Nina Kaufelt Nina Kaufelt

Coeur a la Crème

For more than thirty years I have avoided single-purpose tools in the kitchen. When I’ve made the mistake of buying one, I try to face the error quickly, and give it away. I had a special-purpose, Jim Leahy’s-famous-bread pot, for example, and I am not a bread baker. It was a pretty red, though.

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Lemon Posset

It was a bitterly cold January day, below 10 degrees F, when I spotted a pretty ivory lemon pudding on my phone. I rarely look at recipes on social media, but I was alone in a Massachusetts inn, lounging indulgently. The moment saw this modest and perfect dessert, I knew I was destined to eat it with pleasure for the rest of my days.

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Nina Kaufelt Nina Kaufelt

Kefir Redux

Kefir is a powerful probiotic-rich cultured dairy drink that’s easy to make at home, although it’s a bit of a science project at first. A mix of beneficial bacteria and yeasts, it originally comes from the Caucasus Mountains, where people have been making and drinking kefir for centuries.

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Chicken Soup from Roast Chicken

Chicken soup from roast chicken is richer, more robust, even slightly more bitter (from the twice-cooked herbs, spices, and potatoes), and more buttery — see how the chandelier shines back in the photo — than soup made with a fresh raw chicken.

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Nina Kaufelt Nina Kaufelt

Thoughts on Condiments: Sweet, Savory, and More Real than Not

Imagine my delight when a package full of ketchup came to our door, unannounced. The people at Sir Kensington’s, the not-too-sweet ketchup people, read the meatloaf recipe in The Real Food Cookbook and were touched, so they sent me a thank you note.

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Flourless Chocolate Cake for a Ghoulish Birthday

This chocolate treat became a family tradition on the very first taste. Another gift from Michele Pulaski, it is intense, molten in the middle, and a touch sweeter than my usual fare, but I wouldn’t change anything, partly because the sugar does things to the texture that one doesn’t want to spoil.

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Listen to Nina on WNYC’s Last Chance Foods

Says Last Chance Foods, “It’s the high season for cool, slushy drinks. Nina Planck, author of The Real Food series, says her fermented watermelon basil cooler illustrates one of her key principles: when she processes food, she does it in ways that enhance nutrition, flavor, and shelf life.”

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Nina Kaufelt Nina Kaufelt

The Real Food Cookbook

It’s an idiosyncratic collection. The recipes here are those of a farmers’ daughter, former vegetarian, and home cook. They reflect the rhythms of my life with a cheesemonger husband and three small children. The ingredients are timeless, not trendy; the methods classic rather than rule-breaking. Above all, these are the dishes I love, made with real food.

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Roasted Carrots

Even supermarket carrots in the dead of winter are good this way.

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Thai Chicken Curry

This is a lovely dish, not my invention, with bottled condiments containing the not-so-secret Thai flavors, such as lemongrass and fermented fish, which make all the difference.

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Shaved Winter Salad

Your task: to go to the market in deepest February and find distinctive, crunchy things like watermelon radish, fennel, and apples, and to make them look and taste lovely.

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Easy Pizza Crust

It really is easy. I’ve never had much luck with whole wheat baking, so this marks another instance of my dictum: a little white flour now and then won’t hurt you.

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Kombucha

Kombucha is a nonalcoholic fermented tea originally from Northeast China or Manchuria. From there it spread to Russia and beyond. I used to drink it purely for health, not pleasure; it suits my digestion and cures my gloom.

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Coconut Chicken Soup

Because it’s stable at high temperatures, coconut oil is excellent for cooking and baking. The coconut and chicken broth make this luscious soup the ultimate cold-and- flu therapy.

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Our Way with Cheeses

We are not very organized about cheese. We eat the world’s ten greatest and most famous cheeses more often than the ten latest award-winning small-batch cheeses (as good as they are), and we seldom plan a cheese board.

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