A month of loving lamb: Lamb Chops with Cherry Marsala Sauce

Lamb chops topped with a sauce of dried tart cherries, Marsala wine, shallots, rosemary and garlic are a perfect way to celebrate Lamb Lovers Month. Recipe below.

THERE ARE LOTS OF REASONS TO LOVE LAMB. So many, in fact, that the American Lamb Board has proclaimed the entire month of February Lamb Lovers Month. All month long, you’ll find recipes, lamb trivia and more on their website. You can even enter a recipe contest and win Date Night Dinner Packages of lamb (of course) and paired wines. Continue reading “A month of loving lamb: Lamb Chops with Cherry Marsala Sauce” →

Celebrating Meat Week: Grilled Pork Roast with Mustard and Fresh Herbs

Marinating boneless pork shoulder with Dijon mustard, garlic and a fresh herb mix adds extra depth to the smoky flavor of this grilled roast. Recipe below.

Meat Week is a great time to know a butcher. Yes, it’s a real holiday, as the official website’s URL somewhat defensively states: meatweekisreal.com. Started in January 2005 by two bored guys in Florida, Meat Week is now observed in 18 cities across the US and, randomly enough, in London. Meat Week is a celebration of all things BBQ. Its primary focus is restaurants that serve BBQ (I’m guessing the two bored founders also aren’t much on cooking). Revelers are encouraged to enjoy eight straight nights of eating BBQ in a specific list of restaurants in each city, in order.

For me, though, learning about Meat Week gave me an excuse to haul my charcoal grill out into the snow and fire it up. Continue reading “Celebrating Meat Week: Grilled Pork Roast with Mustard and Fresh Herbs” →

Osso Buco: Italian “Bone with a hole” packs a whole lot of flavor

There are many versions of the classic Northern Italian favorite, osso buco. This one uses slow oven braising to make the meat flavorful, fork tender and moist. Recipe below.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT USING KITCHEN TWINE that makes me feel like a chef and connects me to the past. Trussing up pork tenderloins or rolled roasts with string says you’re getting serious in the kitchen, in a comfortingly old school way. It was something Julia did. Continue reading “Osso Buco: Italian “Bone with a hole” packs a whole lot of flavor” →

With dishes like this, every year should be called the year of the pig

Inspired by a traditional Italian dish and a memorable Chicago evening, Milk-braised Pork with Tarragon is complex, delicate and delicious. Recipe below.

The end of the year inevitably gets us thinking about what lies ahead. For that reason, my maternal grandmother always served pork on New Year’s Eve. She said it was because pigs root forward when searching for food, while chickens scratch backward. In the new year, you want to move ahead. Chicago chef Rob Levitt is making a big move ahead, swapping his toque for a butcher’s apron. By the time you read this, his new butcher shop The Butcher & Larder may well be open, selling cut-to-order meats and charcuterie from locally sourced, humanely raised animals. He’ll also offer a limited menu of sandwiches. I’m sure we’ll become regulars there. Marion was inspired to make this dish by a wonderful dinner Rob cooked on his last night at the Bucktown restaurant mado. I’ll let her tell you about it. Continue reading “With dishes like this, every year should be called the year of the pig” →

Take that, wind chill factor: Belgian Pot Roast with Onions and Mushrooms

Based on a traditional Belgian stew, this hearty roast is flavored with beer, thyme, bay leaves, mushrooms and lots of onions. Recipe below.

THE CALENDAR KEEPS TRYING TO TELL US IT’S STILL AUTUMN. The snow on the ground and wind chill numbers with minus signs in front of them tell another story, at least here in Chicago. So when Marion and I spotted a hefty chuck roast in the meat department, deep red and nicely marbled with fat, we grabbed it like a long lost uncle who’d suddenly won the lottery.

Chuck roast is one of our favorite cuts of meat, cheap and wonderfully flavorful. And yes, it can be on the tough side, but cook it long and slow and the toughness melts away. Continue reading “Take that, wind chill factor: Belgian Pot Roast with Onions and Mushrooms” →

Country style ribs, Italian style

Slow cooked with aromatics, herbs and canned Italian plum tomatoes, country style ribs take on a delicious Italian accent. Recipe below.

We moved our cookbooks last weekend. More precisely, we moved our cookbook bookcase, which involved removing the cookbooks and then reshelving them in their new spot. Have you ever moved cookbooks without opening any of them? Neither have we. That’s how we came across the recipe that inspired this one.

More than a year ago, Marion gave me the wonderful (and sadly out-of-print) Roma: Authentic Recipes from In and Around the Eternal City. I immediately cooked one of Rome’s “favorite humble meals” from it, pasta e ceci (pasta and chickpeas). And I promised more to come. Of course, then it got filed away with all the other cookbooks and forgotten.

Now it’s back, with a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs rib dish that’s perfect for chilly nights. Continue reading “Country style ribs, Italian style” →

Duck Breasts with White Beans and Sausage: The comfort of cassoulet, only quicker

Duck Breasts with White Beans and Sausage combines many of the comforting elements of cassoulet, but comes together fast enough for a weeknight dinner. Recipe below.

French cooking is usually thought of as elegant and refined. And indeed, it’s no accident that the term that defines high-end dining, haute cuisine, is French. But fancy isn’t all they do. When it comes to comfort food, few can outcomfort the French. Hanger steaks with frites, coq au vin, gratins filled with cream and covered in cheese…

And perhaps the most comforting of French comfort foods, cassoulet. A hearty baked stew of beans and various meats (usually pork and duck and maybe lamb) and crusted with bread crumbs, cassoulet sticks to the ribs and satisfies your very soul on a chilly night. Unfortunately, cooking it takes forever. Recipes vary, but baking time is always measured in multiple hours, usually with at least an hour or two of prep time up front. And if you make your own duck confit for it, you can tack on another day or two.

So we were really excited when a dinner in Portland, Oregon, on our recent trip to the Pacific Northwest got us thinking about ways capture some of the flavors of cassoulet without all the long cooking. Continue reading “Duck Breasts with White Beans and Sausage: The comfort of cassoulet, only quicker” →

Patatas Riojanas: Potatoes and sausage with a spicy Spanish accent

Spanish chorizo—dense, flavorful sausage—paprika, red bell peppers, onion and garlic turn potatoes into a colorful, satisfyingly hearty meal, perfect for chilly nights. Recipe below.

Before I get started, I’d just like to say that this post marks Blue Kitchen’s fourth anniversary. As Anonymous once said, “Time flies when you don’t know what you’re doing.”

MY, WE’VE BEEN BOOKISH LATELY. Today’s second post below mentions two books, one the memoir of a chef who forever changed food and professional cooking, the other, a resource for anyone interested in a career in the kitchen. A recent USA Character Approved Blog post reviews Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cookbook, which many home cooks will find essential indeed. And this recipe was inspired by José Andrés’s lively, inventive Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America.

Andrés comes by his inventiveness honestly; he is a protege of Ferran Adrià, chef of El Bulli, Spain’s temple of molecular gastronomy Continue reading “Patatas Riojanas: Potatoes and sausage with a spicy Spanish accent” →

Real food, real quick: Wine-braised Chops and Potatoes are weeknight fast, comfort food good

Dijon mustard, tarragon and garlic add flavor, complexity to quick and easy Wine-braised Pork Chops and Potatoes. Recipe below.

I like to think I’m a fairly nonjudgmental person. Live and let live, celebrate our differences, walk a mile in another person’s shoes… Until I’m in the grocery store check-out line.

As you watch fellow shoppers unload their carts, piling box after bag after frozen package of processed “edible foodlike substances” (as Michael Pollan calls them) on the conveyor belt, it’s hard not to ask how they made it through the produce department without picking up a single fruit or vegetable. Or where are the eggs? The milk? Even the fresh meat, for that matter? And it’s easy to see why obesity, childhood diabetes and heart disease are reaching epidemic proportions in our country.

So it was particularly refreshing to visit the kitchen of four recent college graduates this weekend and see real food. Continue reading “Real food, real quick: Wine-braised Chops and Potatoes are weeknight fast, comfort food good” →

For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure

Forget bologna and cotto salami. Cured meats have returned to their artisanal beginnings. The delicious fare of a famous Seattle cured meats master is the subject of my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Sometimes a place just starts showing up on your radar. We started hearing about Salumi long before we started planning our recent trip to Seattle and Portland. About its delectable handmade salamis, prosciuttos, pancettas, lardos and guanciales—and about the famous owner with the even more famous son. Then when our trip started taking shape, we asked mado chef/owner Rob Levitt what places we should hit. Top of his list was Salumi. Continue reading “For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure” →