Pasta and caramelized onions. Nothing is better. What happens if you combine the two? A taste explosion!
Carmamelize two red onions and several shallots. Flavor with salt, pepper and thyme. Boil up some pasta and toss it all together with the best olive oil you can find, a squeeze of lemon and a splash of pear infused white balsamic vinegar. Dig in.
I don't drink beer; I never really aqcuired a taste for it. I recently had some friends round and they brought over a six-pack. They were in no way interested in my fine bottle of 2006 Bordeaux. After my friends left, one bottle of the dark, syrupy brew remained and for the past couple of weeks, that lone bottle sat lonely in my fridge.
Every day when I opened the fridge I would pause, cock my head and look at it wondering just how long it was going to stay there. Maybe I would have another guest that drank Guiness Stout, maybe it would just continue to sit. The situation was getting ridiculous.
Tonight I bit the bullet; I opened it and took a swig straight out of the bottle. Eh. There was only one thing left to do. Cook with it.
London Broil marinated in Guiness Stout with the most scrumptious potatoes and roasted asparagus.
Ingredients:
In a large tupperware, pour half a bottle of Guiness Stout, add the brown sugar and lemon juice. Rub your steak with smashed garlic cloves, season with salt and pepper and throw it into the syrupy mixture. Let it sit in your fridge for up to 5 hours.
Take the meat out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature. Prepare your asparagus by cutting off the ends, dressing with salt, pepper, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook your potatoes per the linked instructions.
Heat your grill and cook the hunk of meat for approximately 4 minutes per side, which yields your steak medium rare. 2 minutes before it's done, add some of the stout to the pan and let it cook. Remove the steak to rest and continue cooking the liquid until it is reduced and deliciously syrupy.
To cook the asparagus, place it onto a baking pan, or as I do, onto a folded sheet of foil and roast at 360 for 7-10 minutes.
Slice your steak and prepare your plate. Drizzle your meat with sauce and enjoy that delicious.
This is the easiest meal you will ever cook and your dining companions will think you slaved over a hot stove all evening. The utter beauty of this dish is that the oven does all the work. You just take care of the timing.
Ingredients:
Sides:
Put your chicken in a baking dish and pat it down with a paper towel. Pour over some olive oil and rub it into the skin. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze it over the chicken and then season your bird with salt and pepper. Into the bird's cavity put the squeezed half of the lemon, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and add one last generous pour of olive oil and a 1/4 cup of chicken stock to the pan. Place in a 425F oven and cook for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 365F and cook for 15 minutes per pound and then add an extra 10 minutes for good measure. Remove the bird from the oven and place on a platter to rest before carving. Pour the jus into a gravy boat and reserve a little to use on your sweet potatoes.
Your sides should be anything your heart desires. Tonight it was mashed sweet potatoes and an herb salad.
Peel, dice and parboil your large sweet potatoes. In the same baking dish you cooked your bird in, place a layer of this coral starch. Generously salt, drizzle with olive oil and pour a small amount of the chicken jus over it. Cover with foil and place in a 365F oven until they are soft enough to mash - about 45 minutes. It is not your goal to brown and crisp them, the goal is to slow roast them on a lower temperature. The foil tent will trap the steam, allowing all the flavors to infuse which will yield an extremely tasty side dish.
Mash the potatoes with butter, coarse salt and a little bit of nutmeg if you have it on hand.
Prepare your salad and dress with a clean vinaigrette consisting of olive oil, juice of the other half of the lemon and a very light drizzle of balsamic. Add salt and pepper, assemble your plate together and dig in!
As I wrote in September, I am in a little bit of trouble. The autumn has ushered in heavier meals, I am cooking and eating to sustain my blog and I am exceedingly happy. All of these things combined have led to my pants becoming even tighter. I know I was going to write about salads but at this time of year it doesn't seem so appropriate and I think I want to save that for a summer series next year.
I think what I am going to do is cook clean and keep portions small. Anyone who knows me knows that I could never, ever entertain or sustain a diet and I refuse to ever cut out fats (we need them people). When it comes to food I cannot compromise and I will not deny myself. Simple foods, excellent flavors, European portions. If you use fresh, organic, clean foods and moderate your portions you really can eat anything you want. Yes, that 's what we're going to do, use a little bit of culinary common sense, starting tonight.
Salmon over Beans
Ingredients:
2 Salmon filets
1 handful each of flat leaf parsley and cilantro
A sprinkle of chili flakes
2 tbspn Dijon Mustard
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp stock
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1 Can of cannellini beans
1 Rosemary sprig
2 cloves of garlic
Preparation:
Season the fish with salt and pepper, mix all the wet ingredients with the herbs and smother your beautiful, coral salmon filets.
Wrap in a foil package and place into a 375F oven for about 25 minutes.
Heat the beans and add the garlic and rosemary along with some salt and let it all infuse together over low heat while your fish cooks.
Presentation:
Place beans on your plate and top with the steamed salmon. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a generous squirt of lemon. Delicious!
Nothing fills a home with more anticipation to eat than a stew cooking on the stove. I love stew and when cooking them the variations are endless. They are perfect one pot wonders and nothing beats getting your fill of all the food groups in one heaping spoonful. I can cook up a pot of this and feast on it for days. This is a wonderful, hearty stew and it is guaranteed to please everyone at your table. It is so delicious that my son has been known to finish three bowls at one sitting! The best advice I can give you is to make this stew the day before you want to actually eat it. It will become thick and rich and overnight a layer of fat will rise to the top and you can remove it before heating it up to eat. The recipe I'm providing is just an outline. Feel free to use your own creative license. Add whatever you want and the result will probably be delicious!
Bordeaux Beef Stew
Ingredients:
2 1/2lb beef for stew. You can find this packaged at any grocer
1 bottle of good quality Bordeaux red wine*
1 box of beef stock
4 sprigs each of thyme and rosemary
2 Bay leaves
6-8 cloves of garlic - smashed
1 1/2 cups of mirepoix (equal parts carrots, celery and onions) finely chopped
1 bag each of frozen onions and peas
2 packages of assorted wild mushrooms sliced
1 bag of small new potatoes, quartered
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Freshly cracked pepper
Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup of Flour
1/3 stick of butter
Marinade for beef:
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup of Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup of wine
Preparation:
Season your beef with salt and pepper and leave it to marinade, in the fridge, for as long as you can. Overnight is premium but a couple of hours is fine.
Coat the bottom of a large pot or dutch oven with olive oil, remove the beef from the marinade with a slotted spoon and place into the pot in a single layer. You might have to do this in 2 different pots because it's important not to overcrowd the meat. Let your meat brown then add your mirepoix and continue to cook for about 5 minutes. Once the meat is sufficiently caramelized pour in the whole bottle of wine, add the herbs, garlic, salt and pepper and let it cook for about 20 minutes making sure to deglaze your pot and scrape up all the good bits from the bottom. Add the beef stock, 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce and the remainder of your ingredients and let the soup simmer, partially covered on very low heat for up to an hour and a half. Taste test to see how much additional salt and pepper is needed.
To add thickness to the stew, prepare a roux by melting butter in a pan and adding flour. Cook it down for a few minutes and then add it to the stew and stir in.
I like to add the juice of half a lemon and then drop the rind into the pot for flavor. This is completely optional and depends upon your taste.
Presentation:
Serve your stew with a dollop of sour cream on top. Butter a large piece of messy, crusty bread and it's as simple as that.
This is a huge pot of food. Feel free to halve the ingredients if your family is not big, or it's just you. You can also pack it up and take it to work for a comforting midday meal. It will keep in your fridge for a few days.
* If you don't wish to use wine, you can certainly use a non-alcoholic bottle or just swap it out altogether with beef stock pumped up with Worcestershire sauce.
Whiskey and a Pig
I love this meal. It's so easy whether you're cooking for one or for 10, it's good every time. It is the most simple meal and in theory this should be a very healthy meal, the lean protein, the green vegetable and the star player - the sweet potato. Not on my clock baby, with me it's pure indulgence. We're going to marinade the protein in a deep and velvety whiskey sauce, the green beans are going to be sprinkled with a little cheese and the sweet potatoes are going to be slathered, and I mean slathered in butter and served to perfection. Just a couple of extra little touches - the nutmeg in the sweet potatoes, the shallots in the sauce - make this a meal that people will keep talking about.
Pork loin with whiskey glaze, green beans and mashed sweet potatoes.
1 Porkloin seasoned with salt and pepper. You can also get a prepared loin at Fresh Direct which can make everything infinitely easier for you!
For the sauce:
1 Shallot minced
A small amount of grated ginger
1/2 cup of whiskey
1/4 cup of stock
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
A splash of sesame oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
A few shakes of Worcestershire Sauce
Preparation:
In a baking dish, mix all the ingredients together for your whiskey glaze and marinade the loin for about 1/2 an hour. Place the loin in a 425F oven for 10 minutes. If you need to, add some additional water or stock to the pan. Lower the heat to 365F, cover with a foil tent and cook for about an additional 40 minutes. Remove the meat from the oven, let it rest and slice into medallions. At this point your sauce should be thick and velvety.
Quarter 4 large sweet potatoes and drop into boiling water. Cook until tender, drain and mash. Add the butter, 4 pinches of salt, a splash of cream and a few grating of fresh nutmeg.
Par boil a few handfuls of greenbeans, place on a baking sheet and pop into 375F oven for 5-7 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and sprinkle with sea salt and freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Plate your chop, sweet potato cream and beans and spoon out the glaze over the dish. This is comfort food at it's best.
As you know, I cook a lot with my son. He has a curiosity with cooking that pleases me no end. I am proud to say it's nothing I have ever forced but something that he comes to me wanting to learn about. He's getting older and after his triumphant foray into breakfast foods, he approached me wanting to learn a new dish. I am half Asian so I thought that could be a perfect genre to jump into. No. "But, I'm Italian, too!" Yes, indeed, but not on my side; I don't have a grandmother's secret recipe or a big Italian food repertoire other than the most basic of pasta dishes. A look of pure joy washed over my boy's face and suddenly a scream, "PIZZA!!!" That sounded good to me and probably the dish with the least chance of disaster. The criteria for this experiment was that all the ingredients were to be chosen by the boy and he was to prepare it himself.
Tonight my son has a friend over so the 3 of us headed to Trader Joe's in the rain. They chose their ingredients and put everything in the cart. They also picked up supplies to make chocolate covered strawberries. It's quite amazing what these little ones can do given a few instructions and cooking supplies!
The kids went for pepperoni, sausage, mozzarella cheese and black olives. I had caramelized onions, sausage, mozzarella, goat and English cheddar cheeses along with a sprinkle of black olives. Utterly delicious!
Quick tip: I would advise cooking your pizza dough for a few minutes before topping it and cooking on your pizza stone.
Or, as my son calls it, catch me pepe. Literal translation: cheese and pepper. This Roman pasta dish's roots are peasant food and it is very, very easy and very, very cheap. Anyone will tell you that this dish is not reinventing the wheel, it's just plain good.
Cacio e Pepe is a perfect weeknight dinner, so quick and simple, the only time it takes is the time for the pasta to cook! When I am utterly exhausted and can't wait for delivery or fathom processed foods this is what I make. If you have kids, get them in on it too. My son loves cooking this dish but he loves eating it more!
Cacio e Pepe
Ingredients:
1 lb of long pasta. Please use the best quality pasta that you can find. Fresh is best!
1 cup of freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 cup of freshly cracked black pepper. You can do this in a coffee grinder or put kernels in a sandwich bag and smash them with something!
1 cup of reserved pasta water
1 large nob of butter
Preperation:
Boil the pasta in salted water to al dente. Once cooked, drain but keep it as wet as possible. Return the pasta to the empty hot pot and add the butter, half the reserved pasta water, the cheese and pepper. Stir together adding more water if necessary.
Serve this creamy concoction immediately with a sprinkle of finely chopped flat leaf parsley. I like to also add a squirt of lemon to mine but I don't know how the purists would react to that!
I had the best dinner last night. Steak with sauteed mushrooms and a glass of Bordeaux to die for! At this moment I can't write up the preparation but I still want to show you the pictures. It was so delicious, I just couldn't get enough and so simple you won't believe. Pictures now, recipe to follow.
UPDATE
This is how it's done:
Sautee one package of wild mushrooms in some olive oil and 1/4 stick of butter. I also like to take a spoonful of the steak sauce and stir it in. Make sure to salt towards the end of cooking.
For the steak, season well with salt and pepper and sear in a very hot pan with very little fat for 3 minutes on each side. Add about 1/2 cup of red wine, 1/4 cup beef stock, pat of butter. Continue cooking on low heat for 5-7 minutes each side. If sauce becomes low, just add a little more wine or beef stock. When you take your beef out of the pan to rest, stir in a small dollop of creme fraiche for richness and make assure that the sauce is condensed down into a thick creamy sauce.
Ipuddo, 65 4th Avenue
The greeting when you walk into the dining room is a definite indicator as to how your meal will go; comforting, familiar and soul warming. Every time we go to Ipuddo the meal is the same: Pork buns and Akamaru Modern ramen. The pork is mouth wateringly moist and the creamy ramen broth is unbelievably flavorful. Whether you decide on a quick lunch or a late and lazy dinner, your appetite will thank you.
