#kitchenadventures2021

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Recipe 42: Pork Chops with Rich Caper-Lemon Sauce (Toni Tipton-Martin’s Jubilee)

Dig the pig!

I didn’t cook all that much until I went to grad school. During college I survived mostly on take-out, bags of Baked Lays, cold Pop Tarts, Diet Coke, and cans of Hormel chili. I could actually cook two recipes. The first being my grandma’s spaghetti sauce and the second being Shake n’ Bake pork chops. I spent many years terrified of cooking meat for fear of doing it wrong and ruining it. Sure, I’d brown up some burger or fry bacon . . . but a steak? Roast a chicken? Move beyond the comforting and straightforward instructions of 1. Shake and 2. Bake? Forget it! I eventually came around and pork chops are often on the menu. They are quick and easy and extremely versatile, so clearly I had to try Toni Tipton-Martin’s Pork Chops with Rich Caper-Lemon Sauce from her Jubilee cookbook.

SKILL RATING: Low Medium-Effort

I buy pork chops in bulk at Costco and freeze them in portions for two and everything else I had on hand in my pantry. This is a great recipe that seems a whole lot more fancy and involved than it actually is. I would have rated this as a solidly Easy-Peasy unless you’ve never made a roux before as the basis for the pan sauce. But seriously, this is a one-pan meal that cooks up very quickly. As per usual, make things even easier on yourself by making sure all your ingredients are prepped and ready before getting the chops going. I’d also recommend keeping an eye on the cooking time. I always err on the side of slightly undercooking things if I’ve never made the recipe before since stoves and ovens can vary and impact doneness. You can always go back and cook something more, but you can’t un-cook an overdone piece of meat. My chops browned up perfectly 2 two minutes per side and I only left them in the oven for 5 minutes before letting them rest.

TASTE RATING: 5/5

I love a good pan sauce and this was a great pan sauce! The zesty bite from the lemon and briny capers was mellowed slightly with a dollop of butter making a lusciously silky topping to these juicy chops. This is a perfectly elegant recipe to make for company. I sauteed some spinach and steamed sweet potatoes to accompany go alongside. We totally cleaned our plates! (Much better than Shake n’ Bake, by the way.)

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 41: Supremely Creamy Tomato and Cheddar Soup (Molly Baz’s Cook This Book)

Tomato soup = Comfort in a bowl.

There is no shortage of variations on creamy tomato soup and it’s, quite frankly, one of those meals you really don’t need a recipes for. More often than not, I scour my fridge and pantry to see what combination of vegetables I can toss together in a pot with a can or two of tomatoes and some herbs and then blitz with my immersion blender. Ta-dah! Served up with a couple of slices of crusty bread or a perfectly golden grilled cheese sandwich, pretty much any creamy tomato soup is going to immediately take me back to childhood and fill my heart with warm feelings and a wave of comfort. That is the point of any “comfort food” after all. Tomato soup and a grilled cheese is probably my husband’s favorite food, some version of it was actually the first thing I cooked for him early on in our relationship. All that to say that yes, of course, I wanted to see how Molly does it in Cook This Book. The premise of the entire book revolves around teaching techniques as much as it is offering up recipes, so yes, make Molly’s Supremely Creamy Tomato and Cheddar Soup- especially if you want to learn how to make one of the world’s best soups.

SKILL RATING: Easy Peasy

The easy-easiest of recipes! There are very few ingredients and the only real prep work involved is chopping the onion and scallions. Other than that, throw it all in a pot and and let it simmer. I didn’t have crushed canned tomatoes, so I did have to take the extra step of crushing them with my wooden spoon while they simmered. (Clearly, not a big deal.) I also ran my immersion blender through the simmering tomatoes, onions, and water before I added the cream, so that I would have a smoother texture. This is not a requirement, of course, just a preference for this type of soup.

TASTE RATING: 4/5

This was a solidly delicious creamy tomato soup. It was fast, easy, and satisfying. Was is it the “best” version of creamy tomato soup? Probably not, but it was still great and one I would definitely make again. The scallions provided a little sweetness to balance the acidic punch from the tomatoes and it was very creamy without being overly heavy. The best part about it was how the fresh dill elevates the soup’s dimension in the finishing flavor notes. All in all, this was another great recipe from Cook This Book. It’s flavorful, vegetarian, and supremely EASY to whip up in about a half hour.

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 39: Dak Kalguksu (Seonkyoung Longest)

The soup cures all!

A long-simmering pot of homemade chicken noodle soup is one of the most comforting dishes in my recipe rotation. The version I usually make came from my head an involves a whole chicken, lots of fresh herbs and veggies, long slurp-able noodles, and time. When I saw Seonkyoung Longest’s recipe for Dak Kalguksu aka “Koren Chicken Noodle Soup,” I was completely on board. Her technique yields a big, steaming pot of delicious savory soup in less than an hour and doesn’t at all skimp on flavor. We got our second vaccine shots on Friday, so I wanted to plan for a nourishing “sick-day” meal for the weekend, just in case we had strong side effects. We weathered our shots just fine, I was slightly achy on Saturday with some chills later on in the day. But I still managed a 9 mile run that morning and a 10 mile run on Sunday, so clearly it wasn’t that bad. Or maybe this soup just happens to have magical healing properties!

SKILL RATING: Easy-Peasy

Quite “easy-peasy” at that! There isn’t a whole lot of effort or skill to making this soup. It’s different than my usual method since the chicken thighs are crisped in a separate pan rather than slowly simmered with the other ingredients. But other than that, there isn’t much “cooking” involved so much as waiting for ingredients to boil.

TASTE RATING: 5/5

Matt and I both love this recipe! It has everything I crave in chicken noodle soup with the extra savory elements of fish and soy sauce. I do add some extra veg to the recipe and include a sliced carrot, some daikon, and a couple cups of chopped cabbage. What can I say? I like vegetables! This is easy, tasty, and just what the doctor ordered to give you an extra boost of super-human strength whether or not you have the sniffles!

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 36: Ricotta and Oregano Meatballs (Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple)

Because when you have 200 pounds of beef in your freezer . . . you need to come up with something.

I can’t quite remember the last time I made beloved childhood favorite, spaghetti and meatballs. This is not for the lack of desire, but because when I’m only cooking for two, it’s just SO MUCH FOOD! In my recent menu planning, however, I found I had all necessary ingredients on hand to try out a new Ottolenghi recipe. The half tub of ricotta cheese was most in need of getting used in a creative way and we still have close to 200 pounds of beef in our freezer chest from our share of cow we split with relatives. (If you can . . . support your local farmers, ya’ll!) I’ve made many types of meatballs before and usually come up with my own combination of ground meat, bread crumbs, spices, egg, and dairy baked in the oven and then tossed in a sauce. This time, however, I hit the books and found Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple had the perfect Ricotta and Oregano Meatballs to clean out my fridge with all their beefy goodness.

SKILL RATING: Medium-Effort

I think I need to adapt my rating scale a little. The skill-level on meatballs is really basic, but the effort-level would fall squarely into the medium zone. Any type of meatball involves chopping, shaping, mixing, frying or baking, and then braising. Usually a sauce is also part of the cooking equation, so while nothing about it is difficult, the process utilizes a variety of kitchen resources.

Anyway, the method here was predictable in the world of meatball making. He browns them in olive oil before simmering them in the sauce for about 30 minutes. I’ve done both the frying and baking methods and while I usually prefer to bake them (less oil, less effort), the browning does give them a wonderful crisp exterior that baking doesn’t. I have two other notes regarding the process. First of all, the recipe indicates it’s for four portions. I don’t know who these four hypothetical people are unless they are professional linebackers looking for a post-game chow down. The full recipe would generously feed 6-8, especially if you plan on serving them over something starchy. Second, once I saw how large and how many meatballs there were, I poured an extra can of tomato puree into the simmering sauce to increase the yield a bit to match the amount of meat.

TASTE RATING: 5/5

Very, very tasty! The ricotta made the meatballs delicate and tender under the crispy-crusty browned exterior. I served them over penne pasta that I boiled and tossed with a little butter, Parmesan, and some leftover pasta water to give it a lightly creamy texture. The overall meal was very satisfying and I’m devising a few deliciously creative solutions to the abundance of leftover meatballs and sauce currently in the fridge. Stuffed peppers! Pizza topping! Meatball sandwiches! Whatever vehicle I devise for these meatballs, they will surely be amazing!

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 35: Korean Style Hot Chicken Sandwich (Seonkyoung Longest)

Rest assured, there is a big ol’ piece of tender, spicy chicken under all that cheese.

Fried chicken in its many forms can be a lot for me to handle. I’ve always been a little sensitive to particularly rich and fatty foods. Don’t get me wrong, I cook with plenty of fat and fried chicken is delicious, but I’m very susceptible to intense heartburn and nausea if I overdo it. Typically, if I’m going to really indulge in a meal that I know is going to be a delicious greasy gut-bomb likely to sit with me for a couple of days, I am more likely to go for a big beefy burger. However, when Seonkyoung’s glossy, red Korean-Style Hot Chicken tutorial came through my feed, my mouth started to water. Matt is very much a member of Team Chicken, so I knew I had to try my first adventure in deep frying.

SKILL RATING: Medium-Effort

I am familiar with cooking with all types of fats. Fat adds flavor and our big human brains need fats to function properly. Mostly I cook with olive oil and butter, but some recipes call for more neutral-tasting high-heat oils. My cabinets are well stocked with a wide variety of different oils. Aside from several grades of different olive oils I have safflower, peanut, grape seed, walnut, canola, toasted sesame, chili, and avocado on hand. Each brings a slightly different flavor profile to s dish. Some are for a light sauté others are better for salad dressings or roasting vegetables and some are simply for finishing off a dish. I’ve done plenty of shallow fried dishes before (wontons, potato fries, jalapeño poppers) but never committed to heating a cauldron of oil to quickly cook two pieces of chicken. (I only made half the recipe since there are only two of us!)

The principle of any fried food whether it is a stir fry or a deep fry, is that you are cooking something quickly over very high heat. You need, therefore, an oil with a high smoke point, meaning it doesn’t start burning into a bitter acrid inedible mess if you get it too hot. For a deep fry, you are also going to need a lot of oil. Probably more than you might think as well as a deep, heavy cooking vessel. I used my 3.5 quart enamel Dutch oven and safflower oil in this case. You will also need a deep fry thermometer to cook with this method.

There are a few steps involved and it’s best to start the day before. First, make the Korean hot sauce. This is whisked together and cooked for a bout 10 minute on the stove to blend all the earthy, spicy flavors together. After that’s prepared, marinate the chicken with a blend of the sauce and buttermilk. Marinate overnight in the fridge to truly tenderize the chicken and infuse the maximum amount of flavor.

When it comes to cooking, I recommend getting everything set up - the breading station, a wire rack, frying station, and preparing the slaw first. The oil needs to be heated to 350˚F before gently dropping the chicken into the oil. When the temperature reaches 350, watch the heat and adjust if necessary so that it doesn’t continue to get hotter. Even heat and having enough oil in the pot so that the chicken can be completely submerged and flipped around a couple of times so that it becomes evenly golden brown are the keys to perfect chicken.

This rates a medium because there are a few steps and quite a bit of clean-up.  After removing the chicken pieces, turn the stove off and make sure the cooking oil cools completely before handling it for clean up. This is one of those recipes that I wouldn’t want to make everyday and not just because it’s probably not the best idea health-wise to eat fried chicken everyday. It’s not particularly difficult, just involved and a little bit messy. But as a treat once in a while? Definitely worth the effort!

TASTE RATING: 5/5

Five stars! Six stars! All the stars! Hands down, this is one of the most delicious things you can put in your face. The sauce is warmly spiced and satisfying. The cool, crunchy slaw lightens up the crispy juicy chicken perfectly. I made it sandwich-style on a brioche bun with sliced mozzarella broiled on top and then served it with sweet potato fries with soy-ginger mayo (because if you’re going to indulge . . . go all the way!) If you are a hot chicken fan, this is definitely one to try. If a burger-lover like me can love this sandwich, surely you will too! Heartburn be damned!

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 34: Vegan Pad Kee Mao (WoonHeng Chia)

Dreaming of eating this again.

I can’t quite remember the last time I’ve been to a Thai restaurant, although it was certainly pre-pandemic. We plan to hit up our favorite local place, The Woodsman as soon as we can, but are still avoiding indoor dining. (Our second vaccine doses are blessedly coming soon!) Thai food hits so many of my favorite flavor notes from the prevalence of spice to the sheer variations of saucy noodle recipes. If I’m eating out, I almost always order Pad Kee Mao with beef. This week’s menu planning had included making WoonHeng’s Vegan Rad Na, but as I pulled out my ingredients I realized I misread the recipe when I made my shopping list and purchased pickled mustard greens rather than pickled peppers. Sigh. While the Rad Na will have to wait for another time, I did happen to have everything on hand to try her Vegan Pad Kee Mao and I’m so glad I did!

SKILL RATING: Easy-Peasy

As I’ve said before, stir fry recipes are inherently fast and easy. To maximize efficiency, I encourage a little organization. In most recipes, I chop all the veggies and prepare whatever sauces before starting to cook anything. If there is a protein that needs to marinate, I’ll do that first and then prep everything else, but you get the idea. Anyway, there was a teeny learning curve this time around because it was my first attempt at using fresh flat rice noodles - those wide luscious sheets you get at the restaurant. WoonHeng does have instructions to make your own, but I used store bought this time. As she described in the recipe, they can be a bit brittle when you open the package and recommends softening them in the microwave under a damp paper towel for 1-2 minutes. This method worked well, although I would pull back on the cooking time a bit as some of the noodles got a bit gummy and hard to pull apart at the edges.

The rest of the recipe was just a classic fast and easy stir fry. I broke out my handy-dandy TofuBud, whisked together the sauce, chopped a few veggies, and we got to enjoy one of our favorite restaurant dishes at home paired with an episode of StarTrek Voyager.

TASTE RATING: 5/5

This was everything I wanted in a Thai stir fry. It was packed with strong umami flavors and the bright spice of the chopped Thai chili peppers was a perfect compliment to the earthy bite of the basil and slightly bitter notes from the Chinese broccoli. Thanks to the TofuBud (seriously, get one), my tofu crisped up into a toothy and substantial protein that held up to the thick sauce and densely chewy noodles. We didn’t miss the meat at all.

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 33: Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer (Priya Krishna’s Indian-ish)

An easy and tasty way to eat ALL THE SPINACH!

Indian-ish may have become my favorite new cookbook. Or at least the one I have turned to the most frequently in the past few months. Everything in it is just so deeply flavorful without being heavy with an emphasis on using fresh veggies and a lot of spices. Priya’s Spinach and Feta Cooked Like Saag Paneer was one of the first recipes I bookmarked, but only got to actually attempting this past week. I tried the Saveur version a couple of weeks ago. It was excellent and a more traditional take on the dish than Priya’s feta-riff. I honestly love both versions which are similarly easy to put together and fantastic over a little rice and toasted roti.

SKILL RATING: Medium-Effort

This isn’t at all challenging to make. It’s a bit simpler to put together than the Saveur version since the feta cubes are just gently folded into the pureed spinach rather than fried in ghee before. Priya does however include a step of toasting the spices to enhance their flavor, this is a characteristic of most of her recipes and one of the reasons they pack such a satisfying flavor. My spinach mixture didn’t come out as quite as smooth as Priya’s since I used a food processor rather than a blender, but I doubt that changed very much about the overall experience. 

TASTE RATING: 5/5

So good! I honestly don’t know which version I liked better because they have such different flavor and texture profiles. Feta has a naturally briny taste to it and it melts slightly into the sauce differently than the toasted paneer. As I said above, both are tasty and pretty simple to put together. Would make again! It’s one of those recipes I wish I were eating right now as I’m writing about it. Really . . . GET THIS COOKBOOK! It was a life saver during Lent and one I can use alll year round for excellent (mostly) vegetarian meals!

Read my “Cook With Me This Year” post for background on my little kitchen project.

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Recipe 32: Lamb Ragù with Mint (Giada de Laurentiis’ Giada’s Kitchen)

Who ever said that leftovers have to be boring!?!

I’m kind of surprised it took me this far into the year to get into a Giada recipe, but here we are. Aside from the cooking I learned at home with my mom, I need to credit Giada de Laurentiis for being the first person who “taught” me how to cook, first through her Everyday Italian, which I still cook from to this day from making a big batch of her basic Marinara Sauce (on its own or as a building-block for other great sauces or soups) to her perfectly moist and delicious Almond Cake (one of my favorites to bring to book club when it’s my turn to do dessert). Everyday Italian taught me how to put together simple, flavorful recipes that made the most of a few fresh ingredients and how to combine dishes to make amazing meals for family and friends. I have all her cookbooks and turn to them often when I entertain - seriously you need to try her Roasted Pork Loin with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette and the wow-factor of her Espresso Caramel Bars cannot be overstated. And I’ll be the first to admit that aside from the dozens and dozens of amazing recipes Giada has brought into my home, I also get swept up in the aspirational aspects of her brand as she strides through the streets of Rome in a dress I want to own and her adorable daughter in tow. Or as she sips a rosé spritzer in a spacious sun-dappled California backyard with a perfect pashmina draped over her shoulders. Sigh. But I digress.

I looked to Giada this time around for a solution to some of the leftover lamb from last week’s Easter Feast. (Incidentally, the Four Hour Lamb recipe came from another food hero of mine, Ina Garten.) I love lamb and the slow-cooked six-pound leg came out perfectly succulent and was enjoyed by everyone around our table. I turned some of the leftover meat into gyros with a homemade tzatziki sauce (a great choice and we still have more lamb to do it again), but I was looking for some other options for other meals and came across Lamb Ragù with Mint from Giada’s Kitchen. I will admit to making a couple of tweaks, but it came out even better than I imagined!

SKILL RATING: Medium Effort

The effort can range here from like a high-easy to a low-medium depending on how involved you want to make this. You can go a very easy route and open up a jar of pasta sauce or put together a batch of Giada’s basic Marinara Sauce. I chose the latter option in this case. The sauce takes about an hour to simmer and cook down after sauteing the vegetables, but the ragù itself comes together very quickly. I chose to serve with rotini pasta because I had half and opened bag left, but almost any shape will do here or you could even serve it over rice or potatoes if you want. The portions here are quite generous. She lists it as being enough to serve 4-6, I cut the recipe in half and we have enough leftovers for another entire meal.

TASTE RATING: 5/5

This is something I could eat every day during cold-weather months, it’s meaty, filling, and extremely flavorful. As I mentioned, I made a couple of minor adjustments for my own preferences and to incorporate other techniques that aren’t in the recipe. First, I added about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes to the marinara when I sauteed the onions and garlic just to give the sauce a bit of heat. Second, the recipe calls for ground lamb and I used leftover cooked lamb leg. I’m sure it would be just as delicious with ground meat. To make the adjustment I chopped up the lamb into 2″ chunks and let it brown and crisp up a bit with the shallots, garlic, and olive oil. Once things were browned, I deglazed the pan with red wine (just as the recipe calls to do with the ground) before adding the cooked marinara sauce. Third, I reserved about a cup of starchy pasta cooking water to mix in with the rotini to keep things moist. I also mixed some of the mint leaves in with the ricotta and sprinkled in a bit of salt and pepper before putting a dollop on top of each serving. (I mostly did this for aesthetic purposes.) Anyway, this was great! We both loved how the delicate creamy ricotta and fresh hints of mint complimented the hearty robust flavors of lamb and red wine.

Cooking this was also a great reminder for me about why I love Giada’s recipes so much and how learning the basics can inspire creativity and flexibility in the kitchen. Do you have some leftover roast chicken or beef? Make it into ragù! Make a full batch of this and serve it over homemade noodles for an Italian feast! (Also . . . seriously  . . . make the Espresso Caramel Bars. Thanks Giada!