365 Days of Food

Deviled eggs with olive oil. I tried a new way to boil eggs from The Good Egg, an egg-only cookbook by Marie Simmons: Bring them nearly to a boil, but not quite, then take them off the stove, cover the pan, and leave for about 11-12 minutes to cook to a firm yolk. The rain…

Neighborhood takeout at Seoul Food: Yellow rice with cashews and a heavy red sauce thick with heat. But the rice wasn’t all: there was coleslaw, and separately purple cabbage; and on the side, some slider-sized bean croquettes. It was an appropriate Korean casserole for when we haven’t seen the sun for a week and a…

Asparagus in a salad of almonds, garlic, hard-boiled egg, pimentón, and lemon juice. I put the almonds in a small saucepan with some oil, letting them roast in their own juices as it were. The recipe said to add yogurt, which I didn’t have, but this might have balanced out the acidity and given me…

Tofu curry with asparagus and mustard seeds. It rained so much the storm pounded against the house and you could hear water overflowing from the lawn. (Photo: Los Angeles Cloud Forest, Costa Rica.) >> May 3 << May 1

Potatoes with chorizo. You cook everything in boiling water and let the potatoes absorb the spices from cured chorizo and a dash of pimentón. It didn’t work too well and the chorizo tasted like a garnish separate from the rest of the meal. But if you do make it, caramelize the onions first; with the…

I was in Oaxaca a few years ago and I remember cactus soup, market tamales, mole amarillo broth, squash blossoms stuffed in peppers, rose petal sorbet. There’s a new restaurant here, Espita Mezcaleria, which is suggestive of the region but doesn’t reproduce its unique and unparalleled cuisine. They really can’t; we don’t have the ingredients…

Asparagus sauce. Blend asparagus peelings, water, and a little maple syrup, and pour it over roasted asparagus. The flavors didn’t really soak through, and it may be that just throwing asparagus in the oven and rubbing it in some olive oil or lemon juice cannot be improved upon. (Photo: 16th Street, Washington, D.C.) >> April…

Chicken pot pie with sriracha. Whatever you were thinking about earlier, eating this dinner is a good way to forget about it. The oak tree leaves are out and the neighborhood is green. (Photo: Brookside Gardens, spring.) >> April 29 << April 27

Beef in hard-shell tacos. A peppery California “red blend” wine which toned down the heat of the sriracha, which in turn covered up the sugariness of the wine. Soft flour tortillas with honey: a dessert that tasted like baklava. (Photo: Azaleas, Brookside Gardens, 2015.) >> April 28 << April 26

Pork sliders. Something spilled in the fridge when we were about to leave in the morning, so we had to throw out the sauerkraut, which would have tasted nice on top of the sliders. Other things we threw out: leafy vegetables, sour cream, blueberries, milk. What’s left we will really eat. (Photo: Mount Pleasant neighborhood,…

Chicken and Pringles with rice. Viet used a marinade to make the chicken lemony-oniony, and I added mustard. (Photo: Azaleas, U.S. National Arboretum.) >> April 26 << April 24

Linguine with lion’s mane mushrooms and ramps. The mushroom manes spread all over the cutting board and looked like tofu when cooked. I poured some pasta water over the finished sauce, making the mushrooms taste like shellfish. There might have been too much salt, but it was probably good. My lettuce sprouted in the garden….