I love punches and sometimes make a Dickens Gin Punch at Christmastime. The inclusion of my favorite tipple, bourbon, in this one makes me want to try it all the more. — Douglas
This recipe is from Vivek Surti of Tailor in Nashville, No. 7 on our Hot Ten list for 2019. His spiked fruit tea is intentionally not too boozy, but you can also leave the bourbon out. “When I was growing up here,” the Nashville native says, “restaurants had three drinks: water, sweet tea, and fruit tea. Our welcome cocktail is an homage to the latter, as well as to punch’s Indian heritage. (Punch comes from the Hindi word paanch, which means ‘five’ since originally there were only five ingredients.) I love fruit tea and wanted to bring it back—with bourbon.”
Another recipe to try out and, perhaps, add to our Recipes in Rotation. With all this home cooking over the last (nearly) 3 months, adding new flavors to the menu is important. — Douglas
It’s a fortifying lentil and tomato-based stew, dotted with plump, tender dumplings, spiked with a range of spices, and boosted with plenty of spinach. It’s so delicious, and simple, week-night friendly, and great for leftovers. Also, no shame in using frozen spinach, here. It cuts the already minimal prep time here down to near nothing. Enjoy!
Breakfast ruts happen to the best of us. But what do we do when we’re sick of oatmeal but still craving something comforting? That’s where porridge comes in. Typically made with finer grains, porridge provides the best of oatmeal but has serious range when it comes to flavor. These 17 healthy porridge recipes will keep you warm, full, and anything but bored.
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This sounds like something to try. I could imagine using sweet potatoes instead of the squash, which I don’t like as much. Certainly an Autumn comfort meal. — Douglas
With the holiday season quickly approaching, our schedules are only getting busier — and trying to squeeze in dinner between all the hustle and bustle can be challenging. Enter: this quick sheet pan dinner. Roasting the gnocchi in the oven means you get to skip the step of boiling it altogether, which not only results in a faster, less messy meal, but it also yields crispy, caramelized potato nuggets that are arguably much tastier.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
Even in the cocktail-forward South, tequila sometimes gets an unfair rep as the shot of choice for college kids, or something to hide beneath a margarita mix. But a fine tequila, such as Jalisco, Mexico’s Patrón Añejo, is aged in white oak barrels for twelve to fifteen months, and is a smooth, nuanced sipper. The oak imparts a warmth and depth reminiscent of bourbon. Just in time for the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), swap in aged tequila for bourbon in a twist on an Old Fashioned.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
This meat sauce sounds delicious and different enough from our other family ragu recipes to at least give it a try. I like the use of sage and rosemary. We don’t use a lot of those herbs here although I like the flavor they bring to a dish. — Douglas
I had been living in a corner of southern Tuscany, in the Maremma, for a few months when I began noticing pasta alla buttera (translation: cowboy pasta) here and there—on countryside menus and at various sagre, outdoor food festivals that are especially good places to try regional dishes. I made a mental note to add another job-description-pasta-sauce to a quirky medley of a list that included things like spaghetti alla carbonara and pasta alla boscaiola, named after the charcoal burners and woodcutters that apparently invented and championed the dishes based on what readily available ingredients they had.
“The Incredible, Edible Egg” — as the old advertisement used to say. I found several different recipes I want to try from this article. My favorites include Shakshuka Focaccia, Bacon & Egg Ramen. Savory Ris-Oat-to with Poached Egg by Ali Conklin, and Sheet Pan Eggs by Ali Slagle. To be honest, I’m still reading my way through all the recipes and I might find even more I like. — Douglas
In culinary school my cooking instructors touted the importance of eggs: The traditional chef’s toque is rumored to have 100 folds, one fold to represent the hundred ways to prepare an egg. We’d be forewarned that sometimes the skills test given during line cook interviews would simply be to cook an egg.
Regardless of technique and form, it’s undeniable that eggs are an indispensable ingredient, well suited for any time of the day. Here are 29 of our favorite ways to use them:
These short food videos have become part of my regular YouTube viewing. Babish tries to emulate foods from various TV shows and — when the show’s food is totally inedible — creaates a recipe you might actually want to make at home. Yum! — Douglas
Dev Shah is a man who cares a great deal about food – so much so that he spends the better part of his afternoons scouring the internet for the very best taco truck. With season 2 delving even further into a culinary storyline, it only seemed appropriate to welcome back Master of None with Dev’s victory over pasta carbonara.
This is something I learned through experience, but it is always great to have some research and science to back it up! — Douglas
What’s the role of salt in cooking? Is it important to add it at certain times? Most recipes (and culinary schools) advise seasoning food with salt early in the cooking process, not just at the end. We decided to investigate this conventional wisdom to see if the timing of seasoning makes a notable difference.
