Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Prime Time for Asparagus with Cannellini Beans, Creamy Tarragon Vinaigrette & Pickled Mustard Seeds

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Jazz up your asparagus game with a perfect cooking technique, plus flavorful garnishes.
Jazz up your asparagus game with a perfect cooking technique, plus flavorful garnishes.

When it comes to asparagus, I typically prefer grilling or roasting whole spears because the high heat caramelizes them, bringing their natural sweetness to the forefront.

But Katie Reicher, executive chef of pioneering Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, has taught me another method, one with impeccable timing that renders the spears yielding yet not droopy, and tender but with still a little bite.

Her way is pan-steaming, complete with a genius move — blitzing the tough asparagus ends that are usually discarded with a little water in a blender instead to create the cooking liquid. It gets poured into a ripping hot pan with the asparagus, where it steams and simmers before evaporating and leaving them perfectly done.

Not only are you not wasting any part of the pricey asparagus this way, but you’re imparting more flavor, too.

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Saucy Miso Roasted Turnips and Radishes

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Roasted turnips and radishes, plus their green tops, in a delectable sauce.
Roasted turnips and radishes, plus their green tops, in a delectable sauce.

My cousin’s wife, Mayjane, is a true sauce fanatic. So much so that’s she’s been known to ask a server to scrape up the last tablespoonfuls of sauce from a seemingly-empty restaurant dish to deposit in a doggy bag to savor the next day at home.

As such, I have no doubt that she would got nuts for the buttery, tangy, umami-bomb of a sauce that triumphs in “Miso Roasted Turnips and Radishes.” Without question, the rest of you will, too.

This easy side dish is from “Warm Your Bones” (Union Square & Co., 2024), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Vanessa Seder, a food writer and culinary instructor, who was a long-time teacher at the Stonewall Kitchen headquarters in Maine.

Although the book’s subtitle is “Cozy Recipes for Chilly Days and Winter Nights,” most of the recipes can be enjoyed year-round. That includes “Nutty Homemade Sourdough Parmesan Crackers with White Bean, Sun-Dried Tomato, and Sage Dip,” “Roasted Cauliflower Steak Sandwiches with Hard Boiled Eggs and Herby Olive Oil Yogurt on Flatbreads,” “Spicy Fideos with Seafood,” and “Banana Maple Bundt Cake with Creme Fraiche Glaze.”

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Savor Greek-Style Chicken Stew Over Pasta

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It may look Italian. But this pasta dish is Greek all the way.
It may look Italian. But this pasta dish is Greek all the way.

Italian bucatini goes Greek when tossed with a tomato sauce imbued with the warmth of paprika, cumin, nutmeg and cloves.

Nestled with a tender chicken thigh simmered in the same sauce, it’s a hearty dish that transports you to the sunny Mediterranean from the get-go.

“Chicken Stew over Pasta (Pastitsada) is from the cookbook, “Yassou” (Artisan, 2024), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Shaily Lipa, a best-selling cookbook writer in Israel, who is of Greek and Turkish heritages.

In Greek, “yassou” is a customary way to wish one good health. With the Mediterranean diet long touted for its healthful ingredients, the recipes in this book make it ever so easy to include more such dishes in our everyday eating.

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Eggs and Bacon — Japanese-Style

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This savory veggie Japanese pancake gets garnished with Kewpie mayo, tonkatsu sauce, bonito flakes, nori, and scallions.
This savory veggie Japanese pancake gets garnished with Kewpie mayo, tonkatsu sauce, bonito flakes, nori, and scallions.

After two trips to Japan, I have grown even more enamored of the cuisine — if that’s even possible.

Not just of the fancy kaiseki meals prepared with overarching reverence. Nor just the basic, mind-boggling cheap convenience store foods that have no business being as fresh and delicious as they are. But also of the simple, soulful homey dishes that are as far from flashy as you can get.

“Buckwheat Okonomiyaki with Eggs and Bacon” is one such dish.

This savory pancake is from “Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024) of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Sonoko Sakai, a Los Angeles-based cooking teacher and food writer with quite the career arc. Born in New York, she started working as a film buyer and independent movie producer. In 2009, though, she made a 180-degree turn, journeying to Tokyo to study soba noodle making. When she returned to the United States, she became a culinary instructor and food writer specializing in Japanese cooking — and never looked back.

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Baked Cornmeal with Sour Cream, Cheese and Eggs — From the Danube

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Polenta turns extra rich and creamy when baked with sour cream and beaten eggs.
Polenta turns extra rich and creamy when baked with sour cream and beaten eggs.

It has inspired painters, writers, and composers including Beethoven, Schubert, and Strauss. The romanticized Danube is the second-longest river in Europe, connecting 10 countries, including Romania Serbia, and Bulgaria.

It is also the focus of the eponymous cookbook, “Danube: Recipes and Stories from Eastern Europe” (Hardie Grant, 2024) of which I received a review copy.

It is the third cookbook by Irina Georgescu, a Romanian food writer and James Beard Award-winning cookbook author.

It’s a collection of more than 80 recipes that illuminate the charm and everyday cooking of the Danube’s diverse food cultures, with dishes such as “Leek and Rice Pie,” “Fisherman’s Soup,” “Millet and Mushroom Stuffed Vine Leaves,” and “Strawberries with Rose Water and Creme Anglaise.”

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