i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
I love having an extensive herb garden because I can just go outside and pinch some off, without having to worry about where to store large quantities of it (and, if I don’t use it up soon enough, the flavors may fade.) Oregano (Origanum Vulgare) …
If anyone had been willing to listen the last few years, they know that I had been battling deer in my garden and had been losing. Overnight, my poor fruit trees would be stripped of their leaves, and their odd gastronomic decisions made me think …
For those wanting a less Asian approach to using shiso while using a large quantity of it, this is the recipe for you: Sauteed Clams, Shiso Batayaki style. My husband (who is part Italian) LOVES this sauce as it is wonderful for all kinds of seafood–it’s so fragrant and fills my house with savory notes that only garlic and butter can convey. This can be done with mussels as well, but I had clams leftover from a barbecue earlier this week, so I decided to do it with them. For the purposes of pictures, I shucked them individually, but this can be done as one big pot.
Here’s another recipe from Japan: Shoyuzuke Egg Yolk, which is a raw egg yolk marinated over night in a soy sauce mixture to create a delicious and rich topping for rice (or ramen!) This is one of the things my daughter really liked to eat …
About two years ago, one of my best friends told me about a book she read called “The Art of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo, and how, in it, there is a method of figuring out what to keep and what to throw away when …
I was walking through my garden, taking stock of things, and realized that my Hardy Chicago figs had ripened. I picked them, ones which were soft and drooping, ate a few on my way back into the house, and then set to make a simple snack with the rest.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a fiend for cheese, especially Gorgonzola. It’s creamier and milder than blue cheese but still has the signature flavor. It goes especially well with something sweet.
Here, instead of broiling the figs (heating up figs transforms the somewhat mealiness of it to become juicy–my husband will not eat raw figs, but once slightly cooked, he enjoys them), I roasted them with butter, flesh side down. It gave it a slightly nutty, caramelized flavor which went delicious with the Gorgonzola and honey. I think a nice brie would go with this too.
Recipe – Makes 1 Appetizer
1. Heat butter in pan over medium heat, being careful not to burn the butter. Slice washed figs in half and place flesh side down in pan. Roast until the edges have slightly crisped.
2. Arrange on plate flesh side up, crumble cheese on top and drizzle with honey. Serve warm immediately.
Figs (ficus carica) is a fruit that we often come across in higher end supermarkets, expensive, but oh so delicious. We all have that grandpa/uncle/old neighbor next door who tell tales of their fig trees producing bountiful fruit, but it gets a little daunting when …
Usually, the herbs and tomatoes I grow in the garden will culminate in panzanella at least once, if not more times during the summer. This is usually after a party of some sort where I have a crusty loaf of bread sitting in the fridge …
I was never as fond of Japanese grilled eel as my sister was (my sister once had to go to the hospital when she was 3 because there were leftover bones in the unagi-don that got stuck in her throat) mainly because I couldn’t stomach oil at all until I hit puberty and grew out of it. But its flavor and deliciousness is unparalleled in that I will sometimes get cravings for it, especially on a rainy day like today.
You can usually find it in the frozen section in an Asian supermarket–the price, depending on the season/year, can range from $7 to $15. This is the same eel used in sushi, if you were wondering about the taste.
If you got your hands on fresh eel and would like to make the unagi from scratch, here is the recipe.
One of my daughter’s favorite things to eat (and mine too) is Tamago Gohan, directly translated from Japanese as Egg Rice, a raw egg mixed with hot rice and soy sauce. It’s a simple but delicious meal, comfort food, and I guess the Asian equivalent …