Stir frying for good: Black Pepper Beef with Kampot pepper from the Pepper Project

Black Pepper Beef is a weeknight-quick classic Chinese stir fry. Onion, fresh ginger, red bell pepper, celery, garlic and lots of black pepper offer plenty of flavor. And the Pepper Project helps Cambodian pepper farmers and communities. Recipe below.

One simple ingredient can often make all the difference when you’re cooking. And now that’s more true than ever. The ingredient in this case is black pepper—freshly ground, of course, instead of pre-ground and packed in a tin. Freshly ground peppercorns pop with flavor and fragrance, becoming a true flavor, not just background noise, and you can control the grind, from fine to coarsely cracked.

And in Cambodia, the Pepper Project is making a difference, with pepper. Run by the husband and wife team Tom Gordon and Cris Peterson, the Pepper Project is a not-for-profit enterprise devoted to introducing products of Cambodia to the United States. Through the sales of these products, primarily pepper, they support fair trade for farmers as well as organizations that protect street children, disabled children and victims of sex trafficking. Continue reading “Stir frying for good: Black Pepper Beef with Kampot pepper from the Pepper Project” →

Bánh Meatloaf: Classic Vietnamese sandwich gets American comfort food treatment

Pork and beef meatloaf is flavored with basil, scallions, garlic and Chinese five-spice powder, topped with pickled carrots and daikon, then served with baguette slices for this American take on Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches. Recipes below.

We love border-crossing cooking. When ingredients and techniques travel across boundaries and cultures, food gets interesting. Vietnamese cuisine is a perfect example. Not only does it share herbs and spices with its Asian neighbors, but it borrows from its culinary past as a French colony.

A family favorite here at Blue Kitchen is Marion’s Vietnamese Beef Stew. The slow cooked, meaty, multi-spiced dish is served with a French baguette instead of rice and eaten with forks and spoons, not chopsticks. Similarly, bánh mì—in the West, delicious, usually meaty Vietnamese sandwiches—are served on baguettes. In Vietnam, the term bánh mì actually means bread or, more specifically, French bread. Continue reading “Bánh Meatloaf: Classic Vietnamese sandwich gets American comfort food treatment” →

You don’t have to be Jewish to love Mango Hamantaschen

Mango filling adds a lively twist to this traditional Purim cookie. Recipe below.

An interesting thing about Mad Men to me is that the producers chose to depict Sterling Cooper as a status quo, advertising-as-usual ad agency. Three-martini lunches and solid, but don’t-rock-the-boat creative. That was the norm then, but a handful of brilliant agencies were indeed rocking the boat with smart, funny, engaging creative. One such agency was Doyle Dane Bernbach. They created the legendary “Think Small” campaign for Volkswagen in 1959. Ten years before that, they introduced this charming campaign for a Jewish bakery in Brooklyn:

Continue reading “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Mango Hamantaschen” →

Osso Buco, meet Cassoulet: Braised Veal Shanks with White Beans

Elements of two classic comfort foods combine in meaty, satisfying Braised Veal Shanks with White Beans. Recipe below.

Don’t get me wrong. I love osso buco. I’ve even made the time-honored Italian dish. But when I recently got my hands on some nice looking veal shanks, I wanted to try something different. Apparently, I’m not alone in that. Nestled among a bazillion osso buco recipes that a quick search for veal shanks recipes brought up was this plaintive cry on Chowhound: “Need veal shank recipe—Not Osso Buco.”

In my head, I traveled the culinary globe off and on for a couple of days. I spent a lot of virtual time in Mexico and Latin America, conjuring up tangy, spicy, chipotle-smoky dishes. Morocco called to me, with cumin, paprika, cinnamon and golden raisins. In the end, though, I landed right next door to Italy, in France. And the resulting recipe borrowed from classic dishes of both. Continue reading “Osso Buco, meet Cassoulet: Braised Veal Shanks with White Beans” →

The winter of our meaty content: Korean Oven-braised Short Ribs

Korean-style beef short ribs become tender and flavorful when oven braised with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, fresh pear, carrots, scallions and daikon. Recipe below.

One of the best things about exploring other countries’ cuisines is shopping. Saturday found us at H Mart in suburban Chicago, conveniently at lunchtime. We headed straight to the food court, where we ordered generous, steaming bowls of pork and kimchi dumpling soup. H Mart is an Asian-inspired supermarket chain that started in Queens, New York.

The name is short for “Han Ah Reum,” Korean for “One Arm Full of Groceries.” You’re lucky if you can get out of this sprawling treasure trove of all things Asian carrying just one armful of groceries. The vast produce section has beautiful examples of all the usual suspects as well as things hard to find elsewhere—lotus root, enoki mushrooms, turmeric (not the powder, but the actual gnarly little rhizomes), tiny, speckled fresh quail eggs… The specific ingredient I’d gone in search of was Korean-style beef short ribs. We left, of course, with our arms more than full. Continue reading “The winter of our meaty content: Korean Oven-braised Short Ribs” →

Vegetarian Indian dish packs heat, authentic flavor: Tofu Curry

Sautéed tofu and a curry sauce made with onion, ginger, garlic, chiles, tomato and plenty of spices (but no curry powder) create a spicy, authentically Indian vegetarian main course or side dish. Recipe below.

We’re not big on new year’s resolutions at Blue Kitchen. There’s something so rigid and formal about ‘resolving’ to do something: “Be it hereby resolved that…” But there are things that we talk about doing, directions we talk about taking. The first post of the new year seems like a good place to explore a couple of them.

One is something we’ve actually been doing for a while—eating less meat. The other is getting into cooking more Indian food at home. This simple, spicy, big-flavored Tofu Curry let me do both. Continue reading “Vegetarian Indian dish packs heat, authentic flavor: Tofu Curry” →

Coq au Riesling: the other famous French chicken

An Alsatian take on classic coq au vin, Coq au Riesling combines chicken, lardons, shallots, mushrooms and dry Riesling wine in a braise that’s even better the next day. Recipe below.

WE SOMETIMES THINK OF NATIONAL CUISINES IN MONOLITHIC TERMS. “How about Chinese tonight?” “Nah, I’m in the mood for Italian.” But countries large and small are made up of regions, each with their own distinct cuisines. So you get classic Northern Italian dishes and Southern Italian dishes. North Indian and South Indian. And Chicago restaurateur Tony Hu has built a career of highlighting regional Chinese cuisines, with individual restaurants serving the foods of Szechaun, Hunan, Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan… Continue reading “Coq au Riesling: the other famous French chicken” →

Linguine with Ragu Bianco and nose-to-tail tales

Ground pork and pork liver are cooked with mushrooms, shallots, garlic, fennel, thyme and wine, then finished with cream in this traditional Italian pasta sauce. Recipe and substitution ideas below.

I’ve been having offal thoughts lately. They started with a piece I recently wrote for the Christian Science Monitor on nose-to-tail eating. The current trend of using the entire animal—and indeed, the phrase nose to tail itself—began with publication of Fergus Henderson’s seminal cookbook, The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating. As chefs are increasingly embracing the idea of cooking and serving “odd cuts,” the CSM editors wondered if diners and home cooks were taking to those odd cuts. The short answer is yes. You’ll find the entire article here.

When I got the assignment, I immediately thought of Rob Levitt, owner of Chicago’s first whole animal, locavore butcher shop, The Butcher & Larder. We met Rob when he was chef at Mado, one of the city’s first whole animal, locavore restaurants. Rob and his staff butchered, cooked and served pretty much every part of every animal delivered to the kitchen. Continue reading “Linguine with Ragu Bianco and nose-to-tail tales” →

Miso Braised Pork Shoulder: Because nothing comforts you like umami

Japanese miso paste adds a satisfying umami note to chunky pieces of pork and carrots braised with garlic, fresh ginger and onion. Recipe below.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]hat’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. Continue reading “Miso Braised Pork Shoulder: Because nothing comforts you like umami” →

Fair Trade Month gives “good eats” new meaning

October is Fair Trade Month, reminding us that buying Fair Trade Certified foods improves the quality of life for farmers and their communities—and the quality of the imported foods we eat.

We were out of the kitchen last week on a food-focused road trip to Columbus, Ohio. Look for a new recipe next week—and a Columbus report soon.

Food is in an interesting place right now. Increasingly, we are urged to eat locally—and farmers markets, locavore chefs and even grocery stores are bringing us ways to do that. On the other hand, our palates have never been more global. Exotic spices, produce and pantry staples are transitioning from ethnic markets and gourmet shops to supermarket shelves. They’re doing so because we’re using them in our kitchens more and more. And then there are those staples so ingrained in our daily lives that we don’t often even think of them as imported—coffee, chocolate, bananas, tea… But how these foods are grown, harvested and processed has a major impact on lives around the world. And on the health of the planet. That’s where fair trade comes in. Continue reading “Fair Trade Month gives “good eats” new meaning” →