Celebrating yardwork: Summer Garden Gin Sage Cocktail

Five ingredients—gin, fresh sage, simple syrup, and grapefruit and lemon juices—create an herbaceous, summery cocktail. Recipe below.

We’ve lived in our new old house for a little more than a year now. The biggest transformation since we’ve moved in has been the garden. During the gut rehab of the house, the backyard was buried under demolition rubble three separate times. Even though our contractor’s team ostensibly cleaned up after the project, the first step of creating a garden involved removing a stunning amount of glass shards, broken bricks, nails, gravel and other debris—at least partly done by digging away the top several inches of the yard and throwing it out. Continue reading “Celebrating yardwork: Summer Garden Gin Sage Cocktail” →

The taste of summer: six potato salad recipes

With summer in full swing, potato salads are showing up at picnics, family barbecues—anywhere people get together and eat. Here are six potato salad recipes to get you through the season, from the traditional classic to the decidedly non-traditional. Continue reading “The taste of summer: six potato salad recipes” →

Changing up chicken: Tomatillo-braised Thighs

A make-ahead tomatillo sauce with cilantro, garlic, jalapeño peppers and lime juice livens up this weeknight-quick chicken dish. Recipe below.

We’re big fans of chicken, especially thighs. They’re flavorful, juicy and relatively inexpensive. But it’s easy to fall into comfortable cooking ruts with them. “Shall I do my chicken and wine again tonight?” “Should we just roast them?” Or now, with summer here, “How about I fire up the grill?” All good choices, to be sure, but sometimes you need a change. And that’s where this tomatillo sauce with black beans and corn comes in. Continue reading “Changing up chicken: Tomatillo-braised Thighs” →

Garnet and Smoke: a mezcal hibiscus cocktail

Smoky mezcal and tea brewed from dried hibiscus blossoms star in this refreshing, herbaceous cocktail, which also features cilantro, lime juice, simple syrup and club soda. Recipe below.

IN OUR ONGOING, VARIED ADVENTURES IN COCKTAIL-LAND, we sometimes play bartender challenge. In the right bar, on a slow night, we’ll specify a particular spirit, describe a flavor profile—citrusy, summery, fresh, for instance—and ask the bartender to create something. Almost always, he or she rises happily to the occasion and we end up with something wonderful, full of layers and subtleties. Continue reading “Garnet and Smoke: a mezcal hibiscus cocktail” →

Six pasta recipes and a bonus

We love pasta. A lot. Just check the pasta section of the Blue Kitchen archives, and you’ll find pages and pages of listings. That’s what we did to compile this varied list of six pasta recipes—and a bonus seventh post at the end. Continue reading “Six pasta recipes and a bonus” →

Oven-baked, country-style Chinese Pork “Ribs”

A variety of Chinese and not-so-Chinese ingredients create a flavorful marinade for oven-baked pork ribs that aren’t ribs at all. Recipe below.

CALL IT CLEVER BUTCHERING, CALL IT GENIUS MARKETING, CALL IT BOTH. In the 1960s, Clifford G. Bowes took a section of pork that was hard to sell, cut it into meaty/fatty riblike slabs and dubbed it country-style ribs. Bowes, “one of the country’s top meat men and a meat consultant from Chicago,” according to a Chicago Tribune article from 1978, had hit a meat home run. Soon, butchers were using pork shoulder and the blade just behind the shoulder to keep up with the demand for country-style “ribs”—which are actually not ribs at all. Continue reading “Oven-baked, country-style Chinese Pork “Ribs”” →

Four Kimchi recipes, traditional and otherwise

Savory, crunchy and often spicy, kimchi—fermented vegetables (most often Napa cabbage)—is the Korean national dish. Here are four recipes for cooking with it.

Last week’s recipe for Dak Kalbi, Korean barbecued chicken, has had us thinking about kimchi all week. Sadly, we don’t have any in the fridge right now. But when we do, here are some ways we cook with it. Continue reading “Four Kimchi recipes, traditional and otherwise” →

Dak Kalbi: Korean for Barbecued Chicken

Chicken thighs are marinated with soy sauce, mirin, fresh ginger, garlic, kiwi and other flavorings, then pan roasted for this take on Dak Kalbi, Korean barbecued chicken. recipe below.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]T[/su_dropcap]acos just always seem to lead to good things. This weekend, we had an uncharacteristically lazy Sunday, running a few errands and doing some shopping along Michigan Avenue. When we finished, I remarked that we were close to Del Seoul, the Korean taco joint in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Well, three miles as the Camry flies, close enough. As always, we had a wonderful lunch there. And I found the inspiration for this week’s recipe. Continue reading “Dak Kalbi: Korean for Barbecued Chicken” →

Put an egg on it: old school Whiskey Sour with Egg White

The classic whiskey sour cocktail has many variations. This one includes an egg white for a frothy head and a velvety mouthfeel. Recipe below.

FOR A COUPLE OF WINE LOVERS, Marion and I have been totally smitten by the craft cocktail scene that, happily, just doesn’t seem to quit. In countless bars and restaurants, we’ve puzzled over cryptic descriptions of inventively named drinks with housemade bitters, small batch spirits and surprising botanicals; challenged willing bartenders to create something using a particular liquor and hitting vaguely described flavor notes; and enjoyed the theatrics of the process—at Curio in Columbus, Ohio, a bartender flexed an orange peel and ignited the oil spraying from the skin. But old school drinks persist for a reason: sometimes you just want a drink. Not a shot and a beer, but something classic without being overthought—something a good bartender makes from muscle memory. Continue reading “Put an egg on it: old school Whiskey Sour with Egg White” →

Bright, springy, bacon-y: Fettuccine with Asparagus, Bacon and Lemon

Slender, fresh asparagus teams up with lemon, bacon and Parmesan for a bold pasta dish that tastes like spring. Recipe below.

I always love when those first bunches of tender, slender asparagus show up in markets and grocery stores. For me, this first asparagus tastes like spring. I always overbuy and overindulge, because I know all too soon, the brawnier, cigar-thick, woody stalks will take its place. I overbought last weekend at Detroit’s Eastern Market, getting two big, beautiful bunches. Also overbought on lemons, from the same enterprising vendor. From there, this recipe practically wrote itself. Continue reading “Bright, springy, bacon-y: Fettuccine with Asparagus, Bacon and Lemon” →