Category: Main Course

Chicken, Main Course

Quick Coq au Vin

by Wendi22 Comments on Quick Coq au Vin

I don’t know what you think of this picture.  But I’ve tasted that meal.  And despite how unphotogenic it may be, it scores a perfect 10 on taste.  Braised chicken, BACON, rich wine sauce, and pearl onions.  How could it be anything but good?

Despite the fact that this recipe is the brainchild of Cook’s Illustrated, this is not a sign that I have called a truce with his Bowtiedness.  I remain resolute in my stance that I will never again contribute to CK’s golden parachute through yearly subscription fees to the magazine.

I haven’t yet named a replacement for CI.  But I’m holding follow up interviews with Fine Cooking, Bon Appetit, and Saveur.  It would really sway my opinion if one of those titles had something magically delicious like this in an upcoming issue.

Quick Coq au Vin

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

BAH Note:  CI calls for boneless, skinless thighs to be cut in half.  I used a combination of boneless and bone in thighs.  If you use bone in thighs, you wont’ be able to cut them in half but you will still want to remove the skin and as much fat as possible.  If using boneless thighs, your cooking time will be less than mine.

  • 1 bottle red wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 can chicken broth
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 6 – 8 ounces thick cut bacon, cut into lardons
  • 2 – 3 pounds chicken thighs, skin removed and trimmed of fat
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed
  • 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons flour

Combine wine, chicken broth, bay leaf, and thyme in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat and reduce by half.  Once reduced, remove from heat and discard the thyme and bay leaf.

While the liquid is reducing, cook the bacon in a dutch oven over medium heat until well browned and the fat has rendered.  Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate and drain off the bacon fat.

Return 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat to dutch oven and heat over medium high flame.  When just smoking, add half of the chicken and cook for 2 minutes on each side until lightly browned.  Transfer the chicken to a plate and brown the remaining chicken in another 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat.  Transfer the rest of the chicken to a plate.

Melt the butter in the empty pot over medium high heat.  Add the pearl onions and mushrooms and cook for approximately 10 to 15 minutes until the mushrooms release their liquid and the onions and mushrooms begin to brown.  Add the tomato paste to the pot and cook for 30 seconds before adding the flour.  Cook for another minute and then add the reduced wine mixture and deglaze the pot.

Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pot along with half of the bacon.  Bring to a boil, cover the pot, reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally.

Serve the chicken and sauce garnished with the rest of the bacon.

{printable recipe}

Main Course, Pasta

Angry Asian’s Pasta

by Wendi15 Comments on Angry Asian’s Pasta

For as long as I can remember, my favorite way to dress pasta is with a big ol’nub of butter.  That’s it.  Pasta and butter.  Maybe some grated cheese.  Maybe.  That’s how I make it when I’m by myself.

I believe this started way back in childhood when my grandmother would take leftover spaghetti and fry it up with butter in her cast iron skillet.  Not quite spaghetti.  Kinda, sort of, almost a pancake.  If I were a betting woman, I’d put my money down on this being the spark of my love of pasta and butter.

But sometimes the refrigerator needs to be cleaned out and you’re faced with asparagus and mushrooms that are on their last legs.  And sometimes when that happens, you just happen to have spaghetti on the menu.  So instead of having pasta and a salad, you incorporate the salad into your pasta.  At least, that’s how it went down at my house.

So now that I’ve stumbled into the wonderful world of pasta with mushrooms and asparagus, I may have to plan a return visit.

Pasta with Mushrooms and Asparagus

Adapted from Angry Asian Creations

BAH Note:  If you happen to have a fancy finishing olive oil in your pantry, you’ll want to pull it out for this.  And if that fancy finishing olive oil just happens to have been kissed with meyer lemon, even better.  To really fancypants it up, use any of Cipriani’s pastas.  They are absolutely sublime and cook in three minutes.

  • 1/2 pound pappardelle pasta
  • 1 bunch asparagus, chopped
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 8 ounces mushrooms
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • grated parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of well salted water to a boil over high heat.

While the water comes to a boil, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Cook the mushrooms until they release their liquid and begin to brown. Add the asparagus and cook until it is done to your liking.  Add the lemon juice and zest, taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper as necessary.  Remove the pan from the heat while you cook the pasta.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the package directions until al dente.  Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.  Toss the pasta in with the vegetables and add cooking water if the pasta starts to stick together. Taste for seasoning again and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve garnished with grated parmesan and a bit of finishing oil if you have some.

{printable recipe}

Chicken, Main Course

One Pot Chicken Bake

by Wendi10 Comments on One Pot Chicken Bake
not my actual kitchen. image from http://www.morguefile.com

I have carried this recipe with me for the last 11 years.  That would be two apartments and one house for those of you wondering.  Making this still makes me think of that very first apartment.  It was the second floor of a house that had been converted into an apartment. Not that that is at all unusual; people convert single family homes into multi-unit dwellings all the time.  The unusual detail is that from my bedroom window I could look out and see my grandmother’s front porch.  From my living room, I could see her laundry hanging in the back yard.

My apartment was in the house right next door to the house I had grown up in.  So there was always this sense of being at home.  My apartment living room was where my grandmother’s bedroom was.  The kitchen was where my brother, then I, then my sister had our bedroom.  My bedroom was where my grandfather’s room was.  Everything about the space was familiar, from the polished wood floors that creaked in the nights to the black and white tile in the bathroom to the curving line of the ceiling in the back rooms.

I spent seven years there, eating my meals off of my grandmother’s old kitchen table.  Those meals were cooked on a tiny, half sized stove.  The oven was barely wide enough to hold a cookie sheet and the stovetop was so narrow that I couldn’t have two big pots on it at the same time.  Despite all that, and my general lack of cooking skills at the time, I occasionally managed to produce a meal that stood out.  They truly were few and far between but I promise you they were real.  As real as knowing that my next door neighbor would always check to make sure I got home safely at night, that she would call if she saw my car parked at home on a work day, and that it took less than 60 seconds to get from my living room to hers.

I remember that apartment fondly; it was where I needed to be at the time.  It makes me sad to see strangers coming out of there now when I go over to my grandmother’s.  I still feel a sense of ownership over that space on the second floor.  When I look up at the bedroom window, I half expect to see my younger self looking back down at me.  Who knows, maybe now the ghost of that younger me is what makes the wooden floors creak in the night.

One Pot Chicken Bake

Adapted from Baltimore Sun

BAH Note:  The original recipe has you bake this in a 10×15 dish.  I personally don’t own a 10×15 baking dish and even if I did, it works perfectly well to bake it in a dutch oven or other large pot.

  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 to 3 pounds bone in chicken thighs, skins removed
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 pound mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth
  • 28 ounces diced tomatoes in juice
  • 1 teaspoon dried marjoram

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and combine the flour, paprika, and cayenne in a shallow dish.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.  Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and, working in batches, brown the chicken on both sides.  Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Add the remaining oil to the dutch oven and cook the onions for about 5 minutes, or until they begin to soften.  Add the mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid.  Stir in the chicken broth, diced tomatoes, and marjoram and bring to a boil.  Add the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pot and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour until the chicken is done.

{printable recipe}

Main Course

Pork Carnitas

by Wendi10 Comments on Pork Carnitas

My method for meal planning is pretty straight forward and usually works without a hitch.  Before I go grocery shopping, I make up the week’s menu. If the recipe is coming from a cookbook, I use a shorthand notation on the menu of the title and page.  If the recipe is from a magazine or the web, I clip the page to the fridge with a magnet.  And yes, the recipes are in order by day of the week.  So basically, as the week progresses, I work my way through the clipped pages and cookbooks.  Like I said, this is usually a pretty flawless system.

Of course, there are times when it fails me completely.  Like when I somehow misplaced the one and only carnitas recipe that I had in my folders.  Somewhere between the time I wrote that week’s menu and when I went to get cracking on carnitas, the recipe vanished.  Disappeared into thin air.  As though it never existed and I had only imagined it.  I couldn’t remember which website I had pulled it from.

But the pork was thawed and there was no substitute recipe to fall back on.  So with the help of The Googley, I found The Food Addicts and their take on carnitas.  Like the culinary equivalent of a relief pitcher in the bottom of the 9th, it came through.  Pork was seared, braised, shredded and then set to rest overnight. The next day it got broiled until caramelized and crisp before being paired with brown rice and glazed carrots.

It might not have been the recipe I intended to make, but clearly it’s the one the Universe had in mind for me.

Pork Carnitas

Adapted from The Food Addicts

BAH Note: I chose to cook this the day before I intended to serve it.  So I cooked the pork, shredded it into bite size pieces, and then refrigerated it overnight.  The next day I let the pork sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes before throwing it under a low broiler flame.  Of course, if you no likely the broiler, don’t feel as though you have to broil the pork before serving.  It would be just as good unbroiled.

  • 2 – 3 lb pork shoulder (butt), cut into 2″ cubes
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 can chicken broth
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon chile powder

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the spices in a medium bowl.  Add the cubed pork and coat the meat with the spices.

Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat.  Working in batches, sear the pork on all sides, transferring the seared pork to a plate.

Once all the pork has been browned, deglaze the pot with the chicken broth.  Bring the broth to a boil and scrape any bits off the bottom of the pot before returning the pork to the pot.

Transfer the pot to the oven and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until most of the liquid has evaporated and the pork is tender.  Check after an hour and add water if the level of the liquid has gotten very low.

Carefully transfer the pork to a bowl and shred into bite sized pieces using two forks.  The pork can be served directly from the oven or it can be broiled on a sheet pan until the exterior is crisp and caramelized.

{printable recipe}

Main Course

Flashback Friday – Got Ribs?

by Wendi3 Comments on Flashback Friday – Got Ribs?

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 1/14/09 at Exit 51.

Got Ribs?

Short ribs.  Braised short ribs.  Lovely bits of meaty goodness bathed in a flavorful broth.  Beef that falls apart as soon as you look at it.

My initial foray into the world of short ribs was courtesy of the Washington Post.  They raved about Mahogany Short Ribs.  So I gave them a shot.  And they were awesome.  But I can only fit so many pieces into a crockpot.  So that recipe got filed away to be tinkered with.  Only the tinkering never got off the ground.

beef_cutssvg

But then Smitten Kitchen reignited my interest in the short rib with her Braised Beef Short Ribs post.  New Year’s was fast approaching and I wanted to usher in 2009 with a special meal.  This was just the ticket.

I was intrigued by her step of broiling the already cooked ribs before serving.  As tasty as the Mahogany Short Ribs  were, they didn’t look like I wanted them to.  I wanted them dark and crusty.  I also liked that she laid out the recipe so that it can be made ahead and then simply reheated.  This is totally the key to special meals.  You don’t want to spend so long fussing over a dish that when you’re done, you’re really done.  As in you have no energy to pay attention to what you’re celebrating.  It also goes a long way to solving the problem of all the fat that renders out of the meat as it cooks.  An overnight rest in the Fridigaire allows the solidified fat to be easily skimmed off.

But I also made some changes to Deb’s recipe.  Like adding port.  I don’t have port and I don’t like the idea of buying one time ingredients.  So instead of port, I just used more wine.  I also didn’t have the holy trinity of cooking – celery, carrot, onion.  In the end, I don’t think leaving them out made a noticeable difference.  But it did let me skip straining the sauce.  Although I should have because I added those pearl onions early and they seemed to hold onto a lot of grease.  Speaking of those pearl onions, mine were frozen so if they needed to be separated from skins, I couldn’t tell.  I just roasted them up in the oven and added them to the pot.  Next time, and there will be a next time, I will wait and add them in when I reheat the dish.

And about that final step of giving the cooked meat a quick turn under the broiler?  I honestly think that you should consider it optional.  I gave those ribs a world class sear before the braise.  And after they were done cooking, they were dark and crusty and lovely.  For me, the broil was overkill.  But maybe you’ll feel differently.  You’ll just have to see for yourself.

Be sure to serve this up with something that will capture all the glorious braising liquid.  And don’t be afraid to use boneless short ribs.  When I went to the store, I ended up getting a mix of bone-in and boneless.  To be honest, I liked the boneless cuts the best…but that’s just between us.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

  • 3 pounds beef short ribs, bone-in or boneless
  • 4 whole sprigs thyme
  • 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 bag frozen small pearl onions
  • up to 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • 1/3 cup diced carrot
  • 1/3 cup diced celery
  • 1 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 cups hearty red wine
  • 3 cups beef or veal stock
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Take the short ribs out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking, to come to room temperature. After 30 minutes, season them generously on all sides with salt and pepper and preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

When it’s time to cook the short ribs, heat a large Dutch oven over high heat. Pour in 1 tablespoon olive oil, and wait a minute or two, until the pan is very hot and almost smoking. Place the short ribs in the pan, and sear until they are nicely browned on all sides. (A splatter screen is your friend here.  If you have one, I highly recommend you use it.) Depending on the size of your pan, you might have to sear the meat in batches. Do not crowd the meat.  Add additional olive oil as needed, especially if you are browning the meat in batches.

When the ribs are nicely browned, transfer them to a plate to rest.

Turn the heat down to medium, and add the onion, carrot, celery, thyme springs, and bay leaves. Stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up all the crusty bits in the pan. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables just begin to caramelize.   If you don’t have onions, celery and carrot on hand, skip this step.

Add the balsamic vinegar and red wine. Turn the heat up to high, and reduce the liquid by half.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Arrange ribs in the pot, lieing flat, bones standing up, in one layer. Scrape any vegetables (if using) that have fallen on the ribs back into the liquid. The stock mixture should almost cover the ribs. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and a tight-fitting lid if you have one. Braise in the oven for about 3 hours.

To check the meat for doneness, remove the lid and foil, being careful of the escaping steam, and piece a short rib with a paring knife. When the meat is done, it will yield easily to a knife. Taste a piece if you are not sure.  If you cook these a day ahead, this is where you can pause. The next day, you can remove the fat easily from the pot — it will have solidified at the top — bring these back to a simmer on the stove or in an oven, and continue.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Toss the pearl onions with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon thyme, 3/4 teaspoons salt, and a pinch of pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast them 15 to 30 minutes, or until tender and caramelized.  Add the roasted onions to the dutch oven and stir well to combine.

If the broth seems thin, reduce it over medium-high heat to thicken slightly. Taste for seasoning and dig in!

Main Course, South Beach Diet

Crab and Avocado Salad

by Wendi9 Comments on Crab and Avocado Salad

Take a look at that picture.  Does that look like “diet” food to you?  It sure doesn’t taste like “diet” food.

I need to reacquaint myself with some “diet” food.  The crush of buttery, sugary, fatty, and carby treats over the last twelve months has had a negative impact on my bottom line.  Seems like there are new jiggles daily.  I’ve started naming them.  So far my collection includes cinnamon roll, pumpkin spice muffins, butter, mac and cheese, and carnitas.  I need to stop the madness before I morph into someone unrecognizable.

I’m asking The Universe to give me the strength to avoid the devil of temptation that masquerades as cupcakes, french fries and boxes of wine.  Without some divine intervention, they are sure to be my downfall.

While I may be abstaining from these wonderful things for a while, I still have all kinds of tasty dishes lingering in the queue for your enjoyment.  So don’t be confused if I’m still talking about tarts, brownies, or pasta.  Most have been waiting to post for a while.  Others may be things I’ve made in moments of weakness.  But I vow never to say which is which.

Crab and Avocado Salad

Adapted from South Beach Quick and Easy

BAH Note: I suppose this could serve four people as an appetizer.  But The Mistah and I like to enjoy this as an entree and we can polish off the entire salad in one sitting.  Not that this recipe needs much streamlining but if you wanted to prep things ahead, get the crab meat and lettuce ready in a large bowl and have your dressing fixed up in a separate container in the fridge.  Then all you have to do is shake, pour, add the avocado, and serve.

Prefer to have your salad with some carby goodness? That’s easy.  Just reduce the amount of dressing you add to the salad so that it’s not “wet” before rolling it up in a soft tortilla , stuffing it into a pita, or piling it on some whole grain toast.

  • 1/4 fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • zest and juice of 1 lime
  • 1/2 pound crab meat
  • 1 ripe avocado, pitted and cut into cubes
  • 1 tomatillo, diced
  • 1 head bibb lettuce
  • kosher salt

Shred or cut the lettuce into bite sized pieces.  Combine the lettuce, crab, and avocado in a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, tomatillo, lime zest, and juice until smooth.  Taste for seasoning and add kosher salt, additional lime juice, and mayo to taste.

Add the dressing to the crab mixture and carefully combine.  Serve immediately.

Fish, Main Course

Roasted Salmon in Pinot Sauce

by Wendi10 Comments on Roasted Salmon in Pinot Sauce

Please don’t ask how long it has taken me to share this recipe with you.  If I answer honestly, you may begin to think that I’m holding out on you.  There’s a chance that I have already posted this either on the old blog or here.  But when I did a search for it, it came back with no results.  So I’m going to take that to mean I have not yet introduced you to Roasted Salmon in Pinot Sauce…even though I sincerely meant to.

You can forgive me, right?

Roasted Salmon with Pinot Sauce

Adapted from Mark Bittman

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 cups pinot noir
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 4 salmon steaks or filets
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Heat the oven to 450 degrees.  While the oven heats, cook the sugar in a nonstick saucepan over medium heat until it liquefies and starts to develop a brown color, approximately 10 minutes.  Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully add the wine.  Return the saucepan to a high heat and cook until the caramelized sugar melts, stirring carefully.  Add the rosemary and continue to cook over high heat until the sauce reduces down to about 1/2 to 3/4 cup and becomes syrupy, about 15 minutes.

Ten minutes before you’re ready to cook the fish, place a stainless steel frying pan with about 1 tablespoon olive oil in the oven to heat.  Take out the salmon, dry it with paper towels, and season with kosher salt.

Carefully remove the HOT frying pan from the oven and place the salmon in the pan (skin side down if using skin on filets).  Return the pan to the oven and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until the fish easily flakes with a fork.

While the fish is in the oven, finish the sauce by adding the balsamic vinegar and butter to the saucepan.  Cook over low heat until the butter melts.  Remove the rosemary sprig, taste for seasoning, and add salt as necessary.

Spoon the sauce over the fish and serve.  Leftover sauce can be kept in the refrigerator.

{printable recipe}

Chicken, Main Course

Butterflied Chicken

by Wendi6 Comments on Butterflied Chicken

Roast chicken is something that I usually reserve for “special” occasions.  Like when we have company or I have more than 45 minutes from the time I walk in the door to get food in my belly.  But it doesn’t have to be like that.

Really, it doesn’t.

There’s no reason why Tuesday night dinner can’t be just as “special” as Sunday supper.  Of course, having guests at our table is special but so is any reason that gets us eating dinner at the dining room table and not in front of the Tivo.

I really think we need to institute a “no tv until after dinner” rule at our house.  I know it would cut down on the amount of food that somehow fails to make it from the plate to the mouth and ends up on the floor.  Of course, this would in no way impact the “breakfast is eaten in front of the tv” rule.  There’s no way I can balance my need for steel cut oatmeal and Good Morning American in HD separately.  They are a combined sport at BAH.

But I digress.  Want to enjoy roast chicken any night of the week?  Then I highly recommend you butterfly it.  Or, as I originally typed, flutterby it.  You could take it a step further and put a hot brick (wrapped in foil) or hot cast iron skillet on top of the chicken while it cooks.  Once you remove the backbone, a whole world of possibilities opens up to you.

Butterflied Chicken

Adapted from Jenna’s Everything Blog

BAH Note: I have to be honest, I had the man at the market cut the back out of the chicken for me.  Yes, he looked at me funny when I asked…I think he was worried I would want him to weigh the chicken without the backbone…but the chicken went into the back completely intact and came out spineless.  That backbone is currently sitting in my freezer waiting for me to try my hand at some chicken stock. I imagine a flattened chicken would be quite easy to brine for some extra moist meat.  Next time, I might give that a try.

  • 1 whole roasting chicken (not a fryer), approximately 3 pounds
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 lemon, cut into quarters

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Remove the giblets from the chicken and place the chicken breast side down on a cutting board.  Carefully cut along one side of the backbone then along the other and remove the backbone.

Turn the chicken over and firmly press on the breastbone to break it and flatten the chicken.  Dry the chicken well with paper towels and transfer to the sheet pan.

Place the rosemary, garlic, and lemon under the chicken and coat the skin with olive oil.  Season generously with salt and pepper and roast for 45 minutes to an hour until the skin is golden brown and the meat registers 160 to 165 degrees.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving.

{printable recipe}

Main Course

Milk Braised Pork

by Wendi6 Comments on Milk Braised Pork

Since I introduced you to Bruce and Mark on Monday, I thought I’d pull out the other recipe of theirs that has been lurking around my kitchen – Milk Braised Pork.  I already knew that milk did stupendous things to proteins from using it to braise chicken, so it should have come as no surprise to me that milk braised pork was just as luscious.  There may have been some happy dance shimmy going on at the kitchen counter as I taste tested for “quality control” purposes.

I will be honest and say that I don’t yet own a single one of Bruce and Mark’s cookbooks.  But if the two recipes I have made from them are any indication, there’s a lot to like in those many, many pages.  Who knows, perhaps after the next round of “tidying up” the cookbook shelf, there may be room for a little something by Bruce and Mark.

Milk Braised Pork

Inspired by Mark Scarbrough

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 1/2 – 3 pound pork shoulder (Boston Butt), bone in or boneless
  • 1 onion, sliced or 1 cup butter braised onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic, skins and papers on
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 can vegetable broth
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon course ground mustard (optional)

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a dutch oven or pot large enough to hold the pork.  Pat the pork dry, season with kosher salt and pepper, and brown it well on all sides.  Carefully transfer the pork to a platter and remove all but a tablespoon of the fat from the pot.

Cook the onion until it is softened, which will be very quick if using the butter braised onions.  Add the vegetable broth and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.  Add the garlic cloves, cinnamon stick, and milk and stir to combine.

Bring the liquid to a boil, return the pork and any accumulated juices back to the pot, cover and transfer to the oven for 3 hours.  Check the pot after 90 minutes to see if you need to add more liquid.  If the liquid is getting low, consider adding more vegetable broth or a dry white wine.

After 3 hours, the pork should be falling apart tender.  If it’s not, stash it back in the oven and keep checking it every 45 minutes or so.  When done, carefully transfer the pork to a cutting board to rest while you finish up the sauce.

Strain the liquid through a mesh sieve into a bowl.  Skim as much fat from the liquid as possible and transfer to a small saucepan.  Set over medium heat and boil until the sauce has reduced slightly.  Whisk in the mustard, if using, and taste for seasoning.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve the sauce over the tender bits of pork.

{printable recipe}

Appetizers, Main Course

Bruce and Mark’s Roasted Shrimp with Herbs

by Wendi9 Comments on Bruce and Mark’s Roasted Shrimp with Herbs

Bruce and Mark are beyond busy.  They write cookbooks… lots of cookbooks. They develop content for magazines and national websites.  They blog.  And they get nominated for James Beard awards.  In the name of full disclosure, I follow Mark on Twitter (and you can too) and I had no idea that this recipe I pulled out of Fine Cooking was his and Bruce’s until I started cooking.  It was then that I noticed the credit at the very bottom of the page.  Ain’t it funny how our worlds sometimes collide?

So then I started conversing with Mark about having made this dish and asking permission to reprint.  Our 140 character or less conversation went something like this:

@bonappetithon: I made the roast shrimp that was in FC this month. Would love your permission to post w/out adapting since there’s not a whole lot to adapt

@markscarbrough:Absolutely. Believe it or not, the recipe is actually an adaptation from our COOKING KNOW-HOW. It’s so easy–perfect summery deck food, no?

@bonappetithon: Greatly appreciated. Was super freaking easy. Perfect for a tasty weeknight dinner.

@markscarbrough: In COOKING KNOW-HOW, we vary the herbs et al endlessly. For example, with Sichuan peppercorns and garlic, then rice vinegar at the end.

So there, from @markscarbrough himself is some additional ways to change up Roasted Shrimp with Herbs.  My apologies to the boys for not capturing a glamor shot to rival what I saw on page 20 of Fine Cooking April/May 2011.  I was hungry and there was roasted shrimp with herbs to be eaten.

Bruce and Mark’s Roasted Shrimp with Herbs

Reprinted with permission

  • 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 6 fresh thyme sprigs
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large fresh rosemary sprigs, halved
  • 1 1/2 pound extra large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Pour the oil into a 9×13 baking dish.  Add the thyme, rosemary, and pepper and bake until the oil is fragrant, about 12 minutes.

Add the shrimp to the dish and toss with tongs until coated.  Bake the shrimp until pink and firm, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the vinegar and salt to the shrimp, toss to combine, and let sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes for the oil to cool slightly before serving.

{printable recipe}