Sou fassum, the Provençal name, is known in French as chou farci à la Niçoise. It is a specialty of the region around Grasse. Traditionally, the stuffed cabbage leaves are placed in a net made of thick threads called a fassumier that is then lowered into a good chicken broth to be cooked. Although cabbage […]
Meatballs and Rice in a Middle Eastern Way
February 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This preparation popular in Lebanon and Syria was not always so. In the eighteenth century Damacenes, like all Syrians, preferred wheat and switched to rice and other grains only when wheat became too expensive or was in short supply. But rice was a relatively pricey import from Egypt and was considered a luxury and never […]
Jambalaya Will Make Everyone Happy
August 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Jambalaya is a rice dish famous in the Creole cooking of Louisiana, a kind of Louisiana version of the Spanish paella. In the Creole cooking of jambalaya, a cooking associated with New Orleans, they make it “red” through the use of tomato paste and/or tomatoes while in Cajun cooking, the cooking of the Acadians from […]
Christmas Eve Risotto from Venice
December 21, 2016 by Leave a Comment
This is a typical Christmas Eve dinner preparation and is unusual for two reasons: it is not cooked according to the risotto method even though it’s called a risotto, and it combines cheese with fish. The dish probably evolved from a simple fish pilaf, one using, perhaps, gò (goby, an ugly little fish that lives […]
Valencia’s Arros a Banda – Paella’s Cousin
June 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Arròs a banda is a very old preparation from Valencia and really quite simple. Traditionally, arròs a banda was made on the small cabotatge, the coast runners that ran from north to south along the Levante, the Valencian coast. The boatmen would eat the fish with some hollowed out pieces of bread. Fishermen also made […]
An Italian Casserole called Taiedda–Apulia’s Family Favorite
April 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Taiedda — tiella alla pugliese in Italian — is one of the most renowned dishes in Apulia (the region of Italy called the heel of the Italian boot), a casserole of layered onion, potatoes, zucchini, mussels, and rice. This is a dish they make in all three provinces of Brindisi, Lecce, and Taranto. Also known […]
Give Christmas A Sicilian Spin With Hearty Tummala
December 9, 2015 by 2 Comments
Families all seem to have their own Christmas classics — roast turkey, baked ham, crown roast or pork, or prime rib. Many Italian-Americans will have lasagna or a feast of seven fishes. One spectacular preparation for a change of pace is to follow some families and make the classic Sicilian Christmas tummàla. Tummàla is a […]
Baked Spanish Rice Do-it-Yourself
October 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Most people think a Spanish rice dish is called paella. But paella is just one kind of Spanish rice dish and in fact a paella is cooked in a paella, the name of the large metal pan used to cook the dish over a burner, and not in a casserole. In Spain, a baked rice […]
4 Quick Tricks Banish Boring Summer Salads
July 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The grill is blasting away, people are licking their chops, and you’re asking yourself, “what sides?” A great approach is a salad, of course. But why stop at merely one salad? And too often that salad is one of the heavy mayonnaise-based standbys, macaroni salad or potato salad. An approach I love is four salads, […]
Amazing Rice Dishes from Spain
March 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The southern region of Spain is Andalusia famous for its invention of tapas, of gazpacho, and a myriad of amazingly delicious rice dishes not well known in the United States. Unlike the paella of Valencia, Andalusian rice dishes are usually baked in an oven or if cooked stove-top are usually cooked in an earthenware casserole, […]
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