Category Archives: Asian

Pan-fried Tempeh with Lemongrass, Garlic, and Ginger

Trust me. This is better than you think tempeh can be. I’ve had plenty of bland, or just plain nasty tasting tempeh in health food restaurants over the years. But here it is January and we’re all trying to eat better after the holiday excess. I’ve eaten my share of dal, beans, and leafy greens, [...]
Also posted in healthy | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

When Life Gives You Zucchini Make O Konomi Yaki

Evidently I’m pretty good at growing summer squash, and not much else. Of all my garden plants the only two that bore much of anything edible are two very different heirloom squash varieties. They sit next to a trumpet vine so they were pollinated and pollinated and pollinated. Did I mention I live alone? I’m [...]
Also posted in gardening, healthy, seafood | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

What I Finally Did with my Massa Organics Duck

Last fall, Greg tweeted that he’d be selling rice-paddy raised ducks at the Berkeley market if folks wanted to order ahead. I did. I picked mine up on a bright day in September or October. I have no idea which. It was frozen so I put it in the freezer thinking I’d cook it within [...]
Also posted in Books, Food and Drink, entertaining, from the market | 3 Comments

A Healthy, Restorative Meal with Sablefish and Dal

I rarely cook a protein, starch, veg meal anymore. And I rarely eat fish either. Our oceans are just so endangered, that it’s a once-in-awhile treat these days. And it’s gotta be on Seafood Watch’s green list, or I’m not even eating it as a treat. If you’ve never cooked sablefish, you’ll find that it’s [...]
Also posted in Books, food sustainability, from the market, healthy, hearty, seafood | 1 Comment

Hunger Challenge Day Two

I wake up ready to go. Day one wasn’t so bad. I’m working at home in the morning and going into the office late. I take that time to make Vietnamese rice porridge. This is a brilliant dish involving a very small amount of white, long grain rice, a lot of chicken broth, a few [...]
Also posted in Books, breakfast, food justice, healthy, hunger challenge | Leave a comment

Recalibration Eating

Let’s just say I’m not the “cleansing type.” I like to think of myself as a self-indulgent healthy eater. I don’t deny myself anything I want (though I never want to eat fast food or most processed food) and eat a great variety of mostly very healthy stuff. But after a months-long period of intense [...]
Also posted in DIY, breakfast, healthy | Leave a comment

Scenes from a Photo Shoot

Toast shot Ok, so the book is pretty much done. All that remains is copyediting, galleys, and other little details. Directly on the heels of turning in the manuscript, we went right into shooting the photos. We did it with a crew of 4 plus me over 5 long days right here at the house. [...]
Also posted in Books, breads and pizzas, breakfast | 1 Comment

The Many Faces of Kimchi

Let me count the ways I love you, kimchi. With rice, on your own, in homemade soft tofu soup, I can’t get enough of you. Ever since the Fermentation Workshop at The Cog, I’ve been dipping into the kimchi jar like it was hooch. I’ve discovered that it’s great for lunch with brown rice, with [...]
Posted in Asian | 3 Comments

Abalone Three Ways

It’s good to have friends who dive. Sometimes they’ll just show up at your house on a Sunday evening with beer and abalone. I haven’t had abalone in years. It is a very special food and on a Sunday a couple weeks back, the abalone showed up and I got to decide how to cook [...]
Also posted in seafood | Leave a comment

Asian Culinary Forum

Saturday I devoted the day to something I love more than anything: studying, talking about, tasting, and discovering food traditions from different cultures. I attended two events at the Asian Culinary Forum. The forum is an educational nonprofit that aims to celebrate, investigate, and expand Asian food and culture. Founded by cookbook author Andrea Nguyen [...]
Also posted in Books, classes, community, healthy | Leave a comment
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    The recipes and images on this site belong to Vanessa Barrington. Feel free to link here and if you’d like to use a recipe or image, please ask permission first. Thank you.