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Who Needs a Reservation? Rao’s Meatballs with Marinara Sauce in Your Home

No matter what large city you may be in there are always iconic places that you know of that can be great to dine at. New York City is chockful of places like this and if you are a lover of Italian food, Rao’s is a place you likely know of and would love to visit. If you have ever had the good fortune of dining there yourself you are among the very lucky. Rao’s is well-known for being the toughest reservation to get in New York City, not only because they have a highly-regarded menu but simply because they have very few tables to go around and a pretty regular clientele that takes them. Just because you can’t sit at a table at Rao’s doesn’t mean you can’t take the opportunity to enjoy one of their Italian classics, such as meatballs with their famous red sauce. The recipe, from the New York Times, provides you the opportunity to make this signature dish on your own, saving you time, money and frustration.

Rao’s Meatballs with Marinara Sauce

For the Sauce:

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 ounces salt pork, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons minced onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 28-ounce cans imported Italian crushed tomatoes

6 leaves fresh basil, torn into small pieces

Pinch of dried oregano

Salt and ground black pepper

For the Meatballs:

1 pound ground lean beef

½ pound ground veal

½ pound ground pork

2 large eggs

1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 small garlic clove, minced

Salt and ground black pepper

2 cups fine dry bread crumbs

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic, lightly smashed

To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan set over medium-low heat, then add the salt pork. Sauté the pork until the fat has rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard the salt pork. Add the onion and sauté it until it is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté it just until it is softened. Add the tomatoes with their juice and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 45 minutes. Add the basil, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Cook the sauce for 1 minute more.

To make the meatballs, in a large mixing bowl, combine the beef, veal and pork. Add the eggs, cheese, parsley and minced garlic, then salt and pepper as desired. Add the bread crumbs and mix everything well. Slowly add up to 2 cups water, 1/2 cup at a time, until the mixture is moist; all the water may not be needed. Shape the mixture into 1 1/2 -inch meatballs.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the smashed garlic and sauté it until it is lightly browned, about 1 to 2 minutes, then discard the garlic. Working in batches and taking care not to crowd the pan, add meatballs and fry them until the undersides are brown and slightly crisp, about 5 to 6 minutes. Turn and brown the other sides of the meatballs, about 5 minutes more. Transfer the cooked meatballs to paper towels to drain, and then add them to the marinara sauce. Mix the sauce and meatballs gently and serve.

This recipe is very simple and I have found that really great-tasting, classic Italian dishes are often this way. They don’t need to use a lot of complicated methods or fancy ingredients; they stick to basics and offer great flavor. You can use a basic meatloaf mix to make the meatballs for the mixture of fat and flavor they go for or stick to your own and just use basic ground beef if you like, but if you are trying to imitate the flavor of a Rao’s meal to try it out, I would try to stick to as close of the recipe as you can to see if it is something you enjoy. I did go the extra mile and purchased the more expensive San Marzano tomatoes for this recipe to see if it made a difference over what I traditionally used. The sauce was very tasty, allowing the basic tomato flavor to shine through with nice fresh basil adding to it. The meatballs also were very simple but had good taste to them as well. All you need after that is some pasta, nice crunchy bread, a good bottle of wine and some great mood lighting and you can recreate your own Rao’s experience in your dining room or kitchen. It is an easy enough recipe to make it part of your meal rotation.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by MikeG on October 11, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner, Eating Out, Pasta, Sauce

Tags: meatballs and sauce recipe, meatballs with marinara sauce, new york times, New York Times Rao's meatballs with marinara sauce, Rao's meatballs with Marinara Sauce, Rao's signature dish recipe, Rao's spaghetti and meatballs

Impressive Biscuits in a Hurry – Cook’s Country Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

10 Oct

We had something of an impromptu breakfast yesterday with Michelle’s parents and our nephew stopping over for a nice breakfast so we had to throw some things together in a hurry. There is always plenty of bacon, eggs and coffee in the house and ingredients to make pancakes, but I really like to have nice, warm biscuits to serve with breakfast as well. They are great just with butter, but also go well with jelly, or to put some egg or bacon on and make yourself a little sandwich. The usual recipe I have turned to for biscuits takes a bit of time and preparation, something I did not really have yesterday, but this recipe from Cook’s Country for buttermilk drop biscuits gives you the same great taste and flavor in much less time so you can put it together pretty quickly.

Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk, chilled

8 tablespoons butter, melted, plus 2 tablespoons butter

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees. Line an unrimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large bowl until the ingredients are well blended. Stir the buttermilk and melted butter together in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup until the butter begins to form clumps.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just incorporated. Using a greased 1/4-cup dry measuring cup, drop level scoops of the batter about 1 1/2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake the biscuits in the oven until the tops are golden brown, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking process, about 12 to 14 minutes.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and brush it on the biscuit tops. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

This recipe makes about 12 biscuits. The difference in this recipe is that it uses hot fat (the melted butter) instead of the traditional cold fat you use with butter. With cold butter, as the butter melts it creates steam and helps to give you a flaky biscuit. When you stir the hot butter together with the cold buttermilk in this recipe, the butter will clump up in the milk, giving you the same type of texture you would get in a traditional recipe but with less work. The biscuits came out perfectly and were light and fluffy and had great flavor, making them ideal to go with breakfast. They will also be good to go along with any meal you like and you do not have to go through a lot of effort to make them. Even if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can always create your own by combining 1 cup of regular milk with a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice and allowing it to stand for 5 minutes. You could also get dry buttermilk, which I use often as a stand-in for recipes, where you just need to add water to the powder to get buttermilk. In either case you can end up with great biscuits for breakfasts or to have with stews, soups, chicken, meat or just about any meal you like in just a few minutes.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

3 Comments

Posted by MikeG on October 10, 2016 in Breads, Breakfast, Dinner, Side Dishes

Tags: biscuit recipes, biscuits for breakfast, buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk drop biscuits, Cook's Country, Cook's COuntry buttermilk drop biscuits, fast biscuit recipe

Leftovers Redux – Pastrami Hash with Eggs

08 Oct

Continuing along with my last post’s theme of making use of some leftovers, I needed to find something to do with some of the leftover pastrami I had when I made it myself last week. Too much work and effort went into making it to just let what was left go to waste and Sean and I had eaten quite a bit of it for lunches over the days and needed something different. To the rescue comes breakfast for dinner! Breakfast for dinner is always a family favorite and something Sean has liked since he was a little boy. We do it every few weeks when I have run out of ideas of what to make for dinner that night. It usually involves something like pancakes, bacon, eggs or sausage, but since we had leftover pastrami to work with, what better opportunity was there to make some hash? Has is a great way to use up leftovers and create something new and tasty all at the same time and it gives you a change of pace for breakfast or dinner. I used this basic recipe from Bon Appetit for a pastrami hash with eggs as a template, though you probably don’t really need one when you are making hash.

Pastrami Hash with Eggs

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1½ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (about 4 large), scrubbed, cut into 1-inch pieces

½ pound winter squash (such as acorn, butternut, or kabocha), peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

2 leeks, white and pale-green parts only, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 pound pastrami or any leftover braised meat, cut or shredded into bite-size pieces

4 large eggs

¼ cup sliced chives (optional)

¾ cup sour cream (optional)

Heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and the winter squash and season the vegetables with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 25–30 minutes.

Add the leeks and garlic to the hash and season the mixture with salt and pepper. Using the back of a spoon or a spatula, lightly smash the vegetables. Add the pastrami and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is warmed through and the flavors have melded, about 10–12 minutes.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium non-stick skillet set over medium-high heat. Carefully crack the eggs into the skillet one at a time and season them with salt and pepper. Cook the eggs until the whites are set and slightly puffed but the yolks are still runny, about 2 minutes.

Divide the hash among shallow bowls and top each bowl with an egg; scatter the chives over the top, if using. Serve with sour cream alongside, if desired.

If you have made corned beef hash before then you can see that this recipe is pretty similar. It would work with just about any type of meat you wanted to use – short ribs, prime rib, steak, turkey, sausage, chicken – and creates some great flavor. I really liked the spices that the pastrami already has and what they lent to the dish to give it even more flavor and it was a great way to use up the leftovers. I used butternut squash with the potatoes and opted for onions instead of leeks since I didn’t have any leeks on hand that day. Sean had his with scrambled eggs while my eggs were over easy and it was tasty to mix in the hash with some of the runny egg. We both loved it and there was a bit of hash leftover that is perfect to use with breakfast with an egg over an English muffin.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

2 Comments

Posted by MikeG on October 8, 2016 in Beef, Breakfast, Brunch, Cooking, Dinner, Eggs, Leftovers, One Pot Meals

Tags: bon appetit, Bon Appetit pastrami hash, pastrami hash, pastrami hash with eggs, pastrami recipes, using leftover pastrami

A Lazy Day of Leftovers – Chicken Tarragon Pot Pie

07 Oct

If you are like me, there are probably many nights during the week where you make a meal and then end up with a bunch of different leftovers that you may or may not know how to use. It is not unusual to get tired of having the same meal two or three times a week just because you do not want to throw away perfectly good food but are not sure what you can do with those leftover chicken pieces or leftover vegetables. It is times like this where potpie can come to the rescue. Potpie is a great meal to put together just about any time of the year and you can do it with any type of protein (or no protein at all if you are vegetarian) and vegetables. The only real effort that goes into it is making the pie dough and even then, if you have no problem using store-bought pie dough you can get the meal together even quicker. Very often I will use store-bought pie dough simply because it is easy, I do not really have the room to make pie dough and for potpie purposes it tastes just fine. I decided to use this recipe from New York Times Cooking for a chicken-tarragon potpie and make a simple dinner.

Chicken-Tarragon Pot Pie

For the crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) cold unnsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon cold vegetable shortening

Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt

Scant 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 egg

For the Filling:

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup chopped carrot

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup thinly sliced leeks

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1 cup frozen baby green peas

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 ½ cups chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 cups leftover roast chicken, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

To make the crust, combine the flour, butter, shortening, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse the ingredients together just until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is broken into small pieces. Pour 1/3 cup of ice water into the machine, and pulse 3 or 4 times. Squeeze a little dough in your hand to see whether it clumps together and is evenly moist. If not, add another tablespoon of water, and pulse 1 or 2 times more. Don’t overmix so that the dough forms a ball.

Turn out the dough on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Lift the ends of the plastic to gather the dough together inside. Press the dough into a large disk, and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until you are ready to use it, up to 2 days.

To make the filling, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the carrot, celery, leeks and tarragon, and cook, stirring, just until slightly softened but not browned (reduce the heat if necessary to prevent browning), about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the cooked vegetables to a bowl, wipe out the skillet, and place it back on the stove.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, and melt it over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, and cook, whisking, until the mixture bubbles and smells cooked. Do not let it brown. Whisk in 2 cups of chicken broth, and cook, whisking, for about 1 minute. Whisk in the cream, and cook 2 or 3 minutes, just until the mixture is thickened. Add the salt and pepper. If the sauce is too thick, whisk in the remaining broth.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Add the cooked vegetables and peas, the chicken and the sauce to an 8-inch deep pie dish or other baking dish, mix the ingredients gently, and taste for seasoning.

If you are using store-bought dough, take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes. If you are using your own homemade dough, flour a work surface. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll out the dough, turning and flouring often, and cut a shape approximately the size of your baking dish plus 1 1/2 inches overlap all around.

Roll the dough up onto the rolling pin, and unroll it over the baking dish, so it rests evenly on top of the filling. Fold the edges under and crimp the edges. Poke the tip of a knife through the crust to create 3 vent holes near the center. Whisk the egg with a teaspoon of cold water. Use a pastry brush to lightly coat the entire crust with egg wash. Place the pie pan or baking dish on a cookie sheet, and place it in the oven.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake the pie for 25 to 30 minutes more, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling through the vents. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before serving.

One of the great things about this recipe is that you can make use of any type of vegetables you want in a pot pie. I used the vegetables recommended but I also had some leftover broccoli that I put in as well. Pot pie works well with chicken, turkey, beef and pork that you may have leftover so you can make just about anything with it. I find pot pie tastes even better the next day and often have any leftovers for lunch, after the sauce and the flavors have had even more time to come together. It can be a great dinner to put together in under an hour.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by MikeG on October 7, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner, Leftovers, One Pot Meals, Pie, Poultry, Vegetables

Tags: chicken pot pie, chicken potpie, chicken-tarragon pot pie, NYT Cooking, NYT Cooking chicken tarragon pot pie, pot pie recipes, using leftover chicken

Goodbye Carnegie Deli, Hello Homemade Pastrami

05 Oct

If you follow the news, at least here in New York, you have probably seen the story regarding the recent announcement from the Carnegie Deli. The deli is something of an institution here in New York and has been open for nearly 80 years but recently announced that they will be closing at the end of 2016. The Carnegie Deli is very famous for the different sandwiches that it offers, especially the pastrami. Pastrami can sometimes be something of an acquired taste and not everyone is a big fan of it. For me personally, pastrami is basically the only type of cold cut meat that I really eat. While you can still get pastrami in any supermarket and from of variety of different sources, there is something about the Carnegie Deli that people are particularly fond of. Personally, I have never been to the Carnegie Deli but they do offer their pastrami for sale in different supermarkets and I have tried it before. It is pretty good but I had always wondered if it could be better. Pastrami was not something I had never really considered making myself, particularly because I do not have a smoker to use, but Shawn had shown an interest recently in trying pastrami and it just so happens, that at this time of year with the Jewish holidays, that brisket is at a pretty good price. I decided I would get adventurous and started looking around for a recipe that would allow me to make it at home but make it in the oven instead of the smoker. I came across this recipe from Food52 that seemed to fit the bill. It is a bit of a process, but it seemed like it was worth a try.

Homemade Pastrami

3 1/2 tablespoons black peppercorns

3 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 tablespoons mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon allspice berries

1/2 teaspoon whole cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 bay leaf, crushed

1/4 cinnamon stick, crushed

1 1/4 cup kosher salt

2 2/3 tablespoons pink salt (sodium nitrite)

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

5 garlic cloves, minced

One 5-pound brisket from the fatty end (point), untrimmed

1 1/2 tablespoons fennel seeds

1/2 cup shiro dashi

In a small skillet, lightly toast 1/2 teaspoon of the black peppercorns, 1/2 teaspoon of the coriander seeds and 1/2 teaspoon of the mustard seeds over medium heat until the spices are fragrant, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the spices from the heat and allow them to cool slightly before grinding them in the spice mill.

Put the ground spices in a large pot and add the red pepper flakes, allspice berries, cloves, mace, ginger, crushed bay leaf, crushed cinnamon stick, kosher salt, pink salt, granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey, minced garlic and 4 quarts of water. Bring the brine to a simmer, stirring until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove the brine from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature. Transfer the brine to a vessel large enough to hold it and the meat – which will be added later – and refrigerate the brine until it is chilled.

Put the brisket in the brine and weigh it down (with a plate or several tomato cans, for example) to keep it completely submerged. Cover the brisket and refrigerate it for 5 days. Remove the brisket from the brine, rinse it thoroughly, dry it, and place it on a large platter. Discard the brine. In a spice mill, process the remaining black peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, and the fennel seeds. Transfer the spices to a small bowl and mix them well. Coat the brisket with the spice mixture and sprinkle the shiro dashi over it. Cover the platter and refrigerate the brisket for about 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 250°. Put the brisket on a rack in a large roasting pan. Add a cup of water to the pan and tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil. Cook the brisket until it reaches 165° on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the meat, about 3 to 4 hours. If you do not have a meat thermometer, the brisket is ready when the meat is very tender. Let the meat rest for at least 2 hours at room temperature, or cover it and refrigerate it overnight. To serve, transfer the pastrami to a cutting board and cut it against the grain into thin slices. The pastrami will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Okay, this is quite a project to undertake and you not only need to have the time to put into it, and the space in your refrigerator, but you also, if you are like me, are going to need to go out and buy a number of spices. I do not typically have things like allspice berries or ground mace on hand and I certainly do not normally have the pink salt required for preserving meat. Sodium nitrite is used to help prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria and is something of a necessity if you are going to do this recipe. I was able to get some online through Amazon and probably have more than enough now to last me for a lifetime. I also had some difficulty in tracking down the shiro dashi, which they use in this recipe to help add some of the smoky flavor that you would normally get if you cook the pastrami in a smoker. Shiro dashi is a Japanese stock base that does have a bit of a smoky smell to it. I was finally able to track some down at one of the specialty food stores not too far from here. After that, I had to make space in the refrigerator for a container large enough to submerged the brisket to do the brining.

Even after all of that, you still have to wait for five days, the twelve hours of resting with the spices and then the four hours in the oven before the recipe is complete. That being said, I think it was certainly worth the effort put into it. The final product was very tasty. It tasted just as good or better than anything that you might be able to buy at the supermarket. The mix of spices was perfect and the pastrami was cooked perfectly and made for some great sandwiches. Of course, I served the pastrami hot on homemade rye bread with some homemade pickles, a little bit of tomato salad and some homemade ranch coleslaw and with plenty of mustard. It made for an excellent meal and there were plenty of leftovers so that Sean and I have been enjoying it for lunches ever since then and we gave some to my brother and his wife to bring home for them to enjoy. Is it something that I will make often? Not likely since the process is lengthy and brisket is often pretty expensive around here, but it is certainly a recipe that I will keep in mind to have once in a while when I get a craving for some good pastrami.

That is all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

2 Comments

Posted by MikeG on October 5, 2016 in Beef, Cooking, Dinner, Lunch, Sandwiches, Spices

Tags: Carnegie Deli, Food52, homemade pastrami, homemade pastrami in the oven, pastrami, pastrami in the oven, pastrami recipe

A Perfect Shout Out for Cooler Weather – Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Polenta

28 Sep

As much as summer may be trying to hang on here in the last few days of September, there have been some very cool nights here lately, making it feel much more like fall now. It is nice to have the window open in the evening to feel the cool air instead of the air conditioning. It is also a great sign that cooking more things like soups, stews and braises is right on the horizon. I have already started in on making some fall like dinners when I have had the chance to. One meal I particularly enjoy is short ribs. Unfortunately, as is the case with many of the meats that you find for sale today, short ribs tend to be very expensive, particularly if you are looking to feed several people. I had purchased some as part of a package of fresh meat I had purchased from Bishop Farms at a farmers market not that long ago so I had more than enough on hand to feed the three of us. I had been saving this recipe that I had found from Williams-Sonoma for braised short ribs with a creamy polenta and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a try.

Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Polenta

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 pounds bone in, individual-cut short ribs

4 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, diced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups red wine

3 cups beef stock or broth

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 cup milk

1 1/3 cups quick-cooking polenta

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

Preheat the oven to 325°. In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the short ribs with 2 teaspoons of the kosher salt and the pepper. In batches so you can avoid overcrowding, and the short ribs to the pot and cook, turning occasionally, until the short ribs are browned on all sides, about 5 to 6 minutes per batch. Transfer the short ribs to a separate plate.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and heat it. Add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about one minute. Sprinkle in the all-purpose flour and stir it well. Slowly stir in the red wine, then the beef stock. Stir in the tomato paste, rosemary and bay leaf. Return the short ribs to the pot. The short ribs should be barely covered with liquid. If not, add hot water as needed. Bring the liquid to a boil. Cover the pot, place the pot in the oven, and cook the short ribs, moving the position of the ribs every forty-five minutes or so to be sure that they are covered with liquid and are cooking evenly, until the short ribs are very tender, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Transfer the short ribs to a deep serving platter (do not worry if the meat separates from the bones; this should happen), and tent the platter with aluminum foil to keep the short ribs warm.

Let the cooking liquid stand for five minutes. Skim off the fat from the surface of the cooking liquid and discard the fat. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Cook, stirring, until the liquid is reduced by about one-fourth, about 10 to 12 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Return the short ribs to the pot.

Just before serving, make the polenta: In a heavy saucepan, bring 3 cups of water, the milk and the remaining 2 teaspoons of kosher salt to a boil over high heat. Slowly whisk in the polenta and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, whisking often, until the polenta is thick, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the 1/2 cup of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Divide the polenta among warmed serving bowls or plates, top the polenta with the short ribs and the sauce and serve at once.

A meal like this involving short ribs is pretty elegant and since it takes quite a lot of time to cook, it is likely something you are going to want to save to use for a Sunday dinner or another meal on the weekend. The recipe itself is fairly basic but the short ribs take on a great deal of flavor and as the fat in the short ribs starts to break down the meat becomes more tender and succulent. The gravy adds just the right touch to the short ribs and tastes great when served over the polenta. If you did not want to have polenta, you could just as easily substitute mashed potatoes or even rice if you prefer, but the polenta seems to go really well with this type of meal. This is a great one to do when you are having people over as the recipe indicated serves six. I did halve the recipe so it was better suited for just three of us and we still had some leftovers. The leftover short ribs are great to use for a whole bunch of different meals. You can easily remove the meat from the bones and shredded and use the meat for things like tacos or put it back in the sauce and just serve it over rice or pasta. I served this with some Brussels sprouts and some homemade bread to complete the meal.

That is all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

3 Comments

Posted by MikeG on September 28, 2016 in Beef, Cooking, Dinner

Tags: braised short ribs, braised short ribs with creamy polenta, polenta recipe, quick-cooking polenta, short ribs recipe, Sunday dinner ideas, williams-sonoma

Have Your Beer and Eat it Too – Beer-Brined Chicken

27 Sep

While I am not a huge beer drinker by any means, I do enjoy having a good beer now and then. While I am particularly partial to having a Guinness, I try to keep an open mind and do drink several other different craft beers. I appreciate that not everyone enjoys having beer is there beverage of choice, but making use of beer in cooking can be quite tasty. Not only is it great to use in batters for things like fish or shrimp, I have also found a few different recipes that make use of beer in both the brine that is used for additional flavoring and in the braising or roasting. That is just what this particular recipe has to offer that I found at New York Times Cooking for beer-brined roast chicken. The original recipe comes from Red Rooster Harlem, a well-known restaurant here in New York. The recipe itself is pretty simple, though you do need to plan a little bit ahead so that you can brine the chicken and have it ready to go for roasting.

Beer-Brined Roast Chicken

For the Brine:

1 cup kosher salt

⅔ cup packed light brown sugar

4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

1 leek (white and light green part), quartered

5 sprigs thyme

7 sprigs sage

2 shallots, halved and peeled

3 (12-ounce) bottles lager-style beer

For the Chicken and Vegetables:

1 whole chicken (4 to 4 1/2 pounds)

1 ½ pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise

1 ½ pounds fingerling potatoes (or other small potato), cut in half lengthwise

2 cups whole peeled pearl onions

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 sprigs sage

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 (12-ounce) bottle lager-style beer

To prepare the brine, in a large pot combine 8 cups of water, the salt and the sugar and bring the mixture to a simmer over high heat, stirring to help dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the garlic, leek, thyme, sage and shallots; let the brine cool to room temperature.

Place the chicken in a deep container large enough to hold it and the brine. Pour the cooled brine over the chicken. Pour in the 3 bottles of beer until the chicken is submerged; cover the chicken and refrigerate it overnight.

To prepare the chicken and vegetables, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the Brussels sprouts, potatoes, onions, chopped sage and lemon zest in a large bowl. Drizzle the vegetables with vegetable oil and season them with salt and pepper; toss the vegetables to evenly coat them.

Remove the chicken from the brine and pat the skin dry with paper towels. Place about half of the vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan or large sauté pan and set the chicken on top of the vegetables. Rub the butter evenly over the top of the chicken to coat it well. Pour the bottle of beer into the pan and arrange the sage sprigs in the pan around the chicken.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour, basting every 20 minutes with the liquid in the pan.

Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Spread the remaining vegetables on a baking sheet and place them on a low rack or the bottom of the oven. Cook everything until the chicken skin is golden brown and crisp and the vegetables are just tender and slightly charred, 20 to 30 more minutes, stirring the vegetables and basting the chicken once halfway through.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving. Plate chicken with a mix of roasted veggies and the vegetables from the pan. Spoon the reduced cooking liquid from the pan over the top.

This is a pretty basic roast chicken recipe with vegetables that lets you do most of the work all in one pan. I love roasting this way because you get to use just one pan and you get a great melding of flavors as the chicken juices run onto the vegetables and everything tastes great. I actually poured out the juices from the vegetables once the chicken was done and thickened all of the juices up as a gravy in a separate pan. It was great flavor that came from the beer, the chicken and vegetables. I used a Samuel Adams beer, actually their Maple Ale that is part of their seasonal beers that are out right now and it added a very nice flavor to the sauce and the chicken, but you could certainly use any beer that you enjoy the most. The vegetables were all roasted very nicely and had great flavor also. You can use a mix of any root vegetables you really like here to make the dish your own, but I love roasted Brussels sprouts myself. Throw in some carrots with the potatoes and you have everything to go. I actually made some of our favorite biscuits to go with everything to make the meal complete.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by MikeG on September 27, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner, One Pot Meals, Poultry, Uncategorized

Tags: beer-brined chicken, beer-brined roast chicken, New York Times Cooking, Red Rooster Harlem Beer brined chicken, roast chicken, roast chicken recipe, Samuel Adams Maple Ale

To Have and Have Again – Ernest Hemingway’s Meatloaf Burger

26 Sep

I have been pretty swamped with work lately, which means I do not have a lot of free time to do any type of blogging of my own. This happens now and again and is just part of the business of being a freelance writer. There are times where the work is nonstop and then there are others where things slow down and I have plenty of time to pick up the slack around the house and do other things. It also means I have less time to devote to trying out different recipes for things to post on the blog. However, I have been able to come across a few great quick and easy meals that are perfect for all the busy weeknights when you have lots of work to do, school has started, afterschool activities are taking over and everyone is going in different directions. The latest issue of Cook’s Country came a little bit ago and one of the recipes that caught my eye right away was for meatloaf burgers. The recipe they use is an adaptation of the one that Ernest Hemingway apparently used quite a bit when he was cooking for himself. While the article indicates that Hemingway basically used whatever he could find in the pantry or refrigerator and included it in his recipe, the one that they actually used seems a bit more reasonable. I decided it looked and sounded good enough where it was worth giving a try.

Meatloaf Burgers, Ernest Hemingway Style

1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

6 tablespoons ketchup

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1 large egg

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon onion powder

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 pounds 80-85% lean ground beef

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

4 hamburger buns, toasted

Combine the Panko breadcrumbs and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl until the breadcrumbs are thoroughly moistened. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the ketchup, the parsley, egg, mustard, onion powder, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Add the ground beef and knead the mixture with your hands until it is just combined.

Shape the beef mixture into four 3/4-inch-thick patties, about 4 1/2 inches in diameter. Press the center of each patty down with your fingertips until the depression is about 1/2 inch thick, creating a slight divot in the patty. At this point, the patties can be covered and refrigerated for up to twenty-four hours.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350°. Set a wire rack in an aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Heat the vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet set over medium-high heat until the oil is just smoking. Transfer the patties to the skillet and cook them without moving them until they are browned on the first side, about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the patties and cook them without moving them until they are browned on the second side, about 3 to 4 minutes longer. Transfer the patties to the prepared wire rack and bake them until the meat registers 160° on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of each patty, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and the remaining 1/4 cup of ketchup together in a medium bowl until the ingredients are well blended.

Transfer the burgers to a plate and allow them to rest for five minutes. Serve the burgers on the toasted hamburger buns with the sauce on the side.

I have to admit that the burgers certainly do have a meatloaf texture and quality to them, making them much more filling than the traditional burgers I make all of the time. That being said, I did enjoy the taste that the Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, ketchup and mustard lent to the burger. The sauce was very much like what you might traditionally think of as a Thousand Islands dressing and while I enjoyed it, Sean and Michelle both opted out of it. I did offer up some cheddar cheese on the burgers I made for Sean and Michelle and since they like cheeseburgers and I also made some bacon to top the burgers with, which rounded things off nicely for us since I very often make meatloaf with bacon on it. I would certainly make these again for something a little bit different as far as burgers go. Of course, serving these with tater tots, French fries, coleslaw or potato salad is always a good option.

That is all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

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Posted by MikeG on September 26, 2016 in Cooking, Dinner

Tags: burger recipes, Cook's Country, Cook's Country meatloaf burgers, Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway meatloaf burgers recipe, hamburger recipes, meatloaf burgers

Basic Knife Skills – NYT Cooking

20 Sep

I am certainly no expert when it comes to using a knife. I always wish that it was something I was a little better with so that doing all of the prep work before cooking would be a little bit easier and quicker. New York Times Cooking has put together some basic information and a video to talk about basic Knife skills, choosing the right knives, taking care of them and learning to make cuts like an expert. The information is pretty helpful and perhaps it can assist you in improving on your own knife skills. Check it out!

Source: Basic Knife Skills – NYT Cooking

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Posted by MikeG on September 20, 2016 in Cooking, Cooking Tips, Cooking Websites, Equipment

Tags: basic knife skills, choosing the right knife, knife skills, learning knife skills, NYT Cooking, NYT Cooking basic knife skills, taking care of your kitchen knives

Kitchen Pantry Cooking Essentials – Key Ingredients and Recipes – Food.com

16 Sep

The key to good cooking and easy cooking is having some basics in your pantry all of the time. When you have the right ingredients around you can put together a meal in no time at all. Food.com has a list for you of the 50 most common cooking essentials you want in your pantry so you can do anything at any time. Check it out!

Source: Kitchen Pantry Cooking Essentials – Key Ingredients and Recipes – Food.com