Cranberry Beans, Sausage, and Arugula

This is an easy meal with a lot of flavor -- nice meatiness from the sausage, spicy-sweet bite from the peppers and arugula, offset by the creamy cranberry beans. You can eat it like a chili or serve over a grain; we served this over Israeli couscous.

Cook the beans first (we used fresh cranberry beans). In the meantime, brown the sausage; saute onion and garlic, add tomato paste, some cumin and cayenne...

add chopped fresh chilies (we used sweet Jimmy Nardellos and mild habaneros). Add the beans when they're al dente, and cover with chicken broth so the beans cook until creamy and absorb the rest of the flavors.

Just before serving, stir in a few handfuls of baby arugula. Stir just until it wilts. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Chipotle Corn Chowder

This is a creamy, hearty soup perfect for summer colds (like mine this week). It's easy and quick to make, and very adaptable-- you can turn it into a creamy chowder or leave it unblended; you can add crab, shredded chicken or tofu to turn it into a main meal; you can adjust the level of spiciness as you like.

You'll need (serves 6 appetizers or 4 main courses):

5 ears of corn

2 medium leeks

1 onion

3c milk

1-3 chipotle chilies in adobo

1 8oz bottle clam juice (optional)

2T butter

1 bay leaf

2T tomato paste

2c chicken stock or water

Cut corn kernels off cobs with a large sharp knife. An easy way to do this is to break the ears in half and place one half cut-side down on a cutting board; then angle your knife slightly towards the cob and cut down.

Place the shorn cobs in a pot and cover with milk. Add clam juice, if using, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then simmer, stirring often.

In the meantime, clean and thinly slice leeks. Slice onion. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onion and leeks and salt and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, until leeks turn bright; then add corn and cook 10 more minutes, stirring often. Add tomato paste and chipotle chiles and cook 5 more minutes.

Remove corn cobs and bay leaf from milk. Add corn mixture. Cook about 5 minutes.

Blend soup in batches and return to pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Thin with chicken stock, water, or milk.

Kaffir Lime Green Beans

This is a simple and unusual way to make green beans. It takes about 5 minutes.

Heat 1T oil in a non-stick pan. Add 1T lemongrass (paste or chopped fresh) and 3 dried chilies. Stir to combine. Add green beans and cook about 2 minutes, stirring to cook evenly. Turn off heat and stir in kaffir lime zest*. Serve.

*If you can't find kaffir limes, which look like tiny, bumpy, wrinkled limes, use kaffir lime leaves (easier to find year-round) cut into a very fine chiffonade and add them with the lemongrass and chilies.

Spicy Beer and Kale Stew

Like a Belgian (actually, Flemish) Carbonnade, this stew uses dark ale (Newcastle Brown); the similarity ends there. It also has leeks, hot chili peppers, and kale, which make for a complex and tasty combination. You can make the sauce thicker, but I wanted a soupier, classic stew-like texture. I've given instructions for both ways below.


You'll need:

3.5 lbs beef chuck, trimmed & cut into 1" chunks
1 onion, sliced
1 large leek, quartered lengthwise & cut into 1/2" pieces
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 large rib celery, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed and sliced
1T tomato paste
about 4 dried chili peppers (I used 2 chipotle, 2 other)
1 12oz bottle Newcastle, or other dark ale or stout
4c broth (I used the tongue broth I froze when I made the offal dinner)
3T flour
1 bunch kale, leaves removed and stems discarded
chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Pass chilies over gas flame until slightly blackened. Submerge in boiling water; cover.

Salt and pepper beef chunks and brown well in hot grapeseed oil, in batches. Set aside browned meat.

Lower heat. Add onion, leek, carrot, celery, garlic, tomato paste, salt & pepper. Stir, scraping brown bits at bottom of pot. Cook about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, remove chilies from water. Slice open to remove seeds. Chop roughly and add to cooking veggies.

Add flour to veggies and stir well, 2 minutes. Add beer. Scrape to remove flour stuck to bottom of pan. Scrape and stir until the pan is clean.

Add broth and bring to a boil. Add meat and accumulated juices. Cover and place in oven. Cook until meat is fork-tender, about 2 hours.

At this point, it's best to let the stew sit overnight for the flavors to develop, but you don't have to. If you do, reheat it in a 300 degree oven about 30 minutes before serving.

For a thicker stew, remove the meat and puree the liquid and veggies with an immersion blender. You can then reduce the pureed liquid to achieve your desired consistency. I normally do this, but for this stew, I wanted a more classic, brothy feel.

About 10 minutes before serving, add kale and stir to combine. Cook until kale is tender. Taste and adjust seasonings (salt & pepper). Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with spicy cornbread, brown rice, or egg noodles.

Spicy Cornbread

We used Bob's Red Mill Cornbread mix
and added 1 chopped habanero & 2 chopped jalapeños to the batter.

2005 La Cabotte Cotes du Rhone

Coffee and Chili Braised Short Ribs; Scalloped Potatoes; Acorn Squash Veloute; Broccoli Rabe

This is my third short rib variation. They have all been delicious. This one was especially flavorful. I made scalloped potatoes because the meat didn't have much sauce, and broccoli rabe as a strong-flavored veggie to hold up to the intense chili flavor of the meat. The acorn squash veloute we began with had the delicate flavor of this interesting squash with a zingy cayenne twist.

My excuse this time for the imperfect pictures is that we just plain forgot to take them until we were halfway through eating. Sorry.

We started with a glass of
St George Absinthe

Acorn Squash Veloute

with a swirl of cream

This recipe is from Epicurious.

You'll need (serves 8):

2 large onions, chopped
2 large acorn squash
2T freshly grated ginger
5c chicken broth
2T tomato paste
cayenne pepper to taste

1T cumin seeds
1T mustard seeds

Peel, clean and chop squash into 1" cubes. This is a pain in the ass.

Saute onion 10 minutes. Add squash and ginger, saute 5 minutes. Add 4c broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender, 20-30 minutes. Puree.

Stir in tomato paste and cayenne and simmer 10 more minutes. You can make soup ahead until this point. Add more broth to thin soup when you reheat it.

Saute cumin and mustard seeds in oil about 2 min. Sprinkle on top of soup to serve. (The seeds aren't just decorative-- they add a lot of texture and flavor.)

Coffee and Chili Braised Short Ribs

there was not much left when we
remembered to take a picture...

This is loosely based on a Mark Bittman recipe. You can use whatever kind of chilies you want.

You'll need:

short ribs, either English cut or Flanken cut. You'll need about 1 per person. I normally use English cut; I got Flanken by mistake, but it wasn't a problem. Be sure to cut off all the visible fat; it's unnecessary-- especially the huge layer on Flanken-cut ribs.

1 large onion, diced
1 shallot, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 dried chipotle chilies, seeded and chopped as small as possible
2 dried gaujillo chilies, seeded and chopped as small as possible
1T ancho chili powder
1 1/2c dry red wine
1 1/2c strong coffee (not espresso)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Salt and pepper short ribs. Brown in hot grapeseed oil on all sides. Remove from pot when browned. If necessary, clean out black bits with a paper towel and/or add more oil. Saute onion, shallot, garlic, chilies, and chili powder over medium-low heat, about 20 minutes. Add wine and coffee and reduce by half.

Return browned ribs to sauce. Cover pot and place in oven about 2 hours, turning ribs halfway. There shouldn't be too much liquid left at the end, but make sure the ribs don't dry out while cooking.

Scalloped Potatoes

variation: layer swiss chard leaves between potatoes

You'll need:

3lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, cleaned and sliced into rounds as thin as you possibly can. A mandoline is useful for this; I wish I had one.

1/2 onion, super thinly sliced
2T chopped fresh thyme
2T butter
1/4c parmesan
2 1/2c half & half or cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

each layer should look like this

Place potato rounds in a thin layer in the bottom of a well-buttered gratin dish. Top with salt, pepper, onions, thyme, and a spoonful of cheese. Continue layering until you run out of potatoes. Pour half & half on top. Top with more parmesan and any leftover thyme (not onions). Bake, covered with foil, until potatoes are tender, about 1 1/4 hours. Then uncover and put under broiler, or crank up oven heat, to brown top.

Broccoli Rabe

You'll need:

2 bunches broccoli rabe, or broccoli raab, or rapini (it's all the same thing)
2 shallots, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1T chili flakes
4T olive oil
grated cheese to top-- I can't remember the name of the cheese I used, but it should be hard and nutty, with enough flavor to hold up to the greens.

Clean broccoli rabe-- remove thick stems and wash well. Place in boiling, salted water for 2 minutes. Drain well. At this point, you can put the blanched greens in the fridge 'til you want to serve them.

Just before serving, heat oil and saute shallots, garlic, and chili flakes for 2 minutes. Add broccoli rabe and warm through. Top with grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

The Cheese

When I went to the Cheeseboard to buy the cheese for the broccoli rabe, I couldn't help getting an oozingly ripe Chatelain Brie, some Montagnolo (I promise: even if you don't like blue cheese, you'll like this one), and some other one whose name I forget. So we had a cheese course, too.

The Wine

This was the first wine. I thought it
went really well with the soup.

This was the second wine. It is as old as I am.
The cork was disintegrating. It was delicious.
If only women aged like wine.

Thanks for the wines, Mr. Anonymous.

Almost Enchiladas: Or, a Spicy, Cheesy Way to use up leftovers

I call these "almost" enchiladas because certain people (you know who you are) might object to calling them "real" enchiladas; these people (actually, one person) have a right to object because they make some of the best "real" enchiladas out there. So, that said, this is simply a spicy, cheesy way to use up leftover meat. I was left with some bits of tongue after the last feast, and tongue-- like any stew meat-- shreds beautifully. You can use any leftover beef, chicken, even fish.

You'll need (serves 1):

1t oil
1 minced shallot
1t flour
1T chili powder
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped (or less if you don't like spicy)
3/4-1c chicken broth
leftover meat
1 tortilla
1/2c grated cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat oil; saute shallot 2-3 min. Add flour and chili powder. Stir, cooking, 1-2 min. Add chipotles and some of their adobo sauce. Add broth. Boil to thicken, 2 minutes. Add meat. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Place tortilla in baking dish. Pour meat into tortilla, saving a bit of the sauce, top with grated cheese, and roll. Top with the rest of the sauce (it's ok if there's meat in it) and more cheese. Bake until bubbly, 10 min. Serve with lime and fresh tomatoes.

Cheddar Stuffed Chipotle Turkey Burgers

Ground turkey is very healthy but usually tastes kinda like sawdust. A few preparations, like my mom's turkey meatloaf and certain turkey chilis, actually make it taste pretty good. Normally turkey burgers are dry; the idea here is for the cheese to ooze into the surrounding turkey as the burgers cook, keeping everything moist and tasty. You can easily tweak this recipe for different flavor combinations: season the turkey with cumin and stuff with roasted peppers and feta, for example.

You'll need (3 servings):

1.25 lbs ground turkey
4 chipotle in adobo, chopped
1T adobo sauce (from the "chipotle in adobo" can)
1/3c grated cheddar cheese
3 green onions, chopped
1T Worcestershire sauce
2T miso paste
salt
pepper
1T grapeseed oil

for the chipotle mayo:

1/4c mayo
1T adobo sauce
1 chopped chipotle in adobo

buns (I used honey whole wheat)

any condiments-- we just had a spinach salad on the side.

Mix turkey well with chipotles, adobo sauce, Worcestershire, miso, salt and pepper. Fry a little bit to taste; adjust seasoning accordingly. Form 6 flat patties. Top 3 patties with green onions and cheddar; place remaining patties on top and pinch edges to form stuffed burgers.


Heat oil in cast-iron or non stick skillet. When hot, add burgers. Cook about 10 min/side, until fully cooked through (remember, this is poultry). If they're not cooking, cover the pan briefly (thanks, Catherine) and they should be done very soon.

Serve on toasted buns with chipotle mayo (adjust the mayo ingredients, depending on how spicy you like it). These are surprisingly delicious.

Spicy-Sweet Pork Stir Fry with Cabbage and Mushrooms

I made this with pork, because I had a pork tenderloin lying around, but you could easily use sliced chicken breast or a tender cut of beef. Serve with steamed or brown rice.

You'll need:

1 pork tenderloin (they're usually about 1 lb)

Marinade/Sauce:
4T hoisin sauce
2T dark soy sauce
2T light soy sauce
2T rice vinegar
1T chili-garlic sauce (or Sriracha & 1t crushed garlic)
a splash of Mirin wine, if you have it
1t corn starch

1 onion, thinly sliced
shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 chinese cabbage, thinly sliced
1T grated ginger
5-6 cloves chopped garlic
1 sliced serrano chili
1/2c peanuts, partially crushed
2 green onions, sliced
1T grapeseed oil

Remove silver skin and any fat from pork. Slice into thin rounds-- this is easier to do if you freeze the pork for 30 minutes. Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl; taste and add more chili-garlic sauce if too sweet, or more Mirin or hoisin if too spicy. Add pork and marinate 15 minutes, while you cook the veggies.

Heat oil in non-stick skillet. Saute onions until golden brown; add mushrooms, and saute until browned. Add cabbage, ginger, garlic, and serrano chili. Stir to combine; cook until cabbage begins to wilt. Add pork and marinade; simmer, stirring, until pork is cooked through and tender. Remove from heat and stir in peanuts and green onions.

Cajun Chicken Stew with Coconut Rice, Black Beans and Fried Plantains

This was a communal effort, and I was really only responsible for the stew, but I'll detail it all here. Thank you Sasha!

The chicken was based on this recipe.

You'll need:

chicken thighs (2 per person, the quantities below are for 8-12 thighs)-- remove the skin and cut off as much fat as possible with a small sharp knife
1/2c + 1/2c flour
3c chicken broth
2 onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 serrano chili, diced
3T + 1/4c veggie oil
1T cayenne pepper


Salt and pepper the thighs and dust them with flour. Heat 3T oil in a heavy large pan (like a dutch oven) and brown the thighs well on both sides. Do it in batches if necessary; don't crowd the pan or the thighs won't brown. Remove them and set aside.

You should have about 1-2T oil left with brown bits floating around. If there are any black bits, remove them. Add more oil to have a total of 1/4c; add flour and scrape to combine with a wooden spatula. Cook over low heat, scraping, about 10 minutes until the roux is the color of milk chocolate.

Add the onions, celery and peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken broth and stir to combine. Let mixture boil (it should be very thick), then lower heat and return chicken to pot. Stir to combine. Cook about 30 minutes, partially covered. Stir in cayenne pepper and serve.


Coconut Rice-- cook rice as you normally would, but with 2/3 coconut milk, 1/3 water. We stirred it a lot and ended up with a creamy, risotto-like texture.

Beans-- Combine canned black beans with chicken broth (1 can to 1/2c broth), 1 bay leaf, and spices (we used a lot of chili-like spices). Cook until broth evaporates. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Plantains-- Slice and saute in hot butter until golden brown and crispy.

Pork Hominy Stew

1-2lb boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-1.5" cubes. Coat with kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and chili powder. Let marinate in the refrigerator, covered, for 3-4 days.


One day before serving, remove from refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Brown cubes on all sides in hot grapeseed oil. If necessary, brown in batches; do not crowd pan. Remove pork and place in bowl.

Add oil if necessary to pan; saute 2 large onions, chopped. Scrape up brown bits as onions release liquid. When onions are translucent, add salt, pepper, 1T chili powder and 2T dried coriander. Stir to combine. Add 5 cloves sliced garlic, 2 peeled, cored, and sliced apples, and 2 large sweet peppers, diced. Saute, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add pork and any accumulated juices and about 1lb early girl tomatoes, halved. Stir to combine. Add about 1c chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 1/2 hour.

Add 1 can drained and rinsed hominy. Cover and simmer until pork is tender, about 1 more hour. If you like your stew soupy, it's ready; otherwise, remove the meat and boil to reduce, or thicken with 1t cornstarch dissolved in water.


Eat the next day so the flavors have time to develop. For added deliciousness, reheat with some cooking greens (kale, collard greens, etc)-- I used mustard greens, which have a sharpness that goes well with the flavors in this dish. Cook, stirring, until greens wilt. Garnish with cilantro.