Red Remoulade and Some of Its Many Uses

Remoulade is a classic of New Orleans cuisine.  It is used to dress up cold boiled shrimp.  It is served as a dipping sauce for all manner of fried seafood.  It is dolloped on top of fried tomatoes.  It shows up in many different forms, ranging from a mildly savoury sauce based on homemade mayonnaise,…

A Cooling Salad with Radish, Fennel, Celery and Hazelnuts

I started eating this salad a few months ago and I have not been able to stop.   It is a terrific spring time salad because it uses all the  brave and tough little vegetable that you can find at the end of winter.  I have continued to enjoy it as a summer salad also,…

Broiled Stone Fruit

I have been buying a lot of nectarines and apricots lately.  I love the smell of nectarines and apricots remind me of all kinds of delicious summer deserts that my Aunty Mona used to make with the fruit from her trees.  I would buy peaches too, but the ones that I can get in NYC…

Flower and Pheasant Egg Salad

My sister Silvi has been visiting me in New York City.  Usually when she comes to visit,  I work her to exhaustion helping me build puppets for some show or another and then tearfully beg her to extend her trip another month.  This is the first time that she has come to see me just…

Spicy Beet Salad with Horseradish

I used to go to the Anyway Cafe in the East Village.  I liked to order shots of honey ginger infused vodka, wild mushroom pelmeni and their amazing beet salad.  We are all familiar with the standard restaurant beet salad…roasted beets, goat cheese, some sort of toasted nut or another.  I often make variations on…

Tofu Salad with Mint and Toasted Rice Powder

Many of the Thai dishes that I have learned to cook are part of my attempt to recreate restaurant dishes that I like.  This recipe is different. It is from a very creative and inspiring cookbook called True Thai, The Modern Art of Thai Cooking by Victor Sodsook. I do not think that I have ever…

Arugula and Herb Salad with Dates, Almonds and Sheep Cheese

I recently made this salad for a dinner party and everyone loved it!  We liked it so much that we made a second batch of it after we ate the main course.  It’s loosely based on a salad in the Plenty cookbook by Ottolenghi.  I failed to pick up the turkish sheep cheese that the…

Cabbage Slaw with Mango, Peanuts, Mint and Pungent Lime Dressing

A couple of summers back, we spent a glamourous weekend celebrating a friend’s birthday at a farm-house in the Catskills.  Everyone in this particular circle of friends happens to cook amazing food.  There was fresh-baked bread, Tomato Pie, chickpea and butternut squash salad with tahini dressing, fava bean salad, smoked salmon hash with fresh herbs…