Recipes
Pork
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Matilda, Maple, and Garlic Pork Shoulder with Crispy Skin
by：My grandmother (yes, I'm mentioning my grandmother again) used to cook her ever-present, giant ham by sticking it in the oven and pouring ginger ale over it every once in a while, as if it had won the Super Bowl. I decided to use a bottle of Matilda beer, a lovely fruity malty ale made here in Chicago, by Goose Island, with maple syrup for some extra sweetness. You'll probably have to special order the rind-on cut; I had a hard time getting one in Chicago, a.k.a Meatland. Strange. The ponderously long cooking time was inspired by The River Cottage Meat Book, a book that I find charmingly revolting.
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Creamy Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms
by：This is a twist on my ex-boyfriend's mother's recipe which I couldn't help but think I could make so much better, and I did. This is something I make for Thanksgiving and even the children who don't like mushrooms love it.
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Rao's Meatballs
by：Spaghetti and meatballs doesn't have to be a meal that you slave over and simmer all day, nor does it need to put you into hibernation once you've eaten it. You can mix, shape, and fry these meatballs in exactly the time it takes for Marcella Hazan's tomato, butter, and onion sauce to cook (or even this 20-minute marinara, if you're really fast). The caveats: 1. Make your own fresh breadcrumbs (i.e. grind up some stale bread) or, if your crumbs are purchased and quite fine, cut back by half, and don't use quite as much water. I can't be responsible for your stiff, mealy dumpling-balls if you don't heed this. 2. Use local, pastured, not very lean meats if at all possible. Good flavor and fat go a long way here. Adapted slightly from Rao's Cookbook by Frank Pellegrino (Random House, 1998)
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Coconut-Lime Pork Tacos with Black Beans and Avocado
by：Tacos are a recurring weeknight meal for my family. One of our favorite versions is spiced ground pork with lime, pineapple, and black beans, piled high with diced avocado. It was only recently that I thought to add coconut milk to the mix. This one ingredient elevates the dish and plays really well with the other flavors. Similar to pork shoulder or loin braised in milk, simmering the ground pork in coconut milk infuses it with flavor and helps avert the typical dryness that comes with ground meat. This meal can go from kitchen to table in about 20 minutes, perfect for those nights when you don’t have a lot of time but crave (and deserve) an interesting, flavorful meal. Recommended toppings for the tacos include avocado, corn salsa, chopped cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
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Scallion and Coconut Rice with Pork
by：This fragrant rice makes for a satisfying and easy weeknight meal. As long as you have your mise en place before you start, the end is as comforting as a good risotto, though without all the stirring. As strange as it might sound, this is equally delicious and different with a can of sardines stirred into the finished rice in place of the pork. If you use sardines, serve with Korean seaweed (gim) and make bite sized hand rolls.
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Suzanne Goin's Grilled Pork Burgers
by：There are perfect burgers made of beef, salt, and pepper. This is not one of those burgers. And it takes not a little, but a lot more effort, if you commit to doing it right. But it's worth it, because this is probably going to be the best burger you've ever had. We tend to think about doctoring up burgers from the outside -- with thick strips of bacon, obviously, or the perfect themed toppers -- but Suzanne Goin, the master of thoughtfully prepared, arrestingly flavorful food, takes perfect burger theory to another level by looking first within. She lards the burger with minced bacon and fresh Mexican chorizo and flavors it with sautéed aromatics. It turns out that in rethinking the perfect burger, it's what's inside that counts. Recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques (Knopf, 2005).
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Lentil and Sausage Soup for a Cold Winter's Night
by：This hearty one-dish-supper soup is in my regular fall-winter rotation, and has been a family favorite for quite a long time. That means three things: it tastes great, it’s not complicated, and I usually have on hand everything needed to make it. Once it’s served, people dig in and suddenly, the table’s quiet for a minute or two. Serve it with a hearty whole grain bread and follow it with fruit and cheese for a lovely, easy dinner at home. You'll see that the primary herb is marjoram. That's not an herb that you see often in recipes, but to my mind, it's what makes this soup so tasty. Enjoy!!
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Kathy Brennan & Caroline Campion's Skillet Lasagna
by：It turns out lasagna can happen any old weeknight, if you’re smart about it—in fact, it can happen in the time it would take to make your average spaghetti with Marcella's tomato sauce. And in one fewer pot. Note: No-boil lasagna noodles are pre-cooked and dehydrated again—but that doesn’t mean that they’re a poor substitute. If you can’t find no-boil noodles, Brennan and Campion say you can substitute regular lasagna noodles—you’ll just have to cook them first (keep them very al dente because they’ll continue to cook in the sauce). Adapted slightly from Keepers: Two Home Cooks Share Their Tried-and-True Weeknight Recipes and the Secrets to Happiness in the Kitchen (Rodale, 2013).
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Andy Ward & Jenny Rosenstrach's Pork Shoulder Ragu
by：On their blog Dinner: A Love Story, Andy Ward & Jenny Rosenstrach call this "Instant Dinner Party," because you can make the ragu completely ahead, even a day or two before. Whether you serve it that day or reheat it for a party tomorrow, "It will make the house smell amazing," Jenny told me, "Which, in my opinion, counts for more than flower arrangements when having dinner guests. Best of all, if there are kids coming over, and they don't like the ragu, we can usually count on them liking the pasta with a little Parm—so it minimizes drama on that end, too." Whatever ragu is left is a boon: over polenta, in tacos, on sandwiches, or frozen and awaiting more dinners. Recipe adapted slightly from Dinner: A Love Story (Ecco, 2012).
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Caribbean Roast Pork From Toni Tipton-Martin
by：Learn how to make this juicy, flavorful Caribbean Roast Pork recipe from Toni Tipton-Martin's James Beard Award-Winning cookbook, 'Jubilee.'