Spiced Sweet Potato Blancmange
Not everyone wants a heavy dessert after a rich holiday meal. I give blancmange (a light, spiced almond milk-based dessert) a holiday makeover. My version is silky-smooth, and flavored with a delicate mix of wintry spices and earthy sweet potatoes.
Blue Moon Tart
Blue recipe! Bluefoot mushrooms are hard to track down, but their intoxicating flavor and aroma make the hunt worthwhile. Paired with shallots, cream and purple potatoes; I've made a rich, succulent savory (blue!) tart.
Green Rice with Fava Beans and Garlic Scapes
Colorful foods week 4= Green! Sabzi polo is a tasty, herb-packed Persian rice dish, perfect for celebrating springtime abundance. My version adds a bright green infused oil and tasty garlic scapes.
Small Batch Tempered Chocolate
Tempered chocolate work doesn't have to just be for chocolatiers with big fancy kitchens. Here's my guide for tempering small batches of chocolate in under ten minutes with kitchen tools you already have. (Really!)
Crepe Roses With Blood Oranges And Cardamom
Oops, I accidentally made something pretty for Valentine's day. These sweet little crepes in the shape of roses are actually very simple to make. If you do want to pull of a whimsical, restauranty dessert for someone sweet, then I've included a complete how-to.
Sangria Jam
Making sangria can turn a ho-hum glass of inexpensive red wine into a festive, fruity (and thrifty) treat. But what to do with the leftover fruit? I turned mine into a delicious jam.
Black Cake
Nothing says wintry decadence like dried fruits and nuts soaked in rum. And don't worry if you normally hate fruitcake; unless you grew up in the Caribbean, this is not your grandma's fruitcake. And even in the world of wonderfully diverse local fruitcakes, this one is truly unique.
Blood Orange Marmalade
Marmalade is much easier to make than most people presume (particularly made in small batches like this one). There are plenty of recipes dedicated to making jams and jellies with low sugar content. This is not one of those recipes. Marmalade is traditionally a sugar preserve — so I make no apologies about the sugar...
Vanilla
Vanilla– how on earth can I pretend to write about kitchen economy and still write about vanilla? Famously the second most expensive spice (first place goes to those electric little threads of saffron), vanilla is very expensive in all its forms (whole beans, paste, extract and powder.) It is possible to save money on costly...
Homemade Vanilla Extract
If you read the “ingredients” section in any book with a pastry chef’s name on the front, you will likely find a discussion of that chef’s preferred vanilla bean, complete with a discussion of its unique and superior qualities. Now let me first state that there is a marked difference between vanilla beans from different...
