Perfect for Pesach: Maple Glazed Rack of Ribs

Just in time for Passover, a new cookbook offers recipes that are perfect for the holiday and all year long, like this Maple Glazed Rack of Ribs. Recipe below.

You know those meals and dishes that only come out for the holidays? The ones you wish you could eat all year long? That’s the idea behind Naomi Nachman’s debut cookbook, Perfect for Pesach: Passover Recipes You’ll Want to Make All Year. While the recipes in it are focused on Passover, as the title says, they can be served and enjoyed all year long. Continue reading “Perfect for Pesach: Maple Glazed Rack of Ribs” →

Pan-seared steak, quick side hacks and the pleasures of dinner for one

A simple pan-seared steak gets support from store-bought cheats for a solo dinner that got cooked quickly and lingered over. What passes for a recipe follows.

Various events have us all in different cities tonight, with me home in Chicago. Often in this situation, I’ll take the opportunity to work late, then grab some takeout on the way home. That was the plan tonight. Until a fire alarm went off in our building, sending the last three of us at work down thirteen flights of stairs to a lobby filled with firefighters. We didn’t smell any smoke (so I probably have an office to show up to tomorrow), but it was clear we weren’t going back upstairs tonight. Continue reading “Pan-seared steak, quick side hacks and the pleasures of dinner for one” →

A little taste of Pilsen in a slow cooker: Puerco en Salsa Verde

Big chunks of pork shoulder are braised in a slow cooker in a tangy, slightly spicy tomatillo-based salsa verde until fork tender. Recipe below.

Every day, we get delicious reminders of the cultural richness immigrants bring to America. Our new old house is in Pilsen, a predominantly Mexican working class Chicago neighborhood. Walking to our el station in the morning on the way to work, we pass two or three street corner vendors selling homemade tamales and steaming bowls of pozole. Standing on the el platform, we are greeted by the fragrance of fresh tortillas being made in one of many neighborhood tortillerias. Continue reading “A little taste of Pilsen in a slow cooker: Puerco en Salsa Verde” →

Simple and simply delicious: Coffee Cumin Lamb Chops

Ground coffee, whole cumin seeds, chili powder and cinnamon create an easy, amazing spice rub for pan-seared lamb chops. Recipe below.

I have really tried to like coffee. There was almost always a pot brewing in my house when I was growing up, and over the years, starting as a teenager, I tried many times to acquire a taste for it. Never happened. I’m not proud of the fact—I consider it a major social shortcoming on my part. But even though I don’t drink coffee, I’m intrigued by what it does to food. Continue reading “Simple and simply delicious: Coffee Cumin Lamb Chops” →

Korean-Italian comfort food: Pork Chops with Kimchi and Cannellini Beans

An international ingredient list produces a hearty, one-pan dinner big on flavor and comfort. Recipe below.

With a headline like that, you’re probably expecting a decent backstory. Most of the recipes here at Blue Kitchen come with one. A new cookbook. An old family tradition. A restaurant discovery. Not this one. This recipe came from two simple questions. Continue reading “Korean-Italian comfort food: Pork Chops with Kimchi and Cannellini Beans” →

Old school comfort food deliciously revisited: Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff was invented in mid-19th-century Russia and embraced in America in the 1950s. Here, this comfort food favorite gets a welcome update/upgrade. Recipe below.

We are just back from a wonderful road trip that covered almost 2,500 miles and brought us to so many beautiful parts of America and left us dazzled with the natural beauty and grandeur of, well, pretty much everything we saw. Continue reading “Old school comfort food deliciously revisited: Beef Stroganoff” →

Trio of big flavors blends beautifully: Pork Chops with Basil and Garlic

A quick marinade of fresh basil, garlic and olive oil gives pan-grilled pork chops classic Italian flavor. Recipe below.

I like basil. Scratch that. I love it. Basil and rosemary are my two favorite fresh herbs. So when Marion recently announced that one of our basil plants was finally ready for harvesting, I was ready too. Continue reading “Trio of big flavors blends beautifully: Pork Chops with Basil and Garlic” →

A vegetarian-inspired Feta and Olive Salsa plays nicely with Pan-seared Pork Chops

Feta cheese, black olives, red onion, dill, and lemon juice and zest do their predictably wonderful thing when mixed together and heaped on pan-seared pork chops. Recipe below.

Leave it to me to appropriate a vegetarian dish for a meaty use. We were at a housewarming last weekend thrown by the adult daughter of a friend from our St. Louis days. She and her roommate have a lovely new Humboldt Park apartment, and it was filled with a lively crowd—including an impressive contingency of fairly newly minted babies. We seem to be going through a period right now where many of our friends, old and new, are young. Continue reading “A vegetarian-inspired Feta and Olive Salsa plays nicely with Pan-seared Pork Chops” →

Taking miso beyond soup: chunky, fork tender Miso Braised Pork Shoulder

Winter is getting ready to prove to Chicago—and the upper Midwest—that it isn’t done with us yet. This oven-braised Miso Pork Shoulder first appeared on Blue Kitchen in November 2012, and it’s the perfect antidote for the coming snowy cold. Recipe below.

What’s the traditional sixth anniversary gift? If it’s a food blog anniversary, I’m going with pork. Yes, Blue Kitchen is six years old this month. A lot has changed for me foodwise in that time. For one thing, I feel like I know more about food than when I started—including how ungodly much I don’t know and will never know. But some things have remained the same, like my willingness to borrow ingredients from the global pantry and use them authentically or otherwise. This week, that ingredient is miso paste. [Read more here…]

Comfort with a kick: Roasted Chili Cumin Chicken with Pickled Red Onions

This Mexican street food-inspired dish packs big flavor, but not too much heat. Two recipes from the archives—and a wedding story—below.

At some point, I’m not sure when, Mexican restaurant food became relegated to comfort food status for us. Something we could count on to be reliably good, filling and cheap, but no longer something we got a hankering for. It wasn’t always this way. At one point, Marion and I ate at a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood at least once a week for a year or more. In fact, we went there on our wedding night, before going barhopping with my mom and my brand new sister-in-law. [read more here…]