Honest Cooking and Travel

I ordered smoked duck sushi at a small fusion restaurant in Brooklyn where the menu was handwritten on a chalkboard and the chef was the only person in the kitchen. Thin slices of smoked duck breast laid over sushi rice with julienned cucumbers and spring onions, rolled tight, sliced into rounds, and served with a blackberry dipping sauce. The smokiness of the duck and the sw...

What happens when you replace the water or milk in a cake recipe with lemonade? The cake bakes lighter, tangier, and with a citrus brightness that extract alone cannot give. Eight ounces each of softened butter and sugar creamed together, four eggs beaten in, flour sifted with baking powder and salt, and 100 ml (3.4 ounces) of lemonade folded in with vanilla extract. Two hund...

Have you ever parboiled sweet potatoes before grilling them? I started doing it after years of burnt outsides and raw centers, and the difference was immediate. Five minutes in boiling water, then ten minutes on the grill. The flesh goes creamy while the edges pick up char. A dipping sauce of Maille Dijon mustard, honey, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper pulls ...

Why put red currants in rice? Because their tartness cuts through the turmeric and coconut and wakes up a dish that could otherwise be one-note. This South Indian chitranna starts with basmati rice cooked with turmeric and oil, then stir-fried in a wok with a tempering of mustard seeds, asafoetida, dried red chili, and curry leaves. Lemon juice, grated coconut, fried peanuts,...

I bought a store-bought angel food cake on a whim last July, not sure what to do with it. It sat on the counter until my neighbor fired up his grill, and I thought, why not. I buttered the slices and laid them on the grate. Two minutes later the outside was golden brown and crispy, and the inside stayed pillowy. That became the base for a compote I simmered from 2 cups (300 g...