My pizza sauce recipe starts with 1/3 cup of olive oil and one of those small cans of tomato paste. After that, it’s dealer’s choice—although I recommend a ****load of basil and oregano and garlic, and some salt and pepper, and then enough liquid to bring the total to two cups. For the liquid to bring it up to that 16 oz. level, personally I usually go half water and half sweet vermouth, marsala, or port… but dealer’s choice. I’ve also gone half water, and half the manhattan I had just made. Whatever seems a good idea at the time.
And it freezes just great, so you can make a batch, use part, and freeze the rest for later. I typically just pour the rest into a zipper bag (it takes 1 cup or even less for the average pizza), squeeze out the air, and chuck it in the freezer.
i currently live in belgium and a favorite dish here is stoofvlees. it’s a hearty beef stew (minus all the veggies) and they eat it with a side with fries. not really the right time of year for it now but i recommend giving it a whirl once we get to winter. as the flemish say - smakelijk!
Ingredients
-Slab of uncut pork belly (this batch showing is about a half pound)
-favorite dry rub
-favorite BBQ sauce (a good drizzle…however much you want to add)
-olive oil
-brown sugar (about 1/2 cup)
-butter (about a stick)
-honey (a good drizzle!)
Directions:
Cut your pork belly into cubes (about an inch or so…you want them 1-2 bites)
Coat cubes with a bit of olive oil and coat with dry rub (tossing in a bowl is handy)
Place cubes onto smoker (i use a cookie cooling sheet to place cubes then transport to smoker)
be sure cubes aren’t touching
Smoke cubes at around 225-250 degrees for 2 hours, or until desired bark is obtained (you want
them to be slow and low to render that fat into melt in your mouth goodness)
Remove cubes from smoker and place in foil pan
Fill foil pan with brown sugar, BBQ sauce, butter (cut into pats) and honey. Stir well to coat.
Cover foil pan with aluminum foil sheet.
Return to smoker for another 60-90 minutes (you’ll want your cubes to be around 200-205)
Remove foil cover and smoke for another 30 minutes to thicken sauce.
Dug my wok out on a whim, cut up some chicken breast into strips, matchsticked some carrots, and got out a handful of sugar snap peas. Chicken first, then carrots, then peas, then a good splash of dry vermouth, some crushed garlic, some onion, some chives, and some chili flakes. Let that party for a while and then some low-sodium soy sauce. Dumped in the ramen noodles I’d had going at the same time and wow.
Apologies for having a crummy camera on my phone. And my lottery list kitchen definitely includes a wok volcano.
I follow Nigella Lawson on Twitter. Partly because she IS the kitchen goddess, but she also Tweets daily recipes, and takes time to say nice things to people who have cooked one of her dishes and posted a photo. Her recipes can be switched from metric to US measurements on the website with a single click.
Anyway, I made her version of Jansson’s Temptation the other day, after my supermarket started selling tinned sprats, and it was great! Another very rich bake. I used panko breadcrumbs on top, which was an improvement. Anchovies can be used, but their saltier flavour makes it a slightly different dish.
This is the cottage pie recipe my mother passed down to me:
1 lb ground beef (or lamb for shepherds pie, or beyond meat or whatever you like)
I onion finely sliced
4 celery sticks finely chopped
Baby carrots finely chopped
1 tsp Better than Bouillon Beef Flavour
Daddies or HP Sauce
Ketchup
Marmite
Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons plain flour
Tin Vegetarian Baked Beans
1 1/2 pounds yukon gold potatoes
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F/
Brown Beef, then put to one side.
In a large pot, sautee carrots, onion, and celery till soft in a little olive oil.
Add beef to vegetables, fold in flour, and add beef boullion. Add marmite, daddies and ketchup in roughly equal parts (I start with a heaping tablespoon of marmite and then go by taste). Add baked beans with about half a pint of hot water.
Bring to a boil until thickened.
put in the oven for an hour.
While this bakes, chop up and boil your potatoes in salted water.
Once boiled, drain the potatoes, and mash them up with 2 tbsp butter and 1/2 cup milk. Season with salt and pepper.
Once the pie is done cooking, let it cool a bit and top with the smashed potatoes.
Increase heat of oven to 375 and bake until brown and bubbling.
Sounds like a proper job, that! My tip for mashed potato is first to let them dry properly in a warm pan after draining, then add a spoonful or two of mayonnaise to the butter when mashing (or after ricing, if you have a potato ricer). Adds a subtle extra touch of flavour.
My tip for mashed potatoes: use two to three yellow or gold potatoes for each russet (depending on the size of the russet). Russets have an earthy flavor, gold potatoes have a more buttery flavor. Mix them together and it’s mashed potato heaven.
I made miso-marinated pork loin with a summer salad last night that I was quite pleased with.
For the marinade, simmer mirin, dry white wine, minced garlic, ginger (I used ground), chili paste, and miso, let it cool, then add the pork. I let mine sit in the fridge about 7 hours (the recipe I adapted recommended at least 4).
For the salad, I cut carrots, cucumber, cantaloupe, and scallions, then puréed rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, honey, half a serrano pepper, and cilantro together and tossed everything in that for dressing.
Whipped up some quick sesame noodles, and yummy dinner!
