Recipe: Classic Stuffed Shells — Make-and-Take Recipes from Casey Barber

You don’t have to be Italian to appreciate the bake-and-serve simplicity of a big plate of stuffed shells. It’s the kind of Sunday supper that transcends tradition to make everyone happy. So when you’ve got a whole mess of people to feed, this is the dish that benefits both host and guests. There’s no unexpected additions of spinach to keep picky eaters away, and no hidden meat, so vegetarians will be happy. (Although that’s not to say you couldn’t sub in some sautéed greens or sausage if you wanted!)

READ MORE »

White Rice: A Love Story — Life in the Kitchen

I didn’t always love white rice. Raised on my Southern grandmother’s cooking, I grew up thinking of rice as an “instant” food — something Grandmother Maye dumped on the plate next to my pork chop on those nights when she didn’t have time to make mashed potatoes. White rice constituted a cheap, bland filler, made interesting only once or twice a year, when Maye indulged her Cajun roots and dished it up with chicken gumbo.

But my feelings changed during the year I spent in Hyderabad, India, where rice is so essential to daily life that friends greet each other with the question, “Have you had your rice today?” There I discovered that white rice can be prepared dozens of ways and paired with hundreds of accompaniments — and that eating rice, simple and unadorned, can keep you alive through emotional or physical illness.

READ MORE »

hot and sour soup

hot and sour soup

For someone who was all “Harrumph! Cacio e Pepe Does Not Contain Cheddar Cheese.” a few weeks ago, I have some nerve telling you what I’m going to next, which is that I’m pretty smitten with an unapologetically “100% Inauthentic!”-boasting cookbook, the celebration of American-Asian cuisine that is 101 Easy Asian Recipes from the editors of Lucky Peach magazine. There are recipes for “Mall Chicken,” for Rotisserie Ramen, Dollar Dumplings, Miso Claypot Chicken (No Claypot), and then, the recipe in the dessert section that’s going to make you shut the book and never look back again, that for sliced oranges. You know, like the kind they put out at Chinatown restaurants at the end of a meal.

what you'll need, plus some eggs
prepped out

But wait, hear me out. The miso claypot chicken can be made in a rice-cooker, as in, while you are at work, ready when you get home. In fact, the rice-cooker is one of only two specialty cooking items they recommend, that and a wok, and you can make all of the dishes with neither. The rotisserie ramen makes use of not just the pickings, but the carcass of a storebought bird to make a more robust broth. The dollar dumplings, guys, they’re hilarious: “Even if your first dumpling is fugly, the fortieth will be respectable looking, and by your hundredth you’ll be muttering under your breath in Chinese, wondering when the mah-jongg game is gonna get started.” Oh, and, “Sauceless dumplings are like the crying-on-the-inside kind of clowns; they look the part but something important is missing.” The orange slices? Apparently, this is more of a thing than I thought; Joanne Chang steps in to explain that meals with company were always ended with fruit. Baked goods are for daytime meals, with tea.

pork, scallions, ginger, garlic, yes

… Read the rest of hot and sour soup on smittenkitchen.com


© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. |
permalink to hot and sour soup | 37 comments to date | see more: Chinese, Meat, Mushrooms, Photo, Quick, Soup

23 Romantic Recipes to Make for Someone You Love (Including Yourself) — Recipes from The Kitchn

Skip the hustle for dinner reservations this Valentine’s Day and spend the night in making a delicious meal for the ones you love.

Whether it’s your spouse, significant other, best friend, group of friends, or just yourself, you can’t go wrong with any of these romantic recipes. And, of course, make sure there’s plenty of fancy wine.

READ MORE »