Extra Schmaltz!

Not a quick weeknight meal, but well worth it in the end! If you've ever ordered pho ga at a restaurant, you've probably found it to be an under-flavored, pale shadow of the classic pho bo (beef). Instead, try making it at home, where you can crank up the flavor and have as much garnish as you want! This is especially good if you are cooking for a crowd. There's a lot of prep, but it's worth it in the end. I recommend using a pressure cooker to speed up the process. Broth : 1 whole chicken (optional: add extra chicken backs, feet, or necks for more flavor) 2 2-3" cinnamon sticks (ideally Vietnamese cassia type) 6 pieces star anise 2-3 onions (save 1/2 for the garnish) 4" piece of ginger 6 cloves garlic 2 Tbsp. whole black peppercorns 6 whole cloves, separated and slightly crushed 4 Tbsp. fish sauce, divided 2 Tbsp. brown sugar ground black pepper salt Slice the onion into halves and do the same to the ginger root. Place them in the bottom of your stockpot, wit...

I baked this at the same time as a loaf of zucchini bread because they both used buttermilk and because if you're heating up the kitchen to bake one thing you may as well go on a baking spree. Buttermilk pie is a traditional Southern dish, basically a custard pie, and it's ideal for when the larder is bare. Since it's the height of summer I decided to add in some seasonal fruit, but this is a perfectly respectable pie without the berries. This pie is literally simple as pie, and there's no fiddly top crust to deal with. I got the basic recipe from the NPR website . Preheat oven to 350 1 unbaked pie shell 4 eggs 1 c. sugar 1/2 c. melted butter 1 1/2 c. buttermilk 1 tsp. vanilla extract lemon zest (my addition) Blend together the ingredients, but not so much that they start to foam. Pour the mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Cover the crust with foil so it doesn't burn. Bake for 1 hour, or until a knife comes out clean. The pie will puff up a bit, and the surface s...

How can we have so many recipes, and yet not have a family zucchini bread recipe? Part of the reason may be that it's a fairly modern phenomenon--I can't find a recipe for it in any of our older cookbooks. Another possibility is that the version in The Melting Pot is made entirely with whole wheat flour and honey instead of sugar--yuck! Another reason is that Aunt Etties recipe was ~90% nuts, which is also yuck in my book. Whatever the reason we don't have one yet, here's a good recipe that is unapologetically full of refined carbohydrates: Preheat oven to 350 1 1/2 c. flour ~2-3 c. grated zucchini (one 12" zuke) 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. garam masala 2 eggs 3/4 c. sugar 1/2 c. buttermilk 1/4 c. oil 1 tsp. vanilla Sprinkle the zucchini with the salt and place it in a colander in the sink. Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend the wet ingredients together in a quart measuring cup. Squeeze the z...