Company’s coming; please help

One-pot.

February 18, 20204 Comments

The dividing line here is this: One either does or does not love cooking. For those who, in the majority, find cooking to be enjoyable, relaxing, rewarding, et cetera, read on. If cooking is the last thing you want to do, given a choice of things to do, then you’ll find little to like here (though the recipe links are at the end, if you just want to scroll down and have a look).

Still in? OK; let’s talk about one-pot dinners. They’re all the rage (see, for example, last week’s anthology from Sam Sifton: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/dining/one-pot-meals.html). But it’s far from a new idea, as you already know.

If you are of a certain age, then you likely have a childhood memory of Crock Pots’ hitting the scene in the 1970s. The device, invented in the late 1930s and patented in 1940 as the “Naxon Beanery,” was acquired in the early 1970s by Rival Manufacturing, rebranded “Crock Pot” and marketed to liberated, working mothers who could plop in a roast and some carrots before heading to the office and have a perfectly-cooked family dinner ready when everyone got home.

Freedom from the kitchen and the chore of family dinner. What more could a woman want?

My mother (who opened a business in 1976 and worked until three months before she died), despised Crock Pots. To her the Crock Pot was the antithesis of cooking, a device that routinely produced either complete undesirables (warmed beans and franks), or pedestrian, messy, mushy goo (too often seasoned with Lipton Onion Soup). One was, in my mother’s estimation, either a cook or a Crock Pot user.

If my mother had lived longer, she might have come to appreciate the evolution of cooking in a slow cooker (Crock Pot brand or not). Long hours at low temperature produce tender meats and flavorful stews, and when the technology and design of slow cookers advanced to give the cook some control, the devices regained popularity and found a place in gourmet home kitchens. (Of course, as Megan Elias wrote in Gourmet in 2012, “it still can’t fry an egg.”)

I have a slow cooker, and I enjoy using it for long-cooking stews (carne adovada, green chile chicken); but I don’t think of it as a time-saver. I have an Instant Pot, but like Karen Bertelsen, I do not love the Instant Pot.

What I do love is my big, heavy, cumbersone, 13.25 quart Dutch oven, purchased at a deep discount 15 years ago from the scratch and dent, discontinued-color rack at a Le Creuset outlet in Florida. I love it for preparing big meals that can be shared and for weeknight cooking. I love the even heating, steady temperature, and tall sides that keep things from splattering. I love the way it can bring together a sauté and a simmer (or a bake, or a braise), marrying taste and texture.

I’ll go out on a limb and offer that, if you select the right recipe, it doesn’t take much more time to use a Dutch oven than to use an Instant Pot, and the end result will be far more satisfying.

So, when you’re thinking of one-pot (or one-pan) weeknight cooking, and you’re the kind of person who actually enjoys cooking, then you are free to think about how using only one cooking vessel (or at least one main vessel, in which everything comes together) can be the key to the end result and not simply a matter of convenience.

That’s what’s actually great about the NYT round-up (ditto Martha Stewart’s collection). They are all (or mostly all) recipes that shine because of cooking in the same vessel, not in spite of it.

Here are a few others:

I love to cook: How about a decadent, spicy baked pasta? (OK, this is technically a two pot dish, because the pasta cooks separately, but everything else can start and finish in the Dutch oven.) Or maybe a lemon/brown butter version, while you might still find Meyer lemons? (Yes, this too is technically two pots; but the magic happens in the big heavy one.)

Weeknight reality: How about one-pot braised chicken with coconut milk, tomato, and ginger (served with naan or other bread instead of rice if you really want just one pot).

Need a miracle: Yes, you really can make either one of these in about 20 minutes: Chicken curry in a hurry; one-pot spaghetti with tomatoes and kale.

Book club: winter

January 21, 2020January 20, 20201 Comment

I’ll start here: I’m in a book group. In addition to enjoying books, we all also enjoy cooking. So when we gather each month, the food we prepare and enjoy makes our group as much a dinner group as it is a book group.

We’re a bit of an odd group, partly because we’re co-ed (and wouldn’t have it any other way), but our routine is just like any other book group rotating from house to house each month. With the exception of Hillbilly Elegy, we read only fiction, and mostly new fiction. In December we read a short story instead of a full-length book (because, holidays…).

Because we’re an odd group, what works for us, food-wise, on our book group nights might not work for anyone else. But if you are in a book group (or club), co-ed or not, and your group is as dedicated to food as to reading, then maybe this will help if you’re on the schedule to host in the next few weeks. Even if you’re not in a book group, one of these ideas might be just the thing to get you motivated to have a few friends over one winter night.

And, for the record, “The Stew” really is good, particularly when made with some strong, fresh ginger (if ginger is appealing to you). Whether you make it exactly as the recipe specifies or modify here and there to make it your own (I added lime and doubled the stock), it’s a hearty comfort on a cold night..

Love to Cook: The Stew (if you’re on Instagram and follow Alison Roman, #thestew), a simple butter lettuce salad (the secret to it is salt), homemade naan, and dark chocolate bark with pistachios. If chickpeas and spice aren’t your thing, opt instead for Jane Grigson’s celery soup (double or triple the recipe). NOTE: If you don’t have access to NYT Cooking, here’s a review of the stew that includes the recipe, and here’s a recipe for naan.
Weeknight Reality: A simpler chickpea stew with rice, or perhaps a kale and white bean stew (less than 30 minutes to prepare) with butter lettuce salad, store-bought pita, and a bag of dark chocolate candies for dessert.
Need a Miracle: Find the best mushroom soup the store has to offer, doctor it with chicken stock and heavy cream, and top with lots of chopped fresh parsley. (Tomato soup, doctored with heavy cream and topped with yogurt and fresh dill would also work.) Serve with toasted sourdough bread (straight from the store bakery), and a gelato assortment (with a bag of Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux cookies, perhaps?)

Curious about the books my book group has enjoyed recently? Here are a few we really liked:

Nothing to See Here, by Kevin Wilson
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
Mrs. Caliban, Rachel Ingalls
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
Leaving Atocha Station, Ben Lerner

Southwest

July 29, 2015October 7, 2019Leave a comment

Tacos make for easy entertaining. Prepare all of the individual components, and then let everyone assemble their own plates. The bonus is that people can pick and choose without having to feel impolite about it.

Instead of standard taco bar taco fare, try some spicy chicken paired with cool mango (or peach) salsa and a bunch of cilantro. It’s a lighter version of the traditional taco night but still with the hot-sweet combo.

Love to Cook: This Bobby Flay recipe for Grilled Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa is easy but requires a long marinating time for the flavors to develop fully.

Weeknight Reality: This recipe for Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos uses pantry spices instead of fresh ingredients for the chicken, which makes prep faster (although there’s still a required marinating time). You could use frozen mango pieces instead of fresh to speed things up for the salsa.

Need a Miracle: If you’re making the chicken at home, there’s no way around marinating time. This recipe from La Tortilla Factory uses prepared spice rub, though, so it’s really about as simple as simple can get.

Platter + Dessert

July 24, 2015October 7, 2019Leave a comment

Whether it’s just your family or a small gathering, a charcuterie board or assortment of small-plate items can provide plenty of nourishment in a more casual way. End the evening with some decadent chocolate cupcakes (continuing the single-serve theme), and everyone will go to bed happy.

Love to Cook: Two recipes that are worth the time, if you have it, both to hunt down the ingredients and to prepare/bake: The Cupcake Project’s Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake and Josey Baker’s Adventure Bread (via David Lebovitz) – a flourless, gluten-free, hearty loaf that is just delicious. Serve with a classic heirloom tomato-basil salad, an assortment of cheese and sausages, and some fresh blueberries.

Weeknight Reality: A multi-grain loaf from the grocery bakery, sliced, spread with goat cheese and topped with cherry tomatoes and basil, served with a platter of sliced, grilled sausages and a green salad with seasonal herbs and fruit (blueberries, mint, peaches, perhaps) will leave plenty of time to make these easy chocolate cupcakes, topped with fresh whipped cream instead of frosting.

Need a Miracle: Aidell’s sausages are our go-to brand; all varieties are tasty, and they’re free of nitrates. For the tomato salad, toss some cherry tomatoes, halved, in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and basil (or prepared pesto). Add pre-cut fruit, a box or two of Raincoast Crisps, a log of goat cheese and some cupcakes from the bakery, and you’re set.

Jerk

July 22, 2015October 7, 2019Leave a comment

Before walking away from the idea that eating spicy food in hot weather actually helps keep you cool, at least give it a try. A traditional Jerk-style marinade works on everything from turkey to tofu. In our house we like boneless, skinless chicken thighs (used in most of the recipe links below), but substitute whatever suits you and your people. Most preparations call for at least two hours’ worth of marinating time. The longer the better, for sure, but on a busy weeknight sometimes 30 minutes just has to work.

Love to Cook: These Jerk Chicken Bites and these Caribbean Chicken & Pineapple Kebabs are variations on the same theme; although the list of ingredients for the marinade is long in both recipes, the actual preparation is pretty simple. For a cool companion dish, try a salad with this no-oil/no-cream avocado-citrus dressing.

Weeknight Reality: Ok, so the marinade’s the thing. This version, prepared in a blender, can be used to marinate and coat whatever protein you pick. Again, the longer the marinating time, the richer the flavor. For the salad, toss chopped avocado and fresh greens in a lime-cilantro dressing like this one.

Need a Miracle: Your go-to miracle dinner, the rotisserie chicken, to the rescue: toss shredded chicken in some bottled sauce and served atop a green salad with fresh avocado slices.