Today’s modern pizza of tomato sauce and cheese can be traced back to an Italian pizzario, Raffaele Esposito of Naples, owner of a tavern called Pizzeria di Pietro e Basta Cosi. In 1889, he created a pizza for the visiting Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. He used tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese to represent the Italian flag’s colors of red, green, and white. The queen asked Raffaele what the dish was called and the smart chef replied, “The Margherita, after you, my Queen.” This recipe calls for two types of mozzarella: One is sold shredded in plastic pouches, available in any supermarket; the other is fresh, a soft, white ball that melts into milky pillows. I usually buy an 8-ounce (225g) ball called fior de latte, or “flowers of milk.” Fresh mozzarella has a shelf life of about two weeks.
From Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas by Chef Craig Priebe with Dianne Jacob

A fiery, sweet and complex chutney that will make you stand up and take notice. Great with yogurt, on eggplant or pork dishes. Not for the faint of heart!

In my opinion the height of Asian soups can be found in a fragrant bowl of curry laksa. The base of the soup is a Laksa Paste, time consuming to make, but well worth it - make extra and freeze it for up to 6 months, it is great to have on hand and will allow you to throw together a fabulous meal at the last minute. 

Making Curry Laksa is two part journey - the first part of the journey is acquiring the ingredients for making the paste, I have included some links for ordering the harder to find ingredients online. The second part of the journey is putting together the soup itself. Below I have listed the ingredients and instructions for making the paste followed by the ingredients and instructions for the soup.

Cooked over charcoal and smoldering oak in our Weber grill, This rich and smoky paella harkens back to the flavors of traditional paellas, cooked outside over open fires.

There are as many recipes for Sofrito as there are Spanish and Latin American cooks, this recipe is a "New World" rendition of a sauce that is arguably the essence and foundation of Spanish cooking. I use Videla onions which add a bit of sweetness to the sauce, and New Mexican chile powder (I use Chimayo style chile powder) to add an earthy note and a touch more spice. Latin American sofritos often include annato, cilantro and tomatios, but in this case I am leaning more toward the Spanish classic, to be used in Paellas and other traditional Spanish Dishes.

This is the classic Japanese sauce using yuzu juice. If you can’t find yuzu, lime juice is an acceptable substitute. Most Asian markets now stock bottled yuzu juice.

Ponzu is great on grilled meats, but you can use it to create a salad dressing with an Asian flair.

Photo By: Robyn Lee

Pad Thai is often considered a signature dish of Thai cuisine. There are several regional variations, and many different recipes. This recipe tries to bring together the most common themes, spices and ingredients to create a familiar and authentic variation on this classic dish.

This recipe was inspired by a dish we were served at Restaraunt II in Brisbane, Australia. The two recipes have some things in common, with a couple of significant changes in ingredients, the final recipe diverges quite a bit in the final product. The most important change was in the fruit. The original recipe was made with Tenthill figs, but instead I used Feijoa which is a remarkable fruit from Brazil. I was lucky enough to get to try one in the market (Whole Foods) and was suprised at the sweet floral perfume the fruit produced. The thick, white, custardlike flesh and the translucent central pulp enclosing the seeds are sweet and slightly acidic, suggesting a combination of pineapple and guava or pineapple and strawberry, with overtones of winter green or spearmint. The fruit has very small, oblong seeds that are hardly noticeable when the fruit is eaten. We ate the fruit whole, including the skin, which is slightly bitter compared to the inside, and has a distinct floral character which took this dish in a quite different direction than the original recipe that inspired it.

This brilliant green oil is rich with a deep grassy flavor - and as beautiful on the plate as it is to taste. I used a mild flavored extra virgin oil for the recipe, as the parsley will far overpower any complexity offered by the oil. Grapeseed oil might also be a nice selection for this oil.