Semiserious Chefs

This super easy and very cheap salad can be served warm or cold. The recipe below makes for a mildly hot dressing. You can of-course add more chili as desired. The same goes for the sesame oil. I tend to only like a little bit in my dishes, but feel free to add more to […]

Citrus Junos, known as Yuzu (ユズ) in Japanese, and yuju (유자) in Korean, is the name of a particular type of rather small, very seedy, citrus fruit. Although it is commonly used fresh, and to make ponzu in particular, you will very often find it in a fermented form combined with chilis and salt, as […]

Manakish, pronounced manakeesh, is a very popular flat bread from the Middle East. It is most commonly topped with a za’atar blend, but can also be found topped with tomatoes, local cheeses, ground seasoned lamb, chilies, or greens. It can be sliced or served whole, and eaten flat or folded. Manakish is common for both […]

A few years ago, when we were just starting this food adventure, I created an olive tapenade recipe. It wasn’t a bad recipe, though I certainly needed to update the photos! It was just very simple. This week I realized how much I have grown in the culinary field when I decided to clear out […]

I call this AWESOME Blend for the very simple reason that it’s shorter than ‘Awesome on Everything Blend,’ which is exactly what it is! Our local spice shop in Anchorage, Summit Spice and Tea, used to have a green herb blend, called Chena, that I used for a multitude of different applications. When they stopped […]

Making fresh horseradish is very simple. As a person who doesn’t like mayo I prefer to make mine not creamy. The recipe below is as basic as it comes, but you will be surprised at the amount of heat and even sweetness fresh grated horseradish root carries on it’s own. The vinegar is a must […]

Somehow I think it is my life’s mission to discover the best way to serve cranberries. It’s like it calls me. I mean, who cares about cranberries, right? Perhaps that’s why I feel so impelled. Whatever the reason, I came pretty close last year with the Mulled Port Cranberry Sauce, but this year I stumbled […]

Gremolata is a very easy to make condiment that compliments meats, pasta, and vegetables incredibly well. It is perhaps most know for it’s use with ossobuco. Although made simply of parsley, garlic, and lemon, these three ingredients certainly add up to more than the sum of their parts. Upon first tasting you may find it […]

This sauce is a SUPER EASY staple to have in your repertoire. Perhaps you’ll measure for the first few times you make it, but soon enough you will find that you can easily toss together a rough proportion, or even experiment with some of your other favorite flavors, (try adding ginger or substituting ponzu!) for […]

As Ćwikła in Poland or tsvikli (цвіклі) in Ukraine this relish, a combination of beets and horseradish, is very commonly used as a spread on sliced bread, and is in-fact so popular that it is sometimes referred to as Ukrainian Kimchi. In Russian, hron (Хрoн) means simply horseradish, but also usually refers to this relish with both […]