This salad looks like a picture of Spring.  It’s as tasty as it is beautiful to look at.  And healthy too!  It gives you half your daily servings of fruits and vegetables, the tomato being the fruit.  It’s also low in both calories and fat.…

This Lamb Ragu is a colorful and flavorful introduction to Fall. Chef Micheal Mina’s recipe for Lamb Ragu is a keeper. It starts with a bouquet garni of fennel and cumin seeds, Aleppo pepper, and whole black peppercorns.  This gives the dish a hint of…

“Dinner in French”, Melissa Clark’s latest Cookbook is filled with great, easy recipes. Confession time. For some reason, I associate French food with cooler temperatures. Give me Oxtail Bourguignon in October, my first bowl of Onion Soup at first frost.  But I’ve been raring to…

I don’t remember a single recipe on Chewing The Fat that’s faster to make than this: 10 minutes. That’s all it takes to enjoy two of the greatest gifts of summer. Sweet corn, peaking now and Cherry Tomatoes overwhelming our garden right now.  We wait…

Cooking for One Yields Some Great New Discoveries for Two. Or More. I don’t know about you, but in our house, there are some forbidden ingredients. Olives of any kind. Cabbage when used outside of Cole Slaw. Pickles. Blue Cheese. Cauliflower. And most especially Kimchi,…

Melissa Clark’s latest book “Dinner in French” (Clarkson Potter 2020) is a winner. The latest in a long line of books created by The New York Times’ Melissa Clark, “Dinner in French” is surprisingly weeknight-friendly. Veteran Francophile Clark, who spent her childhood summers in France,…

The Sheet Pan: A great way to cook because it can be used to roast, bake or broil. For Christmas, one of Andrew’s gifts to me was Molly Gilbert’s book (Workman Publishing 2014). The asterisk is because the book also puts Breakfasts, Desserts, and Snacks…

We were serving lunch outdoors this weekend. I was looking for something simple to do. We’d planned a weekend of several different dishes in the “chicken or fish” categories. Cruising through August’s Bon Appetit, I saw a stunning salad.  Beautiful cherry tomatoes, thin slices of…

Melissa Clark has to be one of the most prolific food writers and cooks in all of history. There’s her constant presence in the Food Section of The New York Times, where week after she creates some of our most memorable meals.  Just type Melissa…

In the pantheon of amazingly quick and easy things to cook, there is the salmon filet.  This lovely rosy fish cooks in all of 6 minutes depending on how pink you like it.  And 6 ounces is a gracious serving.  We can have the discussion…

Yotan Ottolenghi is arguably one of the most influential chefs in the world.  His latest cookbook “Ottolenghi Simple” (Ten Speed Press 2108) was just released in this country last week. Chef Ottolenghi has been a frequent presence on these pages and links to his other…

If you follow me on Instagram (@montemathews) you know that I have been in Scandinavia all last week.  I boarded Viking Star in Germany and sailed to Denmark and Norway. As soon as I can cook them, I’ll be sharing some wonderful discoveries on my…

What I love about this recipe, which is from Bon Appetit Magazine, is that it’s the perfect escape from winter.  The dish looks like it was made in high summer with its cherry tomatoes, pickled red onion and fistful of parsley leaves.  Then there’s the…

In the Northeast, it has been below the freezing mark since Christmas Day. Literally dozens of records have been broken on an almost daily basis. Any thought of Spring is about as far away as April.   So I was taken aback when I saw a…