Archives for April 2012

Skirt Steak with Black Olive Aioli

April 27, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Now that the sun is shining again after a week's worth of much needed rain, I'm in the mood for a delicious grilled dish, and this skirt steak certainly qualifies as that. Those of you who are Suzanne Goin fans may recognize this recipe as a slight adaptation of one from her gorgeous cookbook Sunday Suppers at Lucques. It's a book I've owned for a year or more, but am just starting to cook from now….silly me for waiting so long.

Goin is a chef of impeccable taste and extraordinary technique, yet what strikes me most about her food is how real and unpretentious it all feels. I can't wait to cook more dishes from this fabulous book.

Curried Chicken Salad

April 24, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

One of the lessons I stress time and again when teaching Cooking Matters classes is the idea of planning for the creative use of left-overs. Let's face it, most folks don't have the time (or the desire) to cook from scratch every night, so it really pays to look out over the course of your week and plan on left-overs from one night to feed you again a few days down the road.

I Bow Down to Jim Lahey and His No Knead Bread

April 20, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

As best I can determine, this recipe was the first viral success story of the food blog age way back in 2006. It was then that Mark Bittman wrote about Jim Lahey's revolutionary and quite unconventional no-knead bread technique, and in the process enticed a whole new generation of home cooks to craft their own artisanal loaves.

Why, you might ask, am I dedicating a post to a recipe that has already been so widely touted in the blogosphere? Because even though all the great food bloggers from Bittman, to my friend Stacey at Stacey Snacks have written about this bread, if I can tempt just one of my intrepid readers to try this recipe, then it's worth my effort to share it once again……yeah, it's that good. In fact, it is so good, and so easy that unless you are one of the lucky few that have an artisanal bakery within walking distance of your home, I bet that this will become your go-to resource for the highest quality bread.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

April 17, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

You gotta love birthdays around here. They may not be very good for our waistlines, but they sure are tasty! Our lovely young Peyton just turned 15, and as is our custom when one of us tacks on another year, we (oui) kitchen slaves craft a meal and cake of choice for the lucky celebrant. For her birthday meal Peyton chose an Asian theme with a Ming Tsai crab maki roll, and a Wagamama chicken gyoza, and for dessert, this insanely good chocolate cheesecake.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Apples

April 13, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

It's been a while since we've had brussels sprouts around here so when I saw some small, lovely ones at the market the other day I just had to buy them. For those of you out there like me that HATED them as a kid, I urge you to give them another try. If your childhood experience with the little buggers was anything like mine, and you submitted to eating overcooked, sour, disintegrating slug-like morsels whenever your mom whipped them up (sorry mom, I know that's the way everyone cooked them back then), then it's time to give them another try.

Cheddar and Bacon Bite-Sized Biscuits

April 10, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

These little monsters are my slight adaptation of a recipe by Kim Laidlaw from her new Williams of Sonoma cookbook, Home Baked Comfort . To her original recipe I've added a sharper cheese and a bit more bacon, because in my mind it makes absolutely no sense not to. Kim refers to these as scones, but for me they rose and flaked beautifully, much more like little biscuits than scones, so that's what I'm calling them.

Whatever we call them doesn't much matter though, because after one bite you'll find these so addictive that you'll be scrambling to come up with your own name for them, something like…..

"Oh Sweet Jesus, Cheese and Bacon Crack-Bites"

You've been warned.

Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili

April 6, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

A few weeks back I cooked a dish very similar to this for a Cooking Matters class I was teaching in Charlestown. The theme for the week was how to incorporate more vegetables in our cooking, and it was a recipe I hadn't yet taught to a class and so was excited to try it. My friend, and class coordinator extraordinaire, Michelle brought along a sweet potato which wasn't called for, but really added to the dish….it was awesome, and all of our students raved about it.

Fig and Chocolate Bars

April 3, 2012 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

These little lovelies were inspired by my need to do a little pantry cleaning last weekend. They were the perfect vehicle for knocking-off the last few dried figs we had laying about, as well as an unopened jar of fig preserves I bought at Hediard while living in Paris (I don't even want to tell you how long ago that was). Any of you who have been to Hediard know they sell foodstuffs of only the highest quality (with prices to match), so I am pleased to report that even after YEARS tucked away in the deepest recesses of our pantry, the jam was still superb. Whew……

Archives for April 2012

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