Appetizers and snacks

So you want to put together a cheese board? Great! It’s the kind of cooking that’s really more about shopping than anything else, which means that you don’t need to have particular skill in the kitchen to serve at your next gathering. But shopping for cheese can be intimidating. Especially if you, like most people, …

These marbled Chinese tea eggs are lovely to look at and delicious to eat. In China, these tea eggs are typically sold by street vendors and are a popular snack. But regardless of where you live, if you have access to a few spices and soy sauce and tea, they’re incredibly easy to make. The …

These pickled jalapeños are the burst of acidity and heat that fans of heat love on just about anything. The prefab kind that you find at the supermarket are fine and more or less get the job done, but they have a tendency to be a little mushy. Which is why it’s worth it to …

These pickled poblano peppers are the sort of thing I like to have in the refrigerator all the time. They bring a welcome bit of acidity to so many dishes that could use a little oomph. They’re kind of a secret weapon. Poblano peppers are versatile. They’re medium in the heat department—well below a jalapeño …

Stop what you’re doing right now. Make a list to pick up puff pastry, cilantro, mint, some finger chiles or serrano peppers, sharp cheddar cheese, a lemon, and some red onion the next time you go to the grocery store. Because you want to make these Bombay rolls. (Unless you’re a cilantro hater, in which …

People often ask me how often my cooking experiments fail. And I have to be honest—not often. Not everything gets into the “good enough to share with the world” category, but pretty much everything is good enough to eat. But there have been a few notable exceptions. There were some very old dried chickpeas that …