Shrimps alla Fra Diavolo is a foolproof pasta dish fancy enough for company but easy enough for a weeknight. Like all recipes in The Mystery Chef’s Never Fail Cook Book (1949), success is a function of the recipe, not the chef. Aside from basic knife skills and a little bit of patience, this delicious dish……
Ingredient: cayenne pepper
Fire and Ice Tomatoes (Tennessee, 1978, adapted)
This recipe has got personality top to bottom, from the provocative title to the spicy flavors to the sassy instructions. It’s a simple tomato salad with zesty spices (the fire) and cucumbers (the ice). The original recipe describes the spice mix as ‘sultry’, which seems entirely appropriate. It’s perfect for a zippy summer salad or even as a hamburger topping.
Fried Pork Belly Curry (Sri Lanka, adapted from The Complete Curry Cookbook, 1984)
One of the more interesting (and less intimidating) recipes in The Complete Curry Cookbook is the Fried Pork Curry. Pork may seem an unusual ingredient for a curry, given that many of the predominant religions in Asia forbid it. And while it is certainly off-limits for observant Hindus and Muslims, pork is quite common……
Cheddar Cheese Cabbage with Sausage
Cheddar Cheese Cabbage with Sausage is an, um, experimental weeknight meal loosely inspired by a Cabbage-Cheese Chowder, a mid-70s recipe from a previous post. The original Cabbage-Cheese Chowder recipe is a budget supper made from condensed cheddar cheese soup, cabbage, and diced baloney. I made it on a lark, wondering why anyone would think……