Posted by Blake Royer, September 30, 2008 at 4:35 PM
I recently had the good fortune of spending an afternoon with a someone well-versed in the art of mushroom hunting who took me on a search for edible fungi in the forest. Hiding under leaves, behind trees, and tucked away in the moss, the volume of mushrooms is inspiring if you know what to look for. On the other hand, I had little idea what would kill me. My regular refrain—"can we eat this one?"—grew rather tiresome. So I trained my hunting efforts on one variety: the chanterelle. Its bright-orange color is easy to spot and makes identification a breeze. By the end of the afternoon we had a whole bagful of them, dirt and leaves still clinging to their undersides.
Much of the mushroom haul ended up simply sautéed and tossed with pasta. But this recipe, adapted from Saveur, was also good. It reminded me a bit of Frisée aux Lardons, which depends on the sharp, bitter frisée to stand up to a warm dressing of rich bacon and a poached egg.
The richness here comes from the heady mushrooms, pancetta, and shallots. A combination of lemon juice and red wine vinegar goes into the sauté pan to pick up all the lovely caramelized bits, then is whisked with olive oil to create a warm vinaigrette. It makes for a lovely fall salad.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, September 26, 2008 at 8:15 PM
It may be a little early in the season to start dolling out the "I'm thankful for's," but there's really isn't a time that we can't be grateful for the porky, fatty cuisine from the Philippines. I owe so much my fiancée; and her family for opening me up to the world of tocino, lumpia, lechon, and adobo—just to name a few. Among all the tasty dishes, I've found a real affinity for the Filipino breakfast meats, one of my favorites being longanisa, a garlic and vinegar-rich pork sausage.
An excellent recipe came my way about a year ago via Marvin over at Burnt Lumpia. Like him, I wanted to create a sausage remnant the ones cooked by my (future) family, and although I'm used to a slightly sweeter version, this recipe pulled it off pretty well.
I usually have longanisa pan-fried alongside a fried egg or garlic fried rice, but they stood up and tasted great on the grill. The heat of the grill added an extra crispness to the casing that first popped in my mouth, then oozed the juicy innards, which brought on these early feelings of thanksgiving.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 3, 2008 at 1:15 PM
In Italian, spiedino means 'little spit' and refers to meat grilled on skewers over an open fire. Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from A16 Food + Wine, is for Pork Loin Spiedino with Pine Nut, Garlic, and Currant Soffritto. A soffritto is a combination of aromatic ingredients simmered in olive oil. It can be used as a simple flavor enhancer; a base for other recipes; or a sauce, as it is here.
For this dish, wine director and co-author Shelley Lindgren recommends Magliocco from Calabria, a "muscular" wine with notes of plum, blackberry, clove, and white pepper. If you can't find it, opt for a spicy Nero d'Avola instead.
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In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week we're giving away five (5) copies of A16 Food + Wine. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 20, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I picked this guy from Bon Appétit mostly because it involves yogurt sauce slathered on pork. It reminded me of the Baked Chicken with Yogurt and Chile Paste I made last year. And as it turns out, they're not just similar; they're almost identical.
Both involve meat covered in a yogurt-cumin sauce that's spiked with something spicy. This one replaces chili paste with the chilies in adobo in the baked version—a swap I completely endorse.
Overall, it wasn't disastrous, but certainly lacked the flavor of the baked version. After the yogurt gets brushed onto the meat, it doesn't marry the meat flavors like the baked version does. By the end, the meat felt lonely. You're supposed to top the pork with guacamole, but that part bothered me, so I skipped it—yet the flavor still needed something. Next time I'll set aside extra sauce at the beginning and drizzle it over the pork at the end.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, July 22, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Rhubarb season generally runs from late spring to early summer, but this year it seems to have lasted a bit longer: the bright red stalks are still available at my weekend farmers market, and I've spotted them at high-end grocery stores such as Whole Foods as recently as a few days ago. As a lover of rhubarb's snappy, tart flavor, I can only hope its recent proliferation is a sign of increasing popularity. If there is enough demand, maybe someday rhubarb will be available year-round. Sure, it won't taste as good in January as it does in June, but baked into a pie, I doubt anyone will complain.
Today’s Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Summer on a Plate by Anna Pump, pairs a chunky rhubarb-honey sauce with a spicy grilled pork tenderloin rubbed with ground sage, fennel, cayenne, and Dijon mustard. If you have time, prepare the rhubarb sauce one day ahead to give the flavors a chance to blend.
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We're giving away five (5) copies of Anna's book. Enter for a chance to win here.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, July 18, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Tacos and gyrating meat hold a special place in my heart, making tacos al pastor a super food in my book. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, a vertical broiler has yet to make its way onto my wedding registry. Not to be discouraged, I set out to recreate tacos al pastor the best way I know how: by grilling them.
The deep smokey spiciness provided by guajillo and chipotle chiles mixed with the sweetness of the pineapple came through extraordinarily on the grill. These flavors combined to make a truly delectable taco, leaving me content on the taste part of meal—but the absence of gyration left a bit to be desired on the texture side. What I love about gyrating meat is how the outer layer becomes nice and crisp due to being exposed to the heat; when that layer is sliced off for a sandwich or taco, you get a unique combination of the crunchy outside and tender inside. I was unable to achieve that crunchiness on the grill without totally overcooking the pork, and in the end, a well cooked meat was more important. Even though the grilled tacos al pastor were excellent, they will never be a replacement for the real deal.
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Posted by Blake Royer, July 17, 2008 at 3:30 PM
A few months ago, I featured a recipe from Gourmet for roasted pork tenderloin with a toasted walnut vinaigrette—I loved the way it paired fresh, spicy arugula with the warm, savory dressing. Someone at Gourmet must also love this combination because this month's issue features another tenderloin salad with arugula and nuts. This time the salad is a take on Romesco sauce.
Romesco sauce is a Catalan dish that wonderfully combines almonds, garlic, peppers, chillies, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and sometimes bread. While the ingredients are traditionally bashed together to the thickness of pesto, the elements in this recipe stay separated and are scattered throughout the salad. I found the original recipe overwhelmingly spicy, but I've toned it down a bit in my adaptation by using half the dressing required and bulking it out with olive oil.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, June 23, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Grill Every Day by Diane Morgan, is for Southeast Asian Pork Satay. The spicy marinade (composed of lemongrass, ginger, cumin, coriander, and red pepper flakes) can be prepared up to three days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator, making it an ideal choice for a busy weeknight family meal. But keep this recipe in mind for your next dinner party as well—it would make a terrific appetizer.
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In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five copies of Grill Every Day. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, June 19, 2008 at 12:30 PM
I love everything about ribs: the smoldering aroma; the dripping sauce; gnawing the last, crispy bits of meat from the end of the bone. But I've always been a bit too intimidated to make them at home. For one thing, I don’t have an outdoor grill. For another, all the spice rubs, pastes, and condiments (soy sauce? ketchup? dry mustard?) were overwhelming, not to mention selecting the type of ribs themselves—babyback, short, or spare? Beef or pork? Whenever I craved a barbecue feast, I'd sooner hop on the subway to Dinosaur than roll up my sleeves in the kitchen.
But Martha Hall Foose, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, has me inspired. Today she shares her simple, no-frills recipe for Slow, Low Oven Ribs. Not only is the ingredient list super-short (10 items, including salt and pepper!), but Martha also recommends using Country-style pork ribs, which are relatively inexpensive. Best of all, they can be prepared through the final steps up to a day ahead, then finished just before dinner.
Win ‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five copies of Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, June 13, 2008 at 11:30 AM
On Mother's Day I was thoughtful and asked my Mom what it was she'd most like to have grilled for her, but Father's Day is a whole different beast. Even though my own father isn't much of a griller, I know that I'm destined to be the reason Hallmark produces countless grilling cards. So I thought, "What would could a son or daughter do that would both impress and make me relinquish hold of the grill?" The answer: sausage.
I don't think there's anything else in my repertoire that so consistently causes awe, but in all honesty, sausage is not all that hard to make, and the final reward far outweighs any difficulty or time. Beer Brats seemed especially fitting for Father's Day, packing almost every Father's Day cliché nicely onto a 6" hard roll. Cooking bratwurst in a bath of dark beer and onions adds the perfect slightly bitter compliment to this sweet-spiced sausage. Then, top that off with some ketchup, mustard, pickles or sauerkraut, and the whole thing just explodes with flavor with every bite. I'm not quite there yet, but I know the day one of my offspring make some of these for for me, I'm going to be one proud papa.
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Posted by Sarah Wolf, June 11, 2008 at 6:15 PM
- serves 4 to 8 -
Adapted from Taming the Flame by Elizabeth Karmel.
Ingredients
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, coarsely ground
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons celery salt
2 teaspoons red chile flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 cups apple juice
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tablespoon fine sea salt
4 slabs back ribs, about 3 pounds each
Special equipment: disposable aluminum turkey roasting pan
Procedure
1. Make the rub: Combine all the spices in a small bowl. Divide the mixture in half. Put half of the rub in a spice (coffee) grinder or mortar and pestle and grind the spices to a medium consistency. Mix that with the reserved spice rub. (This will make a rub that is easily absorbed by the meat during "rubbing" and still has texture.) Set aside.
2. Make the mop: Mix 1 tablespoon of the dry rub with the apple juice, water, and salt until the salt is dissolved. Set aside.
3. Build a charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill, setting up the grill for indirect heat.
4. Remove the silver skin from the back of the ribs, if desired. Sprinkle the ribs liberally with the spice rub and let sit, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes. Place an aluminum pan on top of the cooking grate.
5. Arrange the ribs on a rib rack. Place the ribs in the aluminum pan on the center of the cooking grate over indirect medium-low heat. Pour 1 cup of the apple juice mop into the drip pan.
6. Grill covered (at about 325°F, if your grill has a thermometer) for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the meat is tender and has pulled back from the ends of the rib bones.
7. Leave ribs untended for the first 30 minutes—this means no peeking. Then, using the apple juice mixture, baste or "mop" the ribs every 20 minutes, adding a little more apple juice mop (about 1/4 cup) to the drip pan each time. You will do this twice. When the mop is gone and the juices have accumulated in the drip pan, baste the ribs with the drippings one more time. If the ribs start to burn on the edges, stack them on top of one another in the very center of the foil pan and lower the heat slightly.
8. About 10 minutes before the ribs are done, remove them from the pan and place them on the cooking grate over indirect heat to finish browning and crisp the surface crust. (If your ribs are already crispy and have a caramelized crust on the outside, this last step may not be necessary.)
9. Meanwhile, pour the pan drippings through a fine sieve or fine-mesh strainer into a saucepan and bring to a boil, adding any leftover apple juice mop. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
10. Remove the ribs from the grill and let them rest for 10 minutes before cutting into individual or 2 to 3 rib portions. Serve the ribs with warm drippings on the side.
Posted by Blake Royer, June 10, 2008 at 4:30 PM
This recipe turned out nothing like I imagined it, which is completely my fault because I didn't bother to read it through to the end. "Press the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve," it advised, which quashed my idea that this was going to be a chunky, rustic dish that highlighted in-season rhubarb. I thought I was was going to have a meat-and-vegetable all-in-one dish that could stand on its own and make a satisfying meal. What I ended up with was the pork tenderloin with some ugly-looking cooked-down brown mush that, good thing, the recipe told me to strain.
Anyway, it still tasted good (although it would be even better over creamy polenta with a side of spinach). After the tenderloin gets roasted, rhubarb and pear are cooked down in the same pan, everything is deglazed with a wheat beer, then it's finished with a little honey and butter. It's just a little fussier than the kind of recipe I usually enjoy. The taste of the rhubarb, which is what I wanted to highlight in the first place, was a little lost. I'm still confident that pork and rhubarb would be great together—but I've yet to find that recipe.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, June 4, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Like Blake, my first experience with kimchi came in a piping hot bowl of soup that our friend Duncan made after returning from Korea. I’ve been addicted for a few years now, but for some reason have never tried to make the soup that first got me hooked. I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the recipe I did find, but it is delicious. Even the fianc—e, who has no particular love for the fermented cabbage, had to admit she loved it. The addition of the sugar helps calm this spicy stew, making it a little less aggressive and more rounded.
Bacon can surely be substituted for the fresh pork belly, though you’ll want to adjust the seasoning because of the added salt. But really, it’s more fun to buy a big hunk of uncured belly. I found mine at the local Asian supermarket for about 2 dollars a pound. So even though they wouldn’t let me get anything less than a pound and a half, I got out for under 4 bucks. I also got to practice removing pig skin with a large knife, which is a good time if I ever knew one.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, May 30, 2008 at 10:15 AM
I can barely control my excitement as I sit here and stare at my Fast Pass for the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, thinking about the enormous amounts of 'cue I'm destined to consume next weekend. The anticipation was a little too much for me handle the other day—I couldn't wait a second longer for some smoke-kissed meat, so I fired up the smoker and threw on a bunch of beautiful racks of spare ribs and was eating pretty five hours later.
I've been partial to Mike Mills's Apple City Ribs both at home and at the BABBP for years now, never finding a good reason to stray from perfection, but I decided to switch it up a bit and tried a recipe from Chris Lilly, pitmaster at Big Bob Gibson's (who makes the best pulled pork that will ever cross your lips). The recipe gave me pause for a second—with its smoke/braise/smoke formula, I questioned the authenticity of it being true 'cue, but then I figured it sounded too delicious to pass up and forged ahead. It ended up that this was a recipe for success—the ribs were succulent, retaining their smokiness while adding a layer of depth with the sweetness from the pineapple braise. The only problem is that they were gone so fast that I'm now left with no 'cue, and with my thoughts trained on the BABBP, I'm coming to the realization that one week is too long to live without more.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 12, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I found Food and Wine's Recipes of 2000 as an aging, massive book amongst the library shelves and figured I could find something in there. But it almost has too much to choose from—it’s such a daunting task trying to sort through its hundreds of recipes. There are only pictures for a small percentage of the dishes, and the text is very small. I finally picked out this recipe for mustard and sour cream sauce to go with my pork chops because the sauce sounded wonderful. It uses two different kinds of mustard—something I’d never heard of that before, but it somehow works. The sauce is thick and rich, and the perfect vinegary counterpoint to the chops.
The technique for cooking the pork chops comes straight from Cook’s Illustrated. I’d always been disappointed with pork chops; they would undoubtedly end up dry and flavorless. While brining helps, this method work every time. You start with the chops in a cold pan and then then turn the heat to medium. Once they are browned on one side the heat drops to low and the cover goes on. It’s a little finicky, but by following these directions I’ve gotten moist, flavorful chops every time.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, May 9, 2008 at 3:15 PM
My poor Mom, she bought herself a Weber Q only to be told by her condo board that she can't use it, since the odor of grilling may disturb other residents. So this Mother's Day I decided to ask her what she'd like in order to bring a little bit of grilled joy back into her life. Like any good mother, she quickly responded, "Pork," directly referring to a pulled pork I made for her a couple years back. Seeing as that may not be the most universal holiday meal, I used it as starting point and found a fitting recipe for an Orange, Sage, and Garlic Rubbed Pork Tenderloin.
When assembling the rub, the aroma of orange and sage conjured up memories of Sunday brunches with Mom. Unfortunately, the smells did not translate as well to taste after grilled. The tenderloin was hit or miss with each bite. If a piece had retained enough rub through grilling, it was sweet and succulent, but if not, it was a bit bland. I think this can easily be fixed by either glopping on more rub before cooking or reapplying after moving the tenderloin to the cool side of the grill to finish cooking. I still recommend this as a good choice for Mother's Day, and one of the best parts is it's fast, so you can deliver the two best gifts to mom: food and time together.
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Posted by Blake Royer, April 29, 2008 at 4:30 PM
This "mojo" sauce has nothing to do with the word for magic touch, but you could have fooled me: this is one of the most delicious marinades I've had in ages. The recipe comes from Our Latin Table, and describes mojo sauce paired with pork as what Cubans are weaned on and live for. It "might possibly have all the ingredients that make up Cuban cookery," which isn't surprising. The marinade is simply olive oil, garlic, oregano, cumin, and citrus, yet it's far more than the sum of its parts. This stuff tastes good enough to build an entire cuisine on.
It also did wonders for the juiciness of thick cut pork chops, though it may have helped that I also brined them beforehand. But I'm convinced that the acidity of the citrus—traditionally made from sour Cuban oranges, but in this case with a combination of orange and lime juice—makes its way into the chop and tenderizes. Though it wasn't quite warm enough outside to go through the trouble of lighting coals when I made this, it did fine on a very hot cast iron skillet. As soon as summer gets here, I'm keeping some of this marinade very close at hand—it will go fine with that one other Cuban ingredient that mojo doesn't have: rum. Is it warm enough for mojitos yet?
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Posted by Blake Royer, April 22, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Sometimes I find myself in a rut when it comes to quick pasta tomato sauces. The usual canned tomatoes, a few herbs, garlic and onions—it's good, but it's a little boring. I thoroughly enjoy Batali's marinara on a regular basis, which grates carrots into the sauce, but I've been eating it all winter out of the freezer. When it's the middle of summer, I can chop up some juicy market heirloom tomatoes, marinate them with garlic, basil, and olive oil, then serve uncooked with hot linguine. But what about when tomatoes still suck and I'm out of ideas?
This recipe suggests simmering pork sausages in white wine, then using the resulting fat-infused liquid to flavor the sauce. I was further convinced by the use of butter instead of olive oil to begin the onions and garlic, which adds a little richness and creaminess to everything. And finally, freshly shelled peas are appearing at my farmer's market, and this recipe calls for those, too. Once again, Diana Seed's The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces came through in a clutch.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, March 26, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Photo courtesy of Adam Fields
If you love meat and you love sandwiches, then it doesn't get better than a sandwich made by a butcher. Makes sense, right? I mean, if a guy can take apart an animal, he probably knows how to make it taste delicious. That's all I could think about last night as I stood with 11 other "classmates" at a pig butchering class in the Brooklyn Kitchen (a hipster's Williams Sonoma for New Yorkers who love to cook). The butcher, Tom Mylan, was dissecting half of a 200-plus-pound Berkshire pig, and the 12 of us had paid $75 to watch him do it, ask him anything we wanted, and, of course, divvy up the meat at the end of the show.
My question (aside from how I could get his job): If you were going to make a sandwich from this glorious animal, what part would you use and how would you do it?
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 24, 2008 at 4:30 PM
In my family, Easter means a big old ham and lots of leftovers. When the parents hugged us goodbye they sent us on our way with much more ham than a normal person should eat. Instead of just going with the regular old ham sandwiches, we decided to try our hands at the Cuban sandwich. I know there are lots of rules, and I was initially was leery about approaching a sandwich as contentious as this one. Hell, even poor Howie of Top Chef fame (remember him?) got crucified for not pressing his interpretation of the sandwich down.
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 23, 2008 at 12:00 PM
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on braised pork. —Ed Levine
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 23, 2008 at 8:00 AM
As today is Easter Sunday, I thought it only appropriate to publish a big ol' roast pork recipe that could be substituted for the big ol' ham you might usually make. This recipe, adapted from the great French butcher cookbook Pork & Sons by Stéphane Reynaud, takes less than 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, so you can start cooking at 10 and have it on the table by 12:30, perfect time for an Easter brunch (or so they tell me). Plus, it's a great, festive one-pot meal.
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Posted by Blake Royer, March 20, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Every time I open Rick Bayless's books, he proves to me that Mexican cooking is more than tacos and burritos. It's not that I didn't already know this--but somehow I'm still surprised when ingredients and flavors I'm used to eating in tortillas end up outside them. His book Mexican Everyday is his most accessible, full of quick meals from salads to soups to meat off the grill.
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Posted by Blake Royer, March 18, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Pork tenderloin is a great cut of meat to cook with—it's simple to prepare, inexpensive, and easily sliced into pleasing medallions for serving. It behaves very well and predictably, being a long cylinder of meat with little fat and tendon. The only problem is, just like that other conveniently-shaped protein that makes its way into so many dishes—the boneless, skinless, chicken breast—the pork tenderloin can often lack flavor. Buying one from a nice well-loved heritage pig rather than a commercial hog does add something, but it's never going to have the porkiness of a bone-in chop, much less a belly or shoulder.
Thankfully, the dressing from this Gourmet recipe packs a serious, unexpected punch. Building on the basic red wine vinegar with garlic and olive oil, it's fortified with the caramelized pan drippings of the roasted tenderloin and thickened with warm toasted walnuts. Arugula and sliced endive are the refreshing bitter counterpoint against the warm pork.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, March 18, 2008 at 2:15 PM
When I have a craving for a really decadent dish—macaroni and cheese, say, or rice pudding—I prefer to make it for myself as opposed to ordering it in a restaurant. This is for two reasons: first, I think that rich, comforting foods are best enjoyed at home; second, when I am the cook, I am in control of the specific ingredients and the portion sizes. The end result is, I believe, always a little bit healthier.
For this week's magazine recipe review I made the orecchiette carbonara with leeks from the April issue of Bon Appétit. Spaghetti carbonara is something I would never eat out, for fear of popping a button off my pants in public. There is just no way to tell how much butter, oil, and bacon fat is being used. I was drawn to the version in Bon Appétit because it didn't use heavy cream (unlike some less traditional carbonaras), and because it called for fresh, seasonal leeks. Also, I happened to have a lot of eggs on hand.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 15, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
I'm on a pork kick with Sunday Supper lately. This is one I've made for a small dinner party and it turned out admirably. I've only ever made it for a dinner party because it's a darn big roast for only one or two people, which is usually the number sitting down for dinner in my house. It's from Seattle chef Tom Douglas's Big Dinners (look at that title—what'd I tell you?), and he recommends serving bread dumplings with it. It's all I can do to manage a roast like this, so I'd probably do something a little less time-consuming, like mashed potatoes. Whatever you serve with it, though, make sure it's gravy-friendly, because even after pouring a quarter of it over the pork, you'll still have an ample supply.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
If you've been following along this week, you might know that I picked up a panini press for the office and have been using it to cook lunchtime sandwiches like a madman. Well, this crazy appliance also doubles as an electric grill, so I'm eager to try my hand at some recipes that require the use of either an outdoor grill or a grill pan on the stove. I figure the press/grill/griddle will work almost as well as a grill pan, which is what I would have to use (if I had one) on such a cold and rainy weekend. This recipe is for a dish that I'm going to try this week—Vietnamese-style grilled pork. While the first half of it requires the use of a stove, it's one that I've only ever finished over coals. The new electric grill worked like a charm for panini, so it's time to force it into some new territory.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I had little chorizo leftover from Monday’s fantastic chorizo, egg and raisin meal, and instead of making that same meal for the third time, I figured I’d try to see what else I could find. Contrary to all rationale, I was still in a taco munching mood, and so I quickly went for the Mexican guide to all things quick and easy, Rick Bayless. This isn’t the first time.
I’ve made this before with just the chorizo and potato, but I decided to finally pony up and get the mushrooms too. For some reason they felt unnecessary before. The potato was already going to add body and the chorizo had all the goodness. The mushrooms certainly don’t lighten up the dish like the raisins did, but they do make things a little more savory and a tad less greasy. It’s odd that it works so well, but I guess that’s just Bayless you.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 6, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Monday was a croque monsieur. Tuesday was a ham-and-brie-and-apple sandwich. Yesterday we went vegetarian with a goat cheese, artichoke, and tomato sandwich. Today we're back on the pork tip. Sorry. We're like junkies here at the Serious Eats office. The Catskills Cubano recipe called to us from the pages of this week's featured cookbook, Panini Express, and we couldn't resist. I'd been wanting to make a sandwich on ciabatta to see how it reacted in our new panini press, and this one was pretty darn simple, with no pre-press prep other than chopping some peppers. From there, it was a simple matter of layering on pork and cheese.
The book's author, Daniel Leader, named this a Catskills Cubano in honor of the region in which his bakery is located. It's a slight variation on a traditional Cuban sandwich, in that he calls for pickled jalapeños instead of regular pickles and he uses serrano ham or prosciutto instead of the the more common cured ham used. We riffed on this one a little more, subbing in Hatch green chiles.
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If you're just now tuning in, you should note that we're giving away five (5) copies of this book here on Serious Eats this week. More details on that here.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, February 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The following recipe is from the February 6th edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Pork, apple and stilton? That's three food groups! Four if you count the sage leaves. Combine the goodness of these ingredients by trying Jamie Oliver's recipe for old-school pork chops with apples and sage from his book, Cook with Jamie. Although he says the cheese is optional, you know you have to use it.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 1, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I’m a little nervous about putting this recipe before this crowd, which probably includes more people with dearly-held opinions about barbecue and tacos than I could find anywhere else. Me, I like pulled pork, but I’m from Texas, so that’s not the brand of barbecue I was raised on; and again, I’m from Texas, so I’ll accept a crispy shell full of ground beef and orange cheese as a “taco” just as happily as I’ll eat carnitas wrapped in a fresh tortilla. In short, people with standards more exacting than mine might argue that this is not real pulled pork and these are not real pork tacos. But recently I fed them to a discerning friend who went back for seconds and thirds, and their excellence has made it hard for us to enjoy pork tacos at our former favorite places, so…I’m going to risk putting this out there.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, January 31, 2008 at 1:45 PM
When I read the comments on my first post about Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.
I realized that I had underestimated the delicacy of the thumbnail biographer’s task. As an educated, experienced woman who brings home the bacon (okay, a small piece of bacon, but still) and cooks it up for her husband every night of the week, I never considered the possibility that I could be somehow insulting Marcella Hazan by writing that she learned to cook to feed her husband (something she herself has said), and I didn’t mean to imply that a woman who teaches herself to cook is necessarily without other accomplishments (such as Hazan’s doctorates in natural sciences and in biology). Heck, even if we didn’t have her amazing career to demonstrate what a formidable woman she is, we have her writing, so full of authority and character it leaves no doubt about the intelligence and strength of personality behind the words. I certainly meant no disrespect! I know most of us cook because we ourselves love food and being in the kitchen, but don’t we love to feed other people, too?
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 24, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I'm sure everyone has their pork chop recipe, since it's a great cut for weeknight dinners—it takes well to quick-cooking and the directions for possible sauces are endless. Bourbon teriyaki, soy-and-honey, fennel seeds with sage and rosemary, cherry barbecue—just a few that have been posted on Serious Eats. It's such a great pan-frying cut, in fact, that it's the featured recipe in that section in Alice Water's marvelous Art of Simple Food. She gives some coaching advice on the cooking technique, then offers up a number of variations, from pressing herbs onto the chops before frying to topping with gremolata, a mixture of chopped parsley, garlic, and lemon zest.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 14, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Although the name of today's recipe from Jean-Georges Vongerichten's
Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges is simply called Baby Back Ribs with Barbecue Sauce, it's a little more complex than that. He gives his ribs an Asian touch by cooking them with ginger, chile, and soy sauce and dressing them with barbecue sauce containing hoisin, five-spice powder, orange zest, and soy sauce.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, November 12, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Bourbon in a teriyaki sauce? Really? I would have passed this recipe up real quick had a.) it not come from Saveur, a magazine whose motto is "Savor a World of Authentic Cuisine," and b.) had I not really needed an excuse to buy more bourbon.
Good thing, too. Although this recipe was created as a covering for roast chicken, it was an absurdly easy coating for my thick-cut pork chops. Under the broiler, the teriyaki sauce caramelized on the chops, creating a luscious weeknight meal. Plus, I only needed a tablespoon of the bourbon for the sauce, meaning there were plenty of leftovers for other practical uses.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 18, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I have a tiny apartment and an equally tiny kitchen.
Scratch that. Depending on how you look at it, I either have a large kitchen with a couch, TV, and bookshelves in it—or a living room with a sink, refrigerator, and stove. Yes, my living room and kitchen are essentially one large room. Oh, New York, New York.
Anyway, with literally a foot of counter space to work with, cooking at home is sometimes a bit of a chore. That's why I went a little crazy the other day here at the Serious Eats office, cleaning up and organizing our underused kitchenette to free up a relatively ample work surface. My plan was to make my National Meatloaf Appreciation Day meatloaf in the toaster oven here. Crazy, I know, but it was either that or the microwave, and not even I am willing to go there.
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Posted by The Gurgling Cod, October 4, 2007 at 5:30 PM
Sunday Night Soups, where each week The Gurgling Cod shows up to offer a soup appropriate to the week’s Sunday Night Football game on NBC. Think of this Pork Stock recipe as the pregame show—it takes a while, so we're posting it today. The recipe for the week's soup will come on Saturday.
This Sunday, the Chicago Bears travel to Wisconsin to face the Green Bay Packers. After dreary NFC East scrimmages and lopsided Belichickian beatdowns, this Norris Division contest is a welcome change. Soupwise, the matchup could hardly be more appealing—the Hog Butchers to the World travel to America's Dairyland. Thus, this tilt demands a soup featuring both pork and cheese. Such a soup exists: French onion soup.
"Where's the pork," you say, echoing the late Clara Peller. "French Onion Soup is made with beef broth."
Mostly, yes, but not in Montreal. At the legendary Au Pied du Cochon, Martin Picard soon realized that the braising liquid that ensued from churning out the eponymous dish could be the basis of a hearty soup. The collagen that comes from the cartilage in the trotter gives the broth a silky body and richness that is impossible to duplicate without trotters.
You may not have to cope with the results of braising hundreds of pigs' feet every week, but pork stock is still a dramatic upgrade over the typical French onion soup. Typical French onion soup is a bistro cliché that often devolves to something queso fundido floating on dishwater. Using a rich pork stock instead results in a soup actually worth eating. This soup is not demanding, but it is time-consuming, which is why we're posting the stock recipe well ahead of game day.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 20, 2007 at 11:00 AM
There is no higher form of pork cooking than slow-smoked North Carolina pulled pork. The result of cooking a pork butt or whole shoulder at a very low temperature for a long time, pulled pork is so named because it's so tender at the end of the cooking process you can and should pull it apart with your hands. There are no reliable shortcuts in making this dish. Just grab a chair, a soft drink or a beer, and enjoy the time it takes to make one of the best-tasting things you can put in your mouth. The recipes below have been adapted from Elizabeth Karmel's book Taming the Flame, which has tons of useful information and tips about grilling as well as some terrific recipes.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 11, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Latin-American cooking often features ground pork. Perhaps the best-known dish using ground pork is pozole, a stew made with hominy, dried corn kernels. Here's a pozole-inspired pork and green chili recipe that is easy to make, filling, and filled with flavor.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 4, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Bobby Flay knows that pork takes well to a little sweetness, and this recipe for grilled pork chops with soy-honey glaze and grilled sweet onions illustrates that point perfectly . The saltiness of the soy sauce is balanced perfectly by the sweetness of the Vidalia onions and the honey. If you want to add a touch more heat to this dish, add another pinch of hot red pepper flakes.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 13, 2007 at 10:20 AM
This Bruce Aidells recipe from his Complete Book of Pork is not really for chips, but rather patties of ground pork crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. They're like potato chips in that it's downright impossible to eat just one. These "chips" make a great appetizer served with lemon wedges. Or if you want to kick these chips up a notch, garnish each one with a caper and put each one in a lettuce cup. I like the capers packed in salt. Just remember to thoroughly rinse them.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 10, 2007 at 5:45 PM
It's a little late today, but I guess I wanted to wait a bit before parting with The Breakaway Cook
for the week. It's a little chilly, windy, and rainy today as I'm writing this so Clay-Pot Ginger Pork with Figs and Pickled Fennel looked like just the antidote. As the book's author, Eric Gower, notes, this recipe takes little in the way of assembly but it does need about two hours to cook—it's a good weekend dish for that reason.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 6, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Jacques Pepin, distinguished private chef, poet, HoJo consultant, and author of some of the thickest tomes of culinary education, also likes to eat on time. Although he’s recently been strutting his stuff on PBS hawking his 2004 cookbook Fast Food My Way, he’s been trying to cut corners for a long time. Or so I found out when I stumbled upon his The Short-Cut Book, which was released in 1990.
Luckily, I unearthed it from the Columbus, Ohio, public library, where it hadn’t been checked out since 1996. Anyway, true to claim, there are some great quick recipes in here. What caught my eye first was the recipe for broiled ham steaks, both because it was surprisingly easy looking and because I had some ready to go in the fridge. The ham steaks I had were probably way too thin. Pepin advocates half-inch steaks, and mine were more like an eighth inch, or just a tad thicker than deli slices. Anyway, this dish is more about the sauce, which is made with relatively common ingredients.
Preparing the ham steaks could not be much simpler. Slather on some of the sauce, place under the broiler, and cook until the sauce caramelizes. Even the sauce requires virtually no time. Just whisk everything together and go.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 19, 2007 at 8:31 AM
Pork tenderloin is an incredibly versatile and easy cut of meat to cook with. You can use it whole or, to really speed up the preparation process, cut into medallions. Tom Valenti, best-selling cookbook author and owner of Ouest restaurant in New York City, came up with this incredibly flavorful recipe for his book Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals
.
If you don't want to fire up the grill, cook the medallions in a sauté pan over medium-high heat for five to six minutes per side for medium-rare, seven to eight minutes for more well done.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 6, 2007 at 10:59 AM
Sometimes we all need a dish we can cook and get on the table in 20 minutes, max. When I'm in that "20 minutes from start to finish" frame of mind I often cook slices of boneless pork loin. I either slice the pork loin myself or have my butcher do it. Either way, boneless pork loin cooks fast, takes sauce well, and is easy to make. Here's a recipe for it from Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby's The Thrill of the Grill: Techniques, Recipes, & Down-Home Barbecue
, certainly a contender for the greatest grilling book title ever. If you can't find fresh rosemary, use fresh oregano or thyme instead. Do not use dried rosemary, which has quite a different flavor from fresh.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 29, 2007 at 1:30 PM
Pork and citrus fruit with ratatouille, the final Cook the Book recipe from Pork & Sons, is a great crowd-pleaser, perfect for informal summer dinner parties. Pork and fruit of all kinds are a great combination, and the citrus fruit lends a lovely, clean-tasting acidity to the pork.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 28, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I've been blabbing a lot lately about how much I love pork tenderloin, so it shouldn't come as a complete surprise that I chose to post this Pork & Sons recipe for tenderloins in a fresh herb crust. The herb crust helps to keep the very lean tenderloin meat moist and juicy.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 27, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I made this recipe a few months ago, in early spring, when Pork & Sons first came out, and it was a huge hit at a dinner party. Because the recipe calls for frozen peas, it can be made any time of year. Nine cups of frozen peas may seem like a lot, but in fact the blizzard of peas makes for a lovely presentation.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 27, 2007 at 8:00 AM
Pork tenderloin is beloved by chefs all over North America with good reason. It's extremely lean, very tasty, and easy to cook with. You can grill or roast it whole or sauté sliced medallions to make a quick and satisfying dinner any time of year. Be careful not to overcook it, as pork tenderloin has so little internal fat it needs to retain all the moisture it can during cooking. Here's a recipe for Green Olive-stuffed Pork Tenderloin from my friend Bruce Aidells's brilliant treatise on pork, Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork: A Guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World's Favorite Meat. Bruce says he was inspired to create this dish by a stuffed duck recipe his chef-restaurateur wife Nancy Oakes (Boulevard in San Francisco) learned from cookbook author Patricia Wells. So in this case success has many mothers and one father.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 26, 2007 at 1:30 PM
This recipe for Pork Chops with Shallots is incredibly simple, takes twenty minutes to make, and is as full of flavor as a slow-cooked pork shoulder. It is French country cooking at its most soulful. Pork & Sons.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 25, 2007 at 1:00 PM
What I love about this Roast Pork with Thyme and Parsley recipe is that you can serve it hot or cold. That makes it the perfect four-season pork dish. With hot summer days upon us, I would serve it cold with a simple green salad, a litte coleslaw, or some roasted asparagus. Pork & Sons.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, June 22, 2007 at 12:15 PM
The perfect setting requires a serious sandwich, and The Girl & The Fig, in downtown Sonoma, California, serves it up in the form of the Pork Tartine. Pronounced "tarteen," the word is essentially French for anything delicious, layered on a single slice of bread; or, just a fancy way of saying "open-faced sandwich." While many will argue that a proper sandwich requires two pieces of bread, I say why discriminate?
With only one day in wine country, my wife and I wanted to make it count foodwise, so we hit pay dirt when we unearthed Sondra Bernstein's restaurant nestled in the Sonoma Hotel. It's exactly the kind of place you want to eat lunch on a beautiful Northern California day—good food, fresh ingredients, and most important, an outdoor patio.
Great bread is the biggest endorsement for an open-faced sandwich. One giant thick slice of a good bread allows you to fully appreciate the chewiness that would be lost with two thinner slices of grilled bread—and two slices of thick bread is just too much.
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Posted by Alaina Browne, June 18, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Chef and cookbook author Bruce Aidells knows and loves pork as evidenced by his book, Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork: A Guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World's Favorite Meat. Here are a couple of his tips for preparing grilled pork chops, followed by his recipe for Grilled, Brined, Fresh Herb-Coated Pork Chops.
Grilling pork chops:
For best results, I grill with a covered kettle-type charcoal grill or a covered gas-fired grill. Covered grills allow for better heat regulation and flare-ups are damped when the cover is on.
How to put flavor and juiciness into grilled pork chops:
Grilled pork chops need a little help to make them flavorful and juicy. The simplest way to ensure juicy chops and boost flavor is with a "flavor brine," which is nothing more than a solution of water, salt, and a sweetener such as brown sugar or molasses and sometimes herbs and spices. By bathing chops for 4 hours or more in a brine solution, the meat soaks up liquid and muscle fibers swell and become firmer. The result is juicy pork even when slightly overcooked. More flavor can be added to brined chops by then coating them in a spice rub. Even unbrined pork chops are improved by rubbing with salt, pepper, and various spices.
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