The Pasta I Make When I Don’t Feel Like Cooking

September 1, 2026September 1, 2026Leave a comment

I get this question fairly often: when you spend much of the day working on recipes and talking about food, don’t you eventually get tired of thinking about what to cook?

The answer is yes.

There are evenings when the last thing I want to do is research a recipe, measure twelve ingredients, or spend an hour standing over the stove. That’s when I fall back on a handful of things I can make almost without thinking.

This is one of them.

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Home-Style Northern Indian Chicken Curry-Murgh Kari

August 30, 2026September 1, 2026Leave a comment

Murgh Kari, literally “chicken curry” in Hindi and Urdu, is a classic style of North Indian home cooking. Unlike the richer cream- and butter-based curries that often dominate Indian restaurant menus in the West, Murgh Kari is everyday cooking—chicken simmered in a deeply flavored gravy built from browned onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and warm spices.

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Simple Norfolk Seafood Recipe Inspired by O’Donnell’s

August 27, 20267 Comments

This Norfolk Seafood is such a good recipe and so simple to make. The story behind this recipe is interesting.

The story behind Norfolk Seafood:

When I was a young boy, we used to go to a seafood restaurant in Washington DC called O’Donnell’s. The historic O’Donnell’s Sea Grill opened in 1922 on E Street NW in Washington, D.C. It was a legendary destination for seafood, nautical decor, and its signature rum buns. They had wonderful food, and most importantly, they had Buck.

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Rigatoni with Roasted Eggplant and Walnuts

August 26, 2026August 29, 2026Leave a comment

Roasting eggplant until completely tender transforms it into an unexpectedly rich pasta sauce. Tossed with garlic, good olive oil, basil, Parmesan and toasted walnuts, this is one of those simple Italian pastas where a handful of ingredients become much more than the sum of their parts.

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Hunan Stir-Fried Shrimp with Chopped Green Chilies (青剁椒虾)

August 18, 2026August 20, 2026Leave a comment

This vibrant Hunan seafood dish pairs shrimp with Duo Jiao—a pickled relish made from crisp green chilies, garlic, and ginger. Flash-fried over high heat, the chilies create an aromatic, savory-sour glaze that clings to the shrimp without the need for heavy cornstarch sauces.

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Hunan Pork Belly with Seared Peppers – Xiao Chao Rou

August 14, 2026August 20, 2026Leave a comment

This Hunan pork belly recipe was suggested by a friend and is adapted from a recipe by UK based site, School of Wok. It’s delicious.

This dish belongs to a family of Hunan stir-fries known as xiao chao rou (小炒肉), literally “small stir-fried pork.” There are many variations, but the combination of fatty pork, fresh green chilies and fermented black beans is classic Hunan cooking.

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Gai Tung – Thai Braised Chicken with Aromatic Spices

August 12, 2026August 17, 2026Leave a comment

This braised chicken recipe comes from Jennifer Brennan’s wonderful The Original Thai Cookbook, 1981, one of the pioneering English-language books that introduced authentic Thai cooking to Western home cooks. Brennan describes first discovering Gai Tung after an afternoon wandering Bangkok’s bustling Sam Peng market, where a simple neighborhood restaurant served her a fragrant braised chicken over rice that became one of her most memorable meals. After making this recipe for years, I understand exactly why it left such an impression.

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Rigatoni with Peas and Bacon/Sausage

July 26, 2026August 29, 2026Leave a comment

Sometimes the best Italian meals are the simplest. This rustic rigatoni pasta combines smoky bacon or flavorful Italian sausage with sweet peas, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and just enough cream to bring everything together into a silky sauce.

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Quick and Easy Shrimp Recipe with Harissa Paste

July 26, 2026August 4, 2026Leave a comment

Harissa is a fiery paste which is commonly used in North African cuisine. You see it show up in Tunisian and Moroccan food quite often. It is packed with flavor and comes in many varieties, but common ingredients are chilies, olive oil, garlic, sundried tomatoes, salt, coriander, cumin and caraway seeds.

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Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

July 21, 2026August 1, 2026Leave a comment

This is the tomato sauce recipe that changed everything for me. So simple, but mind blowingly good. When I first made it, I couldn’t get my head around how it could be so good with just these few ingredients.

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