Grilled Peaches and Pork

No matter the season, a grill brings out the best flavors in ingredients. Whether meat or vegetable or even fruit, putting food on the grill creates a unique smoky and charred flavor that can't be truly replicated indoors. For this dish, I married sweet, caramelized peaches with rich smoky pork to create a sweet and savory blend of flavors the exemplified why grilling is such a good method of cooking. Along with some grilled corn and a fresh fennel, orange, and arugula salad this meal was a grilled summer classic.

Roasted Vegetable and Pesto Pasta with Seared Scallops

One of the more versatile and flavorful sauces that you can make is pesto. Pesto is an italian sauce used on pasta, sandwiches, meats, fish, hors d'oeuvres, and anything else you can think of. Classic pesto recipes use basil and pine nuts as the main components, but you can use any herbs or greens you like such as cilantro, parsley, arugula, or even kale along with any type of nut. I've made pistachio cilantro and arugula and almond pestos, and any variation you make will have a different personality depending on which components you use. For a healthy pasta dish, I decided to make a basil pine nut AND walnut pesto (I know, I'm a wild man...) with roasted vegetables and seared scallops.

Pasta for a Crowd with Homemade Meatballs and Sauce

This New Years Eve, my friends and I rented a house for the weekend. I was in charge of cooking, and everyone was arriving at different times, so I wanted to make something that could be prepared ahead and be served whenever the group was ready. I decided on homemade meatballs and tomato sauce over spaghetti as it appeals to anyone and is easy enough to make in large quantities that increasing the amount you make doesn't create a hassle.  I added some garlic bread and a nice salad, and we had a great meal for a crowd.

The Sunday Night Dilemma: Pasta with Ham and Peas

Ah the weekly Sunday dilemma: Do I go food shopping for the week? Do I order Chinese food and feel gross afterwards? Do I rummage through the fridge to see what I can re purpose into some sort of dinner? Each has its pros and cons:

Shopping is very proactive and will be very satisfying once it's done and your fridge is full, but do you really want to face those crowds? And what if you miss the 4th quarter of the 4pm football games? And that sofa is just so comfortable!

Chinese food is delicious and satisfying at the time, but you know that you're going to immediately regret getting that order of General Gao's chicken, and the leftovers will tempt you for lunch or dinner the next day.

Your final option is the fridge scrounge. You know there has to be something in the fridge that can work for a meal, so you dive in. This past Sunday, I went for the fridge raid, and to my delight, I found leftover Thanksgiving ham, frozen peas, a shallot, garlic, and some angel hair pasta. Mix that with some wine, butter and flour, and we've got ourselves a dinner! Pasta with ham and peas in a white wine sauce is a really comforting, easy to make dish that will satisfy your Sunday dilemma and make for an excellent and reasonably healthy lunch the next day.

Really Easy Moroccan Dinner

This past weekend, I was in Whole Foods with my friend Heath, picking up some food for dinner. I was feeling very indecisive in what I wanted to make, so Heath suggested making some sort of lamb tagine. A tagine is a north African dish that is named after the clay pot it is usually served in. You don't need a tagine to make the dish, but whether using one or not, it is a slow cooked dish, usually made with lamb or chicken braised in a sauce with dried fruit (apricots, currants, dates), chicken broth, vegetables and spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, and coriander. It is very good served over couscous, quinoa or bulgar wheat.

BBQ Sauce - I Defeat Thee!

I have an ongoing battle with BBQ sauce. For some reason, I can never make a really good BBQ, and whenever I try, I end up over thinking it, over complicating the recipe, or missing something integral to the BBQ flavor. Today, I tried to take down my nemesis. I found a very simple recipe, and only made some minor tweaks. Being that I'm not going to serve BBQ sauce on it's own, I decided to make some pulled chicken and cole slaw for some easy sandwiches.

Closing Out Summer in the Hamptons

I can think of no better way to end summer than with good friends and good food. The last weekend before labor day, my girlfriend and I went out to Quogue in the Hamptons with some friends to visit our friend's parent's house. We had postponed the trip a week because of hurricane Irene, and the weather was perfect. We spent some time on the beach and relaxing by the pool, and when the evening rolled around, we were treated to a delicious dinner. To date, all of my posts have been made by me, but this was such a great meal in such a wonderful setting, that I wanted to feature my friend's parent's meal as a thank you for their impeccable hospitality.

Pretzels, Mustard, and Salmon

Earlier this summer, my roommate was in Alaska, visiting his sister. While he was there, he went salmon fishing and caught 6 salmon! He had the fish filleted and frozen and sent home to NYC. I am fortunate enough that he is very generous and offered up some of the fish for me to use. The salmon was a beautiful red color. Much darker than any fish you would buy in the supermarket.

Pork Chops in the Summertime

The past few weeks have been insanely hot in NYC. One of the side effects of this heat is the lack of desire to be in my unairconditioned kitchen, standing over a hot stove. This past Sunday, the heat broke (slightly), so I jumped on the chance to bear the heat and get into the kitchen. I decided on pork chops with a peach BBQ sauce and corn and tomato salad. As I've written before, I love the flavors of summer, so featuring them in my cooking is very important when the season is right.

Impressing My Girlfriend's Friends

I heard from my girlfriend that one of her co-workers was a fan of the blog and wanted to get a meal cooked by Tyler. One of my goals is to create an in-home cooking class company, so I figured this would be a great way to showcase my talent to people who have been impressed by my food. Unfortunately, the meal was taking place in the dead of summer when my kitchen is about 100 degrees, so I wanted to start with a simple, cold cucumber soup. I pureed seedless cucumbers (though could have used normal cukes and just removed the seeds) with water and mint leaves. I then added salt, pepper, honey, and cayenne pepper and let it cool in the fridge. When it came time to serve, I topped it with a dollop of Greek yogurt mixed with honey, some chopped mint, and a cucumber that I cut into a ribbon. The soup was light, crisp, and refreshing in the sweltering kitchen.

Two Broccolis and a "Whore"

Pasta a la puttanesca literally means pasta of the whore in Italian. This dish is a spicy, salty pasta dish that is easy to make and delicious to eat.

4th of July Grilling Extravaganza

4th of July always brings beach, fireworks, and grilling. In celebration of this fun summer holiday, I wanted to put together a grilling extravaganza. I made skewers of all sorts for a crowd of 13 people. To start the meal, my girlfriend made delicious deviled eggs. I would give the recipe, but it's a family secret and I've been forbidden from divulging it.

Blueberries, Scallops, and Shrimp - Small in Size, Big in Flavor

The summer brings all sorts of culinary treats: vegetables, corn, berries, and seafood. I like to use as much fresh local food as possible, and being that I'm in Cape May for the weekend, I have a great opportunity to get excellent produce and seafood. I wanted to make a delicious meal that didn't take a lot of effort or time to prepare, so I decided on some scallops and shrimp, green beans and eggplant, and corn. To give the meal a little extra color and flavor, I made a blueberry sauce to complement the shellfish (none of this took a lot of effort, I swear).

Pork Chops and Strawberries

 Summertime and berries. They go together like... berries and summertime? I was in the mood to make a dish that featured some fresh fruit. I decided to get a nice bone-in pork chop, as pork lends itself very well to the flavors of fresh fruit. I also wanted some spice, so I picked up some spicy red peppers. To go along side this spicy, fruity, porky dish, I wanted some potatoes and brussel sprouts.

For the strawberries, I cut them up with the pepper and put them in a small saucepan with some honey and white wine. I let this cook down until the berries and peppers were falling apart and the mix could be crushed with a wooden spoon.

 I cut up the potatoes and put them in a fry pan with about half an inch of salted water. I love cooking potatoes this way because they have a really great starchy and salty flavor. I cooked the potatoes until the water evaporates and then add olive oil to the pan and saute the potatoes until they start to brown. The pan ends up getting brown because of the burning starch, so it's important to toss the potatoes frequently so they don't burn or stick to the pan. Once the potatoes were nice and brown, I removed them and added on white wine to deglaze the pan. I scraped up all of the burned starch, cooked the wine to burn off the alcohol, and pour the "potato gravy" over the cooked spuds.

 

For the brussel sprouts, I cut them in half and quickly blanched them until they started to become bright green. I then cooked them with capers in canola oil in a hot cast iron until the browned and the capers were crispy.

Once the brussel sprouts were done, I cooked the pork. I had coated the chop in salt, pepper, and panko crumbs to give it a breaded exterior. I set the heat on the cast iron to medium high and started cooking the pork. I flipped it after about 6 or 7 minutes when the bread crumbs were nice and golden. I cooked the other side 7 minutes, and pressed on the meat to see if it was done. When the meat was firm enough, I took it off, let it sit for 5 minutes to finish cooking and let the juices settle, and then spooned some of the strawberry mixture on top.

The dish turned out really well. The potatoes were very tasty and the capers gave the brussel sprouts a nice pungent but not overpowering kick. The strawberry sauce and pork worked nicely together. The sauce had a nice balance of spicy and sweet (though it could have used a bit more sweet to give it further balance) and the mild sweetness of the pork complemented the powerful flavor of the sauce. All in all, a great dish that looks tough but really isn't that work intensive or time consuming.

Ramps Are In Season!

Ramps! Oh, you wonderful gift of nature. You pop your heads out once a year for a short time, and you're the talk of the town. If only popularity was so easy for everyone else... Ramps are a really wonderful and short lived variety of onion. I was at the farmer's market this weekend in Union Square and picked of a bunch of ramps along with some chives and some quark, which is a cow's milk cheese that tastes a lot like creme fraiche.

They've got a really fresh and bright flavor that's part onion, part garlic, part shallot, and all delicious. Being that ramps are in season, I wanted to make a dish that featured them and made the most of their flavor. I had seen a recipe for gnocchi with ramps and speck, and I wanted to do a variation of this. My first thought was to make my own gnocchi, but it was a little late on a Sunday to start with such a labor intensive dish, so I decided to go with fresh sweet potato gnocchi from Whole Foods. WF generally has excellent homemade pastas, so I trusted them with my ode to ramps. I also picked up some prosciutto to give the dish a salty warmth.

To make the dish, I cleaned the ramps and cut the white bulbs from the green leaves. I chopped half of a vidalia onion and some garlic. I cooked the onion and ramp bulbs in butter and olive oil, and once they became translucent, I added the garlic and chopped ramp greens. Once the greens began to wilt, I added the prosciutto, cooked it for a few minutes, and added about a cup of white wine and some butter. While the sauce was cooking, I boiled a big pot of water. Once it was boiling, I added the gnocchi, stirring them to make sure they didn't stick together. In about 3-4 minutes, they began floating to the top, and I drained them in a strainer, reserving a bit of the water to mix with the sauce. I mixed the gnocchi in with the sauce, added parmesan and 2 spoonfuls of the quark, tossed so everything was mixed together. I served the dish with a little chopped chive, and it was a total success. The ramp flavor worked perfectly with the prosciutto and the nutty parm and sour quark, and the gnocchi were light and fluffy. Gnocchi dishes are normally heavy, but with this dish, they were very light and tasted great with the sauce. If you can get your hands on some ramps before the season is up, take advantage of it, they are really a rare treat.

Swimming Between Kale and Asparagus

I was in the mood for a very healthy and flavorful dinner. I had read a blog post about pasta with walnut and kale pesto, and I wanted to make my own version of the pesto but with a light fish instead of heavy pasta. I decided on tilapia, because it's a little heartier than cod, but still has a much lighter taste than salmon or trout. Along with the fish and pesto, I wanted some roasted spring vegetables, so I grabbed a bunch of asparagus and a bulb of fennel.


I made the pesto first so I could let it sit while I prepped the rest of the meal. I always try to make sauces first so they have plenty of time for the flavor to expand. For this pesto, I used a head of kale, basil, garlic, walnuts, lemon, parmesan, and olive oil. I chopped the garlic and cut the kale from the stems. I toasted the walnuts in a pan (about 5 minutes) and then a added some olive oil, the garlic and kale, and a squeeze of lemon and sauteed until the kale began to wilt. I added all of this to a blender along with the basil, some more lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I blended until smooth and added some grated parmesan and made sure the nutiness and citrus were balanced and the pesto tasted right.

Once the pesto was done, I preheated the oven to 375 and prepared the fish. I wanted to bake the fish, so I cut up an onion in slices, put them in a baking dish with some balsamic vinegar and the fronds from fennel bulb. I coated the fish with salt, pepper, and olive oil and laid it on top of the fennel fronds, onion and balsamic. Once the fish was ready, I prepped the asparagus and fennel, cutting off the rough ends of the asparagus and cutting the fennel into thin strips. I tossed the veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper and put them on a baking dish. I put both the fish and the veggies in the oven and baked for 25 minutes.

Once the fish was cooked through (I checked the fish by seeing if it flaked with a fork) and the veggies were starting to brown, I took them out of the oven. For the presentation, I lined the asparagus and fennel in alternating lines on the plate. I then laid the fish on top and spooned the pesto on top.

The dish was really tasty. The pesto had the familiar garlic and basil taste, but the walnuts and kale gave it a very earthy and unique flavor, complimenting the light taste of the fish perfectly. The asparagus worked really well with the fennel, their flavors balancing well, and a bite with both veggies and the fish was a well balanced burst of flavor. Best of all, the dish was extremely healthy!

I see that it's pasta, but where's the sauce??

In keeping with my health conscious eating, I wanted to make a healthy pasta dish that was not just wheat pasta with tomato sauce. I had some chicken sausage, a red pepper, onion, garlic, and a whole bunch of herbs. I made a simple dish that packed a lot of flavor, was very healthy (the only salt was a little from the sausage and some to taste), and was off the beaten path for a sausage pasta dish.
I started by thinly slicing the chicken sausage and sauteeing it in olive oil. Once all of the slices were browned, I set the sausage aside and added the chopped pepper and onion. Once they were cooked through, I added the sausage back in along with some garlic, chopped thyme and rosemary, and let that cook for a few minutes. While this was cooking, I boiled some whole wheat pasta. I added some chicken broth to the sausage mixture, tossed in the pasta, some parmesan and a bunch of whole basil leaves. I added a little black pepper for a little bit of spice and served. The outcome was an unexpected pasta dish that had the feeling of a puttanesca sauce without the anchovies and olives.

Trout with Very Confused Pasta

I recently went to the doctor and found out that my cholesterol is on the high side. He recommended I get rid of fatty foods and improve my overall diet. Always up for a challenge, I wanted to come up with a way to make an extremely healthy meal that was both visually and gustatorily pleasing. I chose trout for the protein as it is very high in healthy fats that increase your HDL cholesterol. For the “pasta”, I wanted something that looked like pasta but was anything but. I decided to use red chard and cut it into strips. Chard is one of my favorite greens, and it’s hearty enough to stand up to tomato sauce. For my “meatballs” I decided to try something totally new and made barley balls.
For the tomato sauce, I sauteed cherry tomatoes with some garlic, parsley, lemon, onion, tomato paste and red wine. I let it simmer until the tomatoes were falling apart and then set it aside.
To make the barley balls, I cooked barley in advance and let it cool. I then mixed it with egg, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and some sauteed onion and garlic. I made sure the mix was thick enough to adhere during the cooking process, and constructed my barley balls. Once I had the balls, I put them in the freezer for 15 minutes to let them set. Once they were cold and solid, I heated canola oil (also very good for you) and browned the outsides of the barley balls. The result was a crispy on the outside, soft on the inside ball that had a heartiness similar to meatballs.
For the trout, I floured it with a little salt and pepper and then pan seared each side until golden. I used the crispy trout as the base, places a pile of chard “pasta” on top of that, added 2 barley “meatballs” and topped with the tomato sauce and some parm.
All together, the meal was reminiscent of a fine Italian pasta dish with a very healthy and unexpected twist. The barley balls turned out perfectly and were delicious to eat even on their own. Now that I’m being more conscious about what I’m eating, I’m looking forward to having more meals that are as fun and inventive as this one.

Empty Fridge? Breakfast Challenge!!!

Sunday morning: Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to create a delicious breakfast using only the food currently in your kitchen. Your available supplies include: 4 eggs, polenta, parmesan, celery, garlic, herbs, tomato sauce, bacon. Good luck!
With only the above ingredients, I was able to make the following brunch:

I started by braising the celery. I sliced it and then sauteed it in a saucepan until starting to brighten in color. I then added the garlic, bay leaf, and thyme. After about a minute, I put enough water to cover the celery, added some salt and pepper, and let it braise for about 15 minutes. While the celery braised, I made some creamy parmesan polenta. Once the braising liquid was almost cooked off, I added some tomato paste, mixed, and then added tomato sauce, parsley, and basil. I let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes, cooked some bacon, and baked the eggs in the oven for 10 minutes.
Once everything was done, I plated the dish and enjoyed a successful breakfast challenge!

A Fittingly Colored Valentine's Day Meal

I’m not a big fan of going out to dinner on Valentine’s Day because most restaurants jack up the price of their prix fixe menu and I just don’t have that much money to toss around. This year I decided to come up with the most festive menu I could think of and the first thing that popped into my head: BEETS. I love beets on their own, but my girlfriend isn’t a huge fan of them, so I thought of a way to incorporate their beautiful color without featuring beets alone on the menu: pink mashed potatoes! To go along with the Valentine spuds, I made sautéed red chard (sensing a theme?), and featured some sizable veal chops with balsamic apples. The meal turned out really well and was good to look at and even better to eat.

Ingredients:

2 ½ lb Veal Chops on the bone
2 Fuji or Pink Lady apples
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp grated jalapeno flesh
1 lemon
1 tsp agave or honey
2 tbsp balsamic
.5 lb red potatoes
1 large beet
2 tbsp butter
¼ cup milk
1 large bunch red chard
3 garlic cloves (chopped)
2 tbsp olive oil

To cook!

Pink Potatoes:
1) Boil the beet in a large enough pot to hold the beet and the potatoes

2) After 20 minutes, add the potatoes and boil for another 15 until the beet and potatoes are fork tender

3) Melt the butter in a small pan and slowly cook half of the chopped garlic until browned

4) Drain the pot (reserving a little bit of the water) and take out the beet to remove skin

5) Mash the potatoes with the reserved water, the milk, and the garlic butter

6) Cut the beet into small pieces, add to the potatoes, and mash (I had small chunks of beet in the mash, but feel free to use a hand blender to make the mash smoother)

7) Add salt and pepper to taste

Red Chard

1) Coarsely chop the chard into 1 inch strips

2) Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and sautée the remaining chopped garlic

3) Once garlic starts to brown add the chard and toss in the oil and garlic

4) Add ½ lemon juice and cook until chard is fully wilted

Balsamic Apples:

1) Chop the apples into small rectangles and sautée in a saucepan in olive oil

2) Mix the grated ginger and jalapeno with juice of ½ a lemon and the honey/agave

3) Pour the dressing and half of the balsamic over the apples and simmer until the apples are very soft

Veal Chops:

1) Preheat the oven to 375

2) Sear the veal on both sides in an oven proof pan or cast iron

3) Finish in the oven for 15 minutes

4) Serve apples on the veal and finish with the remaining balsamic