Chef David Chang on Home Cooking

"I think I might’ve only cooked twice in my kitchen, and that might’ve been drunkenly."

Fishing for July 4

Grill fish effortlessly with the help of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Is It Done Yet?

How to tell if your steak is done? A primer on the cake tester meat thermometer.

From the Archives: Cool Off, Catania Style

Guest author Renée Kaplan contributed this post on how to fight back against the oppressive heat she calls "City in the Summer Syndrome" (which New York seems to be oddly immune from so far this year). Learning a lesson from the Sicilians, she writes about the ideal heatwave breakfast: thirst-quenching almond granita and a brioche for dunking.

Read More: City in the Summer Syndrome

From the Archives: In Praise of Persillade

Parsley and garlic are essential components in so many recipes. When the two are finely chopped together, they become persillade, a powerful combination that brings enormous flavor to a dish when added just at the very end of the cooking process.

Read more: Parsley Plus Garlic Equals Persillade

Modern Spice Virtual Dinner Party

25 bloggers from around the world cook dishes from Monica Bhide's Modern Spice cookbook. Check out entries from Dorie Greenspan and Julie Powell among others.

Five Meals, Ten Ingredients

Mark Bittman on five meals from ten ingredients commonly found in the pantry.

From the Archives: Mexican Roadside Chicken

I've never been to Mexico, so I haven't had the chance to pull over and taste a roadside "Sinaloa-style" chicken, but thanks to Rick Bayless, I've mastered grilling a beautifully blackened, spicy, smokey, and succulent bird in my backyard, well north of the border. This easy, delicious dish has become a summer standby.

Read More: Great Moments in Grilling: Mexican Roadside Chicken

In Season: Green Garlic

While I’ve been getting ready for season two of the square foot garden, I was able to harvest one last crop from last year that I managed to reap after a long, cold Winter.

During last fall, I decided to try growing green garlic, the quintessential gastronomic sign of early spring.

I broke up a head of garlic into cloves and planted them in one of the squares in the garden. Short green stalks shot up quickly, and then they stopped growing and remained like that for the winter. But, as it started warming up last month, they began growing again. Some of the outer leaves, which had withered and started turning brown, were now joined by new ones that were growing fast.

Passover Postscript: Pecan Crisps and a Mexican Chocolate-Pecan Cake

I ended up making two desserts this year for Passover. Although I've had a pretty good track record in the previous years, I like the challenge of trying something new, particularly on this flour-challenged holiday, and went with Gourmet's crunchy pecan cookies and Patricia Jinich's flourless chocolate-pecan cake.

The pecan cookies were very easy to make (and you really wouldn't suffer eating them any time of year). They contain no flour or matzo meal, just sugar, pecans, cinnamon, potato starch and egg whites. The nutty cookies, enlivened by the cinnamon, are thin, light, and crisp.

The recipe indicates that you can make them in advance and store them for up to a week. I made them the same day as the seder, but I would actually recommend baking them earlier. After a couple of days, the cookies lost any chewiness and became completely crunchy (which I preferred).

Jinich's cake is a surprising variation of the ubiquitous flourless chocolate cake: a Mexican take on the dessert topped with fresh berries, lime, and sugar.