James Beard’s Roast Beef Hash

I just wish this looked as good as it tastes

Joe Beef's Veal Pojarski

This week, the New York Times’ Dining Section featured a front-page article entitled “Lucky to Be a Leftover”.   In it were some remarkable ideas from people all over who made meatballs from holiday hams (no recipe on that one and boy, did I want it!), to Veal Pojarski, made from diced roasted veal, pork or beef and a specialty of those two Montreal Chefs-of-the-Moment, Joe Beef’s own Dave McMillan and Frederic Morin.  The Montrealers go all the way to sticking a roasted bone in the resultant meatball.  The thing looks phenomenally good.  But to me, the best thing to do with the gorgeous centerpiece from our Christmas Day table, our standing Rib Roast of Beef, is to make Roast Beef Hash.

Aromatic Braised Chicken with Fried Onions

Kerala, Land of Coconuts

         Talk about a recipe that lives it to its name!  This glorious chicken dish perfumes the house with a wonderful aroma of spices—ginger, curry, cloves and cinnamon.  And then, when you bring it to the table and serve it over some cardamom-scented Basmati rice, it proves to be as delicious a taste as it is an aroma.  Its Indian pedigree is fascinating. It comes from Kerala, the state that’s almost at the tip of the Indian sub-continent.  From the look of it, Kerala lives up to its name, which means “Land of Coconuts”.  Kochi, formerly known as Cochin, is its capital and there you’ll find this dish’s creator and her eponymous cooking school.  Nimmy Paul is her name and her background is as complex as India itself.