Memorial Day Weekend! Time to bring out the Orange and Soy-Glazed Ribs and Coleslaw with Apple and Yogurt Dressing to go with them!

         

        The Un-Official start of summer officially starts this Friday. Out our way, that generally means a lot of premature wearing of summer clothes because we’ll still have a couple of weeks before it gets warm. The cool nights won’t stop the grill fanatics. They’ll haul out their Webers or open up their monster gas grills even if the temperature dips into the 50s.  I love their dedication just as much their wives love their participation in feeding their families.  But I’d prefer have to wait for the warm-up to enjoy grilling. Especially when I can make something as summer-y as Orange and Soy-Glazed St. Louis Cut Pork Ribs and a Coleslaw with the tang of an Apple and Yogurt dressing in the comfort of the kitchen. 

Mu Shu in Moments from Gourmet Magazine

Ready to be folded, Mu Shu in a Moment!

        

Restaurant General Tso's Chicken
the good, the bad and the ugly.

In our bid to eat healthy, Chinese food has taken quite a hit. We never order it for takeout.  And our visits to Chinese restaurants are few and far between.  But take heart.  We have discovered how easy it is to make Chinese food at home.  Not only does this keep the exotic flavors on our table from time to time, it also solves a lot of the issues we’ve had with the food to begin with.  Despite last week's news that salt might not be all that bad for you, Chinese cooking packs extraordinary levels of the stuff.  The current recommended daily intake of sodium is 2300 mgs. Or about a teaspoon.  A restaurant serving of General Tso’s chicken comes in at 3200 mgs. And, at 1300, more than half the calories that an adult is supposed to consume all day (2000).  That’s before you added an egg roll, which will send the sodium count up another 400 mgs. and the calorie count up another 200.  So much for the General's chicken. But surely Chinese vegetables are healthy?  Not so fast.  A plate of stir-fried greens comes in at 900 calories, eggplant in garlic sauce, 1000.  Then there’s MSG, monosodium glutamate, which has had a bad rap since the 60s when it was associated with “headaches, flushing, sweating, numbness, chest pain, nausea, heart palpitations, and weakness” according to Yale Scientific (www.YaleScientific.org). It was even called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”.  However, according to YS, “researchers have not found any conclusive evidence that links MSG to any of these symptoms, though it is acknowledged that a small minority of people may have mild, short-term reactions to MSG.”  So there!

Stir-Fried Chili Scallops with Baby Bok Choy Adapted from Fine Cooking

When I wrote about our culinary adventures in St. Barthelemy, FWI in March, one of our readers, “Mike”, got into a spirited discussion about how the scallops I’d waxed poetic over, were not local.  In fact, he was pretty irate about seafood in general and posted as a comment:  “Why the lack of eating local seafood?  Scallops multiple times mentioned (frozen and cryovaced from America)...so really as a foodie...how good can it be?" Now “Mike” is a Massachusetts native and his knowledge of seafood is impressive.  In a subsequent comment, he explained: “ Scallops do not freeze well…they shrivel and such...and because of that the frozen ones are not "dry" scallops, they are the ones that have that phosphate solution added to them to plump them up and make them hold water and look better after they defrost.” All that being said, I still loved my St. Barth’s scallops.  And when we got home and I came across a recipe for a Stir Fry with scallops, I couldn't wait to get my hands on some fresh scallops.

Creamed Mushroom Bruschetta with Caramelized Onions From Chef Chris Pandel of Chicago's Balena via Sam Sifton in the New York Times Magazine

  

        

Balena

1633 N Halsted St  Chicago, IL 60614 (312) 867-3888

1633 N Halsted St  Chicago, IL 60614

(312) 867-3888

As Sam Sifton recalls, when the waitress at Chicago’s Balena restaurant approached the table with a steak knife, everyone’s eyebrows went up. No one had ordered steak.  The waitress explained the knife was for the mushrooms.  Someone had ordered a ravishing dish: Creamy-rich Creminis browned to perfection and very simply cooked with some shallots and fresh thyme before being turned into complete ambrosia with a beaker of heavy cream.  Not content to stop there, Chef Chris Pandel used them atop thick slices of toasted Sour Dough Rye Bread crowned with the sweetest of caramelized onions. They literally jumped off the page at me. I could not wait to try them. And neither apparently could Sam Sifton.

The Passion for Ramps and a recipe for Bucatini with Andouille Sausage, Pan Grattato and, of course, Ramps

If foraging for ramps, make sure you're not
mistaking day lilies for the real deal.
Photo: Courtesy of Kerry Heffernan

  

         Ramp season is upon us and we’re off.  Every other foodie in New York will race to their local greenmarket in search of these tender, yet pungent, harbingers of Spring.  In fact, the interest is so intense that the only comparable event that comes to mind is to the running of the Bulls in Pamplona.  They attract that kind of crowd. Fortunately, the only real danger you’ll encounter is the distinct possibly that you’ll be run over by a ramp-crazed Chef at the Union Square Greenmarket. What’s all the excitement about?  Well, after the kind of winter we’ve had in the East, the mere sight of these woodland wild leeks, with their bright green leaves, is more than welcome.  And the fact that this year the asparagus is late rising from its beds only makes the leeks even more appealing.  There are said to be people who view the ramp as a mere “meh” on the menu.  And then there are those who haven’t a clue what a ramp is.   Not that that’s all that surprising.  They may be wild in the East and the South but they don’t even exist west of the Dakotas.   But they do grow here and picking your own may be an option.  But be careful.  My friend Kerry Heffernan mistook the day lilies growing near his house in Sag Harbor for ramps.  As you can see from his photo, it’s not a hard mistake to make.  Since I am not the forager that Kerry is, dutifully, I went to Union Square solely for the purpose of buying the first ramps of the season.  And then I was faced with what to do with them once I got home.

Herb-Butter Roasted Chicken with Tuscan-Style Bread Salad adapted from Chef Ryan Hardy in Food and Wine Magazine

Sometimes when I write a post, the food gods seem to be hovering overhead.  This recipe came to my attention when it was posted as a great idea for a Mother’s Day meal. Talk about timely.  Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12th this year.  Since presumably Mother will be given the day off, it will fall on some lesser cook’s shoulders to make a meal that any mother could love.  So right off the bat, you know this recipe cannot be terribly complicated.  Dear old Dad should be able to pull this one off whatever his level of kitchen competency.  If that’s not enough of a reason to make this dish, perhaps your ears will perk up when I tell you it’s the invention of a Chef called Ryan Hardy.   Chef Hardy, I have since found out, is about to open one of New York’s most anticipated new restaurants. The James Beard Award nominee's new place is  called Charlie Bird and it will open on May 15th, at 5 King Street in Soho.   Since it won’t yet have opened, there’s no taking Mother there for her big day.  But anyone can celebrate with this dish.   It looks like you’ve gone to a lot of trouble, but in truth, it’s not hard to pull off at all.

Nigella Lawson's Meatzza

        

I’ve hesitated to post this recipe. I worry that it comes dangerously close to Frito Pies or one never-to-be-forgotten summer camp dish: corned beef hash and canned corn mashed up together in a frying pan and covered in ketchup.  That’s not to say both weren’t delicious--especially if you were hungry teenager on a camping trip.  Although we like to think that as we’ve aged, we’ve outgrown these kind of campfire concoctions, we were drawn to "Meatzza".  It's from Nigella Lawson’s latest cookbook, "Nigellissima” (Clarkson Potter 2012). “Meatzza”, as you can likely guess, contains some elements of Pizza. Pizza is my idea of the perfect food because it hits every element in the pyramid--protein, dairy, vegetable and those carbs in the crust.  That alone might make me want to try "Meatzza".  But to choose it as the first recipe out of the 120 Ms. Lawson’s 8th cookbook contains, requires some further explanation. 

Enchiladas Suizas with Mexican Cole Slaw

The Battle of Puebla

       If you want to know what the single most viewed page in all of Chewing the Fat's history, this is it.   This sensational recipe for Enchiladas is hundreds of page views ahead of anything else.  The second recipe on the page, the one for Mexican Cole Slaw, is certainly reason too for its popularity.  Our records show hundreds of searches for the dish that have wound up on these pages.  So with Cinco de Mayo coming up this weekend, I wanted to share these two great dishes and wish you "Feliz Cinco de Mayo".  And I wanted to share a little of the fiesta's history with you.  So here goes:  
      Cinco de Mayo, the celebration of all things Mexican, isn’t really celebrated in Mexico.  It is true that it commemorates the defeat by the Mexican Army of French troops in the Battle of Puebla on May 5^th 1862.  However, only the state of Puebla shares the party spirit that is such a part of Cinco de Mayo in the US.   The rest of Mexico waits until September 15^th to celebrate their Independence Day.  So how did Cinco de Mayo get to be an American tradition?  Apparently the holiday was created spontaneously by Mexicans and Latinos living in California during the American Civil War.  They supported the fragile cause of defending freedom and democracy by celebrating the unlikely victory by a Mexican Army over the greater fire power of France.   Who knew? 

Pork Chops Scarpariello adapted from Gourmet Magazine

        

Italian Immigrants bound for the US.
Notice the preponderance of men.

If you frequent good old Italian-American Red Sauce restaurants, you may be well acquainted with a close cousin of this dish: Chicken Scarpariello.  Its origins, however, are not in Italy but in an Italian American kitchen.  Its name, “Scarapiello”, means “Shoemaker”.  If your imagination takes you to an immigrant shoemaker coming home and making this for dinner, you may not be far off base.  When Italians started immigrating to this country from 1890 on, very often the men went on ahead leaving their wives and children behind until they’d established themselves.  Many early Italian immigrants were barely educated and the early waves were full of laborers and, less often, artisans like shoemakers.  The Italian men latched onto ‘padrones’, immigrants who had arrived a few years earlier.  These men handled lodging, savings and work, giving farms and factories a constant labor supply.  Interestingly, around 50 percent of Italians who immigrated to this country from 1900 to 1920, saved all the money they earned and re-patriated to Italy.   These men never even learned the most rudimentary English.  They pined for their homeland and did everything they could to duplicate the cooking of their wives and mothers back in Italy.  “Scarpariello” is one example.

Sauteed Trout with Lemon-Chile Butter adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

Sauteed Trout Photo Courtesy of Food and Wine Magazine

Brook Trout 

I try to serve fish once a week.  Its health benefits are well known and even its fat content is healthy—it comes in the form of Omega-3 fatty acids which not only protect your heart, they also raise your good cholesterol level.  And almost nothing  is as easy to cook in as little time as a piece of fish.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but salmon and tuna prices are hitting the roof—especially if you’re like me and prefer wild-caught fish.  So you can imagine how pleased I was to discover that Trout is amazingly affordable.  I bought a whole fish for $9.20, which the fishmonger filleted and skinned for me to give me the two beautiful filets I needed.  I had to break my rule against farmed fish but I learned something about trout fish farming in the process.

Vietnamese Shrimp Sliders adapted from Melissa Clark in The New York Times

         

I don't know when sliders took over the world but they're everywhere. And while they may have started out as mini-hamburgers, now you can find them on all kinds of menus, stuffed with everything from Turkey to Texas barbecue.  Let's face it, their size is ideal.  In one or two bites, you get the full-on slider experience.  They're just the right size for children, for whom a full-sized burger is a challenge.  In today's post, they're made with crispy fried shrimp dipped into a salty lime sauce and then tucked into tiny brioche buns that have been slathered with an Asian inflected mayonaise. They're a gift from the inventive Melissa Clark whose Wednesday food column in the New York Times is eagerly awaited in our house. This time, Melissa has gone East for her flavors.

Turkish Lamb Pita Pizzas adapted from Semsa Denizsel in Food and Wine Magazine

        Need I tell you, we didn’t have lamb for Easter.  Instead we had one of our glorious whole, bone-in hams, with a side of Kielbasa.  As much as we enjoyed our feast, I had lamb on my mind when we came back to the city.  A couple of weeks ago, I’d found a recipe for Lamb Pizza.  Pizza, I need not tell you, has pretty well taken over the world.  And apparently Turkey is no exception.  This particular pizza is the work of a woman named Semsa Denizsel who owns a take-out food shop and restaurant in Istanbul called Kantin.  Chef Denizsel is no stranger to Food and Wine Magazine, which is where I encountered her recipe. She’s provided them with four of her recipes so far.  I am sure there are more coming as Ms. Denizsel is acquiring a reputation as an authority on Turkish Cuisine.  Kantin is located in Istanbul’s poshest neighborhood.  Now 13 years old, the focus of the food there is simple, honest and homemade.  The Chef is a complete locavore and a seasonal cook.  So even when something like eggplant floods the markets of Istanbul, if it isn’t locally grown or in season you won’t find it at Kantin.  What you will find is inventive cooking like these lamb pizzas spiced with red pepper and sweetened with sun-dried tomatoes.  Topped with an egg and baked in a hot oven, they’re elevate a simple week night supper into an adventure.

White Chicken Pot Pie inspired by Melissa Clark in The New York Times

        

It’s awfully close to putting-away-the-pot-pie-recipes time.  But this one is so good, I hope it gets in under the wire and if not, do save it for a rainy day.  It’s that good.  The reason I rushed to make it was that I’d managed to end up with not one but two half-eaten rotisserie chickens. They’re perfect for a recipe calling for cooked chicken. In fact, they eliminate a whole step.  They are a stand-in for poached boneless, skinless chicken breasts so they cut cooking time down. While you don’t end up with the poaching liquid called for in the original recipe, Chicken Broth is a perfectly suitable substitution.

        

Dahlia and Melissa in the Kitchen

The genesis for this recipe was an article Melissa Clark wrote about the ‘white food’ diet her 4 year old daughter Dahlia rigidly clings to.  Dahlia likes carb-laden dishes like Mac and Cheese and this Chicken Pot Pie, which would be relentlessly white were it not for an optional cup of peas.  I latched onto the peas to make some gesture to Spring’s arrival.   Now Dahlia is not the first person to embrace white food.

The Perfect Patty Melt and it's most imperfect imitator, "The Midtown Melt"

        

Last week, I had the strongest craving for a Patty Melt.  I confess that the Patty Melt is far and away my absolute favorite chopped meat sandwich. You must never call a Patty Melt a hamburger because to purists, the Patty Melt is emphatically not one.  To those afficianados like me, it has just four non-negotiable elements that set it apart from any hamburger or cheeseburger: A beef patty, rye bread, sautéed onions and Swiss cheese.  There can be no deviation from this ingredient list.  Furthermore, the patty must be oval to match the shape of the rye bread. The rye bread must be griddled, never toasted.  The onions must be sliced very thin and cooked until caramelized.  The cheese offers a little flexibility: it can be Swiss or Gruyere or a mixture of the two, grated or sliced.   What emerges from this recipe is decadently rich; the cheese permeating the bread and meat and that crisp, buttered rye bread is essential to the character of the dish, its aroma inextricably linked to the pleasure of the Patty Melt.  It’s completely decadent, there’s no denying it.  And there’s also no denying that I tried to resist it all last week.  I even went vegan.

Peppermint Patty Flourless Chocolate Cake...And yes, it's Gluten-Free!

Peppermint Patty Flourless Chocolate Cake decked out for Easter

        

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Michael, was the first person I ever met with Celiac Disease, the root cause of which is gluten.  He suffered terribly through college, fearing the worst and not being diagnosed until after we’d graduated and he’d moved to London. Never one to sit on his hands, he attacked his condition with wonderful gluten-free meals.  He’d always been a good cook, and he swung into overdrive and ended up writing a wildly successful Gluten-Free Cookbook called “Great Healthy Eating Gluten Free” (Carrol & Brown 2000).  With over 50,000 copies sold, it’s now out of print but you can pick it up used on Amazon.  Now he shares his words of wisdom on his website http://www.gluten-free-world.com/ as he writes “Global Gluten-Free”, his foray into International gluten-free cooking. Michael has commented that not many recipes on Chewing the Fat are Gluten-Free.  He’s not wrong. But here’s one for him.

Cazuelas de Atun y Farfalle from Grace Parisi in Food and Wine Magazine

         What’s in a name?  Plenty.  Today’s dish is an homage to Spain which may not need much homage as it has firmly planted itself on the New York restaurant scene.  I count no fewer than 42 tapas restaurants in Manhattan alone on http://spanishtapasnyc.com/. But if you want something really Spanish, I suggest you head there. Because this dish has its roots firmly planted in the US of A.  It was a mainstay in many a household when I was growing up.  It was prized for its simplicity and the speed with which it could appear on the dinner table. So if Spanish isn’t your strong suit, here’s the translation: Tuna Noodle Casserole.  But would you have stopped to read a post about Tuna Noodle Casserole?  I didn’t think so. 

A Revelation: A Roast Beef that's almost Filet-tender at about 1/5 the cost. And it cooks with almost no effort at all.

         This one of those food discoveries like tasting Burrata for the first time and wondering if you’ll ever go back to regular Mozzarella. Or the discovery of Balsamic Vinegar and using it on everything from strawberries to chicken breasts.  It’s that earth shaking.  You take one of the least expensive cuts of roast beef – an top or bottom or eye round – you blast it with heat in a 500 degree oven for five minutes a pound then turn the oven off completely.  Two hours later, you pull out an absolutely perfect rare to medium rare roast, so tender it rivals a filet mignon.

Sichuan Stir-Fried Pork in Garlic Sauce from Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Sichuan Province, Land of Plenty

         In one of their masterpieces of science and cooking combined, Cook’s Illustrated chose to take on one of my favorite Chinese Restaurant dishes: Sichuan Stir-Fried Pork in Garlic Sauce.  Sichuan cooking is immediately associated with hot and spicy flavors. The odd thing is that these flavors are relatively new. And initially at least, they were only popular among the poorer segments of Sichuan society.  There was so much else available. Sichuan Province is known as a land of plenty. While landlocked and therefore without seafood, it has an abundance of pigs, poultry, beef cattle, freshwater fish and crayfish.  And it’s been known for its masterful cuisine for hundreds of years.  The first Sichuan restaurant opened in what is now called Hangzhou, its capital city, over 800 years ago. 

A Top 10 Winner! Linguine with Creamy Tomatoes and Shrimp

Scott Conant, Chef and
Pasta Tester 

           After I’d made this dish, it came as no surprise to learn that Food and Wine had named it one of 10 Best Pasta dishes when it first appeared in 2010.  Judging the 10 Best were several chefs not known not known to be pushovers – especially in this category.  All three had been named Best New Chefs of the year. There was Scott Conant of Scarpetta in New York and Miami, a chef known for his particularly strong background in pasta cooking. What he may even be better known for is his appearances on the Food Network show “Chopped”.  There, he will figuratively run a contestant out of the kitchen if raw red onion appears on any plate put in front of him.   He was joined at Food and Wine’s judging table by two other chefs who know their way around an Italian kitchen:  Mark Vetri of Vetri and Osteria in Philadelphia and Michael Schlow of Radius and Via Matta in Boston. 

St. Barth's Easiest Recipe Ever....Salade des Haricots Verts avec Echalotes

       I posted this recipe last week and the response was terrific, particularly on www.sbhonline.com which is website completely given over to our favorite island.  When I did so, one of the most prolific contributors to the blog, AndyNap added something terrific to the recipe.  While I talked about using bottled Creamy Dijon Vinaigrette, AndyNap went to the trouble of giving us his recipe for the real thing: A perfect home made version.  Now I am a firm believer that home made trumps bottled in every way, so I thought I'd re-post and add AndyNap's  recipe.  It's further down the page, with the rest of the recipe. Bon Appetit!

Irish Onion Soup from James Klucharit of ABV Restaurant, NYC, Courtesy of Tasting Table

         If you don’t subscribe to Tasting Table (www.TastingTable.com), you’re missing out.  The site is just over 4 years old but in that time, it’s gone from 50 readers a day to editions that cover New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Chicago and attract thousands of readers.  Local  editors are selected for their expertise in each city.  They have ‘tested, tasted, sipped or supped on’ whatever item is featured that day.  This year, in partnership with Williams-Sonoma, there’s a once a week feature that alone is worth signing up for. It's the Sous Chef Series.  It features some of the city’s hardest working chefs—they’re all sous chefs at prominent local restaurants and they get their turn to shine every Monday.  Visitors to Tasting Table meet the chefs, see what’s behind the scenes at their restaurants and are treated to one of the Sous Chefs own recipes. Not long ago, they featured a young chef called James Klucharit.