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Soon after I wrote about candying orange peel, people asked about candying other citrus. Clementines? Not enough pith. Grapefruit and pomelo? Very pithy. As I suggested in the original recipe for candied orange peel, if you’re going to tackle candied grapefruit peel, try the Ruby Red variety (aka Texas red or Rio Red grapefruit), which…
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Candied Orange Peel — Mother Nature’s Fabulous Sweetmeat
Last weekend at our farmers’ market, I spied oranges with stunningly deep orange skin and knew they were destined to be made into candied orange peels. The peels are an old-fashioned treat that taste like magnificent jellied candy because the essence of orange is naturally there in the candied orange peels. Coated with sugar for…
Lemongrass Chile Mushroom Stir-Fry Recipe (Nam Xao Xa Ot)
My family is Catholic so I grew up knowing little about Vietnamese Buddhist vegetarian cooking. We had plenty of meatless dishes but they always had a some fish sauce for umami depth (dam da, in Vietnamese). There was nothing that was expressly designed to be purely vegetarian, like this lemongrass chile mushroom stir-fry, a recipe…
5 Asian Makeovers for Thanksgiving Leftovers
If you’re like me, you think of leftovers from big holiday meals as money in the bank. You can reheat them to repeat them, or you can repurpose them for other dishes. Despite seeing some “petite” turkeys at Whole Foods the other day, most turkeys that are cooked up for Thanksgiving are big ones. Sure,…
Thai Black Pepper Chicken Skewers Recipe
“Can we have grilled chicken skewers for dinner?” my husband asked. Sure. Wanting to try a new recipe, I looked in Bangkok, a splendid cookbook by Leela Punyaratabandhu. She had a interesting roast chicken recipe, and because I’d promised to deliver skewers, I simply deboned half a chicken, cut the flesh into strips, and applied half…
Date and Tamarind Loaf Cake Recipe
When uncommon flavor and cultural combinations present themselves, I can’t resist. That’s why I’ve made this intriguing date tamarind loaf cake recipe from Nik Sharma’s debut cookbook, Season, twice in the past couple of weeks. A Bombay native, Sharma came to America in in his early twenties about fifteen years ago and discovered a penchant…
Air-fried Steak and General Tso’s Broccoli “Fried” Rice
I started out as a reluctant air-fryer user, thinking that the mini convection oven with its powerful blasts of hot air was nothing more than well, hot air. But since using and reviewing air-fryers for Cooking Light magazine, I’ve grown to like it a lot. On a regular basis, we use our air-fryer to roast…
Use-it-Up Banh Mi Salad Recipe
Is this banh mi salad a banh mi? Yes, because banh mi means bread and sandwich in the Vietnamese language. This salad uses elements of the banh mi sandwich to create a light and refreshing summer dish. Bread is the star and this banh mi salad is a great way to use day-old baguette. After…
Fall 2018 Asian Cooking Classes!
Responding to people who asked about Asian cooking classes, I just opened two for October and November. These are hands-on and located in Santa Cruz, which means you’ll get to learn in a small class situation (there’s a limit of 12 people per class), and I’ll be carefully choosing the ingredients. The cooking classes are…
A Stunningly Good Apricot Ginger Jam Recipe
Apricots originated in China and then spread westward, writes Joyce Goldstein in Jam Session, her new book on fruit preserving. I knew that ginger started out in southern Asia so Joyce’s apricot ginger jam recipe seemed like a natural Asian combination of ingredients. I’ve been fixated on apricots because its seasoning is winding down around…
