California and South Carolina are the usual sources for American-grown rice, but you can add New Jersey to the list. In Pennington, southwest of New Brunswick, Blue Moon Acres is cultivating assorted rices. There are medium- and long-grain brown rice; white sushi rice; a mix of short-grain brown and black rice, called black and tan,…
Details
Many more sheep than humans live on the windswept Croatian island of Pag in the Adriatic Sea. The sheep, a breed called paska ovka, graze on the landscape, and their milk takes on the briny tang of the environment in a local cheese called Paski Sir. This fairly firm-textured cheese, with a nutty aroma and…
Details
This year Judith Norell, an owner of Silver Moon Bakery on the Upper West Side, has added a new twist, raspberry preserves, to her galette des rois, or king cake, the confection served for Epiphany on Jan. 6. It’s usually fashioned from puff pastry and filled with marzipan, with a good luck token hidden inside.…
Details
Dried Espelette chiles from the Basque Country in France offer bold heat along with rich fruitiness. Johnny Schmitt, the chef at the Table 128 restaurant in the Boonville Hotel in Mendocino County, Calif., is a fan and was buying so much of it from France that an owner, Roger Scommegna, thought it was time to…
Details
One of the questions I get asked most often is, “How do you stay inspired to create new recipes?” In the movie version of my life, I tell people that inspiration hits me when I’m strolling a market overseas, or rereading old cookbooks while I sip tea on my comfortable couch. But the actual answer…
Details
On the flight from Oslo to Svalbard, the sun gave way to night as we crossed the Arctic Circle; for one magical moment, the plane’s wing bisected light and dark perfectly. This would be the last natural light I would see for a week. For half the year, Svalbard, the northernmost inhabited place in the…
Details
If you’re the sort of person who uses the annual avalanche of food and drink predictions as an anthropological window into the state of the American psyche, prepare for a stripped-down, no-nonsense 2020. Mold and sobriety will be popular. Porridges like jook and arroz caldo are the new comfort foods. Saving the planet will have…
Details
Cacio e pepe pasta — quite literally, cheese and pepper pasta — is as defined by its ingredients as peanut butter and jelly. Like many classic Italian dishes, it requires just a few good-quality items (pasta, cheese and pepper) and attention to technique (emulsifying grated cheese and starchy pasta water into a silky, salty sauce).…
Details
Good morning. Is it time for resolutions yet, or are those only made on Wednesday morning in exchange for release from headaches and anxiety, sweat and abject fear? Me, I’d like there to be more plants on my plate in 2020, and smaller portions of meat. I’d like to cook with more nuts and seeds,…
Details
Prolonged exposure to a widely used household insecticide may increase the risk for cardiovascular disease and early death, new research suggests. Pyrethrin and its synthetic derivatives are used in garden insecticides, pet sprays, mosquito repellents and lice shampoos. They are extremely effective and cause no acute reactions in humans, but they are absorbed by the…
Details