It seems like every time I travel internationally I find some delicious snack food that local folks don't really even think about, but is maybe the best recipe to bring back from that place. In Catalonia, that was obviously pan con tomate; in Paris it was shredded carrot salad; in Oaxaca, cheese empanadas; in Shanghai it was green onion noodles. Unlike the far more elaborate headline "national dishes" featured on the covers of menus and cookbooks, these are all things I've made multiple times since returning.

In Hyderabad, India, that snack food is "crispy corn" or "crunchy corn snack". As far as I can tell, this dish doesn't even have a specific name in Telgu, but it's everywhere. I had my first one at a coffee bar the day of my arrival and the last one in a restaurant at the airport. It makes a great appetizer, and a terrific snack with tea or coffee on its own, and both kids and adults adore it.

And yet, it's super-easy. At least, when you make it my way. You can see the full traditional method here, which is good for restaurants but takes this away from "fun, easy snack".

Now, some notes on the ingredients so that you can make this year-round from whatever you have. We're looking for maximum flexibility here.

Corn Kernels: if you're making this during the summer, use fresh, sweet corn kernels cut off the cob. At other times of year, you can make it using frozen corn, as follows: thaw the frozen corn completely. Then drain it in a colander for 1/2 an hour, and blot it dry with a towel. It won't be completely dry, but mostly dry is fine. Do not use canned corn. While raw corn takes longer to cook, frozen corn needs more drying out, so I find that the cooking time is about the same either way.

Flour: below I use a combination of corn flour (as in finely-milled cornmeal, not corn starch) and rice flour, which gives a nice flavor and crunch. However, you can substitute other non-wholegrain flours, like chickpea flour or fine semolina. If you use AP flour (wheat), then partner it with a pure starch like corn starch or potato starch.

Spices: I give a very simple masala (spice mix) recipe below, but once you get used to making the snack, you can swap in other masalas.

Peppers: make this as hot, or not, as you want. The sliced peppers can be sweet (lunchbox or nardellos) to very spicy (cayenne or serranos), and the chile powder you use can be mild to hot, depending on your taste.

Amchur Powder: this is ground dehydrated mango powder. If you can't get it, substitute coriander seed, and add lemon juice at the end as noted.

crispy corn snack

The masala:

• 1 tsp red chile powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp aamchur powder (or 1/2 tsp ground coriander)
• 1 tsp salt (or black salt, if you can get it)

The corn:

• 16oz corn kernels
• 2-3 skinny red or green peppers, sliced into rings
• 2-3 shallots, peeled and sliced thin (subs. 1/2 onion)
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup corn flour (fine-milled cornmeal)
• 3 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs lemon juice, if no amchur powder

Mix the masala ingredients. Toss together the corn kernels, pepper slices, shallot, and 1 teaspoon of the masala (3/4 tsp if no amchur). Then, toss with the flours, lightly coating everything.

Heat the oil in a wide pan or wok until at or near smoking point. Scoop in the corn using a slotted spoon, so as to leave any loose flour in the bowl. Fry, stirring regularly, for 5-10 minutes, until the flour has turned dark brown and the corn is scotched in spots.

Dump out the corn onto a paper-towel-lined wide bowl or platter. Shake it around to absorb some of the excess oil, and then pull out the towels while still hot. Sprinkle with 1-2 tsp more masala to taste (and lemon juice, if needed), and toss.

Serve hot or warm. Can be eaten with a fork, or with fingers. If there's any leftovers, re-crisp them in a hot pan.

In honor of BridgetownBites Salad Week and the fact that my porch thermometer reported 100F today (it's still 88F at 7pm), I thought I'd make two salads for dinner, neither requiring any heating at all, just cutting, washing, and marinating. Each also requires one obscure ingredient, but hopefully you can still make use of them for your own heat wave days.

When we have a heat wave like this, I don't want to turn on the stove, and I also don't want to go outside to the grill. So I look for dishes I can prepare which require no heat. Salads top the list, of course, and I could just do a green salad. But in the middle of summer, I can be more creative. Also, the heat wave already killed my lettuce.

I also wanted to take advantage of some produce I had. First, we'd recently been to Walla Walla and brought back a bag of their famous sweet onions (it's the season). Second, Nathan the Watermelon Man started deliveries this week, so I had a delicious Hermiston watermelon. This led to a Persian onion and barberry salad, and a Greek watermelon salad.

Persian Onion Salad

This onion salad comes to us from Naomi Duguid's Persia, with my usual tweaks, of course. It's a very traditional Persian salad, usually served to accompany grilled meats, but delicious on its own if made with sweet onions like the Walla Wallas. I don't recommend making it with regular brown onions except as a topping for meat; without real sweet onions, it would be too sharp to eat by itself.

The obscure ingredient here is dried barberries. These are a staple of Persian cuisine but only found in good Middle Eastern markets here in the US. Fortunately, I live near one. They are quite tart, so if you can't get them, try unsweetened dried cranberries, chopped. The recipe also requires the spice ground sumac, but most major supermarkets carry that these days.

The onion requires a bit of sitting, so start this recipe early.

• Two large Walla Walla, Maui, or Vidalia sweet onions, about 2lbs
• 1 Tbs or more kosher salt
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup dried barberries
• 1 tsp dried mint, or about 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
• 1 tsp ground sumac
• 2 tsp sherry, champagne, or cider vinegar

Halve, peel, and thinly slide both onions. Layer them in a colander with a sprinkle of kosher salt over each of 4-5 layers of sliced onions. Let sit in the sink for around 1/2 hour. Soak the barberries in 1 cup cold water for the same period of time.

Drain the barberries. Put the sliced onion in a large bowl, fill it with cold water, mix it around, and drain. Then put the onions back in the bowl, fill it with cold water again, and let sit for another 15-20 minutes. This should remove most of the salt and any sharpness from the onion. Then drain the onions, maybe even drying them on a towel.

Toss the onions, barberries, mint, and sumac together. Drizzle over the vinegar. Let sit for a few minutes, then serve.

Greek Watermelon Salad

This type of salad will be more familiar to many readers. I got it from Diane Kochilas Meze years ago when it was less familiar to Americans, and have made it ever since. It's a very tasty salad, and a great way to use up leftover watermelon. Do use quality watermelon, though; if yours is bland or too watery the salad will be meh.

Kochilas' recipe includes a traditional, and hard to find, ingredient that most American recipes leave out: barley rusks. These add a strong, earthy flavor to balance the salad, and absorb the excess watermelon juice. The salad really isn't the same without them, so they're worth mail-ordering.

• Around 3lbs peeled and cubed watermelon
• 2 oz barley rusks
• 1/4 of a large (or 1/2 of a small) red onion, peeled and minced, around 1/2 cup.
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
• 8-12 oz mild, creamy feta cheese, cubed or crushed
• black pepper
• 1 Tbs red wine vinegar

Crush the barley rusks, breaking each rusk into 4-6 pieces. Put these in the bottom of a large serving bowl. Cover them with the watermelon cubes, and then pile the feta, mint, and onion on top. Sprikle with black pepper, and drizzle the vinegar over.

Leave the salad 10-15 minutes for the watermelon juices to soak into the rusks. Then toss thoroughly. Some of the feta will break up during tossing, which is desireable. Serve.

I hope both of these recipes give you some options for dining during a heat wave, too. Have a good Salad Week!

Brunch is a big thing around our house. We rarely go out, because we enjoy making and eating brunchy dishes at home, in our bathrobes. We love both fancier and heartier brunch fare.

Given this, the current egg shortage has been hard to bear. So I've been looking for brunch dishes that require very few eggs, or none at all. One of them is something we had in Oaxaca, enfrijoladas:

See, as an American I was very familiar with enchiladas (who isn't?), but never realized before visiting Oaxaca that enchiladas is just one of a suite of "en-*-adas" dishes, all of which consist of dipping tortillas in some kind of leftover sauce and folding them.

• enchiladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover chile sauce
• entomadas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover tomato sauce
• enmoladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover mole
• enfrijoladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover pureed beans

Notice the "leftover" part of the description; these are all breakfast dishes, because you make them with tortillas (which you always have if you're Mexican) and some leftover sauce, maybe from dinner last night.

Importantly, enfrijoladas consist of tortillas, bean sauce, cheese, and sometimes garnishes. No eggs required (although topping them with a fried egg is delicious).

Now, for my readers who are more familiar with Tex-Mex enchilada casserole, these enfrijoladas are going to seem kind of minimal. But that's really how en-whatever-adas are for most Mexicans, both in Oaxaca and Mexico City. It's a quick breakfast dish, consisting of just tortillas, a sauce, and some cheese. The "stuffed enchiladas" which are standard in so many Mexican-American restaurants descend more from enchiladas suizas, a fairly elaborate restaurant dish from Mexico City.

They are, however, very filling. And easy to make once you get the knack of things.

The recipe below says "Oaxaca-style black beans", which means some black beans, slow cooked with epazote, garlic, onion, chile, and avocado leaf. If you don't happen to have any on hand, but you do have some canned or vac-packed refried black beans, or canned whole black beans, then just season them as follows:

• 2 cups refried or pureed cooked black beans
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 to 1 tsp powdered Mexican chiles (ancho, guajillo, or pasilla)
• 1 tsp dried epazote (if available)
• salt to taste

You'll be making a sauce from the pureed beans. The only part of this recipe that takes some learning is getting the bean consistency right. You need to coat each tortilla in the beans, which means that they need to be neither too thick (in which case the beans won't stick) or too liquid (in which case the beans will drip off). Once they're hot in the pan, start with them fairly thick, and then add warm water to thin them until you have a consistency that works for you as you dip each tortilla.

Because of the beans, enfrijoladas are a lot more filling than you'd expect. The recipe below makes a very hearty breakfast for two people (4-5 tortillas apiece) or a light breakfast for four people (2-3 tortillas apiece).

Enfrijoladas Oaxaqueñas

• Around 2 1/2 cups Oaxacan-style cooked black beans
• 10-12 good quality corn tortillas
• Warm water, as needed
• Salt, to taste
• 4-5oz crumbled queso fresco, or finely shredded queso Oaxaca
• 1 medium or large avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced (optional)

Equipment: comal, griddle, or large steel pan; 9-10" frying pan, preferrably nonstick; small tongs; towel or torilla warmer

If starting from whole beans, puree them as finely as you can. If they're too thick to puree easily, add a little water. If you're looking to make this as fancy brunch, then push the puree through a seive to remove skins, but I never do this.

Put both the comal/griddle and the medium frying pan on the stove over medium heat. Put the beans in the frying pan, and heat, watching them for when they start to bubble. Turn your oven onto low, around 200F.

While the beans heat, toast the tortillas. Get the comal/griddle very hot (350-400F), and toast the tortillas on each side for a minute or two. They should bubble slightly. Wrap the toasted tortillas in a towel or place them in a tortilla warmer.

The beans should be getting hot by now, or concurrently. Stir them, and then add warm water, a little at a time, as needed; you're looking for them to be thick but still liquid, about the consistency of a hearty tomato sauce or a smoothie. Taste to see if they need more salt. Turn down the heat, and stir periodically to avoid scortching or boiling.

Now it's time to make the enfrijoladas. Get a stack of plates ready, near the stove. You will need to work quickly with each tortilla, so make sure that everything you need is within reach.

Take each tortilla, one at a time, and press it into the bean sauce. Flip it over with the tongs, and get the other side coated with the beans as well. Fold the tortilla in half, and put it on a plate. Repeat, and put the next folded tortilla overlapping the first. Keep going, adding between 2 and 5 tortillas to each plate depending on people's appetites.

When a plate is full, sprinkle it with the cheese, and place it into the warm oven. Get started on the next plate.

As you go, you may need to add a little more warm water to the beans to keep them at the right consistency. If there's beans left after dipping all the tortillas, you can add more water to get them really liquid and then pour the bean sauce around the enfrijoladas on each plate.

Once all the enfrijoladas are made, make sure the last plate gets a few minutes in the oven (for the cheese to soften), then take them out and decorate with the avocado slices, if using.

Serve, together with Oaxacan coffee (if you can get it) and juice. Salud!

Q&A

Can this be made vegan?

Easily, just skip the cheese. You could also use vegan cheese.

Can I use flour tortillas?

No.

Could I use other kinds of beans?

Sure, why not? Black beans just have a bit more flavor.

Shouldn't I dip the tortilla in hot oil?

That's a lot more mess, and also not the way it's done in Oaxaca.

Browsing the Multinomah Library's cookbook collection, I ran across the book A-Gong's Table, which was a vegan Taiwanese cookbook. This enticed me, as I'd long wanted to share Taiwanese cuisine with my sweetie, but most of the recipes I had access to were meat-heavy. So I borrowed it and paged through it.

One thing caught my eye: a recipe for stir-fried Taiwanese cauliflower. I'd noticed that our local Vietnamese grocery had started carrying Taiwanese cauliflower, and I'd wondered what to do with it. So this seemed like the perfect dish to make for Lunar New Year.

Taiwanese cauliflower is a variety known as fioretto in Italy ("flowering"); it has a very loose head with florets that spread out from each other, with bright white flowers and light green stems. Because of its looseness, it's often sold wrapped into a bundle with plastic wrap. Unfortunately, there isn't any substitute for it in this recipe; regular cauliflower is too dense and too starchy, and broccolini has too strong of a flavor.

If you can get it, though, make the recipe below. It is subtle and delicious, and offers you Chinese food that's very different from your standard Cantonese diner fare. Ideally it should be served with "new rice", that is rice that was harvested last fall.

Gong hei fat choi!

Taiwanese Cauliflower

recipe from A-Gong's Table with minor alterations

• 3 Tbs high-temperature cooking oil (sunflower, peanut, canola)
• 1 medium large Taiwanese Cauliflower, around 1kg (2lbs)
• 3-4 medium cooking tomatoes, around 300g (12oz)
• 1 bunch (7-10) green onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, around 1 tsp
• small piece ginger, minced, around 2 tsp
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp golden sugar
• 3 Tbs water
• 3 Tbs Shaoxing wine
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• medium-large wok with lid

Dismantle the cauliflower, snapping off the florets and discarding the larger stems. Cut any especially large florets in half. You should end up with a pile of medium-large florets that will fill an 8 cup bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into 6-8 wedges each, depending on size. Slice the green onions into 1/4" (0.5cm) pieces, separating the whites from the greens. Peel and mince the ginger and garlic. Mix the Shaoxing wine and water in a cup to have ready, and the salt and sugar in another cup or prep bowl.

Heat a wok until smoking and swirl the oil to coat it. Toss in the green onion whites, garlic and ginger, and fry, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sliced tomatoes and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes, until the tomatoes just start to soften. Put in the cauliflower florets, and sprinkle over the sugar/salt mixture.

Cook the cauliflower, tossing frequently, for 3-4 minutes, or until they start to cook through and the heads turn pink from the tomato juice. Pour in the wine/water mixture, and toss one more time. Cover and turn down the heat in the wok, and steam for another 3-4 minutes.

Open the lid and check the cauliflower for doneness; it should be cooked, but still somewhat crunchy. Toss in the green onion pieces, the white pepper, and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then turn off heat.

Serve with rice; serves 5-6 as part of a multidish Chinese meal, or 3 if you're having just this, rice, and spring rolls.

Ingredient Notes:

Shaoxing wine is the standard "Chinese cooking wine" used in many dishes. Sometimes it is sold salted, in order to avoid alcohol regulations. If you have the salted kind, cut the salt in the recipe to 1/2 tsp. If you can't find Shaoxing wine, substitute a light sherry for it. If you don't want the alcohol at all, substitute stock and reduce the salt.

Golden sugar is a less-bleached, very lightly tinged with molasses, granulated sugar which is popular in Britian, but available from Domino in some stores in the US. It's somewhere between light brown sugar and white sugar. In this recipe, you can substitue regular granulated sugar, or Sugar In The Raw if you happen to have some (but don't make a special shopping trip for it, it's only 1 teaspoon).

I dunno about where you are, but where I am it is super-hot out. Peak of 105F (41C) today. Appalingly hot weather and peak tomato season mean one thing to me: gazpacho. It's a delicious summer dish that requires no heating anything, and is best eaten slightly chilled.

I've shared my regular gazpacho, but this time, with the sungold tomato plants making a bid to take over the entire backyard, I wanted to make something slightly different: golden gazpacho. Almost like the regular, but with a very different color and a more subtle taste.

Like the other recipe, though, this is all about the peak summer produce. Don't make this with off-season imported produce, you won't enjoy it.

Golden Gazpacho

About 2oz leftover stale white bread
1 clove garlic
1/2 large sweet yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced crossways, about 3/4 cup
1 yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 large or 2 small lemon cucumbers, roughly chopped with peel left on
1 pint of sungold tomatoes
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1-2 Tbs quality Spanish olive oil
1 1/2 tsp sherry vinegar

Taste the sliced onion. If it's sharp, then put it in a bowl of cold water to soak for 15 minutes, and then drain.

Cut the bread into dice and put it and the garlic cloves in a food processor. Pulse until the garlic is minced and the bread broken down into crumbs.

Add the bell pepper, onion, and cucumber. Run the food processor until it breaks down to a "chunky salsa" consistency. Add the sungold tomatoes, salt, white pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. Run until the vegetables are almost, but not quite, pureed; you still want them to have a little texture.

Let sit for the flavors to blend. Taste, and add more salt, oil, or vinegar if it needs it, or even a little sugar if your tomatoes weren't that sweet. Serve, accompanied by bread and Spanish cheese.

Substitutions: the sungolds could be replaced by around 12oz-wt of ripe yellow heirloom tomatoes, diced. If you don't have sherry vinegar, use champaigne or white wine vinegar.

Now that tomatoes are finally coming into season, it's time for some pasta salad that really makes the most of summer produce. It also has the advantage of being a dish that only requires boiling a pot of water, but no other cooking, which is going to be welcome to a lot of y'all contending with heat waves.

The "warm" part of this recipe is that we usually serve it somewhat warm, rather than cold. It's a bit better that way. But if you're dying of heat, it can be eaten cold. The important part is that the past be dressed while still warm, so that it absorbs the dressing.

What's below is less of a recipe and more of a set of guidelines, because you have a lot of flexibility in what you put into your salad. There are lots of tips to make it better, though, and read below the recipe for notes on ingredients. Also, these guidelines make a large portion because this pasta salad makes excellent leftovers.

warm pasta salad

The Pasta

• 1 lbs (500g) short curly pasta
• 1 large pot boiling well-salted water

The Dressing

• 1-4 cloves garlic, whole peeled OR 1 Tbs roasted garlic paste
• 3 Tbs quality red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
• 1/2 cup quality olive oil, plus more to taste
• 2 Tbs minced fresh herbs, OR 1.5 tsp dried herbs
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

The Cheese

• 8-11oz flavorful semi-soft Italian cheese.

The Veggies

The trinity of required veggies:

• 1 to 1.5 lbs ripe tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, diced or sliced in half
• 5-8oz bell peppers or other sweet peppers, diced or sliced OR roasted and peeled sweet peppers, chopped large
• 6-10oz cucumbers, peeled if needed and diced

Plus none to a few veggies from this list:

• 1 cup diced sweet onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped fresh herbs
• 1/2 cup olives, pitted and halved or sliced
• 1-2 Tbs capers
• 1 cup fresh snap peas
• 1-2 cups blanched green beans
• 1/2 cup sweet peas, steamed
• 2-6 young carrots, peeled and sliced, either raw or blanched
• 8 oz grilled, roasted, or steamed asparagus, cut into 1" pieces
• 8-12 oz grilled, roasted, or fried summer squash, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 4-6oz diced marinated artichoke hearts

Equipment: pasta pot, colander, very large salad bowl

Instruction

Heat the pot of pasta water. If you don't have roasted garlic, then peel the garlic cloves and blanch them in the water for 1-2 minutes. Cover the pot and push it aside; you're not ready to cook the pasta yet.

Make the dressing. Mash the garlic with the salt and vinegar, using a mortar & pestle, minichopper, immersion blender and cup, or just a fork. Add the olive oil, ground pepper, and the herbs. Whisk together until blended.

Dice and prep all of the vegetables, piling them in a large bowl. Put veggies you want to treat gently, like cucumbers, herbs, and tomatoes, on the bottom, and put veggies that could use a little heat, like onions and peppers, on the top. Finish with the diced cheese.

Now you cook the pasta. Use the maximum time listed on the package; since this is a salad, you want it a bit more done than al dente. Drain the pasta, and immediately dump the still very warm pasta on top of the ingredients in the salad bowl. Drizzle it all over with the dressing, and then start gently tossing until all of the ingredients are mixed.

Taste it. Add oil, vinegar, salt, or pepper as needed.

Let sit for at least 10 minutes for flavors to blend and the pasta to cool. Then serve. Makes 4-7 dinner servings, or dinner for two plus 2-3 leftover lunches.

Ingredient Notes

Pasta: you want a short, "curly" pasta for this, such as such as strozzapreti, fusili, rotini, cavitappi, radiatore, or mafalda (as pictured). Farfalle will also work, and his is a great use for flavored pastas. Tubular pasta like penne and rigatoni, or small shapes like elbows or orzo, do not work well because they don't hold the dressing.

Cheese: you are looking for a semi-soft cheese that has distinct flavors but is not too strong. Flavored cheeses, including smoked ones, work great. Italian cheeses that work include scamorza (smoked mozz), marinated mozzarella, provalone dulce, fontina, asiago, caciocavallo, or young pecorinio. You can also use cheese curds, particularly garlic cheese curds, and manchego or gouda also can work. Plain mozzarella gets lost in the ingredients. Cheddar and feta are a bit too salty, and blue cheeses are not a good idea. If you're vegan, use vegan cheese such as Vegan Smoked Mozzarella, Babybel plant-based, or Just Like Smoked Provalone.

Veggies: At a minimum, the salad needs tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The salad benefits from adding a few other veggies, either cooked or raw, and you don't want any specific veggie to be too strong. Strive for variety and balance, like onions and one kind of bean, or squash and olives, or herbs and peas. You're looking for 5-7 cups of diced veggies and cheese, total.

Herbs: appropriate herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, cilantro, chives, and thyme. Herbs should be chopped roughly for the salad, and minced for the dressing.

Now that the raspberries are coming in, we need something to do with the excess -- particularly the ones that are a bit squished and won't keep in the fridge. One way to use those up is a fresh raspberry salad dressing (also works fine with thawed frozen raspberries).

We got this recipe 20 years ago from a retirement home chef who was doing cooking demos at the Sonoma-Marin County Fair (now, that's a retirement home I'd like). It's a wonderful alternative to lettuce salads, while still relying mostly on cheaper produce. The combination of super-crunchy veggies with the tart raspberry dressing makes it a great side for any kind of grilled or roasted meat or fish.

The one tricky thing is finding a small enough napa cabbage; most of the ones sold here on the West Coast are big enough for three salads! Aside from the cabbage, you'll want some other crunchy salad veggies, sliced thin. Optinonally, you can also include croutons.

napa cabbage salad

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3-4 cloves roasted/toasted garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbs red wine or cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup mashed raspberries
• 1 tsp dried basil (or 1 Tbs minced fresh)

Salad:

• 1 small napa cabbage, around 1 lbs
• Fresh ground pepper
• Optional extra ingredients, any of:
  • 3/4 cup croutons
  • 2 carrots, peeled and sliced, around 2/3 cup
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and diced, around 1/2 cup
  • 1 bell pepper, sliced
  • Other crunchy veggies, such as radishes, celery, etc.

Equipment: large salad bowl, salad spinner, measuring cup, immersion blender

To make the dressing, first thaw the raspberries if frozen. Toast the garlic cloves (see below). Put all of the dressing ingredients together in the measuring cup, and then puree them with the immersion blender (you can use a regular blender instead if that's what you have). Set aside.

Separate the leaves of the cabbage. Slice any large leaves in half or thirds lengthwise. Slice them crosswise, 1/4" to 1/3" wide (around 1cm). Wash and dry. Put the napa cabbage in the salad bowl, together with any of the optional ingredients you're using.

Toss with the dressing and ground pepper to your taste. Serve within 1 hour of making it (after that, it gets soggy).

Toasting garlic cloves: if you don't have already-roasted garlic on hand, drop a few skin-on cloves of garlic in a small, dry, hot pan on the stove. Toast them on one side for a minute or two -- until the skin scortches -- and then flip them and toast on the other side. Then peel and use.

Substitutions: might work with iceberg lettuce. Would not really work with other varieties of cabbage; their taste is too strong. Could work with other berries, like marionberries, although most would need to be seeded.

Given what's going on in Europe right now, it seemed like time to share a Ukrainian recipe. Ukrainian, at least, courtesy of my great-grandmother the Ukrainian Jew, who emigrated to the US as a young child fleeing a Tsar-ordered Russian Cossack pogrom. Hmmm, seems familiar somehow.

Of course, me being me, I've modified the recipe some. Fortunately, my great-grandmother is long gone so she can't berate me for corrupting her recipe.

First, I made it vegetarian (vegan if you omit/swap the sour cream). Second, I simplified the recipe via a "four bowl" system. Since there are a lot of ingredients in this one, I've made it easier to track what goes in when by prepping everything into bowls of ingredients that go in at the same time. I also switched to grating the beets, which eliminates the requirement to par-cook the beets as you would with diced beets.

This is a hot borscht, suitable for eating, well, now, when it's cold and wet and wintry out (offer not valid in Australia). If I could ship some over to the Ukrainian refugees I would, but I'll settle for donating to WCK instead.

Hot Borscht

Prep Bowl #1 for Stock:
3 cups low-salt vegetable stock
3 cups water
Skin from the onion (below)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp smoke salt
1 medium white or red potato, sliced
6 dried mushrooms

Soup:
3-4 tbs sunflower oil

Prep Bowl #2
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 medium white or red potatoes, diced

Prep Bowl #3
2 to 2 1/2 lbs beets, peeled and grated
3 cloves garlic, smashed or minced
2 plum or small tomatoes, diced
3 tbs tomato paste
Juice of 1-2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)
2 Tbs sugar

Prep Bowl #4
1 tsp smoked salt
1/2 cup minced parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill, or 1.5 tbs dried dill
Additional salt to taste

At the table:
1 cup sour cream

Equipment
1 3qt pot, 1 6qt pot, strainer, box grater, four bowls of assorted sizes

Pour the ingredients of bowl #1 into a 3qt or larger pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes. While the stock is simmering, chop and grate the rest of the vegetables.

Heat the oil in a large soup pot (5qt or more) over a medium-high flame.   Throw in the contents of prep bowl #2, and stir occassionally until the onions wilt and the carrots sweat, about 10 minutes.  Dump in the contents of Prep Bowl #3 and strain the hot stock in to the large pot.  Stir, then cover.

Turn down the heat as soon as the soup begins to boil.   Simmer for 25 minutes. Pour in the ingredients in Prep Bowl #4, stir in contents and then turn off heat. Taste for salt and add more as required. Let sit uncovered for 10 minutes.

Serve in wide soup bowls, with the sour cream at the table for diners to add as they please.  Serve with rye bread to make a meal for 4 or a first course for 8.

Notes

If you omit the sour cream, or use plant-based sour cream, this recipe is vegan.

Smoked salt replaces the roasted flavor sometimes added to borscht via pork or beef fats. It is available from various specialty markets. I recommend salt smoked with lighter woods over hickory, which tends to be a bit much.

The three cups of packaged veggie broth can either plan broth or mushroom broth, or it can be beef broth if you're not vegetarian. It can also be replaced with instant stock and water, but if your instant stock is high-salt you'll want to cut the smoked salt.

If you can get quality unrefined sunflower oil for this soup, it adds a nice flavor.

I love tabouleh, which can be a bit of a problem around our house. Not that my sweetie hates it; it's just that she likes tabouleh as a bulgur & tomato salad with parsley, and I prefer it as a parsley salad with tomatoes and bulgur. So, there's a bit of compromise. Mostly by me.

Some of those compromises led to me thinking about making tabouleh into a whole meal, instead of just a meze. So I started adding stuff to it, making tabouleh a "main dish", that could be a lunch on its own. The end result was something that isn't really tabouleh anymore, it's some kind of bulgur salad, but we like to call it "tabouleh plus plus".

The recipe below is less a set of instructions and more an assembly kit. You can add or subtract many things from this tabouleh++, so it's more a matter of needing a few things from each group instead of needing them all.

As always, a quick note on bulgur: this recipe requires fine bulgur, sometimes labeled "#1" for the grain size. These grains are around the size of large-crystal sugar or kosher salt. It's the same bulgur sold in overpriced instant tabouleh boxes. Larger grains, or cracked wheat (which sometimes gets mislabeled as bulgur) will not work. Small-grain "instant" couscous probably would.

tabouleh++

Required Ingredients:

• 2 cups fine bulgur (#1)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 to 1.5 lbs tomatoes, diced small
• OR: 1 to 1.5 lbs cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 medium bunch parsley, chopped, around 1.5 cups
• juice of 1-2 lemons, about 1/4 cup
• 3-5 Tbs good olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste

One or two proteins, such as:

• 1 drained can of chickpeas
• 1 drained can of green or black lentils
• 5-9 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 5-9 oz other Middle Eastern cheese, such as kasseri or Village Cheese, diced small
• 4-6 boiled eggs, diced small

Two to three vegetables and aromatics, such as:

• one medium red onion, diced small, around 1 cup
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped, around 1 cup
• 1-2 ripe bell peppers (or other peppers), diced small, around 1.5 cups
• 1 cup sliced smaller peppers, like banana peppers
• 1 large avocado, diced
• 1 cup pitted olives, roughly chopped
• 1 to 1.5 cups diced cucumber
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup pomegranate seeds

Zero to two additional seasonings, such as:

• 1 bunch of mint, chopped (could even replace the parsley)
• 1 small bunch of dill and/or oregano, chopped
• 1/2 to 1 tsp Aleppo pepper
• 1-2 Tbs pomegranate molasses

First, soak the bulgur. Put it in a very large bowl (you'll need room for all of your ingredients) and pour the water over it. Cover loosely (lid, plastic wrap, whatever) and leave for 1 hour to hydrate. Toss with a large fork (see faster method below if you're short on time).

While the bulgur is soaking, dice all your other ingredients. You can put them in one big pile, they're all going in together. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, and salt into a dressing. If you're using both feta and olives you might want to omit the salt.

Once the bulgur is fully hydrated, put all the diced ingredients on top. Drizzle the dressing over the pile, add any optional seasonings, and toss everything together until uniformly mixed. Let sit for 10-15 minutes to blend.

Serves 4-6 as a main dish or light lunch. Keeps up to 1 week in the fridge, unless you used avocado (in which case it's about a day). Do not freeze.

Note: you can hydrate bulgur faster with hot water, at the cost of a somewhat mushy texture. Just heat the 2 cups of water to boiling, pour it over the bulgur, cover tightly, and let sit for 15 minutes.

This stupidly easy, yet tasty, soup is based on a recipe by Pati Jinich, who has become my new queen of Mexican cooking and should probably be yours as well. Her recipes are, in general, simple and easy yet delicious, and she teaches you Mexican home cooking that's not about tacos and fajitas.

This soup is basically an adobo sauce, into which you mix pureed beans and broth, showing the simple versitality of Mexican cooking as well as their dedication to sauces. I tinkered with the recipe slightly to use mostly canned ingredients. Accompany this with some quesadillas or cornbread and you have a terrific weeknight meal that can be on the table in 40 minutes. And, for quarantine-time, this recipe serves two (double it for a larger family).

If you don't have Mexican crema around, you can substitute regular sour cream or even heavy cream. For a vegan version, swap in coconut cream or vegan sour cream.

Pinto Bean Soup

1 dried ancho chile
1 14oz can diced or whole tomatoes
1 14oz can pinto beans
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 to 2 1/2 cups veggie or chicken stock
Salt
1/2 cup Mexican crema (or substitute)
1/2 avocado
A few fried tortilla strips (optional)

Remove the stem from the dried ancho, split it in half, and remove the seeds. Tear it into a few pieces and set in a small heatproof bowl. Boil 1 cup of water and pour it over the chile, making sure it is completely covered. Let sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate.

Put the chile pieces (reserving their soaking liquid) and the canned tomatoes and their juice into a blender or food processor. Puree.

Heat the oil in a medium soup pot. Pour the tomato/chile mixture into the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly. In 5-6 minutes the mixture should darken somewhat.

While the pot is cooking, drain the beans. Puree them together with 1/4 cup chile soaking liquid and 1/2 cup stock.

Once the tomato/chile sauce is done, pour the bean puree into it. Add 1 1/2 cups stock, and bring to a bare simmer. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes; the soup should thicken slightly.

Taste the soup and see if you need to add salt. Also check the texture; if it's too thick, add the remaining 1/2 cup stock.

Dice the avocado half. Serve the soup in wide bowls, and add a swirl of crema or cream to each. Top with the diced avocado, and the tortilla strips (if using). Serve, with rolls or quesadillas on the side.

Serves two. Can be easily scaled up.

2021 or not, it's still winter, and we're still in quarantine, so it's time for another simple recipe. Whether you're a new cook, or just tired and want something easy to make, caldo verde is it.

This potato-and-kale stew is the unofficial national dish of Portugal. You can see why: it's simple, homey, adaptable, nutritious, tasty, and filling. I also realized this week that it was easy to modify to make it vegan, without losing any of the flavor that it's known for.

Making it vegan means using some vegan fake sausage, though. The classic sausages for caldo verde are chouriço or linguiça, both very firm-textured garlicky Portuguese dry sausages. Their texture isn't that different from many vegetarian sausages, though. For flavor, you want to find something that's garlicky, spicy, and maybe even smoked. My suggestions in preference order are: Field Roast Chipotle, Tofurky Andouille, Field Roast Garlic & Fennel, Tofurky Kielbasa, Beyond Sausage Hot Italian, or LightLife Italian. If you want this to be vegetarian and don't care about vegan, though, Lightlife has a fake Chorizo which would be perfect (do not use Soyrizo, which is soft and too spicy).

The second part of caldo verde is the kale. In Portugal, they use a particular kind of dark-green kale or cabbage similar to collards, but just a bit lighter. In the US, I'd recommend using either dino-kale (cavalo nero), or collard greens. Curly green kale would work OK, though.

Now that you've found those, you can get on with the recipe.

vegan caldo verde

• 4-6 Tbs olive oil
• 3-4 vegan sausages
• 1 large or 2 small onions, about 3/4 lbs
• 2-4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 to 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
• 3-4 lbs russet, Yukon, or other starchy potatoes
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1 qt vegetarian broth or stock
• 2 medium bunches kale (around 8 cups when sliced)
• Equipment: a larger stew pot than you think you need, probably your largest. Large sharp knife, long-handled potato masher.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/2" to 1" chunks. Dice the onion(s) small. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash the kale leaves and set them aside to dry. Peel off any casing from the sausages, and slice them into 1/2" thick rounds.

Heat 1-2 Tbs oil at the bottom of a large stew pot. When shimmering, place the rounds of veggie sausage on in the oil, lying flat. Fry for 1-2 minutes, until they are well-browned, then flip them and brown the other side. Remove them from the oil and set aside.

Add 1-3 more tablespoons of olive oil depending on whether the sausages gave off any fat of their own; you want a good 1/8" slick of oil on the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and garlic, and fry, stirring, until the onions become translucent.

How much paprika you add depends on whether your veggie sausages had peppers in them or not. If they did (like the Chipotle ones) then just add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, depending on how peppery the oil is. If not, use 1.5 tsp. Add it, stir for only around 30s, and dump in the potato chunks. Stir them up to coat them, then add the veggie stock.

Finally, add 3 cups more water, plus the 1-2 tsp of salt (depending on how salty your stock is). Turn the heat down to low, and cover.

Simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the potatoes are easy mashed into paste with a spoon.

While the potatoes are cooking it's time to prepare the kale. A key element of caldo verde is the hair-thin ribbons of kale, so you're gonna get your knife work in. Remove the stems from the kale or collards, then stack bunches of leaves, and cut them crossways as thin as you can ... like 1/16" wouldn't be too thin here if you can manage it (usually I can't).

When the potatoes are done simmering, turn off the heat and mash them in the stock using the potato masher (or a large spoon if you don't have one). Smush them up until all of the chunks of potato are gone and you're left with a pot full of very soupy mashed potatoes.

Turn the stove back on to low, and stir in the thinly sliced kale, a handful at a time, until it's all in there. Let simmer for around 5 minutes more, then turn off the heat. Taste; see if it needs a little more salt. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Serve the soup in large bowls with several slices of the fried veggie sausage on top. This recipe makes about 6 meal-sized servings, and keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

Notes: for a little extra flavor, replace 1/2 to 1 tsp of the salt with smoked salt. You can use water and a couple bay leaves instead of veggie stock, if you don't have any.

Gazpacho is probably the ultimate hot-weather meal; a cold, chopped tomato soup, usually served with room temperature sides, it's great when your AC isn't keeping up, and really can't be eaten on a day that isn't hot. Besides, for your tomato gazpacho to be good, you need garden-fresh produce. Winter gazpachos are better made from almonds and garlic.

I don't make any claims to "authenticity" in this recipe; this is my mother's recipe, and she's from Wisconsin. But it's easy and tastes really good, which is more important, after all.

The quantities of the various vegetables below are rough guides, and should be read more as ratios between the ingredients than exact measurements. You have quite a bit of leeway, as long as you make sure there's more tomatoes and peppers than anything else. For the chopping, you really need to use a food processor, so that you can get the right fine-minced texture. Blenders and food grinders will create a puree, which simply won't be as enjoyable to eat.

The main recipe does use a little heat to temper the garlic and onions, but see the notes for how to make a heat-free version.

gazpacho Berkus

• 1/2 lbs sweet or red onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
• 2 Tbs high-quality olive oil, then 3 Tbs more
• 4-5 oz bread, crusts removed
• 1 lbs to 1.5 lbs ripe red sweet peppers (bells, Italian, etc.)
• 3 lbs ripe summer red tomatoes
• 1 lbs cucumber
• parsley, about 3/4 cup chopped and loosely packed
• 2-3 tsp sherry vinegar
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt, plus more
• 1 ripe avocado

Peel and roughly chop or slice the onion. Peel and slice the garlic. Heat 2 Tbs of the olive oil in a small pan, and saute the garlic and onion until they soften (this is to take the "bite" out). Add the paprika, cook for around 20 seconds more, then take off heat and let cool.

Next you're going to be dicing a lot of vegetables before they go into the food processor. In order to get a nice even chop in the processor, you'll want everything to be about the same medium-small size, like a 1/2" cube of tomato or a 1/3" thick slice of cucumber.

Cube the bread. Core the peppers and cut them into large dice. Core and cut the tomatoes into large dice, making sure to capture the tomato juice running off the cutting board (pour it over the bread cubes). Peel and slice or dice the cucumber. Chop the parsley.

Put stuff in the food processor in this order: bread cubes, onion & garlic mixture, everything else. You'll probably have to do 2 or 3 batches, so divide things up accordingly. Add the remaining 3 Tbs olive oil, 2 tsp sherry vinegar, and salt. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is reduced to a very very fine mince, but stop short of pureeing it.

Taste to see if you want a little more sherry vinegar or salt. Let sit for 15 minutes for the flavors to blend.

Serve topped with a little diced avocado. Accompany with slices of bread topped with Manchego or other Spanish cheese. Serves 4 as a main course, or up to 8 as a first course.

Notes: To make a heat-free version, slice the onion, and soak it in cold water for at least 2 hours before making the recipe, or lightly salt the onion and the toss it with a little of the vinegar and leave it for 20 minutes. Only use 1/2 clove garlic, mashed, and 1 tsp paprika if you're not going to cook it.

You can use charred and peeled red peppers in this and that gives it a little extra flavor. The bread is just here to stabilize the soup and keep it from being too watery, so gluten-free bread should work fine.

Keeps in the fridge for up to a week as leftovers. Do not freeze, as the water will separate out.

You ready for the easiest recipe, the appetizer/side dish that will rock the rest or your summer, the thing you want to make next now that tomato season is here? Our Catalonian friends have a treat for us: pa amb tomàquet, or pan con tomate, or just "tomato bread", this is an irresistably delicious five-ingredient self-assembly dish. Have it for breakfast! Have it with cold vermut or rosé on the porch at 5pm! Have it with every meal!

Amazingly for such a simple recipe, many online recipe sources nevertheless screw this up, probably because they're trying to account for substandard ingredients. Don't do that! This is a dish for tomato season, when the tomatoes are ripe and juicy. Also grab some high-quality Spanish olive oil (it's OK, you'll use a tiny amount, it'll last a long time) and some good bread. The bread needs to be something that has large holes and is firm and chewy, like a baguette, cibatta, sourdough loaf, or pain de campagne. This is also a good recipe to bring out your fancy sea salt for, you'll actually taste it.

One of the things that makes pan con tomate so easy is that each diner assembles it for themselves. So this is not so much a recipe as a set of assembly instructions.

First, split or slice your bread, and grill or toast it lightly. You want it to be firm without browning.

Then, put out on the table:

• several pieces of the toasted bread
• several garden-fresh ripe tomatoes, cut in half
• a few large garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
• one bottle of high quality Spanish olive oil
• some salt

Each diner then makes their own pan con tomate, using these steps:

1. grab a piece of bread
2. rub the cut top of the bread with the cut side of a garlic clove
3. rub the bread with half of a tomato (or a whole one if they're small) until all the tomato pulp is rubbed into the bread (this is why you need those large holes)
4. drizzle it with olive oil, maybe a teaspoon
5. sprinkle on some salt
6. eat!

That's all there is to it. If it sounds underwhelming, try it first -- if you like tomatoes at all, you'll be delighted. And if your sweetie is like mine, you'll be eating pan con tomate until summer ends.

Given how hot it is in so much of the Northern hemisphere right now, nobody wants to get out a pan to make a finishing sauce for dinner, particularly after cooking everything on the grill so that you don't heat up your house. But dinner needs a little something to elevate it from just food to cuisine.

Behold! This traditional Skandanavian sauce is one of the easiest, most useful things you will ever make. It's good on fish and vegetables, especially asparagus, which is still available here on the West coast, at least (traditionally, it's served with gravlax or herring). It comes together without any heat or power tools, uses inexpensive common ingredients, and will keep in the fridge for several months, so feel free to scale it up for the whole summer. While based on mustard, it's mild and balanced so that even non-mustard-lovers are good with it. It's also vegan.

Ready? This'll take just five minutes.

simple mustard-dill sauce

3 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 tsp dry yellow mustard
2 Tbs sugar (possibly more)
2 Tbs white wine vinegar (or rice or apple vinegar)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup minced fresh dill (or 1 Tbs dried)
equipment: medium bowl, whisk, measuring cup with pouring spout

Whisk together the mustard, dry mustard, sugar and vinegar in a bowl, until homogenous.

Pour the vegetable oil into the bowl in a stream, and whisk the mixture with your other hand; this will produce an emulsified sauce with a texture like mayonnaise. If you have trouble doing it two-handed like this, then just add 2 Tbs of oil at a time, whisk it in, and then add another 2 Tbs.

When all of the oil is incorporated, mix in the dill. Taste it; if it's too sharp for your taste, add a couple teaspoons more sugar. Let sit at least 1/2 hour for best flavor.

Makes about 1 cup, enough sauce for fish/vegetables for 4-6 people. Store leftovers in the fridge, keeps for up to 4 months.

While you can make this sauce with dried dill, get fresh if it's not too hard to find, it does make a difference.

Everyone should have a few recipes where you can always have the ingredients on hand, especially for dinners where your original plans didn't work out or you can't think of anything else. This recipe is one such, nutritious, tasty, and from pantry to table in 45 minutes or less.

I first got this very traditional recipe from a little cookbook my relatives brought back from Kapadokya in Turkey. The name of the soup has, in typical Turkish fashion, a tragic story attached to it which has two or three different versions. Tragic or not, the soup is really good and one of the easiest things you'll ever prepare, so I've marked it Good First Recipe.

I'm going to start with the version that's mostly ingredients that are simple to obtain in the US, and give you some notes on more Turkish ingredients.

daughter-in-law soup

4 tbs butter (or olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
3 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp paprika (but see below)
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
4 cups stock
2 tbs fine bulgur wheat (#1)
½ tsp salt, plus up to 1 tsp more to taste Mint, 2 tsp dried or 2 tbs chopped fresh
4qt or larger pot, with lid

Heat the butter (or oil) in the pot. Fry the onion until translucent, stirring, then add the paste and saute for 2-3 minutes, until it separates and turns oily. Add the paprika or other pepper and cook for 30 seconds more.

Add the lentils, ½ tsp salt, bulgur and stock. Bring to boil, cover and simmer over low heat for about ½ hour, or until the soup is creamy and the lentils are soft. It should be a porrigelike consistency, but add some hot water if you feel it's too thick. Taste and see if you need to add more salt. Add mint, simmer for 5 minutes more, then let cool enough to serve. (usually about 10 minutes).

Serve with bread and cheese. Makes 6 cups, enough for a first course for 4-6 people or a main course for 2-3. Keeps up to a week in the fridge, and freezes fairly well.

Notes:

For an even faster version which is almost as good, forget about frying the onions and just simmer everything together.

You must use red lentils for this. Other varieties of lentils take an hour to cook, and don't look nearly as pretty.

For stock, you can use canned or boxed stock, instant stock, bullion, or in a pinch salted water. If you have a choice, vegetable or beef stock is preferable to chicken.

Fine bulgur, also known as instant bulgur, is the same grind you'd use to make tabouleh, tiny grains the size of coarse salt. Either instant couscous or whole wheat bread crumbs would work as a substitute. Bob's Red Mill "bulgur", which is actually cracked wheat, will not work.

If you can get Turkish ingredients, use red pepper paste instead of tomato paste, and 1 tsp Aleppo or Urfa pepper instead of the paprika. Note that Aleppo and Urfa are hotter than paprika, so use some discretion in how much to add.