Monkfish tagine with couscous

"Tagine" refers both to a Moroccan cooking vessel and to stews traditionally made in that vesel.  I cooked the fish dish in a nice tagine I bought online.

The stew is very complex.  It has a base of sauteed onions, carrots, and celery; a braising liquid of fish stock, wine, preserved lemons, and tomatoes; and a "chermoula" marinade for the fish consisting of lemon juice, olive oil, cilantro, garlic, red chiles, saffron, cumin, and sea salt.  Shredded mint leaves and freshly ground black pepper add to the complexity.

I made my own preserved lemons two months ago using this method.

Currant scones

Five-spice chicken and mustard greens

Gambas al ajillo

Corn cherry scones

Berkeley is my favorite city in the U.S.  My favorite thing about Berkeley is the Cheese Board Collective.  They put out a terrific book called The Cheese Board Collective Works with most of their recipes and much of their wisdom.

I used to eat these corn cherry scones once a week or so.  My home version was pretty darn close to the original, especially considering that I have little baking experience.  I'd rank these the second best scones I've eaten in LA, with Gjelina Take Away being tops.

Hunan food

This is an unusual dish, which follows a recipe in Fuchsia Dunlop's book on Hunan cuisine "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook."  Ms. Dunlop says that the dish was a favorite of Chairman Mao.  The recipe calls for stir-frying pieces of smoked trout, seasoning them with fermented black beans and chili oil, and then steaming them until tender.

This is sauteed snow pea leaves with garlic

This is a humble bowl of jasmine rice.

Vietnamese rice noodle salad with shrimp and fish balls

Sichuan dan dan noodles with tofu

Trenne with cauliflower-anchovy sauce