Entrees

Braised Sausages with Balsamic Glazed Grapes and Onions

March 3, 2011 By Steve Dunn 22 Comments

While I’m pretty good about cleaning up after myself when cooking at a leisurely (weekend) pace, I’ve been known to leave quite the debris field in my wake when slamming to get a weeknight meal on the table for the family. And so, my wife loves it when I make a one pot meal on a weeknight, especially one that is as tasty as this one. You see, while we have a rotating schedule of kitchen duties that gives everyone a chance to be a sous-chef, table cleaner, pot washer, or drier, it seems that my wife more often than not swaps duties with one of the kids and finds herself up to her elbows in soap suds cleaning up the mess I’ve left in the kitchen.

Sorry, honey.

Braised Pork Shoulder with Fennel and Orange

February 23, 2011 By Steve Dunn 13 Comments

This is a dish that we whipped up a few weeks back in advance of a ski trip with my brother and his family. We were looking for something that could be completely cooked in advance, so that after a long day on the slopes we’d have little more to do than throw the pot into the oven to reheat while we sat by the fire, enjoyed a glass of wine, and stretched our sore muscles.

My sister-in-law doesn’t eat red meat, so the beef bourguignon or short ribs I had in the freezer were off-limits….thank goodness for our friend, the noble pig. This dish is incredibly easy to make, wildly flavorful, and satisfied everyone at the table that night, served with some gingered sweet potatoes and a simple green salad.

Curried Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Maple-Ginger Sweet Potatoes and Apples

February 18, 2011 By Steve Dunn 17 Comments

Jessica Goldman, the lovely food writer who brings us the delicious and informative blog, Sodium Girl, tweeted me last week and asked me to join her, and a number of other bloggers in what she is calling her “Love Your Heart Recipe Rally”. For the event, she is asking participating bloggers to rework a favorite “sodium heavy” recipe into one that would be considered “sodium-free” (or at least “sodium-light”), then blog about the dish, posting on Friday, February 18th….yes, that would be today.

The rules of engagement were pretty straight forward, we had to identify our original recipe’s salty ingredients, eliminate them, and recreate the recipe with as little sodium as possible – i.e. no salt (duh), no salted butter (ouch), and no products that contain sodium content higher than 40mg per serving – or “very low sodium” according to the American Heart Association.

A very cool idea, I thought.

That was, until I told my wife about the invitation, then had to endure the humiliation of watching her double-over in laughter at the mere thought of my cooking a low-sodium meal.

Cincinnati Chili

February 11, 2011 By Steve Dunn 8 Comments

As I struggled the other day trying to decide whether to cook pasta with meat sauce or chili for Superbowl Sunday dinner, I thought of my friend Kathy Bechtel who writes the great cooking/travel blog “Chefbikeski”, and a dish she had mentioned to me a while ago, Cincinnati Chili. Prior to our chat, I had never heard of the stuff before, and at first thought it was little more than a regional variant on chili that introduced a few different spices to distinguish the dish from something like a Texan chili, much in the same way BBQ is unique depending on where you eat it, be it Kansas City, Houston, or Memphis.

Smoky Tomato Soup

February 8, 2011 By Steve Dunn 6 Comments

Peyton, home from school the other day, was banging around the kitchen at lunchtime looking for a way to enhance her standard lunch fare, a classic grilled cheese. She was looking for something to elevate the dish to something more befitting the special occasion that is a SNOW DAY. Her first inclination was to make a croque monsiuer (a brilliant idea for a future post), but as we didn’t have any ham in the house, decided instead to whip up some tomato soup as an accompaniment.

The girl was in luck, not only did we have all the ingredients needed to make a delicious tomato soup from scratch, but I had recently stumbled across this recipe and was dying to give it a try. In our studied opinion, there are few things more perfectly matched than a gooey grilled cheese sandwich and a creamy bowl of tomato soup. I don’t know about you, but the combo was one of my favorites as a kid, ranking right up there with a PB&J with potato chips!

Bolognese Sauce

February 1, 2011 By Steve Dunn 12 Comments

Bolognese.

Just this one word evokes all sorts of wonderful childhood memories for me. Nana’s Sunday “Gravy” was a staple of my early years, and if I close my eyes I can still see her tending her gently bubbling pot of sauce for hours, while all of us grandchildren took turns working alongside her, finessing the crank on her old Atlas pasta machine.

Some folks never stray far from the pasta sauce they grew up on, and my Nana’s (then my Mom’s) was certainly good enough to make me think twice before experimenting with other recipes. Over the years however, I came to enjoy bolognese in a wide range of styles, some at the hands of other home cooks, some while dining out or traveling abroad, and one in particular from a wonderful Italian restaurant in Bar harbor, ME.

Bacon Wrapped Cod

January 27, 2011 By Steve Dunn 22 Comments

This is another Jaime Oliver inspired dish, that although it may cause certain types a bit of trouble, is so delicious that I predict you’re going to make it again and again. I’ll be the first to admit that this dish is not exactly seasonally pure, and understand that those of you who will ONLY cook what is locally and seasonally fresh may fight back on this one a bit. I am of course talking about the inclusion of asparagus in this dish, because let me be clear, in my book there is never a season where something wrapped in bacon isn’t appropriate. Are in agreement on this point?

Good, then let’s move on.

Shepherd’s Pie with Caramelized Onions and Cheddar Smash

January 23, 2011 By Steve Dunn 12 Comments

Our weather has been so cold and raw here lately, with day after day of what our local meteorologists call a “wintry mix” falling from the sky, that only the heartiest of meals will do. This delicious shepard’s pie made with ground lamb, and topped with a mix of mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese, is a textbook example of the kind of comfort food that is a perfect foil for this kind of weather. In case you’ve been wondering, your childhood lunch-line memories of a dish like this made with ground beef is properly called a “cottage pie”, only a true shepard’s pie is made with lamb…….there, now you know.

Ming Tsai’s Pork Tenderloin with Five Spice Apples

January 14, 2011 By Steve Dunn 15 Comments

This is the first Ming Tsai recipe I ever cooked, and it remains my favorite.

Why? Three reasons.

First, it is absolutely delicious and requires no hard-to-come-by ingredients. Second, with the exception of the brining which takes a little advance planning, the meal is very quick to put together. Third, with just a little extra effort it can be quite gorgeous on the plate. For a weeknight family meal, a dollop of the pureed potatoes, a couple of slices of pork, and a spoonful of apples and you are good to go (don’t feel like making the apples, put a little Chinese Five Spice Powder into your favorite applesauce, and you’ll have an easy substitute). For a dinner party or special occasion, plate it as I have in the photo above, and its a real stunner.

Sautéed Chicken Thighs with Orange-Soy Sauce

January 5, 2011 By Steve Dunn 20 Comments

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I hope your holidays were filled with delicious food, and lots of love and laughter. After weeks of elaborate, and some might say rather decadent holiday feasts, we’re back today with a perfect, easy weeknight meal that is not just healthy, but is loaded with great flavors.

If you use a quick cooking rice, this entire dish can be on the table in under 1/2 hour, if you cook brown rice as we do, it’ll take you about 40 minutes. BTW – If you are someone who has always struggled with brown rice, finding it a rather unappealing gelatinous mass in the bottom of your pan when finished cooking, try this method the next time you make it. It is foolproof and yields delicious results.

Cook the rice as though you would pasta. Pour however much rice you want into a large pot of boiling water, give it a quick stir and let it gently boil for 30 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, pour the rice into a strainer and count to ten. When you’re done counting, pour the rice back into the now empty pan, cover with a tight fitting lid and set it aside for 10 minutes (untouched) to finish cooking in its residual steam-heat. After 10 minutes, fluff it with a fork, season with salt and pepper and add any ingredients you wish to toss in, in the picture above you’ll see we’ve added some sauteed pistachios and fresh thyme.

Arthas, our resident saucier joined me in the kitchen a few nights back to work his magic with the orange-soy sauce, and could be found over the ensuing days pouring the left-over sauce on just about anything that wasn’t moving….it’s that good. The sauce is made quickly as the chicken cooks on the stove-top, simply steam some veggies at the last minute, and you’ve got a well balance meal that the whole family will love.

Cheers – Steve

Sautéed Chicken Thighs with Orange-Soy Sauce

by: adapted from a recipe by Dawn Yanagihara-Mitchell - Fine Cooking Magazine

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbs. mirin
1/2 tsp. finely grated orange zest
2 Tbs. fresh orange juice
1-1/4 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Season the chicken thighs on both sides with kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper. Pre-heat the canola oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over a medium flame. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the chicken, skin side down into the pan. Work in batches if you need to, you don't want to overcrowd the pan here. If the chicken pieces are too close together, the chicken will stew rather than sauté and the skin won't crisp the way you want.
Cook until the skin is a beautiful golden brown, then flip and lower the heat slightly. Continue to cook the chicken until an instant read thermometer inserted in a thick part of the biggest thigh registers 165°F, about 15-20 minutes total depending on the size of the thighs (the chicken's, not yours!). Remove the chicken to a platter or cutting board and tent with foil to keep warm.
While the chicken is cooking, combine the soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and orange zest in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.   In a small bowl, stir the orange juice and cornstarch; add this mixture to the saucepan. Return to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and glossy, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, cover and keep warm until ready to use.
To serve, transfer the chicken to individual plates, spoon some sauce over and around each thigh (again, the chicken's, not yours!), and sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds. Serve with rice and your favorite Asian inspired veggie side.

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Sautéed Chicken Thighs with Orange-Soy Sauce

Ingredients

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