Category Archives: Cooking

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

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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Our salami satisfies everybody (the red sauce topic)

I have been trying ever since I arrived in Upstate New York to understand the appeal of the “red sauce place”. This is a neighborhood restaurant that serves a limited menu of Italian-American staples, and many people are passionate about … Continue reading

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U-Pick Tomato Day at Mariquita Farm

Yesterday I drove from San Francisco to Hollister for the last Tomato U-Pick of the season at Mariquita Farm. It’s run by a couple who decided they’d rather sell direct from the fields than pay rent at the Ferry Plaza … Continue reading

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Recipe: My Brisket Recipe, Revisited

After the writeup on Texas barbecue, several folks asked if I would repost my brisket recipe as text, not an image, for easier reading. Here you go. I’ve added a few thoughts on technique, in italics. This recipe came to … Continue reading

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