What I Want to Cook

Well, here I am back in my own kitchen, after three long trips in around 6 weeks. I've eaten fabulous meals in Provence and Paris; surprising meals at ethnic restaurants in Provo, Utah; and delightful and typical Israeli foods. I'm definitely thinking of learning some new dishes from the various cuisines that I've tried on my travels. In fact, on Wednesday I already made Ottolenghi's Israeli-style lamb meatballs -- which I've blogged about before. But I also crave food from other cuisines that I haven't had lately or foods I tried on other trips.

Here are some recipes that I've found around the web and in my cookbooks that I hope to make some time in the not-too-distant future:

New York Times Key Lime Pie. For some reason my Facebook page has been directing me to this recipe. It reminds me of trips to Florida. In fact, this recipe is very old-style: made with raw egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice in a graham-cracker crust. So it's different than the pie I made when I came back from Florida. Question: do I have the nerve to use raw eggs?

Sunset Asian Soups. I have had the famous Pho chicken-noodle soup in Asian restaurants various times, as well as many other Asian soups such as Chinese hot-sour soup, Vietnamese beef Pho, and others. This Sunset magazine article points me to several very simple ways to prepare these. The portion size of such soups at restaurants is always totally overwhelming to me: there are so many noodles that I can never finish. So I'd like to put these soups in my repertoire. Alas! hot summer weather is on the way, and this might wait until another season. Again, my Facebook feed made me think of these.

A Banh Mi sandwich. My first one ever was at a Vietnamese diner in Provo, though I meant to try it long ago. The combination of flavors -- especially pickles & cilantro -- was really appealing. In an article titled "Expert tips for building the perfect Banh Mi sandwich" I found a list of Banh Mi components instead of a single recipe. Clearly, the pickles are something you should make at home, yourself. Other ingredients aren't that hard to find: roast meat, fresh vegetables, cilantro, chiles, Maggi seasoning sauce, mayo, and good bread. I've read elsewhere that Vietnamese bread was influenced by the French occupation (which ended over 50 years ago). The tips in the article are from a book titled The Banh Mi Handbook, which sounds so good that I ordered it from amazon.com.

Rhubarb! This photo is from my own blog a few years ago. I think I have all the rhubarb recipes I need, which are the ones I included in that post. I really want to cook some rhubarb-strawberry sauce like I did in this photo. I also want to make some rhubarb crumble. 

Beebop-a-reebop Rhubarb Pie! 

Julia Child. I noticed on the shelves of Janet's kitchen in Kiryat Ono (photo at left) very new copies of both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her old copies were worn out, she said, so her daughter bought her new ones. However, each time she cooks from them, she needs to consult her notes from the worn-out volumes.

I realize this: I need to try some new Julia Child recipes!

Finally: my new Moroccan cookbook! I bought it in Paris, but I have been traveling almost nonstop since that trip. Now I have time to try some recipes from this book. We had a great Moroccan dinner at a restaurant in Avignon, and I'd love to experiment with their delicious spice blends.

Maybe it's also time to try some recipes from my other Moroccan and Mediterranean cookbooks. I've never made as many recipes from these books as I would like to try.