Vegetables and Legumes
The Village Greens
By Debra Samuels Globe correspondent APRIL 02, 2013 By April, weary New Englanders are looking for anything to poke through the thawing ground. It is often a crocus, welcomed like an old friend. To help lift our culinary spirits, we asked you to peek into your recipe collections for favorite dishes featuring spring greens. For …
Read moreLooking for a pearl among small tomatoes
By Debra Samuels | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MARCH 05, 2013 There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, fruits that are native to the New World. Though we associate many tomato dishes with European cuisines, the bright red rounds were brought to Europe after the Spanish explorers found them in the Americas. A dispute over pricing …
Read moreIn Rome, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli covers crises and eats well
Sylvia Poggioli loves Rome’s food culture and cooking with vegetables.
Read moreChow from Roma: urban giardiniera
We arrived in Rome on March 1st after 6 months in Tokyo, for the second leg of my husband Dick’s sabbatical year. I hope to catch up with a photo log of our time there. I think I had a bit of writer’s block after the publication of My Japanese Table in September, so I …
Read moreFrom Barbara Rotger, Melrose, Ma
Hand written recipes from beloved relatives are our treasures. This recipe for Asparagus roll ups came from Barbara Rotger, a woman I interviewed for the article Something old, something new. It is from her grandmother, Marion Griswold Doane, who lived in Essex, Conn., and entertained a lot. “Grandma’s recipe box is full of appetizers and dips. My grandfather, Charlie, had a large vegetable garden and small farm stand. He would have grown the asparagus that Grandma used in this recipe,’’ says Rotger. Combined with cream cheese and blue cheese, the toasted bread asparagus roll-ups make elegant finger food.
Read morePreparation is half the fun for Feast of San Giuseppe
By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent March 31, 2010 GLOUCESTER — In the garage-cum-kitchen of Nina and Franco Groppo’s home here, more than 20 friends and extended family are preparing for the Feast of San Giuseppe. That means pasta making — lots of it — along with plenty of fun. Flour sifting through the air around …
Read moreTofu is all about the texture
Tofu is all about the texture Each of the three styles of soy bean curd has a purpose Those large white blocks of tofu can be intimidating. No matter how carefully you prepare them, the dishes never seem as good as they are when you eat out. It’s all a matter of determining which texture …
Read moreOne potato Two potato
Photo by Debra Samuels for the Boston Globe By Debra Samuels Boston Globe, April 1, 2009 As Lexington resident Norma Currie explains it, she and her siblings did what many children do: “None of us would eat our vegetables,” she says. But their mother was smarter than her kids. She cooked the vegetables and mashed …
Read moreEriko’s Simmered Eggplant
This is a classic Japanese home style preparation for eggplant. The dish is served hot or cold. The eggplants are first scored and then soaked in water to remove some of the natural bitterness and then patted dry. They are then sautéed in oil and a bit of sugar to form a sweet crust. Eriko’s …
Read moreBaby bok choy
Boston Globe, May 14, 2008 Baby bok choy Serves 4 Baby bok choy, steamed with slivers of fresh garlic and plenty of ginger, is ready in about 10 minutes and produces a flavorful dish of mini green bundles. The small greens are often used in Chinese dishes as a bed for tofu or scallops, but …
Read moreCaponata
Boston Globe, March 26, 2008 Caponata Makes about 2 cups Caponata is the sweet, sour, and salty Sicilian eggplant appetizer that looks like a relish and often comes as one of the tastes in an antipasti course. The dish begins with sauteed eggplant cubes, which lend their deep purple color to the mixture, and is …
Read moreA warming bowl
Split Pea Soup Isestrasse Market Hamburg, Germany Split pea soup is just what you need when the chill goes right through your coat. In the port city of Hamburg last month, it was sunny but cold as I walked through the Isestrasse market in the center of town. German markets in winter boast stands brimming …
Read moreFlickr Images
Bento:Build a Better Lunch
Debra Samuels, bestselling author, food writer and cooking instructor, wants to give the American lunchbox a makeover. In the chapter on “bento,” the traditional Japanese lunch box, in her upcoming book, My Japanese Table, Debra encourages the use of color, texture and taste to create healthier and more visually appealing meals.
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