Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Salt and Pepper Tater Tots — A Guilty Pleasure If There Ever Was One

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Salt and pepper tater tots are sure to be your new guilty pleasure.
Salt and pepper tater tots are sure to be your new guilty pleasure.

If you had told me that one day I’d be stir-frying tater tots, I would have called you “crazy.”

But crazy can be mighty good.

And these sure are.

Put your disbelief aside, do yourself a favor, and make these “Salt and Pepper Tater Tots.”

If you’ve ever enjoyed the warm aromatics of Chinese salt and pepper shrimp or salt and pepper spare ribs, then you know the taste sensation you are in for.

This delightful recipe is from “Tenderheart” (Alfred A. Knopf), of which I received a review copy.

It’s the newest cookbook by Hetty Lui McKinnon, the gifted Chinese Australian cook and food writer who now lives in Brooklyn. She’s also the publisher of the multicultural food journal, Peddler, as well as host of its podcast, The House Specials.

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Lollipops For Pops on Father’s Day

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Lollipops of a different sort for Father's Day.
Lollipops of a different sort for Father’s Day.

My dad was a sucker for See’s Candies of any kind or shape.

For Father’s Day, we’d often present him with a big See’s box, which he’d tear into eagerly — even way before dinner.

I have a hunch, though, that my dad would have also gone gangbusters over these lollipops of a different sort.

That’s because he also loved lamb. Most often, he’d turn cubes into stew with loads of carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes cut into large chunks to stretch out the meal for our family of five.

A lamb rib rack, with its higher price tag, wasn’t something he’d pick up at the store. But when I cooked up these “Vindaloo-Spiced Lamb Lollipops,” I couldn’t help picturing him smacking his lips over them.

Smoky from the grill, juicy and tender from a vibrant marinade, they’re redolent of cumin, one of the staple spices in the curry lamb stew he’d often make in winter.

This aromatic and complex tasting dish comes from the cookbook, “Chiles and Smoke” (Quartz Publishing Group/Harvard Common Press), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by pit master Brad Prose, founder of the recipe site Chiles and Smoke. As the name implies, the book is all about grilling recipes featuring an array of chiles. That doesn’t mean necessarily mean they will scorch your palate. The chiles are used judiciously. Plus, you can always decrease the amount used, if you like.

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Pantry Cooking Goes Gourmet With Porcini and Cream Sauce Pasta

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A restaurant-worthy dish that takes only minutes to make.
A restaurant-worthy dish that takes only minutes to make.

Wild porcinis have a short season and a hefty price tag.

But dried ones keep for ages, and are much more affordable especially because their concentrated flavor makes a little go a long way.

That’s why I love this recipe for “Porcini and Cream Pasta Sauce.”

You just combine items in your pantry and fridge to create a thoroughly restaurant-worthy dish.

The recipe is from “The Italian Cooking Course: (Kyle Books, 2022), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi, wife-and-husband owners of two eponymous restaurants in England.

This hefty 512-page cookbook, geared toward both novice and more accomplished cooks, shows you how to make all manner of fresh pasta, even ones colored with cuttlefish ink, tomato paste or beets, as well as how to roll, cut, and form various shapes.

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Mixing It Up with Edamame Herb Hummus

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Swap out the usual chickpeas for edamame in this delicious and quick hummus.
Swap out the usual chickpeas for edamame in this delicious and quick hummus.

Anytime you can blitz together a few ingredients in a flash for a tasty and healthful snack, appetizer or light lunch that keeps for days, that’s a huge win.

And that’s exactly what “Edamame Herb Hummus” is.

Purists may scoff at the traditional chickpeas swapped out for those little green immature soybeans typically nibbled out of the pod at Japanese restaurants. But edamame are actually higher in protein, Vitamin C, calcium, and potassium than garbanzos, making them an alternative to be embraced heartily.

This super easy recipe is from the cookbook, “The Vegan Week” (Ten Speed Press, 2022), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by New York City-based Gena Hamshaw, a registered dietician nutritionist who created the vegan recipe blog, The Full Helping.

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Grilled Chicken with Garlic and Rice Vinegar — Taiwanese American-Style

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The secret to this bright and zesty chicken? A marinade full of flavorful ingredients.
The secret to this bright and zesty chicken? A marinade full of flavorful ingredients.

Make your Memorial Day cookout a tasty Taiwanese American one.

Forget the burgers and sausages. Make room for “Grilled Chicken with Garlic and Rice Vinegar” instead.

Super moist, delightfully garlicky, and full of smokiness and brightness, this easy recipe is from Win Son Presents: A Taiwanese American Cookbook (Abrams, 2022), of which I received a review copy.

The book is by Josh Ku and Trigg Brown, co-founders of the wildly popular Win Son and Win Son Bakery, both in Brooklyn, with an assist from noted Brooklyn food writer Cathy Erway who’s the author of “The Food of Taiwan” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015).

Brown, who had cooked at New York City’s Craft and Upland had a Taiwanese American mentor, Pei Jen Chang early in his career. He teamed with best friend Josh Ku, a former property and construction manager whose parents grew up in southern Taiwan, to open the restaurant. It is named for the sweater manufacturing company, Winsome, which Ku’s grandfather started in Taiwan. Its name roughly translates from Chinese to “success and abundance of profit.”

It proved prophetic given the throngs now flocking nonstop to both Win Son and Win Son Bakery.

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