Posted by Adam Kuban, May 10, 2008 at 5:00 PM
I'm sure a good deal of you already have dinner plans for tomorrow night, what with Mother's Day and all. Since I'll be about 1,200 miles from my own mom tomorrow, I thought I'd make a batch of one of my favorite childhood dishes as a sort of culinary tribute in absentia. Wait, that doesn't make any sense. I guess I just want to eat somethign to remind me of home tomorrow night. So I'm going to share this recipe for Beef Stew that my mom often made (and probably still does).
And for anyone who likes to quibble with recipes, now's not the time. It's my mom's, it's Mother's Day weekend, and anyone giving guff is on a fast road to Banyourassville. ;)
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 10, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Adapted from Italian Grill by Mario Batali.
- serves 10 -
Ingredients
3 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
Black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus 2 or 3 whole springs
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons Colman's dry mustard
One 8-pound prime rib roast, chine bone removed and fat trimmed to a thin layer by the butcher
About 1 cup dry white wine
Coarse sea salt
Procedure
1. In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, chopped rosemary, thyme, and dry mustard and mix well. Rub the spice mixture generously all over the meat. cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 1 hour at room temperature.
2. Prepare a gas or charcoal grill for spit-roasting over indirect medium heat (or according to the instructions for your grill). Pour about 1/2 inch of wine into the drip pan, add the rosemary sprigs, and set under the center of the spit.
3. Push the spit through the roast and secure it with the clamps. Attach the spit to the rotisserie mechanism, cover the grill, and cook for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your grill, or until the internal temperature–insert an instant-read thermometer about 3 inches deep into the center of the roast, without touching the bones–reaches 115° to 120°F for medium-rare (the temperature will rise at least 5 degrees while the roast rests). Check the temperature after 1 1/4 hours, and once it has reached 110°F or so, check it often.
4. Remove the spit from the grill and place the roast, still on the spit, on a carving board (if you remove the spit before letting the roast rest, you will lose a lot of the juices) to rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Remove the spit from the roast. Carve the roast off the bone and cut into 3/4-inch-thick-slices. Place on a platter, set out a small bowl of coarse salt and a pepper mill alongside, and serve.
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 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 Lucy Baker, May 7, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe is for thick, juicy, seared sirloin steaks. Not exactly your typical Mother's Day fare. But why shouldn't it be? Steak dinners are always special, whether eaten out at a swanky restaurant, or off a paper plate in your own backyard.
Paula Disbrowe's recipe marries hearty hunks of beef with a delicate, wine-saturated red onion marmalade. As she states in her head note: "I like the idea of giving a macho piece of meat a pretty and rather feminine treatment." The results are a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, and definitely spectacular. What mom wouldn't love that?
Win 'Cowgirl Cuisine'
As is always the case with our Cook the Book selections, we're giving away a number of copies to lucky readers. Enter to win here.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Editor's note: Ladies and gents, make friends with Joshua Bousel. He's a certified grilling geek. And that's a compliment; this guy takes the flame seriously. He'll be dropping by each week with a recipe for you to fire up for yourself. Let the flames begin! —Adam Kuban
In my mind there are two seasons each year: grilling season and the other. Although I wish I had started sooner, Cinco de Mayo on Monday marked the arrival of the former, and I could think of no better way to celebrate the holiday than grilling fajitas.
Alton Brown's fajita recipe has served me well for years now, time and again producing the best fajitas I've had in New York City, where I live and where good Mexican options are notoriously lacking. It's also the perfect recipe for some weekday celebration, with a quick-and-easy marinade and the fast-cooking skirt steak, one of my favorite cuts of beef. It was no surprise to me that these, once again, came out absolutely delicious, bursting with beefy goodness that's topped with a flavor that transports me to ... someplace with better Mexican food.
Although Cinco de Mayo was duly celebrated, what I'm going to remember most from this holiday is the second I placed those steaks over the hot coals, got one whiff, then excitedly ran back into the house and belted out to all who would listen, "I really love to grill!" Yes, it's that time of year again.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, May 6, 2008 at 5:00 PM
After preparing the Roasted Cod on Large Garlic Croutons from the June issue of Bon Appétit for this week's magazine recipe review, I've determined that the only way to make always-delicious bruschetta even better is to make it bigger.
The recipe, part of an article on quick summer suppers that can be thrown together in 15 minutes or less, was designed to turn bruschetta—once relegated to party appetizer platters—into a main course. And that it did: the briny tomato-anchovy sauce perfectly complimented the mild cod, and the crusty bread beneath soaked up all the savory juices.
This was one of those simple-yet-sophisticated recipes that leaves you at once completely satisfied and at the same time pondering how you could make it again differently. Entrée-sized bruschetta is such a great idea. Next time I'm going to try it with tuna, or maybe salmon, and I'm definitely going to throw some olives into the sauce.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, May 6, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Making your mom eggs on Mother's Day is easy. That's not to say serving her an omelet in bed or a frittata on the sun porch isn't a good idea—such gestures are always appreciated. But this year, why not try your hand at a dish that's a bit more time consuming to prepare, yet yields far more impressive results?
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Cowgirl Cuisine, is for Gazpacho Risotto with Garlic Shrimp. Don't be alarmed by the number of jalapenos—they add only a mild heat, while the slow roasted tomatoes lend the dish a rich smokiness. The finished risotto is a real showstopper: tinted a lovely shade of pink and brimming with fresh vegetables. You could serve it simply, without the shrimp, but doesn't your mom deserve a meal that pulls out all the stops?
Win 'Cowgirl Cuisine'
As is always the case with our Cook the Book selections, we're giving away copies to a few lucky readers. Enter to win here.
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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 Robin Bellinger, May 5, 2008 at 3:45 PM
For a month or two now I have been searching for an Asian or Asian-y noodle dish that would make a nice lunch. A few candidates didn't pan out, and the one that did was a soup, which I know some people don't care to bother packing up for work. Finally, though, Deborah Madison came through with her refreshing salad of chilled mung bean noodles with dulse and crushed peanuts from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
I'm afraid it looks as if this week is going to be rainy in New York, but for those of you with happier weather, this is just the thing to eat outside on a warm day: cool, full of bright flavors, satisfying without being heavy. I liked the generous dose of raw ginger, but people who find that kind of thing overwhelming might want to start with 1 teaspoon and work their way up. I also added a few dashes of soy sauce and would not have minded a little more spice; maybe I'll leave the jalapeño seeds in next time. This noodle salad keeps in the refrigerator for four or five days, in my experience, and travels quite well: last week I enjoyed it on an airplane while everyone else made do with a doll-sized bag of pretzels.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 4, 2008 at 12:30 PM
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on shrimp salad. —Ed Levine
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 3, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
While the unofficial start to grilling season, Memorial Day, is yet to come, it's May, so what the H. And, to conflate two hallmarks of May, I think I'm going to fire up my own grill for the following recipe; it's adapted from a Rick Bayless recipe I clipped at some point, and I figure it's somewhat appropriate for Cinco de Mayo, which, for the non-Spanish-speaking folks in the audience, is this Monday, May 5. So check your propane tank or stock up on some coal and viva la grilling!
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Posted by Lucy Baker, May 2, 2008 at 7:15 PM
In this, the era of fast food restaurants, take-out dinners, and microwave ovens, it's easy to forget the pleasures of leisurely cooking. But spending all Sunday in the kitchen stirring and seasoning is one of life's greatest pleasures!
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excepted from Lidia's Italy, is for Tuscan Meat and Tomato Ragù. A rustic classic from the hills of Maremma, it's perfect for saucing spaghetti, or served over a scoop of creamy polenta. And while it needs to simmer for hours in order for the flavors to develop, the preparation method is simple, straightforward, and stress-free.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, May 2, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Since I was raised on wonderfully lardy, cheesy Tex-Mex, it took me a while to come around to the ungloppy goodness that is a fish taco. In the early 1990s fish tacos became something of a craze in Houston, if I remember correctly, but I was not on board. In my wisdom and maturity today, however, I embrace all foods Mexican or Mexican-ish, including tortillas (corn or flour) full of fish (fried or grilled) and slaw (or salsa, or avocados, or whatever feels right).
This is the sort of thing a competent and intuitive cook can put together with no recipe. I have made brilliant fish tacos off the top of my head, but I have also made some less satisfying ones, with poorly cooked fish or unbalanced flavors. When I can get it right every time, I will know that I have arrived as a home cook. Until then, I rely on recipes to reorient me when I get off track. This is my current favorite. It's fast and fairly healthy but always feels somehow celebratory to me.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, May 1, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Everyone has ingredients they can't resist. Favorite foods that are always kept on hand; items that, when spotted on restaurant menus make a dish impossible not to order. For my mother, it's artichoke hearts. For my boyfriend, it's bacon. For me, it's fennel. Fronds, shavings, wedges—I love the crunchy, sweet, licorice-flavored vegetable in all its incarnations.
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Lidia's Italy, is for Baked Fennel with Prosciutto. This Roman dish is straight from the heart of Italian cooking, combining best-quality ingredients with simple preparation methods. Toss everything together hours ahead, store it in the fridge, and then pop it in then oven a bit before dinner.
Salty Prosciutto, fragrant cheese, sweet fennel, and a drizzle of butter. Who could resist that?
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 1, 2008 at 12:30 PM
The following recipe is from the May 1st edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
In Lidia Bastianich's latest cookbook, Lidia's Italy, she shares recipes from her favorite ten places in Italy. This springtime recipe for risotto with spinach comes from Friuli in northeast Italy and shows the basic risotto-making technique used in Friuli. Instead of spinach, she suggests using greens more common to the region, such as nettles, wild asparagus, or sclopit, if you can find them.
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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 Lucy Baker, April 29, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Lidia's Italy, proves that Italian food doesn't have to be heavy. There are plenty of light, flavorful dishes that are just as satisfying as stick-to-your-ribs spaghetti and cheese-laden lasagna. Manfredi's Steamed Calamari is a healthy Sicilian classic perfect for the impending summer months. Enjoy it warm or room temperature, as a main course, or an accompaniment to grilled fish or chicken.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, April 28, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe, the first to be excerpted from Lidia's Italy, is for Gemelli with Smothered Cauliflower and Saffron. Distinctly Sicilian, this fragrant pasta dish combines traditional ingredients such as pine nuts, fresh basil, golden raisins and...anchovies.
While my first experience with anchovies was less than savory (it involved, at the tender age of six, a wayward topping on a slice of Papa Gino's cheese pizza) I've since learned to appreciate the salty, hairy little fish. I'd still never eat one whole or unadorned, but I love the briny flavor they impart in Caesar salads, olive tapenades, and puttanescas. In this recipe, just one tablespoon of chopped fillets is enough to enhance the entire dish.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 26, 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 don't know how it happened, but my favorite dish from my go-to neighborhood Italian restaurant happens to be a simple concoction of penne tossed with some good olive oil and some sautéd garlic and broccoli—all topped by a grilled chicken breast. I always picture it as their sop to dieters or calorie-concious diners, and I always feel like it's akin to ordering steak at a seafood joint.
I order it because over the past year or so, I've started getting the acid reflux after eating heavily tomato-sauced foods, and this lightly treated pasta preparation appeals to me. The price, however, does not. (I'm embarrassed to even mention it here because it's ludicrous for what actually goes into it.)
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Posted by Lucy Baker, April 25, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Today's cook the book recipe, excerpted from The Oprah Magazine Cookbook, is for a sensational Creole Gumbo straight from the Big Easy. Chef Leah Chase, owner of the restaurant Dooky Chase and arguably the Queen of Creole Cuisine, pulls out all the stops. Her version includes fresh crabs, oysters, and shrimp; veal and chicken; and two kinds of sausage. The recipe makes a lot—it serves 8 to 10—so mix up some Sazeracs and prepare it with a group of friends. This is soul food at its absolute best.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 25, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Since the thought of another pile of paper to manage makes me cringe, I don’t keep a file of recipe clippings for the future. I can’t remember, then, what prompted me to pull this recipe from Mark Bittman’s column in the New York Times a few years ago, but some part of me must have known that his baked ziti would become my most popular dish.
Unsophisticated and absurdly easy to whip up, baked ziti presents difficulty only to those of us who have trouble managing our greed. Since the measurements are so round, I don’t even have to check the recipe before I go to the store: 1 pound sausage, 1 pound pasta, 1 pound cheese, 1 can tomatoes. It freezes beautifully, which makes it the nicest of emergency dinners for nights when you’re too busy to cook but want something nicer than a tangle of sad pad thai.
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