When it’s really hot and appetite flags a cooling bowl of yogurt can be all you need. This combination, taken from the Persian kitchen is halfway between Mast-o-Khiar the cucumber-yogurt dip that accompanies many dishes and an Ash-e-Mast or yogurt soup. In my version I use full fat Indian yogurt from my local spice shop but any full fat yogurt without any additives will do. Strauss yogurt is wonderful if you can find it. Go full fat and your dish will have a lovely texture but also satisfy that heat induced peckish feeling. I throw a kitchen sink of crisp, cooling and flavorful ingredients into the yogurt. There…Continue reading »
My Japanese cooking adventure continues. It’s lovely to have someone to cook for every night, especially someone as sweet and encouraging as my student roommate Miku. Given the heat I figured that she might appreciate a bowl of cold udon. Now that my pantry is stocked with Japanese basics it’s so easy to put together. You can buy udon frozen that’s decent, but I have a giant bin of flour and feet (that’s how you knead the dough) so I’ve been making it. One of my online mentors is Nami from Just One Cookbook. So far everything I’ve made using her recipes has received the thumbs up from…Continue reading »
It happened that Good Food was nominated for a Beard Award and I found myself in NYC with an unbooked Saturday. I remembered a New York Times article I read on League of Kitchens, a unique organization that offers cooking classes taught by immigrant home cooks. I reached out to to the League to see if I could slip into a Japanese Immersion class. Even the name is perfect. Immersion like language, my language, food. Founder Lisa Gross and program manager Sonya Kharas were welcoming and so helpful. Each class is five hours long and has only six students, a perfect experience for jumping into a new cuisine. I’ve said…Continue reading »
