Curiuoser and Curiouser... and Orange The genuine brand names of this “Louisiana style” of hot sauce are typically made from specific varieties of chiles and matured in barrels for months. DIY versions can approximate the flavour quite successfully using similar chiles with wider availability at a fraction of the cost. This half-litre batch costs a mere two dollars when you … Read More →
If it's hot outside, cool pasta salad mixes up with most anything to hand Soup is well known as an ingredient catch-all most of the year but in the hottest summer months, save for a nod to great gazpacho, I say cold pasta salad can fill the same role just as well. Boil any pasta you have around then run it under cold water immediately after to stop the … Read More →
For Edesia's sake, DON’T call it Carbonara! I’m told that geniune Italian handbags are pricey affairs with counterfeits galore at every turn. The same applies to various “authentic” dishes from around the globe, Italy included. And you know Italy, I get it. I totally understand why you’d want to protect a national culinary treasure like Pasta Carbonara. I’d be just as picky … Read More →
Mystery Winter Supply Lines I have no idea how these peppers got to my local market in the midst of winter but I’m not complaining. Whatever sleigh brought them here is welcome relief from the doldrums of cabbage and potatoes. Since they were a bit wrinkly and demand is at a low point this time of year, the whole … Read More →
How An Italian Snacks When the pantry is nearly bare just before market day and you have hunger alarms making a racket in your brain, you need something cheap, fast, and hopefully already in your dwindling stocks. The power might even be out thanks to a blizzard but if you can boil water over a camp stove on the … Read More →
Pay no heed to the watermelon spectator in the background What to do on a hot and muggy afternoon? Make ridiculously hot pepper jelly of course. With thunderstorms threatening I don’t really want to be the tallest thing out in the middle of my field holding long metal gardening tools (and shouting “all Gods are bastards” while wearing copper armour in the Terry Pratchett vein) … Read More →
Hot Enough to Notice I get a lot of flack from fancy food types about my love of pepper jelly. That condiment forever relegated to the 1960’s poured over cream cheese and served on crackers as atomic age chic. And it’s true that the myriad insipid versions out there are about as exciting as a Nixon speech. When you … Read More →
