My friend Sophia IM’ed me the other night while I was at school. She asked me for some cooking advice based on the ingredients she had in her kitchen.  It turned into a game of IM Iron Chef or Stump the Cook from The Splendid Table.   Here is a log of our chat (edited [...]

Normandy meets the Pondicherry of my post-post-colonial imagination in this improvised dish I made last night. Ingredients 2 tablespoons of butter 1 small onion, chopped 1 shallot, chopped 4 cloves of garlic, minced 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced 1 teaspoon of minced jalapeño 1 teaspoon of turmeric 1 pinch of saffron (optional, I [...]

Ingredients 1 pound of hake, filleted and cut into 4 inch chunks (or substitute cod, pollack or similar flaky white fish) 1 onion, thinly sliced 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 1 roasted red bell pepper, sliced 1 handful of green olives 1/2 teaspoon of pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika) 1 cup of dry white wine [...]

Ingredients (serves two) For the chutney: 6 fresh apricots, stone removed and roughly chopped 2 shallots, peeled and chopped 2 teaspoons of ground coriander seed 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped 4 tablespoons of sherry vinegar or lemon juice 1/3 cup of brown sugar 2 dashes of Tabasco sauce (or to taste) 2 [...]

Rice and beans with fried plantains The Canadian Council of the Blind has published a fundraising cookbook, Kitchens of the World, which features 200+ recipes and photographs from around the world.  A couple of my photos (including the one above) appear in the Haiti and Domincan Republic chapters.  The book is available online as a [...]