Food and Crafts for All Occasions

Marinated Green Beans, Vietnamese Style

This is not a traditional Vietnamese recipe, but rather my play with Vietnamese ingredients. Quite a successful play, I should say. These beans turn out really mind blowing: slightly sweet and tart, and spicy, and savory, and packed with umami.

Best Ever Simmered Corn with Chipotle & Cumin Butter, Cotija Cheese, and Green Onions

Even though the local corn season will only start somewhere in mid-July, devoted corn fans in Seattle should be happy right now since most of the supermarkets offer quite nice Mexican corn. And for a reasonable price, about 50 cents per cob or so. So if you missed this somehow, it would be a good time to run to the store and grab some.

The secret to a great simmered corn on a cob lies in seasoning the water you cook it in. Two ingredients go in there, salt and sugar in equal amounts.

Dinner: Pan Seared Duck Breast with Balsamic Pearl Onions, Sauteed Fennel and Pureed Cannellini Beans

As a rule, I serve our dinners family style so that everyone can help themselves to what they like and in the amounts they like. This way, nobody is compelled to eat what they don’t want to; food doesn’t get wasted and guests don’t have to feel embarrassed if they didn’t finish something on their plates or took 2

But once in a while, when there’s just two of us, we like to play restaurant and have our meals thoughtfully matched and plated. Like the other night, when I served pureed cannellini beans and sautéed fennel with a pan-seared duck breast with pearl onions in balsamic sauce and crispy fried sage.

Borsch (or Sweet and Sour Soup, Russian Style)

What is your favorite Russian dish? Questions of the kind “what is your favorite something” have always puzzled me. Are you kidding? In my forties (just like in my thirties, twenties, but unlike in my teens, however) I cannot single out any particular writer, book, band, movie, restaurant or food that I would call my favorite. I do enjoy variety.

Surprisingly though, in Russian cuisine, with all its diversity and complexity, I can name one dish as my all-time number one favorite. Yes, it’s in the title of this post; it is borsch.

Hearty Kale and Bean Soup with Italian Sausage

This simple soup turned out a great hit at our recent Society lunch. I've never heard so many ravings about a soup before, and being a devoted soup lover myself I'm happy to share the recipe.

To my taste, kale and beans are a perfect match. Red kale and fava beans in puff pastry turnovers. Sautéed green kale and garbanzo beans as a side for grilled sardines. This time it is green kale and cannellini beans in a soup with mildly spicy Italian sausage.

Beans in Tomato Sauce wit Cinnamon and Fresh Dill

These beans seemed to be quite popular at our last Society lunch. I myself happen to be a big fan of this Greek inspired dish. I make it using either cannellini or garbanzo beans, though the Greeks, I believe, would take large white beans called Gigandes, which are, unfortunately, are not available in our stores yet.

Hearty and Fragrant Stew with Pork, Chorizo, Butter Beans and Kale or My Take on Spanish Fabada Asturiana

This wonderfully fragrant dish was inspired by Spanish fabada. Fabada Asturiana is a thick stew made of large white beans, pork (sometimes salted) and chorizo sausage and often spiced with smoked paprika and saffron.  Sort of cassoulet, Spanish style.

Grits with Spicy Creole Prawns and Poached Eggs

It was pouring elephants and whales yesterday and instead of the planned grilling I went for the southern comfort food, prawns and grits. Or, more specifically, prawns in hot tomato sauce, seasoned with Creole spices on a bed of creamy grits, cooked with milk, chicken stock and lots of goat gouda. For the finishing touch, I topped all of this with a poached egg. After taking several bites, accompanied by the rolling eyes and smacking lips, Ilya finally declared the dish a masterpiece. And it wasn't bad, really.

Arugula Salad with Fresh Garbanzos, Radishes and Lemon Dressing

Here’s one of the easiest to make and very refreshing green salads. My recent favorite. There's something in the combination of sharp arugula, crunchy juicy radishes, sweet garbanzo beans and  tart refreshing dressing that makes this salad particularly good in the summer. Though I don't mind having it in other seasons as well.

Puff Pastry Turnovers with Lamb and Curried Potato Fillings

Despite all my proclaimed love to cooking from scratch, I have no problem with occasional semi-homemade cooking, i.e. using some commercial foods like cooked beans, frozen puff pastry or fresh pasta when I don’t have time to make them myself.

For these turnovers, I used good quality store bought puff pastry from Aussie Bakery, which saved at least a couple of hours of my time while giving very satisfying results. For the fillings, I used ground lamb, sautéed with fenugreek and mashed potatoes with curry powder and green peas.

Mussels with Andouille Sausage, Fennel and Garbanzos in Vermouth, Paprika and Saffron Broth

With some foods, it can take me several attempts to start to appreciate their flavor. Like it happened with raw oysters and soft goat cheese, of which I cannot get enough now. With others, it is love from the first bite. Like it was with steamed mussels.

Sautéing: Moroccan Style Chicken Breast with Pureed Garbanzo Beans

I believe that sautéing is the best cooking technique for a busy weekday dinner. In mere minutes, hot, delicious, restaurant-worthy meal is ready to the joy of hungry family.

Morel Mushrooms Sautéed with Asparagus or Green Peas

Hurry, hurry, guys! Morels are in season right now. I won’t lie to you, they are quite pricey - around $50 at Whole Foods and $40 at Central Market – but the good news is, being hollow inside, they are very lightweight, and you don’t need that many of them because of their strong earthy flavor. Today, for dinner for two us, we needed less than a quarter of a pound.