Blue Cayenne

Love fried rice?

I certainly do. 

This fried rice recipe just might tickle your taste buds.

The New York Times Food Section featured a recipe for Tomato and Basil Fried Rice by cookbook author Hetty McKinnon  this week. McKinnon is the author of a number of vegetable-forward cookbooks, most recently the much-acclaimed cookbook (and moving memoire) Tenderheart. (You can find Tenderheart through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.)

This particular McKinnon recipe is on the Times’ cooking site but not in Tenderheart. By the way, if you don’t already subscribe to the NYT Cooking site, it is a real bargain.  There are, for example, twenty-seven recipes for fried rice on the NYT site–ranging from recipes by Eric Kim to Melissa Clark  to Mark Bittman and including two more fried rice recipes from McKinnon. Here is a link to their subscription page: Cooking Subscription NYT . In addition to being a real treat for yourself, a cooking site subscription makes a great (and economical)  gift.

The recipe I’m posting today was inspired by McKinnon’s Tomato and Basil Fried Rice recipe. As always seems to be the case with fried rice recipes, one adds a little bit of this and a little bit of that from one’s own pantry-of-the-moment. In my case, I added fresh corn, peeled Hatch chiles, fresh bean sprouts, green peas,  and a handful of chopped green onions. I also was more generous in my seasoning with soy sauce and salt. 

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen:

Remember the 1970s with its  leisure suits, lava lamps, and platform shoes? (I saw a 60-something lady today at the local Sprouts Market teetering along in jeans and sky-high platform shoes! Whoa.)

Foodwise, I remember those  wonderful wedge salads served with generous dollops of roquefort  dressing and topped with all sorts of colorful toppings.  They were a big steakhouse favorite and I recall making them from a recipe in Sunset Magazine. (I loved that magazine back in the day.)

This wedge salad is quite a  sight–resplendent with an inspired thousand island-ish dressing and all sorts of wonderful toppings and textures. It’s hot weather food, too. No heating up your kitchen to make this one. What’s not to love here?

Summer is salad season. Make this salad a part of your summer table.

This salad is inspired by Ree Drummond’s Wedge Salad (here ) and the salad dressing is an Emily Nunn recipe you can find here..

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.

Need a bit of drama at your 4th of July party?

This Chickpea Salad With Herbs and Scallions would be perfect. It’s not the traditional Fourth of July potato salad (wonderful as that is!) Instead, it’s a delightful chickpea variation on that traditional salad that will intrigue and delight your guests.

This is a Lydie Heuck recipe from The New York Times. You can find the original recipe here.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.