Front Burner: Meet a New Crab to Eat

We have our blue crabs, but invasive green crabs from Europe, which have been in our waters for two centuries (uninvited arrivals by ship) are predators that attack the blues, especially the soft-shells. They also wreck the eelgrass and other beneficial maritime environments. The idea now is to eat the green crabs as a way…

Don’t Call It Tex-Mex

HOUSTON — This city’s Second Ward is full of temptations for Adán Medrano, a writer and chef who lives just a few miles southeast. The Mexican-American neighborhood is home to the perfect flaky tortillas at Doña María Mexican Cafe, scratch-made in flour or corn, and ready to be folded around eggs with the fine threads…

How to Get Eggplant Right

LONDON — It’s a fine line, when you cook, between success and failure. I am always surprised by how tipping the balance in a dish can so easily transform it from delectable to inedible. How many times have you oversalted or undercooked a dish? When did you last lament wasting a fistful of pine nuts or…

What to Cook: The Best Recipes for Now

Good morning. There are hard-boiled eggs everywhere anointed with dye, and a ham in the fridge holding strong against late-night sandwiches, struggling against its eventual calling as the backbone of an exquisite split-pea soup. (Of course it’s a spiral-cut ham. Have you not been paying attention?) That’s the view from the land of khakis and…