As I was gathering ingredients for my Sunday Japanese feast, I spotted kabu (カブ)—Japanese turnips. I thought, “Umm, turnip pickles, those would be good.” While I have made these pickles before, I have apparently never posted them. Today, I chose to salt pickle (shiozuke; 塩漬け) my turnips.
Karl’s Japanese Salt Pickled Turnips
Filed under Pickles, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
This Sunday I decided to go with a Japanese feast. A Japanese dinner is not complete without a selection of Japanese pickles. With a constant need to experiment, today I choose to add fujisawa aosako—dried green laver seaweed flakes—to my cucumber pickles.
Karl’s Japanese Cucumbers Pickles with Green Seaweed
Filed under Pickles, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
One of the challenges of writing this blog is constantly looking for/creating new recipes. I have given myself a wide latitude—the whole world of cooking and baking. Still the question comes down to: What am I going to make for dinner? For this Sunday’s dinner, I decided to do a barbecued chicken with French flavors with ratatouille and potatoes au gratin as my sides.
Karl’s Barbecued Chicken Provencal
Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Sauces and Spices
I am making a barbecued chicken with French flavors and I wanted a vegetable side dish. Ratatouille came to mind, but a quick scan of common recipes turned up some problems for my family. Almost all of the recipes called for alliums—garlic, onions and leeks, etc.—which daughter Miriam is “off.” Most of the recipes for ratatouille also called for eggplant, which my entire family is unable to digest.
Karl’s Ratatouille without Alliums or Eggplant
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
I am making chicken with French flavors and ratatouille for Sunday’s dinner. While wife Jan and daughter Miriam love ratatouille , I am not overly fond of overcooked vegetables. I wanted a potato dish for me, cheesy potatoes—potatoes au gratin—seemed the ticket. I decided to add a bit of a twist on a standby dish and include rosemary.
Karl’s Rosemary Potatoes au Gratin
Filed under Potatoes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
I recently had a medical procedure that required me to be on a restricted diet for several days—nothing with fiber: no fruit, nuts, vegetables, or whole grains; no beef, milk products, or vitamins with iron. The foods that remained included most of the things that my wife has been trying to get me to give up—white bread, white rice—and white meats—chicken, eggs, fish and pork. How do you make a soft, bland diet taste good?
Karl’s Shrimp Rice Pudding
Filed under Main Dishes, Rice, Shrimp
Wife Jan heard about Trader Joe’s pancake bread and asked me to get some. She found that it was far too sweet for her. I knew I could make something more to her liking.
Karl’s Cinnamon Pecan Pancake Bread
Filed under Breakfast, Side Dishes
Daughter Miriam asked for Spanish flavored barbecue for her birthday feast. What came to my mind was a Pimentón de la Vera—Spanish smoked paprika—dry rub. In Spain this kind of seasoning would usually be used on a rib eye steak, but in California we loves us a tri-tip roast.
Karl’s Spanish Tri-tip
with Chimichurri Verde
Filed under Beef, Main Dishes, Sauces and Spices
I am making Spanish tri-tip for Miriam’s birthday dinner. Spanish flavored meat calls for Spanish patatas bravas—roasted potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce. As served in Spain as a tapas, small chunks of potato are deep fried and the tomato sauce is poured over them. More modern—and fat conscious—recipes call for roasting the potatoes and then roasting them a second time after tossing them with the spicy sauce—producing a dryer, tomato-crusted tapas.
Karl’s Patatas Bravas
Filed under Potatoes, Sauces and Spices, Side Dishes
Daughter Miriam asked for Spanish tri-tip for her birthday dinner. Miriam had also requested a vegetable forward salad. Looking for Spanish style salads, I found Williams Sonoma ensalada mixta. The recipes I found online for this mixed salad included more protein than my last ensalada mixta.
Karl’s Spanish Ensalada Mixta
Filed under Salads, Side Dishes
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Miriam
Jabberwocky Stew 