Category Archives: Main Dishes

Recipe Redo: Whole Foods Challenge

Smørrebrød- Shrimp

I have more than a few close friends that don’t eat chicken, beef, pork, etc. They confine their meat sources to seafood, for health and ethical reasons. On the other hand, husband is an unabashed carnivore. So, this blog won’t veer too far from animal meat sources. However, every once in a while, I will come across an awesome sounding recipe and make a seafood dish as tribute to my wonderful seafood eating friends. When research items for my smørrebrød post, I came across this pretty amazing version of the Danish open faced sandwich and couldn’t resist giving it a go.

If you are looking for an easy appetizer, or luncheon dish, this is it. It’s pretty much just assembly. No real work of any consequence, yet you end up with a very high impact dish. This is a fairly minimal, clean dish and the flavors work very well together. While the look is amazing, the taste is not overly complicated. Some of my taste testers preferred a pinch of salt added to the sandwich, so you may want to consider that as a finishing touch.

This recipe is inspired by a recipe I found on Epicurious.

Shrimp Smørrebrød
Makes 8 Sandwiches

1/4 cup chilled heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons drained bottled horseradish
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
8 slices rye bread
2 firm-ripe California avocados
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
8 leaves Boston lettuce, rinsed and dried
1 pound large-jumbo shrimp (16), steamed, peeled, chilled and deveined
Cut Chives
1 1/2 tablespoons drained bottled capers

In a mixing bowl, whip heavy cream to soft peaks. Add sour cream and horseradish and whip until stiff. Set aside.

Cut the crust off of the rye bread and make uniform squares or rectangles. Generously butter bread. Set aside on serving plate.

Peel and slice avocados, place in a bowl and toss with lemon juice until thoroughly covered. Set aside.

Place a lettuce leaf on each piece of buttered bread. Layer avocado, shrimp, cream, chives and capers on each sandwich. Serve.

NORTH Festival-Danish Meatballs

6 Replies

Frikadeller Smørrebrød

Chicken Cacciatore

Pho

1 Reply

My husband has a few signature dishes, and this is one of them. When I first met him, he was all about meatloaf, meat and rice, and Italian Sausage dishes. Then, one day, he tried Pho at a local restaurant and was hooked. He discovered how to make it and will make it for me if I’m feeling under the weather. Isn’t he amazing?

I love Asian foods. However, I’m more than a little intimidated by the cooking styles, equipment, and ingredients. The closest I came to making any Asian food at home growing up was busting open a can of La Choy brand Chinese food, heating it up and serving with rice. But the hubs researched Pho and it seemed very doable with no special equipment or ingredients. I hate to say it’s pretty easy, because I love the mystique of exotic foods, but it’s pretty easy. We’ve been making it at home ever since.

Pho is the national dish of Vietnam. There’s some speculation that the dish is derived from the French influence in the country, as the charring of some of the ingredients is not really a common technique in Vietnamese cooking. The origins are usually traced to some point in the early 20th Century and the northern part of Vietnam. Interestingly, American portions are about 30% bigger than their Vietnamese counterparts. The garnish that accompanies the Pho we know in America is likely a southern Vietnamese influence, as the northern version eschews such extravagance. (Source: http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/the-evolution-of-pho.html)

Let me just say, your home will smell amazing. Anytime you have broth cooking all day is a day to sit and enjoy the aroma. It’s intoxicating.

As an overview, you are mostly cooking a beef stock and some noodles. You are letting the stock quick cook the beef in Pho. It’s important that your bowl not really be cold when you add the stock, or your meat may not cook all the way through. In other words, the bowl should be hot, the noodles hot, your mix-ins and the broth immediately added. The beef should be submerged into hot broth to cook.

One other tip, don’t think you can, say, substitute an eye of round and cut it really thin and hope to have a decent pho. What you will have is sore jaw muscles from all the chewing!

Inspired by a recipe from the Food Network show Calling All Cooks http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/calling-all-cooks/pho-vietnamese-beef-rice-noodle-soup-recipe/index.html

Pho
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 hours

For the broth:
4 pounds Oxtails (or any beef bones) cut into 1 1/2 to 2-inch pieces
3 stalks of celery, rough chop
1 large onion, halved and unpeeled
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
3-inch piece of ginger, unpeeled
1/3 cup nuoc mam (fish sauce)
8 whole star anise
5 whole cloves
3-inch cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
3 bay leaves
salt
water

For the garnish:
1 pound 1/4-inch rice noodles
2 bunches scallions, sliced thin
1/2 cup tightly packed fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup basil, approximately, whole fresh plants (minus roots) if possible
3 large limes, cut into wedges and seeds removed
2 jalapeño peppers, sliced thin
Sriracha, or other chili sauce
3/4 pounds sirloin, filet mignon or any tender, higher end cut, trimmed of fat and sliced very thin

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the bones, celery, onions, garlic and ginger onto a large sheet pan and roast brown or slightly charred, about 30-40 minutes. Smaller pieces may need to be removed earlier to prevent burning.

Put roasted bones and vegetables into a large stockpot and add enough water to cover the bones by 4 inches (about 2 gallons). Add the fish sauce and spices besides salt into the stockpot. Bring to a full boil and then lower the heat to a rapid simmer. Add 1 tablespoon of salt at this point. Skim any scum that rises to the surface.

Let the broth simmer, uncovered, skimming occasionally. After 4 hours, using a slotted spoon and small strainer, remove items in the broth, setting aside the oxtails. Let the broth continue to simmer. Remove any meat from the bone and return bones to the stock pot. Continue simmering, uncovered, until the broth is rich and flavorful, an additional 1 hour. Taste the broth and add more salt or fish sauce as needed.

As the broth is simmering, soak the rice noodles in cold water for at least 20 minutes. Arrange the sliced scallions, cilantro, basil, lime wedges, and jalapeño peppers on a platter in separate piles.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the drained rice noodles. Give the noodles a quick stir and cook until tender but firm, about 1 minute. Don’t overcook the rice noodles, or you risk “gummy” noodles. Drain the noodles.

Warm 6 large bowls by rinsing them with hot water and divide the noodles among the bowls.

Just before serving, return the broth to a full boil. Arrange the slices of raw filet and pieces of cooked oxtail meat over the noodles in each bowl. Carefully ladle the boiling broth over all; the raw beef should be submerged in the broth. Serve immediately, along with the platters of garnish.

Meatloaf

3 Replies

Ah, meatloaf. Sounds gross. A loaf of meat in no way sounds appealing. It’s imperfectly shaped. But somehow, meatloaf is awesome. It’s homey. It’s moist, relatively cheap, and takes well to seasoning. I’ve seen everything from Cajun to Italian to Southwest style meatloaves. Leftovers can’t be beat. Many people swear the leftover cold meatloaf sandwich is a sublime experience. I’m not a fan of cold meatloaf, but have read that meatloaf may be related to country pate. I can totally see that. It’s a meat terrine dish that’s heavily seasoned and fairly fatty. But I like it warm. And, I must confess, with ketchup. Yup, I’m that person.

Notice that the title isn’t “beefloaf”. Yet, many people make “meatloaf” with solely beef. Tragic. An all beef meatloaf can be one dimensional, tough and dry. The addition of pork and veal add tenderness and moisture to the party. Multiple meats elevates this dish to something supremely special.

Meatloaf is a rather new dish. I’ve found a recipe from 1909, but that’s about it until later in the 1900s. Ground beef was rather unavailable, and similar recipes were in the vein of “chopped beef”, not ground. Plus, I’m imagining Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle probably made people a tad skeptical of ground meat products. Ah, short memories. Now, E. Coli contamination is rather common place. I can’t buy raw milk in Maryland because it might have microbial contaminants, but I can buy ground beef. Go figure.

When cooking with ground beef (or any raw meat, really), please be aware of cross contamination issues and cook the meat thoroughly. My days of medium rare hamburgers are gone.

Back to the meatloaf. Some recipes call for the meatloaf to be made in a loaf container. I’m not a fan of this method. Sure, you have a wonderfully neat block of meatloaf, but your meatloaf cooks and swims in the expelled fat. I like free form cooking. First, there’s less cleanup. Second, the excess fat drains away from the loaf, so you have a cleaner tasting, less greasy meatloaf. Last, well, you can make any shape you like! If you are in a hurry, make a thinner one. Tons of options.

Now, my husband and I have a running conflict. He roughly chops everything. Does a recipe call for green peppers? 1 inch dice. Ditto celery and onions. Even in gumbo. He likes a toothsome soup. For a meatloaf, I don’t want chunky veggies everywhere. If you are old enough to know Eddie Murphy’s classic comedic riff on the homemade “McDonald’s” burger, you know what I’m talking about. I’m sure it’s on You Tube, if you aren’t. I want the veggies to be subtle in the loaf, not distracting. Is my way better? No, it’s just a preference. But, come on, I’m right, right?

I took my inspiration from the country pate idea to develop this recipe. Meatloaf is easy. A great beginner dish. It’s all mixed in one bowl and cooked on a sheet pan. Done.

Meatloaf
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 45-60 minutes

2 pounds total, split between ground pork, ground veal and ground beef (some stores call this “meatloaf mix”)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1/2 cup celery, finely diced
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
thick bacon slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Mix all the ingredients, except the bacon, together in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands is the preferred method. Be careful the mix gently until everything is just combined. Over mixing will lead to a tough meatloaf.

Place strips of bacon on a baking sheet in the approximate size of the loaf you wish to make. Shape the meat into a loaf shape and set on the bacon strips. Cover with a few more strips of bacon.

Cook until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit, about 45 minutes.

Chicken Marengo

3 Replies

Want to get your kids to eat something they wouldn’t normally eat? Have a cool backstory. Seriously. My kids were not really interested in eating this dish until I told the backstory, then they couldn’t get enough. So, what’s the back story?

We need to go back in time to the Napoleonic Wars. In 1800, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had just barely eeked out a victory over the Austrians at Marengo in Italy. This victory helped to solidify the new French government’s position in France after the Revolution. Legend has it, Napoleon asked his chef, Dinand, to make a meal to celebrate the victory. According to the lore, the Austrians had captured the food supplies of Napoleon’s army, so there was precious little in the way of food available to cook for such a meal. Not even butter!! Quelle horreur!! So, Dinand dispatch people into the Italian countryside to find something, anything, to put together a dinner for Napoleon. They came back with a chicken, olive oil, a few mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and crawfish fished from a local river. Dinand added some bread rations, some staples he had handly (garlic, onions) and a bit of cognac from Napoleon’s flask, and voila! Chicken Marengo is born, June 14, 1800! Upon returning to Paris, legend has it Dinand attempted to “correct” the recipe by using white wine instead of cognac and omitting the crawfish. Napoleon sent it back instructing the Chef that the dish is to be made the original way. No deviation. Napoleon was very superstitious and considered this dish his victory dish.

Now, who wouldn’t want to eat, or at least try a dish with such a storied history?!? Eating the dish Napoleon ate? There are very few things in history you can recreate and have the same experience. What I love is that food is one of them. Some things might change a bit, like the breed of the chicken, but it’s still pretty close. You get a window into the times and how people (mainly the well to do) lived.

Chicken Marengo over the years has been “modernized”. One cookbook from the late 1800s called for making the dish with half a pound of truffles!! Well, that wasn’t happening on my blog budget. So, I tried to stick to the original. I actually had most of the ingredients, save the crawfish. I substituted shrimp. I added juniper berries (you can substitute a bay leaf) because I thought it might be a staple hanging around and it would work well with the tomatoes. And, while the dish looks completely wild, it actually kind of works. The chicken holds it own against the tomatoes and olives. The cognac gives the tomatoes and olives a subtle depth of flavor. White wine would bring a brighter flavor, but this is more round. Shrimp is pretty much always good, and the eggs on fried bread is just amazing. You can imagine this dish is a victory dish. Chicken Marengo is extravagant in every possible way.

I used chicken thighs and legs, not a whole chicken, because that’s what was on sale. But you could try cutting up a whole bird, just be aware of the cooking time differentials between the pieces.

Chicken Marengo
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

olive oil
4 chicken leg quarters, separated into thighs and legs
salt
pepper
3 tablespoons cognac (or enough to deglaze pan, plus a tablespoon)
1 onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 pound shrimp
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup kalamata olives, rough chop
26 ounces crushed tomatoes (I used a box of tomatoes, you can use the large can too)
4 juniper berries (may substitute 1 bay leaf)
french bread, sliced
eggs

Cover bottom of a 3 quart of larger saute pan with olive oil. Slowly heat the oil over medium to medium high heat.

Generously salt and pepper the chicken pieces and place in the pan. Cook until chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. I used a thermometer to make sure the pieces were cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Deglaze pan with cognac. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the shrimp and cook until pink and curled, about 7-10 minutes. Remove shrimp from pan, set aside. Add another tablespoon of cognac to neutralize the shrimp. Add the mushrooms and olives. Cook for a minute or so. Add the tomatoes, juniper berries and a bit more salt and pepper. Simmer. Briefly return chicken to pan to warm through

Meanwhile, cover the bottom of a small fry pan with olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Add the bread and “fry”. When golden on both sides, remove from the pan. Add more oil (or switch to a non-stick pan) and fry an egg for each person.

Assembly was alleged to be: chicken, covered with tomato sauce, topped with shrimp (crawfish). On the side, fried bread topped with a fried egg.

Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps

Greek Chicken

2 Replies

As I was walking through my local Whole Foods the other day, I marveled at all the amazing food and how really beautiful the produce section of a good grocery store can be. From the beautiful Fennel fronds, to the orange carrots, yellow bananas, purple blueberries, and red cherries and tomatoes, you can truly find some amazing variety in nature. Of course, my perusing of the produce section was more time waster than deep reflection. How often does a working mom get to be alone, at her own pace, and just wander?

Obviously not often if my gold standard is wandering through the produce section unmolested by cries of “I want!” So, I had to snap out of my blissful haze before I lost any more time. Honestly, I think the samples must be filled with magical lotus leaves. I lose all kind of time there and I can’t really tell you that I was doing anything particular.

I was there to get dinner. It doesn’t make itself, you know. I walked past the fish and meat counter and nothing really jumped out. Then, in one of the open refrigerators a small sign: chicken legs, $.69/pound. Really?!? Chicken rated a 2 on the animal welfare scale for less than a buck a pound? Sure, it was just chicken legs, but who can beat that deal? I picked up a super sized package and went on my way. What would I do with a whole bunch of chicken legs?

Sure, I could fry them, but I did that already. Coq Au Vin? Done. I’m not stripping the meat off of them for gumbo. So, I did what any respectable blogger would do, I googled “chicken legs”. And there, in my search result was a recipe from Goop, a website run by Gwyneth Paltrow. At this point, I must confess to a guilty pleasure of reading gossip sites. These sites generally don’t like Gwyneth Paltrow. In fact, they love pointing out that she’s fairly unaware that “peasants” don’t live like her. We don’t cleanse, have a nanny (or two), aren’t married to a rock star, can’t choose which city to live in this week (London or NYC, so hard, right?), and don’t spend $458,000 on a “Spring Essentials collection” of clothes for just this Spring. To paraphrase from the many Goop-haters, when you are born on third base, don’t think you hit a triple in life or that scoring a run is hard from that beginning position. An example of her being “out of touch” (if the Spring Essentials didn’t drive that point home) may be the $950 silver shot cup that is part, just part, of her barware. So, as a working mom who’s clearly not in the 1% scrambling to make dinner with cheap chicken legs on a busy weeknight, it was with great trepidation I clicked on the Goop link http://www.goop.com/journal/make/215/one-pan-meals.

Ultimately, I’m very glad I took a chance with this recipe. It’s really quite good and so ridiculously simple. This is based on a traditional Greek dish called Kapama. However, it is a bit of a shocking recipe. Cinnamon, chicken, tomatoes and garlic. In one pot. One of my sorority sisters has a website called http://thefamilymealproject.com/ that examines what meals her kids would eat. Well, I felt this would be a perfect recipe for that experiment. As the house filled with the scent of cinnamon and tomato, I started to fret a bit. It was a wonderful smell, just not something you expect. You know, for dinner. However, I received nothing but absolute praise from both my son and daughter. My very picky, I only eat salmon daughter actually ate this. I know, shocking. The hubs gave his equivalent of a rave review: I’d ask you to make it again. Sigh. Small victory, I will take thee!!

Cinnamon Braised Chicken Legs

6-8 Chicken Legs (what will fit in your dutch oven, and you can use any chicken parts you have handy)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 15 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water or chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rinse and pat dry the chicken legs, set aside. Combine cinnamon, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle cinnamon mixture over the chicken liberally.

Heat the oil in a dutch oven (I used my trusty 5 quart) over medium high heat. Brown the chicken, in batches. About a minute or so on each side. Remove from pan and set aside. Reduce heat to medium. To the pan, add the onions and cook while stirring until translucent. Add the garlic and soften. Add the tomatoes and the water and deglaze the pan. Add the cinnamon stick and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken to the pan. Cover and place in the oven and cook for one to two hours until cooked through or all the way to “fall off the bone”. Serve with pasta or rice and sprinkle with cheese before serving.

Note: I only cooked this in the oven for an hour. “Fall off the bone” would have taken too much time for a weeknight meal. In the hour it was cooking, I made brown rice, a salad and checked homework. Two hours and we would have been eating well after the kids’ bedtime. So, it might be even better with more time!

Italian Sausage and Peppers

3 Replies

My husband comes from New York City. I’m from below the Mason-Dixon line (albeit just barely) and he’s a chap from Queens. Needless to say, we shared very little in common food-wise when we met over 15 years ago! He eats a lot more seafood now, and I eat more charcuterie. Not a bad tradeoff!!

Some of his favorite food memories revolve around the Italian cooking of his friends’ very Italian moms. Sausage and peppers are a particular favorite. I have severe and substantial reflux issues and the thought of tomatoes, spicy Italian sausages, peppers, garlic and onions gives me agida. I can actually feel my esophagus burning just typing the words. It’s a low carb, easily made dish and should totally be “in the rotation”. It’s a very traditional Italian American dish, right up my “traditional and simple” alley. Stupid reflux. So, we haven’t eaten sausage and peppers often, if really at all.

However, one of my very lovely neighbors dropped off 3 pounds of Italian sausages from a famous Italian shop around these parts. Spicy Italian sausages, of course! Awesome, right? I am very lucky to have such great neighbors! Knowing these are far superior than anything you can get in the grocery store, I wavered. So, I am putting my pantoprozole (my reflux medicine) to the test and seeing how I do with what has to be the biggest challenge known to the heartburn afflicted: Spicy Italian Sausage and Peppers. I chased the peppers with some antacid pills. No problems. Yay! Dodged a bullet there!

The dish is so easy. It’s made in one cooking vessel. Serve with a salad and you have an amazingly good, easy and quick weeknight meal. If you love bread, pile this on some crusty French bread, top with mozzarella cheese, broil until the cheese is melted and have an awesome sausage and pepper sub!!

Sausage and Peppers
Serves 4-5
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 pounds Spicy Italian Sausage (mild works too!)
3 bell peppers (I used 2 green and one orange)
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Heat oil in a sauté pan (I used a 4 quart). Place sausages in the pan and cook until slightly browned on both sides. Juices should run from the sausages, if not, prick a few so they do. Remove sausages from pan and add the peppers, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and oregano. Cook until the vegetables are soft or your desired firmness. Return sausages to the pan and just before they are cooked through, add the tomato paste and combine. Simmer for a few minutes until the sausages are done.

	Zane Dyer on Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
	dawn of food on Breakfast Sausage
	Susan on Breakfast Sausage
	Dorothy's New Vintag… on Quiche
	Buttermilk Pie \| daw… on Pie or Pastry Crust

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