Category Archives: Cooking

Here you’ll find everything about cooking that isn’t actually a recipe. Tips, techniques, gripes, whatever.

The secret to cooking pasta

The secret to cooking pasta for good tasting Italian dishes is to undercook it, then finish in the sauce so it absorbs lots of saucy goodness. For an easy twist on this, dump a can of chopped clams with the juice into … Continue reading

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Recipe: Baked Ziti with Clams alla Diavolo

Portions: Entrée to serve 4 Ingredients: ½ lb ziti or penne or similar pasta salt 16 oz marinara sauce (I use Casa Visco, an upstate New York brand) ½ onion, finely chopped 2 T olive oil 2 T lemon juice … Continue reading

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Noonday onions

Noonday onions. The name just has to put a smile on your face. Maybe they’re called noonday because the onions are harvested at high noon, after the morning sun has burnt off their volatile oils so they are especially sweet … Continue reading

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Recipe: Sour Slaw

Very very close to the sour slaw served at Highland Park Cafeteria. A tart palate refresher to enjoy with fried chicken or a plate of barbecue. Ingredients: 1 medium head cabbage (2-3 pounds) shredded then chopped into 1 inch lengths … Continue reading

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Recipe: Thai BBQ Chicken

The addictive Thai chicken you have been craving. Adapted from the long out of print Thai Home-Cooking from Kamolmal’s Kitchen (Plume) 1/4 c chopped cilantro bottoms (see photo) 2 T chopped garlic 2 T fish sauce (I use Tiparos) 2 T sugar … Continue reading

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Recipe: Thai Plum Sauce

Adapted from the long out of print Thai Home-Cooking from Kamolmal’s Kitchen (Plume). Serve Thai plum sauce as a dipping sauce with Thai BBQ Chicken. Ingredients: 4 umeboshi (pickled plums), pitted and chopped 3/4 c white vinegar 1 c sugar 2 t … Continue reading

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How to start a sourdough starter

If you do a lot of baking, you are going to want to get yourself a good lively sourdough starter. Here are some options. Steal one. Is there a bakery in your town that sells uncooked, bake-at-home sourdough bread dough … Continue reading

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Recipe Forensics

Have you ever wanted to figure out the recipe for a dish that isn’t available to you any more? Maybe it’s from a restaurant that went out of business, or stopped offering the item. Maybe you’ve moved away. Or maybe … Continue reading

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Cooking in somebody else’s kitchen, Part 2

As long as it is on or near a lake or stream, an upstate NY vacation home is called a “camp”. There’s usually some concession to rusticity without really roughing it. In the case of my wife’s camp, it is … Continue reading

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Cooking in somebody else’s kitchen, Part 1

The past month I’ve been cooking in two unfamiliar kitchens, the first being the San Francisco bachelor/bachelorette pad shared by several friends of my daughter and the second the “camp” belonging to my wife in the Adirondacks. In San Francisco, … Continue reading

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