Dairy Free

Radish and Green Gem Couscous

As summertime approaches, I’m thinking more and more about deviating from my standard winter plate paradigm: protein, veg, veg. (That second veg is often a potato in some form, but I digress.) Like most people, I tend to reach for lighter options when it’s warm outside, and this dovetails nicely with the lovely herbs and vegetables available at the market these days.

I’m currently entertaining an enduring knackering for little green gems in all forms–favas beans, English peas, snap peas, etc. I’m also eating radishes with almost every meal; as a sliver of color and bite in salads, stirred into scrambled eggs and mellowed by heat, or simply with butter and flaky salt on hot toast. Combine this with my relatively new discovery of Israeli (or pearl) couscous, and you have the inspiration for this recipe. Read more »

Spring Soup

After months and months of the same old, same old at the market—the same ruddy sweet potatoes, the same crinkled white onions—these days it’s flush with new gems all the time, and I am unapologetically thrilled about it. Last week I collected peach blossom branches (note: peach blossom branches do not fit into bicycle baskets; you will look clumsy all the way home), and this week I scooped up bundles of perfumed lilacs, to fill every available ledge of my apartment.

Broccolini arrived this week, which I plan to boil in salty water until it just yields, and then toss lovingly with olive oil and Pecorino. There are a multitude of baby lettuces to consider, not to mention the asparagus I will barely roast and toss with lemon juice or egg yolk. And what about radishes? They should be sliced thinly and strewn across buttery toast, sprinkled with sea salt…. It’s a good time to be a cook. Read more »

Maple Turkey and Duck Bacon Club

Every Sunday, I try to visit the small, varied and excellent green market in Carroll Park. It’s an easy bike ride from my apartment, and I get to sort through purple lettuces and spicy links of chorizo and dirt-flecked mushrooms. Then I pedal home and make lunch. It is my very favorite weekend activity.

This past week, I found some slender cherry blossom branches. All the buds were closed at first, but almost as soon as I put them in water, they started blooming. Now my apartment is full of little pink flowers. Despite the cold snap in New York this week, it is spring in my apartment. Read more »

Pork Loin with Cider-Braised Leeks and Apples

Like all the best recipes, this pork looks like more effort than it actually is.  There are no fancy techniques here, no sudden movements. This dish will forgive you if you get distracted and walk away from the stove for a minute. Still, it looks pretty nice all plated up, either family-style on a serving platter or on individual dishes.

The best part? The whole thing is done in an hour, so it’s certainly manageable on a weeknight. You can use the final 20 minutes of cooking to throw together a salad, some potatoes or some other tasty root vegetable. Or you could pour yourself a glass of wine. Why not? It’s cold outside. You deserve it. Read more »

Foie Gras au Gros Sel

My boyfriend and I are currently spending our second Christmas together at his family’s seaside home on the western coast of France. (I know, I have a really terrible life). We have only been here one day, but already I find myself one luscious recipe richer. Tonight we leave for his grandmother’s house, where I am hoping even more recipes await. Oh, they joys of Christmas!

While it might be shameful to admit, before last night, I never considered that one could prepare foie gras at home. I thought surely it was one of those things rendered by magical elves with fantastic meat-related powers. Surely it required chicken wire and microscopes and a secret family formula jealously guarded over five centuries. Read more »

Black Bean, Avocado and Pineapple Salsa

What is one to do when a fragrant pineapple and a tender avocado present themselves? Salsa seemed like a good option to me. I am a fan of this recipe for various reasons—first, I think it tastes pretty great. It is also breezy to pull together, helpful in the summer when there are far more pleasant occupations than loitering in a hot kitchen. It is also full of protein, fiber and antioxidants. So far, I have served it with halibut, swordfish and tuna, but I suspect chicken and pork would also marry happily. It tastes better after the ingredients have spent some time together, so feel free to bring it along to a BBQ, a picnic or camping. Read more »

Blood Orange and Ginger Summer Punch

This summer has been hot. Really, really hot. To conquer the heat, punch happens to be tremendously thirst quenching—especially when imbibed outside in the shade, preferably with a group of friends. And while I currently live in a one-bedroom city apartment instead of say, a charming cottage with a sprawling, verdant veranda….no matter. I built a cocktail around two of my new favorite beverages—Italian blood orange juice and Fresh Ginger’s Original Ginger Ale. The orange juice hails from Sicily, where at the base of Mt. Etna volcanic soil aids the growth of the fruit. It is sourer than regular orange juice, and vibrantly colored. The ginger ale is made with real ginger, so it has a satisfying, almost spicy bite. These two ingredients are paired with lime and, for the adult version, liquor. For mine, I used ginger vodka, but you could use another kind vodka or rum, if you prefer. Read more »

French Vinaigrette

The first time I visited my boyfriend’s family home, nestled in a fishing village on the west coast of France, summer was fully underway. Lettuces, tomatoes and radishes grown in the communal garden next door routinely made their way onto the table. It was the first time I was asked to wash lettuce that came not from a bag at the supermarket, but instead directly from the ground. It was also the first time I experienced dressing made from scratch. “Surely,” I thought, “making a batch of dressing every single time you want a salad is simply too laborious to sustain.” Not so. You can whip up a vinaigrette in a matter of minutes, and this basic recipe is almost endlessly adaptable. Particularly now, as I am more and more conscious of trying to eat foods whose ingredients I can pronounce, it seems silly to buy commercial dressing when it can be made so easily at home. Read more »