Category Archives: Food

Kimchi Adventures

Posted in Food by

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One of my foodie resolutions for this year was to make my own kimchi! And I did just that over the long weekend using, of course, a recipe from Maangchi. I made 8 lbs. of kimchi using Maangchi’s recipe for traditional napa cabbage kimchi. It was a lot of fun but also a bit of a mess so I highly recommend wearing disposable gloves!

 

 

 

 

 

Thai Red Curry Coconut Chicken

Posted in Food by

I’m a big fan of Thai curry dishes but don’t want the overly-sweet cloying flavor of cheap coconut milk to overpower a dish. This recipe has a great mix of flavors, with acidity, spice, and a great creamy texture combined with the freshness  from the herbs. And it really does whip up in no time! Look for a good coconut milk (the recipe suggests Chaokoh). I left out the zucchini and just stuck with the peppers, but you can probably mix-and-match veggies for this dish.

Check out the recipe!  (All credit to Carlsbad Cravings!)

Snowy Day In the Kitchen

Posted in Food by

Boston has been overwhelmed by snow this past week and yesterday was a snow day spent in the kitchen. First I made my favorite cranberry orange steel cut oatmeal (recipe) and later in the evening I made my Baba’s Ukrainian borscht! And now all of the city is digging itself back out . . .

Delicious Books about Food

Posted in Books, Food by

food-4

I stumbled across this fun Book Riot list of great books about food and thought I’d add on to it in preparation for Thanksgiving next week! Here are some of my favorite books about food (both fiction and non-fiction) and some books I’ve got on my to-read list. Do you have any other favorite books about food? Comment below!

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir and Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China, both by Eddie Huang

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (the first from Anthony Bourdain but you can’t go wrong with any of his books)

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (The chef/owner of Prune)

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya Von Bremzen

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (His other food books look great too!)

Delicious!: A Novel by Ruth Reichl (You might know her food writing and nonfiction books but this novel is so delightful!)

Chocolat by Joanne Harris (“Chocolat’s every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere”)

Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop (One of my favorite books of all time!)

Heartburn by Nora Ephron (Who doesn’t love Nora?)

 

Korean Food Cooking Adventures

Posted in Books, Food by

There’s nothing I love more when the weather gets colder than sour, spicy Korean food. I’ve always been daunted by the host of unfamiliar ingredients and lack of recipe books specifically for Korean food but I really sense a change in the winds, with resources like Maangchi (both her videos and her beautiful cookbook) and Korean grocery stores popping up it’s never been easier to make Korean food at home. I thought I’d give it a try!

First things first, Maangchi—this woman is so incredibly knowledgeable and her videos on YouTube are fun. Her cookbook, published by HMH, is a great resource in combination with the videos and it’s beautifully produced. I’ve recently made two of my favorite Korean recipes, kimchi jigae (kimchi stew) and pork bulgogi (a spicy stir fried pork that I love to eat with rice and tofu.) I’ve included links to those videos and see the pics below!

Looking for advice to try it on your own? Make sure you get the right kind of kimchi. The first time I made the kimchi stew I mistakenly used fresh kimchi that I purchased at H Mart in Cambridge. It was a great stew but it lost that deep, rich, sour taste because my kimchi hadn’t been properly fermented.  Now you can buy kimchi that’s been fermented or just buy the fresh kimchi and stick it in the fridge for a week or more until it starts to smell sour. Comment with any questions!