The Hungry Tiger

Chopped salad of mock summer

It certainly is the time of year when I get fed up with being remotely seasonal in my food purchases. Cabbage is a wonderful comfort and succor in late winter, but it is not enough. I want something BRIGHT and FRESH and MADE OF RAW VEGETABLES, goddammit. 

This chopped salad tastes just dandy with out-of-season vegetables. Of course those same vegetables are irresponsibly shipped from far away, and cost a premium, to boot. If you live somewhere where they are in season, or if you can wait until their season arrives, more power to you. But right now I can't bear it, and so here we are.

Another nice feature of this kind of salad is that you can make it in quantity and keep it in the refrigerator, having a scoop here and there over the next few days at a moment's notice. The vegetables will get lightly pickled in the interim, but if anything that just makes them taste better.

Berry cake in winter

When it's February, sometimes I want to pretend that it's summer, or at the very least that summer isn't a long, long way away. You can make this cake with beautiful fresh berries, when they're available, but—fortunately for me and my heaps of dirty snow—frozen berries will also work. You don't even have to thaw them first.

This is a dandy everyday cake, somehow both light and sturdy, and fluffy without being at all dry. It would hold up well in a picnic basket or packed lunch. (Please excuse me as I go on fantasizing about warm weather and sunshine.) It is also well suited to my favorite way of keeping cake, sitting on the counter under its glass cover, ready to slice with coffee or tea.

Blackberries, especially frozen ones, are a little heavy, so they'll end up closer to the bottom than to the top of the cake. Nothing wrong with that.

The original recipe makes a thin cake in which the fruit is just held together with the batter. I like that kind of cake, too, but the crumb and overall effect are both quite different when you change the proportions, as I've done here. See what you think.

Spicy happy healthy bok choi and broth

When it is cold and dark outside, my insides want something warm. Traditionally, this means thick soups and sturdy stews and substantial braises. But sometimes, I find the pendulum swings the other way. On those days, I have been making a concoction recommended to me by my genius friend C.

Eating this makes me both warm and full. But it also makes me feel quick and light and keen, rather than like a cozy fat hamster ready to hibernate (which is a fine sensation in its place, just not always what I want).

Like this avocado and quinoa bowl, it is a magic medicinal food that tastes good, feels good while you eat it, and makes you feel good for hours afterward. Steve and I are both besotted. It is in heavy rotation. It is also practically instant to make, which I appreciate on the particularly cold, dark nights when I get home from teaching at eight-thirty or nine.