If you’re cooking a birthday dinner for friends and need something a bit special and positively delicious, look no further.
I’ve had slow-braised short ribs on the brain ever since the weather turned chilly, so when our friend Casey’s birthday rolled around a few weekends ago, I was delighted to have an excuse to buy 6 pounds of meat.
A sweet Asian-style braise was my first inclination but since I had my heart set on serving polenta, red wine made a lot more sense. So I put my faith in Anne Burrell (Secrets of a Restaurant Chef) for guidance. Her clever technique calls for pureeing a Mirepoix prior to sautéing so that it easily melts right into the sauce. Brilliant.
While this dish takes close to 4 hours from start to finish, you’ll only need to put in about 60 minutes of active kitchen time before letting the oven work its magic. This is slow food at its best.
This dish is perfect for impressing company or for a lazy Sunday. My favorite accompaniment is creamy polenta (shown here) but I'm sure your trusted mashed potato recipe would also do it justice. Adapted from an Anne Burrell recipe.
Serves 8
6 lbs bone-in short ribs
Kosher salt
High heat vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 large cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup tomato paste
1 bottle hearty red wine
2 cups beef broth
1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
2 bay leaves
Season the short ribs generously with salt. In a large stock pot (one that’s large enough to accommodate all the meat and vegetables), heat a layer of high-heat vegetable oil over high heat. Working in batches, add the short ribs and brown very well, 3-4 minutes per side (do not overcrowd).
Preheat oven to 375˚F.
While the short ribs are browning, puree the onions, celery, carrots and garlic in a food processor until it forms a coarse paste.
After searing on all sides, remove the ribs from the pan. Drain the fat and add fresh oil to coat the bottom. Add the pureed vegetables and season generously with salt. Brown the vegetables until dark and a browned film forms on the bottom of the pan, approximately 8 minutes. Scrape up the browned bits and let them reform. Scrape them up once again and add the tomato paste; cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan (lower the heat if things start to burn). Continue cooking until the mixture has been reduced by half.
Return the short ribs to the pan and add 2 cups of beef broth or just enough to barely cover the meat. Add the thyme bundle and bay leaves. Cover the pan and place in the preheated oven for 3-3 1/2 hours, turning the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. Check periodically during the cooking process and add more beef broth or water, if needed. Remove the lid during the last 20 minutes to allow browning and to let the sauce reduce. The meat should be incredibly tender when done.
Before serving, taste the sauce and adjust seasoning if necessary (I removed the ribs, added salt, stirred well and returned the ribs to the sauce). Serve with the braising sauce.
It may be the American way but I always felt that serving plain old bread alongside spaghetti was redundant. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s there I’ll eat it but does a boiled heap of white flour really need slices of baked white flour to wash it down? In the case of garlic bread, absolutely.
There’s something about a toasty loaf slathered with melted butter and chunks of real garlic that make it a different animal altogether. And when you add freshly chopped green herbs, it’s anything but redundant.
I served it with the Italian Wedding Soup I wrote about last week and couldn’t help but notice that Tristan polished off three quarters of the loaf. I’d say it was a hit.
Green Herb Garlic Bread
Feel free to use parsley alone or any combination of fresh herbs that you have on hand. It's the perfect accompaniment to soups, stews, salads and yes, spaghetti.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped basil leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 loaf crusty ciabatta bread or a large baguette
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
In a small mixing bowl, stir together the butter, garlic, herbs and salt.
Slice the ciabatta in half lengthwise and spread each half evenly with the herbed butter. Place cut side up on a sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes.
Sandwich bread back together and cut into slices.
But that didn’t change the fact that Italian Wedding Soup remains one of my favorites. And making it from scratch isn’t all that difficult, not to mention exponentially better.
The soup in its simplest form consists of clear broth, greens, tiny pasta and miniature meatballs that cook right in the hot liquid. Ina Garten, however, inspired me to employ a twist: bake the meatballs. Baking, unlike simmering, imparts color, and color = flavor. But that’s not all. These particular meatballs are made with ground chicken and chicken Italian sausage. The fennel flavor, characteristic of Italian sausages, adds a dimension that ground meat alone can’t. These are so juicy and savory that I would actually serve them on their own as an appetizer.
Escarole is a variety of endive whose leaves are broader and paler. It’s quite bitter, with a taste reminiscent of radicchio, and can be eaten raw, sautéed or chopped into soups. If you’re not a fan of bitter greens, you can easily make yours with spinach.
I made a huge pot of wedding soup last week and ate it for three days straight. And no, getting married is not a prerequisite.
Italian Wedding Soup
If you’re going to be eating your soup over a few days, you may want to cook the pasta separately and add a bit to each bowl before ladling in the hot soup. Otherwise, the pasta will continue absorbing broth and become quite mushy. Adapted from Barefoot Contessa.
Meatballs:
3/4 pound ground chicken or turkey
1/2 pound chicken Italian sausage, casings removed
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs, about 1 large slice of good quality white sandwich bread
2 big cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Soup:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
1 cup diced carrots, cut into ¼-inch pieces
3/4 cup diced celery, cut into ¼-inch pieces
12 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dry white wine, optional
2 cups small pasta (I used whole wheat orzo)
1 pound chopped escarole, endive or whole baby spinach
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
For the meatballs, gently combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Using your hands, carefully roll 3/4- to 1-inch sized meatballs and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes until they are cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
For the soup, heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions, carrots and celery and sauté until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the stock and wine, if using, and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and escarole/endive* and simmer until the pasta is tender, about 6 minutes. Add the meatballs and simmer for 1 minute more. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust if necessary.
Ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated Parmesan.
* If you opt to use spinach, wait until the last minute of cooking and add it along with the meatballs.
Not only does Madhur Jaffrey have the notch of award-winning actress in her belt, she's the Julia Child of Indian cuisine. Born in Delhi, she first pursued a career on stage and on the big screen with much success. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that her culinary skills were noticed and she was catapulted into the world of cooking shows and cookbooks. Thanks to her, much of the Western world was introduced to the fragrant foods of India and the Far East.
I’m still somewhat of a novice when it comes to cooking Indian food but when I do, I often seek out Jaffrey’s recipes. So of course I was delighted when Borzoi Cooks (via Knopf Publishing) included a sneak peek from her new cookbook, At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, which will grace shelves on October 19th, in their latest newsletter.
Tandoori-Style Chicken with Mint Recipe
This chicken is incredibly versatile since it tastes just as good cold as it does hot. From At Home with Madhur Jaffrey. Serves 4.
Note: An 8-24 hour marination period is required.
4 whole chicken legs (about 2 3/4 pounds), skinned and separated into drumsticks and thighs
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
One 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons ground cumin seeds
1 cup plain yogurt
3 tablespoons olive or canola oil or ghee
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
Cut 2 deep diagonal slits into the fleshy parts of each thigh and 2 diagonal slits into both fleshy sides of each drumstick. Rub both sides with the salt and then the lemon juice. Set aside for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the onions, garlic, ginger, cayenne, garam masala, cumin, and yogurt into a blender and blend until you have a smooth paste.
Put the chicken and all accumulated juices in a bowl. Add the paste from the blender and mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight or 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 500°F.
Remove the chicken from the marinade (smoothing off the excess) and lay the pieces in a single layer on a baking tray. Brush with oil and then sprinkle with half the mint. Bake 15 minutes.
Turn the pieces over, brush with more oil, and sprinkle the remaining mint over the top. Bake another 5 minutes.
My mom is an extraordinary cook so, naturally, I look forward to my trips home. This past July was one of those times. Per usual, I packed at the eleventh hour, got little to no sleep and showed up on the east coast like death warmed over. Mom, being the nurturing type that she is, made sure to have a light meal ready. Enter this pasta dish.
Originally printed in the August 2004 issue of Cuisine at Home, this is admittedly the type of recipe I would overlook. Pasta? Pesto? Been there, done that. But this one is a touch different.
Any type of pasta can be used here (I used brown rice fusilli). If you don’t have any nuts on hand, they can easily be omitted from the pesto. Adapted from Cuisine at Home|August 2004.
For the pesto:
2 cups fresh spinach, tightly packed
1 cup fresh basil, tightly packed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts, almonds or walnuts, toasted
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
12 oz. dry pasta of choice (I like fusilli with all its crevices)
2 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cups green beans, fresh or frozen (if fresh, trimmed and cut in half)
2 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved (or regular tomatoes seeded and diced)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese for garnish
Place all of the pesto ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth.
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to package directions. If you’re using frozen corn and green beans, add them to the pasta during the last minute of cooking. If using fresh, add them 2-3 minutes before the pasta is finished. Drain.
Place the ricotta cheese in the bottom of a large pasta bowl; season lightly with salt and pepper. Add the pasta, vegetables and spinach pesto; toss well.
In a mixing bowl, toss the tomatoes with the white wine vinegar, olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Spoon on top of the pasta. Garnish the entire dish with shaved Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.
So when I was planning dinner for our group camping trip in the San Juan Islands last weekend, I decided to give her recipe a go. We were responsible for Saturday night dinner and I thought that a chocolaty hand-held dessert after plates of chicken tikka masala, cardamom rice and cucumber salad would be just perfect. I made the dough ahead of time, baked off a few for taste testing purposes*, formed the rest into balls and froze them. Come Saturday, all I had to do was pop them into the cabin’s oven for 15 minutes.
*Taste testing proved key. While the cookies were incredibly yummy, they were a bit sweet, which I remedied with a light sprinkling of sea salt before baking.
The Henry Island crowd gave them rave reviews. I actually remember Cecily saying, “This is the best cookie I’ve ever had.” And Jared, I’m pretty sure, gave up on his diet that night.
Since then, I’ve tweaked the recipe further by using dry roasted almonds and omitting the white chocolate altogether. The result: sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy, chocolaty goodness. Does your cookie do that?
Salted Chocolate Almond Cookies Recipe
Brown sugar is hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts water. This property is what keeps these cookies nice and chewy. As for sprinkling salt, use one that can stand up to baking (kosher salt will melt instantly). Adapted from a Tate’s Bake Shop recipe.
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup (2 1/2 sticks) room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup roughly chopped dry roasted almonds
Good quality semi-course sea salt for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light a fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla; mix to incorporate. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
Add the chocolate chips and almonds. Using a large wooden spoon and some old fashioned elbow grease (dough will be stiff), stir to combine. Using a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop balls of dough two inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch of sea salt. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets. They will be quite soft out of the oven but will firm up as they cool.
I can’t let summer pass us by without mentioning one of my go-to hot weather dishes, mango salsa. Not only does it take minutes to assemble, it doesn’t require any heat (other than the Jalapeño sort). The sweet-hot combination pairs beautifully with everyday proteins by adding freshness and vibrancy. Try it with grilled salmon, pan-seared cod, chicken or my personal favorite, red curry shrimp.
Mango Salsa Recipe
This recipe could also be made with fresh peaches or nectarines. To dice a mango, cut it in half lengthwise following the pit as closely as possible. Score the flesh of each half in a criss-cross fashion all the way to the skin (but don’t cut through the skin). Invert each half (it will look like a porcupine) and slice off the chunks. Adapted from Simply Recipes.
1 ripe mango, diced
1/4 large red onion, finely diced
1 Jalapeño, minced (leave out the seeds and ribs if you don’t like hotness)
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced, optional
Juice from one large juicy lime
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (fresh mint also works well)
Pinch of salt
Other additions: avocado chunks, halved cherry tomatoes, diced red bell pepper or jicama
In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and taste for seasoning.
