Aug 29
Lately, in my heat-addled mind, the most satisfying meals can be summed up in two words – cold and simple. Though gazpacho meets both criteria, I’d yet to make it this summer. Looking for a new variation, I tried this popular recipe for gazpacho al estilo de Patricia by Spanish chef José Andrés. Having experimented with pale ajo blanco, deep pink gazpacho with strawberry and fennel, and classic red with tropezones, it was time to go green. Read more
Oct 1
I’ve written a lot about comfort food this past summer. It must be natural when so many things I make are from my childhood and it is a childish season after all. This week I got a take on comfort food I hadn’t considered before. I was talking to one of my oldest friends who’s going through a difficult time. Wanting to make some small gesture of support, I offered to make her something, anything. If she could think of a great dish she had growing up, I’d work out the ingredients and write it up for her. She suggested changua, a milk-onion-egg soup from the central Andes of Colombia. Loved the name, but it didn’t sound very appetizing, especially for breakfast when it’s typically served in Bogotá with a piece of calado or almojábana bread to soak it up. I had images of cracking open coconuts and frying fish but she wanted changua. Milk soup, really? Read more
Aug 16
I don’t usually let myself buy flowers. Frivolous in a million other ways, I become oddly practical when it comes to that. I’ll consider the enormous sunflowers bursting out of their buckets but head straight to the potted basil, lavender, and rosemary plants instead, preferring the kind of pretty you can eat. That’s why I get so excited when squash blossoms arrive at the markets. Since July, I’ve had them stuffed, fried, chopped and sauteed with tomatoes. Now that the summer is melting away and every day feels like Sunday night, each bag of blossoms has become that much more precious – shriveled and golden, bugs and all. Read more
Finalist for the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award in the International Cookbook Category for The Cuban Table
hungry sofia 