Call them frittatas or oven omelets, baking eggs with a sauté or filling is much easier than fussing with a traditional omelet. Instead of the gymnastics involved in cooking and rolling a perfect folded omelet out of the pan, you put everything together, put it in the oven and set a timer.
The yams are best at room temperature and improve with several days in the refrigerator.
Though not usually found in the typical local Chinese takeout menu, you have to try this pairing of tender lamb and sweet and savory hoisin sauce with the crunch of water chestnuts and fresh snow peas. Lamb is one of the hallmarks of northern Chinese cooking, especially Mongolia. It is logical when you think of the vast steppes of the region where sheep and goats thrive when little else will.
The term curry conjures images of sturdy sauces dense with spice, and some are just that. But they can also be light, fresh and surprisingly gentle in their spicing.
Cuban black bean soup ranks with France's steak frites and Italy's spaghetti with red sauce as a national obsession. It is a touchstone dish of the Caribbean. Usually made from dried beans (and definitely worth the extra time when you have it), the dish can nonetheless be adapted to a streamlined model with canned beans.
Ragù di carne (bolognese)
(Bolognese meat sauce)
Macanese Minchi is one of the most prized dishes of Macau and has as many variations as there are cooks that make it. Minchi derives its name from the English word "minced" indicating that the dish may have been introduced to Macau by the Anglophone community in Hong Kong, though other histories place its origins in Goa, another Portuguese province. Traditionally minchi is made with beef or pork (or a combination of the two) but it can also be made with chicken, fish, shrimp or vegetables like bitter melon or wood ear mushrooms. The best minchi is supposedly made by chopping the meat by hand using two cleavers (or parangs). The common practice of adding an egg on top may have its roots in Roman Catholicism, with the bright yellow yolk and egg white representing the color contrast of the Holy See coat of arms.
A classic, very spicy Chinese dish that is usually made with minced meat and tofu, but this vegan version still delivers the punch that is associated with the original.
Stir-fried chicken with hot basil
Our wine-making pal, Nan Bailey, is the local Tom Sawyer. At harvest time at her Alexis Bailey Vineyard we are all invited to lunch, but first we have to pick. Kids and bees are everywhere, and appetites build to farmhand stature by noon.