mailbox, the timing was perfect.

The book was written by Rachel Simons, the founder of Seed+Mill, the first store in the United States that’s devoted to sesame products. Its tahini (ground sesame paste) and halva (fudge-like candy made from sesame paste) are used by top chefs and carried in more than 1,700 stores, including Whole Foods and Sprouts.

Sesame seeds have been cultivated for as long as 5,500 years on the Indian subcontinent to make seed oil, Simons writes. With their naturally sweet nutty taste, they’ve also been strewn over bread in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in Turkey, Jerusalem, Canada and China.

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Wake Up and Smell the Coffee — On Fish

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Dinner is ready in a flash with grilled branzino coated in a delectable coffee rub.
Dinner is ready in a flash with grilled branzino coated in a delectable coffee rub.

When it comes to coffee, I am a one-cup-in-the-morning kind of gal.

Oh sure, there’s the occasional scoop of coffee ice cream or espresso-flavored tiramisu at the end of the evening. And even maybe some coffee-infused barbecue sauce now and then on smoked pork or chicken.

But coffee on fish?

Say what?

Having tried it now, I swear by it.

By happenstance, I came across a recipe in the New York Times for “Coffee-Rubbed Grilled Fish” when I was planning to grill a couple of branzino for dinner.

Coffee on fish? You bet!
Coffee on fish? You bet!

It’s a recipe from Oregon home-cook Rashad Frazier that was adapted by cookbook author and food writer Nicole Taylor. It was pegged as a Kwanzaa dish, but it will turn any day you serve it into a celebration.

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