Food, Photography and Bons Mots
OK. Who put miso in the macaroni salad? And corn? Doesn’t corn clash with pasta? It was Ham El-Waylily of the New York Times and it is a brilliant move. And, no, corn works beautifully with this macaroni salad. This is an adaptation of a…
At my local farmers’ market, the stone fruits are winding down. The cherries are gone. The apricots are so ripe they’re squishy by the time you get them home. Peaches and plums, however, are still available in abundance. As you know if you read this…
Soup in July?
Is that even allowed?
This is highly rated soup from Melissa Clark’s Dinner In One cookbook. You can order the book through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.
If, on the other hand, you are craving a cold soup to get you through the sweltering summer heat, here is a really wonderful Cantaloupe Soup recipe. You’ll find the recipe here.
A soup doesn’t get a lot more beautiful or more creative. Jalapeños, mint and red onions…with cantaloupe??? Who woulda thought?
Here is the recipe for the Lemony White Bean Soup as I prepared it in my kitchen. For my kitchen, I prepared this soup without the turkey called for in the original recipe.This is one of those perfect recipes for using pantry staples and the endless bounty of summer vegetables.
If chocolate rocks your world, this is the cake for you. It is decadently bittersweet with a poundcake texture. The frosting is to die for. For this recipe, I used Callebaut Bittersweet Chocolate and Double Dutch Cocoa; both were purchased from King Arthur Baking. This…
It’s summer! Woo-hoo! Right now, my favorite local farmers’ market is bursting with beautiful produce. What better way to showcase (and enjoy!) that bounty than by making a fresh salad? Make that a fresh crunchy coleslaw and I’m in heaven. Make it beautiful and just…
Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldies But Goodies recipe is for Watermelon-Tomato Gazpacho.
Here is the link: Watermelon-Tomato Gazpacho,
Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.
And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page:Blue Cayenne Food and Photography Blog. . If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.
Tahini. Tahini is a nutty-flavored sesame paste. Think you are unfamiliar with tahini? In all likelihood, you’ve probably enjoyed it in hummus or baba ghanoush. For purists, the best tahini is made from ground and roasted humera sesame seeds from Ethiopia. This bias in favor…
This is a sweet little tart. Easy, too. It is a Peach and Plum Frangipane Tart from Hetal Vasavada’s new cookbook, Desi Bakes. Over the decade that I’ve been writing Blue Cayenne, I’ve posted innumerable recipes for stone fruit dishes. To me, stone fruits are…
I seem to be having a bit of a baking extravaganza this month. Look at all the baked goods I’ve featured on Blue Cayenne!
Spring is here in Southern California and my farmers’ market has been rich in berries–blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and on and on. I’ve been luxuriating in breakfast bowls with lots of fresh berries to start my days.The other day I went looking for a sweet little pound cake-ish recipe to use up some of my berry stash and this Yogurt Berry Cake from Dorie Greenspan didn’t let me down. The cake is perfumed with vanilla and a bit of almond extract and the crumb of the cake is smooth and velvety. It is also open to all sorts of variations. You can get creative with what you have in your pantry–chocolate, dried fruits, fresh fruits, spices of your choice and on and on.
This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Dorie’s Anytime Cakes. You can order this excellent cookbook through your local bookstore or online at Amazon here. In this recipe’s introduction in her cookbook, Dorie writes that, while most of her French friends don’t bake because there are so many great bakeries in France, this Yogurt Berry Cake is the one recipe that just about every French person does bake, calling up as it does fond memories of parties and family gatherings.
Here is the recipe as I baked it in my kitchen.
Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldies But Goodies recipe is for an unusual but truly delicious Broccoli Cornbread . It’s a keeper. Here is the link: Broccoli…
“Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.” Henry David Thoreau This very simple James Beard recipe for macaroni and cheese caught my eye on a day when I was craving the quintessential American dish. Sometimes a simple recipe reminds us…
Brunch. It’s a portmanteau– a made up word joining two words and two meanings. You know, a blend. List and article: Listicle. Smoke and fog: Smog. Breakfast and lunch: Brunch. Actually, Blue Cayenne’s sweet Chief Quality Officer (CQO) Juliet is probably a portmanteau, too. Juliet…
Today’s plat du jour on my table is ratatouille, a classic French vegetable stew that is a specialty of cooks in Provence and Nice. Apparently, a lot of other Mediterranean countries claim some version of this dish, too, so you may have encountered ratatouille under…
Soup in July? Is that even allowed? This is highly rated soup from Melissa Clark’s Dinner In One cookbook. You can order the book through your local bookstore or on Amazon here. If, on the other hand, you are craving a cold soup to get you…
Beans! Glorious beans! This is an enthusiastic repeat recipe for Blue Cayenne. We originally featured the recipe back in May of 2024. Here is the link and the recipe: Turkish White Beans. This recipe is from Yasmin Khan’s cookbook, Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories From Turkey,…
Jose Andreas. Marcella Hazan. Jacques Pepin. Elena Zalayeta Masaharu Morimoto Marcus Samuelsson. And on and on and on…and on. These women and men have enriched the American culinary world. Immigrants all. So here, in the spirit of recognizing and celebrating the creativity, drive and good…
It’s October already and time to start thinking of cold weather comfort foods. Nothing fits that bill quite like beans. This recipe combines Rancho Gordo alubia blanca beans with generous quantities of parmaesan cheese and chile crisp for a stewed bean dish perfect for those…
This recipe brings back fond memories of parties in my home. On my buffet table, a three bean salad was always a reliable dish–easy to put together, flexible, and interesting. Recently, my local Farmer’s Market has been offering beautiful yellow was beans that reminded me…
