Quince Jam

Quince fruit is inedible raw but it makes a great preserve, and jam, and of course, membrillo. My grandmother used to make quince jam. You probably assumed she was a great cook who inspired my cooking passion. In a way she did… because she hated cooking and was an atrocious cook, so someone in the…

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Whole fish “La Rosetta”

This dish is my attempt to reverse engineer a recipe from the La Rosetta restaurant in Rome. Saal and I went there for the first time in 2008 on a recommendation from my friend Luben Dimcheff, and it was one of those meals you remember. We went back with Luben and my parents in September…

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Banitza – a Bulgarian classic

Banitza (also known as bоrek in Turkish, and tiropita in Greek) is a phyllo dough pastry with eggs,  feta cheese and lots of butter.  It is one of the few dishes that small kids and adults delight in equally.

Duck breast with lavender and honey

This recipe is something I recently reverse engineered from an old memory. In the distant summer of 2000 I visited my dear childhood friend Gergana in Narbonne – in the south of France, and she took me to a seasonal restaurant in middle of a vineyard called Le Souquet’s. I had magret de canard au…

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Thanksgiving feast

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday – I fell in love with it when my college friend James MacLachlan took me to my first Thanksgiving celebration at his family’s home in Mechanicsburg, PA in 1991. My idea of time well spent is cooking all day, and Thanksgiving is a good excuse to cook for 2…

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Luben’s perfect chicken

Some years ago my dear friend Luben was visiting from NYC, and he offered to cook “the perfect chicken” that he had mastered from the NY Times (I think). Еver since, when we make roast chicken at home, it is referred to as “Luben’s perfect chicken”.

Truffled mac & cheese

This piece of Americana gets a sophisticated upgrade with the addition of truffles. Recipe is courtesy of my friends at Truffle Shuffle. You can watch the entire cooking class on their web site. Mac & cheese may be kids food, but save this one for yourself!