Contessa Tip #13

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There are times when impatience holds my hand in the kitchen. Especially, when I am in the mood to make a cake, but I don’t feel like waiting for the ingredients to come to room temperature in order to begin. This is a key step since it helps to increase the volume of the cake. So, my quick shortcut is to put the eggs in a bowl of lukewarm tap water and leave them there for about five minutes. The water should not be so hot that it starts to cook the eggs. And for the butter, I whip out the box grater and shave it. This also helps if I am in a hurry. Waiting to let the eggs warm naturally is always best, but this is a good in a hurry time saver. Time is your best friend in the kitchen, but sometimes a good short cut is even better!

 

Contessa Lentil Soup

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For every recipe I share, I try to weave in a personal story, if only to tie together the idea of food as an experience outside just the act of eating. I usually think about what this food means or how to best approach it emotionally. This recipe was the opposite. I had to think of how not to approach it. It is tied to too many individual experiences. Whether eating it at my Uncle’s house after school with an ice cold malt, or the ten o’clock phone call I got recently for a friend desperate for the recipe for her and her sick husband, or just one more warm recipe between now and when the weather decides to finally settle into Spring. Either way, this is an all around flavorful soup with a hint of all things Caribbean! Read More

Contessa Honey Lime and Sesame Dressing

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Wild Crucian Honey is a thing of elemental beauty. Depending on when you are able to source it, you can pick out the notes of all the wild fruits and flowers the bees feasted on to make their sacred food. One of my favorite people on the island is my friend Sam Grey. On a recent trip to my house for brunch with his beautiful family, he gave me a tiny jar of honey he had gathered from his own hive. I must confess, I was downright stingy with my bottle of wild honey. Even my husband got only the tiniest traces of it. It is that good!  Then another one of my favorite people Wanda Wright shared with me a bottle of her locally made Honey Vinegar. I had never had honey vinegar, and wasn’t sure what I would do with it, but I knew when I bought it a recipe would come. This recipe is the synthesis of all that food sharing. Sesame, Lime, and Local Honey all bring their complex flavor components to this incredibly simple brew of a dressing! Read More