Healthy Cooking Niche Website
[Photographs: Vicky Wasik. Video: Natalie Holt] My favorite feature of Laoganma’s Spicy Chili Crisp is its realistic serving size. Thanks to its nutrition label, which boldly declares that a 210-gram jar constitutes four servings, I’ve finally found a condiment that fully understands me. Let’s be honest: No one is stopping after just a spoonful of […]
[Illustrations: Jessie Kanelos Weiner] It took me until I was in my 30s to understand that restaurants are like pets. They have a shorter lifespan than humans, and it’s our responsibility to take good care of them, enjoy their company, mourn their passing, and move on. And usually, I’m capable of following my own advice. […]
[Photograph: © Kelly Puleio 2018, resized for publication] I struggle with pomegranates. I know, I know, there are all kinds of tricks for getting at the seeds, and Kenji even made a video about how to get them out under water to avoid making a huge mess. But let’s be real: I rarely feel compelled […]
[Photographs: Vicky Wasik] Keeping the fridge stocked with condiments is my hack to life. It’s easy to jazz up any simple weeknight meal with an arsenal of flavor bombs at my disposal. Who wants boring sweet potatoes when you can smother them with miso butter? Even Costco rotisserie chicken can impress if you douse it […]
[Photographs: Vicky Wasik] The oddness of bagna càuda strikes on two levels. First, the idea of it is just plain weird—a salty and pungent dip, loaded with obscene amounts of garlic and anchovy. It’s difficult to imagine who first thought to cook heaps of those two potent ingredients together into a brown and oily sludge, […]
[Photographs: Vicky Wasik] It happens to everyone: You follow a recipe to the letter, and yet the dish still doesn’t turn out Instagram worthy. Well, the first step to recovery is acceptance; you have to come to terms with the fact that your kitchen is a den of lies. It’s a place where measuring cups […]
[Photographs and video: Vicky Wasik] It’s frequently said that cooking is an art, while baking is a science. To that end, I’m often focused on identifying quantifiable variables—ingredient temperature, pH, protein content, enzymatic activity, chemical leavening, and so on. And yet, even when I’ve accounted for all of that, the actual work of baking comes […]
[Photograph: Evan Sung. Sundae photograph: Vicky Wasik] In part two of my interview with Andrew Friedman, the author of Chefs, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, he and I take a really deep dive into the book. Here’s Friedman talking about the origins of the American chef culture: “If you were an American kid [in the […]
[Photographs: Kristin Donnelly] Soon after my book Cauliflower was published by Short Stack Editions, multiple friends sent me a viral tweet-turned-meme that said, “Use cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potatoes, rice, and any joy in your life. You have no friends, now. There is only cauliflower.” Cauliflower has become a popular substitute for everything […]
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, Max Falkowitz, Jennifer Latham] For some bakers, whipping up a homemade dessert that’s both delicious and Passover-appropriate is the kind of task that sounds too daunting even to attempt. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with going store-bought if the thought stresses you out, that’s not your only option! Consider a type of […]