Hungry Again
eating is living

Aug

22

Tomato Papaya Salsa

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Papaya is a wonderfully versatile fruit, perhaps because it is not too sweet. Its ripe flavor is subtle, hinting at the subtropical mango and durian, but without the cloying sweetness that characterizes those fruits. Unripe, it is fantastic shredded and tossed with lime juice and nuoq mam, as in the Thai dish som tum or [...]

Jun

6

Avocado Strawberry Salad

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Strawberries are apparently not actually berries at all! OMG! THEY’RE NOT EVEN FRUITS! Well, horticulturally, anyway. Strictly speaking, a berry has seeds on the inside, whereas a strawberry has seeds on the outside. However, those little pips you can see attached to the outside of a strawberry are, again, strictly speaking, not really seeds. They’re [...]

May

10

Larb Gai

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This is an great little dish with plenty of interesting flavors to get your taste buds jumping. It’s my version of the Thai specialty, sometimes also called laab gai. “Gai” means chicken, but this is also good with pork. It’s best served barely warm, either on a bed of lettuce, or rolled up in a [...]

Mar

28

Chicken Salpicon

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I first had this dish in El Paso, Texas on a hot summer night. Arriving late at night at the home of an old El Pasoan after a day of dusty driving, I was welcomed with a huge Mexican ceramic bowl of salpicon and a stack of fresh, tender flour tortillas. Hungrily, gratefully, I spooned [...]

Jan

3

Beet Kraut

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This may be the simplest “recipe” I’ve ever posted, but it’s also one of my new favorites. In the great Venn diagram in the sky, the intersection of Set A (people who love sauerkraut) with Set B (people who love beets) may make a pretty small subset, but for those solitary folk, this recipe is [...]

Sep

22

Tomato-Lemon Gazpacho

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Well, our heirloom tomato season has peaked, and now the slow, sad falling action begins, as the baskets show up a little less bounteous at the farmers’ market. We begin to say goodbye to the Purple Cherokees, the Eve’s Purple Balls, the Green Zebras, the Black Krims. The late ripeners, Brandywines, however, are big & [...]

Sep

17

Lobster Potato Salad

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Lobsters’ lofty price seems to put them out of consideration for anything but exotic grand preparations like Thermidor or the traditional simplicity of boiled (or steamed) lobsters. Desiring lobster, but looking for something a little new, I decided to take an old picnic classic and tart it up with some lovely leftover lobster meat. I [...]

Sep

12

Eggplant Caviar

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The story with this dish, sometimes called mock caviar, is that Russians invented it for when they really really wanted some caviar, but couldn’t afford it. And if you focus on your knifework and get the mincing & dicing right, the consistency does sort of suggest caviar, with the eggplant providing the slick mouthfeel of [...]

Sep

8

Grilled Panzanella

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Purists might have a hard time calling this panzanella, but I’ve never been very pure. (Extra virgin at one time, but never pure.) Whatever you want to call it, it’s a fantastic way to enjoy these last few weeks of summer by hanging out in the back yard, listening to the cicadas sing their deathsong, [...]

Jul

17

Smoked Chicken Salad

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This is one of my favorite picnic dishes. The interplay of rich, smoky chicken with sweet & crunchy apples & celery is irresistible. If you don’t have a water smoker, think about getting one. It’s really easy to set up and great if you love smoked meats & seafood.  The idea is that it smokes [...]

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