In 2012, we decided to tackle new ingredients. We wanted to make the year about reinventing our cooking. The idea was to push the boundaries of our collective skill sets but also get back to basics. That meant focusing on other people’s recipes. We think trying a new recipe can be a great way to get outside your comfort zone and actually learn something new.
In keeping with tradition, we named our project: [Ingredient], my Soul. We tried to showcase individual ingredients each month, talk about their origin, history, and common uses, and then bring you recipe reviews using that ingredient.
We missed a few months, especially around the always busy holiday season, but the experiment succeeded in expanding our skills, knowledge, and our wheelhouse. We’ll definitely be more likely to include new favorites like leeks, nuts, yogurt, and the common bean in the future!
This weekend, I took a dive into my cumin recipe of choice. I had seen it in the Real Simple February, and knew it would accomplish several things: the need for cumin, a new cuisine, some lamb (something I’d been …
As we roll into March, and into Spring, we wanted to tackle an ingredient that may be broader than we’ve chosen in January (leeks) and February (cumin) but that we believe still belongs together in a category. Don’t worry, this …
I searched far and wide for a kabob recipe that sounded more delicious than the one we made for Cucina Fresca last year, but in the end nothing sounded more delicious than our own special blend of spices. So for …
For January, the month of leeks, we wanted to make at least one traditional leek recipe. The first thing that came to mind was, of course, potato leek soup. But which recipe to make? My mother solved the problem by …
We can’t help ourselves. We just love cumin, and we couldn’t wait any longer to dedicate a whole month to the pursuit of new cumin knowledge. And so we’ve chosen cumin as our ingredient for February. Let’s get one thing …
For my [Ingredient], my Soul: Leeks recipe, I decided on this one from Jamie Oliver. It seemed easy, didn’t include many ingredients, or dishes, or time, or…you get the idea. Here are my beautiful leeks. They are soaking, because they …
This month’s ingredient is leeks! To fully explore leeks, we decided to accept Nikki‘s suggestion that we make a leek quiche, and to make it more fun, we both made this recipe from our separate East and West coast kitchens. …
It figures that we would kick off this new project with leeks. They are not so different from the ingredients in our chosen monikers, as leeks are in the same family as both garlic and onion. January’s a cold month, …
Happy New Year everyone! For 2012, we’ve been thinking about a new project for Garlic, My Soul. Now that we’re finally getting the hang of this bi-coastal thing, we realize that we have different ingredients available to us based on …
