Custard is one of those simple pleasures that belies its sophistication. Made of milk or cream gently thickened with egg yolks and sweetened, it is both a technique and a dessert. The basic custard can be baked in a water bath as crème brûlée, stirred on the stove for pastry cream or ice cream base, […]
Eggplant, with its glossy purple skin and spongy flesh, has traveled a long way from its origins in India and Southeast Asia. The earliest written mention appears in the ancient Chinese agricultural treatise Qimin Yaoshu from the sixth century. Eggplants were cultivated in India, China and Burma long before they reached the Mediterranean. Arab traders […]
Pineapples are like the sun captured in a fruit — spiky on the outside, juicy and sweet inside, with a perfume that transports you to tropical shores. They originate in the lowlands of South America; indigenous peoples in what is now Paraguay and southern Brazil domesticated the plant and spread it throughout the continent and […]