Raw Kale Salad with Walnuts, Pecorino & Lemon / Pane co' Santi (Saint's Bread) / Roasted Figs

Blog Post & Recipe: Raw Kale Salad with Walnuts, Pecorino and Lemon

Kale is such a resilient leaf it can hold up to the onslaught of olive oil, lemon juice and cheese. In other words: it’s easily corruptible. And that’s what makes a raw kale salad great.

Blog Post & Recipe: Pane co' Santi {Saint's Bread}

The dough itself is a cinch to work with...it's totally the fruit and nuts that make it. Bright bursts of sweetness from the yellow raisins and a triple-nutty punch that comes not just from the pecans and walnuts, but also seems to emanate from the olive oil that they were sautéed in.

Blog Post & Recipe: roasted figs

The heat of roasting brings the dried figs back to life. Some of them will puff up to form almost perfect globes. The honey and oil mixture gives them a thick, shiny gloss that hardens slightly as the figs cool. They come out of the oven looking like something you want to put on a Christmas tree.

What makes it easier to eat well? / Use Citrus with US Thanksgiving Food / Roasted Chickpeas

Blog Post: Guest posts: what makes it easier to eat well?

While I have many, many thoughts and opinions on ways to eat healthy food, I’m aware that one perspective can be limited. So I started this series to find out what other people were doing.

Article & Recipes: Use citrus to lighten Thanksgiving meal, not its impact

Whether it comes from orange, lemon or lime, the acid in citrus fruits balances fat, the way vinegar balances oil in a dressing. It invites salt and awakens the palate. Citrus zest offers bite with its intensely fragrant oils. Used together -- as in the lemon-lime sweet potatoes here -- the juice and zest create levels of sweet-sour-bitter

Citrus-Soy Sauce Turkey with Gravy ... Orange Pecan Stuffing ... Sweet Potatoes with Lemon-Lime Vinaigrette ... Citrus Mincemeat Crumb Pie ... Citrus Thanksgiving Side Dish Trio

Recipe: Roasted Chickpeas

Roasting cooked chickpeas in a little oil — first briefly on the stove and later in the oven — leaves their insides tender while adding crunch to their exterior; they make both a great side dish and a perfect snack. After you take them out of the oven, try dusting with a little chile powder, curry powder, or other spice mixture, or drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil, some lemon juice, and a lot of black pepper.

Roast Tomato Soup / Pickled Jalapeño Peppers + Pickled Daikon / Roast Jerusalem Artichokes with Hazelnut Gremolata

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted Tomato Soup

I roasted the tomatoes with shallots and added thyme, because I’m on a tomatoes & thyme kick. But you could add any herb you’d like.

Blog Post & Recipe: A Peck of Pickled Peppers

Once you have determined the amount of liquid you will need, add that and the remaining ingredients to a pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour this mixture back over the peppers, screw on the lids, and refrigerate for a few days (or as long as you can wait)

Pickled Jalapeño Peppers ... Pickled Daikon

Recipe: Roasted sunchokes with hazelnut gremolata

This is a great technique for when sunchokes are in season. The insides are so tender it is almost creamy, while the edges are delightful bits of crispy goodness. Topping them off with the gremolata bring everything to life. The vibrant parsley and lemon with a bit of a punch from the garlic are wonderful with the toasty nuts.

Lamb & Pine Nut Sausage Rolls / Beetroot, Citrus & Ginger Juice / Curried Prawns with Cucumbers

Blog Post & Recipe: lamb and pine nut sausage rolls

prep time: 25 minutes
cook time: 40mins + cooling time (10-15mins)
makes 40 sausage rolls

Blog Post & Recipe: Beetroot, Citrus & Ginger Juice

It's hard to describe perfection, but imagine an earthy-sweet jewel coloured drink redolent with the mild flavour of beetroot as base with a few citrus-y top notes and a hit of sinus-clearing ginger to round it off.

Blog Post & Recipe: Curried Shrimp with Cucumbers

The shrimp and cucumber, which is cooked just beyond the tender-crisp stage, keeps things nice and light to balance out the rich coconut sauce. And you've got two options for the sauce. You can use a whole can of coconut to get a nice and soupy curry, which would saturate and flavor the bed of rice, or cut back to make things a less saucy.

Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese & Pine Nuts / Raw Overnight Oats / Store Porridge in Jars /

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted pears with goat cheese & pine nuts

I loved this dish, because I love pears and I am fond of goat cheese!

Blog Post & Recipe: (Raw!) Overnight Oats

Raw oats are equally fabulous as the cooked kind. They’re a different creature to be sure, but if you like your oatmeal on the chewy side you are in gold territory here.

Blog Post & Recipe: Oatmeal in Jars: Make a Week of Breakfast in 5 Minutes

With a little forethought and a few Mason jars, you can make enough steel-cut oats for a whole week in just 5 minutes. The result? Monday through Friday, you have a jar of wholesome oatmeal all ready to go. Pop it in the microwave at work and breakfast is served!

Concept: jar porridge.

Guacamole / 3 Vegetarian Recipes from Yotem Ottolenghi / 3 Recipes Inspired by Sri Lanka

Blog Post & Recipe: How To Make Guacamole

This is not just a guacamole recipe and preparation, it’s a broader lesson about aromatics and acid and using seasonal foods.

Article & Recipe: A Chef Who Is Vegetarian in Fame if Not in Fact

[Yotam Ottolenghi's] culinary philosophy might be summed up as “Cook food less.” “I keep an ingredient very close to what it looks like naturally,” he said. “I take a vegetable and blanch it, leave it nearly raw. Or grill it and leave the color and the flavor at the center to enjoy.”

Chard Cakes With Sorrel Sauce ... Pasta and Fried Zucchini Salad ... Watercress, Pistachio and Orange-Blossom Salad

Article & Recipes: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Sri Lankan recipes

I'm getting exotic with the local and the home-grown, spicing up my greens from the garden with Sri Lankan flavours, tossing them with homemade curry powder, finishing them with a dash of coconut milk and dishing them up with improvised sambals. It's not an exercise in authenticity by any means, but by goodness it's delicious.

Spring onions and greens with coconut milk ... Bream curry ... Coconut roti

Sourdough Croissants / Cook Rice in a Frying Pan / Vegemite Beef & Ale Pie, Cider Roasted Pork with Stuffing, Chocolate Amaretto Pear Frangipane Tart

Blog Post & Recipe: Sourdough Croissant Recipe from Floriole, Chicago

In addition to proper technique, the use of premium European butter with higher fat content is key.

Blog Post & Recipe: How to cook perfect rice - in a frying pan

Note that the recipe/method here is for Japanese-style white rice. It should work with other white rice types too, but you may need to adjust the water amounts.

Blog Post & Recipes: Rustic Vegemite Beef & Aussie Ale Pie, Cider Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apple, Prune & Pine Nut Stuffing, Chocolate Amaretto Pear Frangipane Tart

I combined the beef in a pie with a beautiful, recently sampled Aussie Ale - from Port Stephen's Winery, Swiss brown mushrooms and a teaspoon of Vegemite to add the salty element.

Making Herbed Lemon Cheese / Making Lunch at Work / Good King Henry

Blog Post & Recipe: Making Cheese

This cheese has a mild, milky flavor and a spreadable consistency.

Herbed Lemon Cheese

Blog Post & Recipes: 3 uber-simple lunches you can make at work in less time than it takes to go out and buy something

tips for ‘cooking’ lunch at work. 1. stock your work ‘pantry’ ... 2. stock up with the tools you’ll need ... 3. figure out the best storage options ... 4. allocate the time you need

mixed sprout & avocado salad ... white bean & tomato soup ... tomato, almond & pesto salad

Article: Alys Fowler: The renaissance of Good King Henry

The young spring shoots (that appear from April [in the UK]) can be eaten much like asparagus. Cut the first 20cm growth, remove any leaves and steam it as you would asparagus. As the seasons progress eat the leaves and the unopened flower buds as a broccoli substitute. These will merrily self-seed if left alone.

Cep Ravioli, Sage & Toasted Nut Butter / Spring Vegetable Ragout & Spring Vegetables Baked in Parchment / Pasta e Broccoli

Article & Recipes & Pictures: Raymond Blanc's cep ravioli, sage and toasted nut butter recipe

Ravioli is a dish of endless variation, and learning how to make it from scratch is a technique well worth mastering

Article & Recipes: The California Cook: Seasonal vegetable stew is easy, delicious

The basic rules for vegetable stews are few, but they are simple: You want some onions; you want whole cloves of garlic, preferably unpeeled; you want some lettuces or greens for moisture; and you want butter … lots of butter.

Recipes: Ragout of spring vegetables and spring vegetables baked in parchment

Blog Post & Recipe: Dinner Tonight: Pasta e Broccoli

What really works with the famous pasta e broccoli is that if you cook it long enough, the parboiled broccoli breaks up into the pasta and almost melts into a pasta-clinging sauce when combined with the cooking water. Increasing the ratio of broccoli-to-pasta not only makes the dish a bit healthier, but better too.

Elizabeth David Recipes / Using Nuts and Seeds / Dried Worms in Pho

Blog Post & Recipes: Elizabeth David

At Elizabeth David's Table: Classic Recipes and Timeless Kitchen Wisdom

Chicken with Tarragon ... Tarte à l'oignon ... Lettuce Soup ... Ratatouille ... more

Article & Recipes: Nuts and seeds

Here’s a roundup of eight delicious ways from around the globe to get the most from nuts and seeds.

Cashew Cream ... Pomegranate Khoresh with Chicken ... Boiled Peanuts (Stovetop Method) ... Three Sisters Black Mole ... Romesco ... Horchata ... Dukkah ... Picada

Blog Post: Pho Secret Ingredients: Dried Earthworms (Sa Sung)

If you read Saveur magazine, you may have seen the northern pho (pho Bac) article that I wrote for the March 2011 issue. One of the ingredients that I mentioned in the story was sa sung (Sipunculans), dried peanut earthworms that add a unique savory sweetness to the broth

Fennel with Meat (Etli Rezene) / Horchata / Filmjölk

Blog Post & Recipe: Fennel with Meat (Etli Rezene)

The Aegean cuisine in Turkey is known for its greens. It is truly unbelievable how many different green plants/weeds and in how many different ways the Aegeans can cook.

Blog Post & Recipe: Going Nuts for Horchata

The drink owes its creamy consistency to the combination of almonds, rice, and barley (and sometimes even sesame or melon seeds) that make up the recipe. Horchata is prepared by blanching and soaking almonds, pulverizing rice and barley, combining all of the ingredients in a blender and straining the mixture with cheesecloth.

Blog Post: Let’s Get Cultured! Filmjölk!

I have been making my own yogurt for about two years now and so far filmjölk, a Swedish countertop cultured yogurt is my favorite. There are several reasons why, the first is the absolute breeze it is to make. You don’t need any special equipment. To make your first batch all you need is the bacteria culture, some milk and cream and a clean mason jar.

Candied Violets / Raw Food with Icelandic Musicians / Vinaigrette

Blog Post & Recipe: How to Make Candied Violets

It’s a bit tedious, but you can get a bunch of them finished in under an hour. All you need are violets, sugar, egg whites and a small paint brush.

Blog Post & Video: "It's just like creating anything. when you create food, it's just like creating music."

The Jónsi and Alex (Recipe) Show: join Jónsi Birgisson (frontman of Sigur Rós), Alex Somers and their very loud blender to make raw food recipes. They made three videos from their Good Heart recipe book, for Macadamia Monster Mash, Raw Strawberry Pie, and Nammi Nammi.

Blog Post & Recipes: How to make a vinaigrette, and everything you need to know about them

Now that you know the standard ratio is 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, now that you know your own preference for how to balance the oil and the acid, now that you know how to look for different vinegars, now that you know to soak the shallots and seasonings in the vinegar, now that you know you can make a vinaigrette out of pretty much any tart-tasting thing and any oil you like

Basic Red Wine Vinaigrette ... Basic Mustard Vinaigrette

Fennel-Pastrami Gratin / Roasted Marrow Bones with Parsley Salad / One Blogger's Most Popular Posts of 2009

Blog Post & Recipe: Fennel-Pastrami Gratin (this recipe is an entry in a mass fennel-recipe gathering).

Give a fennel some pastrami and they let go of their guards. So imagine what a fennel, fronds and toasted seeds included, would become if cooked in cream with layers of pastrami and yukon gold potatoes.

Blog Post & Recipe: The Greatest Form of Flattery: Blatantly Copying Fergus Henderson’s Roasted Marrow Bones with Parsley Salad

If you can’t find marrow bones (we used beef bones, but veal are very popular as well), talk with your butcher about ordering some. They freeze well and can be used to thicken soups ... and stocks if you prefer not to have them roasted.

Blog Post: Top Ten from 2009

I’ve figured out how to see which recipes received the most attention from readers. So here are the 10 most popular with readers according to the blog counter I use ...

Spaghetti and Meatballs Cake ... Chocolate Zucchini Cake ... Strawberry Tiramisu ... Grilled Shrimp and Bulgur Salad ... Candied Orange Peel ... Stuffed Zucchini ... Zucchini Cheese Scones ... How To Make Homemade Pasta ... Pumpkin Ravioli with Walnut Cream Sauce ... Side Dish Salads

Curry Leaves. Green Tomatoes.

Article & Recipes: Curry leaves lend powerful aroma to Indian cooking

An article about curry leaves.

To preserve the fresh leaves, if you must, Bladholm recommends grinding them in a food processor while they still have their volatile oils. She adds a little garlic and some olive oil and freezes the paste in 1- to 2-tablespoon amounts.

Cooking with curry leaves ... Roasted cashews and curry leaves ... Yellow split pea dal with curry leaves

Recipes: Eat your greens

We have stolen Tasmania's summer.

I don't know about [your homegrown tomatoes], but if I picked mine tomorrow they'd be little rock-solid balls of tart green acid without a single blush to their cheeks.

And with our summer seemingly gone walkabout to the mainland, I doubt they'll ever come good.

Green tomato pickle ... Green tomato frittata ... Fried green tomatoes ... Chiang Mai pork and tomato relish