Artisanal Macaroni and Cheese

There is a reason why Kraft Mac and Cheese is in so many pantries.  It's quick and easy comfort food that's perfect for lazy or busy days ... or so I thought.  Then I came across the artisanal mac and cheese recipe developed by Terrance Brennan, the chef at the Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro in New York.  This recipe was featured on the cover of the May 2010 issue of Saveur, and the picture looked inviting. I wonder why it didn't catch attention when I flipped through the magazine for the first time. 

This recipe uses three different types of cheese and a generous panko-parmesan crust.  The cheese sauce is bubbly, and the crust become super crunchy after 30 minutes in the oven.  The combination of the cheesy pasta and the crunchy crust is irresistible!  This isn't a quick dinner, and there are more than three steps to follow, but it's worth spending one hour for this Kraft substitute.  My family and I were rewarded by the best mac and cheese we ever had.

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Italian Meatballs

I have been baking meatballs in a mini muffin tin after reading Alton Brown's Good Eats. My Sage meatballs came out with nice brown color on the top side only, and I wasn't satisfied with the result. This time, I flipped the meatballs half way through, and they were golden brown on all sides! A regular baking sheet works fine too, but I found a mini muffin tin useful as it keeps meatballs from rolling around.

They are perfect meatballs for spaghetti and meatballs. These types of meatball recipes often call for Parmigiano Reggiano, however you can certainly substitute with Grana Padano. Just like Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano is a hard granular cheese from northern Italy. Grana Padano has a slightly more delicate flavor, and it is less expensive than its counterpart. Also, you can use dried herbs instead of fresh and vice versa. I used fresh parsley since it was available at the grocery store. Generally, you can substitute one teaspoon of dried herbs with one tablespoon of fresh herbs (one to three ratio.)

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Sage Meatballs with Honey Mustard Sauce

A friend came over to our house a couple weeks ago, and brought a thoughtful gift, the second volume of Good Eats by Alton Brown.  The hefty book is filled with great tips, interesting food related facts, and recipes that look worth trying.  As I flipped through the pages, one picture caught my attention.  It was a muffin pan stuffed with meatballs.  According to the book, the mini muffin pan retain shape and cooks more evenly.  What a great idea!  Alton's recipe looked great, but I wanted to apply the method for my own meatball recipe.  The mini muffin pan worked well, however, I felt there was nothing wrong with the meatballs baked on a regular baking sheet.  Perhaps it will take several tries before I fully appreciate the effect of the mini muffin pan.  I'll work on it.

Sage is one of my favorite herbs for meatballs, and it goes well with a mustard flavor.  I prepared two kinds of meatballs along with several sauces to go with.  As I guessed, the honey mustard sauce was the best choice for the sage meatballs.

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Wine Braised Short Ribs

It's October and the t-shirt and shorts weather is long gone. I'm not a fan of cold weather, but there are a couple things that I enjoy about the impending winter season: skiing and cooking with the oven! Living in a house without air conditioning, one tends to avoid using the oven when it's warm out, so for me, summer is my off-season for oven based cooking. That meant no baking and no roasting. But all that changes in the cooler seasons. I get dual use out of the oven in the winter. I get to cook and heat up the room at the same time!

I was delighted to have my friend over for early dinner last Saturday. The menu included wine braised short ribs, which requires more than two hours of oven cooking.

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Corn Flake Crusted White Fish with Butter Sauteed Snow Peas

Aside from a morning bowl of cereal, cornflakes are a great alternative to bread crumbs when making crusted entrees. You've probably seen or heard about corn flake crusted baked chicken, which was in fact on the Wegman's corn flake box. I've done that before and remembered I was satisfied with the result. This time, I went beyond chicken. This flavorful crust is a mixture of corn flakes, pine nuts, mayonnaise and lemon juice. I simply put it on white fish fillets and baked in the toaster oven. Any type of white fish will work fine, but I have found cod to be the best so far. My husband also loved the butter sauteed snow peas. It's a great side dish for light entrees.

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Chicken Drumsticks with Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue sauces aren’t just for barbecue. There are many different types available in various regional styles. These sauces add a big flavor to the dish and are perfect for a quick and easy dinner. There was a bottle of Wegman’s Memphis style barbecue sauce in my pantry and a pack of chicken drumsticks in the refrigerator. I pulled out a pressure cooker, and the dish was ready in 30 minutes. My husband particularly liked the spiciness from the chipotle chili powder, my secret ingredient, which also adds smokiness to the sauce. If you can’t take the heat, smoked paprika may be a good substitute.

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Salmon Burger and Cucumber Relish

Precooked frozen food would never be on my mother in-law's grocery list. She is one of the healthiest eaters I know. Her daily meals consist of a lot of vegetables and fruits, some nuts, some type of whole grains and a little bit of animal proteins. She cooks with a tiny bit of salt (I highly respect that!), and extra virgin olive oil. Bacon and sausage would never be in her refrigerator. However, on her last visit to our house, she went to Costco and came back with a bag of frozen salmon burgers, which was completely unexpected. The mother-in-law approved salmon patties are from Trident (not the same company that makes the chewing gum.) They are made of wild Alaska salmon, are lean and meaty, and are pretty flavorful. They are in fact good as is, but I felt a little sad looking at an obviously store bought salmon patty, alone, on my plate. It was calling for an accompaniment. I browsed the fridge and found cucumber, fresh dill and a lemon. They seemed like a perfect combination for a refreshing relish. I chopped up the cucumber and the dill, squeezed out the lemon juice, and then mixed them up with a touch of honey. The salmon and dill paring is so cliché, but hey, it's cliche because it's really good.

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Miso Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Miso is one of the most important ingredients in Japanese households along with soy sauce. We do not eat sushi everyday as some non-Japanese people think, but many have miso soup daily.  The custom has been changing as Japan has become more and more westernized.  I used to have miso soup once a day when I lived with my grandparents.  Miso soup was part of every dinner.  My grandparents had to have it also for breakfast, as if they couldn't start the day without it.  Infinitely more westernized than my grandparents, I don't like miso that early in the day.  Instead, I prefer a cup of coffee and a slice of toast.  Having said that, miso soup is still essential for all Japanese.

Miso is not only for miso soup.  It can be used for many other dishes, and one of my favorite ways to use this traditional ingredient is for marinating.  A miso marinade adds depth to the meat.  Generally, sirloin is a good choice for this dish, but for health purposes, I used tenderloin. My husband and I were very satisfied with the results.  We ate the leftovers, cold, the next day, and it was still flavorful. If you are healthy enough to be careless about fat intake, go ahead and use fattier cuts. You know it's going to taste better!  If you are not a pork eater, try this marinade with salmon.  It's good, too!

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Turkey and Sun-Dried Tomato Burger

A hamburger is one of my husband's favorite dishes. I like it, too. Juicy patties on soft buns, served with pickles, ketchup and mustard... To me, a burger is the ultimate American food. We go to Wendy's for a quick bite and sometimes try famous burger places in New York city. However, when I cook a burger at home, I'll put a little... or a lot of twists to it. This time, I packed patties with tons of Mediterranean flavors and finished it off with lemon mayonnaise sauce. To make it healthier, I used 99% fat free ground turkey and sandwiched the patties with Arnold's multi grain Sandwich Thins, which contain only 100 calories per serving. I also replaced french fries with quinoa and the grape fruits salad. This could be the healthiest burger plate on the planet!

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Tofu with Vegetable Ankake

Many people have told me they don't like tofu because it's tasteless.  Well, I don't blame them.  Good tofu is actually flavorful, packed with the sweetness of soy beans, and hard to find in the U.S.  The packed tofu sold at regular grocery stores is bland.  But this is not always a bad thing.  Soft flavored ingredients can be easily paired with all kinds of foods.  Having said that, some flavors are particularly suited for tofu dishes, and soy sauce flavor is one of them.  Soy sauce is also made of soy beans, so they are related.  No wonder they go well together.

Ankake is a traditional Japanese sauce thickened with potato starch, and soy sauce is often one of the ingredients.  The sauce can be salty, sweet, and/or sour.  It can be plain or it can be prepared with meat, seafood, and/ or vegetables.  This sauce is very versatile.  My vegetable ankake is slightly sweet and made with lots of vegetables, and the potato starch is substituted with corn starch.  Serve as an appetizer or as a light entree.

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Chicken Marsala

Let's face it, inviting friends over for a dinner could be stressful.  You try to impress them by offering French cuisine that you can hardly even pronounce.  Picking complicated, time-consuming dishes can land you in the kitchen all day long.  Unless you are really into cooking and enjoy spending time in the kitchen, that could be a torture.  Even worth, complicated dishes take away from the time you should be spending with your guests and that's not fun. If you want to have a stress-free dinner party, you need what I'll call, "easy-fancy."  A great example of easy fancy is chicken marsala.  It's easy to make, takes no longer than 30 minute, and it can be prepared in advance. If you are preparing it in advance, take the pan off  the heat before you add the heavy cream.  Reheat and add the heavy cream just before serving.  Serve with pasta, bread, or rice. Enjoy!

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