Corn soup
This is one of those magic recipes. There appears to be nothing to it -- until you eat it and taste how sweet and creamy the result is. I told a dinner guest this week how I made it and she didn't believe me.
Ingredients
10 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
2 yellow onions, diced
2 tbsp butter
8 cups water
How to
In a large pot, saute the onion in butter until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the corn and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add the water and bring to a boil; cover and cook for now more than 5 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool, then blend it in a blender or food processor and strain the liquid through a medium mesh. The solid left behind should look like damp polenta; just throw it out.
Serve warm or cold, optionally garnished with herbs or pesto.
Roast chicken with fennel and baby artichokes
After what felt like three endless months of Polar Vortex, a momentary jolt of spring came this weekend. Sometimes unusual weather is all it takes to spur creativity. If the weather doesn't have to be the same today as it was yesterday, then why should my food be? So, spring cooking earlier than expected.
Whereas full-sized artichokes rightfully have a reputation as ornery -- threatening teeth outside and itchy, hairy hearts inside -- working with the babies is a breeze.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. baby artichokes
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 bulb fennel, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
1 cup chicken broth (or water or white wine)
Juice of 2 lemons
Peel of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp. chili flakes
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Rinse the artichokes under cold water; peel off the first couple layers of tough, dark green leaves to reveal the gentler ones inside; chop off the top half inch of each choke; and halve or quarter the tender remains. Keep the halves in a bowl with a tablespoon of the lemon juice to prevent browning.
Over high heat, brown the chicken thighs in olive oil with salt and pepper. Remove them from the pan and add the fennel and onion, scraping any brown bits off the pan. Lower the heat to medium and cook the fennel and onion until soft and semi-translucent, no more than 5 to 10 minutes. Clear a small space on the pan and add the chili flakes, allowing them to brown for 30 seconds before stirring them in. Then add the lemon peel, remaining lemon juice, chicken broth, and artichokes. Fold it all together, place the chicken thighs on top, and roast in the over for 15 to 20 minutes. The thighs should be a golden brown and the liquid almost full evaporated into a nice sauce. Serve over rice or Israeli couscous.
Short rib and barley soup
A great recipe from Whitewater Cooks at Home. The balsamic vinegar at the end is inspired. Leave the beef in big chunks.
Momofuku ramen broth
One cold weekend is all it takes to get me thinking about soup, so here we are. This is a recipe that looks much more intimidating than it is. And the ingredients that you may have to go slightly out of your way to get -- dried shiitakes, pork neck bones, konbu -- are well worth the extra effort. A few (okay, maybe more than a few) hours later you'll have a stock so restorative it could bring a zombie back to life. And it'll taste good that you'll be happy to have a some of the leftover ingredients already in hand so you can make another batch.
As is usually the case, this recipe has already been reproduced online. I'll save myself the trouble and just point you there.
A couple notes:
- Don't skimp on the meats. Sure, the numbers look a little ridiculous -- 4 lbs. of chicken, 5 lbs. of pork bones and a pound of smoky bacon for just 8 servings of soup? -- but the result is 8 very, very flavorful servings.
- Don't feel constrained by the toppings. Use what you've got on hand, softboil and egg or two, and be creative.
- But do save the shiitakes from the broth for pickling. These are incredibly easy and absolutely fantastic. See the bottom of the page at the link above for details.
Turmeric chicken kebabs
A classic Bittman recipe: Fast, painless, sparse, and delicious. (The super-simple Persian salad was a winner too.) I had yellow fingernails for the next 3 days thanks to the turmeric but well worth it.
Leeks vinaigrette
Elegant, from The Art of Simple Food.
Ingredients
6 medium leeks (about 3 lbs)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
How to
Trim away the tough dark green tops and outer layers. Trim the roots while still allowing the leeks to hold together at the bottom. Wash repeatedly under cold water to remove all the grit between the leaves.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the leeks whole. Cover and cook until the thickest part of the leeks are tender when pierced with a knife, about 7-12 minutes depending on the thickness of the leeks.
When the leeks are tender, carefully remove them to a bowl of ice water and allow to cool. Then drain them and gently squeeze out any excess water. Cut the leeks lengthwise into halves or quarters and place them on a platter.
Mix the red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and some salt and pepper. Whisk in 1/4 cup of olive oil until the vinaigrette emulsifies. Pour over the leeks and garnish with some chopped parsley.
Tomatillo pork stew
Three day weekend. Time to cook. This one is another from Gourmet Today, which I've been using more and more recently.
There's no avoiding it -- the prep here is a pain in the butt. Peeling tomatillos will never be anything but a pain in the butt. Same goes for squeezing oranges. That said, none of it's real complicated. Just make sure you brown the hell out of the pork -- it's worth waiting the extra minute or two to get those suckers crisp, assuming you have decent ventilation in the kitchen. (We don't, but a box fan pointed at the fire escape usually does the trick.)Ingredients
2 lb boneless pork shoulder cut into 1 1/2" cubes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 large cloves garlic
1 bottle of dark beer (Smuttynose Old Dog Brown Ale, oh yes)
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice (about 5 oranges' worth)
1 lb tomatillos, husked, rinsed in warm water, and quartered
1 28oz can whole tomatoes drained and chopped, juice reserved
2 large onions, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped with seeds
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
How to
Season the pork liberally with salt and pepper. In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the vegetable oil until almost smoking. Add the garlic and stir for two minutes or so. Then add the pork in batches and brown on all sides. Don't crowd the pork; if you don't give each piece of pork some space to breath, the liquid let off from the pork will build up and nothing will brown as planned. Remove each batch in turn.
Meanwhile, in a large pot combine the beer, orange juice, tomatillos and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until the tomatillos are soft, roughly 20 minutes.
When all the pork has browned, pour off most of the oil and use what remains to soften the onions over medium heat, 8 minutes or so. When the onions are golden and soft, add the tomatillo mixture, pork, cilantro, jalapenos, and some salt and pepper and cook. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan -- there's flavor hiding down there.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer partially covered, stirring occasionally until meat is tender, about 2 hours. Add black beans and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Serve with white rice and sour cream and limes.
Rosemary mashed potatoes
I promise you'll love this recipe and that you can't screw it up. Peel some potatoes, throw 'em in a pot, smash 'em together will butter and herbs. Don't skimp on the herbs, and pick something that pairs well with whatever you're eating.
Ingredients
2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4-6 sprigs of rosemary
4 tbsb butter, cut into chunks
1 cup or so of milk
How to
Add the potatoes and whole garlic to a large pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are fork tender but don't break apart.
Meanwhile, is a small saucepan melt the butter and milk along with the rosemary or other herbs. Scald the milk but don't let it boil. The idea is to mix the milk and butter together and infuse the liquid with the herbs.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain in a colander and return to the pot. Pour in the milk, butter and herbs and mash everything together with a wooden spoon or vegetable masher. If the mixture looks too solid, add some more milk and/or butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Feel free to serve the potatoes with the sprigs of rosemary intact or remove them beforehand.
Shaved fennel, radish and grapefruit salad
This is a recipe from Gourmet. Not sure I've ever been disappointed with a Gourmet salad, especially from the Gourmet Today cookbook.
I took a shortcut here because I didn't have fennel seeds but wish I hadn't. The dressing was a little flat and could've used...something. Maybe not fennel oil exclusively; a pinch of chili flakes would've done the trick. In any event, no shortcuts on this one.
Vinegar roast chicken
Here's another riff on one of my go-to formulas: Brown chicken. Add some liquid. Bake till done. Reduce the sauce. The sauce, in this case, is a combination of chicken stock (or water) and balsamic vinegar. After a half hour in the oven the vinegar becomes sweet and mellow.
Ingredients
2 bone-in chicken breasts, skin on and well salted
2 shallots, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
Equal parts balsamic vinegar and chicken stock (or water)
How to
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a cast iron or stainless steel skillet, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. When the bubbles from the melted butter have subsided, brown the chicken to a deep golden color. Remove from the pan and stir in the shallots for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the garlic for another 30 seconds, replace the chicken skin side up, and pour in the balsamic and stock. When the liquid is at a boil (this should happen almost immediately), remove from the stove and put in the over for roughly 20 minutes.
When the chicken comes out of the oven it should be deep brown with a crispy skin. Remove the breasts from the pan and reduce the remaining liquid to a well-bodied sauce. Feel free to add anything you'd like to the sauce (thyme, mustard, etc.). Serve over Israeli couscous.