Posts by: Andrew Cohen
Here, Patatas Bravas are the inspiration. You could use this dish like a tapa and serve smaller amounts of it, or use it as a side dish. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.
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A favorite breakfast of mine is sautéed greens served on thick toast with poached or fried eggs on top. The yolk coating the greens and the crisp chewy toast makes for a great combination. There is a myriad variations on this theme, but the eggs and greens are the baseline. This is often made with leftover greens or potatoes. If you are not a fan of poached eggs, you could skip the potatoes, or simply cut the potatoes into small enough cubes that they will cook through while you fry them. Although it looks like a long recipe, it goes quickly.
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This is a dish you want a Ben-Riner or mandolin. If you have a sharp grater that produces almost matchstick thick results, that could work also. This dish uses mirin and shiro-shoyu, a.k.a. white soy sauce. This is a very light colored soy with a lighter body and flavor than regular soy sauce. It adds a light umami quality dishes as well as a little salinity, so you can ease up on salting a dish, and helps bring out the nuances of vegetable flavors. It is great when you want the effect of soy sauce without wanting to taste it or have it stand out in a dish. This dish is beautiful when made with multi-colored carrots, but mature chantenay carrots work really well also.
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This recipe is a sort of faux turnip kimchee, and uses gochujang to bring deep flavor and heat to a simple quickle, which is great all on its own. Using the gochujang really transforms the dish in an almost Cinderella fashion. What is gochujang? You could almost call it the ketchup of Korea- a funky, sweet, salty, nutty paste of fermented soybeans (kind of like miso, but not…) and peppers. The heat can vary, but it will be there. Anything from mild to fairly spicy, it is pasty and thick, and is usually cut with something to thin it a little, and ginger and garlic are often added to up the umami already there. Try adding spoonsful to soups, stews, marinades, and rubs and see how great it is. Here, it simulates the flavor fermentation would bring to these quick pickles, and brings the heat.
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Grappa is a poor man’s liquor made from leftover seeds and skins from winemaking that became chic a few years ago. No matter what you label it, it is still a powerful and raw spirit. Soaking currants or raisins in it is a traditional Italian use for it that can be found in many dishes. Here it is again. If you do not have grappa, use a good vodka.
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For lack of a better word, this is called a “condiment”. It can be used as is to base or top grilled fish or chicken, or used with lettuce to make a salad with a bit more dressing. Add bits of buffalo mozzarella for a salad, or add capers for even more interest. Use Tetilla cheese or buffalo mozzarella and Marcona almonds as a topping for chicken, or mix with shreds of cabbage for a salad, or skip the cheese and use just the nuts.
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I know it sounds strange, or over the top, but this actually works. Really well. It hits on many so levels, and the acid of the vegetables balance out the richness of the egg and meat. I first encountered this in Australia, then again recently in Seattle. This version is improved a little over the original-everything is cut so that less stuff falls into your lap. In Australia, anything with a fried egg thrown in is having with “the lot”.
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This is one of those salads similar to the Moroccan type, where there is no lettuce, the dish can be served to start a meal or as a side, or can make part of a light supper with a little soup and a more traditional salad of lettuces. Next time you are out for Chinese or Japanese food and they have the better quality bamboo chopsticks that are almost pencil thick, ask for a set to use for dishes like this, where you need to slice down without cutting all the way through something.
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Fattoush, often considered Lebanese in origin, is one of those ubiquitous salads found pretty much anywhere flatbread is eaten and tomatoes grow. Like the Italian salad called Panzanella it was probably a way to not waste bread after it had gone stale. Of many iterations, the two constants it seem to be flat bread and tomatoes. The greens vary from romaine to butter lettuce to arugula to none at all. Cucumber? Peppers? Radishes? Some use pomegranate seeds, some have pomegranate syrup in the dressing, while some have none. Like so many dressings of the Middle-East, this one is “slack”, meaning it is not a fully emulsified vinaigrette, so be sure to mix it up one more time just before pouring it on.
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Fattoush dressings, like many other Mid-East dressings are loose with a higher acid to oil ratio than French influenced vinaigrettes. There are many, many variations, just as the salad itself varies from place to place. The main difference between v.1 and v.2 is the addition of pomegranate molasses. This brings a deep flavor that has a haunting/addictive tart and almost smoky note to it. Some brands have a little caramel added, and this will lend a little sweetness and a little more of the smoky note. Look for Mid-East and Cortas brands. The latter is tarter.
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Fattoush dressings, like many other Mid-East dressings are loose with a higher acid to oil ratio than French influenced vinaigrettes. There are many, many variations, just as the salad itself varies from place to place. Use this dressing on tabbouleh, Israeli Salad, fish, chicken kebabs, or shrimp.
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A slightly chunky vinaigrette with a bright, funky aroma, this dressing works on salads and is excellent as a topping for grilled fish such as snapper, tilapia, or halibut. Use with pork medallions, chicken with cumin and oregano, or even on noodles like ramen tossed with vegetables and leftover shredded meat.
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Another item inspired by a trip to a taqueria. This time it was a plate of tacos, with the charred meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions that led to this. I really like the surprise of grilled lettuce with the hot/cold contrast and the play of flavors the lettuce gains from the light charring from the grill. There are plenty of fun options that can be added to the salad listed to add interest as well. Having a spritzer for your oil makes this dish simpler, and keeps it lighter.
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I like to make berry infused vinegars which I use as parts of marinades or sauces, and of course I also use them for salad dressings. When using them for dressing, I tend to either use them to contrast with sharper, bitter leaves such as escarole, dandelion, rocket, and the like, or I pair them with more delicate lettuces and then add some fruit and or nuts to the mix. I could see a salad of butterleaf lettuces with strawberries, slivered roasted almonds, and maybe a little bit of crumbled blue cheese with a strawberry vinaigrette made with the vinegar, a little agave syrup, some shallot, a little ginger juice, black pepper, and a light oil such as grapeseed with a touch of almond oil. Garnish the salad with candied ginger bits and a little black pepper that has been dry roasted in a pan-this neutralizes much of the heat and leaves the pepper fruity-and freshly cracked.
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I hesitate to call this a jam as it is useful for more than toast. Try this with pork, chicken, or turkey. Good on sandwiches or as a smear, and would be nice on a cheese plate. This would be good made with berries that are a little over-ripe or starting to look less than perfect.
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This soup is a riff on borscht, with kale filling in for the cabbage, and the vinegar on the roast beets filling in for the things that are often pickled in borscht. Some borscht uses sauerkraut, some have chopped pickles, some use a soured broth or kvass as the base. Although written as a hot soup, it could easily be chilled and served cold with yogurt or labne.
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This is a very pretty dish if you can get the rainbow carrots, but it will still taste great if all you have are monochromatic carrots. It is important to watch the sugar as it browns. It only takes a split second and it can go from caramel to charcoal. Feel free to remove the pan from the heat to slow it down, and have your butter cut and ready to toss in. Do it a couple times and it is no big deal. Besides basil, you could use cilantro or mint. Might even work with shiso. Many rainbow carrots have color that is mostly on the outside, so scrub rather than peel.
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This could be considered a hearty miso soup, or a stew. To add more depth of flavor to the dish, make your dashi using “blond” vegetable stock (see recipe on site). They type of miso will also affect the flavor a lot, with white miso being lighter and sweeter in flavor, whereas red miso tends to be deeper flavored and saltier. For a flavorful contrast, you could quickle the stems from the turnip greens if they are thick and use them as a garnish. Adding dumplings of some sort will certainly make the dish more substantial, as would adding noodles.
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This is a dish of bolder flavors with hints of bitterness to it, so it goes well with fattier dishes such as pork chops, chicken thighs, or things with cheese or cream in them. If you wish, you can dice the chard stems and use them, but they will add more of the “fuzzy teeth” feeling to the dish. Save them with the turnip greens for a stuffing for ravioli or pork chops instead.
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You could do this with the vegetarian dashi, but the smoky aroma and depth of flavor from the hana-katsuo really make this dish. Although it is not quite the same, and it will tint the dish red, you could use smoked paprika if you wish to go vegetarian. Use this dish as a base for seared fish or roasted King Oyster mushrooms. You could also use this as a base for noodles/pasta.
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A sort of culinary pun on the theme of peas and carrots. Usually the peas carry a sweetness that matches the carrots, but here the favas act as a foil to that inherent sweetness with their almost cheesy nutty flavor and slight bitterness. The basil bridges the sweetness and earthiness of the carrots and the earthy and sharp notes of favas with sweetness and the slight edge that basil has. If you do not have basil, oregano would be great here, or even mint.
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