• The only disappointment I had with my first batch of J. Kenji López-Alt’s ajiaco negro was that I couldn’t find fava beans anywhere in town. (Even the Italian market…) I used cannellinis instead, since they’re a staple of my pantry.

  • Блины из гречневой муки.

  • Split pea soup with ham — a longtime favorite. Not pictured: the accompanying Monterrey jack & Swiss grilled cheese with Vidalia onion relish, on caraway rye.

  • I’m not one to run my soups through a chinois unless I have company coming.

  • Why eat a frozen pizza when you can make a crispy pie with common kitchen staples? A large flour tortilla, tomato sauce, & cheese are the foundation. Toppings here include red pepper flakes, thinly sliced garlic, shallots, basil, & sea salt.

  • Can we classify Bengali kathi rolls and Maharashtrian frankie rolls as burritos? That seems a disservice to Indian cuisine. But then again, I’ve been known to roll up refried beans inside chapati, so who am I to say?

    13 Burrito Styles Everyone Should Know | Serious Eats

  • A while back the supermarket had a bunch of pre-peeled, cubed butternut squash. Normally I don’t buy precut fresh veggies, but I hate peeling squash. I bagged & threw them in the freezer, thinking “soup.” That soup was Serious Eats’ Mexican Butternut Squash Soup with Ancho Chili.

  • J. Kenji López-Alt’s vegan polentina, inspired by a dish at Chez Panisse:

    What would happen to this polentina soup if I were to simply swap out some of those Italian flavors with some more Japanese ones, keeping the base ingredients the same?

    Deliciousness, that’s what.

  • A lettuce wrap is not a taco. Tacos require tortillas. A lettuce wrap is a sad, wet heresy.

    A Guide to American Taco Styles | Serious Eats

  • The restaurant industry’s embrace of history-as-endless-menu coincided with a moment … in which a growing majority of Americans were coming around to the realization that future generations would in all likelihood be worse off than today’s.

    Salt Fat Acid Defeat | n+1

  • Up until this article, León’s project has been a closely guarded secret. Not even the local Spanish marine biologists know what’s happening.

    Seeding the Ocean: Inside a Michelin-Starred Chef’s Revolutionary Quest to Harvest Rice From the Sea | Time

  • Two-bean tamale pie.

  • J. Kenji López-Alt’s vegan garbanzos con espinacas y jengibre recipe is a winner — so much so that this is a photograph of my second bowl, rather than my first.

  • World-class lunch: tacu tacu with melted queso, Yellowbird habanero condiment, & a fried egg.

  • We began to talk about it, quietly and carefully, in May. “Are you guys having trouble finding bucatini? We haven’t found any in a while,” said my friend Dan, one of my most bucatini-headed friends[.]

    What the Hole Is Going On? | Grub Street

  • Before big farms, this plant alone could feed many people… Grandmothers said these turnips point towards each other, so you’ll always know where the next one will be.

    I missed this article back in October.

    Thíŋpsiŋla: The Edible Bounty Beneath the Great Plains | Serious Eats

  • Two seasonal cocktails better than egg nog: a Tom & Jerry and a Coquito.

  • Turmeric-Ginger, tree.

  • More baking & shoveling. Today’s batch: sumac-vanilla shortbread, and the foot-deep, frozen windrows of plow leavings.

  • Peak winter today: I baked a batch of gingersnaps & shoveled our first significant snowfall — about three inches of beautiful, heavy, wet snow.

  • The best incense.

  • My goose is cooked. Happy Thanksgiving.

  • My first attempt at gobi ki sabzi was encouraging enough that I’ll be exploring this dish more regularly until I get it just the way I want it. Cauliflower is one of those foods I dismissed for too long — neglected as simply a component of crudités.

  • This sandwich — pan-seared Southwestern-spiced sweet potatoes, beets, feta, shallots, herbs — never fails to put a smile on my face. I grumble a bit about fiddling with the sweet potatoes, but the reward always greatly exceeds the effort required.

  • Kanuchi — a soup I wish I knew about much sooner than I did. Serious Eats’ recipe is a good jumping-off point. It was developed with guidance from Chef Taelor Barton, an indigenous foods activist in Oklahoma, who said:

    Cooking takes a long time. That’s how you pass history down.

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