Food Archives - Page 11 of 13

Sweet & Spicy Pecans

December 7, 2007 by Renee Claire

The best spiced pecans I ever tasted were a dinner party gift from a world-famous (or at least Japan-famous) pastry chef. Each one was perfectly encrusted in sugar, and laced with a hint of cayenne.

In vain, I’ve tried to replicate that recipe. The sole reliable retail alternative I’ve found is Trader Joe’s Sweet & Spicy Pecans (in stores or at Amazon). Alternatively, braver souls might experiment with the recipes below:

Slashfood has an intriguing recipe that uses egg whites, no cayenne.
Martha Stewart weighs in (egg whites and cayenne).
A random newspaper recipe (egg whites, no cayenne, different proportions).
Finally, Epicurious offers yet another recipe, this time without egg whites and with corn syrup and cayenne.

Chicken With Plums

November 12, 2007 by Renee Claire

Chicken With Plums

Chicken with Plums, by Marjani Satrapi Booksellers at my store can check out hardcover books for two weeks for free. Recently, I picked up Summer At Tiffany (a pleasant if feather-light memoir about working at Tiffany’s in 1945) and Chicken With Plums, Marjane Satrapi’s newest book. Plums is about Satrapi’s great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan and the eight days before his death; chicken with plums was the dying man’s favorite meal. Despite the rushed ending, I loved it.

In honor of the book, I made some Chicken with Prunes (above), recipe courtesy the Perfect Pantry. Tweaks: I used chicken breasts with a touch more oil instead of chicken legs, and cooked it in enameled cast iron pot, not a tagine. The end result was tasty, although I’m interested in trying other variations–in the book, the recipe called for tomatoes and turmeric, and I’ve seen a few that call for garlic and leeks. Suggestions welcome!

Children’s Picture Cookbook: Popcorn Balls

September 19, 2007 by Renee Claire

This is an excerpt of the Children’s Picture Cookbook (recipes by Margaret Gossett, design by Elizabeth Dauber). Previous excerpts: Date Sticks.

The response to last week’s scan was great! Below is the recipe for popcorn balls; I’ll do applesauce next week.

Children’s Picture Cookbook: Date Sticks

September 12, 2007 by Renee Claire

I bought the Children’s Picture Cookbook on my trip to 14th Street Antiques, with the intention of sharing it with you all. Margaret Gossett wrote the recipes and Elizabeth Dauber designed the book (I think she did the illustrations, as there are no other credits).

Below is the recipe for date sticks–haven’t made them, but they sound intriguing:

What would you like to see next: cocoa, applesauce, or popcorn balls?

Pasta with Five Fresh Herbs

August 15, 2007 by Renee Claire

Another successful Cooking Light recipe. This one, Pasta with Five Fresh Herbs, looks nothing like the magazine photo, but it was delicious. Several tweaks, of course–I read some reviews that said this was bland, so I went overboard on the seasonings. Specific changes:

Used slightly less tomatoes and pasta than the recipe indicated.
Overloaded on all the herbs and used 3 garlic cloves, not one.
Let the tomatoes simmer covered for about 5 minutes, then smooshed them.
Omitted the goat cheese.

Very fast, light, and good.