I found this recipe in the latest issue of Esquire Magazine which I had picked up for a little plane reading on my recent ski trip with the boys. I am generally not a big magazine reader, with the exception of a few cooking mags and The Economist, but I picked this one up for two reasons. First, on the cover was the terrific actor Peter Dinklage a.k.a Tyrion Lannister from the great HBO show Game of Thrones, both a favorite actor and show of ours. Second, the mag had a feature called "Eat Like A Man", and hey, we were men on a men's vacation….. so Esquire was my choice for the flight to Colorado.
Archives for February 2014
Treacle Tart
How many of you out there watch the PBS – Masterpiece show Downton Abbey?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller…..Bueller?
Well, for those of you who do and would like to whip up a little "period appropriate" treat to enjoy when watching the show, then this Treacle Tart is for you. Quintessentially British, and with a pedigree that goes WAY back, this is exactly the kind of dessert that the Crawley's would have eaten after an exhausting day spent lounging about the castle.
Creamed Spinach
This is one of those classic "steak house" dishes that I could never pass up when dining out and enjoying a well-marbled Rib Eye, but never thought to make at home. Not sure why, as it's really a pretty simple dish to make but up until very recently creamed spinach was only a restaurant treat for me.
It could be because the word "cream" relegated the dish to special occasion status in my mind, or perhaps it's "old school" reputation left me searching for a more modern twist like this Creamed Kale dish I came up with a while back. Whatever the reason, I'm so glad I finally came around to trying this dish because you know what….it's a classic for a reason.
White Bean Stew with Bitter Greens and Chorizo
This stew is a riff on a dish from the February 2014 Bon Appetit magazine. The original appealed to me for its simplicity, and one look at the photo in the magazine and I knew I had to make it to bring skiing a few weekends back. We've had more than our fair share of cold weather here in the Northeast this winter, so I am very happy to have another dish like this in my repertoire to be able to be able to toss in my fridge or freezer for a quick and easy meal when the next Arctic Vortex heads our way.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
I found this recipe over at Food52 a few weeks back and liked the sound of it so much that I decided to give them a try. I've never had a single "go-to" recipe for Toll House cookies over the years, preferring instead to tinker and experiment with various alternative recipes, but as I write this post I'm recognizing that those days may just be over.
Cod with Sauteed Mushrooms and Polenta Fries
Ok….now that y'all know how to make polenta fries, how about taking a crack at this superb fish dish to serve them along side. The mushroom "sauce" may strike some of you as a little heavy-handed, especially given the delicacy of the cod I served it over but trust me, this is a surf and turf combo made in heaven.
Polenta Fries
My mom and dad were in town visiting last weekend and for their first night here I cooked up another batch of the Stuffed Chicken with Herb Gravy that I posted last week, but this time made it with some creamy, goat cheese polenta as a side instead of the mashed spuds I used the first time around. It was an awesome combo, but as is always my custom, I made way more polenta than we needed as a side dish, so poured the rest of it (while it was still hot from the pan and pliable) into a nice even layer inside of an 8" x 8" baking dish for use later.
English Toffee
Food names can be so confusing at times. I grew up calling a candy VERY similar to this one, Buttercrunch. It was and still is my mom's favorite candy, though usually it is coated on all sides (individual pieces have been dipped) with milk chocolate and nuts, not just on one side with dark chocolate and nuts as this one is. English toffee, as I've always known it, is just the toffee part of this treat without ANY chocolate or nuts, so those of you Brits out there reading this may be awfully confused by the apparent discrepancy between the name of this dish and the photo above.