Category Archives: Meat Dishes

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Seafood Dishes, Soups and Stews

Thrifty Shrimp Wontons

In that I am an avid dumpling maker (so that I can afford to be a voracious dumpling eater), I tend to go through quite a bit of filling for the little buggers.  Much like the hot dog/hot dog bun conundrum (12 hot dogs vs. 8 buns), I often find myself with more filling than I have wrappers for.  What to do?!?

Given that the filling does not tend to keep very well (overnight at best, and never defrosted from frozen), I have found a quick and easy solution with wontons.  The wrappers are easy to come by in the produce section of the market (usually with the tofu) and can be transformed into the loveliest of soups.  In Chinese, wonton means “swallowing a cloud” – easily the perfect descriptor for a soup that is both complex and delicate at the same time.

So what’s the game plan, you may ask?  Very simple.  Bolster your leftover filling with some fresh shrimp, sesame oil and cornstarch.  Fill the wonton wrappers and twist into little satchels until you are out of filling.  Freeze the wrappers (as these guys do keep well) and make a pot of wonton soup.  If you have leftover wontons beyond the soup, either pan fry and serve with soy dipping sauce or deep fry and serve with duck sauce.  Last but not least, relish in your delicious frugality and trenchant wit.  Probably the most important step of all.

Recipe for

Thrifty Shrimp Wontons

Ingredients
1 lb. of shrimp, peeled and chopped
about 1 c. of leftover dumpling filling
1 tbs. of corn starch
2 tbs. of sesame oil
1 package of wonton skins
1 quart of chicken stock
1 tbs. of soy sauce
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 inch of ginger, peeled

In a standing mixer or with a spoon, mix the leftover dumpling filling with the shrimp, corn starch and sesame oil.  Fill the wonton wrappers with a teaspoon each of filling.  Wet the edges with a bit of water and twist the corners together to form a little “money bag”.  Dip the bottom of the money bag into a small amount of flour and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Repeat until you have used up all of your filling.  Set aside

Pour the chicken stock, soy and ginger into a pot and bring to a boil.  Add as many wontons as you’d like to eat (no more than 10 per quart of stock) and cook for 4-5 minutes.  Ladle soup into bowls and top with a handful of scallions.  Dig in.

Variations on the Soup

As a means of extending the majesty, feel free to use any of these add-ins:

  • handful of baby spinach
  • handful of bean sprouts
  • thinly sliced Chinese BBQ pork
  • crispy fried onions or shallots
  • thinly sliced chicken breast
  • lo mein, mai fun or udon noodles
  • peeled shrimp
Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes

Tuscan Grilled Ribeye

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Filet be damned, I want a ribeye.  I want a thick cut, well-marbled ribeye with a juicy center and a lovely charred edge.  I want nary the spice or marinade other than a smattering of coarse salt or crushed pepper, with olive oil to marry it all together and a brush of rosemary as a whisper of flavor with each bite.  In the words of Veruca Salt, “Don’t care how – I want it NOW!”

Kidding, I’m not a brat and I can totally whip this up for myself.  It’s the best kind of recipe in that it’s barely a recipe.  Making a steak at home is surprisingly forgiving and has more to do with the quality of the meat and the amount of time you give it to cook.  Letting the steak come to room temperature before cooking, letting it sit on the grill undisturbed before flipping, and letting it rest so that the juices redistribute are all necessary steps to the perfect bite of steak.  In addition, if you can splurge for a prime dry-aged steak, definitely do it.  It’s a total treat, and though pricey, a lot less expensive than a steak dinner out on the town.

When you are purchasing a ribeye, look for rosy, well-marbled meat where the eye (the round of fat in the middle of the steak) is intact.  This bit of fat keeps the meat moist during cooking and adds perfect flavor – shying away from the fat means you are denying yourself the succulence and juiciness that you so rightly deserve from your steak.  Other than that, there really isn’t that much to it – season, grill, rest and dig in.

Recipe for

Tuscan Grilled Ribeye

Ingredients
2 ribeye steaks, 1 inch thick
kosher salt and pepper
sprig of rosemary
olive oil

Heat a grill or a grill pan on high.  Liberally salt and pepper steaks on both sides.  Drizzle with olive oil and using the sprig of rosemary, rub the spices and oil into the meat.  Flip and repeat on the other side, rubbing the flavor of the rosemary into the meat.  Let steaks sit at room temperature while the grill heats up.

Grill the steaks, undisturbed, for 10 minutes on each side for medium rare.  Let rest for at least five minutes before slicing.  Serve.

Friends Recipes and Hacks, Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Chef Tim’s Roast Chicken with Chardonnay Sauce, Trumpet Mushroom Duxelle and Fingerling Potatoes

*in Jay-Z voice* “Tim, you did it again.  You’re a genius.”  Not too often when I’m cooking am I reminded of the fine balance between strict adherence to technique and freestyle improvisation in the kitchen.  This recipe is like a dance – you certainly want to follow the rules to coax it into perfection, but there is room for you to do your thang as well.  In essence, it’s everything I love about the kitchen.  And as I watched my husband take the first bite of the final product and nod his head knowingly that this was something of pure majesty, I loved it all the more.

In Chef Tim Ma’s interview for this site, he talks about the importance of organization in the kitchen.  As home cooks, although we don’t go all out with a true mise en place and prep kitchen work, there is something to be said for taking time to lay out all of your ingredients before you launch into the assembly of the dish.  This recipe is a great example of this fact – chopping all of your ingredients first and setting up your kitchen before turning on the stove will allow you the luxury of breezing through this one.  When you are all finished, you take a bite and marvel at the genius your tucking into without feeling as if you slaved at all.

Tim purports that this dish is an excellent use of many important kitchen techniques – I see it as a reminder of how much there is to learn in the kitchen, far beyond what we’ve learned from our families or from puttering around on our own with a bit of trial and error.  Spending the time to figure out how to properly treat ingredients is so very necessary, and though we won’t all have the honor or luxury of attending cooking school, it doesn’t mean we can’t go out of our way with a little self-directed study on proper methods and techniques.  Consider this recipe a solid lesson with Chef Tim as the instructor du jour.

Since we don’t have access to a live demonstration of this one (yet), a trickier part of the recipe is in the deboning of the chicken leg and thigh as one piece.  While you can absolutely have your butcher do this for you, it’s a lot more interesting to grab a sharp knife and try it out for yourself.  I found this old video of Paul Prudhomme doing it, and teacher that I am, I love his level of encouragement offered to newbies trying this for the first time.  Yes, you can do this, and no, it doesn’t matter if you’ve never done it before.  Now, fancy names be damned, go get yourself some roast chicken and mushroom action.

Recipe for

Roast Chicken Leg and Thigh with Chardonnay Sauce, Trumpet Mushroom Duxelle and Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients
2 trumpet mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 tbs. of butter
half of a lemon, juiced
1 shallot, minced
1 oz. of slab bacon or salt pork
1/4 c. of caramelized onions

2 chicken legs and thighs, deboned
2 tbsp dry chardonnay
4 tbsp vegetable or chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
parsley, chopped

1 lb. of fingerling potatoes
duck fat (or vegetable oil if you don’t have any)
salt and pepper

Melt 2 tbs. of butter in a large pan over low heat. Add bacon or salt pork and sweat for a few minutes without giving it color.  Add shallots and sweat without giving color for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms and continue to cook over low heat, adding a pinch of salt, pepper and the lemon juice.  The mushrooms will begin to release water – once the water is completely absorbed, stop cooking.  Add caramelized onions and toss to heat.  Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400°.  Heat a new pan that can go into the oven over high heat with a little blended oil.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Once pan is hot, add chicken legs skin side down and cook over high heat for a minute.  Place entire pan in oven and cook until chicken registers 165°, about 10 minutes.  Take pan out, remove chicken, drain oil.  Deglaze pan with chardonnay, scraping up the brown bits.  Reduce wine by half, add stock and reduce by half again.  Turn fire off, add 2 tbs. of butter and whisk until incorporated.  Place mushroom mix in center of plate, top with chicken, add sauce around, garnish with parsley.

Fingerling Potatoes

To cook the fingerlings, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add potatoes and blanch for 3-4 minutes.  Drain and dry well.  Add about 2 inches of oil (or equivalent amount of duck fat) to a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat until a piece of bread, when dropped into the oil, browns in 3 seconds.  Add the potatoes to the pan, being careful to stand back if the skins sputter a bit.  Allow to cook for a minute, remove and drain on paper towels and salt and pepper immediately while still hot.  If you’d like to time this all so that the potatoes are finished at the same time as the chicken, cook the potatoes as soon as the chicken goes into the oven.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Friends Recipes and Hacks, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments

Chef Tim’s Pan Fried Pork and Chive Potstickers

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I have to apologize to my husband right off the bat, but I’ve been having a (not so secret) love affair with dumplings for pretty much my whole life. When people tell me about how much they themselves love dumplings, in the back of my head, I’m always saying “Nope. Nowhere close to as much as me.” I occasionally even question whether I love them more than Andrea Nguyen who wrote the beloved book “Asian Dumplings“…maybe we’re tied.  From my early memories of eating fat, pleated jiao zi at the Hsian Foong in Arlington, VA, to scraping together pennies to buy the potstickers (like crack) from Ollie’s Noodle Shop while in college, to polishing off plate after plate of crystal chive and shrimp dumplings at dim sum, I look upon the modest dumpling as the penultimate perfect food.

When I asked my friend Tim Ma, chef and owner of Maple Ave Restaurant in Vienna, VA, to do an interview for the site, I was most looking forward to him proffering a mind-blowingly good recipe to share.  When I saw his potsticker recipe, I straight up cheesed – what luck to have access to a recipe that was passed on to him through his family.  And I’d get to eat the results.  The beauty of this recipe is in the simplicity – garlic chives and sesame oil do all of the heavy lifting seasoning the ground pork.  And as Tim explains, the wrappers are an art form – practicing rolling the wrappers yourself is well worth the effort and far better than you could get from most restaurants.  This is the kind of cooking that is rooted in love – you make these dumplings for people that you care for, and hopefully have them join you in the effort. Dumpling party, anyone? I promise I’ll consider sharing one or two.

Learn more about Chef Tim and check out another one of his fabulous recipes by clicking here.

Pan Fried Pork  and Chive Potstickers

1 c. of cold water
3 c. of all purpose flour

2 lbs. of lean ground pork
1 bunch of chinese chives, chopped
1 tsp. of dried shrimp (optional) soaked in 2 tsp. of water or shaoxing wine
4 tsp. of salt (or 3 1/2 tsp. if you use the dried shrimp)
3 tbs. of sesame oil
corn starch (if needed)

Begin by making the dough. Combine water and flour and mix until all flour is just incorporated. Let dough rest for 10 minutes. Next, make the filling. Mix the pork, chives, dried shrimp, salt and sesame oil.

You’re now ready to start making your wrappers and filling the dumplings. Roll out the dough into long sushi roll and cut into small round 1 inch pieces. Use a small rolling pin to flatten it into a wrapper about 3 inches wide.  You are looking for wrappers about the same thickness as gyoza, so when rolling out your own dough, it’s pretty thin.  It’s really an art – you make small balls about 1-inch in diameter, then smash down with your hand.  Roll the pin around the edges until you get your thin wrapper, leaving it a little thicker in the middle and thinner on the edges.

Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface on the kitchen counter. Place each wrapper on the floured surface with the floured side facing up. Put 1 heaping tsp of the filling in the center of each wrapper. Wet your finger in the cup of water and wet all around the outer edge of the wrappers. Close it by folding it up and pressing two wetted sides together. Set it down on a flat surface and make the bottom flat.

After about 20 to 30 finished dumplings, you can set a non-stick flat bottom skillet on the stove. Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in it and place the dumplings all around the skillet. Add two cups of cold water, and then put a lid on the skillet. Turn the temperature to high.
When the water is dry, turn the fire to low. Take out the dumplings when they are golden brown and crispy at the bottom.

Serve with dipping sauce (recipe below). If you like things hot, you can make a spicier dipping sauce out of hot chili paste, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Potsticker Dipping Sauce

3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c. of soy sauce
1/3 c. of rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. of  salt
1/2 tbs. of sugar
1/2 tbs. of sesame oil

Mix all ingredients well and serve. Sauce will keep in the refrigerator if you don’t use it all.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Middle Eastern Flatbread Pizza

Ok, hold your panties for this one folks (and sorry to all of my many friends who have a problem with the word “panties” – just pretend it didn’t happen).  This one is a middle east platter with flatbread for a plate.  You just eat away until you get to the table top and then lick it clean.  Kidding – use a plate, nasty.  But I do give you permission to lick the plate clean.  Fo sho.

This simple pizza is a riff off of the Lebanese treat, manaeesh, that’s like a pizza with ground meat and sumac.  If you haven’t tried ground sumac before, it’s certainly worth a go – it’s very slightly smoky and earthy, and can be used in lamb and beef dishes for absolute fabulousness.  Rather than marinara and sausage, you’ve got hummus and delicately spiced ground beef.  Mozzarella meets the melty craving and feta adds salty goodness.  Top it all off with cool, lemony tabouleh (which you can buy or make for yourself) and you are in business.  It’s ah-MAY-zing.  And oh so easy to prep for some random guests who decide to pop in.  Because you know those good friends of yours are total randoms.  It’s all good, though.  They always bring good booze, so certainly feed them for their generosity.

Recipe for

Middle Eastern Flatbread Pizza

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sumac
pinch of allspice
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 c. of hummus
1/2 c. of tabouleh
2-3 tbs. of crumbled feta
1/2 c. of mozzarella cheese
2 large flatbreads (pita, naan or even 1 large piece of Afghan bread)

Begin by sauteeing the ground beef until no longer pink.  Drain and return pan to heat.  Mix in the salt, sumac, allspice, thyme and black pepper.  Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 450°.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or use a pizza stone) and put your flatbread on top.  Spread the hummus on each of the flat breads and top with the ground beef.  Crumble the feta on top and sprinkle the mozzarella over that.  Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Remove from the oven and let hang out for 3-4 minutes.  Sprinkle the tabouleh on top and cut into wedges.  Serve.

 

Kitchen Soundtrack

Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Roast Pork Udon Noodle Soup

Of the dishes that I crave in an almost manic way, pawing the walls like a crackhead needing a fix, wonton noodle soup is always on the top of the list.  In college, it was brimming bowls of Cantonese Wonton Soup from Ollie’s Noodle Shop in NYC.  The broth studded with crisp shallots and baby spinach featured the most lovely shrimp and pork wontons – I willingly braved the lines and the brusque service just to get my weekly fix.  It was hard for me to imagine a wonton soup better than it, but once I tried the Roast Pork Wonton Noodle Soup at China Fun (also in NYC), I fell head over heels in love.  Blubbery udon noodles, tender slices of barbecued pork and spinach and scallions swimming around in a steaming bowl of broth.  And those wontons.  God, I have dreams about them – I felt a Robert Rodriguez-style need to march right into the kitchen and shoot the cook as the rest of the world didn’t deserve to eat anything so damn good.

Continue reading Roast Pork Udon Noodle Soup →

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Sandwiches

Hippie Roll

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Our pizza night growing up was rarely an affair catered by Pizza Hut or Dominos.  We used to frequent a family-owned joint that most Northern Virginians are probably familiar with called Joes.  We’d get take out from the Bailey’s Crossroads location, ordering doughy Sicilian pies with mounds of thinly-shaved toppings.  Their crusty calzones hid pools of creamy ricotta, melty mozzarella and tender ham.  They made the steak and cheese hero that I continue to judge all others against.  And their hippie rolls, a sausage stromboli of sorts with a tasty touch of crushed red pepper, became the fodder for regular, late night food cravings.  Pliant and chewy pizza dough held sweet roasted peppers and onions and a smidge of mozzarella cheese.  My dad would order a couple and slice them into rings for everyone to snack on, and they rarely lasted long. Continue reading Hippie Roll →

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Rice Dishes, Soups and Stews

Italian Sausage and Rice Soup

If I told you that this soup takes a mere 10 minutes to simmer for the taste of a soup labored over for a day (or two), would you brand me an infomercial?  Because it’s true – every word of it.  And it doesn’t come at the hands of any crazy Ron Popeil device, although you do pretty much “set it and forget it.”  This baby is simmered to perfection in a pressure cooker, and for that great savings of time and effort and the steaming up of the household, I am eternally grateful. Continue reading Italian Sausage and Rice Soup →

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

Much like my obsession with collecting bolognese recipes, I love love love a good roast chicken recipe.  I adore the way in which a little love, butter or olive oil, salt, pepper and aromatics transform the lowly chicken into something worth honoring.  Crisp, golden skin and tender meat come into their own with very little effort, and a homestyle supper is on the table for loved ones without a second thought.  Or if you love them EVEN more, you’ll just tuck in with them without even leaving the kitchen.  Best of all the leftovers make at least one more meal, if not a gorgeous chicken stock.

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs © Photo by Angela Gunder

My husband saw me oogling over Jonathan Waxman’s pan roasted chicken cooked in a cast iron skillet and purchased me a Lodge Logic 15″ beauty from Amazon.  It’s heavy as hell (a two-hand job) but an amazing holder of temperature and big enough for a chicken and a mess of roasted veg to boot.  It needs a name.  Like Thor.  Or maybe the Kraken.  So whenever I take it out, I’m releasing the…haha…you get it.

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs © Photo by Angela Gunder

For the butterflying portion, you can certainly have the butcher do it, but it’s easy work with a nice pair of kitchen scissors.  Simply cut out the back (and save for stock) and flatten the entire mess with a little pressure on the breast bone.  Prepping the chicken in this manner cuts the cooking time way down and allows more of the surface area to come into contact with the lemon and herbs.  The whole mess forms a delicious sauce for the incredibly moist chicken, all with no fuss at all.  So basically, yes, your prayers were answered and that homecooked meal you’ve been dreaming about is here.  Now.  Go make it.

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs © Photo by Angela Gunder

Recipe for

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 lemons
1 bunch of rosemary
1 bunch of thyme
1 onion, thinly sliced
coarse sea salt and black pepper
good olive oil
1 bunch of tarragon
1/2 c. of chicken broth
2 tbs. of butter

Preheat the oven to 450°.  Rinse the chicken well and pat dry.  Using the poultry shears, cut along each side of the backbone to remove it.  Flip the chicken over and press down on the breastbone to flatten it.  Liberally season with coarse salt and black pepper and then rub with a bit of olive oil.  Place chicken skin side down in a cast iron skillet.  Surround the chicken with the onions and top with the rosemary and thyme.  Halve the lemons and squeeze the juice over the chicken.  Tuck lemons into the pan with the herbs and onions.  Drizzle with a little more oil and pop into the oven.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the juices of the thigh meat run clear when pierced with a fork.

When the chicken is finished,  remove from the skillet to a platter and let rest.  Put the skillet on the stove and heat.  Add the chicken broth and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  When the sauce thickens a bit, add the butter.  Strain the sauce and set aside.  If you feel diligent, you can also pick out some of the roasted onions.

Carve the chicken into pieces and serve with the sauce.

Easy to Prepare, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Salads

Arugula Salad with Truffle Vinaigrette

It’s not terribly often that I have a dish that makes me want to have a mini fit, but when it happens, I try to do everything I can to extend the excitement.  I had a salad similar to this one at one of my favorite NYC restaurants, Marseille.  Between the tender prosciutto, warm buttered croutons and luxe truffle oil dressing, I wanted to hug a stranger and do a jump kick for joy.  Truthfully, though the taste is haute, the ingredients themselves are not terribly expensive or hard to come by.  With the truffle oil as your only splurge, the real luxury comes from the lovely combination of flavors and texture.  Making fresh croutons and serving them warm on the salad is an essential part of the glory – with just a few ingredients joining the peppery bed of arugula, you want to make sure that everything is just right.  After all, the end result should be a mini fit, and for a salad to achieve that honor, it’s got to be damn good. Continue reading Arugula Salad with Truffle Vinaigrette →