Normally, keftedes are made with ground meat (they're basically meatballs). These vegetarian alternatives are packed with flavor.
Being a Top Chef contestant can be grueling and exhausting and crazy fun. When we're all wiped out from nonstop competition, we do what we do best: eat good food. Some of my most memorable meals with those talented chefs involved banh mi, traditional Vietnamese sandwiches that layer cured meats, sausages, and pickled vegetables in small, soft versions of French baguettes. I love anything with pickles and fresh cilantro! I've put those flavors in a burger patty here and sandwiched them in my favorite French roll: buttery brioche. The rich bread makes all the difference, as does high-quality pork.
These keep in their marinade for about two weeks in the refrigerator, but are best within a couple of hours of pickling.
This quick and easy vegan entrée is economical and crowd-pleasing. Seek out garam masala (Indian spice blend) without salt, and prep the other ingredients while the potatoes roast.
These fresh roll-ups have an impudent edge. Where most Vietnamese rolls depend on a dipping sauce for spark, here the sparks are flying inside the roll -- with garlic shrimp, hoisin noodles, mint, basil and lime and crisp marinated vegetables.
You will love what happens to radishes and carrots in this pickle -- one turns a sheer sunset pink while the other practically pulsates orange. Chinese pickles are a cook's great cheat. In an elaborate Chinese menu, they save you from having to pull off time-consuming appetizers while they tune up palates for what's to come. Although these pickles are Chinese in origin, they happily pair up with a burger, a bowl of beans, or a plate of grilled chicken.
It turns out organic beeswax is 100 percent safe to eat. Wax is a particularly dense lipid, akin to animal fat, butter fat and cholesterol. Like those other fats, it is loaded with calories: 12.7 kcal per gram (as compared to beef tallow at 9 kcal per gram). But unlike tallow and all those other fattening fats, beeswax provides us with nada nutrition, including calories.
This is my Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon salad. The two main ingredients -- carrot and avocado -- might not seem compatible or connected, but your first bite will convince you otherwise. The carrots are roasted with cumin and paired with orange, both classic pairings for the vegetable. The citrus goes great with cilantro, and both are a fine match for avocado. Before you know it, you have this fresh, vibrant salad. I love the carrots roasted to the same creamy softness of avocado. The contrast comes not from the texture but from the fact that one's warm from the oven and the other's cool from the fridge.
Anything you do with this broth will make you proud. Sip it by the cup for a lift; simmer it into soups, stews, pilafs, curries and sauces.
It appeared mysteriously spartan on the menu at Coi, Daniel Patterson's ashram for food in San Francisco's North Beach: "Carrots/Coffee." What did it mean? It turned out to be genius--sweet, smoky, and earthy genius. Pencil-thin carrots are baked on a bed of coffee beans that warm gently, releasing their oils. This unexpected dish celebrates all the advantages of slow cooking: the coffee fumes gradually infuse the vegetables, creating an ephemeral sensation of something roasted that one can identify as "coffee" only after the tongue whispers to the brain.