Category

Main Dishes

  • Make Your Own Chicken Burrito

    Make Your Own Chicken Burrito

    Running on the treadmill, it’s useful to dangle an image carrot in your brain: something you can run towards, something to look forward to, a reward for all your hard work. And last week, for me, that was definitely a chicken burrito. I was craving one, hardcore. The problem is that where we live in…

  • Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

    Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

    I’ve got a Valentine’s Day gift for you. It has a fancy French name–“Estouffade de Calmars aux Poireaux”–and it may be the most perfect thing for you to make tomorrow night as you try to seduce your Valentine. What makes it so seductive? For starters, look at the color: a deep reddish/purple, it positively screams…

  • Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli

    Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli

    Remember that broccoli post I posted a few months ago? The Best Broccoli of Your Life? It kind of took the world–or, rather, the web–by storm. To prove it, do a Google search for “best broccoli recipe” and marvel at the #1 result. If Google says it’s the best broccoli recipe, then it has to…

  • Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Cream

    Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Cream

    This is not a recipe for the faint of heart. It’s a recipe you can only get away with in cold weather–VERY cold weather–and even then you may hear that spiky haired fitness guru from the 90s, Susan Powter, in your head screaming: “Stop the insanity!” Susan Powter has a point: you’re about to bake…

  • Salt and Pepper Shrimp

    Salt and Pepper Shrimp

    Let’s talk about shrimp, baby, let’s talk about you and me… Ok, that was a Salt-N-Pepa joke. If you don’t get that joke, click here (I couldn’t embed it!) Now then, salt and pepper shrimp. What are they? I’d never had them until I went to Brooklyn Fish Camp last week with Robbie Baitz. They…

  • Tuesday Techniques: Cooking with Demi-Glace (Hunter Chicken)

    Tuesday Techniques: Cooking with Demi-Glace (Hunter Chicken)

    Tom Colicchio, that most formidable of judges on “Top Chef,” shocked me the other night when, during an interview on PBS’s series Chef’s Story (with Dorothy Hamilton) he revealed that he hadn’t gone to cooking school, he taught himself everything he knows using Jacques Pepin’s “La Technique” and “La Méthode.” (This is corroborated on his…

  • Molly Stevens’ Braised Monkfish with Cherry Tomatoes & Basil

    Molly Stevens’ Braised Monkfish with Cherry Tomatoes & Basil

    “Now is the winter of our Molly Stevens,” I wanted to say at the start of this winter. I wanted to say that because Molly Stevens’ book, All About Braising, is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. I love this book because the recipes are flawless and, not only that, the results always exceed my…

  • Cassoulet in 10 Easy Steps

    Cassoulet in 10 Easy Steps

    When Anthony Bourdain cooks with Michael Ruhlman on the Cleveland episode of “No Reservations,” he layers meat and beans together in a giant drum, tops the whole thing off with breadcrumbs and produces a dish most of us aren’t used to seeing on Food TV (and I say that as someone who now works for…

  • Braised Duck Legs For Idiots

    Braised Duck Legs For Idiots

    The dish you see above is a dish from a four-star chef and yet it’s among the easiest you will ever prepare. It comes from Jean-George’s “Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef” which was co-written by Mark Bittman. As many of you know, Mr. Bittman is The Minimalist and it might seem strange, at…

  • Flank Steak Story

    Flank Steak Story

    Of all the food and drink pairings, the greatest, I think, is the pairing of red meat and red wine. Sure, you have your champagne and oysters, your blue cheese and port. But give me a caramelized cut of ribeye and pair it with a spicy Syrah and I’m in heaven–a very red heaven. On…