Four recipes for versatile, quick(ish) lentils

Lentils cook up faster than most other dried beans and pulses, usually in 30 minutes or so without soaking. No wonder they’re favored by so many cultures. Here are four flavorful ways to use them.

We’re quickly becoming regulars at the recently reopened Johnny’s Grill in our Logan Square neighborhood. Besides great cocktails and elevated takes on standard diner fare, Johnny’s new chef/owner Sarah Jordan offers delicious surprises like an excellent fish & chips and a fragrant red lentil dal. The latter, a staple of Indian subcontinent cuisine, inspired this post. Continue reading “Four recipes for versatile, quick(ish) lentils” →

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…]

In a NOLA state of mind: Spicy Shrimp with Tomatoes and Cheddar Grits

A relentlessly busy schedule these days has us raiding the Blue Kitchen archives again, this time for New Orleans-style comfort food with a kick: Spicy Shrimp with Tomatoes and Cheddar Grits. Recipe below.

New Orleans is one of our favorite cities for food. Everything tastes of history, blended cultures and spices. Lots of spices. Some of them hot, of course, but more often just big flavored. And from the diviest dives to the fanciest white tablecloth spots, you have to work hard to find a bad meal.[Read more here…]

All the comforts of restaurant: Egg Drop Soup

This six-ingredient egg drop soup is as impressively restaurant-authentic as it is quick and easy to make. Recipe below.

THE LINE BETWEEN HOME COOKING AND RESTAURANT COOKING can get blurry at times. There’s a whole subset of restaurants that tries to serve—or at least convince us they’re serving—homestyle cooking. And in kitchens around the world, home cooks obsess over recreating chef-driven restaurant meals. But there’s another style of restaurant cooking that’s often overlooked at home, not complex or seasonal or locally sourced. Just humble fare, but soul-satisfyingly comforting. This is one of those recipes. Continue reading “All the comforts of restaurant: Egg Drop Soup” →

A road trip and Roast Chicken Provençal

Chicken thighs are browned, then roasted with shallots, lemons, garlic and what sounds like way too much herbes de Provence. It isn’t. Recipe below.

Last week, I wrote about how we would spend Christmas. Christmas Eve dinner in Chinatown (at Lao Shanghai—delicious), a movie Christmas day (Spotlight, a surprisingly uplifting film for such a heavy subject) and a simple roast chicken dish for dinner. It was good. The dish you see above was my second attempt, cooked last night with a few tweaks. It was very good. Continue reading “A road trip and Roast Chicken Provençal” →

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…]

Provence redux: Layered Pot Roast with Anchovies, Capers and Garlic

Blue Kitchen is going on a short break for the next few weeks. We are crazy busy with a major project that, no, isn’t a cookbook—or anything even specifically food-related. All is good—we’ll fill you in soon. In the meantime, we’ll be posting recipes from the archives that we especially like. This week, it’s a traditional Provençal pot roast that is toothsome and ridiculously easy. Don’t let the anchovies scare you—they disappear into the dish, leaving only dialed-up umami behind.

A couple of weeks ago, I admitted to being a major Francophile when I wrote about roasting chicken on a bed of lentils. I guess that makes Karin over at Second Act in Altadena an enabler. After reading that post, she told me about three different French cookbooks. Already having more cookbooks than we have shelf space for, I immediately headed for the library website and ordered them. Of course, all three showed up within days of each other. [Read more here…]

Velveting keeps things tender: Stir-fried Chicken with Asparagus

Velveting the chicken before stir-frying it, a simple Chinese cooking technique, keeps the meat moist and tender in Stir-fried Chicken with Asparagus. Recipe below.

WE HAVE A LOT OF VINTAGE CHINA, mostly individual pieces picked up at antique shops, flea markets, yard sales and farm auctions. Some are quite old and fairly valuable, true antiques. Others fall squarely into the collectibles realm. All were chosen because we liked them and wanted to use them on our table. Continue reading “Velveting keeps things tender: Stir-fried Chicken with Asparagus” →

Tomatillo Salsa Verde, uncooked

This no-cook Tomatillo Salsa Verde tastes as fresh as its ingredients—tomatillos, peppers, red onion, garlic and cilantro. Serve it with chips or over chicken, chops, fish, scrambled eggs… Recipe below.

I am officially smitten with tomatillos. The lively, citrusy relative of the tomato, a key ingredient in Mexican and Central American cooking, is as versatile as it is easy to work with. Apparently I’m not alone in my infatuation. When I told colleagues last week of my Chicken Chili Verde adventures, one said she’d made a big pot of her own the week before. And my creative director shared his go-to salsa recipe, a no-cook salsa verde made of tomatillos and just four other ingredients, one of them being salt. Continue reading “Tomatillo Salsa Verde, uncooked” →

Changing up chili with chicken and tomatillos: Chicken Chili Verde

Replacing tomatoes with tomatillos gives the tradition bowl of red a nice green hue and a fresh, lively flavor. Recipe below.

A friend once called me a Border Collie. I took her label as a compliment. It’s not that I’m covered in black and white fur, or that I herd sheep. It’s that I seem to be constantly moving, doing things, covering ground. When Marion and I travel, that’s certainly our style. We arrive anywhere we go with an impossibly long list of museums, restaurants, shops, events to attend, friends to visit… Our weekends are often similarly overbooked. Continue reading “Changing up chili with chicken and tomatillos: Chicken Chili Verde” →