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Archive for the ‘Main dish’ Category

Fish Tacos

Posted in Main dish, Travel, tagged , , , on September 29, 2010| 10 Comments »

My most memorable fish tacos was had off the main drag in Laguna Beach, Calif. It is entirely possible that it was my first fish tacos simply because it is the first one I remember having. I don’t recall the name of the place. It was nearly a shack. Just a long high counter with a few guys in white caps working behind it. Over head was one of those plain menu boards, the kind that you find at concession stands at ballgames.

“Fish Taco $5” it read.  I ordered one.

I wanted it badly, I remember, because this was my first time in Southern California and for some reason I had convinced myself that I hadn’t fully arrived in California until I ate a fish taco.

I was with a photographer from the Monitor. We were on one of those assignments that a desk editor like me gets to do about once a decade. My mission was to tackle three kinds of surfing in 24 hours, skim boarding, boogie boarding, and long board. Yes, that was my job. I was getting paid to to do this. And we were going to film it. I hid my dread as best I could.

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Eat, Pray, Ceviche

Posted in Appetizers, Main dish, Travel, tagged , , , on August 18, 2010| 4 Comments »

Last winter I hit a rough patch. Nothing huge, just a few disappointments compounded by dark days and cold nights. At that time my friend Jenna was scheming her annual getaway adventure where she hardly plans and just packs up and goes (Peace Corps volunteers tend to do this, I’ve noticed). Last year, she had tackled surfing in Costa Rica.

“Where should I go this year?” she had asked me. My big wave surfer friend, Rick, had mentioned that Panama was the next up-and-coming destination for surfers. “Panama,” I said to Jenna. In hindsight, this is hilarious because she is still just learning how to surf. But that didn’t stop me from getting online and “researching” places to surf in Panama, after all, I had one surf lesson under my belt myself. This lead to researching flights and within 12 hours I announced, “I’m coming with you.”

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Recipe: Perfect Basil Pesto

Posted in Eating in season, Main dish, Recipes, Sauces, tagged , , on July 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Besides caprese salad, capris pants, flip flops, and sunburned shoulders, another summer classic not to be left out is basil pesto pasta. Or basil pesto anything. There the basil is – swaying in the garden, or sprouting in the window box, or bursting as a simple bouquet on the green grocer’s shelf. Use me now, it seems to say, because you’ll miss me when I’m gone.

My mom has made pesto every summer that I can remember. The master of winging it in the kitchen, it is hard to anticipate what Mom’s pesto batch will taste like. Sometimes it is sharp, or sweet, or bitter. But it always says fresh, as in right now.

I prefer predictability when it comes to pesto, even though the best cooks and chefs will say an adventuresome spirit is exactly what you need in kitchen. Search the Web and you’ll find no two pesto recipes alike. But I have one that I turn to again, and again, and again, like a loyal, boring friend. It includes parsley, which tempers the basil in my opinion, and not too much garlic. I won’t disappoint you, it whispers between the ingredients. OK, I’m joking. It doesn’t really say that. (more…)

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Recipe: Feijoada (Brazilian black bean stew)

Posted in Main dish, Recipes, tagged , , , on June 29, 2010| 7 Comments »

Meet Evelin. (Pronounced ‘Eva-leeen.’)

She wanted me to show you what she looked like “normally,” right away. Because, as you’ll see, she looked pretty unusual the day she came over and cooked a full Brazilian meal in my tiny kitchen. Make that 2 days. Actually, the whole event spanned 3 days. More on that in a bit.

Evelin is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She’s been living with our mutual friend Ana Paula here in Boston for the past month taking English classes and visiting our inferior beaches (my words, not hers!). Anyway, during one of our adventures, maybe it was after suffering through “Sex and the City 2“, we came up with the idea of cooking “a real Brazilian meal” together. I would take notes and pictures, and she would do everything else. It turned out I was also on fan duty.

This was to happen on a Sunday afternoon. At my house. “Sure, no problem!” (I’ve picked up this phrase from Evelin). (more…)

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Butternut Squash and Hazelnut Lasagna

Posted in Main dish, Recipes, tagged , , on April 8, 2010| 3 Comments »

lasagna

This is a delicious lasagna that is rich with both sweet and nutty flavors. Sage is the perfect complement to butternut squash and the hazelnuts. This vegetarian dish is excellent without tasting like it’s trying to be a “meatless” version of a classic dish.

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Fettuccine Alfredo (a la Vancouver 2010 Winter Games)

Posted in Main dish, Recipes on March 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

I have been glued to the Olympics coverage for the past two weeks and now that the Vancouver Winter Games are closed and the medals have been counted I’m feeling adrift.

To extend the Olympic spirit just a bit longer I embellished fettuccine alfredo to evoke the slopes of Whistler complete with metaphorical splashes. Think cream of the crop. (I know, bear with me. The winters are long in Boston.) I sautéed onion and mushroom with yellow (gold!) pepper and ringed the plate with (a laurel wreath!) baby spinach. Every athlete knows how important it is to eat your spinach. So slide your fork down this white-coated mound of pasta, twirl it in the air, and deliver it to your winner’s podium. Taste the gold. Give it your all. Do it for your country. You earned it. Smile.

And for desert? Hannah’s Gold, for sure. (more…)

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Chili Adventure

Posted in Main dish on February 6, 2010| 5 Comments »

In order to reach the highest heights of creativity, cooking should really be seen as if it were a kind of a travel adventure. Sometimes traveling requires careful planning and the consulting of travel books with big glossy photos and maps to entice you out of the comfort of your routine. And other times you just follow your whim and intuition and push off, hoping for the best.

I did this kind of travel recently when I decided with hardly any premeditation to go to Panama for a week in December with a friend. Now that I’m back and faced with winter’s quiet days I find myself remarking out loud from time to time, “Well, at least I pushed off for Panama. That was fun.”

Panama

My friend Rebecca heard me saying this the other day. Without missing a beat she said, “It was more like you jumped into a cannon and blasted off!”

Yes. It’s really true.

So anyway, sometimes cooking means poring over cookbooks, carefully planning a menu, budget shopping, and inviting a few select friends to come enjoy a meal.

Rebecca’s no-recipe chili

Or you can do what Rebecca did the other night when she rang. “Come over right now! I’m making chili!” Soon there were three of us around the table as we waited for the pot to simmer. “I didn’t follow a recipe,” Rebecca said as she stirred and banged the ladle against the side of the pot. It was delicious. (more…)

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Cooking with kale (again and again)

Posted in Main dish on January 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

Sturdy fuel is what we need around these parts as the snow drifts get older and wind pants are a necessity for the daily commute. (In Boston, we walk everywhere.) Enter kale, a vegetable that is part spinach, part cabbage, and with enough leafy self-assurance that it could stand up on the kitchen counter by itself if you wanted it to.

But with a good knife and enough heat you can tame an unruly bunch of the green stuff into a stir fry or soup. And all your foodie friends will applaud because you are serving a dish that is fresh and seasonal even in the deep, dark winter.

So, overcoming my usual trepidation of vegetables, I grabbed a bunch of kale from the corner market and sprinted home before I could talk myself out of it. (OK, I did pause to pay.) The other reason I thought I could tackle kale is because I received my very first wok for Christmas this year (thank you, brother). I followed a recipe from one of my favorite foodblogs, 101cookbooks.com, for Asparagus Stir-Fry that includes the option of including kale. I did.

Asparagus and kale stir fry

I invited my friend Rebecca over for lunch and she didn’t even bother to take off her snow pants because the smell of toasted cashews parked her right down at the table. Despite my plans, there were no leftovers, and we were well-fueled for a frosty walk through the arboretum amid the cross-country skiers. (more…)

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Three Kinds of Fondue (cheese, oil, chocolate)

Posted in Dessert, Holiday dishes, Main dish on December 29, 2009| 2 Comments »

When everything ’70s came back in style about 15 years ago, the words “lava lamps” and “fondue parties” became part of hipster lingo once again. I understood the ironic fashion of lava lamps, but fondue? The communal dish had never gone out of style in my world. My family has circled round the cheese fondue pot every Christmas Eve since, well, the early 1970s. This year when we descended upon our cousin’s family in Washington, D.C., for Christmas we made sure we loaded up the fondue pots before making the drive from New England (we asked first, of course).

Table set for holiday fondue.

Few of our holiday traditions have persisted year to year, but a bubbling mass of Swiss cheese has held its steady place. If there is a fireplace or a wood stove, the logs get stoked and stirred as we assemble the small plates, the fondue forks, flour the cheese, and fill a large bowl with crusty French bread. We slice oranges to help everything slide down and maybe nibble on a pickle or two. (more…)

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Ratatouille

Posted in Main dish, tagged on October 13, 2009| 5 Comments »

This is a wonderful warm and simple dish that will fill your kitchen with a delicious aroma that sighs comfort on a brisk autumn evening.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille

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