Inspired by Columbus: Braised Pork Chops, Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard

A trip to food-obsessed Columbus, Ohio inspires this autumnal combination of Braised Pork Chops with Sage, Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Sautéed Swiss Chard with Garlic. Recipes below.

I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten so much in such a short time span as I did on a recent press trip to Columbus, Ohio. One afternoon, I called Marion from the hotel, where we’d been delivered to briefly rest and attempt to digest the day’s many delicious meals and snacks. I told her, “I’m full as a tick, and in an hour, they’re taking us to dinner!” Continue reading “Inspired by Columbus: Braised Pork Chops, Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard” →

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” →

Just like somebody’s grandma used to make: Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Fennel, Sage

Adapted from an Italian grandmother’s recipe, slow oven braising allows many flavors—onions, garlic, celery, wine, sage, juniper berries, fennel seed, bay leaves—to melt together in this soul-satisfying, fork tender lamb dish. Recipe below.

One of the perks of doing Blue Kitchen is that we’re occasionally asked to review cookbooks. It’s also one of the drawbacks. Writing, thinking, reading and talking about food on a daily basis means that we’re almost always at least a little bit hungry—kind of a low grade infection that never clears up unless you are actually actively engaged in consuming a substantial meal at the moment. And when a gorgeous cookbook like Jessica Theroux’s Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories from Tuscany to Sicily comes along, whole hams can’t quite stay your hunger.

To write Cooking with Italian Grandmothers, Theroux spent a year in Italy talking, cooking and often staying with a dozen Continue reading “Just like somebody’s grandma used to make: Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Fennel, Sage” →

Braised Lamb Shanks: Honest meaty goodness

Slow-cooked Braised Lamb Shanks, flavored with generous amounts of onions, shallots, garlic and rosemary—a seriously satisfying main course. Recipe below.

I remember the first time I ordered lamb shank in a restaurant. It came out looking like a giant Flintstones club on the plate, impressively [frighteningly?] large and unmistakably honest about its animal origins. I was immediately hooked.

Seafood has in the past given me pause by looking too much like the original creature—I used to be troubled by my dinner staring back at me, for instance. Now, though, I think that if you’re going to eat animal flesh—and I am—you need to respect the animal and own up to what you’re doing. With its protruding shank bone and knobby joint, lamb shank leaves no doubt. Continue reading “Braised Lamb Shanks: Honest meaty goodness” →

Let us now braise, part 2: Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops and Tomatoes

Inexpensive lamb shoulder chops become the star of a flavorful meal when you add thyme, garlic, tomatoes, wine and oven braising. Recipe below.

There are so many thing I love about this dish. First and foremost is the distinctive, mildly gamy flavor of lamb. As I’ve said in these pages before, that gaminess is the same quality that separates venison from beef and duck from chicken. I also love the straightforward simplicity of this meal—a handful of ingredients, simple preparation and time are all that’s required. And most of the time is the meat cooking unattended in the oven—prep time is minimal. And maybe most of all, I love the way it transforms a humble cut of meat into something delicious and satisfying.

In last week’s post about Oven-braised Asian Short Ribs, I talked about oven braising and how its even heat tenderizes flavorful but chewy inexpensive cuts of meat without drying them out. Lamb shoulder chops are another cut perfect for this treatment. Continue reading “Let us now braise, part 2: Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops and Tomatoes” →

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” →