I have a confession to make. I don't much care for those big globe eggplants. I have tried to like them, truly I have, but I think it's a texture thing. They just taste squishy to me. If squishy is a taste. So this last week, Hank and I have been experimenting with globe eggplan...
Have you ever cooked with radicchio? Until recently I have only had it in salads. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, radicchio looks like a small head of red cabbage; you can usually find it in the produce section of your grocery store. It's actually not a cabbage, bu...
Please welcome Hank Shaw as he takes us through the steps of grilling a whole fish, using sustainably farmed branzino. ~Elise Branzino. Sounds kinda like a the name of a 1940s prizefighter. If it’s ringing a bell, that’s because this fish is popping up in American supermarkets f...
You know one of the reasons why hot dogs are such favorites with kids? Well, at least when I was a kid we got to choose our own toppings. The act of getting the toppings on just right, without making a complete mess, was challenging. But we had such a feeling of accomplishment, kee...
Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I almost ate the whole batch" dishes, only...
The trick to a good stir-fry is working with a very hot, relatively stick-free pan. I say relatively stick-free because you don't want one of those stick-free pans with the coating that peels off, but say more like a well-seasoned wok or a cast iron frying pan. Hard anodized alumi...
Have extra basil in your garden right now? Here's a quick and easy vinaigrette dressing you can make with it that you can use not only as a salad dressing, but also as a sauce for fish, chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, or white beans. Here's an idea, use this dressing with some choppe...
Please welcome Garrett McCord, who came by the other day to make these melon sorbets. So good! Refreshing on a hot summer day. ~Elise Melons are one of those rare ingredients that are practically perfect as is. While they do take well to being tarted up a bit (maybe a light dust...
Ground turkey has to be one of my favorite meats to work with. It's lean, takes to spices well, and is relatively inexpensive. We were brainstorming ideas for something that would use ground turkey, potatoes, and onions the other day and were inspired by a classical Indian dish ca...
Hank made this seafood bisque for us the other day and it was so outrageously good I begged him to make it again. I served some of it to a friend from Provence whose eyes lit up upon tasting it, "This is just like we have at home! 'Bisque de Fruits de Mer'". The saffron is essentia...
The first time I heard of making pizza on a grill all I could think of was, why would anyone want to do that? Now that I've done it more than a few times I can think of several reasons. Who wants to heat up an oven to 450°F or higher on a hot summer day? If you use a grill to mak...
My young friend Audrey was over today. She's 15, and she is the official summer intern of Simply Recipes. For the most part, Audrey's job has been to cook existing recipes on the site that for some reason or another I've decided need work, or need a new photo (e.g. from this to th...
If you have friends growing zucchini, right about now they are probably delighted, bordering on desperate, to give some of it away. Especially problematic are those huge, baseball bat-sized monsters, that appear out of the blue when you've neglected to check the garden for a few da...
I've been on a frozen yogurt kick lately. Not only because it's so darn easy, but also because the tanginess of the yogurt seems to just give any flavor you pair it with a big boost. It's still high season around here for blackberries, which churn up beautifully in frozen yogurt, ...
Mmm, mmm okra! Yes, some people shy away from this odd little vegetable, usually because depending on the preparation it can be a little slippery slimy. Personally I love okra, any which way, including slimified. Alas, not everyone shares my affection (it's a texture thing), but ...