Clay's Kitchen
© Copyright 1995-2023, Clay Irving <clay@panix.com>, Manhattan Beach, CA USA
No advertising, no frills — Just my collection of recipes...
What's New — New recipes
1 - Salsa
Over 650 salsa recipes from the ordinary
Salsa Fresca to the
Pomegrante and Orange Salsa. You're guaranteed to find something to tingle your tastebuds in the section. As far as I can tell, this is the largest salsa collection found on the net!
2 - Thai
More than 500 Thai recipes! Thai cuisine provides a cacaphony of taste sensations. Some of my favorites are listed in this section, including
Yam Neua, a Thai beef salad, and
Khao Pad Grapow, which is chicken and fresh Thai basil. Be sure to visit the
Thai Food Glossary!
13 - Fish
Hold on — You're going to see some fantastic fish recipes here including some of my favorites like
Mahi Mahi in "Crazy Water",
Tacos de Pescado (Fish Tacos), and a
Spicy Tuna Salad I found at the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok!
14 - Sausage
What could be better than home-made sausage? In this section you will find sausage recipes from around the world. There are more than 100 recipes for fresh sausages, cured sausages, and smoked sausages.
15 - Soup
I created this section so I wouldn't lose one of my favorite soup recipes,
Bramborová Polévka, a fantastic Czech potato soup. There are now about 50 soup recipes from around the world including
Tom Yum Kung from Thailand,
Brodetto di Rimini from Italy,
Phở from Vietnam, and
Hot and Sour soups from China!
16 - Barbeque
Start the grill!
Wikpedia says it best — Barbecue, (also spelled barbeque, or abbreviated BBQ) is a method of cooking meat with the heat and hot gasses of a fire, the application of a vinegar-based sauce to meat, the end-result of cooking by this method, or a party that includes such food. Barbecue is usually cooked in an outdoor environment heated by the smoke of wood, or charcoal. This section will also include barbeque sauces — For rubs, see the
Spices, Seasonings and Rubs section.
17 - Steak
How many different ways can you cook a steak? Fire up the grill, toss the steak on, wait a few minutes, flip it over, wait a few more minutes. Get the plate, knife and fork. Don't forget the glass of red wine!
18 - Stews
When the weather turns chilly, turn to the kitchen and make a hearty stew!
25 - Chicken
Is this an answer to the age old question? As fate would have, the chicken section comes after the egg section...
26 - Slow Cooker
Slow cooking with a slow cooker or Crock Pot® is convenient and produces really good meals — Especially slow cooked pot roasts and stews.
27 - Japanese
It is difficult deciding which Asian cuisine is my favorite, but Japanese is near the top of the list!
28 - Sauces and Stocks
Mmmm... Fresh sauces! A sauce is liquid or sometimes semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not consumed by themselves — they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. For barbeque sauces, see the
Barbeque section, and for hot sauces, see the
Capsicums section.
29 - Cephalopods
Cephalopod, from Greek words meaning "head foot", are mollusks related to
bivalves (scallops, oysters, clams) and
gastropods (snails and slugs). The most familiar cephalopods include squid and octopus.
30 - Fungus and Algae
Mushrooms and Seaweed — A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. Seaweeds are any of a large number of marine plants and protists in the category of benthic algae — They are macroscopic and multicellular, in contrast with most other algae. Both are good to eat!
31 - Brassicas and Leaf Vegetables
Brassicas and leaf vegetables are very nuturious and contain a wealth of vitamins and minerals. Brassicas and leaf vegetables include spinach, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, Swiss chard, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.
32 - Pods and Seeds
High in food value and fine in flavor, peas and beans come as near to being perfect vegetables as is possible. Whether fresh or dried, they provide more energy and protein than either root or green vegetables. Pods and seeds includes beans, peas, corn, and okra.
33 - Stalks and Shoots
There may be more nuturious vegetables than the stalks and shoots we eat, but few are as delicious. They come from many plant families — Aparagus, for example, is a lily, artichokes are thistles, and various chards are from the beet family. There are also bamboo shoots, celery, and fennel!
34 - Roots
Carrots are undoubtedly the most useful of all roots, but we also eat other roots, including beets, turnips, kohlrabi, rutabaga and parsnips. Root vegetables are high in mineral content and low in calories.
35 - Capsicums
The fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. They are commonly called chili pepper, capsicum, red or green pepper, or sweet pepper in Britain, and typically just capsicum in Australia and Indian English. The large mild form is called bell pepper in the US. They are called paprika in some other countries (although paprika can also refer to the powdered spice made from various capsicum fruit). The original Mexican term, chilli (now chile in Spanish) came from Nahuatl word chilli or xilli, referring to a huge Capsicum variety cultivated at least since 3000 BC. This section does not include salsa recipes.
36 - Cucurbitaceae
Cucurbitaceae is a plant family commonly known as gourds or cucurbits and includes fruits — Most people refer to them as "vegetables" — like cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, luffas, melons, watermelons, and zucchini.
37 - Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings
It isn't surprising that pasta, noodles, and dumplings are extremely popular. They're nutrious and highly versatile and are found in a wide variety of cuisines. Basic ingredients for them — Flour and eggs — are inexpensive and easy to store.
38 - Grains
Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits are examples of grain products. Grains are divided into 2 subgroups, whole grains and refined grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel — the bran, germ, and endosperm. Refined grains have been milled, a process that removes the bran and germ. This is done to give grains a finer texture and improve their shelf life, but it also removes dietary fiber, iron, and many B vitamins.
39 - Spices, Seasonings and Rubs
Gotta add some flavor to your food! A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavoring, and sometimes as a preservative by killing or preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. Seasoning is the process of adding or improving flavor of food. Seasonings include herbs, spices, and all other condiments. A spice rub is any mixture of ground spices that is made for the purpose of being rubbed on raw food before the food is cooked.
40 - Offal
Offal is the entrails/internal organs, and blood of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of organs, but includes most internal organs other than muscles or bones. The term literally means
off fall, or the pieces which fall from a carcass when it is butchered. This section is going to include goodies like bones, liver, kidneys, heart, brain, ears, chitterlings (pig's large intestine), trotters (feet of pigs cooked as food) or feet, gizzard, head, combs, tails, lungs, sweetbreads (thymus glands), tripe (stomache), tongue, and blood!
43 - Bivalve Mollusks
Bivalves are mollusks belonging to the class
Bivalvia. They have hinged shells made of two halves, or
valves. They obtain their food by "filter feeding" — Water is taken in through a siphon and passed over the gills, which are specially adapted to filter out food (microscopic algae and other small organic particles). The filtered water is then expelled via another siphon. A large clam can filter about a gallon of water in one hour. The bivalve family has about 30,000 species, including geoduck, scallops, clams, oysters and mussels.
44 - Gastropod Mollusks
Gastrods, more commonly known as snails, also includes abalone, conches, periwinkles, and numerous other sea snails. Gastropods are second only to insects in its number of species! There's just no end to the things we will eat.
45 - Tomatoes
Tomatoes are closely related to chiles, potatoes, and eggplants! Historically, tomatoes were pretty nasty things and many people considered them poisonous because they are a member of the nightshade family of plants. In the late 1800's tomatoes were bred to be the commercial varieties we have today. See
more information about tomatoes.
46 - Cajun and Creole
Cajun and Creole cuisine is distinctive Louisiana cooking. The Creoles are people born in south Louisiana of parents who immigrated from Europe—most particularly France, Spain, and Portugal (thus the French Quarter in New Orleans). Cajuns are descendents of the French-speaking Acadians who were banished from Nova Scotia in the early 1700s. They settled in southwest Louisiana and lived in isolation until modern times. Both styles of cooking are wonderful!
47 - Czech
Recipes from the Czech Republic.
48 - Leporids
Leporids are the approximately 50 species of rabbits and hares. Rabbits sold in the United States for food are not only North American cottontails, but are commonly crosses between New Zealand and Belgian varieties, imported Chinese rabbits, or Scottish hares. The meat is fine grained and mild flavored. Like other lean meat, poultry, and fish, rabbit meat is a good source of high quality protein.
49 - Pigs and Boars
In folklore terms, eating the meat of the pig is said to contribute to lack of morality and shame, plus greed for wealth, laziness, indulgence, dirtiness and gluttony -- But they sure are tasty!
50 - Bovines
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle (cows). There are sections for
steak,
stew, and
burgers, so I'll include roast beef, veal, and other beef dishes not classified by other sections.
51 - Sheep
Sheep meat and milk were one of the earliest staple proteins consumed by human civilization after the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Sheep meat prepared for food is known as either mutton or lamb. Sheep meat is called lamb when from younger animals (less than one year old) and mutton when from older ones (more than two years old).
52 - Galliformes
Galliformes are an order of birds containing turkeys, grouse, chickens, quails, and pheasants. More than 250 living species are found worldwide. There is a separate section for
chicken recipes — This section includes fowl other than chicken.
53 - Cacti
Who thought of eating a cactus? The nopal (prickly pear) cactus has fleshy oval leaves which are edible. Some cacti bear edible fruit, such as the prickly pear and Hylocereus, which produces Dragon fruit or Pitaya.
54 - Cranberries
Usually cranberries as fruit are served as a compote or jelly, often known generically as cranberry sauce. Cranberry juice is another major use of cranberries; it is usually either sweetened to reduce its natural severe tartness and make "cranberry juice cocktail" or blended with other fruit juices.
55 - Korean
Korean recipes.
56 - Duck
Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. Duck, delicious duck...
57 - Spanish
Umm! Tapas!
58 - Cervidae
Deer (singular and plural) are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. They include for example Moose, red Deer, Reindeer, Roe and Chital. Deer meat is called venison. Deer organ meat is called humble — As in "humble pie".
59 - Chinese
No delivery!
60 - Sous Vide
Sous-vide (French for "
under vacuum") is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time — 72 hours is not unusual — at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 140°F. The intention is to cook the item evenly, not overcook the outside while still keeping the inside at the same 'doneness' and to keep the food juicier.
61 - Smoothies
A smoothie (alternatively spelled smoothy) is a blended and sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit (fruit smoothie) and in special cases can contain chocolate or peanut butter. In addition to fruit, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruit, honey or contain syrup and ice ingredients. They have a milkshake-like consistency that is thicker than slush drinks. They can also contain milk, yogurt or ice cream.
62 - Appetizers
An hors d'oeuvre, appetizer, or starter is a small dish served before a meal.