Like most curries this recipe keeps well, and actually improves with time. If you have leftovers simply reheat the next day, re-check seasoning, adding more salt if needed and serve on freshly steamed rice. I like to use ghee in curries for the authentic flavour it gives. It is lactose-free, but if you avoid dairy altogether simply use a neutral vegetable oil like rice bran oil. I like to use whole cumin seeds, but by all means use ground cumin if that’s what you have. Make sure you use regular brown onions in this recipe, red onions have a higher sugar content and tend to burn too easily in curries like this, where long, slow cooking is required

Cioppino is a simple, flavorful seafood stew that comes together quickly without much fuss. This recipe calls for clams, mussels, shrimp, and halibut–all common ingredients in traditional cioppino. Other classic ingredients include crab, scallops, and cod. Choose your favorites for a delicious, light, and easy dinner.

Note: Littleneck clams have hard, thick shells that take longer to open than soft-shelled clams when cooked. Allow 8-10 minutes for these clams to open.

The recipe is easily doubled to serve four.

Yum, chicken piccata. This is what I call a Monday Supper. Monday Suppers, since they are on Mondays, need to be simple, fast, totally reliable and with as few ingredients as possible. Because they fall on MONDAYS, which are the opposite of slow, lazy Sundays, where spending the afternoon in the kitchen making something long and complicated is a wonderful thing. But 24 hours later, long and complicated is no longer wonderful. Short and simple, that’s what Monday dinners are all about. And so chicken piccata, that is why I love you, with your very few ingredients and your warm, lemony, buttery taste. You are the perfect Monday Supper. This is a very easy supper, but you must use nice chicken breasts — not too thick, not too thin, about 1/2 inch thick is perfect. Pound those babies if you have to, although I find if you use the chicken labeled “thin cut chicken breasts” you are usually okay. Fresh lemon juice – I buy two lemons for this dish. One for the juice, and one for those pretty lemon slices I use as garnish. Fresh chopped parsley. I love roasted aspargus with this dish, but it would also be great with sauteed spinach, or surrounded by rice with some of the pan sauce drizzled on top. Or both. Anyway…here is chicken piccata for a Monday Supper. It makes Mondays feel so much better…and then before you know it, it’s Tuesday, and the weekend is practically here!

An Etouffee is a “smothered” dish, usually associated with seafood, but also sausage or chicken. Whatever you decide to use, it’s smothered in a spicy gravy. I like to describe it as a Cajun or Creole Chow Mein. There are a few schools of thought as to whether it should include beer and/or a roux to thicken it. My version includes both … and I cheated and started with pre-cooked rotisserie chickens. Because they were so small, and nobody in my family likes dark meat, I got two. It just depends on how many people you’re feeding. The same goes for the rice to serve it with. I was feeding 3 tonight, but we have leftovers for another 2 or 3 portions.