Let us now braise inexpensive cuts: Oven-braised Asian Short Ribs

Slow oven braising and plenty of garlic, scallions, star anise and pan-Asian ingredients turn inexpensive beef short ribs into a tender, exotic main course. Recipe below.

The first time I tasted steak I was in college. Cheap cuts of meat were what we ate in my working class family when I was growing up. Chuck roast, pork steaks [as opposed to the leaner, more costly chops], beef stew, burgers made from fatty ground chuck… We also occasionally had short ribs, but only as an ingredient in a beefy vegetable soup.

I relate this personal history with cheap cuts not as a tale of woe and deprivation. These cuts are often more flavorful than their pricier brethren and probably largely responsible for my love of all things meaty. But they’re usually tougher than the more expensive cuts too. I remember many happy, chewy meals.

Braising takes care of the toughness issue. Slow, moist cooking breaks down connective tissue and melts some of the fat also present in most inexpensive cuts of meat. The result is wonderfully flavorful, juicy meat that is almost falling-apart tender. Continue reading “Let us now braise inexpensive cuts: Oven-braised Asian Short Ribs” →

This isn’t regifting, is it? Five holiday desserts from the Blue Kitchen archives

The holiday entertaining season is upon us. A few weeks ago, I made a Cherry Orange Loaf Cake that’s great to serve your guests or give your host. Here are five more dessert recipes to help make celebrations sweeter.

1. Frangipane Pear and Cherry Cake

Pears and tart cherries team up with almond-based frangipane in Marion’s flavorful Frangipane Pear and Cherry Cake that gets even better the second day. So it’s perfect for making a day ahead or having on hand when guests drop by.

2. Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies

Fresh rosemary adds a subtle, mysterious something extra to my not-too-sweet Continue reading “This isn’t regifting, is it? Five holiday desserts from the Blue Kitchen archives” →

Inspiration by the foot: Spinach Fettuccine with Cauliflower and Bacon

Roasting cauliflower mellows its flavor, helping it blend deliciously with sautéed bacon, red bell pepper, onion, garlic and spinach pasta. Recipe below.

Inspiration can come from the least likely places. A photograph of cauliflower and sneakers, for instance.

I’d been thinking about doing something with pasta recently. Not actively thinking about it, mind you, but just setting it on simmer on a mental back burner. I figured sooner or later, something would spark an idea. This amusingly strange photo did.

Laura over at What I Like took it to illustrate just how hefty the cauliflower was that she’d found at the market, adding “and I suppose I should mention that I have quite big feet” to further impress us with its size. The wonderful, weird incongruity of the photo Continue reading “Inspiration by the foot: Spinach Fettuccine with Cauliflower and Bacon” →

Ten random things you missed if you don’t follow me on Twitter

I‘ll admit it. I came to Twitter reluctantly, skeptically even. It can certainly feel a little navel-gazing narcissistic the way it’s sometimes practiced. “It’s only 9:30 in the morning and I’m already craving chocolate cake.” And the world needs to know this because?

But Twitter can also be a way to share ideas, links to stories and blog posts and even visuals. Like the amusing billboard above that I photographed and posted on Twitpic, Twitter’s visual sibling, along with the caption “I’m not a big fan of Miracle Whip, but I love their attitudinal advertising!”

Funny thing is, I’ve come to really enjoy Twitter and tweeting [a tweet is what you post on Twitter, and it can be no longer than 140 characters]. From finding articles about food, wine and health I think are worth sharing Continue reading “Ten random things you missed if you don’t follow me on Twitter” →

Potage Parmentier: A simple, satisfying antidote for holiday culinary excess

Six modest ingredients—potatoes, leeks, cream, parsley, salt and water—produce a flavorful first course for a simple meal in my take on Julia Child’s classic potato leek soup. Recipe below.

As much as I love Thanksgiving, I’m always kind of happy to see it in the rear view mirror. Every year, it seems to become a bigger orgy of culinary excess and overload. And I’m not just talking gluttony here. Food magazines are taken hostage for an entire month—you’re hard pressed to find a single recipe that doesn’t include turkey, sweet potatoes or pumpkin. Ditto most newspaper food sections and online food sites. Articles and recipes abound, urging you to make this year’s feast more traditional, more alternative, more sumptuous, more festive, more more.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful, with the traditional bird and our own non-traditional traditions for sides. But when the figurative smoke cleared and I started thinking about what to post this week, I wanted something palate-cleansingly simple. Not just the finished dish, but simple in its preparation as well. Julia’s six-ingredient potage parmentier—potato leek soup—seemed just right. Continue reading “Potage Parmentier: A simple, satisfying antidote for holiday culinary excess” →

The face of hunger is changing—so is fighting it

As the effects of a sagging economy continue to spread, an ever-growing number of Americans face “food insecurity,” a newly coined euphemism for not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Hunger.

According to Daily Kos, the PSA above featuring President Obama is sadly already out of date. It says that one out of eight Americans is at risk of hunger. The number is now one out of six. According to a new report by Feeding America, more than 49 million of us are at risk for hunger.

A recent article in the New York Times delivers more sobering numbers. Food stamps, once scorned as a failed welfare scheme, now help feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. More than 36 million people “use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.” Continue reading “The face of hunger is changing—so is fighting it” →

A holiday dessert inspired by a simple gift: Cherry Orange Loaf Cake

Dried cherries, pecans and orange zest and juice flavor this not-too-sweet cake, perfect for a holiday breakfast or with coffee and tea. Recipe below.

I don’t bake much. So I was more than a little surprised when my Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies were featured in Bon Appétit’s Blog Envy holiday showcase last year. And when I was invited to participate in this year’s Bon Appétit Blog Envy Bake-Off, an actual competition, I was flattered but less than inclined to give it a try.

There are some serious bakers out there in the blogosphere. We’re talking pastry chef serious. I knew whatever simple efforts I came up with would not compete well in that arena. Then I remembered a story my grandmother told every December around the holidays, about a simple gift that meant so much to her as a little girl. Suddenly, winning wasn’t as important as sharing a recipe inspired by that gift.

My maternal grandmother was a big part of my life growing up in St. Louis and embracing city living early on. She often took me downtown on the bus to go shopping, have lunch and maybe catch a movie matinee. But she had grown up on a farm, and I could tell from the stories she would tell with such longing that she missed farm life. Continue reading “A holiday dessert inspired by a simple gift: Cherry Orange Loaf Cake” →

“My complements to the turkey”: Choosing the right wines for Thanksgiving

Puzzled by what wines to serve with your Thanksgiving dinner? Here’s some advice from people smarter than me on the topic.

Let me start by quoting Eric Asimov. “We all like what we like.” If you have certain wines you like, you might as well just enjoy them with your Thanksgiving dinner. Old so-called rules—”red with meat, white with fish and poultry”—are being reconsidered or abandoned altogether. In his New York Times wine column, The Pour, Asimov recently issued “A Plea for Calm.” In it, he calls for wine people not to get so wrapped up in certainties and rankings and absolutes. “The truth is that wine—good wine—refuses to conform to anybody’s need for certainty,” he says. “Good wines are alive. They change. They are not static, so a score today can be worthless tomorrow or next month or next year.”

That said, many of us could use a little guidance when it comes to pairing wine with what epicurious calls the “cacophony of holiday flavors.” Most wine writers agree that Thanksgiving is not the time to pull a vintage Bordeaux or Burgundy—or even a big chardonnay—from your cellar. More modest bottles Continue reading ““My complements to the turkey”: Choosing the right wines for Thanksgiving” →

A tofu-free vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish: Gnocchi with Roasted Root Vegetables

Seasonal roasted root vegetables turn homemade gnocchi into a satisfying vegetarian main course or a flavorful, colorful side. Recipes below.

At Thanksgiving, my role in the kitchen is pretty much limited to carving the turkey and maybe making a salad. In keeping with that tradition, I’m going to turn Blue Kitchen over to Marion for this post. Be sure to stick around for a couple of other non-traditional dishes that are traditions in our house. You’ll find the links at the end of the Kitchen Notes below.

This dish is to welcome our family members who are vegetarians to our Thanksgiving table. We don’t want to relegate them to the gulag of side dishes, and we want to prepare something honoring the time of year, the occasion and our family memories.

The answer, for those of us [see Kitchen Notes] who won’t ever allow Tofurkey in the house: Gnocchi. For us, this is something handmade, homemade and, with these beautiful roasted vegetables, transcending its humble origins—as simple and honest as our love for one another.

Gnocchi—not under that name—was a regular part of our family meals when I was a child. I am not sure how my mother—whose cooking style was definitely prewar Eastern European—came to make this pasta. Continue reading “A tofu-free vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish: Gnocchi with Roasted Root Vegetables” →

If you can’t stand the heat, take care in the kitchen: 10 Thanksgiving fire safety tips

Cooking fires are twice as likely to happen on Thanksgiving as any other day of the year. Here are some tips to keep your kitchen safe—on Thanksgiving and every other day.

The people at Underwriters Laboratories have the coolest jobs. They get to break things, start fires and make things blow up, all in the name of safety.

Underwriters Laboratories is an independent product safety certification organization that has been testing products and writing standards for safety for more than a century. Each year, the Northbrook, Illinois-based UL evaluates more than 19,000 types of products, components, materials and systems. The UL Mark signifies that a product has undergone rigorous testing to assure that it meets UL’s standards for safety. You’ll find the UL Mark on some 72,000 manufacturers’ products in 98 countries.

Where you won’t find the UL Mark is on one single turkey fryer. Not one. All are deemed far too unsafe. Which leads me to safety tip number one:

1. Don’t deep fry your turkey. Seriously. The video above shows clearly all the ways this novel [read idiotically dangerous] approach to preparing your turkey can go wrong. And this is under laboratory conditions that don’t involve beer or wanting to hurry back to televised football.

But turkey fryers aren’t the only source of accidents. According to UL, “nearly 1,450 residential structure fires Continue reading “If you can’t stand the heat, take care in the kitchen: 10 Thanksgiving fire safety tips” →