Oven Roasted Cauliflower

 

Truth be told, my very favorite vegetable is the russet potato. Be it baked, twice-baked, French fries, hash browns, tater tots...there is much to love about this versatile tubor. But man cannot live by spuds alone, so let's add a little variety.

While I have chosen to highlight cauliflower with this recipe, it can actually be used on just about any vegetable. It's so simple....just marinate the vegetables for about 20 minutes in your favorite vinaigrette. And any vinaigrette will do....be it homemade or store-bought. My fave for this recipe is Ken's Steak House Greek Vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette gives the vegetables a bright and delicious flavor...the perfect complement to any protein you roast or grill. The trick is to use it sparingly so that your veggies roast and char. If you use too much vinaigrette...or marinate too long...all they will do is steam.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound of cauliflower florets

1/4 cup vinaigrette

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400º,
2. Place florets in a bowl and add vinaigrette. Toss to mix. Let florets marinate for 20 minutes.
3. Spread florets out on a sheet pan and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly charred.

Oven Roasted BBQ Beef Short Ribs

 

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As I am making travel arrangements for my 72nd trip around the sun next year, I have come to appreciate the wisdom that comes with age. In my youth, I was resolute that you needed a smoker to create great BBQ. Now, at what is surely the current peak of my wisdom, I have come to realize that the oven is every bit as capable of turning out the most incredible, low and slow BBQ.

Beef short ribs are one of the toughest cuts of meat. The only way to make them edible is to cook them low and slow, causing the fat to render and that delicious collagen to melt into the fibers of the meat. While a smoker can do that, your oven is just as accomplished. And it is so much simpler than a smoker.

Just 5 minutes of prep. Wrap them in foil and slap them in a 275º oven. Walk away and go about your day because you don't have to lift a finger for the next four hours. Cold and snowy outside? You give no shits because you are now the King of Indoor BBQ!

click to enlarge

Beef short ribs are sold two ways. The flanken cut is very thin, with a series of bones along one side. That cut is popular for Korean BBQ. The one that you want to use for this recipe is called the English cut. As you can see from the above photo, it's a big chunk of beef attached to a bone. Four hours in the oven is going to melt that chunk of beef into one of the greatest morsels to ever pass your lips.

Here are a few things to take note of. Make sure you use a cookie sheet that has a rack. The ribs are going to render a lot of fat, so you don't want the ribs cooking in a pool of fat. The mustard in this recipe is used only as a binder for the rub. It will cook off and you will never taste it. Finally, go right ahead and use your favorite BBQ rub. Mine happens to be "Famous Dave's", so that is what I called out in the recipe. Pretty much the same for the BBQ sauce. Use your fave...mine is Sweet Baby Ray's.

INGREDIENTS

6 English-cut beef short ribs

Yellow mustard

Famous Dave's Rib Rub

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 275º.
2. Place rack inside of cookie sheet and set ribs on top of rack, meat side up.
3. Squirt about a tablespoon of mustard on each rib. Then spread the mustard with your hand so that the entire top surface is covered in mustard. Then sprinkle each rib with the rib rub.
4. Cover the ribs/cookie sheet with foil and crimp so that it is air tight. Place cookie sheet in oven.
5. After 4 hours, remove cookie sheet from oven. Move rack to upper level and turn on your broiler.
6. Remove the foil covering the ribs. Brush each rib with a generous amount of BBQ sauce. Put rack under the broiler and cook the ribs for 2 to 4 minutes...just enough for the sauce to caramelize. Then serve.

Pairing: An ice cold Pilsner...or a Zin.

Anne Seranne's Oven Roasted Prime Rib Roast

  

Anne Seranne was born in Ontario in 1913. She moved to the United States in 1936.  She became famous for two things: dogs and food. She was a very serious breeder of Yorkshire terrier show dogs. And she was a serious lover of all things having to do with food. She earned her living as a food consultant and eventually became the editor of Gourmet Magazine.

But she is little remembered these days, for she was a one-hit wonder in the vein of Billy Ray Cyrus and his song "Achy Breaky Heart". But, oh, what a hit she had. She single-handedly created the greatest recipe for medium-rare prime rib. Published in the New York Times in 1966, it was revolutionary. It was beyond simple. And absolutely foolproof.

Her recipe called for blasting the bone-in roast at 500º for a brief period and then turning off the oven...leaving the beef undisturbed for 2 hours. Unbelievably perfect medium-rare, every single time. Plus you can carve the roast the minute you take it out of the oven because it has already been resting for 2 hours.

For the recipe to work, your prime rib roast must be bone-in. You can cook it with the bones intact or do what I do... I have the butcher cut the bones and then tie them back to the roast. That way, I can just make a couple of snips of the butcher's twine and carve the roast up....reserving the ribs for a later snack that only I will get to enjoy.

Ingredients

One, 2 to 4 rib, beef prime rib roast, weighing 4 to 12 pounds

Kosher salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions

1. The day before you are going to cook the roast, unwrap it and set it on a wire rack inside a cookie sheet. Salt the entire roast generously with Kosher salt. Place roast, uncovered, back in the refrigerator and let it rest overnight.
2. Remove the roast from the refrigerator 4 hours before cooking and let it come up to room temperature.
3. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
4. Place the roast in an open, shallow roasting pan, fat side up (bone-side down). You don't need a roasting rack as the bones will serve that purpose.  Season generously all over with salt and pepper.
5. Put the roast in the preheated oven (on the second lowest rack) and roast according to the roasting chart below, timing the minutes exactly  When cooking time is finished, turn off the oven. Do not open the door at any time. Allow the roast to remain in the oven for two hours. The roast will have a crunchy brown outside and an internal heat suitable for serving as long as 4 hours after removing from the oven. Makes about 2 servings per rib.

A.   2 rib roast (4 to 5 pounds)...32 minutes at 500º, then rest 2 hours, door shut

B.   3 rib roast (8 to 9 pounds)...47 minutes at 500º, then rest 2 hours, door shut

C.   4 rib roast (11 to 12 pounds)...62 minutes at 500º, then rest 2 hours, door shut

{Formula = 15 minutes per rib + 2 minutes to the total} 

Wine Pairing: Barolo

Bò Lúc Lắc

 

So for Thanksgiving, we had turkey. The night after Thanksgiving, we had more turkey. Then we distributed the remaining leftovers to family. Two nights of turkey are sufficient to cause my abstinence until Thanksgiving 2024.

So on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my beloved beef was back on the table. Beef salad, if you will. Which is exactly what this recipe is. Known in the US of A as Vietnamese Shaking Beef, it's a simple salad comprised of wok-seared beef, snappy watercress and thinly sliced red onion.

You can use your favorite cut of beef for this salad. I've used rib eye, sirloin, New York strip and flank steak...simply based on what I had on hand. They all work. The trick is to slice the beef thin enough to give it a good sear while you are shaking and stirring it in the wok.

Now a few of you might be saying a beef salad recipe is perfect for a steamy day in July but not so much for a chilly day in December. If you like a little heartier meal to fend off the winter cold, might I suggest Bò Lúc Lắc Tortillas? Just grab some super soft flour tortillas and wrap up the salad in those. And perhaps a little sticky rice on the side?

INGREDIENTS

4 teaspoons fish sauce

4 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

1 pound of steak, cut into thin strips, about 1-1/2 inches wide (see above photo)

4 ounces (4 cups) watercress, torn into bite-size pieces

Juice of 2 limes (1/4 cup)

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup water

2 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

4 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar together in medium bowl. Add beef and toss to coat. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
2.  Combine lime juice and pepper in small bowl and set aside. 
3. Spread watercress on a serving platter (see above photo)
4. Using tongs, transfer beef to second medium bowl, letting as much marinade as possible drain back into first bowl. Add water, garlic and cornstarch to marinade in first bowl and whisk to combine; set aside. Add 2 teaspoons oil to beef and toss to coat. 
5. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok (or non-stick skillet) over medium-high heat until just smoking. Using tongs, wipe wok clean with paper towels. Add half of beef to wok, leaving space between pieces. Cook, shaking wok gently and occasionally to capture any fond that collects on bottom of wok, until beef is browned on first side, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip beef and continue to cook, stirring and shaking wok frequently, until beef is coated and browned, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Transfer beef to clean bowl. Wipe wok clean with wet paper towels and repeat with remaining 1 teaspoon oil and beef.
6. Melt butter in now-empty wok over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to soften, about 1 minute. Add reserved marinade and bring to boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and glossy, about 2 minutes. Add beef and any accumulated juices and toss to coat. Scatter beef mixture and sauce over watercress. Drizzle 2 teaspoons lime juice mixture over salad. Divide remaining lime juice mixture among small bowls for dipping and serve with salad.

Wine pairing: Zinfandel

Thanksgiving: Make-Ahead Adult Cranberry Sauce

 

If you're a fan of adult beverages, you will be a fan of this adult cranberry sauce. This recipe packs a bit of a punch, for we are not boiling out the alcohol. We are leaving all of the alcohol in the mix for your eating and imbibing enjoyment. So make sure this gets placed only at the adult table. The kids can get their sauce straight from the can. This can be made and refrigerated up to 5 days in advance.

INGREDIENTS

1, 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vodka

3 tablespoons Grand Marnier

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, combine cranberries, water and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring often to dissolve sugar. Then reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, stirring often, until thickened and reduced to approximately 3 cups (about 15 minutes).
2. Transfer to a medium bowl and cool, stirring often, until tepid (about 30 minutes). Stir in vodka and Grand Marnier. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover and and refrigerate until chilled and set (at least 2 hours). Serve chilled or at room temperature. 

Thanksgiving: Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

 

Being obsessive-compulsive is actually an admirable quality if you are a cook. I find that it comes in especially handy at Thanksgiving, where micro-managing the production of an enormous feast is no small feat.

In order to handle the complexity of the Thanksgiving meal preparation, I create a very comprehensive list of every task that must be accomplished and at precisely what time to perform that task. It starts at 12:35pm with the roasting of the turkey. Then the schedule is set to make sure that everything gets done so that we can eat precisely and exactly at 6:00pm. Not 6:01pm, but 6:00pm in strict accordance to the atomic clock in my kitchen.

But regardless of the schedule, there are two items that always need my attention at the very last, frenetic second...the carving of the turkey and the making of the gravy. I'm really good at quickly carving a 25-pound turkey, so I take on that duty. 

Which leaves us with the gravy. I'm really anal about making turkey gravy from scratch. Use butter and flour to make a roux, then add turkey drippings and turkey stock. The problem here is that the drippings come at the end....after you've removed the turkey for carving.

But alas, Mark Bittman (former food writer for the New York Times) solved my problem by creating this make-ahead gravy recipe. It can be made up to five days in advance, then re-heated just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. And the gravy still gets the flavor boost from the pan drippings...you just add them in at the last second to your already "at serving temperature" gravy.

A small note here about the stock. Most grocery stores have an abundance of turkey stock on their shelves at this time of year. But if you couldn't find any or simply forgot to pick some up, chicken stock is a really good second choice.


INGREDIENTS

For the Gravy
1 stick of butter (4 ounces)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper
4 cups warm turkey stock
Turkey drippings

Thickening/Thinning Agents

Potato flakes

1 cup turkey stock

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then add onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on the onions, stirring constantly, and cook until flour is golden to brown. Adjust heat so mixture does not burn.
2. Gradually whisk in 4 cups of warm stock until mixture thickens and is smooth. If it is too thick, add more stock. Cool, cover and chill. Gravy can be held up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
3. When ready to serve, reheat mixture over low heat, stirring. Scrape bottom of turkey pan and add drippings  to gravy. Whisk to mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasonings. 
4. OPTIONAL: If you want your gravy thicker, add 1 tablespoon of potato flakes at a time (whisking thoroughly) until you get the consistency you want.  If you want your gravy thinner, add 1 tablespoon of turkey stock at a time (whisking thoroughly) until you get the consistency you want.
5. Serve.

Thanksgiving: Make-Ahead Garlic Mashed Potatoes

 

The frenetic pace and challenge of getting turkey and side dishes to be served together at precisely 6:00pm on Thanksgiving day is exhausting. So over the years, I've been working on "make-ahead" recipes that makes serving the meal a whole lot easier. Make-ahead gravy. Make-ahead stuffing.

Back in 2018, I added make-ahead, garlic mashed potatoes. And I'm here to tell you they were the best mashed potatoes ever. First off, I avoided all of the chemistry class theatrics required of boiling potatoes from scratch with cold water. And that method requires great precision in order to serve piping hot potatoes with piping hot turkey at the same time.

And this method is foolproof. You cannot screw it up. Anyone who can read can make perfect mashed potatoes. While the recipe calls for peeled potatoes, I really like the skins, so I don't peel mine. As a bonus, the skin is the tastiest and most nutrient-rich part of the potato. This recipe makes 20 servings. My experience is that the majority of folks come back for seconds....and a few for thirds.

Ingredients
5 pounds of russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, each potato peeled (optional) and quartered
8 cloves garlic, peeled
1-1/2 cups whole milk

8 tablespoons butter
2 cups of half & half
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Chopped chives, for garnish


Directions

1. Peel (or not) and quarter potatoes and place in slow cooker with garlic and 1-1/2 cups of milk. Set slow cooker to high and cover. Cook for 5 hours.
2. After 5 hours, turn slow cooker to warm. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes right in the slow cooker.
3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. When melted, add half & half to the pan and heat to warm (do not boil). When warm, add mixture to slow cooker. Using masher, blend potatoes with butter/half & half mixture.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste....a half of a teaspoon at a time for the uninitiated.
5. Cover potatoes in slow cooker (still set to warm) and serve whenever you want.

Thanksgiving: Hot Italian Sausage Stuffing

 

  

If you are smoking your turkey on a pellet grill, you'll want to bake your stuffing in the oven. If you are deep frying your turkey, you'll want to bake your stuffing in the oven. If you are roasting a whole turkey for Thanksgiving, you'll want to bake your stuffing separately in the oven. You don't ever want to bake your stuffing in the turkey's body cavity. Let me explain why.

If your turkey is cooked to perfection, the stuffing in the cavity is going to be undercooked. That sort of error leads to salmonella, in which case your guests will suffer horrific gastrointestinal pain followed by death. If your stuffing in the cavity is cooked to 165º perfection, the meat on your turkey will be overcooked and your guests will chew on it as if it were part of the sidewall of a worn Pirelli Formula One tire.

So do the right thing. Bake your stuffing by itself in the oven. It will taste fantastic with no chance of flatlining your guests. This recipe is incredibly easy. It uses simple, store-bought ingredients and comes together very quickly. 

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds hot Italian sausage

2 yellow onions, chopped

6 stalks celery, chopped

16 ounces mushrooms, chopped

10 tablespoons butter

4 cups chicken broth

2, 12-ounce bags Pepperidge Farm Sage & Onion Cubed Stuffing

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat olive oil until it is shimmering. Then add sausage, onions, celery and mushrooms. Cook until there is no pink in the sausage and all of the vegetables have softened (about 8 minutes).
2. In a large saucepan, heat butter and chicken broth over medium heat until all of the butter has melted into the broth.
3. Preheat oven to 350º.
4. In a large casserole, add the two bags of cubed stuffing. Add sausage, onions, celery and mushrooms then stir thoroughly to mix. Then add broth/butter mixture and stir again to thoroughly mix.
5. Cover casserole and bake for 60 minutes. Serve.

Spaghetti al Tonno

 

As has been my tradition since I started cooking, I try and make sure that Sunday dinners are something special. But after all the work and fanfare, I find that I don't want to make a lot of effort prepping Monday night's dinner. So I usually opt for a "cupboard meal"...something I can quickly put together from items in my pantry...no shopping needed.

Spaghetti al Tonno has become a favorite Monday night pantry meal for Becky and I. When I first started making it, it was a simple 3-ingredient meal...spaghetti, olive oil and canned tuna. As my tastes have evolved over the years, I added some more ingredients to enhance the flavor. But truth be told...you can ignore the other ingredients I've listed and just go back to the original 3 ingredients.

The foundation of this dish is high quality, canned tuna packed in olive oil. Don't even think of using tuna packed in water. Cento is one of my favorite brands and is available at most grocery stores. I buy mine in bulk from Amazon, where a case of 12 runs $44. While it is sold in both 3 and 5 ounce sizes, I recommend the 5 ounce size, as that is the perfect amount for an individual serving. I always have garlic olive oil on hand, but if you don't, just press a small clove of garlic and add it to a tablespoon of olive oil. The recipe below serves 2 people, so you can easily scale it up or down as needed.

INGREDIENTS
8 ounces of spaghetti

2, 5-ounce cans of tuna packed in olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic olive oil

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes 

Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot of boiling, lightly salted water, add the spaghetti and cook to al dente.
2. While the spaghetti is cooking, warm the tuna in a medium pan over medium-low heat.
3. When ready, drain the spaghetti and then toss the noodles with the garlic olive oil. Add Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes, tossing to mix thoroughly.
4. Divide the spaghetti between 2 serving plates and top each with 5-ounces of warm tuna. Serve and pass the parmesan.

Wine pairing: Petite Sirah

Air Fryer Green Beans

 

Oh, how I love my air fryer. It turns out the most awesome French fries and tater tots. And don't pass up the opportunity to fire it up for all kinds of veggies, too. I used Yumna Jawad's green bean recipe last week and they were air fried to perfection. Nice and crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

The trick here is to make sure the green beans are in a single layer on the bottom of your air fryer. My air fryer is a 5.6 quart size...and I found that 10 ounces of green beans were the perfect amount for a single layer. So if you need a larger serving, cook your beans in batches. And eat them right away...they are at peak crispness the second they come out of the air fryer. 

INGREDIENTS
10-ounces fresh green beans, ends trimmed

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Lemon wedges, for serving

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Place green beans in a zip lock bag. Add olive oil. Seal bag and toss to coat.
2. Preheat air fryer at 380º for 2 minutes.
3. Empty beans from bag into a single layer in your air fryer. Cook for 10 minutes at 380º, shaking the pan half way through.
4. Remove beans from pan and plate them. Season with salt and pepper and top with lemon wedges for your guests to squeeze. Serve.

Pasta alla Norcina

 

Next time you are in Umbria, Italy...take a little detour to the town of Norcia. You will want to do this because this dish was created there and you will be able to get it served up to you in just about every ristorante in town. If a trip to Italy is not on the docket, you can create this masterpiece in your own kitchen in less than 30 minutes.

It's a wonderful marriage of mild Italian sausage, black truffle shavings and a creamy white wine sauce finished with the crowning glory of Pecorino Romano cheese. Okay...there is just one problem here. Black truffle shavings will require you to sell a kidney, so I have developed a workaround for those of you not wishing to go under the knife.

Say hello to my little black truffle cheat. It's Sabatino Tartufi Truffle Zest. It's 2-ounces of black truffle flavored greatness that will only set you back $13.99 at Amazon....whereas 2-ounces of real black truffle would set you back at least a Benjamin. So you will get the great black truffle flavor used in Pasta alla Norcina without the cost. Now if you were using the real thing, you would also get the texture of the black truffle...so this recipe substitutes cremini mushrooms to duplicate the mouth feel. Made this last Wednesday for Becky and I and it was awesome! Since the recipe serves 4, we had enough left over for Thursday night's dinner, too.

INGREDIENTS

For the Sausage and Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

16 ounces bulk mild Italian sausage

6 ounces cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 medium shallot, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

For the Pasta and Finishing

1 pound dried, short-tubed pasta such as penne or rigatoni

2 teaspoons truffle zest

1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, for passing

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, high-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small crumbles as it cooks. Stir often and cook until no more pink remains. 
2. Add the next 7 ingredients to the sausage and cook until the mushrooms and shallot have softened, about 4 to 5 minutes more.
3. Add the wine and bring to a simmer. Cook, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, until the wine is reduced by about half, about 1 minute. 
4. Add cream and bring to a simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the cheese and stir to combine. Cover pan.
5. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook al dente. When the pasta is ready, reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and then drain pasta.
6.  Return the pan of sauce to medium-high heat. Add the pasta to sauce and toss to coat. Add the reserved pasta water, a little at a time as needed to get the sauce to your desired consistency. Add truffle zest and stir to blend. Taste and adjust sauce with salt and pepper as needed. Then serve, passing the Pecorino Romano cheese for your guests to add as desired.

Wine pairing: Brunello di Montalcino