Sweet and Tangy Coleslaw Brings Flavor to Any Party

Looking for something different to make for an upcoming party? Try this sweet and tangy Asian Coleslaw.

Trying to think of something different to bring to Girls Day is a daunting task. You want to make a dish that will go along with what everyone else is bringing, something that is tasty but not over the top. Oh the stress of it all! Seriously though, last time I brought my Mac and Cheese Bites and those went over well but this week I wanted to make something completely different. I went in search of a side dish recipe online, not having anything in particular in mind. A few different salads looked good, but I settled on cole slaw. There are a ton of recipes for Asian Slaw so I ended up taking ideas from a few different ones and then throwing my own touches in. I was pretty happy with the result! I hope the girls are too. Asian Coleslaw …

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Ridiculous Roasted Romas

Roasted tomatoes are a delicious addition to most any meal. Make a bunch now and eat well through the winter.

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin I would like to take a moment to talk about tomatoes. Fresh, ripe, delicious tomatoes. Whether they are from your garden, the grocery store or the farmer's market, now is the perfect time to enjoy that fruit-in-veggie's clothing. Our overflow of summer squash has finally ended and now we are in the midst of a tomato deluge; a glorious tomato deluge. I mean, there is nothing quite like a fresh tomato from the garden. The cherry and Roma tomatoes are the two we are getting a lot of and my favorite thing to do with them is to roast them at a low temperature for a few hours. Sweet roasted tomatoes straight from the oven don't last long in my house so I tend to…

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Simmer and Baste

Basil, Basil Everywhere

A reader has a question about cooking with pesto. Kate answers it, and more.

This week, I received a question: Any suggestions on making pesto chicken breasts? I’m getting lots of basil from the CSA these days, and making pesto out of it. Thought I'd add pesto to the chicken breasts like I'd make them for piccata or something like it, but the pesto just went brown and crunchy. The chicken underneath was still fine, though. I guess adding pesto later after chicken is mostly cooked might be good, but any other good tricks or suggestions? Should I leave off the flour/salt/pepper coating when I'm using pesto? - John B. Yes - you discovered the hard way that you cannot heat pesto. There are exceptions to this rule, but even then, you have to be careful. You could cook the chicken and pesto together in a covered …

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Simmer and Baste

Spanish Tortillas Offer a Yummy Break From Tex Mex Tradition

Classic and elegant but still there's some vegetable work to be done.

Everyone is familiar with Mexican food but not all Spanish speakers like to eat the same things. If you are from Spain, you are going to find a cuisine that has more to do with fish, vegetables and rice than taco shells and cheese. Paella is a famous Spanish dish that features many of Spain's favorite things. And they do have round items called tortillas, but they are not the corn or flour roll ‘em up devices that we talk about here in the Americas. In Spain, a tortilla—little pie or little tart—is a thick vegetable pancake. Simple as it is, it is delicious. In Spain, Tortilla Espagnola would be served as a tapa—a bite of something to eat that would sit upon a little plate perched atop your drink at a bar. How civilized! It is not a …

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Simmer and Baste

Cottage Cheese and Oatmeal Griddle Cakes

A breakfast so funky, it does indeed work.

I wasn’t even planning on writing about this today. I had something much prettier in mind, but then my husband, Rock, elbowed his way into my, I mean our, kitchen and made some breakfast. We have been married a long time so we can have silent conversations. A couple of blinks from me meant, “Fine, I’ll get out of the way, but this better not be some fatty, sugar bomb of a breakfast.” He raised his eyebrows slightly tilted his head to reply without a sound, “Hush, my love, all will be revealed.” I invisibly curtsied and left. Seven long minutes later, when the boys and I were invited to breakfast, we sat down to curious little and kinda pale pancakes topped with, not maple syrup, but sliced strawberries, cherries, oranges and figs. The …

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Simmer and Baste

Banh Xeo, Sizzling Cake

A Vietnamese Crepe by any other name is just as delicious.

There are kinds of foods that have examples in several culinary traditions. Mostly everybody in the world has a noodle, a stuffed dumpling thing, a more or less sandwich and a pancake/pizza device. You can look at our history of cooking together here on Simmer and Baste to see us covering the pancake genre nicely: Japanese: Okonomiyaki; French: Pancrepe; Ethiopian: Injera. Today we add one more: Vietnamese: Banh Xeo.  I’ve seen this translated to Vietnamese Pancake, Vietnamese Pizza, Vietnamese Crepe, and Vietnamese Omelet, but the literal translation is “Sizzling cake.” All this is pretty well true. Banh Xeo looks and acts like all of these things but the difference is in the Vietnamese ingredients. What do they have? Rice flour, coconut …

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Simmer and Baste

All Hail Kale

The greenest, leafiest of all the cabbages.

Whatever you do, be careful not to overcook any of the Brassica Oleracea crowd. Brassica Oleracea is the botanical name for lots of different vegetables all of which are cabbages. Cabbages that form heads: Savoy, Red and Green, Bok choy, Napa, Brussels sprouts, Broccoli, Cauliflower—all kinds from white to an orange variety called Cheddar to Romanesco which is reminiscent of fractals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli Greens-style: Collard Greens, all stripes of kale, our buddy for today. It does not matter which member of this botanical family you choose to put on your dinner plate—they all are all great for you and need just a little tender care to bring out their best. I chose kale today because I love it. You do want to …

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Simmer and Baste

Serious Summer Rolls

Eat dinner. Stay cool.

It is warming up out there. We have even had a few days of, “It’s too hot to cook—we’re having sundaes for dinner!” I confess I have made this decree already and we’ve barely scratched the surface of June.  I’m sure I’ll say that again but I do have other hot weather dinner ideas to share with you. Maldonians cannot live on ice cream and Dunkie’s alone—well we can, just not very long. When I think hot weather meals, I think about people that live year-round in sun and steam and I wonder how they eat without introducing extra heat to their kitchens by cooking. Surely there are good and satisfying things to eat that don’t require turning on the oven or blasting a wok on high. Thailand comes to mind and the next thought after that is summer …

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Simmer and Baste

Chinese Chicken and Green Beans in Black Bean Sauce

Stay in for Chinese take out.

I would never take my Chinese friend and cooking mentor, Grace, out for Chinese food unless we were in Chinatown. Chinese-American cooking has as much to do with real Chinese cooking as Big Bird knows about migrating in the Spring. I’ve heard Grace rant before, “We NEVER put soy sauce on rice! That makes it look dirty. Chinese food is beautiful. Chinese food is fresh! Chinese food is balanced! Chinese food is subtle!” But she is Chinese. And I am American. So I grew up eating Chinese-American food. And occasionally, I crave it. I want those big, salty flavors and the moist, moist—OK, gloppy and gooey—sauces.  I want some of those flavors that I have been conditioned to love, late at night after a party (before I had kids) or delivered at …

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Simmer and Baste

Minted Green Pea and Spinach Soup

A Springtime soup that will help keep you forever young.

When I was a kid, I used to work at an inn in New Hampshire. It was just as bucolic as that particular string of words implies. The inn itself was red, the gardens were lengthy and florid, and the view embraced nearly all of the White Mountains. We served hearty, country breakfasts, brown bag lunches to take on hikes, and four-course dinners. Surely guests left their weekend stays with an extra couple of pounds to be addressed at the gym. I’m sure the memories of amazing meals made it all worthwhile.  This was in the, cough, cough, 1980s, and talk of cholesterol counts was just starting to take off, but still the chefs at the Inn didn’t think about that much. We made 3-egg omelets with meat and with cheese. There was always buttered toast …

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