Lobster Soup

I had an indulgent lobster dinner the night before, but sadly (and shockingly) I couldn't finish it all. As I was brainstorming about what to do with the pile of shells and claws that were left, soup popped into my head. I'd never made a seafood soup before, but I figured it couldn't be that difficult. The soup stock consisted of the basics - onion, celery, carrot, peppercorns, and a bay leaf - as well as the leftover lobster shells and bodies with the gills and most of the tomalley and roe removed. The stock was excellent, not fishy at all, and the perfect base for my "leftover" meal. I threw in some seafood, potatoes, and saffron and served it with some crusty bread and butter. I'm definitely making this again, especially when I go to Maine and there are more lobster shells and bodies than I could possibly ever use.


HOW TO:

Boil the above stock ingredients for a few hours, until the broth is richly flavored.

Soak a pinch of saffron threads for 20 minutes. Strain stock into a separate pot, add the saffron water, and boil halved yukon gold potatoes until just tender. Add the lobster claw and any additional seafood (I used scallops, rock shrimp, and cod). Cook until everything is just done, in this case 3 minutes or so. Garnish with parsley and serve hot with bread for dipping.

Cajun Shrimp with Polenta

I'm not great at making seafood, but this dish was SO easy to make and really enjoyable to eat. I realize that I probably should have made grits instead of polenta, but they're basically the same and more importantly polenta and parmesan was what I had in the fridge.


HOW TO:

Devein, rinse, and dry the shrimp. Toss with chopped garlic, finely diced red bell pepper, cajun seasoning, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Sauté in a little olive oil and butter until just cooked through. Finish with parsley and lemon. Serve with polenta.

Pork Belly Adobo

I went through a chicken adobo phase immediately after the New York Times came out with this article. That was almost two years ago, so the dish had inevitably fallen out of my cooking rotation and was forgotten. My primary dining companion, aka my boyfriend, suggested adobo when I was scraping the bottom of my mental barrel for dinner ideas. Since I have been meh about chicken recently, I thought I'd upgrade the dish with pork. A trip to Whole Foods later, I had four pounds of locally raised pork belly ready for marinating. I made a slightly different marinade than what was written in the Times article (pasted below), basically a little more soy, a little raw sugar, and no coconut milk. I added organic coconut cream at the end of cooking to thicken the sauce instead. It turned out much better than I expected, and I expected delicious. With pork belly and coconut, I thought the dish would be oily and heavy, but the vinegar balanced it all. The flavor was an unique combination of porky, spicy, and sour.


HOW TO:

Cut the pork belly into 1-2 inch size cubes.

 Marinate with soy, rice vinegar, garlic, chilies, bay leaves, and lots of pepper for at least 4 hours.

Simmer everything together with a cup or so of water for an hour to an hour and a half or until the pork is tender. Add creamed coconut toward the end. Remove the pieces to a sheet pan and broil until browned and slight crispy. Meanwhile, reduce the remaining sauce until thickened. Serve all together with rice.



TIP:

Use Mizkan's brown rice vinegar. It makes for a much smoother vinegar flavor.

Chicken Adobo

By SAM SIFTON

1 cup coconut milk

¼ cup soy sauce

1½ cup rice vinegar

12 garlic cloves, peeled

3 whole bird’s-eye chilies or other fiery chili

3 bay leaves

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 pounds chicken thighs.

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, nonreactive bowl or resealable plastic freezer bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

2. Place chicken and marinade in a large lidded pot or Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.

3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.

4. Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and place under broiler for 5 to 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce. Serves four. Adapted from Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, Purple Yam restaurant, Brooklyn.

Roasted Bone Marrow

Probably the most delicious and yet simple appetizer ever. I explained bone marrow to someone who's never had it as meat butter, but I can't even begin to describe it's flavor. I'm lucky enough to have a ready source of fresh veal bones at Eataly, and they cut them to order. Maybe it's because I haven't had breakfast yet, but writing this post is literally making me drool...

HOW TO:

Arrange the bones marrow side up in a roasting dish. Bake at 450º for about 18 minutes or until the marrow is cooked, but not completely melted. Meanwhile, roughly chop parsley and thinly slice shallots. Just before serving, toss the two together with capers, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve the bone marrow right out of the oven with the parsley salad, toasted bread, and salt flakes to season. 

Apple Tart

I had intended to make pie, but it ended up on the floor half-finished in a super tragic accident. Luckily, I had some extra apples. So with the unused half of pie crust, I made a simple apple tart.

I've gotten pretty good at making pie crust from scratch. Key tricks: use really good butter. I think this is probably the most important ingredient. High-fat, grass-fed butter is the way to go. 

HOW TO:

Make pate brisee and set aside in the fridge. Skin, core, and thinly slice cooking apples. Toss with lemon zest, lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, a little salt, a pinch of cloves, and tinier pinch of nutmeg. Roll out the dough to a round-ish shape. Arrange the apple slices in concentric circles until about an inch or two away from the edge of the pastry. Fold the dough onto the apples, overlapping where necessary. Brush the exposed crust with an egg wash, and bake the tart at 400º for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is browned and the apples are toasty.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

The classic. My take: three types of meat, fresh bread soaked in milk, fresh basil and parsley, grated parmesan, and one egg. The meat was from Eataly, the bread from Eli's, and the milk from Ronnybrook. Locavore galore. Anyway, after I browned the meatballs, I threw them into a basic sauce. I'm talking real basic here, just crushed tomatoes, garlic, and ripped basil. I served the dish with some delicious Chianti, and, I'm happy to say, this was a very successful classic Italian-American dinner.

(I figured I'd start posting bottles I enjoyed with my meal so I can remember them)

HOW TO:

To make the sauce, sauté chopped garlic with olive oil in a large pot. When fragrant and before the garlic begins to brown, pour in at least two jars of crushed tomatoes. Season with fresh ripped basil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. 

For the meatballs, start by tearing out the inside of a loaf of bread - I used half a white boule for two pounds of meat. Soak it in whole milk. Mix together equal amounts of ground pork, beef, and veal and toss with chopped basil, chopped parsley, grated parmesan, one egg, and the slightly squeezed-out bread. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roll out the meatballs in equal sizes - I eyeball them and typically make them to be about an inch and a half in diameter. Brown the meatballs on all sides in a hot pan, and toss them into the sauce. Simmer together for 30 or so minutes and serve with spaghetti. 

Braised Oxtail

I'm not sure how it happened, but all of a sudden it's fall, going on freezing. Ok, maybe not quite freezing, but something about the weather says, "braise" to me. Few meats braise as well and taste as delicious as oxtail. Throw in some carrots, onion, wine and crushed tomatoes and it's a party. See the list of all the invitees below. I served the oxtail with brown rice, but some creamy polenta would have also been delicious.

HOW TO:

Finely dice onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Thickly chop three carrots, and set all the cut vegetables aside. Season the oxtail heavily with salt and pepper. Coat lightly with seasoned flour, making sure to tap off all the excess.

Sear the oxtails in a large pot and remove them when browned on all sides.

Throw in the finely diced vegetables. Cook until slightly browned. Deglaze the pan with some wine. Toss in the crushed tomatoes. Add a few sprigs of thyme and some coarsely torn parsley and basil. Cook together for a few minutes. Add the oxtail back in with a cup or two of chicken stock. Cover and put the pot in a 285-300º oven for 4 hours or so. With an hour left, throw in the thickly chopped carrots and some cipollini onions.