Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

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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A Lazy Way — And A Good Way with Tomatoes

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There's a time and place for stuffed tomatoes. And there's an even greater time for "unstuffed'' ones.
There’s a time and place for stuffed tomatoes. And there’s an even greater time for “unstuffed” ones.

There are times when I am up for a challenge, for those recipes that are as long as a chapter in a novel, made with ingredients that take me four trips to as many different grocery stores, and that leave me spent but gratified when I sit down at the table to enjoy them.

Granted, those times are rare.

More likely, as with so many of you, I gravitate to recipes that are not only quick and easy, but let’s face it, take the lazy approach.

Because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

For example, I’ve made Julia Child’s classic “Stuffed Tomatoes Provencal,” and they were fantastic.

But when I came across Laura Vitale’s “Baked ‘Unstuffed’ Tomatoes,” the loafer in me immediately latched on to it.

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Michael Symon’s Grilled Pork Steaks with the Surprise of Dr. Pepper Barbecue Sauce

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Juicy and so very tender, these bountiful pork butt steaks get glazed with a Dr. Pepper -- yes! -- cherry barbecue sauce.
Juicy and so very tender, these bountiful pork butt steaks get glazed with a Dr. Pepper — yes! — cherry barbecue sauce.

Have you ever held a succulent rib between your fingers, then bitten into a taste of sweet-savory, marvelously yielding meat, only to wish there was more left on the bone to enjoy?

You get exactly that with Chef Michael Symon’s “Slow-Grilled Pork Butt Steaks with Cherry BBQ Sauce.”

It has the taste and tenderness of your favorite smoked ribs — but in the much more substantial form of pork butt or shoulder steaks that are meaty and beyond.

Best yet, they get glazed and served with a thick, fruity, savory and slightly spicy barbecue sauce made with not only fresh or frozen cherries but also a can of Dr. Pepper. Yes, you read that right.

The recipe is from his newest cookbook, “Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy.

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