Of all the kitchen inconveniences the cook has to live with, the one that generates the highest number of defensive strategies is no doubt the peeling and chopping of onions, and the associated teargas effect.

The reason why it makes you cry is explained in detail here, and if you like to read about enzymes and syn-propanethial-S-oxide, as do I, it is worth a read.

But to put it more simply, chopping onions causes the release of an irritant gas in the air, which, upon reaching your eyes, triggers a blinking and tearing reflex designed to wash it away. Yet another illustration, albeit an annoying one, of what a nifty machine the ol’ human body is.

Such an unusual tip could not go untested, so I soon tried it, using the butt end of a loaf of pain au levain and feeling both experimental and silly, but I am happy and amazed to report it worked perfectly.

Not all onions are created equal (the fresher the onion, the less you cry) and not all cooks are as sensitive, but this phenomenon explains the volume of tips and tricks floating about — some of them amusingly contradictory — designed to either hinder the release of said gas, or prevent it from reaching the eyes.

Some people rinse the onions in cold water after peeling, or chop them underwater. Some recommend keeping onions in the fridge, or plopping them in the freezer for a few minutes before chopping. Some chop from the stem end down, others from the root end up. Some recommend breathing through the nose, others only through the mouth, while others still hold a sip of water in their mouth, and try not to laugh and spit it out.

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Garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is commonly cultivated in French vegetable patches, and the season is just beginning. It is a sturdy, easy-to-grow leafy plant that comes back year after year, and belongs to the same botanical family as rhubarb and buckwheat, which is always fun to know.

I think of it as being halfway between a green and an herb: its flavor is notably tangy and sour, and sorrel recipes have you eat it raw or gently cooked, but in both cases it is best served in combination with other ingredients, so its pungency won’t overwhelm.

Well used, it is a delight that can really lift a dish, especially in conjunction with a sweet or fatty element.

But the operative phrase here is “well used” and I thought I would turn to you via twitter to hear about your favorite sorrel recipes using the fresh stuff, as I did last year for sage recipes.

Many thanks to all who chimed in; here’s the list of sorrel recipes I compiled, for your use and enjoyment.

(Note: in French, sorrel is oseille and it’s a classic slang word for money, in use since the late nineteenth century. Woody Allen’s 1969 movie Take The Money And Run was released in France under the title “Prends l’oseille et tire-toi.”)

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Those of you who subscribe to my newsletter already know that I worked for a little while last month at Bob’s Kitchen, a (very good) vegetarian lunch restaurant and juice bar in the 3rd arrondissement.

The team had been hired to provide the food during a film festival that was held at Beaubourg, so they needed a few more hands on deck, and I seized this opportunity to gain a little pro cooking experience, to catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how such a restaurant works, and (perk of perks) to have lunch there every day for the duration of my employ.

I was extraordinarily happy with the experience, which left me with a new callus on my right index finger from chopping so many vegetables, a bunch of new friends, and a newly acquired dexterity at tying a scarf turban-style on my hair so none would fall into the signature “veggie stew.”

Also: water kefir grains.

What’s water kefir?

I was already familiar with milk kefir, a fermented milk beverage that is greatly popular in Central and Eastern Europe, and which I adore.

However, I had yet to be introduced to water kefir (also known as tibi or tibicos, and kéfir de fruits in French), a water-based fermented drink that is lightly effervescent, sweet and sour, and particularly refreshing.

The team at Bob’s Kitchen made regular batches of it to offer on the drinks menu, and this gave me a chance to taste (and fall under the spell of) it.

The key ingredient in the making of water kefir is a small quantity of water kefir grains, sometimes called Japanese water crystals. These bouncy and translucent pebbles are home to a culture of yeasts and friendly bacteria that thrive and multiply in sugared water: these symbiotic microorganisms essentially “digest” the sugar in the water, producing alcohol*, lactic acid and carbon dioxide, which results in a probiotic (and therefore health-promoting), delicious drink.

Marc, the co-founder of Bob’s Kitchen, offered to give me some of the grains to make my own kefir, and I could not have accepted with more enthusiasm. I figure one cannot have too many microorganisms proliferating in one’s kitchen, as long as they’re the friendly kind.

How to make water kefir

I follow the general instructions my coworker Anna gave me, but in researching other “recipes” online, I’ve noticed the method, and the proportions of grains to water to sugar vary to some extent from one source to the next, so the overall process is fairly forgiving.

But the idea is always this: you combine the kefir grains with sugar, filtered water, an organic lemon (or some other citrus, for acidity), dried fruits (for sugar and flavor; these must also be organic), and possibly spices, and let this mixture ferment at room temperature for a day or two before filtering, bottling, and starting over with a new batch.

It really is very simple and low-commitment, and you can experiment with different kinds of citrus and dried fruits (though lemon and fig are traditional), as well as spices, or try adding fresh fruit and herbs to the mix, too. I hear fresh cherries or strawberries give the kefir a rosy hue.

We have been drinking a glass every day at breakfast, and occasionally another one later in the day, especially when I get home on my bike and the uphill ride has made me thirsty, but I’m seeing the distinct possibility of using it in cocktails.

Unlike a natural starter for bread, it’s not possible to create your own kefir grains from scratch at home, so you have to obtain them from someone else. Traditionally, you would get them from a friend or relative or neighbor who would give them to you for free, but nowadays you can order them online in exchange for a small fee to cover shipping and handling (which is only fair). You can also check your local classifieds, or ask around — at your local health food store, for instance — as someone may know someone who can provide them.

* The resulting drink is therefore very faintly alcoholic, usually less than 1% by volume. Many sources indicate that it is fine for children or pregnant women to drink in moderation, but naturally you should decide for yourself.

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In the very early days of this year, I was invited to lunch by a blogger-friend*. In preparation for the meal, she said two promising things: “I hope you like Chinese food” and “Come hungry.”

In her pretty apartment filled with lovely things to look at — postcards and drawings and old vinyls and slim books with soft covers — she treated me to a cornucopian spread of Chinese dishes, all of them family recipes from her mother’s kitchen.

Among these were her Cantonese-style marinated pork ribs (siu pai gwat), sticky and lightly sweet in their caramelized protein crust, and marvelously soft underneath, so soft you could pull the bones out of your mouth neatly, with nary a shred of meat left on them. Paired with a bowl of steamed white rice from her adorable rice cooker — a doll-sized version I have not been able to shoo out of my covetous mind — it was an absolute delight.

Sticky and lightly sweet in their caramelized protein crust, the ribs were marvelously soft underneath, so soft you could pull the bones out of your mouth neatly, with nary a shred of meat on them.

The wonderful thing about being a guest at a blogger’s table is that there is a good chance that whatever you’ve eaten and loved has been featured on their site, or will soon be, so you don’t even have to badger them for a recipe.

And indeed, this one had.

Although the recipe is very simple — it’s just a matter of marinating and then roasting the meat in the oven — it took me a few weeks to muster the ingredients needed for the marinade. But when Maxence and I decided to trek over to the 13th arrondissement (where the largest Paris Chinatown is) for dim sum one Saturday, a quick dip inside Paris Store turned up the two missing ingredients.

A week later, having purchased some pork ribs — travers de porc in French — from my butcher**, I set out to follow the recipe. I lowered the oven temperature a bit, and found that it would have been good to cover the dish for the first half of the baking (as I recommend in the recipe below) to avoid excessive coloring, but aside from those details it was a smooth ride.

I cooked some short-grain white rice and made a spicy cucumber salad with rice vinegar, sesame oil and garlic, and we sat down to a felicitous lunch.

The next day, I used the leftover rice and meat to make (what else?) fried rice, with radish leaves stirred in. I also kept the bones in the freezer for my next tonkotsu ramen, happy as ever to be getting three different dishes out of one hunk of meat.

Fried Rice with Pork Rib Meat

* I’d brought her a round of starter bread slashed in her initial — or rather, the inital of her nom de plume — and a little jar of my starter. She later made a wonderful drawing of that loaf, and then embarked on her own bread-baking adventures with her freshly baptized starter, Anatole.

** I encourage you to seek out ethically raised pork meat from a provider who can answer your questions. The overwhelming majority of pork meat available in Western countries comes from concentrated animal feeding operations that have disastrous consequences on the environment, their workers, animal welfare and human health. To learn more, you can for instance read Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals.

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