Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Not Your Usual Spinach Dip

Posted on by 16 comments

Dip into this spinach-walnut-dried mint dip.

When the champagne glasses start clinking on New Year’s Eve, you’ll want something tasty to go along with all of that bubbly.

But why settle for the same old spinach dip in a hollowed-out bread loaf when you can have this instead?

“Yogurt and Spinach Dip ‘Borani Esfanaaj’ in the Persian Manner” sure looks pretty, doesn’t it?

It’s also a bit more healthful than the old standby because it’s made with thick, creamy Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese or sour cream. You can make it with low-fat Greek yogurt, but it’s far more satisfying with the whole-milk version. If you insist on being virtuous (even on New Year’s Eve), use both — a tub of each. Just make sure you get some of the full-fat version in there.

The dip is by Shayma Owaise Saadat, a Toronto economist, whose recipe is featured in the new “The Food52 Cookbook” (William Morrow) of which I recently received a review copy. The book is by illustrious food writers, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, whom as you may now developed the Web site, Food52.com, which each week for 52 weeks ran recipe contests to find the best recipes from home cooks all over the country.

Read more

Nutty Brussels Sprouts

Posted on by 18 comments

For your Thanksgiving pleasure: Brussels sprouts with roasted chestnuts.

When the holiday table is groaning under the weight of heavy cream, loads of cheese, bountiful bacon, enormous hunks of meat and other heavy fare, a veggie side dish that’s simple — and simply adorned — always offers a welcome relief.

Such is the case with “Buttered Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts” from the new cookbook, “Holiday Dinners with Bradley Ogden” (Running Press), of which I recently received a review copy.

Ogden, co-founder of San Francisco’s Lark Creek Restaurant Group, offers up 150 recipes perfect for the big winter holidays.

This dish is beautiful to behold all on its own, what with the plump, whole chestnuts peeking through a bowl of green. Brussels sprouts are blanched, then put into an ice water bath to ensure their hue stays vivid, too. Then, they are tossed in a hot saute pan with chestnuts that have been roasted and shelled, as well as a knob of butter, and salt and pepper. That’s it.

Read more

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Inventive Take on Butternut Squash

Posted on by 17 comments

A drizzle of balsamic vinegar makes magic in this butternut squash dish.

Cutting up a hard winter squash like butternut can be a rather cumbersome chore.

But leave it to esteemed New York Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten to devise a dish that does away with that unwieldy step.

Vongerichten’s “Butternut Squash with Balsamic and Chile Panko Crumbs” is made by cooking a whole butternut squash in a big pot of boiling water until tender, about 45 minutes.

In this recipe from his newest cookbook, “Home Cooking with Jean-Georges” (Clarkson Potter), of which I recently received a review copy, he jokes that he came up with this surefire method one night when he was cooking at home, but wanted to watch a movie with his kids uninterrupted.

After all, Vongerichten’s flagship Jean Georges restaurant may be only one of six in the country to garner three Michelin stars, but this is also a chef who likes to cook and entertain at home. The book includes 100 recipes of family favorites that he likes to make at his country home in Waccabuc, New York. Think everything from “Portobello Parmesan Sandwiches with Rosemary Mayonnaise” to “Pork Chops with Cherry Mustard” to “Apricot Frangipane Tart.”

Read more

A Kale Salad To Stand the Test of Time

Posted on by 22 comments

A kale salad that won't wilt on your holiday table.

We all think we can multitask with ease.

We try to learn Spanish while sweating on the Stairmaster — and trying to write the great American novel in our head. We try to watch our favorite TV shows while balancing our checkbook — and knitting a sweater. And during the big holidays, we try to cook 10 dishes simultaneously from scratch that will all go on the table miraculously at once.

At times like that, there’s only one true salvation — kale.

Yes, the hardy green comes to the rescue when we’ve got just one too many cooking tasks to attend to.

In Melissa Clark’s “Raw Kale Salad with Anchovy-Date Dressing,” the veg is a lifesaver as it forms the basis of a salad that can sit quite happily on the table for hours without any worse for wear. It won’t get soggy like spring mix. It’s far more interesting than iceberg. And it actually gets tastier as the leaves start to wilt a little.

Read more

Easy Peasy

Posted on by 17 comments

This dish really is easy peasy.

Especially because I cheated by using frozen peas, which allows you to make this simple side salad any time of year.

“Sweet Green Peas & Feta” is from the new “Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors” (Chronicle Books) by Chef Erik Cosselmon and food writer Janet Fletcher, of which I recently received a review copy.

The famed San Francisco modern Greek restaurant, Kokkari, makes this dish only in spring, when fresh peas are at their sweet peak along California’s coast.

But I tried it with thawed, frozen peas with great success. It lets you skip the shelling and blanching of fresh peas, too, so that this dish comes together in a snap of the fingers.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »