Semiserious Chefs

In the Norse cooking of Sweden, Norway, and Finland, potatoes usually accompany a main dish that may have a sauce and fresh herbs already included, so often they just serve the potatoes boiled and skinned to be added to the main plate and mashed with either butter or the main sauce. Here we have roasted […]

We’ve all met him. That guy at the end of the bar who just gets wiser and wiser with each drink, until he is convinced that everyone else is convinced he has a PHD. Recipes are a funny thing. They can be very sophisticated, very simple, very reminiscent, even very strange. We serve certain foods […]

The name here pretty much says it all, Creamy. Peppercorns. Sauce. When you get your first taste of this speckled white masterpiece you will, unmistakably, have a mouth full of peppercorns. But not just black pepper. For this sauce a large percentage of pink peppercorns have been chosen. This is not by mistake. Black, white, […]

This did not start as a vegan recipe. Well it wasn’t intended to be a vegan recipe. … at least at the start. I was simply trying to make a fried cake of some sort using shredded taro, and I happened to have carrots and some unfortunately frozen radishes on hand. I don’t know if […]

Most everyone has heard of taro chips. Even if you’ve never cooked with taro and just know them from those bags of multi colored chips, the idea is pretty basic; super thin slices of taro root deep fried, just like a potato chip. Since this idea is nothing new, I wanted to come up with […]

Apparently there is no question about the fact that Tiger Nut Sweets are pretty much as ancient as it comes. I just wish I could find a picture of this Egyptian clay or broke pot on which the possibly 6,000 year old recipe was found. The name has me a little dumbfounded, though. Tiger Nut […]

This recipe hails from the Amazonian edges of Peru where hammocks and fires reign supreme. It would be no surprise then to discover a very clever way to turn very ripe plantains into a warming and energizing beverage. Okay, so it isn’t the same kind of energizing as coffee, but with plenty of carbohydrates it […]

First, let’s distinguish the difference between a dolsot, a stone pot with a stone or wooden lid, and a ddukbaegi (sometimes written ttukbaegi), a ceramic pot that typically comes with no lid, although they are available. Besides the obvious appearance, the price tag is one of the first major differences. Here in Anchorage, and it […]

I have been very excited to finally have an excuse to buy the beautiful king oyster mushrooms that are currently in season. Raw, these large mushrooms have a pleasant aroma similar to a good sourdough, but when simmered they bring incredible umami flavor to a dish. The other main ingredient, dried bean curd sticks, take […]

This recipe was created after my recent discovery of dried bean curds. There are a lot of recipes floating around for simple salads and soups using these tofu skins, but I so much enjoy kkakdugi (Quick Korean Radish Kinchi) that I thought for sure you could use bean curd sticks for a similar snack. After […]