What sits on an ofrenda and what each thing is for
A pan de muerto recipe built around orange blossom water, plus what actually sits on an ofrenda, what each dish is for, and when to bake it for November 1.
12 min read
Cilbir is dinner, not breakfast
Turkish eggs cilbir made for dinner: the yogurt temperature that stops it splitting, the poach, and the pepper butter poured over in the last thirty seconds.
11 min read
Anchovy, fish sauce, shrimp paste: three salty backbones, no substitutions
Fish sauce vs anchovy vs shrimp paste, measured by strength per teaspoon, the dishes each one built, and how much of each actually disappears into a sauce.
11 min read
Where chickpea, lentil, and edamame pasta fall apart
A chickpea pasta review that also covers red lentil and edamame noodles: where each one falls apart, cooked plain and sauced, and the sauce weight that helps.
12 min read
Hand-parched lake rice against paddy rice, cooked side by side
Wild rice cooking compared side by side: hand-parched lake rice against cultivated paddy rice, on cook time, texture, price, and the dish that hides the gap.
11 min read
Everyone cooks at the table and rice closes the pot
A japanese hot pot nabe recipe for the table: four broths, the cooking order that keeps the pot clean, and the rice course that closes the meal.
11 min read
Fried bread pounded into a paste thickens the whole pan
Espinacas con garbanzos scaled from a Seville tapa into dinner for four: the fried bread paste, the cumin and paprika, and the timing that keeps it right.
11 min read
Preground pepper tastes like dust after three months
Types of black pepper compared against white, green and pink peppercorns, the grind size that changes the heat, and why preground pepper goes flat fast.
12 min read
Thirty grams of protein in a bowl of soup, no meat
Five high protein vegetarian soup recipes with the protein actually counted, built on beans, lentils, tofu and dairy rather than left to the vegetables.
12 min read
Cornmeal in one, buttermilk in the other, sugar in both
Chess pie vs buttermilk pie, measured on the same scale: the cornmeal, the cup of buttermilk, the crackled top, and the doneness test both pies depend on.
13 min read