Stephencooks

Cauliflower with Yellow Lentils and Peas

2011-03-04T15:11:34-05:00

The continuing challenge for people with diabetes – or people who just want to eat a healthy, low calorie, low carbohydrate diet – is the constant search for food that is satisfying, tasty and interesting while fitting our dietary requirements. Even the most committed among us will occasionally feel burned out, or possibly just rebellious in our food choices. Amy Tenderich over at DiabetesMine expressed it perfectly in her post this morning titled Losing Control:

"I noticed that gradually, over this year’s Holiday Season in particular, I’ve started throwing caution to the...

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Six Tips for a Romantic Valentine's Day Dinner

2011-02-07T08:18:17-05:00

With Valentine's Day just around the corner it's time to get busy planning that special dinner. For me, an intimate dinner at home – with candles, wine and a fire glowing in the background – is the formula.

I like to do a meal that's thoughtfully planned, lovingly prepared and served on a picture-perfect table. For me this this is so much more personal and meaningful a celebration than a restaurant meal, especially since so many of us have good restaurant meals on a fairly frequent basis.

Here are my tips for a successful romantic Valentine's Day dinner for two:

1. Do most of the cooking...

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Tandoori Chicken

2011-01-31T16:09:00-05:00

Tandoori chicken is a popular and simple preparation that fits well in a low-carb diet. Skinless chicken is marinated in a mixture of spices and yogurt and grilled.

For some reason tandoori chicken is often imparted with a fake-looking red color. If you want you can go with this tradition by adding a few drops of red food coloring to the marinade but I'm not sure that...

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Apple Salad with Gorgonzola, Bacon and Candied Walnuts

2010-12-10T17:50:45-05:00

This is a simple salad made festive with the addition of the candied walnuts, and after multiple attempts and various approaches I'm happy to say that this recipe for candied nuts is my all-time favorite. There's no oil or butter added, as in a lot of candied nuts recipes, and no need for cooking a sugar syrup to a certain temperature. And the best thing is that the results are very satisfying: these nuts bring an authoritative crunch without being thickly coated with candy.

This salad makes a nice light starter or side for a festive holiday meal, or for a simple lunch with friends. The calories...

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Lobster Chowder with Fennel, Corn and Pancetta

2010-11-07T21:48:44-05:00

Lobster makes a great starter for your Thanksgiving dinner! Jasper White, the founder of the fabulous Summer Shack restaurants and author of "Lobster at Home" says the quality of lobster in November is at its peak – and the price is usually at its lowest in the year.

This deconstruction of lobster chowder will start your special Thanksgiving dinner with style. It puts the lobster pieces front and center and uses fingerling potato halves instead of the usual diced potatoes. The addition of pancetta and leeks further distinquishes this dish from the run-of-the-mill...

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Rutabaga Pie

2010-10-06T16:18:18-04:00

I'm a big fan of rutabaga, as regular readers know. With locally grown rutabaga available most of the year here in Portland now that the farmers' market runs year round I keep looking for interesting ways to use our favorite root vegetable, so as we start to look forward to the holiday season I was thinking about pie possibilities using rutabaga. I frequently search Google News Archive for recipes from newspapers from earlier times so I looked for a rutabaga pie recipe – and found one in an unsigned article ("Don't Turn Down the Turnip - It's Versatile") in the...

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Raita – Indian-style Yogurt Salad with Tomatoes, Peanuts and Mint

2010-08-22T20:43:25-04:00

Raita – Indian-style yogurt salad – is a perennial favorite in our house. When we have an Indian feast the calm, cool taste of raita is a nice counterpoint to the spiciness of the other dishes. But in mid-summer, when the tomatoes are ripe and flavorful, the cucumbers are bursting on the vine and the mint patch is threatening to take over the yard, raita is on our table, Indian feast or not.

We especially love it now that good-quality Greek yogurt is readily available in most areas. Made with regular plain yogurt raita can be watery and unsatisfying. But when made with strained...

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Grilled Pork Loin with Herb-Mustard Rub

2010-07-15T16:48:09-04:00

My son-in-law Craig is the acknowledged master griller in the family and the other day he delivered the goods with this great trio: grilled pork loin with an herb rub, grilled baby artichokes and grilled leeks. Served al fresco in the patio, this made for a terrific summer dinner party.

Pork loin can be dry and sometimes tough, so careful attention to the internal temperature while cooking is required. When the internal temperature goes over about 160 the toughness and dryness take over, and you have to remember that the temperature of the meat will continue to rise after the roast is...

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Grilled Baby Artichokes

2010-06-21T21:41:20-04:00

We love artichokes – even though they're hardly a local product here in Maine – but preparing them is a pain, so when I can get baby artichokes I always jump at the opportunity. These beauties – around 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter – are a smaller, fully mature version of the bigger artichokes we normally see in the stores. Their small size is due to the fact that they are picked from the lower part of the plant – and because they are small they haven't developed the prickly inedible fibers that have to be removed from full-sized artichokes, so prep is a breeze: just trim them and...

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Salad with Roasted Radishes, Roasted Shallots and Shrimp

2010-06-14T21:56:07-04:00

I roast vegetables all the time in my countertop oven: beets, shallots, cipollinis, peppers, cauliflower, leeks, tomatoes, sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes - you name it, it seems I've roasted them. I just toss them in some oil (and herbs, sometimes), set the oven at 425º and roast them from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how big the individual pieces are. But I never thought to roast radishes until this spring. The early radish crop is among the most colorful of the vegetables on offer from our local farms so I kept coming home with them – sometimes several bunches – which led to...

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