Veal Stew with Potato Gnocchi

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When the winter cold sets in, I like nothing better than something hearty and warm. Veal stew ticks both of those boxes and can help brighten up a dark winter night. Veal is one of my favorite meats to eat. However, my preferred dish (fried veal cutlets) doesn’t exactly lend itself to maintaining my belt line!

Veal stew is a traditional dish of northeast Italy and northern Croatia. In Croatia, stews and goulashes were brought from the Austro-Hungarians during the centuries of Hapsburg rule in the region. This rustic dish can be served with potatoes, but I wanted to attempt to recreate some of the elements of Hungarian goulash, substituting plump gnocchis for noodles or pasta.

Most butcher shops carry veal cubes for stew, this recipe can also easily translate to lamb or beef, and the tougher cuts lends itself well to stew. There is no worrying about overcooking and all you will need to clean is one pot. I made my own gnocchi, but you can just as easily use store bought.

 

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 1 1/2 lb. veal cubes
  • 1 lb. potato gnocchi
  • 12 baby carrots
  • 8 Crimini mushrooms, quartered
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 1 plum tomato, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp. butter
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. chopped rosemary
  • Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cooking the VealDSC_0942

  1. Preheat Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat
  2. Dredge veal cubes in flour
  3. Add olive oil, butter, and veal to pot
  4. Season with sea salt, then add black pepper to taste
  5. Brown veal for 5-7 minutes
  6. Remove veal from pot and set aside

Cooking the StewDSC_0943

  1. Using wooden spoon, lift any veal sticking to pot
  2. Add carrots, mushrooms, onion, tomato, and garlic to pot
  3. Season with sea salt and 1/2 tbsp. rosemary, then add black pepper to taste
  4. Cook for 3-5 minutes
  5. Add vegetable stock and veal, then reduce heat
  6. Simmer on low heat for 45-50 minutes

Cooking the Gnocchi

  1. Bring salted water to boil
  2. Prior to serving stew, add potato gnocchi and cook for 3-5 minutes until gnocchi float to top
  3. Remove gnocchi from water

Serving the DishDSC_0946

  1. Add gnocchi to bowl
  2. Spoon stew over gnocchi
  3. Garnish with rosemary
  4. Serve

 

Steamed Clams

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I love clams. They are my favorite food. While some (read: parents, sibling, wife) find this statement astonishing because “you don’t eat that many clams,” that doesn’t mean it is not true. And how can anyone who eats shellfish dislike clams?

I usually throw in a Bubba (from Forrest Gump) reference whenever clams are discussed, “Baked clams, Linguine with clams. Clams on the half-shell, Clams casino. Clam sandwich. Steamed clams.” I could name more recipes, but I already feel this post is becoming a bit too clam heavy! I grew up eating linguine and clams regularly and baked clams will always remind me of Christmas Eve dinner, but steamed clams are my favorite. They are also incredibly easy to make.

Clams are versatile, especially steamed clams. In the summer, you can steam them in a light white wine and herb sauce, adding a fresh taste to any meal. In the winter, you can steam them in a heavier beer and breadcrumb sauce, making them a warm and hearty remedy to a cold winter night.

Steamed clams are simple too. One pot. A few ingredients. Five to seven minutes. A perfect dish.

 

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 12 littleneck clams
  • 1 can of beer
  • 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, Italian seasoned
  • 4 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
  • 1/4 lemon, divided into 2 wedges
  • Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cooking the ClamsDSC_0937

  1. Preheat wide, shallow pan over medium-high heat
  2. Add garlic and olive oil, brown for 2 minutes
  3. Add clams and breadcrumbs, cook for 30 seconds then add beer
  4. Season with sea salt, then add black pepper to taste
  5. Cover pan for 5-7 minutes until clams open
  6. Remove pan from heat

Serving the DishDSC_0940

  1. Add clams to plate/bowl
  2. Drizzle sauce generously over clams
  3. Garnish with parsley and lemon
  4. Serve

 

Roasted Root Vegetables

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Thanksgiving is my favorite meal of the year. Why wouldn’t it be? Massive quantities of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and bread on a single, inappropriately small plate topped with a heaping amount of gravy.

That’s how everyone eats on Thanksgiving … right?

There is one thing missing from that plate however – vegetables. Fall vegetables are incredibly diverse, yet work together so well. The color palette of grocery stores this time of year matches the colors of leaves in Central Park.

Green Brussels sprouts, orange sweet potatoes, brown mushrooms, maroon beets, and yellow parsnips. Each bringing their own distinct flavors and together contributing to the feeling of autumn, to the feeling of Thanksgiving.

 

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 2 sweet potatoes, sliced
  • 2 large red beets, 1-2″ pieces
  • 18 Brussels sprouts, whole
  • 6 Crimini mushrooms, whole
  • 2 parsnips, 1-2″ pieces
  • 2 tsp. chopped rosemary
  • 1 tsp. chopped parsley
  • 2 tsp. chopped thyme
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cooking the Vegetables

  1. Preheat oven to 405o
  2. Add cleaned and prepped vegetables to a baking sheet
  3. Add chopped herbs, reserve some parsley for garnish
  4. Season generously with sea salt, then add black pepper to taste
  5. Drizzle olive oil and mix thoroughly
  6. Add to oven and cook for 20-30 minutes, until all vegetables are tender

Serving the Dish

  1. Remove vegetables from dish and spoon onto plate
  2. Garnish with parsley
  3. Serve

Basil Pesto

pesto

Pesto is the way a person makes pesto.1

Most people can identify basil by it’s distinct taste and smell. Few other herbs play so well with others that they can turn up in both sweets and savories, soups and salads and with pasta, fish and fowl—and neither steal the show nor fade into the background.2  

For Italian-Americans like myself, how we consume basil is determined in part by where our family originates in Italy. Naples – basil on pizza or in marinara sauce. Capri – basil in a salad with tomatoes and mozzarella. Liguria – basil in pesto.

Where did pesto come from?

Pesto’s origins most likely intersect with the many pesto-like sauces found throughout the Mediterranean and beyond: After all, the mortar and pestle is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous cooking tools. The ancient Romans loved their pounded sauces of lovage, parsley, mint, and thyme, and many books about pesto say that it’s descended from an old Persian sauce that’s made with walnuts and thyme. The Greeks invented skordalia from ground garlic and nuts, and the Spanish have their romesco based on purees of almonds, garlic, red peppers, and olive oil. 1

More than just an accompaniment to pasta or gnocchi, pesto can be served with a number of dishes ranging from minestrone soup to char-broiled steak. Its fresh, clean flavors are a versatile companion to almost any dish you prepare.

There is something to be said about using a mortar and pestle to make the sauce as well. There is an earnestness to the process. It adds a familiarity, a sense that others have done this before and that you too are now a part of that history.

Pesto is about more than the fresh basil taste, pesto is about more than the foods you serve it with, pesto is about the way a person makes pesto.

Ingredients

  • 1½ cups of basil
  • ½ a clove of garlic
  • 2 tablespoons of walnuts
  • 1½ tablespoons of grated pecorino romano cheese
  • ¼ of lemon
  • 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon of sea salt

Instructions

  1. Heat a pan over medium-low heat until hot
  2. Add walnuts to heated pan, then toast for 4 minutes, moving occasionally, until they are lightly browned
  3. Remove walnuts from pan and set aside to cool, then turn off heat
  4. Roughly chop basil and garlic
  5. Add to mortar and pestle with cooled walnuts and sea salt, then grind thoroughly in circular motion until mixture has pasty consistency
  6. Add cheese and continue to grind into basil paste until combined
  7. Transfer contents of mortar to mixing bowl
  8. Add extra virgin olive oil and whisk together
  9. Squeeze lemon over pesto
  10. Serve

1 Saveur Magazine | Glorious Pesto
2 WSJ | Cooking With Basil and Its Many Friends

Grilled Steak with Croatian Radish Salad

 

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Compromise is not necessarily bad thing. When done right, it can yield unexpectedly good results. This recipe is full of compromises, but the end product is delicious.

Key decisions were made prior to cooking this dish such as fish versus steak and yogurt versus mayo. In the end, this recipe is a compromise between mine and my wife’s preferences. In the end, we agreed it was especially good. We both left the table with what we ultimately wanted.

The genesis of this dish comes directly from my Dad. His go to summer dinner for our family is a grilled steak topped with goat cheese and roasted vegetables. On a warm summer night with a chilled glass of red wine, nothing is better. He is also Croatian, and the recipe for radish salad is a modified version of a Saveur side dish from their Croatian seafood issue.

There was always something I loved about the slowly melting goat cheese atop those steaks. They created a rich sauce that worked well with the steak, and when I saw the radish salad recipe, I knew it would be a nice match. The spicy radishes, cool yogurt (there is no mayo in my house!!), and tart lemon combine to make an addicting accompaniment to a sizzling steak.

My wife will always vote for fish over beef, but we compromised: I got steak… she got yogurt.

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 1 lb. flank/hangar/sirloin steak, one inch thick
  • 1 bunch small radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp. Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
  • ½ tsp. lemon zest, grated
  • 1 tsp. minced parsley
  • 1 tsp. minced thyme
  • Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Making the Radish Salad DSC_0915

  1. Mix yogurt, oil, lemon, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper in bowl
  2. Stir in radishes
  3. Chill salad in refrigerator

Cooking the SteakDSC_0914

  1. Turn heat on high under skillet and sprinkle its surface with salt
  2. Wait until pan begins to smoke, about five minutes
  3. Cut steak into two 8 oz. portions
  4. Lay steak in pan and prepare to flip. As you flip, move it around in pan so it absorbs the salt.
  5. When steak is almost cooked (125o internal), season with salt and pepper
  6. Remove from pan and rest, five to seven minutes

Serving the DishDSC_0918

  1. Remove radish salad from refrigerator and spoon onto plate
  2. Add steak to plate and garnish with parsley and lemon
  3. Serve

How to Chop an Onion

Nothing is more basic than chopping. It takes a while to do it well, but once you do, you never forget.

The following is from a live training I recently provided for a business school class. The focus of that course is employee training and development, and my goal for this blog is to further train and develop myself and my readers in the kitchen. I thought it only made sense to share this here.

 

howtochopanonion

Beginning with Some Kitchen Basics

Practice makes perfect.

That saying applies to almost every facet of life, especially cooking. I enjoy practice. When I was younger, that meant hours upon hours of tennis and baseball. How do tennis players consistently toss the ball on their serve? Practice. How do pitchers consistently delivery pitch after pitch to the plate? Practice.

How do professional chefs consistently make good food? Practice.

One of my goals for this blog is to keep it simple. In the kitchen, nothing is more simple than chopping an onion, and yet I am amazed and terrified when people (who shall remain nameless) chop an onion the wrong way. How do you consistently chop an onion perfectly time and time again? Practice.

My practice took the form of watching several instructional videos on YouTube, buying a 5 lb. bag of Spanish onions, and finally spending a Sunday morning chopping away until the red net bag contained nothing but onion skins. I like that. I enjoy that. However, I understand that not everyone is like me.

This post is meant to serve as a cheat sheet for home cooks who want to be a little more adept in the kitchen. It is not a comprehensive list or the best videos in each area, but rather my favorites from a variety of voices that may help you find a source for how-to cooking videos in the future.