Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

I have grown to quite appreciate the Japanese concept of unami—the fifth flavor group alongside salty, sour, bitter, and sweet. Umami is one of those things that makes intuitive sense when you learn about it, but which you had perhaps never really thought of before. It explains why some foods are almost seductive when you eat them, almost orgasmic with their savoriness.

The unami flavor—powerful, unexplainable, mysterious, and delicious—is associated with a variety of foods including meats, tomatoes, seafood, cheeses, and soy.

In the following recipe for chicken noodle soup, soy and dashi help to elevate the dish above the conventional recipe you may have grown up with.

I initially made this recipe when I was trying to think of something to make for my aunt's upcoming visit. My aunt has become more flexible over time, since she used to be terribly rigid with what sort of food she would eat, but she still doesn't tend to favor the typically rich, meaty dishes I often make. Chicken soup is the type of fare she generally prefers, but I decided to add soy and dashi for an extra umami boost.

So the path was set to make Japanese-style chicken soup, and what a success it was! The broth was rich and seductive, the chicken and noodles were soothing, and the vegetables provided green and refreshing notes. And it's all so quick and easy to prepare—just around 30 minutes or so—making it perfect for a delicious and satisfying weeknight meal.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces soba noodles
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds chicken, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup soy suace
• 2 ounces dashi bouillon cubes
• 1 bok choi, chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1/2 onion, peeled and diced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried ginger
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 cup sake

Instructions

1. Fill a very large stockpot with around 5 quarts of water. Add a few pinches of salt and bring to a boil.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the dashi bouillon, soy sauce, red pepper, ginger, garlic salt, and sake. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over it and mix thoroughly so that they all dissolve together.
3. Add the chicken into the boiling stockpot water, followed by the onions, then the carrots, then the noodles, and then by the various flavorings which had been mixed with the dissolved water. After 2-3 over high heat, add the bok choi and reduce heat to a simmer.
4. Cook for at least 10-15 minutes longer or up to 30 minutes to provide for tenderness, then serve hot with green onions as garnish.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Not long ago, I made pineapple jam for pineapple biscotti. The great thing about this jam—which comes from a French cooking show, La Cuisine des mousquetaires, or the Musketeers' Cooking, a great French historical cooking show that features some superbly tasty 17th-century recipes—is how it lasts a long time. This means I have the chance to experiment with it more!

With my remaining pineapple jam, I decided to try incorporating it into crème brûlée.

Crème brûlée, despite its elegant and refined nature, is actually a surprisingly simple dish to make. It has a wonderfully creamy texture that contrasts with the crunchy crisp sugar on top that is torched or broiled to form a hard shell that a spoon punches through. It is also wonderfully fruity, with rich notes from the rum added into it, and with zesty, lively tones from the pineapple and lime. It is a perfect dessert for a nice occasion—easy to make, storable in advance, and wonderfully elegant.

These qualities could also describe the pineapple jam itself, as it was probably quite the status symbol in the 17th century. In an era of colonialism, exploration, and tropical discovery, pineapple was one of the most beloved fruits, as can be seen by the prestige associated with it in constructions like Scotland's Dunmore Pineapple, a pineapple-themed building constructed in the 18th century. So continue on this legacy of the glamour of the pineapple and make a pineapple crème brûlée!

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

For the pineapple jam:

• 1 pineapple
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crème brûlée:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup dark rum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup + 4 tablespoons sugar
• 6 egg yolks

Instructions

1. Make the pineapple jam: Remove the exterior of a pineapple and the hard core of the fruit. Chop the remaining fruit into small pieces. In a bowl, add the chopped fruit, juice of limes or lime juice, and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
2. After the 24 hours, place the pineapple-sugar mixture into a saucepan. Over low heat, cook for 50 minutes; then mash until it is reasonably smooth and broken down. Then transfer it to a blender or purée to achieve a smooth texture.
3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine together the cream, rum, and 1/2 of the pineapple jam. Cook over medium heat until the pineapple jam has fully dissolved with the rest of the ingredients, while not boiling, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine 6 egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Use a hand mixer to mix them until they have attained a thick, pale yellow consistency.
5. Add in 1/4 of the hot cream mixture from the saucepan, and after this pour all of the ingredients from the mixing bowl back into the saucepan. Ladle the custard into ramekins, which should fill up 5 or 6 of them. Place these ramekins into a casserole dish and fill up half way around their side with hot water.
6. Place into a preheated oven for 60 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. After they have finished cooking, allow to cool, then place into a refrigerator, covered.
7. When ready to serve, sprinkle the 4 tablespoons of sugar over the top of the ramekins, and use either a broiler or an oven torch to caramelize them. Be careful not to burn them - my broiler tends to be entirely too effective and so mine became more burned than I wished! Serve shortly.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Biscotti are one of my family's favorite cookies. They are simply delightful with their crunchy, satisfying texture, and wonderful to serve with a nice cup of tea. Dunk them in, swirl them around, let them absorb the heat, the flavor, the liquid—then crunch! Dreadfully addictive too, since they are that size where you can simply keep popping one after another into your mouth.

Store-bought biscotti are often terribly dry, lacking in flavor, bland, and unappetizing. But there's no reason why biscotti have to be like that. This recipe is one that I hope will change your mind.

The pineapple flavor of these biscotti is delicate and aromatic. The recipe is not that hard to make either; the dough comes together easily enough, and while they have to be removed, sliced, turned over, and put back in the oven several times, there's plenty of flex time when they are out of the oven. And once done, they keep splendidly—if you don't eat them all immediately!

This recipe is entirely my own, although I based it on my recipe for lemon and rose biscotti.

Ingredients

For the pineapple jam:

• 1 pineapple
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the biscotti:

• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pineapple jam (see above)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

1. Make the pineapple jam: Remove the exterior of a pineapple and the hard core of the fruit. Chop the remaining fruit into small pieces. In a bowl, add the chopped fruit, juice of limes or lime juice, and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
2. After the 24 hours, place the pineapple-sugar mixture into a saucepan. Over low heat, cook for 50 minutes; then mash until it is reasonably smooth and broken down. Then transfer it to a blender or purée to achieve a smooth texture.
3. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: sugar, baking powder, salt, and flour. Mix with a blender on low speed.
4. Microwave the butter until it is soft. Beat it into the dry ingredients, and then add the eggs and 1 cup of pineapple jam. If it is too moist and wet, add in additional flour and/or sugar. It should be rich and damp but not liquid.
5. Roll this out on the counter into three long logs (I used 2 above in the photos due to lack of flour producing an excessively wet dough), each one flat in shape and around 1 1/2 inches wide, slightly less tall, and however long one can get the dough to stretch. Place onto a baking sheet with substantial space between each log, so that they have space to expand.
6. Place into an oven that is preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 25 minutes. Then remove, allow to cool for several minutes, and slice diagonally into the biscotti cookies. Arrange on their flat faces, and bake 10 minutes longer at the same temperature, then allow to cool, shift onto the other side, and bake a final 10 minutes. They keep quite well and make for delicious cookies.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

One of the first recipes that I posted on Delishably, and which I continue to make regularly, is Rustic French Pork and Prunes. It is one of my favorites, as pork works wonderfully with sweet flavors.

On its own, pork is somewhat bland, and it lacks beef's inherent wonderful meaty flavor. On the other hand, pork has the advantage—rather like chicken—of being great at picking up flavor. In the pork and prunes recipe, the pork picks up the concentrated flavor of wine and chicken stock, as well as delicate French herbs, and then receives a wonderful jolt of sweetness from the prunes.

But in the eternal quest to use up stuff that has been accumulating in the refrigerator, one of the things that I happened upon was the idea of using up a Chinese plum sauce. Plum is another flavor that matches superbly with pork. Not only that, but I have found that sauteeing pork in sauces is a great way to lock the flavor. So my mind sprung to the idea of using the plum sauce to give an additional sweetness to it, while also pairing apricots as a fruit, since I thought prunes would be too similar to plums in terms of flavor.

The result, I thought, more than spoke for itself. It had a deep, rich, almost haunting flavor produced the inclusion of heavy cream, married to a nice sweetness of the pork infused with the plum flavor, the richness of stock and reduced wine, the savory onions which pervade it all—and all so tender, so easy to eat! It is particularly great over rice or another grain that allows the sauce to soak into it.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds pork
• 12 apricots, quartered
• 2/3 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 onions, peeled and diced
• 8 ounces plum sauce
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Chop the meat into the desired size. I would recommend 1-inch to 2-inch cubes, as this would provide for the greatest capacity for the meat to absorb the sauce, but noisettes or larger sizes work as well. Salt and pepper.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until it is shimmering, then add in the meat cubes. Saute on both sides until browned, then add in the plum sauce and continue to cook for around 1 minute while moving the pork cubes around constantly to work in the plum flavor. Transfer the meat to a bowl.
3. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over high heat in the skillet; then put in the diced onions. Cook until they are soft but only starting to turn brown. Add the wine, bring to a boil, and simmer 2 minutes. Add thyme, bay leaf, and stock. Return to the boil; then simmer for 10 minutes, or until reduced to half.
4. Add the quartered apricots, meat, and cream. Simmer lightly for 8 minutes. If one wants, it can absorb the sauce for an additional period, then heated again finally at the end. Serve over rice or another grain to soak up the sauce.

Comments

Ryan Thomas (author) from Eureka, California on July 13, 2021:

Yes, it is always a pleasure to cook new recipes for me and my family. I hope you enjoy this one!

Devika Primić from Dubrovnik, Croatia on July 13, 2021:

Sweet pork sounds delicious. You sound like you enjoy cooking

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Lychee is a delightfully sweet, tropical fruit—to me it tastes a bit like melon crossed with a much sweeter, more acidic flavor. I've had two big cans of lychees stashed away in the cupboard for what must be a few years now, so when I was trying to figure out what kind of pie to make for a coworker's birthday, the idea of incorporating this fruit sprang to mind.

One of my favorite pies that I've made recently calls for pineapple jam—an odd-sounding thing from a French 1980s and '90s TV show entitled La cuisine des Mousquetaires (The Food of the Musketeers) that I'd stumbled upon on Youtube. For my coworker's birthday, I decided to combine pineapple jam with banana and lychee.

The result was deliciously tropical, sweet but not overpowering, nicely citrus but balanced. With a rich buttery crust, flaky and sweet, and a topping of cinnamon-flavor graham crackers, you can't go wrong! While it is somewhat laborious and difficult to make, since it requires well over a day of various processes and multiple steps, I think it is well worth it.

This recipe is based upon my recipe for a vibrant pineapple, strawberry, and mango pie.

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 1 pineapple
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 bananas
• 1 (20-ounce can) lychee
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 6 egg yolks

For the crust:

• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons whipping cream

Graham cracker topping:

• 2 graham crackers
• 2 tablesoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Make the pineapple jam (the pie filling): Remove the exterior of a pineapple and the hard core of the fruit. Chop the remaining fruit into small pieces. In a bowl, add the chopped fruit, juice of limes or lime juice, and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
2. After the 24 hours, place the pineapple-sugar mixture into a saucepan. Over low heat, cook for 50 minutes; then mash until it is reasonably smooth and broken down. Once it is cool, add in the milk and egg yolks and beat until everything is combined into a smooth mixture. (For a firmer pie, add less milk.)
3. Make the crust: Allow the butter to reach room temperature (or microwave it to warm it up). In a small bowl, combine the butter, flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt. Beat until it comes together in little balls. Then add the whipping cream and create a smooth ball.
4. Either roll this out or place it directly into a large 10-inch pie dish, and flute the edges delicately. Poke holes in it with a fork and place it into a 350-degree F oven for 10 minutes, with aluminum foil over it. Then remove the aluminum foil and cook another 10 minutes.
5. Once this has cooled, place the bananas, peeled and sliced, and the litchis, with their juice drained, into the pie crust. Then add in the pineapple filling to cover it and make sure it is well distributed.
6. Place this into the oven again at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes. When it is removed, place the graham cracker crumble over it, with two graham crackers that have been crumbled and mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar, sprinkling it over the top of the pie.
7. Place the pie back into the oven at 350 degrees F for another 15 minutes. Allow it to cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and perhaps add whipped cream.

Comments

MG Singh emge from Singapore on June 18, 2021:

I love these fruits and the pie recipe you have given looks exciting I think will ask my GF to try it, thank you for a wonderful article.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

I have really been into making panna cotta recently. It is such a wonderful dessert for the hot summer weather, when the sultry days melt into warm evenings. On these nights I crave something light, elegant, and refreshing—and panna cotta fits the bill exactly!

It has a refined and subtle flavor, and the creamy and silky interior makes it a wonderful joy to eat. In this watermelon version, the sweetness of the sugar helps to accentuate the watermelon, and the fruity combination is lovely. Watermelon is my mother's favorite fruit, and so it is definitely something that she appreciates, especially since this recipe enables one to make use of even relatively low-quality watermelon!

Somewhat surprisingly, I have found that panna cotta is exceptionally easy to make: just a simple process of combining some milk with gelatin, heating up cream and flavorings, pouring in the milk, some vanilla, and voilà! All you have to do is cool and set it, and it's ready to eat.

Since we haven't had any whipped cream on hand, I've enjoyed putting powdered sugar and various fruits on top. I've been adding blueberries, but I'm sure that any host of fruits, banana, strawberries, maybe even just some sliced watermelon, would go wonderfully with it.

I based this recipe on my honeydew panna cotta recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups watermelon
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 package gelatin
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Cut a watermelon into slices or in half. Using a spoon, scoop out watermelon flesh until you have around 2 cups. Put it into a blender and purée until smooth.
2. Put milk and gelatin in a small bowl and allow to set.
3. In a medium saucepan over high heat, heat the cream, watermelon purée, and the sugar until it begins to boil. Then add in the milk, and over medium heat continue to cook until it starts to boil again. Then remove from heat.
4. Add in vanilla extract into the liquid, and then pour it into 6 ramekins. Allow the ramekins to cool to room temperature, before putting them into a refrigerator, covered with something on top. Cool for at least 4 hours and up until overnight, this will allow them to set. Don't allow the covering to brush up against them as this will prevent full setting.
5. Serve either plain or with toppings like whipped cream, powdered sugar, or fruit garnishes.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

It has been a long time since I made panna cotta, but I still remember how wonderfully creamy, refreshing, and delightfully elegant they are. So when I was trying to think of new dessert recipes to make, my mind went back to panna cotta—but why not try something new?

My mother loves honeydew melon, so I thought about trying a honeydew panna cotta. It seemed like it would be a perfect pairing: elegant, light, fruity, and simple.

And it was! Honeydew worked exceptionally well for panna cotta because the panna cotta's mellow flavor allows the melon to shine through. The overall texture is very light, making it wonderfully refreshing. It is a great palette cleanser after a rich meal, and it would be splendid on a hot summer evening.

I'd suggest serving it with garnished fruit, powdered sugar, or whipped cream. I needed to use up some blueberries, so we put them on top and really enjoyed their addition to the recipe. It also makes it look beautiful, with the little dashes of blue against the light green of the panna cotta and the porcelain white of the ramekins.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 honeydew melon, rind removed
• 1 package gelatin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Cut the honeydew melon in half and scoop out the seeds at the center. Cut the melon again so that you have about a third or so of the melon. Cut this into slices, and slice off the rind. Cut the remaining flesh into cubes and purée it in a blender.
2. In a small bowl, combine the milk and gelatin. Allow the gelatin to thicken the milk.
3. In a medium saucepan, pour in the cream, sugar, and honeydew purée. Heat over medium heat until it begins to boil, stirring. Pour in the gelatin-milk mixture, boil for another 1-2 minutes, again stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Pour in the vanilla extract and mix.
4. Pour into six ramekins, and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover and then place into the refrigerator. Cool for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight).
5. Serve plain or garnished with whipped cream, powdered sugar, and/or fruit on top.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

If you have never made a pavlova before you are truly missing out!

A pavlova is an elegant but surprisingly simple and delicious dessert. It is a beautiful sight to behold, with its base of light meringue topped by layers of whipped cream and a lovely array of fruit.

Eating it is a decadent sin: it seems so light and airy, yet quite a bit of sugar and cream goes into making one! When you take a mouthful, there is the whipped cream that simply melts in your mouth, the flashes of fruit, and then the softly chewy meringue on the bottom.

In this case, I chose to make a chocolate, orange, and coffee pavlova. I used this delightful trio of the flavors for the cream, and then I topped it with mandarins, strawberries, and blueberries. With far too many egg whites around for my own good (the product of making hollandaise sauces and ice cream), I was able to make two full pavlovas, but the recipe below makes just one. But it would be easy to double it to get the same results as me! It truly does scale very well, and making two hardly required more effort than one.

This recipe is entirely my own, although I did look at a number of pavlova recipes for inspiration.

Ingredients

• 6 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 mandarin oranges, peeled and divided into wedges
• 3 mandarin oranges, juiced
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 6 strawberries, hulled and quartered
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the egg whites with a pinch of sugar, and beat until they begin to form loose white peaks, slowly adding in the rest of the 1 teaspoon of salt throughout, then slowly integrate the 3/4 cup of sugar, continuing to beat. Once it is integrated, add in the vanilla extract, cream of tartar, and cornstarch. Beat until everything is stiff, firm, and glossy.
2. Place parchment paper on a baking dish, pinning down the edges of the paper with small stones or coins. Using a plate, draw a large circle perhaps 9 inches across. Ladle the meringue onto the baking paper, forming a circle and piling it up, decoratively swirling the top. Form a slight depression in the center to hold the cream.
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
4. In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream until it begins to form soft peaks. Then add in 1 cup of sugar, mandarin orange juice, instant coffee, and cocoa powder. Beat until stiff.
5. Spread this cream over the top of the meringue. Decorate the top with the mandarin oranges wedges, blueberries, and strawberries. Dust with powdered sugar.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Ice cream is a wonderfully simple dessert to make—just prepare a simple custard, cool, and process in an ice cream maker! It does take some practice to get the process down, but once you've done so you can easily churn out huge quantities.

And you will definitely want to do just that with a recipe like this one. Cherry and red bean paste ice cream is rich and creamy with deliciously strong flavors. The combination of cherry pie filling gives it a sweet dessert decadence, but what truly makes it exceptional is the addition of red bean paste.

I love to play around with red bean paste. This ingredient is very popular in East Asian countries, particularly Japan, China, and Korea, but it is not nearly as well known as it deserves to be in the West. To me, red bean paste is like a fruity version of chocolate; it is just as rich in terms of flavor but less decadent and harsh.

The combination of red bean paste with cherry is truly wonderful. This recipe is entirely my own, although I based it on a previous recipe for a chocolate orange ice cream with candied nuts, which is just as delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pound red bean paste
• 1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized bowl, combine together the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, and salt. Using a whisk, beat the egg yolks until they are thick and creamy.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the heavy cream, milk, red bean paste, and cherry pie filling. Heat and stir until all are combined together (several minutes).
3. Pour about one-quarter of the hot liquid into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Then pour the entire contents of the mixing bowl back into the saucepan. Over low heat, cook for around 15 minutes or until it thickens substantially. Be careful not to boil as this will ruin the custard.
4. Remove from heat, and place the saucepan into a large ice water bath. Once it is reasonably cool, refrigerate for several hours.
5. Process in an ice cream maker according to the machine's instructions.

Comments

Iqra from East County on April 18, 2021:

This Cherry and Red Bean Paste Ice Cream sounds very yummy, I must follow this recipe. Thank you very much

Ryan Thomas (author) from Eureka, California on April 18, 2021:

Red bean paste is sort of misleading for the name, it is actually quite sweet itself! Not as sweet as chocolate but still a dessert. I suspect that this is part of the reason it isn’t as well known. Glad you like the look of it in any case!

Liz Westwood from UK on April 18, 2021:

This sounds like an interesting recipe. It is very well-illustrated. In the UK mixing sweet and savory flavors is less common, but is catching on a little now.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Red bean paste is a wonderful dessert ingredient from East Asia. To me it tastes a bit like chocolate, though less strong and more fruity, and at the same time somewhat deeper, almost earthy in flavor.

Cherry complements chocolate well, and I thought it would also work well with red bean paste. My suspicions were wonderfully confirmed in a red bean paste and cherry bbang recipe that I made. After making these delightful Korean-inspired treats, I had a fair amount of the filling left over, since I could only put a limited amount into each pastry. I decided to use the leftover filling in another East Asian pastry—this time, Chinese sesame balls.

I love Chinese sesame balls, regardless of what filling they contain. Little balls of deliciously soft and chewy dough, encasing delicious filling, with nutty sesame seeds on the outside—fried food at its best!

I thought I'd try making a red bean paste and cherry version of sesame balls, which doesn't seem to have been done before, and I was just as pleased with the results as I thought I would be! The dough was sweet and chewy, there were toasty notes of sesame, and the filling was fruity and rich—it all blended so wonderfully. Not being particularly traditional, I threw on some powdered sugar afterwards, and I thought that these sweet little clumps of powder were a great addition.

This recipe is very good to make after the previously mentioned bbang recipe or vice versa, since both use around half of the filling that is recommended.

I had run into the problem with this recipe of having too little flour relative to the amount of water I'd added, which meant I had to add some additional flour. It wasn't glutinous rice flour, but rather almond flour and some regular rice flour. This recipe, however, adjusts for this and is correct, but won't make the same quantity of dough as is shown in the photos.

This recipe is based on The Spruce Eats.

Ingredients

• 1 pound glutinous rice flour
• Oil, for frying
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• Additional water for soaking
• 3/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 pound red bean paste
• 1/2 (15-ounce) can cherries
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and 3/4 cup of boiling water. Mix together. If needed add in more water, to make a syrup, but be careful about the amount. It is easier to add more water later than to try to take the water out, after all!
2. Place the rice flour in a large bowl, and then pour in the syrup. Mix to make a sticky but malleable dough, using your hands or a wooden spoon.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the cherries, cherry juice, and red bean paste, mixing thoroughly with a spoon until they are all combined.
4. Break off golf ball-sized chunks, round them into balls, and make an indentation. Use a spoon to put some of the filling into this, then either fold the rest of the dough back over the top, or put a patch of dough on it. Repeat until all of the dough is used.
5. Pour the sesame seeds out on parchment paper, then put some water in a bowl. Soak the dough balls in the water, then roll in the sesame seeds. Repeat until all of the balls are covered in sesame seeds.
6. In a wok or a deep fryer, add enough oil to at least mostly cover the sesame balls when they are added. Heat the oil to a temperature such that when the dough balls are added they fizz aggressively.
7. Fry the sesame balls, in batches if necessary, until they are golden brown on the exterior, perhaps around 10 minutes. Remove, drain on paper towels, and preferably eat while hot or warm, but they can also be eaten over several following days.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

My family agrees that this is one of the best pastries I've ever made...

Red bean paste bbang is a traditional Korean pastry consisting of sweet bread filled with red bean paste. The bread is wonderfully sweet and satisfying, perfectly matching the red bean paste interior. Furthermore, the pastries are very pretty. They look like eight-pointed golden stars with red bean paste bursting out along the sides and sesame seeds scattered on top.

I love to experiment with red bean paste. It is sweet, almost fruity, but not overly so—similar to chocolate but less intense. It can be used in all sorts of desserts, and it pairs well with all sorts of flavors. I have found that it goes very well with pumpkin in pots de creme, so it made me think that maybe cherry would mix well with it, too.

The result, I think, more than justified itself. The sweet fruitiness of the cherry wonderfully complemented the red bean paste. Although this pastry is somewhat challenging to make (it is a bit labor-intensive, requiring a very long period of kneading and a long process of filling the individual pastries), the results are thoroughly worth it. They make great little snacks to eat for breakfast, dessert, or whenever the urge strikes you!

This recipe makes 16 bbangs, which only uses around 1/2 of the suggested filling. You can either make more at a later date and put the rest of the filling in it, use the filling for something else, or double the dough.

I modified this recipe from Sweet Red Bean Paste Ppang from Aeri's Kitchen.

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup lukewarm water
• 2/3 cup lukewarm milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 packet yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Melted butter or egg yolk, for brushing
• 1 package (1.1lb) red bean paste
• 1 (15-ounce) can canned cherries

Instructions

1. Put the flour into a large bowl. Make three holes in it, and then place an equal amount of the sugar, salt, and yeast in each one, before covering with flour.
2. Pour the milk and water, heated to a lukewarm temperature, in with the dry ingredients, then mix.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of melted butter, and mix again.
4. Knead the dough until it has a smooth and elastic texture (about 20 to 30 minutes), kneading strongly and vigorously.
5. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and put into a warm place, such as an oven with the light on or somewhere where the sun is shining, and let the dough rise for 40 minutes.
6. Make the red bean paste filling by combining the red bean paste and the cherry juice from the container of cherries in a medium-sized bowl. Mix with a spoon (it is very glutinous on your hands so I would use a spoon), until it is thoroughly mixed.
7. Punch the dough down on the counter, and then divide into 16 balls.
8. Shape each ball into a wide flat circle, then place at the center a spoonful of the cherry-red bean paste mixture, alongside two solid cherries. Make sure to not overfill it, or it will not be able to close. Bring the sides up and form it into a sealed ball, pinching it closed. Then proceed to cut 8 small incisions around the edge. Repeat until all of the circles have been formed into balls filled with red bean paste.
9. Brush the top with egg yolk, or wait until they come after the oven and brush with butter. Black sesame seeds are a nice decorative texture as well, if you have them. Put into an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.
10. You can either eat them hot (delicious!) or over the next few days.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

A couple of days ago, I bought a jar of mincemeat at the grocery store. Mincemeat was always something of a mystery for me. I have a vague recollection from childhood of reading the book The Golden Compass, in which the main character buys mincemeat pies. I had assumed that they were, well, actually meat!

It wasn't until recently that I realized that mincemeat is in fact a dessert filling—and it wasn't until a day or two ago that I actually tried it. It has a rich, deep, intensely cinnamon flavor mixed with spices. There are strong notes of raisins and fruit pervading it, a wild medley of flavors.

Trying to figure out what to do with it was a hard question. Of course I could simply make a traditional mincemeat pie, and perhaps I will one day, but I always enjoy the challenge of creating new and different recipes. Thus my thoughts were drawn towards another project, in my eternal obsession with angel food cakes.

Angel food cakes are an elegant answer to the problem of leftover egg whites. Many recipes call for egg yolks—like hollandaise sauce, ice cream, and custard—but then you are left with many unused egg whites. Some people might just throw them away, but I feel somewhat guilty about doing this. Thus I have a tradition of collecting egg whites in a jar in the refrigerator until I have enough for an angel food cake.

The angel food cake I'm showing you here is primarily a traditional one, although I did add some raisins and mincemeat to the batter. Generally, though, I wanted to keep the cake as simple as possible.

Once the cake came out of the oven, and once it was mostly painlessly extracted from the Bundt pan, I sliced it into three horizontal layers and spread mincemeat between each layer. For the final touch, I mixed Smucker's caramel syrup with Grand Marnier liqueur to make a glaze for the top, and then I lightly dusted the final confection with powdered sugar.

I thought that it all turned out exceptionally well. I tasted sweet notes of orange, rich fruitiness and spices of mincemeat, and the light, fluffy texture of the cake itself. The components balanced each other and produced a beautiful and tasty dessert.

My mother was a bit disappointed though because the mincemeat I used was distinctly different than the type she had tried decades ago when she visited England as an 18-year-old. She had been traveling across Europe and had tried her friend's aunt's recipe.

Perhaps one day I will have to try to track down my mother's friend's aunt's recipe to see how it compares. Until then, why don't you try this delicious layered angel food cake recipe?

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

For the topping:

• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier liqueur
• 1/3 cup Smucker's caramel syrup (or any brand)
• dusting of powdered sugar

For the filling:

• 1 cup mincemeat

For the cake:

• 12 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 cup mincemeat
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup raisins

Instructions

1. The first step is making the cake. Beat the egg whites with the salt, first with 1/3 teaspoon, then adding the rest intermittently as the egg whites begin to stiffen and ultimately form soft peaks.
2. Once the soft peaks are formed, add in the cream of tartar, the vanilla extract, and the powdered sugar. Continue to beat more until stiff peaks are formed.
3. Sift in and then fold the cake flour, the mincemeat, and the raisins, until it is a homogenous mixture, light and fluffy. Pour this into a greased Bundt pan, and then put into a preheated oven for 50 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Once it is done cooking and has been removed from the oven, allow it to cool upside down, then gently remove from the Bundt pan. With a long knife, cut around it the long way, horizontally, to separate it into three vertical layers - first cutting near the top, then lower down, and laying each one out on the counter or another plate.
5. Spread around half a cup of the mincemeat on the first layer, then put the second layer back on, spread the other half on this, and then put the final top layer on. Feel free to adjust the mincemeat quantity: I find it to be rather strong and so you might want less.
6. Mix together the caramel sauce and the Grand Marnier until it is an even, homogenous mixture, liquid enough to pour over the top easily. Do this and drizzle it over, so that it soaks in, and then dust it with powdered sugar. Serve whenever desired.

Comments

Iqra from East County on March 24, 2021:

look delicious and yummy

Liz Westwood from UK on March 24, 2021:

This looks like an interesting recipe. I used to think similar, as a child, about mincemeat until I found out that it was the sweet filling of mince pies at Christmas.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

This recipe perfectly represents French country cooking: simple fare that relies on simple, everyday ingredients like chicken, zucchini, carrots, cream, and beer. This particular recipe may come from the North of France, which may explain the inclusion of beer—but I am not really sure.

I love the way that the vegetables flavor and infuse the beer, and vice versa. The result is a soothing, definitively green, springtime flavor, which is then livened up and enriched by garlic, cream, and a host of seasonings. It is a real pleasure to eat and very easy to do so—particularly when served over grains to soak up the sauce, such as couscous, rice, or pasta. If it wasn't for how wonderfully these grains complement the dish, I would be able to sell it as a one-pot meal, but they are definitely worth including alongside it!

I adapted this recipe, with heavy modifications, from the book Floyd on France, by Keith Floyd. Having bought it in a little-used book store during a recent trip from my home in Humboldt County to Mount Shasta to see my relatives and go skiing, I have found it to have some great recipes so far, some of which are very nicely illustrated.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds chicken breasts
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 zucchinis, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 pint pale ale
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• Salt and pepper
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• Fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 3 tablespoons butter
• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Cut up the chicken into bite-sized cubes, around 1 or 1/2 inch across. Rub salt and pepper into them.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over high heat. Once it is hot, add the chicken pieces and then the onion. Sauté until the chicken is browned. Then add in the ale, followed by tarragon and thyme.
3. Reduce the heat to a simmer. After 20 minutes, add in the carrots. After another 20 minutes, add in the zucchini.
4. In another 20 minutes, thus around 1 hour of cumulative cooking time, remove all of the solid food from the sauce (keep it hot in something like a covered casserole dish and put in an unheated oven or microwave). For the sauce, raise the heat to high and reduce the beer by half.
5. Once it is reduced, add in the cream, butter, brandy, and garlic. Continue to reduce somewhat for a few minutes, then add back in the solid ingredients, and chopped cilantro for a garnish, and turn off the heat. Season with salt and pepper as appropriate, and serve immediately, over rice, couscous, pasta, or another grain.

Comments

Alshimaa on March 03, 2021:

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

A while ago I made a crêpe layer cake: layers of crêpes stacked with whipped cream with chocolate, coffee, and orange in between, and a chocolate ganache poured over the top. It was unbelievably delicious, dense crêpes with this wonderful medley of flavors, taken from a French video from INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel) from the 1950s, incorporating enough alcohol to kill several people, with seductive fruity chocolate-orange and deep tones from the coffee. The curtain of chocolate over the top made it a sight to behold. Cut into it, and one would find elegant layers of crêpes, stacked on top of each other in their dozens. A few strawberries on top only completed the picture of a wonderfully sophisticated, beautiful, rich, and tasty cake, which I was convinced could have been easily served in a fine restaurant—and left me with the desire to make another one!

Thus came round two, with layers of red bean paste pancakes, cherry whipped cream—and my fatal weakness, matcha whipped cream. I personally liked the result, but it looked strange indeed, with a giant cloud of green whipped cream on it, and the rest of my family found the matcha flavor to be too strong. Once that was scraped off, the inside was perfectly fine, even delicious . . . but it meant that I would have to return to the drawing board again.

What I came up with was for me just as delicious as I could have hoped. Layers of red bean paste pancakes, deliciously rich and with the simultaneously earthy and fruity overtones from the red bean paste and with their heady elixir of alcohols found within, layers of cherry whipped cream, and the simple chocolate ganache to cover it all. Perhaps not as elegant in the photos due to the mixture of cherry whipped cream and chocolate (I made it into two cakes so I could take one to some relatives while the other one would stay at home), but just as delicious. Disaster almost struck again when I tried to make a meringue to cover one of them (this didn't work as the required baking caused the whipped cream to ooze out), but the chocolate one was quite the hit in my opinion. Overall, a delicious and beautiful dessert.

Ingredients

For the pancakes:

• 1.1 pounds red bean paste
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups beer
• 1/4 cup rum
• Pinch of salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 eggs

For the whipped cream:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 (15-ounce) can sweet cherries

For the chocolate ganache:

• 4 ounces chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Powdered sugar, for dusting when served

Instructions

1. Make the pancakes: In a large bowl, combine the red bean paste, beer, and milk. Using a fork and whisk, break apart the red bean paste and mix thoroughly with the liquid ingredients.
2. Mix in sugar, eggs, vanilla, rum, and flour. Mix well to combine but don't overmix. Add additional beer as necessary if it is not wet enough; it should be rather liquid and drip down from a spoon when held up, to enable it to spread out on a pan. Add more flour if it is not dry enough.
3. Melt a bit of butter in a frying pan or griddle over medium heat. Using a large ladle, pour out the batter and have it spread out into a large circle, the larger the better. Fry until it becomes reasonably solid beneath, then flip over, and cook again until it is firm on both sides. Transfer to a plate and stack.
4. Repeat, adding additional butter, until all of the pancake batter is used up.
5. Allow the pancakes to cool. Whip up the heavy cream with sugar until it is fluffy. Boil the juice from the cherries until it is a syrup, then pour it and the cherries (chopped in half), into the whipped cream, and combine thoroughly.
6. Stack the pancakes on a cake platter or large dish, either as one (they may slide out so perhaps either a pole to fix them in place or separating them out into two) or as multiple piles, putting cherry whipped cream in the layers in between.
7. Place the semi-sweet chocolate, preferably chocolate chips but in any case chopped into small pieces, into a large heat-proof bowl. Proceed in a microwave-safe bowl to microwave 1/2 cup of heavy cream for 1 minute, then pour it over the chocolate. Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes, then whisk together until smooth, let cool for 10 minutes. Pour the ganache over the cake and its side.
8. Serve anytime, preferably with powdered sugar on top just before eating.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

My great crusade recently has been an effort to use up all of the things that have been stockpiled away in my pantry cupboards. There are so many cans and containers of different things, and all of it needs to be put to use in some way! What use can be found for pumpkin butter? Some ideas easily leap to mind—maybe adding it to pancakes, pies, or ice cream. But what about the idea of combining it with red bean paste?

On the face of it, it seems like an odd marriage. The two flavors are quite distinct: red bean paste has a fruity, sweet, somewhat chocolatey flavor, whereas pumpkin butter has a bright sweetness with a hint of cinnamon and spice. I hadn't heard of anyone trying to mix these two ingredients before, but I decided to forge ahead.

The effort was well worth it. The flavors married perfectly, resulting in a smooth and creamy pot de crème. It was especially delicious when topped with some sliced fruit (for example, strawberries) or whipped cream.

I based this recipe on a previous red bean paste pot de crème recipe, Adzuki-Chocolate Pots de Crème.

Ingredients

• 9 1/2 ounces pumpkin butter
• 1.1 pounds red bean paste
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 6 egg yolks
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, combine the pumpkin butter, red bean paste, sugar, vanilla extract, milk, and heavy cream. Heat over a medium flame until it begins to boil and all of the ingredients dissolve. Simmer for several minutes. Then turn off the heat and remove from the burner to allow it to cool somewhat (10-15 minutes).
2. Beat the egg yolks in a ceramic bowl using a mixer until they are thick and pale. Beat some of the custard mixture into this, then pour it all into the saucepan.
3. Place ramekins (I used 8 and probably more will be needed) into the largest possible baking dish that you have, and ladle the custard into all of these. Fill up the sides to around halfway up the ramekins (preferably all of the ramekins are around the same size).
4. Place the baking dish into a preheated oven at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. The top should have a slightly crinkled and browned appearance, while the interior should still be soft and creamy. Once cool, refrigerate until chilled.
5. They can either be served on their own, or with powdered sugar, whipped cream, fruits, etc. One could even easily provide a crème brûlée style topping with a layer of torched sugar.

Comments

Umesh Chandra Bhatt from Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India on February 11, 2021:

Interesting.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Extra Egg Whites? Make an Angel Food Cake

When you have lots of egg whites, the eternal question is whatever to do with the ranked hordes, so light, fluffy, and full of promise, but requiring a firm project to use double-digit numbers of the more airy brethren of the egg yolk! Egg whites get produced in vast numbers from so many foods, ranging from ice cream to Hollandaise sauces, and then you have the question of what to do with 14 of them.

One of my favorite ways to do this to make an angel food cake, which has the twin advantages of using up a lot of egg whites—at least 12 and sometimes more—and producing a wonderfully light, fluffy, and tasty cake that looks beautifully elegant in a Bundt pan. It makes me pity the idea of people attempting to whip up egg whites in the days before electric mixers, the sheer mass of foamy whiteness that has to rise, rise, rise, to produce a sufficiently light cake!

The special quality of this warm and comforting cake comes from the sweetness of the dates mixed with the heady fruitiness of the orange Grand Marnier liqueur. The light, airy, fluffy, aromatic, a delightful mixture of flavors is a pleasure to eat, especially when paired with accompanying fruit like strawberries and whipped cream.

I had tried making this previously and had run into a problem with the dates; namely, that chopping and blending them did not go well. It all turned into an unholy baked mass after I tried to dry them out in the toaster oven. Maybe you will find that baked, dried, and blended dates make for a decent date powder/sugar, and this would probably produce a lighter cake, but I found the approach of date syrup and blended dates to be easier and more fool-proof.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces dates, pitted and chopped
• 14 egg whites
• 1 cup Grand Marnier orange liqueur
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 + 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine 3 cups of water with the dates and 1/2 cup Grand Marnier. Bring to a boil then simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large ceramic bowl, beat the egg whites with 1/3 teaspoon salt, adding in another 1/3 and then another 1/3 as it becomes stiffer, until the first gentle peaks begin to form. Add in the confectioner's sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and cream of tartar, and beat until it is stiff.
3. Sift in the cake flour, and fold it in.
4. Strain the solid dates out of the date syrup, reserving the syrup. Blend the solid dates in a blender, then fold this into the cake batter. Mix in 1/2 cup of Grand Marnier into this.
5. Pour the cake batter into a large oiled or greased Bundt pan, and then place into a preheated oven for 50 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Meanwhile boil down the date syrup, with 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, until it is thick and dark.
7. Once the cake has finished baking, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool upside down. Pry it loose from the pan and place it into a ceramic pie dish or other vessel, and pour the date syrup over it.
8. Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar and preferably with whipped cream and accompanying fruit such as strawberries.

Comments

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on February 06, 2021:

I love the sound of this cake, easy enough to make too. Thankyou for sharing. :)

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Great Recipe for Chinese Plum Sauce

Recently, I have been attempting to reduce the amount of stuff in my pantry. There is such a great detritus of things accumulated over time, including chutneys, black spaghetti, red bean paste, various sugars, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, couscous—the list goes on and on. One item I found was a jar of Chinese plum sauce, which I once bought on a whim.

I decided to use the plum sauce as a tasty marinade for grilled beef. In my opinion, plum sauce on its own is too strong—but when combined with other flavorings the result is exceedingly good. When you combine the sauce with contrasting flavors like balsamic vinegar, the result is wonderfully sweet, sour, and fruity. I also added aromatic notes of ginger and olive oil.

And all of it is just so wonderfully simple! Just mix together all of the ingredients, marinate the beef cubes overnight (or at least a few hours), and then grill. The rich meatiness of the beef perfectly complements the sweet, fruity, aromatic, sour tones of the marinade. It's simple, easy, and delicious. While the meat was grilling on the skewers, I also took the opportunity to grill some vegetables such as leeks, onions, and tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 9.2 ounces Chinese plum sauce
• 2 pounds beef, such as trip tip
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons ginger powder
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• salt, to taste
• plentiful pepper

Instructions

1. Marinade the meat preferably the night before or at least several hours prior to grilling. In a large ceramic bowl, combine the plum sauce, balsamic vinegar, ginger, olive oil, salt, and lots of pepper. Mix until it is well combined and liquid. Chop the beef into 1-inch cubes and cover it with the marinating liquid in the bowl.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until shortly before it is time to barbecue.
3. Start your barbecue and leave sufficient time for the coals to become hot. Meanwhile, thread the meat onto skewers. If possible, grill some vegetables, as well, such as tomatoes, onions, and leeks.
4. Grill for 10 to 15 minutes on each side, to your degree of desired doneness. Baste from time to time with the marinating liquid
5. Serve hot.

Comments

Nyesha Pagnou MPH from USA on January 27, 2021:

This looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing your recipe!

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Making rich desserts is my style—and it is hard to get richer than taking a pound each of butterscotch, white chocolate, and red bean paste and combining it with heavy cream and egg yolks to produce a deliciously smooth and creamy ice cream.

It may sound like an odd and exotic flavor combination, but the marriage of the three produces a wonderfully sweet, deep flavor, almost like chocolate but with notes of caramel and fruitiness from the red bean paste—making for a dessert that is almost sinfully decadent to eat. Adding in walnuts helps to complement this very nicely, giving a needed crunch and a refreshment from the glorious excess of the ice cream.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 1 pound white chocolate chips
• 1 pound butterscotch chips
• 1.1 pounds red bean paste
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Combine the butterscotch and white chocolate in a large saucepan over a double boiler or another, larger, pot of simmering water over medium heat. Stir until the white chocolate and butterscotch begin to melt together; then add in the red bean paste. Continue to stir and heat until there is a smooth mixture. Add in the heavy cream.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the vanilla extract, sugar, and egg yolks. Whisk vigorously until it is pale yellow and has increased in volume. Dish a small amount of the hot cream-butterscotch-white chocolate-red bean paste mixture into this, stir it together, and then add all of the contents back into the saucepan. If it is too much, transfer to a larger pot.
3. Cook over low heat for around 15 minutes, stirring, until the ice cream mixture begins to thicken into a custard.
4. Allow the mixture to cool, first on the stovetop, then in the refrigerator for a few hours. Once it has become chilled, place into your ice cream maker and process according to instructions. Once it is nearly finished churning, add in the roughly chopped walnuts.
5. Freeze for 8 hours or overnight.

Comments

Travel Chef from Manila on January 20, 2021:

I haven't tried a red bean paste ice cream. This looks so delicious!

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on January 19, 2021:

Thankyou for the recipe. It sounds delicious, easy to make too!

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Haystacks are a type of cookie with chocolate and another ingredient that are melted together and then covered with chow mein noodles and walnuts. My family's traditional recipe revolves around chocolate, walnuts, butterscotch, and chow mein noodles. The butterscotch gives such a warm and rich flavor to it all, which wonderfully balances and enriches the chocolate.

A few weeks ago I decided to try making some chocolate haystacks with red bean paste. I was happy with the results, but curiosity drove me to attempt to experiment and innovate with a new flavor palette.

And what a success it was! Instead of chocolate, I went for white chocolate, and the combination of butterscotch, white chocolate, and red bean paste produced an incredibly, wonderfully, rich, sweet, deep flavor. The butterscotch provides a warmth, and the red been paste imparts nice, almost fruity vibes, and the white chocolate has a very sweet and satisfying smoothness. I changed the proportions slightly to increase the rigidity and crunch from the chow mein noodles, and the walnuts add a wonderfully nutty flavor that really ties all of it together. To top it off, this treat is beautifully easy to make!

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 1.1 pounds red bean paste
• 1 pound butterscotch chips
• 1 pound white chocolate chips
• 10 ounces chow mein noodles
• 3 cups walnuts

Instructions

1. In a large double boiler over medium heat, combine the white chocolate chips and the butterscotch chips. Heat until the first signs of their melting appear.
2. Add in the red bean paste, and mix everything together and continue to heat while the ingredients dissolve into each other and become creamy and soft. Simultaneously, chop up the walnuts into fine pieces. When they are all mixed and become liquid, add in the chow mein noodles and walnuts and stir to coat everything.
3. Using two spoons, dish out the haystacks onto parchment paper-covered baking sheets. Allow to cool a few hours. Once hard, they are ready to be eaten!

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

When I cook, I often tend to what I would call "mission creep." Perhaps it is because I like to take recipes from other cookbooks and definitively make them my own—i.e., alter them dramatically to suit my own tastes. If I am going to alter a recipe, I don't just want to change around the amount of salt in the recipe, I want to modify it to the extent that it really is my own. So this often tends to make recipes more complicated. I start out with simpler recipes and end up making them more complex.

This is what happened with a recipe for a simple cream cheese and crème fraîche tart from the cookbook Cafe Beaujolais, by Margaret S. Fox and John Bear. I had the idea of adding finely ground dates to transform what looked to me to be a very plain and non-dessert-like tart. (Surprisingly to me, the original recipe appeared in the dessert section of the cookbook. To my American eyes, this dish seemed better suited as a snack, appetizer, or hors d'oeuvre rather than a dessert.) To transform the tart into a dessert that satisfied my own tastes, I decided to incorporate the rich and warm flavor of dates into the filling.

It worked in the end, but it was quite the travail since I was lazy and decided to put the dates directly into the blender with other ingredients. Unsurprisingly, they simply did not blend! It took a long time of coaxing with the inclusion of cream, and various small batches, to finally get it to work. Thankfully, this is something that can be avoided easily enough, by simply finely chopping the dates beforehand, so that they will blend with the other ingredients, and once this is done the recipe will be quite swift, rather than my hours-long effort.

Thankfully, in the end, after my long travails, the product that emerged was superb! It was definitely not a cheesecake—which is why I am calling it a cheese pie. It has a very smooth and creamy texture, and the taste is wonderful. The rich tone from the dates marries to the warm effervescence of orange, and the sweet and spiced flavor of the graham cracker crust complements the pie's filling. To top it off, the top is covered with a beautiful layer of caramelized apples. The three different components contrast well and help to give a nice amount of heterogeneity. On its own, I think that the date filling of the pie would be too monotonous, since it is so rich, but the inclusion of the apples helps to make for a lively experience with every bite. What is more, it is simply put gorgeous, with the spread of caramelized apples on top. And hopefully, with better management of the dates, it should be a far easier pie to make for you than for me!

This recipe is my own, although I did draw inspiration for the combination of crème fraîche and cream cheese from Cafe Beaujolais.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces crème fraîche
• 3 egg yolks
• 10 ounces dates, pitted and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups ground graham cracker
• 6 + 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 apples, cored and chopped into wedges
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Chop the dates very finely, then blend them in a food processor to get a powder. They should be exceptionally fine. Then proceed to beat together the cream cheese and the crème fraiche until smooth. Add in the cream.
2. Mix together all of these ingredients with the date powder, and if need be run through a blender or food processor again to ensure that they are as fine as possible. Add in 2 egg yolks, the 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier, and beat to combine.
3. Make a graham cracker pie crust, by crumbling 1 1/2 cups of graham crackers, with 6 tablespoons of melted butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Then place into either the bottom of preferably a 10 inch springform pan; if it is waterproof from the bottom as well, or an equally large pie dish. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
4. Pour the filling into the pie crust, and then place the springform pan dish or pie dish into a water bath, and bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees F for 2 hours.
5. Allow to cool overnight. The next day, chop up and core 2 apples, then mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons of water in a clean saucepan over medium heat, for around 6 to 7 minutes probably, and heat until sugar begins to brown. While the flame is still going, quickly add in the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, being careful not to burn the caramel. Put the apples into this and cook, stirring constantly, and cook 5 minutes or so until they are well coated in the caramel. Again, be careful to not burn the caramel.
6. Arrange the apples decoratively over the top of the cheese pie then pour the caramel over. Chill again then serve.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

When it comes to Christmas desserts, haystacks have long been a tradition in my family. There is something about the wonderful snap of the chow mein noodles, the crunch of the nuts, and the rich, creamy flavor of the chocolate that makes this treat irresistible.

It is also delightfully easy to make (if perhaps tiring for children to stir the chocolate as it melts in a double boiler on the stove, and yet so satisfying to lick the bowl once finished!).

Traditionally, my family made this dessert with butterscotch, but this year I decided to experiment by substituting red bean paste (otherwise known as adzuki beans) instead of butterscotch. Red bean paste and chocolate is a wonderfully delightful pairing, with the sweet, almost fruity notes from the red bean paste complementing the rich, creamy chocolate. What is more, it continues to be very easy to make, quick, and pretty—the perfect holiday treat!

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 2 cups walnuts
• 1.1 pounds red bean paste
• 5 ounces chow mein noodles

Instructions

1. In a large double boiler with water in the bottom pot, combine the chocolate chips and red bean paste. Turn heat to high and stir constantly until the chocolate and red bean paste melt and form a smooth, thick liquid. The red bean paste will become smooth first. The chocolate will melt second, but continue stirring until all is smooth and homogenous.
2. Chop 2 cups of walnut until they are reasonably fine, then mix with the chow mein noodles in a large bowl.
3. Pour the chow mein noodles and walnuts into the chocolate-red bean paste mixture, and stir together until everything is well coated. Using two spoons, spoon this out onto cookie sheets covered with parchment paper.
4. Allow to either cool in the air or in a refrigerator until the haystacks are set.

Comments

Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on December 03, 2020:

My mother made a similar thing using chocolate and the chow mein noodles but did not use the red bean paste. The red bean paste and nuts would add some extra nutrition.

Liz Westwood from UK on December 02, 2020:

This is an unusual ingredient combination. It sounds interesting.

Linda Crampton from British Columbia, Canada on December 02, 2020:

This sounds like a lovely treat. I like the ingredients. I've never considered mixing chocolate and noodles before.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

A Lebanese Twist on Meatloaf

This recipe is unlike any American meatloaf you've ever had. The recipe takes its inspiration from Lebanon—specifically from baked kibbeh sahnieh, which is a combination of couscous, beef, and onion with a host of spices with prominent notes of cinnamon and garlic. It's a deliciously filling, satisfying, and deeply flavored meal.

I adapted this recipe from Maureen Abood's cookbook Rose Water and Orange Blossoms: French and Classic Recipes from my Lebanese Kitchen. I think this is an excellent cookbook, and I recommend it heartily. It features wonderful recipes that are well written and produce great food. It has fantastic pictures, a wide variety of types, and a nice mixture of cultural perspective on Lebanon that don't drag on too long like in other cookbooks.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 onions
• 1 (5.5 ounces) box couscous (plus flavoring package)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• pepper
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/3 teaspoon cayenne
• 6 leaves fresh mint, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons plus some additional garnish pine nuts
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup plus some additional garnish cilantro, stems removed to leave just the leaves
• 4 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1. Fill a bowl with 1 cup of water and place it into a freezer to chill. Rinse the couscous in water once, then add in just enough water to cover, and its seasoning packet, and allow to flavor and soften for 30 minutes.
2. Peel and chop an onion, then place it with the 4 garlic cloves, also peeled and chopped, in a blender. Puree finely.
3. In a large bowl, with hands wetted with ice water, gently mix together the pureed onion, 1 pound of ground beef, and half of the couscous. Add in batches the rest of the couscous, dried mint, mint leaves, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1-2 tablespoons of kosher salt, 2 tablespoons pine nuts, cilantro, cayenne, wetting one's hands with the water as one does it, and working in 3 tablespoons of water.
4. Place this into the bottom of a lightly oiled baking dish (I used a large flat casserole dish), flattening it until it is even and covers all of it, and put some additional pine nuts on top.
5. In a large skillet, heat olive oil, then place into it the other onion, finely chopped and peeled, and sauté until it is golden and translucent. Then add in the remaining pound of beef, and season with 1 teaspoon of salt, the remaining cinnamon, and pepper. Add in the remaining pine nuts and the lemon juice.
6. Pour this over the top of the meat which is already in the casserole dish, spreading it out until it is smooth, put some cilantro leaves and dried mint on top, and use a large knife or serving wedge to cut it into 8 individual sections with a wedge of the butter on each of them. Put into 400 degree f oven for 50 minutes, covering with aluminum foil if it starts to burn but attempting to get a crusty and golden top. Use a brush to brush oil around the edges over the top, and serve hot.

Comments

Ryan Thomas (author) from Eureka, California on December 15, 2020:

I am glad you like it so much!

Liz Westwood from UK on December 02, 2020:

This sounds like a tasty dish. Great photo illustrations.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

A few weeks ago, I tried a soup called "tom yom" or "somlaw tom yum," a thoroughly delicious fish, mushroom, tomato, lemongrass stew from a local Cambodian restaurant.

Heartily impressed with this very hearty stew, I decided to try to make my own version at home. I wanted to preserve both the excellent tomato base from the tom yom soup while marrying it to ginger, balsamic vinegar, lime, and lemon, along with rich onions, green flecks of cilantro, and savory garlic.

The result was an excellent combination of these flavors, with a pinch of fire from peppers but not so much as to overwhelm the other flavors. The soup had a sharpness from the citrus, a sweetness from the tomato, and a savory quality from the garlic. Hearty and filling ramen noodles completed it all. For a cold winter night, I am convinced there is little better.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 8 shallots (or 2 onions)
• 10 cloves garlic
• 6 ounces tomato paste
• 750 ml (1/2 bottle) white wine
• 3 teaspoons dried ginger
• 2 pounds chicken, cut into 1-inch cubes and seasoned with salt and pepper
• 10 ounces udon noodles (or similar noodle)
• 2 chipotle peppers
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• plentiful salt
• plentiful pepper
• 2 3 inch pieces of grated fresh ginger
• juice of 2 limes
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon lemongrass
• olive oil, for sautéing and garnish
• 2 teaspoons dried mint
• 8 cups water
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (or additional juiced limes)
• 1/4 head cabbage
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Instructions

1. Peel and finely chop the shallots. Place them in a bowl with the peppers, dried ginger, and 5 cloves of peeled and minced garlic. Heat olive oil in a large casserole dish, then sauté the combined ingredients until the shallots are soft and translucent.
2. In a separate large pot, bring water to a boil to make the noodles. Prepare according to instructions, I used 10 ounces of udon noodles.
3. Pour in the sesame oil to provide some more oil for sautéing. Add in the chopped chicken, and sauté until it is browned all over. Add in half of the cilantro; lemongrass, and chop and add in the tomatoes, and then the cabbage.
4. Pour in 1/2 bottle of white wine, and then add water. Add in 1/2 of the balsamic vinegar, season with salt, and the lime juice. Simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Add in the udon noodles and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Before serving, add in all the remaining cilantro, balsamic vinegar, fresh ginger, lime juice, lemon juice, fresh mint, pepper, and some olive oil on top. Add these ingredients in quick succession to provide for fresh final flavors. Serve immediately for best flavor.

Comments

Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on November 17, 2020:

Your recipe sounds delicious and so flavorful. Thanks!

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

One of the most decadent holiday desserts I have had are bourbon balls—bourbon-soaked nuts coated in chocolate. They have an incredibly rich and smooth flavor that comes from the bourbon mixed together with the walnuts and the delicious coating of chocolate. It got me thinking, what about using orange-flavoured Grand Marnier instead?

With some inspiration from an Albanian cookbook that I have, the result is these equally decadent balls of Grand Marnier–soaked almonds, toasted to give a deeper and more august flavor, married with cream cheese and sugar for sweetness and flair, then coated with honey-candied nuts, either chopped or ground. The flavor is sweet, with definite orange notes from the Grand Marnier, but what it is really tantalizing about it is the mixture of the toasted nuts and the deep flavor from the Grand Marnier. It's almost harsh, refined, mixing together the sweet orange with the bitterness of the alcohol and the toasted nuts. The honey can really make a difference: I used wildflower honey, which has a less sweet flavor, and so other types of honey would have a huge impact.

Although I did take some inspiration from some other recipes, this recipe is definitively my own. Nevertheless, I did definitely take ideas from The Best of Albanian Cuisine, by Besa Kosova, as well as The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia, by Darra Goldstein.

Ingredients

• 1 cup slivered or chopped almonds
• 2/3 cup Grand Marnier
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup sugar

Instructions

1. Toast the almonds for 4 to 5 minutes at 350 degrees F in a toaster oven. Once toasted, transfer the nuts to a glass jar and cover with the Grand Marnier. Soak overnight.
2. In a bowl, combine the sugar and the cream cheese. Mash until well mixed. Add in the soaked almonds and vanilla extract. Mix well and thenn refrigerate.
3. Toast the walnuts in a toaster oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
4. In a small but tall saucepan over medium heat, bring the honey to a boil. Then add in the walnuts and cook for 6 to 8 minutes. Pour onto waxed paper, then put this into the oven again for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F once it has cooled to be hard.
5. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool. Next, either chop finely or chop and then place into a blender or food processor to get a fine powder. Shape the cream cheese and almond mixture into balls using a spoon, 1 inch across, and then roll or coat with either the finely chopped or powdered walnuts (I recommend powdered).

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

One of my favorite flavor mixtures is chocolate, orange, and coffee. There is something magical about the way the three of them work together, with the delightful richness of the chocolate, fruity zest of the orange, and the coffee providing this pervasive and aromatic taste which links the others together. None of these flavors overpowers the others; they meld together in excellent harmony.

This soufflé is superbly light and yet somehow extraordinarily rich. It is airy and delightful to eat. Perhaps it isn't surprising the recipe should have a classic provenance; I adapted it from Hows and Whys of French Cooking, by Julia Child, who I think is still the standard-bearer for much of classic French food. The recipe isn't even that difficult—and for such an elegant and beautiful result it is definitely worth it.

The recipe makes quite a lot of soufflé batter, so be prepared! I used nine individual soufflé cups, although admittedly a few of mine are quite small, and I don't have a large number of big ramekins. But it is definitely worth it to have such a nice and charming dessert, so satisfying to eat, especially when served warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Ingredients

• 5 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 5 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 oranges, zested
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 egg whites
• 4 egg yolks
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1. Choose either a large single soufflé dish or a number of smaller soufflé dishes. (I used 9 of the latter, but that is because I had small ones.) Either apply non-stick spray or butter and flour them.
2. Melt the chocolate and the coffee together in a medium-sized double boiler saucepan, over simmering water, until they mix smoothly together. Take off the heat.
3. Put the cornstarch, 1/2 cup of milk, and orange zest in with the chocolate, and beat until they are smoothly combined. Beat in the other cup of milk and 2/3 cup of sugar. Bring back to a boil and stir a few seconds, then remove from heat. Melt the 3 tablespoons of butter into this. Once cooled enough, add in the 4 egg yolks and mix together.
4. Beat the 8 egg whites and the pinch of salt in a large separate mixing bowl until they begin to stiffen, then sprinkle in the 1/3 cup of sugar and beat further until they are very stiff and glossy. Beat 1/4 of this into the chocolate mixture, then fold all of this into the egg whites.
5. Pour the batter into the individual ramekins or soufflé dish, and put into an oven preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, then turn down the temperature to 375. If using the individual soufflés, cook for 35 minutes, sprinkling the tops with powdered sugar after 25 minutes, and if using a large soufflé dish, cook for 45 minutes, sprinkling the tops with powdered sugar after 35.
6. Serve immediately, while still warm. It is excellent with ice cream, crème anglaise, or other toppings.

Comments

Danny from India on September 23, 2020:

Yummy recipe, chocolate is my favorite. Thanks for sharing Ryan.

Lakshmi from Chennai on September 23, 2020:

Nice recipe.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

I am always enthusiastic about finding, trying, and sometimes modifying French recipes. French cuisine is characterized by a beautiful mixture of flavors, often very rich and deep—sometimes too rich for other people's tastes. For example, some in my family note the sheer quantity of cream and butter that certain recipes call for!

France has an elegant diversity of cooking, and certainly the food is much more than just what is found in Paris. Every region has its own distinct culinary traditions, and some regions are dramatically different from the others. Alsace and the northern regions, for example, make more liberal use of beer, meat, and potatoes. Wine is another great variable, with different French regions using different flavors and types of wine. And what region is more famous for French wines than Bordeaux?

In roast chicken dishes, red wine is often used to make a marinade along with vinegar and various herbs to give a delightfully rich, almost fruity, flavor to the meat. One day, seeking to make this recipe, I realized I didn't have any tomato paste. Instead, I chose to use a Moroccan tomato sauce I had found, a shakshuka sauce. This sauce contains roasted red peppers, onions, garlic, olive oil, cilantro, parsley, and an eclectic blend of Moroccan spices. Richly spiced and herby, the shaksuka sauce imparts a wonderful flavor to the chicken.

The dish turned out to be tender, juicy, and succulent. The roasting process brought out the natural sweetness of the onions and carrots, and the potatoes took on the seductive flavor from all of the juices and marinade in which they cook. Not only is it excellently tasty and very hearty, producing a great amount of food, but it also is very easy to make. Other than allocating the time for a marinade and removing the chicken at some points to prevent the chicken from becoming overcooked in the oven, it is the height of simplicity to make—a perfect weeknight meal!

This recipe is adapted from My Little French Kitchen, by Rachel Khoo.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds chicken, mixture of breasts and thighs
• 2/3 cup red wine
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 16 ounces Moroccan shakshuka tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 pounds fingerling potatoes
• 3 white onions, peeled and quartered
• 6 carrots, chopped

Instructions

1. Make the marinade: Combine the wine, tomato sauce, thyme, marjoram, and vinegar. Salt and pepper the chicken plentifully, then combine with the marinade in an appropriately large bowl, cover, and marinate overnight preferably (or at least 30 minutes). Turn over intermittently.
2. Place the chopped carrots into the bottom of a large roasting dish. Add in peeled and quartered onions over them, then potatoes, and finally the chicken. Pour the marinade over it all, then cover with aluminum foil. Place into an oven preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and roast it all together for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven but leave it going, and take the chicken and place it on a separate plate. Put the rest back in the oven and cook for an additional 15 minutes, still covered by the foil, then remove the foil, put the chicken back in, and cook for 15 minutes more until it has a crisp skin.
4. Serve immediately.

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on August 20, 2020:

This sounds like a tasty dish. French cooking is a great source for interesting and tasty recipes.

Danny from India on August 20, 2020:

Perfect recipe and with red wine is a potent cocktail. Thanks, Ryan for sharing this.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

One of my favorite YouTube channels comes from The French Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, or the National Audivisual Institution. One of their sub-channels is Ina Les Recettes Vintage, or Ina Vintage Recipes, and I happened upon a video for a French cooking show from the 1990s entitled La Cuisine des mousquetaires, or The Food of the Musketeers. Here, they were making a truly bizarre product: pineapple jam! This definitely caught my interest, and in trying to come up with a way to use it I thought about using it as a filling for a dessert. Thus this pineapple, mango, and strawbery pie was born.

An incredibly fruity idea as it turned out! The pie positively bursts with flavor from the fruit within, all ensconced without a delicious crust. The pineapple forms a wonderfully sweet filling that is rich, smooth, and flavorul; yet it doesn't overwhelm the mangoes or strawberries. A nice crumble of graham crackers on top completes the elegant picture.

The pie has a lovely texture, as well—it is soft and almost pudding-like. If you prefer a drier pie, you can reduce the amount of milk, and for a more classic fruit pie you can add pectin to firm it up. But personally I quite liked the almost pudding-like style of this pie.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 1 pineapple
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 pound strawberries
• 2 mangoes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 graham crackers
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 limes, or some lime juice

Instructions

1. Make the pineapple jam (the pie filling): Remove the exterior of a pineapple and the hard core of the fruit. Chop the remaining fruit into small pieces. In a bowl, add the chopped fruit, juice of limes or lime juice, and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
2. After the 24 hours, place the pineapple-sugar mixture into a saucepan. Over low heat, cook for 50 minutes; then mash until it is reasonably smooth and broken down. Once it is cool, add in the milk and egg yolks and beat until everything is combined into a smooth mixture. (For a firmer pie, add less milk.)
3. Make the crust: Allow the butter to reach room temperature (or microwave it to warm it up). In a small bowl, combine the butter, flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt. Beat until it comes together in little balls. Then add the whipping cream and create a smooth ball.
4. Either roll this out or place it directly into a large 10-inch pie dish, and flute the edges delicately. Poke holes in it with a fork and place it into a 350-degree F oven for 10 minutes, with aluminum foil over it. Then remove the aluminum foil and cook another 10 minutes.
5. Once this has cooled, place the strawberries, hulled and chopped in half, and the mangoes, which are peeled and chopped to one's preferred size, into the pie crust. Then add in the pineapple filling to cover it and make sure it is well distributed.
6. Place this into the oven again at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes. When it is removed, place the graham cracker crumble over it, with two graham crackers that have been crumbled and mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar, sprinkling it over the top of the pie.
7. Place the pie back into the oven at 350 degrees F for another 15 minutes. Allow it to cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and perhaps add whipped cream.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

French cheesecakes are dramatically different from their American equivalents, or at least this one is, based on the recipes of the Alsatian region of France. Perhaps it is ironic that it would be from this region, located on the border with Germany, for Alsatian food is famously hearty, a meat and potatoes affair. Yet their cheesecakes are dramatically divergent. They are much lighter and almost spongy, soft and delicate, more like a souffle than the heavy and decadent cheesecakes of the United States.

This French-style cheesecake is refreshing, delicate, and elegant, and in this case graced with a beautiful wisp of orange, seductively coiling itself around the tongue as one eats it, with the beautiful melding of the sweetness and the orange and a dusting of powdered sugar. It is a delight to eat, wonderful as a pleasant dessert after a rich meal.

I modified this recipe from Rachel Khoo's My Little French Kitchen: Over 100 Recipes from the Mountains, Market Squares, and Shores of France.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup flour
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 7 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup Grand Marnier
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups Greek yogurt
• 1 orange, juice and zest of

Instructions

1. Make the crust: Beat together the butter (which has been softened in a microwave), sugar, and salt, until creamed. Then add 1 egg yolk and then the flour. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then mold onto the greased bottom of a 10-inch springform pan and cook for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F, after pricking the bottom with a fork so that air bubbles don't form.
2. Beat the remaining 2 egg yolks and then add in the orange juice, Grand Marnier, vanilla, and half of the confectioner's sugar, then beat until thick and creamy. Beat in the cornstarch and the milk, then the Greek Yogurt.
3. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl with a few tablespoons of confectioner's sugar. When foamy, add in the orange zest and the rest of the confectioner's sugar, and whisk the egg whites until stiff. Then beat 1/3 of the egg whites into the heavier Greek yogurt mixture, and then fold the remaining amount in.
4. Pour the batter into the springform pan and smooth the top with a spatula. If you have a large roasting dish, place the springform pan inside with water surrounding the pan. Put this into the preheated 350 F oven, but then immediately turn down the temperature to 250 F. Cook for 1 hour. Once done, leave the cake in the oven for 1 additional hour. After that, extract the cake from the springform pan with a knife around the edges.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Red bean paste is a flavor that is difficult to pin down at first, perhaps because it is so hauntingly familiar and yet at the same time so very different. It has a certain richness about it that is both incredibly sweet and adaptable.

I have decided, after much consideration, that what it can be most easily compared to is chocolate—but it has more of an almost earthiness as compared to chocolate, and it lacks some of chocolate's upper notes. Instead, it has a richer and yet also more piercing, ever so slightly fruity, taste to it.

If you combine red bean paste with chocolate, the resulting hybrid surpasses either one on its own, and that's exactly what has been done in this recipe. The end result is richer and more decadent than the two on their own. The texture is more cake-like than that of a traditional cheesecake, although there are suggestions in this for attaining a more traditional cheesecake texture, but for me this was no barrier to enjoyment of this delicious dessert.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 12 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 pound red bean paste
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 8 ounces graham crackers

Instructions

1. Make the graham cracker crust: Crumble the graham crackers into the bottom of a springform pan, and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. This will help form a good crust, but be careful not to let it burn.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan using a double boiler, then add in the chocolate and the red bean paste, and melt together to form a smooth mixture. Add in the heavy cream and mix.
3. Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth in a mixing bowl, and add in the vanilla. Then add in the chocolate-red bean paste mixture, and beat until combined.
4. Beat together the eggs and the sugar. Beat this slowly into the chocolate mixture, and stir to mix.
5. Pour this resulting batter into the springform pan, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F, with an aluminum foil covering to prevent the top from burning or any cracking happening. Cool and chill thoroughly then unmold it from the side. Serving with whipped cream or vanilla is always a good idea.

Comments

peachy from Home Sweet Home on June 20, 2020:

oh boy! I have never tried ocake with red bean in my life! However this is indeed a sweet combination for a lovely cake.

Sp Greaney from Ireland on June 19, 2020:

Looks delicious. I haven't ever seen red bean paste in a recipe but that's the joy of experimenting with new ingredients.

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on June 19, 2020:

Thankyou for the recipe. It looks lovely. :)

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

It is hard to beat a crème brûlée. They are simply so delightful, so rich, pleasantly decadent, and their texture is so smooth and luxurious.

There is such an incredible variety of different flavors that one can combine together in a crème brûlée—simple vanilla, orange, chocolate, adzuki bean, matcha, cherry . . . the possibilities are endless! But one combination that seems to have little hold, for reasons which I don't quite understand, is the combination of peach and white chocolate.

White chocolate is such a rich and sweet flavor, strong, powerful, but not quite as dominant as chocolate. Peach has a refreshing and fruity flavor, giving a taste of elegance, a hint of sunshine and summertime. Together, the two flavors merge in harmonious unity, with the creamy excellence of the crème brûlée itself. It is almost enough to make you forget the truly terrifying number of calories you are consuming!

My own version of it was somewhat harmed by having the neighbor's kids over to help, which was a distraction, as they aren't perfect chefs in the kitchen by any means! But at the same time, they're only six and nine—and really, given their ages, they do cook surprisingly well, and they did a lot better than I would have at their age. It was fun to show them how to make a crème brûlée, and we all certainly liked the results!

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 6 ounces white chocolate
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup peach schnapps
• 1 cup sugar

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the white chocolate chips with the heavy cream, and melt over medium heat, stirring, until the white chocolate chips have all melted.
2. In a large, separate mixing bowl, separate the egg yolks and the egg whites, placing the egg yolks in the mixing bowl. These are what is needed for the recipe. Add the sugar and the vanilla extract, and beat until the eggs and sugar are thick and creamy, for at least several minutes. Then add in the peach schapps.
3. Add the white chocolate and cream mixture into the egg yolks mixture, slowly as to prevent it from cooking if it is still hot, and combine the two together through mixing.
4. Lay out ramekins in a large baking dish or vessel that can hold them and water. First surround the ramekins with hot water until around half of the way up, then pour the hot cream mixture into the ramekins until it is most of the way up the tops, choosing ramekins of one's preferred size. I got 6 of medium size.
5. Place into the oven for 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Once they are removed, allow to cool, and then place into the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours.
6. Prior to serving, remove from the refrigerator and cover the tops with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Use an oven torch to torch the tops until the sugar caramelizes and forms a hard top. Or place them into an oven with a broiler function on for 10 minutes, carefully making sure that they don't overcook and burn. Preferably allow to cool afterwards to make sure the interior has solidified again. I found that my sugar toppings lasted a few days, but this was done with a broiler and was somewhat overdone: be wary about the time which the sugar top will last.

© 2020 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liza from USA on April 22, 2020:

My husband loves Crème Brûlée so much. I remember I had Crème Brûlée for the first time with him at the restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. Thank you for the recipe. I might be doing this for him.

Liz Westwood from UK on April 22, 2020:

I'm tempted to give this recipe a go during lockdown. It looks delicious.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Madeleines are probably my favorite cookie, as they are wondrously easy to make. All that's required is to combine some simple ingredients to make a somewhat liquid batter, and then proceed to pour it into madeleine pans. It is incredibly difficult to produce bad madeleines—not impossible, as I have managed to do it in the process of attempting, and failing, to create hibiscus/bissap madeleines, but nevertheless the vast majority of the time, the recipes work out exceedingly well.

One of my favorite flavors is adzuki bean, or red bean paste. This East Asian dessert ingredient might sound like something that more appropriately belongs in a taco, but it is actually sweet, rich, and moist, somewhat akin to chocolate but more complex, less overpowering, more creamy, and somewhat earthy. It is truly unique, and it works well in many different recipes. In this case, I used it as the principal flavoring in my madeleines, albeit married with chocolate chips, and I found that it made a sweet, delicious, rich, addictive cookie, one that is somehow even sweeter than the average madeleine—like chocolate but even better.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound red bean paste
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix together using a beater on low speed for several minutes until well combined; then switch to high speed until the batter is thin and pale. Sift in the flour in a number of small additions while continuing to beat.
2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan until it turns to a rich brown and releases nutty flavors. Then remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. Fold the butter in with the rest of the ingredients, producing a thick but clearly liquid batter.
4. Spray two madeleine pans with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook the madeleines for 15 minutes in the oven, checking regularly to make sure they are not burning (this can easily occur with madeleines).
5. Allow the madeleines several minutes to cool; then remove them from the molds. Dust with powdered sugar.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liza from USA on December 05, 2019:

I have yet to make madeleines this year. Somehow red bean paste madeleines sound very interesting. I never had it before. Thank you for sharing the recipe.

Liz Westwood from UK on December 05, 2019:

This is an interesting variation on a French favourite of mine.

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Madeleines are such a wonderful French cookie—springy, light to the touch, sweet, delicate, brilliant when dipped with tea, and beautiful in their seashell shape. They aren't even that difficult to make, either. Just melt some butter, beat some ingredients, combine them together, put them in their molds, and bake! Voilà, some truly excellent cookies!

They can also be made in a huge range of different flavors. I've made plain, strawberry, chocolate, and chocolate/orange/coffee. In this version, I decided to try the dainty combination of peach and blackberry.

The peach flavor comes from peach schnapps, which has a light and delicate flavor, fresh upon the tongue. The blackberries match this well, with sharp and intense gusts of fruity flavor that flash in the mouth as one eats.

The blackberries also make the cookies look quite pretty, with the golden madeleines crowned by the dark purple berries. Dusting the cookies with powdered sugar is a lovely finishing touch. Finally, the delightful seashell shape allows them to be beautifully arranged for any tea service.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 stick butter
• 4 tablespoons peach schnapps
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Approximately 50 blackberries

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat for 10 minutes. The butter should turn a rich, dark, handsome shade, and have a nutty odor about it. When melted, remove from heat, pour into a small bowl, and allow to cool.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt cardamon. Beat together until smooth and thick, doing so for several minutes. Then add in the flour and peach schnapps, and mix together thoroughly once more.
3. Fold in the browned butter, until it is well incorporated, smooth, and without any pockets or remnants.
4. Use non-stick spray or butter to grease 2 madeleine pans, with 24 cookie molds present. Pour a small serving spoon's quantity of batter into each slot, so that it fills each mold but doesn't come out of it. Place 2 blackberries on each madeleine (or more if one has additional blackberries).
5. Place into a preheated 375˚F oven for 15 minutes. Check regularly to make sure they are not burning as this can happen easily with madeleines.
6. Allow to cool once removed from the oven. Once cooled, remove the cookies from their molds, dust them with powdered sugar, and serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Tori Leumas on September 22, 2019:

This looks really cool! I have never made madeleines before. I may try this sometime.

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on September 22, 2019:

I've never heard of this before, but it sounds really nice. Thanks for the recipe. =)

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

How to Make Homemade Madeleines

Recently, I've been making many desserts with what has become my favored flavor trio: chocolate, coffee, and orange. Cakes, cream, creme brûlées, ice cream, biscotti—the list goes on and on. But I wouldn't do it if it wasn't for the fact that it is an intoxicating flavor profile, one that is rich, complex, deep, and sweet.

In cookie form, this flavor combination is just as good as in any other dessert, and French madeleine cookies are an excellent choice. Madeleines are so soft, addicting, and pretty that it would be a shame not to try applying these glorious flavors to them. The end result was delicious, especially when paired with tea.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 stick butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 orange, zest and juice of
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• powdered sugar, for decoration

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat for 10 minutes, until it turns brown. This brings out the nice nutty flavors in the butter. Pour the melted butter into a small bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Once combined, add in the flour, orange zest, orange juice, coffee, and cocoa powder. Mix together.
3. Fold the melted butter into the batter.
4. Using non-stick spray or butter, grease madeleine baking trays, with 24 individual slots.
5. Pour the batter into the baking trays. Bake at 375˚F for 15 minutes.
6. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove from the molds. Sift powdered sugar on top for garnish.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Ryan Thomas (author) from Eureka, California on September 16, 2019:

For me I was really surprised to find them in a local cooking store, being in the sticks I didn't really imagine that I would find them.

Liz Westwood from UK on September 16, 2019:

These sound great. I haven't seen Madeleine baking moulds around. I will have to search them out.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

I had originally intended to make cookies with this recipe—or more precisely, walnut squares, with alternating layers of walnut cake, chocolate, and dates. Unfortunately, things did not go quite as planned. I didn't make quite enough of the walnut cake, and one of the layers I'd had in mind essentially shattered. While the resulting treat was tasty, it wasn't what I'd originally had in mind.

I realized that I needed to simplify the process. In this recipe, I made a double layer of walnut cake, with layers of chocolate-coffee cream in between and on top. On top of that, I added a splendid whipped cream layer that made the cake look beautiful, luscious, and elegant. To top it all off, I added a crumble consisting of cake segments and walnuts.

The overall taste of this cake is sweet, light, and wonderfully rich. My mother says it is, simply put, one of her favorites that I have ever made—and I have certainly made many!

When developing this recipe, I referred to The Viennese Pastry Cookbook, by Lilly Joss Reich. The recipe that appears below, however, is dramatically altered from that which is found within the pages of this wonderful cookbook.

There are no mistakes, only happy little accidents."

— Bob Ross

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons plain bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 cups finely ground walnuts
• 4 egg whites
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 3 tablespoons water
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup + 4 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups heavy cream
• Walnut pieces, for decoration

Instructions

1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until they are pale and creamy, then proceed to add in the bread crumbs, mix again, and then the maple syrup. Finally fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and 2 cups of the ground walnuts.
2. Use 2 buttered or heavily non-stick spray coated baking pans which are 8 inch by 8 inch and at least 2 inches high, pouring in an equal amount of the batter into both. Then place them into an oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. Make sure to monitor to make sure that there is no burning and that it does not become excessively crisp. If one wants, reserve a very small amount of the batter to put into the oven for 15 minutes at the same temperature, as a decoration to go on top. The batter should be edging somewhat away from the sides of the baking pans once done. Let cool and then remove.
3. To make the chocolate cream, melt together the chocolate with the water, in a small saucepan over low heat. Cream butter and 4 tablespoons confectioner's sugar together with the instant coffee. Then fold in the chocolate, and 1 cup of ground walnuts, and mix until a consistent mixture.
4. Use a spatula to spread 1/2 of this over the top of one of the cake pieces, then place the other cake piece on top of that. Spread the remaining chocolate mixture over that. Refrigerate until cool and set.
5. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the whipped cream with the vanilla, and 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar until stiff. Then proceed to place it all over the cake, coating it. Proceed to smooth it with a knife until it is decorative and pretty. Place 1/2 walnut pieces over it in a decorative pattern, and if one has chosen, crumble some of the overcooked walnut cake slice on it to give a pretty crumble on top. Refrigerate until serving.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

MG Singh emge from Singapore on January 04, 2020:

I love walnut cakes. Excellent article on them

Liz Westwood from UK on September 10, 2019:

It's encouraging for the rest of us, whose baking does not always go to plan, when great bakers like yourself admit when things go a little awry. I am impressed by your ability to retrieve the situation and still end up with a fantastic cake.

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on September 09, 2019:

Thanks for the recipe. This sounds lovely. =)

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Tasty Pot Roast

To me, pot roast conjures up ideas of a hearty, filling, and comforting meal, albeit one that might sometimes lack a bit in creativity and brilliance. Pot roast prefers solidity and comfort over flash and panache.

This recipe, however, does much to liven up the old traditional pot roast with a pleasant mix of aromatic spices, above all else sage, while still keeping those essential elements that make it such an excellent comfort food. It is also delightfully pretty, and it makes for an excellent meal centerpiece. It goes well alongside side dishes such as potatoes or pasta to form a nice complete meal.

To top it all off, the meat I'm using in this recipe, chuck roast, is relatively inexpensive—but the cheap cost belies the quality of the dish. A longer cooking time allows the flavors to work their way into the meat and become yet more tender.

I have adapted this recipe from Traditional Croatian Recipes, by Bruno Simonovic and Ivo Semencic, which is one of my favorite cookbooks. It is packed with a wide range of excellent recipes accompanied by thoroughly wonderful photos. The book is well organized with readable, pleasantly formatted instructions. If you can ever get your hands on it, do so!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into at least three serving steaks
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and diced
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 cluster cilantro, removed from stems and chopped
• 4 ounces cherry tomatoes
• 1 ounce sage
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup beef stock
• 2 tablespoons flour
• tarragon, to season meat
• salt, to season meat
• pepper, to season meat
• thyme, to season meat
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon dried sage

Instructions

1. If necessary, cut the chuck roast into serving portions, with at least 3 different pieces. Then proceed to tenderize the pieces by pounding them, and seasoning with plentiful salt, pepper, tarragon, and thyme.
2. Proceed to sauté the steaks in the butter in a cast-iron skillet until they are seared on all sides, for several minutes. Then remove from the skillet and place on a serving plate, and cover.
3. Place the olive oil in the skillet. Add in the diced and peeled onion, cilantro, and the garlic, and sauté until the onion begins to turn golden. Add in the flour and then the stock and wine, and then the sage leaves and dried sage. Place the meat back in the sauce with the addition of the cherry tomatoes, and season with additional salt and pepper.
4. Simmer until the meat is tender, over low heat, for around 30 minutes. Garnish with some cilantro and other seasonings when serving.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on August 24, 2019:

I am tempted to give this a go in my slow cooker. Definitely one to keep in mind for the winter months.

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on August 24, 2019:

Thankyou for the recipe. I love the sound of this. I'll make a note of this recipe. =)

Ryan Thomas is a university graduate who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Cabbage stew does not usually evoke romantic visions of great food. Comforting? Cheap? Nourishing? Yes to all three, but it also sounds suspiciously like something that your grandmother would have made for you—the dish she ate while growing up during the Great Depression, when she was grateful to have the slightest shred of cabbage on her plate, when she had to walk seven miles to school in the sleeting snow over muddy tracks. This was the dish she was damn grateful to have—and you'd better appreciate your cabbage stew, too!

In this case, however, you'd be unfortunately mistaken—because this recipe draws its origin from French cooking. Traditional French cooking has a love affair with cabbage; in fact, a term of endearment in French is petit chou, literally meaning little cabbage, which is a term that is commonly used to mean sweetheart.

This stew is no bland and uninspired recipe of cabbage with a bit of salt and pepper. No, grander and richer fare must be the order of the day, and the result here is that cabbage finds holy matrimony with a whole host of other ingredients, including potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic—but above all else butter, bacon, and cream. This recipe is certainly not vegetarian, and it is certainly not light, but while your waist might decry it, your taste buds will delight.

For a delicious stew on a cold winter night, I am sure that there is no better recipe. The rich bacon mingles with the sweet cabbage, and the elixir of cream binds the honesty of potatoes with the freshness of carrots.

I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, La cuisine française: la + simple du monde.

Ingredients

• 1 head of cabbage
• 3 carrots, peeled and roughly sliced
• 1 onion
• 1/2 package bacon, (around half a pound)
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3 potatoes, peeled and chopped roughly
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. In a large casserole dish, fry the bacon over high heat for 3 minutes. Add in the onions, butter, and the garlic once the bacon has rendered its fat and has started to solidify. Fry the onions for 5 minutes, and then add the potatoes.
2. Add in the carrots, and then the cabbage which is cut up into small fragments. Mix together evenly by stirring.
3. Proceed to cook for 20 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Then add in the cream, and cook for 20 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper, and then serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on August 24, 2019:

This looks like a healthy recipe. How does it compare with the Russian borscht?

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Biscotti are a rather beloved cookie. Boasting a superbly crunchy texture, they are delightfully pleasant to bite into. They also have the wonderful ability to be transformed into a dazzling variety of flavor profiles, ranging from savory to plain to sweet.

I recently made chocolate orange coffee biscotti, which I found quite excellent; they were rich, dark, flavorful. The positive reception I received from my family inspired me to try a different flavor; this time, a combination of lemon and rose. It seemed that the fruity and light flavor would be tantalizingly appetizing, and it was! Delightfully crunchy, the fruity and slightly effervescent flavor of lemon was a perfect balance to the chocolate chips, which provided solidity and little bursts of richness. The resulting cookie is simply superb in its palette of flavors.

It should be noted that the photos accompanying this article show a batter that is much moister than it should be. This is because I ran out of flour partway through and therefore had to make do with a stickier and more moist dough than I would have preferred. However, the measurements I've provided in the ingredients below are correct, so do not be alarmed about the possibility of having to work with what is displayed in the photos.

This recipe is entirely my own and is largely based upon my previous recipe for chocolate orange coffee biscotti. The base of the recipe is essentially the same, with the main change being the new flavors.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 lemons, zest and juice of
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamon
• 2 tablespoons rose water extract
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine together the lemon zest, eggs, sugar, baking powder, salt, cardamon, and flour. Mix together with a blender on low speed.
2. Microwave the butter until it is soft. Beat it into the dry ingredients, then add in the lemon juice, vanilla extract, and rose water extract. Add in the eggs, and then fold in the slivered almonds. If it is too moist and wet, add in additional flour and/or sugar. It should be rich and damp but not liquid.
3. Roll this out on the counter into three long logs (I used 2 above in the photos due to lack of flour producing an excessively wet dough), each one flat in shape and around 1 1/2 inches wide, slightly less tall, and however long one can get the dough to stretch. Place onto a baking sheet with substantial space between each log, so that they have space to expand.
4. Place into an oven that is preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 25 minutes. Then remove, allow to cool for several minutes, and slice diagonally into the biscotti cookies. Arrange on their flat faces, and bake 10 minutes longer at the same temperature, then allow to cool, shift onto the other side, and bake a final 10 minutes. They keep quite well and make for delicious cookies.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on August 18, 2019:

This is a helpful and well-illustrated recipe for a tasty treat. It is encouraging that even experienced chefs like yourself have days when things don't go to plan. I appreciate your honesty about the dough consistency.

Shawindi Silva from Sri lanka on August 18, 2019:

Thank you!!

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Who doesn't love ice cream? It is such a lazily delicious treat, so easy and simple to eat, not at all like more complicated and formal desserts. Ice cream is sweet, creamy, and comes in a wide variety of flavors. Cool and refreshing on a hot summer day, relaxing and uncomplicated the rest of the year, it is truly a dessert for all seasons. It is no wonder why it is such a popular dessert, perhaps the most popular in the United States.

If you tend to buy ice cream from the store, this recipe will show you how much better it can be when you make it at home with premium ingredients. Milk? Overrated. Use heavy cream instead! And load it up with egg yolks to make it richer and creamier.

My recipe makes a delightful soft serve ice cream, almost a cross between some sort of pudding and ice cream, so wondrously easy to scoop and to eat. The candied nuts provide a bit of contrasting crunch, and the orange provides a light fruitiness to balance the rich, decadent chocolate.

This recipe is entirely my own, although I did take the idea for the candied nuts from The Georgian Feast, a Georgian cookbook that I quite like.

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 ounces honey (preferably orange honey)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 oranges, juice of (feel free to include the zest if one desires more orange flavor, but this means straining)

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, combine the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and cocoa powder. Over high heat, melt the ingredients until they are smooth and without any roughness.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the vanilla, sugar, orange juice, and egg yolks. Dish a small portion of the chocolate liquid into this and stir. Add all contents of the mixing bowl back into the saucepan. Over low heat, cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, to form a thicker custard.
3. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool. Simultaneously, bring the honey to boiling in a saucepan, and then add in the coarsely chopped walnuts. Cook over high heat, stirring vigorously, for 10 minutes, then pour the mixture out onto a moistened wooden board. Allow the mixture to solidify for a few minutes then break this apart into smaller nut clusters and combine these with the chocolate custard.
4. Process the nut-chocolate custard mixture in your ice cream maker per its instructions.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Rhonda Bland from Ashland on July 03, 2019:

This sounds amazing, I can hardly wait to try it. Similarly, you should taste my Hershey's Gold ice cream. I have not plagarized in any way, but the reason I call it Hershey's Gold is because I used their candy bars in my ice cream.

RTalloni on July 02, 2019:

Oh me oh my oh. Not much beats chocolate and orange together, and this ice cream recipe is one rich way to achieve the goal.

Ryan Thomas (author) from Eureka, California on July 02, 2019:

That it most certainly was!

Liz Westwood from UK on July 02, 2019:

This looks like an indulgent treat.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

After having bought some rather terrible biscotti from an otherwise good local bakery, my mother decided she didn't like this entire cookie category. It's possible that the sample she purchased was actually good, but she had made the mistake of buying the anise (licorice) flavor and foolishly never tried any other flavors, simply writing off all biscotti as hard, brittle, bitter, and dismal.

It was not until we tried some biscotti made by a family friend that we learned how good they could be. We realized that they could be a splendid combination of crunchy, satisfyingly textured, and richly flavored.

Indeed, biscotti can be so accommodating of different flavors that I decided to adopt a flavor profile that I had previously tried in France while making a mousse. The combination of chocolate-orange-coffee, thrown together in a fit of inventive fancy, produced a stunning mousse that was fresh, decadent, rich, stirring, sweet, and fruity—all at once. With some simple modifications, I was able to translate this flavor profile into the following biscotti recipe.

The strongest flavor in these dessert cookies is the chocolate; the orange complements it and the coffee rounds it out. If one desires a different flavor mix it would be easy to adjust some of the proportions; for example, by adjusting the amount of instant coffee.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 oranges, zest of
• 5 tablespoons instant coffee
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine together the orange zest, instant coffee, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, and flour. Mix together with a blender on slow speed.
2. Microwave the butter briefly until it is soft. Beat it into the dry ingredients and add in the vanilla and Grand Marnier liquid. It should form a rich, dark, slightly moist mixture. Add in the eggs, and beat more until it forms a rich chocolate dough. Fold in slivered almonds.
3. Roll this out on a counter, and form into a long flat shape, 1 1/2 inches wide, slightly less tall, and however long as one has dough for. Then divide into three long logs of the same size, making sure each one is smooth and consistent. Place them onto a baking sheet and leave a space between each to enable them to expand.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for some 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. Then remove, let cool for several minutes, and cut them in diagonal cuts into individual biscotti. Place on their sides, and bake 10 minutes longer, then turn over, and bake 10 minutes more. Once they have cooled, they will be ready to serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on June 30, 2019:

I have several biscotti recipes, including ones with an anise flavor which I like. Your recipe sounds delicious. Pinning this so that I can easily retrieve it.

Linda Crampton from British Columbia, Canada on June 29, 2019:

I always love a combination of chocolate and orange. Adding coffee and Grand Marnier to the mix sounds like an excellent idea!

Liz Westwood from UK on June 27, 2019:

This is a rich and indulgent recipe. The illustrations are especially helpful.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

French cuisine encompasses a diverse range of influences, and some people may not be familiar with the Basque contribution. One popular Basque dish, which is a favorite in Parisian bistros, is poulet basquaise (basque chicken).

I have taken the traditional recipe and adjusted it, producing a rich, gutsy, and vibrant dish that is a rather beautiful mixture of chicken and peppers. The brilliant colors complement and contrast with each other, while the chicken is seasoned with a host of spices that draw out its flavor.

I recommend serving this dish over rice and perhaps accompanying it with a nice white wine, which generally, after all, provides for a nice accompaniment for chicken.

I have adapted this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks: La cuisine française: la + simple du monde.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken, cut up into individual pieces
• 6 bell peppers, cored and seeded
• 1 onion, peeled and diced
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• 8 cloves garlic
• 5 sprigs rosemary
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons tarragon
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. Core and remove the seeds from the bell peppers then proceed to cut them up into smaller pieces. Peel and dice the onion. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or casserole dish, then put in the onion, immediately followed by the bell pepper. Sauté over medium heat for 20 minutes.
2. Peel the garlic but leave it in whole pieces. Cut the chicken into smaller serving pieces and add tarragon, salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika to season, rubbing it consistently all over the chicken. Place it into a large, oven-proof dish, and add in the garlic cloves and the rosemary.
3. Mix in with this the sautéd bell peppers and onion, and sprinkle over this some additional seasonings, some olive oil, the balsamic vinegar, and add in cilantro and the bay leaves. Place into a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes, then remove and serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on June 26, 2019:

This is a well-documented and tasty recipe.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Lemon is, without a doubt, one of the most versatile and lovely of dessert ingredients. Refreshing, light, and elegant, it pairs well with a wide range of other sweet flavors.

In this particular recipe, lemon forms the centerpiece of a pleasantly light and beautiful tea cake, one that is also enriched and elevated by chocolate chips, cardamom, vanilla, and the slightest hint of rose. The cake is easy to make, and yet it achieves a wonderful balance between being both rich and heavy and simultaneously light and sweet. As the name implies, the cake goes excellently with tea, or with a range of other beverages.

I have adapted this recipe from The Georgian Feast, a Georgian cookbook that includes quite a few pleasant dishes.

Ingredients

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon rose aroma
• 2 eggs
• 2 lemons, juice and zest
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Cream together the butter with the confectioner's sugar in a large bowl.
2. In a separate, smaller bowl, beat together the eggs and the yogurt. Blend in the confectioner's sugar and butter mixture.
3. Add in the flour, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, 1/2 cup sugar, zest and juice of lemons, and rose aroma. Mix together with a mixer. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Pour the batter into a 9-inch (or so) pie dish, which has been coated with non-stick spray. If you have some leftover lemon zest, add it on top. Bake in an oven at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes. Serve with optional strawberries and sugar on top.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on June 18, 2019:

This is a great idea combining lemon anf chocolate in a cake recipe. Lemon os such a refreshing flavour. I havd made lemon drizzle and lemon iced cakes in the past.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

The name of this recipe might call to mind memories of the milk baths that Queen Elizabeth apparently loved to indulge in to keep her skin pale, supple, and beautiful. Here, the milk serves a different purpose entirely as it bakes the pork, potatoes, and a host of different seasonings. This unique preparation elevates it above a traditional pork roast, producing a wonderfully rich, sophisticated, pretty, and even rather easy dish.

It's miraculous how a heady and diverse spice marinade, followed by a quick searing technique to lock in the flavor and then a lengthy milk bath, can produce an incredibly tender, rich, and complex meal. Hearty and filling, this dish is perfect for any cold winter night, though it would also be delightful at any time of year.

I adapted this recipe from La cuisine française: la + simple du monde. It is certainly one of my favorite cookbooks, and as the title implies, the recipes are very simple indeed—which leaves plenty of room to come up with improvements.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds pork roast
• 1 1/2 quarts milk
• 5 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 10 sprigs rosemary
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon sage
• 3 tablespoons butter
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped

Instructions

1. At least 6 hours (or preferably the previous day) before you plan to serve this dish, rub the garlic, sage, and 5 sprigs of rosemary on the meat. Place the seasoned meat in the refrigerator and allow the flavors to work their way in.
2. After this is done, remove the garlic from the meat. Heat butter until it melts in a skillet, then sear the pork for a few minutes on both sides (this locks in the flavor).
3. Fill a large oven-safe casserole dish with a mixture of the peeled and chopped onions and potatoes, rosemary, and the meat. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, and tarragon. Pour the milk over it, so that it is almost covered.
4. Place it into a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 70 minutes, leaving the top open. If need be, baste the contents of the pan or move it around so as to make sure that the top does not become burned and it is evenly cooked. Make sure the potatoes are cooked through. Serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on June 18, 2019:

Another great and well-documented recipe. This is easy to achieve and sounds very tasty.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

I have a great affection for the braising technique because of the way it produces such a rich and pleasant taste. In this recipe, the braising went to good effect, creating a vibrant and tender combination of the heady and sophisticated flavors of steak, bacon, prosciutto, asparagus, and red wine to produce a thoroughly superb meat dish—like a pot roast but infinitely better.

The flavors marry together with such wonderful panache; the bacon and the prosciutto provide a decadence, while the asparagus lightens up the meat with its éclat of green and its light vegetable nature. Combined with a red wine that quickly reduces and enriches the ingredients, it is a real jewel of a dish, one to serve on the best of occasions.

I have adapted this recipe from Traditional Croatian Recipes, by Bruno Simonovic and Ivo Semencic, which is one of my favorite cookbooks. It is stuffed with a wide range of excellent recipes accompanied by thoroughly wonderful photos. The book is well organized with readable, pleasantly formatted instructions. If you can ever get your hands on it, do so!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds rump roast or chuck roast of beef
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon tarragon
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1 bunch asparagus (about 1 lb.), cut into smaller segments
• 3 1/2 ounces prosciutto
• 4 strips bacon
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 3/4 red wine
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• cilantro, for garnish (optional)
• 1/2 onion

Instructions

1. Apply salt, pepper, and tarragon to the beef, which should be in steaks or pieces. Heat the butter in a large skillet over high heat.
2. Briefly sear the steaks on both side in the skillet, then remove to a separate plate.
3. Place the onion into the juice which has been left behind by the meat and fry briefly, then add in the prosciutto and bacon. Add the asparagus. Dust with some flour, then season with salt, pepper, and mustard.
4. Add in the red wine, and cook for several minutes to reduce the sauce, then embed the meat into the dish and continue to cook over reduced heat while the sauce reduces, about 15 minutes, covered, with occasional stirring to prevent burning. Season with cilantro if desired. Serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

It is a rather unusual combination for Western cuisine, I suppose, to throw meatballs in a yogurt broth, but it works rather wonderfully in this recipe! The meatballs are superbly and temptingly spiced, while the rich, lemony yogurt-and-rice broth provide a contrasting coolness. The resulting flavor palette is both exotic and diverse, and the meal is hearty, filling, and substantial.

I have adapted this recipe from Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories, by Naz Deravian.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 onion
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 5 cups plain yogurt
• 1 cup rice
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 5 teaspoons salt
• pepper, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground dill
• 2 ounces fresh mint
• 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried allspice
• 8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• olive oil

Instructions

1. Begin making the meatballs: In a large bowl, combine the meat, 1/2 onion (peeled and very finely chopped), and finely chopped garlic, turmeric, basil cumin, cinnamon, oregano, dill, fresh mint, tarragon, pepper to taste, allspice, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix well.
2. Shape the meat mixture into small balls on a baking sheet. There should be around 40. Drizzle them with olive oil, then bake in an oven preheated to 425 F degrees for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine together the flour with an equal quantity of water and stir together in a small bowl. In a large casserole, combine together the yogurt with 4 cups of water, then add in the flour-water mixture. Turn on the heat and bring to a boil while stirring constantly in one direction. Then add in the onion after 10 minutes, boil for 5 minutes longer, then reduce heat to medium and add in the rice and butter, continuing to stir.
4. Cook for 10 minutes longer, then add in the remaining 3 teaspoons salt, pepper to taste, cilantro, and meatballs. Simmer for a final 20 minutes, with continued stirring intermittently, then serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on June 13, 2019:

This looks like an interesting recipe. The step by step illustrations are very helpful.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Pesto, that delightful combination of walnuts and garlic, comes in many different forms, but none perhaps purer than here—where the garlic and walnuts are married to a bit of cream and olive oil. This pungently nutty result combines with delicately sautéed chicken, along with rosemary and thyme, to produce a fragrantly seasoned dish that is easy to prepare. The sauce is sure to delight any pesto aficionado, and the dish is lovely when served with rice and pasta, as these accompaniments will soak up the sauce.

This recipe is based on one from The Georgian Feast, a Georgian cookbook that seems to include quite a few pleasant dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken, cut up into multiple smaller pieces
• 1 onion
• 3 bulbs garlic, peeled
• 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
• salt
• pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 5 sprigs rosemary

Instructions

1. Cut the chicken into smaller serving pieces. Season individually with salt and pepper. Peel the garlic. Coarsely chop the walnuts. Finely chop the onion.
2. Combine together the walnuts, garlic, heavy cream, and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a blender. Blend until it becomes a smooth paste. If necessary, add in additional liquids if it does not blend, such as chicken stock.
3. Heat the remaining olive oil and butter in a large skillet. Once hot, add the chicken pieces and onion. Add in the rosemary, thyme, tarragon. Sauté for 10 minutes over medium heat; then close the lid and over low heat cook for another 15 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken from the heat onto a separate platter. Pour the garlic-walnut mixture in with the onions and the other seasonings, and mix together. Return the chicken to the dish, and cook on low for another 5 minutes, coating the chicken thoroughly with the sauce.
5. Serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on June 11, 2019:

This sounds like a very tasty recipe. Chicken is such a versatile and healthy dish, it's great to hear of new recipes.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Over time, I have come to the conclusion that as much as I might enjoy beef when it is used in stews or casseroles, or when it is sautéed, baked, or stuffed into other things, I think that its intended taste is when it is barbecued and grilled. This cooking technique brings out the true flavors and soul of this most virile of foods. While other techniques might exceed it for panache or zest, this one is the purest.

In this recipe, the meat is combined with a pomegranate-lemon marinade, which serves to marry together a host of rich flavors and spices. The fruit flavor of the pomegranate is accented by a twinge of acidity from the lemon and the hearty onions, producing a complex and multi-layered taste that enriches and accompanies the meat without overwhelming it.

I have adapted this recipe from the Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories, by Naz Deravian. My main modification is that I altered the marinade, leaving out the lime that was meant to be added at the end. If you wish to find the original recipe, you will find it in the aforementioned cookbook.

Ingredients

• 4 cups pomegranate juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 onion
• 2 teaspoons mint leaves
• salt
• pepper
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 2 pounds beef, cut up into cubes to be marinaded and then grilled

Instructions

1. Combine together the juice of 1 lemon, pomegranate juice, and sugar in a stockpot. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat slightly and constantly stir for around 1 hour or until the juice is greatly reduced and has become a syrup. Allow it to cool.
2. In a blender, combine all remaining ingredients (save for the meat). Blend to a smooth consistency.
3. Cut the meat into cubes. Salt and pepper them. Then place them into a bowl and pour the marinade over it. Marinate for 24 hours.
4. Remove the meat from the marinade and place it onto skewers. If possible, grill with vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, and peppers. Prepare the barbecue and grill for a limited period of time over the hot coals, such as 5 minutes and 5 minutes on each side.
5. Remove the meat from the skewers. Place onto a platter and serve.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on June 10, 2019:

This is a well-structured recipe for a tasty dish.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

I often find baked chicken to be sorely lacking in flavor, which is why I was pleased to discover this recipe. Here, the chicken is elegant, refined, and brilliantly flavorful.

At the very least, chicken has the advantage of being an excellent canvas upon which to paint the flavors that are desired by the chef. This is in contrast to the more stubborn meats, which must be cajoled and carefully shepherded to modify their flavors—and are really better left alone.

In this case, the combination of a wide variety of herbs and seasonings combine with strong and potent mustard to produce a delicately flavored chicken, enriched as it stews in its juices while baking in the oven. The sauce, which is surprisingly sweet and tart, finishes off this brilliant centerpiece for any meal.

I have adapted this recipe from La cuisine française: la + simple du monde.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chicken breasts
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup mustard
• 5 sprigs rosemary
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 12 liquid oz white wine
• salt
• pepper
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 4 tablespoons thyme
• 1 teaspoon taragon
• 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Cut the chicken breasts in half, or into smaller pieces. Season with plentiful salt and pepper. Place into a casserole dish and add the juice of the lemon.
2. Combine together the chopped garlic cloves, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, basil, and vegetable oil. Then add in the mustard and stir together until smooth. Add plentiful salt and pepper.
3. Coat the chicken pieces with the mustard and herbs sauce.
4. Pour the wine into the casserole dish until it nearly covers the chicken. Place into a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken from the sauce, place onto a serving platter, and pour the sauce over the chicken when it is served.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Liz Westwood from UK on May 27, 2019:

This sounds like a tasty chicken dish. Great illustrations.

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on May 20, 2019:

This sounds delicious. I'll definitely try this. =)

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

The famous French Tarte Tatin, featuring caramelized apples covered with a pastry crust, was the product of an accident when the Tatin sisters tried to cover up some burned apples with a crust to hide their mistake.

My own version of the recipe was in its own way an accident, as I had forgotten to plan for a pastry crust for the top; hence my creation veered closer to the traditional American version of an apple pie. Whether this is an entirely happy result is one that I am not myself equipped entirely to say. My resulting dessert was a combination of the French tarte, which includes golden cream, and an American apple pie. In my opinion, it turned out to be wonderfully decadent and tasty, with rich and delicious apples in a soft and flaky, buttery crust.

This recipe is entirely my own.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 stick + 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons white wine
• 5 apples
• 2 + 4 + 3 tablespoons + 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cardamon
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 1/8 cup raisins
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Combine together 1 stick of butter, partially softened in a microwave, flour, white wine, salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Combine together to form a homogeneous ball, with the aid of a blender
2. Place the ball into a 10-inch pie dish, molding it to the sides and fluting the edges. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
3. After an hour, remove the pie dish from the fridge and place in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes (the first 10 minutes lightly covered with tin foil; the second 10 minutes without). Allow to cool, then place 3 tablespoons of sugar on the bottom of the pie dish.
4. Make the apple filling: Peel the apples and cut them into individual wedges. Place the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into a large skillet and heat. At the same time, place 4 tablespoons of sugar on the apples. Once the butter is hot, put the apples into the skillet, and cook for 20 minutes, turning the apples over and moving them consistently to coat them in the caramelized butter solution. After 10 minutes, add half of the nutmeg, cardamom, and cinnamon.
5. Combine the chopped walnuts and raisins with the apples and place them both into the pie crust, moving them around for even placement. Add the remaining spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
6. Separate the egg yolks and the egg whites, and place the egg yolks into a small bowl. Beat with a fork then add in the heavy cream, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla. Mix together thoroughly. Pour it over the apples.
7. Place into the oven, covered with tin foil if necessary to avoid burning, for 60 minutes at 375 degrees.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Louise Powles from Norfolk, England on May 12, 2019:

I love the sound of this recipe, thankyou. =)

Liz Westwood from UK on May 12, 2019:

This is my kind of pie with no rolling out required. Great recipe, well-illustrated with detailed instructions.

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Having recently returned from France, I brought home a substantial number of cookbooks, all of which I was eager to try. One of these, Patrimoine Gastronomique en Pays de la Loire, included a recipe for lamb on a type of butter sauce with onions that looked delicious.

Unfortunately, my attempt to make the butter sauce did not quite come off without a hitch, due to, I believe, too much in the way of cooking the butter. But a happy accident resulted; in this case, the mixing of the basil-butter sauce, onions, and rice. It made for an immensely rich and appetizing base, upon which I layered the lamb—its flavors enhanced by the application of a refined and elegant mixed spice rub—as well as refreshing vegetables for a final touch. All in all, it made for a rich, succulent dish that elegantly married potent and sophisticated flavors.

As mentioned, I drew inspiration for this recipe from Patrimoine Gastronomique en Pays de la Loire. However, my adaptation is so different as to make it nearly unrecognizable.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lamb
• 1 stick butter
• 2/3 ounce basil
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• Thyme
• Ground black pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 zucchini
• Olive oil
• 3 cups dry white rice
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• 1 medium-sized zucchini
• Garlic salt
• 2 liquid ounces chicken stock

Instructions

1. Season the lamb. First, slice it into smaller pieces if it is in a large unitary piece, such as 2 to 3 pieces. Then for each of these pieces, rub in salt, ground black pepper, thyme, garlic salt, and rosemary. Do this 1-2 hours before roasting to allow the various seasonings to be assimilated.
2. Peel and slice the onion very finely. Proceed to sauté in olive oil in a large skillet for around 1 hour, over low heat, to allow it to become very rich and flavorful.
3. Steam the zucchini, sliced into small slices, and the cherry tomatoes. Season appropriately.
4. Combine together the basil with the chicken stock. Over medium flame, heat until it is somewhat reduced. Then add in the butter. Continue to heat until everything is combined together and the result is a clear and brilliant yellow.
5. Over a grill, cook the lamb pieces for 7 minutes on each side, turning after the first period. After cooking, allow to rest several minutes, then cut into slices.
6. Place the onions on the bottom of a serving dish. Then add in the butter sauce. Proceed to mix the two together, then add in the cooked rice, and stir together. Place the zucchini and tomatoes in a pretty pattern on top. Upon this, place the meat in a circular pattern, radiating from the center, or whatever other decorative style is preferred. Serve immediately.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

Not having access to an oven can terribly limit the variety of desserts that one can make, but when you can make such a thing as a mousse—light, elegant, fluffy, and with a beautiful taste that can encompass a dramatic number of ingredients from chocolate to fruits to coffee—it hardly feels like a loss! In this case, the combination of a type of caramelized condensed milk, mixed with the heady richness of chocolate, combines to produce a thick and luscious mousse, utilizing fully the different flavors present for a wonderful and highly decadent dessert.

Even better, it is easy to make, provided you can get your hands on the type of caramel-condensed milk product I have used here. If you cannot find this product, I imagine it would be possible to make your own caramel and to combine it with condensed milk for much the same effect, even if that spoils some of the ease with which the recipe might otherwise have been made.

This recipe is entirely my own, although it is also based upon previous mousses that I have made, adapted to fit this particular flavor profile.

Ingredients

• 400 grams (14 oz) condensed caramelized milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup + 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 5 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
• 2 packets gelatin
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) milk chocolate
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Heat the condensed caramelized milk in a small saucepan over high heat with 1/2 cup of cream, until hot and liquid.
2. Combine together the sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and the egg yolks in a large saucepan, over high heat, stirring constantly until all of the elements are combined together and liquid.
3. Proceed to add in the caramelized milk mixture, and stir together until smooth. Add in the 100 grams of chocolate. Reduce heat to low, and stirring constantly to prevent any boiling, cook for 20 minutes over low heat or until the mixture has thickened to a custard. Add in the vanilla extract and the gelatin packets, stirring them in, then place the saucepan into a bath of cold water to allow to set.
4. Once it is cold, beat the remaining 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream in one bowl, and the 5 egg whites, initially with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt but adding in teaspoons of sugar over time, until both are thick, luscious, and glossy. Then in intervening batches, beat the two into the custard. Place into the refrigerator to become cold, and serve either plain or garnished with your choice of slivered almonds, raspberries, powdered sugar, etc. Garnishes that are bright and stand out well are best.

© 2019 Ryan Thomas

Comments

Nyesha Pagnou MPH from USA on April 20, 2019:

Thanks for the recipe. The chocolate caramel mousse looks tasty.

Liz Westwood from UK on April 20, 2019:

This looks similar to a chocolate mousse recipe I used to make back in the days before we were warned off raw eggs in the UK by the salmonella crisis. Somehow I have never quite got my confidence back with raw eggs since then.