Seaweed is a wonderful side dish in a Japanese meal - slight, delicate, usually with the subtlest taste of the sea. But there are many kinds of seaweed out there. For this salad, I strongly urge you to acquire one remarkably springy, frilly, fresh-tasting green seaweed imported from Japan.
A real caper is the flower bud of a caper plant, Capparis spinosa, and its large seedpod is called a caper berry. The seedpods of nasturtiums look just like the caper plant's buds, and when pickled they taste remarkably similar. Nasturtiums usually don't start forming seedpods until late in the summer and you have to search for them. You'll find them attached to the stems underneath the foliage, where they develop in clusters of three. Pick only young pods that are still green and soft. When they mature, they turn yellowish and the seed inside the pod is very hard and unpalatable.
When roasted, the flesh of winter squashes such as butternut, acorn, and kabocha becomes creamy and dense and caramelizes on the cut surfaces.
The addition of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese makes an intriguing savory cornbread that is the perfect accompaniment to rich French or Italian-style stews and slow-roasted meats. I often whip up a batch for a simple supper and eat it with a couple of fried eggs and a plate of garlicky greens: my Italian-Southern fusion comfort food.
Many people are skeptical when I suggest how good lavender can be with savory foods. But this dish can change their minds. When lavender is cooked with simple boiled potatoes, its sweet and floral flavor turns earthy and mysterious, especially when its savoriness is amplified with fresh rosemary.
This salad is a luscious and refreshing way to use blood oranges and navel oranges in their prime.
Fonio (Digitaria exilis) has been grown in West Africa for centuries. For a long time, it was of marginal importance as a cereal due to its small seeds, but is now the object of renewed interest as consumers begin to recognize its flavor and nutritional qualities.
Texas cowboys and cowgirls dip their egg sandwiches in this stuff for breakfast, they dunk their fried onion rings in it at lunch, and they cover their broccoli with it at dinner. It's the ultimate dipping sauce for cold pizza, the perfect accompaniment to crudités, And—oh, yeah—it's also a salad dressing.
Mary Cunningham lives in Choctaw County in Alabama, and she is a superb seamstress, a creative cook, and the mother of two grown daughters. She is also a loving woman and an active member of the C. J. Holiness Church, where during revivals and church functions she always arrives with a basket full of good food and memories.
Saag means greens; sarson da saag specified mustard greens, and palak da saag is spinach. This flavorful side dish often accompanies hearty whole-wheat griddle breads in Punjab, the wheat-growing capital of India.