Author: Chef M

Mussels with White Wine is my favorite meal to serve to guests. Other than some chopping, there’s nothing to it; the ingredients are inexpensive, and the results are sublime. A piled-high bowl of mussels in a luscious, flavorful broth is a thing of beauty. Serve with a large slice of garlicky toasted bread or a heaping pile of salty French fries.

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These espresso bean–shaped cookies have a pleasing coffee flavor and a caffeine kick. It’s important to chill the cookies before baking. If you don’t, the cookies won’t hold their bean shape during baking.

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When you are cooking for vegetarians, you’ll want to use a good vegetable broth rather than chicken broth for your soups. Most canned vegetable broths are dominated by one flavor ometimes mushrooms, sometimes carrots, sometimes tomatoes. This broth is balanced in flavor and should serve as a good all-purpose foundation for soups, stews, and sauces.

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Chili con carne is arguably one of the few truly American dishes. Jane and Michael Stern, in the introduction to their book Chili Nation, write, “We have come to believe that chili may just be this country’s one truly shared national food. Although Tex-Mex in origin, it is a dish now found on every American table, across cultural and ethnic lines.” This particular version is made with chunks of beef, as it is in Texas. But it also contains beans, which is decidedly not the Texan thing to do. It gets its heat from fresh hot chiles, ground chipotles, and…

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Kaye tries to pretend she doesn’t eat pasta. She never quite manages to maintain that deceit when there’s a pot of this on the stove. I have never met a person that hasn’t loved this dish, and it’s done and on the table within 10 minutes. Storecupboard heaven!

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