Until I started shopping regularly at my farmers’ market I was never a big fan of celery. Sure, it’s important as an aromatic vegetable to build a flavor base for soups or sauces, but on it’s own I always found it pretty insipid; pale and watery in both appearance and flavor. All that changed when [...]
Posts Tagged ‘recipes’
Now This is Celery!
Posted in Farmers' Market Cooking, Food History, Ingredients, recipes, tagged Braised Celery, Celery, Food History, recipes on October 20, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Lamingtons for Australia Day
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged Australia Day, Australian Food, Lamingtons, recipes on January 25, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Aside from the cute accent, being married to an Australian has other advantages. We get to celebrate extra holidays, which of course involve food. January 26th is Australia Day, commemorating the arrival of the so called First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. It marks the founding of the penal colony of New South Wales [...]
An Almost Manhattan to Chase Away the Sunday Blues
Posted in Cocktails, Food History, recipes, tagged cocktail history, Cocktails, Marble Hill, new york city history, recipes on January 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On a recent Sunday evening our house fell under the shadow of a looming work week. A cocktail was needed to lift our spirits. Besides, we had recently purchased some new (to us) cocktail glasses at the Salvation Army (a great source for cheap, nice glasses, by the way) and needed to christen them. We [...]
Duck and Turnips by Way of Ancient Rome
Posted in Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged ancient roman recipes, apicius, duck and turnips, recipes on January 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Cookbook authors only started giving precise measurements and cooking times a little over a century ago, so figuring out older recipes can be a real challenge. One of the earliest cookbooks we have is De re coquinaria or On the Subject of Cooking. Some of the recipes in it are attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius [...]
Middle East Peace Through Food?
Posted in Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged Hummus, Middle East Peace, recipes on January 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Hummus is immensely popular in Israel, where it is widely acknowledged to be of Arab origin. Ask anyone where to find the best hummus in Jerusalem and they’ll send you to the Arab Quarter. You might think this would be a problem for Arab-Israeli relations, but actually, as noted in a recent article in The [...]
Be Your Own Chai Wallah
Posted in Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged chai, Indian tea, masala chai, recipes on January 7, 2010 | 2 Comments »
I remember the first time I had chai in an Indian restaurant. I was transported to an imaginary spice market, sitting in the shade, watching the crowds flow by, while a merchant tried to convince me that his turmeric was worth the extra money. Good chai is exotic, creamy, sweet, spicy and invigorating, all at [...]
Poor Cook: Toad in the Hole
Posted in Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged British Cooking, Cheap Cooking, recipes, Toad in the Hole on January 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
During an uncharacteristic flurry of New Year’s cleaning, I found myself weeding the bookshelves; always a difficult prospect, but especially when it comes to the cookbook section. Well, it turns out my hoarding instincts sometimes pay off. Growing up in Australia, my husband was given a British cookbook called Poor Cook: Fabulous Food for Next [...]
Full of Beans
Posted in Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged Boston Baked Beans, recipes, Slow Cooking on December 30, 2009 | 4 Comments »
When icy drafts seep through the old windows in our apartment I start thinking about slow cooking. Any dish that requires me to have the oven on for most of the day is a bonus at this time of year, and it also fills the place with tempting aromas. Happily, we have lots of country [...]
Make Your Own Apple Sauce, No High Fructose Corn Syrup Necessary
Posted in Farmers' Market Cooking, recipes, tagged apples, homemade apples sauce, recipes on December 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The other day I was in my local grocery store, reading labels like the food geek I am, when I wandered past the apple sauce shelf. I was shocked to discover that most of the jars contained not only apples, water, and some ascorbic acid (to keep the sauce from turning brown), but they also [...]
Is Slow Food Really Slow? Pumpkin Pie
Posted in Farmers' Market Cooking, Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged fresh pumpkin, pumpkin pie, recipes, slow food, Thanksgiving on November 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »
“Is Slow Food Really Slow?” is a series here on Comestibles in which we explore the hypothesis that some of the processes many modern home cooks have declared too time consuming are a lot easier than the admen would have us believe. Everybody panic! It’s the great pumpkin shortage of 2009! I, for one, am [...]
