May 1, 2008 – May 31, 2008
Posted by Blake Royer, May 15, 2008 at 3:45 PM
I hardly ever eat veal, much less cook with it, but something about the recipe in this month's Saveur had me rushing to the butcher. The simplicity and richness of the dish was immensely appealing. Saltimbocca alla Romana is, as you might guess from the name, a classic Roman dish; the name means "jump in the mouth," which it did into mine, quickly. Its preparation takes only a few minutes, and the result is exceedingly elegant.
While I had my butcher flatten out the veal cutlets for me, it's easy to do at home with two sheets of plastic wrap and a pounding utensil (you can even use the bottom of a heavy skillet, like cast iron). Next, thin slices of prosciutto are pressed against the thin veal cutlets so that they gently adhere, and leaves of sage are pinned to the meat with toothpicks. The whole constructed sheet of meat is dredged very lightly in a little flour before sautéeing, which gives it a wonderful crust and later thickens the pan sauce, made from marsala and a little chicken stock. Just remember that you don't really need to salt anything—the prosciutto brings plenty to the party, as will the chicken stock.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 14, 2008 at 6:15 PM
It wasn’t exactly a con job, but I did end up spending way too much for the fontina cheese at the local cheesemonger. The man was describing some heavenly stuff that he had just gotten in and I simply got mesmerized. It smelled wonderful and complex and agreed to a 1/2 pound before I even thought about asking the price. When the total came in over $10 I realized I had surpassed my intentions. My original goal was to sprinkle it over some broccoli...and that’s it. That’s an expensive side dish. Cheese this good needed a higher lot in life.
The fiancée actually remembered this recipe out of the well-worn Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces. She claims we had this dish before, and she’s usually right. But we definitely didn’t have it with fontina this good. The level of nutty, earthiness is incredible considering how little cheese is actually used. All the rest is vegetable goodness, and the zucchini, especially, adds some wonderful sweetness. It’s just another potato and pasta recipe that sounds illogical, and yet creates a dish like this one. The recipe's name translates simply as "Pasta with Green Vegetables," but it sounds so much better in Italian.
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Posted by Blake Royer, May 13, 2008 at 4:15 PM
A while back, Nick wrote about a balsamic-glazed Brussels sprouts recipe that he seemed relatively happy with. Now, I personally happen to have the greatest, simplest balsamic Brussels sprouts recipe known to man in my repertoire—a recipe that converts the non-lovers and the childhood-fearers—which I found on a flyer when I visited Dan Barber's upstate restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Although I wanted to write about my Brussels sprouts recipe, Nick had already covered that territory—I cut my losses and moved on.
But then I was visiting him this past weekend, and we picked up a bag of Brussels sprouts. While we were trying to figure out how they should be cooked, I offered to take over with Barber's recipe. Upon tasting them, Nick immediately began interrogating me as to why this recipe hadn't show up in the Dinner Tonight column. I pointed out that he had already laid claim to this particular vegetable-vinegar combination, at which point he feigned ignorance and told me he didn't remember. When I proved it to him, he conceded, but also gave me the permission to declare this particular recipe superior.
This is the balsamic-glazed Brussels Sprouts recipe—it's dead easy and takes less than ten minutes.
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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 Nick Kindelsperger, May 9, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I’ve been on a little cauliflower kick lately and just couldn’t turn down the possibility of what was essentially cauliflower mashed potatoes. Yep, it’s a holdout from the low-carb craze. But I didn’t care if it was healthy; I just wanted to see if it was worth it. I found the recipe in Ted Allen’s The Food You Want to Eat, and even he seems a little ashamed of it, regardless of the fact that it ended up being delicious.
And he’s right, the cauliflower puree never feels like a mashed potato rip-off. Instead it makes an earthier offering that’s perfect with lighter dishes like fish. To spruce up things Ted advises a few possible additions. He likes to add curry powder, English mustard, blue cheese or parmesan. I settled on the last item, adding huge grated handful at the very end. It won’t replace mashed potatoes on the Thanksgiving table, but might provide a lighter side to some grilling sessions.
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Posted by Blake Royer, May 8, 2008 at 4:15 PM
A few things attracted me to this recipe: its supposed Basque origins, its easy preparation in a food processor, and a quick 15-minute cooking time. I imagined the gratin of white beans would be crusty and creamy, like a long-cooked cassoulet.
It didn’t quite work out that way—what came out of the oven was satisfying, but not particularly mind-blowing. If nothing else, though, this recipe is a shining example of the creaminess potential of beans. With only 2 tablespoon of butter for four generous servings (plus a glug of olive oil), the resulting hummus-like spread was as smooth and rich as ever. That said, it was also a bit bland. The next time I try something like this, I’d go with a more assertive flavor like garlic or cayenne; the rosemary and peppers just wasn’t enough to compete with the wide, open taste of white beans.
But there’s nothing wrong with the method, and the result is a melty, healthy spread that I served with a pile of sautéed spinach and a grilled sausage. Next time, I’d only purée half the beans to give it some more textural interest, lose the cheese on top, double the bread crumbs, and put it under the broiler to assure a flavorful, crusty top.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 7, 2008 at 4:30 PM
You’ll definitely have some leftover pesto if you make this whole recipe, but that’s kind of the point. Pesto freezes remarkably well, and can be thawed in moments. Since I had made a large batch a week before, I was able to throw this meal together in approximately 10 minutes. Sure, my fish flaked apart into a hundred pieces when I tried to flip it, creating one of the uglier meals I’ve had in ages (that’s why there is no photo), but it was tasty.
I picked this from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook. And it’s not really a recipe as much of a technique. Have pesto? Jamie provides seven other simple meals to throw it on top of. That includes roast chicken, mussels, bruschetta, and grilled vegetables. I was feeling like fish. And the pesto certainly livens up the white fish, giving it an automatic freshness without much work at all.
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Posted by Blake Royer, May 6, 2008 at 6:30 PM
This dinner is ready in as much time as it takes to cook rice. It has five ingredients, and is totally un-nutritious. It's also luxurious and subtle, and takes very little effort. The secret? Heavy cream, for one—but also a little thing called pastis, an anise-flavored liqueur that stood in for absinthe while it was still illegal. It's an obscure ingredient, I'll admit, and not everyone has it banging around in their cabinet. But allow me to recommend that you consider buying a bottle, if only because it's integral to the Sazerac cocktail, one of my favorite drinks in the world. And because it will probably outlive you.
The recipe comes from Pierre Franey's classic cookbook The New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet. So this is what passed for gourmet in 1979: bring on the heavy cream. Not that I'm complaining—the cover on my old copy promises "gourmet recipes and menus that reach absolute perfection in a matter of minutes," and that's exactly what happened to me. The taste was familiar, because the pastis flavor is similar to tarragon, an herb commonly used in French cream sauces. In fact, if you really don't want to invest in a bottle, a little fresh tarragon thrown in with the shallots might work just as well.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 5, 2008 at 6:15 PM
I’ve heard about chicken wrapped in parchment paper, and even of chicken wrapped in foil. But the cooking of what is essentially chicken in a bag, had always (in my humble experience) taken place in the oven. I’ve never heard of chicken that’s sautéed in the foil bag on a skillet. It certainly was a weird feeling when I placed that foil package on top of a hot iron skillet and waited to see what would happen. Would it explode or catch on fire?
I actually wanted to do this recipe because of the foil balloon that Simple to Spectacular authors Mark Bittman and Jean Georges Vongerichten promised would happen. Because of the escaping steam, they said that the aluminum foil would puff up like a “Jiffy Pop”. But nothing much happened to mine. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn’t have the proper size of aluminum foil. They ask for the extra large 18-inch version; I only had the 12-inch kind. I ended up jamming in way too much chicken and perhaps didn’t seal the foil well enough. Either way, the loss of the spectacle was redeemed by extraordinary taste. The tomato gets flattened and kind of crispy, and all that Parmesan melts into a beautiful sauce that coats the rosemary-infused chicken.
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Posted by Blake Royer, May 1, 2008 at 4:15 PM
I'd never eaten a ramp before in my life. But there I found myself week after week, trolling greenmarkets, unable to wait for something other than root vegetables. My own obsession was mysterious, but the general public excitement over ramps is remarkable. Ignored as nuisances for years, they are also called wild leeks and have flat, floppy leaves and a beautiful purple stem. The flavor is an earthy pungent combination of scallions and garlic, and is usually served simply grilled, in pastas or risottos, or baked into gratins and frittatas. The prices are quite fetching—up to $20/pound—for what is essentially a weed. When they first came, ramps were often sold out at the market by 9 a.m.
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