Side Dishes

Lamb Sausage, Feta and Mint Stuffing

November 23, 2009 By Steve Dunn 3 Comments

My wife is of Lebanese descent, and over the past few years I have enjoyed eating, and learning about her family’s delicious, middle eastern cuisine. I cook a fairly traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but wanted to give a little culinary nod to her folks who will be joining us for our feast again this year.

Thanks to Food52, and their recent “Best Thanksgiving Stuffing” competition, I decided to rework my turkey day stuffing to reflect some flavors of their culture. The resulting dish will be a welcome addition to a more “international” day of Thanksgiving. Lamb sausage, pistachios, mint, feta cheese, and zatar, combine with local flavors such as apples, cranberries, and leeks to make a deliciously new take on an old standard.

Gingered Cranberry Fig Chutney

November 14, 2009 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

I’m so excited to share with all of our “Oui, Chef” readers, that for a second time, one of my Food52 recipe creations has been chosen as a weekly finalist. This time around, Amanda and Merrill have chosen my submission to their “Best Cranberry Sauce” competition, this sweet, tart and spicy “Gingered Cranberry Fig Chutney”. Please visit www.Food52.com before midnight on Tuesday, November 17th to join the site and VOTE for this dish. Doing so will help us get the recipe into the Food52 cookbook….THANKS!

Click the image below to see a video of Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs preparing the two finalist’s dishes in the Food52 “Best Cranberry Sauce” competition.

Best Cranberry Sauce from Food52 on Vimeo.
I’ve never been much of a fan of straight-up cranberry sauce, in fact, the jellied kind makes me want to gag. I much prefer a condiment like this, that is more than just cranberries and a lot of sugar. This chutney gets it’s sweetness not just from sugar, but from raisins, some OJ and dried black mission figs. The cider vinegar and lemon juice lend a sparkling acid note, and the ginger and red pepper flakes bring heat. I finished it with some chopped, toasted hazelnuts to add an earthy crunch, and some freshly minced thyme for a hint of herbal complexity. The whole family loves the way it turned out, and while we’ll definitely reserve a spot for it on our Thanksgiving table, I can also see it working well with a roast pork or beef dish.

Given that prep requires just a few quick chops of an onion and chunking up some figs, almost any kid can cut, measure and toss the ingredients into a pan and whip up their own contribution to your Thanksgiving feast. Let ‘em have at it!

Cheers! – Steve

Gingered Cranberry Fig Chutney

by: Steve Dunn

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

12 ounces fresh cranberries
1/4 cup yellow onion, minced
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup hazelnuts, skinless, toasted and roughly chopped
8 dried black mission figs, cut into eighths
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, finely minced
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, finely minced

Instructions

Add all the ingredients, with the exception of the chopped hazelnuts and fresh thyme, to a heavy bottomed pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to bring the mix to a simmer, and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chutney thickens some. Remove from the heat, stir in the nuts and fresh thyme and let cool slightly before serving.

Brussel Sprouts with Fennel and Cider Cream

November 10, 2009 By Steve Dunn 5 Comments

I can’t think of a vegetable that I disliked more as a kid than brussel sprouts. I mean, what was mother nature thinking when she dreamed up those nasty little things, huh? Thankfully, my mom didn’t cook them often, so it was rare that I had to feign having contracted the ebola virus, and excuse myself from the table to avoid eating the dreaded buggers.

Sadly, my kids feel the same way about brussel sprouts as I did as a youngster, and now that I have come to love them, I’ve found myself working overtime to come up with a recipe that would make the little cabbages more appealing to the kids. After a few false starts, I think I’ve done it. In fact, not that he would ever admit it, but I saw Grid head back to the kitchen for seconds of these the other night….Eureka!

Butternut Squash Soup with Apple Cider Cream

October 26, 2009 By Steve Dunn 3 Comments

This is a favorite recipe from Epicurious.com that I have cooked for years. Each Fall when butternut squash are abundant, I make a huge batch of this soup and freeze about a half-dozen gallon sized ziploks of the stuff to get us through the Winter. The recipe calls for a little cream which can certainly be eliminated if you are trying to watch such things. When I make this, I do not add the cream prior to freezing, but will swirl a bit into the soup after it has thawed and been reheated. This allows me to serve some without if someone requests it that way. The drizzle of cider cream on top at service is a delicious touch, one I recommend you NOT skip unless you really must.

This year I got my squash from my guitar teacher, who, much to his surprise, found a bevy of the beauties growing out of his compost pile behind his garage! How cool is that?

Shrimp Fried Rice

October 18, 2009 By Steve Dunn 1 Comment

This is a recipe that was inspired by a Pineapple Rice dish that I recently found featured on the fabulous 101 Cookbooks blog. I took Heidi’s recipe and adapted it to what I had on-hand at the time when I first made this a few weeks ago. It came out so well, that I thought I’d reproduce (and document) it for all of you.

Fried rice is absolutely one of those everything but the kitchen sink dishes, that lends itself well to any leftovers you have laying about. You will find some combinations you like better than others, but as long as you start with a few cups of cold, cooked rice, and the makings of a tasty dressing, almost anything else you throw into the mix is sure to yield a satisfying meal.

Arthas put in some time working on his knife skills to pull this meal together, tailing and cutting the shrimp, mincing the garlic, and prepping the clementines. This is one of those meals that is really all about prep, so if you have the space in your kitchen, pull a few of the kids into duty to speed along the slicing, dicing, and mincing process. Once your “mise” is ready, only about five minutes of high heat stand between you and a healthy, delicious meal.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Fried Rice

by: Inspired by Heidi Swanson of "101 Cookbooks"

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup mild olive oil, or sunflower oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
pinch of kosher salt
2 cups cooked brown long grain rice, cold from the fridge
24 large, cooked, peeled and de-veined shrimp, cut into thirds
4 cups baby spinach leaves
2 ears of corn, kernels stripped from the cob
3 clementines, each segment cut in half cross-wise
1 shallot, finely minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
1 cup roasted, salted cashews, roughly chopped
1 small chile, seeded and finely minced
3 eggs, scrambled, cooked into a thin omelette, and cubed.
Fresh Cilantro

Instructions

Make the dressing by whisking the first nine ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.
Whisk the eggs with a little salt and pepper, and pour into a pre-heated small non-stick skillet. Cook on low-medium heat, undisturbed, until totally set. Flip briefly if you wish before slipping the omelette onto a cutting board to cool. Cut into cubes and reserve.
In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon high-heat canola oil to almost smoking.
Add the corn kernels and cook for 1 minute.
Add the shallot, chile, rice, scallions, shrimp, and half the dressing, and cook till heated through.
Add the spinach, cooked egg, clementines, and cashews, and cook until the spinach wilts.
Taste for seasoning, adding more dressing if required.
Serve immediately, topped with freshly minced cilantro.

Tomato Pie

October 4, 2009 By Steve Dunn 8 Comments

I have a confession to make.

The kids barely had anything to do with the making of this pie.

There, I said it….I’m such a bad, wicked, naughty boy…..will you ever forgive me?

We had every intention of conforming to the rules of our “Oui, Chef” work, and have Grid help me make the pie, but a cross-country track meet (his team won, YEAH) got in the way. This happens to us occasionally, and when it does, we generally pass over the dish for inclusion in the blog so that we stay true to the spirit of our work here. Not that you’d ever really know, but we feel a responsibility to post only dishes that we actually made together, as we stand on our soap box and encourage you all to do the same. But as Tom Cruise said in Risky Business, “sometimes you just gotta say, what the #@*?”, and break the rules a little bit, or as is the case here, bend them a whole lot. I say bend them because Boris did help me to make the pie dough for this recipe, but beyond that, I was flying solo.

We decided to run with this post anyway, not just because it is a really fabulous recipe, which it is, but because tomato season is fast coming to a close here in the Northeast, and we want our local readers to have a chance to make this dish with perfectly ripe local tomatoes while they still can.

Provencal Wheat Berry Salad

August 18, 2009 By Steve Dunn 2 Comments

I was alone this weekend.

Totally alone.

No wife, no kids, no pets (except for Monty, Boris’ Ball Python).

So this post will be a little different from the rest. On Saturday I was not cooking to teach, or to satisfy a crowd, I was cooking for me. So….what was on the menu you ask? Let’s see….I had some fresh herbs and arugula from the garden, and some impossibly sweet corn, fresh garlic, and cherry tomatoes from the farmer’s market. I had some wheat berries in the pantry that I was itchin’ to put to use, and a lovely, locally raised skirt steak for the grill. All the makings of my favorite kind of meal. Fresh, healthy and locally produced.

The steak got about 4 hours in a South American style marinade before it spent a scant 4 minutes ( 2 min. each side) on the searing hot grill. It was served with a chimichurri sauce made from my garden herbs and freshly chopped garlic. The corn stayed on the cob, simply steamed and served with plenty of butter, salt and pepper. The wheat berry salad I threw together turned out really well, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you all.

Duck Fat Potatoes

August 7, 2009 By Steve Dunn 9 Comments

Living in France for two years ultimately offered great culinary awakenings not just for me, but also for my kids, and they now look back fondly on all of the culinary “firsts” they enjoyed while living there. That said, I am fairly certain that I was the most hated person on the planet in the days just following our expatriation (remember, we were moving there so that I could go to culinary school), because the culture shock for them was immediate and intense. The kids’ first few weeks in-country were predictably awful (gastronomically speaking), as they were forced to change their diets literally overnight. Gone were chicken fingers and Velveeta Mac and Cheese, american burgers and dogs, and most breakfast cereals they were accustomed to.

We had lived there only a couple of days when Arthas hit the wall. We were buying lunch from a little concession at the entrance to the famed “Catacombs” of Paris. He ordered a hamburger, expecting no doubt, “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun. Instead, he was handed a fairly suspect patty served on a day old baguette, topped with some WICKED STINKY cheese, and a runny fried egg. I can still see the poor kid banging his head on the side of the kiosk while fighting back his tears.

Thankfully, within just a few weeks, things started looking up for Arthas on the food front. It all began turning around for him when we dined at “Le Relais de l’Entrecote” just off of Boulevard Saint-Germain. “Le Relais” is a restaurant that serves just one dish, but they do it exceedingly well. If you happen to be in Paris, and are in the mood for Steak-Frites, then “Le Relais” is your place. The meal there is served in two stages, each filling your plate with perfectly cooked, sliced steak slathered in a fabulous butter-herb sauce (the subject of endless chat-room banter, and the recipe for which appears to be a more closely held secret than that for Coca-Cola!), and a huge pile of golden, crispy fries. Arthas had just cleaned his plate when the waitress came back around with seconds of everything, the fries fresh from the kitchen, and his fate was sealed. He was so smitten with the frites, that from that day forward, he would devote considerable energies to searching out the best potato dishes on the planet, a quest that keeps him busy to this day.

Our time in Paris would present him with two more contenders for the title.