Category — Recipes

Korean Kalbi is salty-sweet and spicy

On the Fourth of July America’s melting pot becomes a red hot grill. Check out these terrific recipes from great American traditions: Korean kalbi, Japanese yakitori, my grandfather’s Syrian “lambburgers,” my mother-in-law’s tandoori salmon. Please see my recent story for NPR.org. And happy grilling!

Talk about manna from heaven. Israel is home to Jewish people from more than 70 nations — and of course, they all brought their food with them. Schnitzel from Austria, Moroccan couscous, and today, even pastrami from Brooklyn can easily be found on Israeli tables.

Manna from Heaven/anonymous

Check out these cool-for-summer recipes from The Daily Beast for dishes you’d find in Israeli homes (think beet-and-pomegranate salad…)

Moonshine still confiscated by US government, circa 1921

It sounds like a whiskey and one that doesn’t leave you feeling very well in the morning.

But Country Captain is actually an American “curry,” a chicken dish made with bell peppers, onions and curry powder. I know — I’d never heard of it either. It’s one of those things where an editor calls and says “Know anything about….”

Here’s the backstory: Country Captain was supposedly brought to the U.S. in the 19th century by a British sea captain who’d served in India, where his ilk were called “country captains.” The dish (again, allegedly) landed in the South — perhaps Charleston, perhaps Savannah (the two cities have been duking it out for 150 years.) But the earliest written record of the dish can be found in a Yankee cookbook, “Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book,” published in Philadelphia in 1857. So….provenance in contention. [Read more →]