Recipes
Chow Fun - lemongrass sausage, pea vines, mint
Created by James Beard Best Chef-nominee Rachel Yang, who with her husband, Seif Chirchi, owns three restaurants in Seattle (Joule, Trove, and Revel) and one in Portland (Revelry). My Rice Bowl - Korean cooking outside the lines is a cookbook with recipes taken from her Korean upbringing, but then influenced by various cultures and cuisines that she's been exposed to from around the world. She has taken the food memories from her childhood in Korea and added the global flavors she loves, as well as the culinary influence from her previous restaurant work (Per Se, Alain Ducasse). This has resulted in a unique and authentic fusion of food. In My Rice Bowl, she thoughtfully combines different flavors together and results in making Korean flavors more accessible to everyone: “It’s all about how I kind of take my traditional Korean palate and knowledge and then how I make it my own here in America…We like to think of it as unexpected and delicious first, and Korean second (or maybe even further down the line).” In the cookbook you’ll find favorites like the restaurants’ kimchi recipe but, also dishes such as seaweed noodles with crab and crème fraîche, tahini-garlic grilled pork belly, fried cauliflower with miso bagna cauda, chipotle-spiked pad thai, Korean-taco pickles, and the ultimate Korean fried chicken (served with peanut brittle shards for extra crunch). This book exemplifies cross-cultural cooking at its most gratifying, such as this take on Chow Fun. From the lemongrass sausage to the pea vines to the fresh mint. It's sure to satisfy your stomach and dazzle your taste buds.From the author: "With their light texture, rice-based chow fun noodles (sometimes spelled shao fen) are a natural match for the springy, green flavor of home made lemongrass sausage. Tossed with a loose mint and cilantro pesto, baby peas, and pea vines, this Trove favorite is the antithesis of a heavy noodle dish. We top it with our version of togarashi, the traditionally Japanese spice mixture that we blend with dried orange zest, to add just a hint of heat.Look for the wide, flat chow fun noodles in the produce section or the refrigerated section of a large Asian grocery store. Although they're sometimes sold already cut into half-inch strips, look for the kind that are packaged uncut, so you can cut them yourself into slightly wider strips, if possible. (They're impossible to tear apart when cold. If you purchase them refrigerated, reheat them in the microwave for about ten seconds at a time, until the noodles are soft and pliable.)If you'd like to break up the work for this recipe, make the sausage, pesto, and togarashi up to a day before serving, and refrigerate the first two, covered, until ready to use. We always assemble each serving individually at the restaurant, but at home, it's easier to do in two big batches in a large wok, using half the serving ingredients for each batch."
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Raw "Couscous" Cauliflower with Almonds, Dried Cherries, and Sumac
Winner of a James Beard Award Best Book in Vegetable-Focused Cooking and topping many "Best Cookbook of the Year" lists, Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables highlights the evolving attributes of vegetables throughout their growing seasons - from spring to early summer to midsummer to the abundant harvest of late summer, then ebbing into autumn and, the the earthy mellow sweetness of winter.Joshua McFadden, chef and owner of renowned trattoria Ava Gene’s in Portland, Oregon, is considered to be a "vegetable whisperer", and has learned to appreciate every part of the plant and how to get the best from vegetables at every stage of their lives. Each chapter begins with recipes featuring raw vegetables at the start of their season, progressing to sautés, pan roasts, braises, and stews. We think you'll enjoy this Raw "Couscous" Cauliflower with Almonds, Dried Cherries and Sumac - it tastes as good as it looks!From the author: "In this dish, I crumble the raw cauliflower so that it has the look and texture of couscous—it’s easy and unexpected and makes you think of cauliflower in a whole new way. If you can’t find dried tart cherries, use golden raisins or even chopped dried apricots; the idea is to have a sweet-tart and chewy element as contrast to the granular vegetable. And be sure to dress and season this salad generously. Underdressed, it risks being dry."
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Chole
We loved Chetna Makan on "Great British Bake Off" and her first cookbook, The Cardamom Trail was full of many flavorful and stunningly photographed dishes. For Chai, Chaat & Chutney: a street food tour through India, she returned home to India and the street food that she grew up on. The book has four chapters that are organized by cities that make up the four corners of India - Chennai, Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), Mumbai and Delhi. The fifth chapter? All masala and chutney recipes. Some recipes will look or sound familiar, others will not...but the photos and descriptions of the food will make you want to eat (or drink!) all of them. If you love Indian food or any form of street food, this is the cookbook for you! This recipe is a wonderful example how curries in the North of India use lots of fragrant and aromatic spices to make this mouth-watering vegetarian curry made with chickpeas.From the author: "One of the ultimate curries of the North, this chickpea curry is often paired with Bhatura, a deep-fried flatbread sold piping hot originally on the streets of Delhi but, now, all over the country. This combination should be on everyone’s must-try list when visiting India. You can keep it light by eating this curry with rice or chapatti, if preferred."
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Meatballs with Pumpkin & Spice Butter
With its location between the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia, Turkey has an amazingly rich and varied cuisine. For most of the past twenty years, Journalist Robyn Eckhardt and her photographer husband, David Hagerman, have traveled around Turkey tasting all of the country's most delicious dishes. Now they're sharing them with us in their wonderful cookbook, Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey. They first start in Istanbul, which is home to one of the world's great fusion cuisines. Then they travel to some of the lesser-known provinces, which feature cuisines influenced by neighboring Georgia, Syria, Armenia and Iran. These authentic and easy to follow recipes all come from local bakers, village home cooks, farmers, fishermen and café chefs. This Meatballs with Pumpkin & Spice Butter is an example of one of the many colorful and flavorful dishes found in this cookbook. We're sure that you'll fall in love with this cookbook just as much as we have.From the author: "For this warming dish from Hakkâri, delicate lamb of beef meatballs studded with ground rice are laid atop a bed of pumpkin chunks and then steam-simmered in a light tomato sauce. Before serving, the dish is drizzled with sizzling tomato butter seasoned with purple basil and red pepper flakes, which play off the richness of the meat and the sweetness of the pumpkin. I ate this dish at the home of Sehmur and Baran Kurt, in Hakkâri.A good meatball is light and tender, attributes achieved in Turkey by hand-chopping the meat, something even I am unwilling to undertake on a regular basis. But you can achieve a similar texture by spreading ground meat on a cutting board, sprinkling the seasonings over it, and cutting everything together with a knife. (This keeps the meat from turning into a paste, as it would if you mixed the ingredients in a food processor or by squeezing and kneading with your hands.) The process takes only about 5 minutes. Combine this technique with very light handling when you form the meatballs, and they'll end up tender.You must soak the rice for 1-1/2 hours before proceeding with the rest of the recipe, during which time you can peel, see, and slice the pumpkin and complete other prep work. The meatball mixture can be prepared ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator. Serve the dish with a simple cooked vegetable like spinach and plain Strained Yogurt. For a dinner party, give your guests an appetite-rousing preview by placing the pot in the middle of the table before pouring over the sizzling spice butter."
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Kofte Meatballs with Marash Yogurt Sauce
These lamb meatballs made with our Kofte Spice are a crowd pleaser, and are even more marvelous with Marash Chile Flakes and warm yogurt sauce. Sound exotic? It is! But they are easy to make and the seasonings have wide appeal. Serve them over your favorite grain pilaf or roll them out at your next cocktail party for a new take on everyones favorite hors d'oeurve.
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Pakhlava
Did you know that we are one of the few spice shops in the U.S. that carry Georgian spice blends? We love our Georgian blends, and Georgian food is so delicious! We are thrilled to feature a recipe from Olia Hercules' cookbook Kaukasis: A Culinary Journey through Georgia, and continue to revisit these amazing recipes. Full of stunning photographs evocative of the region, this book is a celebration, weaving personal narratives and recipes for a little known cuisine that combines European and Middle Eastern ingredients in ways that are fresh, new, and totally unexpected. Olia Hercules will take you on a culinary journey unlike any other. If you liked Mamushka, her Ukranian cookbook, you will love this book.From the author: "Pakhlava is a festive dish made for Novruz, the traditional celebration of the coming of spring in Azerbaijan, but it’s rarely prepared at home, since nuts are expensive and making thin pastry is rather laborious. However, it is a gorgeous thing, and if you like baking and making something new, this is a great way to spend an afternoon, especially if you are cooking with your loved ones. The recipe makes enough to last you a couple of weeks and to package up into gift boxes for friends and family."
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Khingal
We are so excited to feature another recipe from Olia Hercules' wonderful Georgian cookbook, Kaukasis: A Culinary Journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Beyond! Full of stunning photographs evocative of the region, this book is a celebration, weaving personal narratives and recipes for a little known cuisine that combines European and Middle Eastern ingredients in ways that are fresh, new, and totally unexpected. Olia Hercules will take you on a culinary journey unlike any other. If you liked her Ukranian cookbook Mamushka, you will love this book.From the author: "We often perceive comfort food as something lovely yet also a little bland, unassuming. It may not blow our minds with flavour, but it gives us that feeling of safe satiety. When I tried khingal in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, it was a complete revelation to me. It did all those things that comfort food does, except it also made my eyes widen as my mouth was filled with firm pasta, crispy aromatic lamb and milky, but also oh so fresh, sauce. And then there is the butter. Pasta, spice, butter, crispy meat bits, yogurt, herbs – this dish has every single component that makes me feel safe and yet also titillates my senses, what I imagine a perfect marriage may be like."
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Cheddar Cheese Coins
Appetizers aren't just for parties and gatherings. Whether you just want some snacks for watching tv or something to nibble on while catching up on that novel, this is the cookbook for you. The experts at Cook's Illustrated have put together 75 "only the best" appetizer recipes to help you find something for any time of the year. All-Time Best Appetizers Cookbook makes it easy to create a spread with everything from things that can be dipped, spread, eaten by the handful or two-bite treats. These Cheddar Cheese Coins, as well as their different variations, would be perfect for a wine and cheese plate or...just to snack on. From the authors: "Why this recipe works - When it comes to homemade crackers, you need a recipe that's easy, versatile, and packs a huge flavor punch. We wanted to come up with a simple, foolproof version that would be cheesy, buttery, and just a little spicy. We started with a full 8 ounces of cheese and a touch of salt, cayenne, and paprika. We used the food processor to combine the dry ingredients and the shredded cheese, which helped to keep the coins tender by limiting the handling of the dough. Adding a little cornstarch with the flour further ensured that the coins baked up flaky and buttery. We processed the dry ingredients with chilled butter until the mixture resembled wet sand, added water, and processed until the dough came together. Next, we rolled the dough into logs, refrigerated them until firm, and then sliced them into thin coins before baking until lightly golden and perfectly crisp. With this simple technique, it's easy to vary the cheese and flavorings used to suit any taste."
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African Peanut Soup with Grains of Paradise
This West African soup recipe combines sweet potatoes and peanut butter with Grains of Paradise. The flavors balance beautifully and are a wonderful showcase for this exotic spice. This mythical African spice has a mild peppery taste with floral top notes that hint at ginger and cardamom. The soup is creamy, mild and not at all heavy, making it a wonderful starter or side. Looking to make a meal? Check out our other African recipes for something to pair it with!
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