Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Chef Matthew Accarrino’s Braised Chicken with Apples and Calvados

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A dish perfect for the home-cook from Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant.

A dish perfect for the home-cook from Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant.

 

Let me just say that one taste of this dish made me feel like I was sitting down to a repast at a charming country inn in the north-west of France.

OK, not that I’ve actually had the pleasure of visiting Brittany.

But it is known for its apples and its Calvados, a spectacular apple brandy.

So, you have to hand it to a dish that can transport you like that.

Leave it to Chef Matthew Accarrino to do so, too. If you’ve ever eaten at SPQR in San Francisco, you know he has a deft hand for creating lusty flavors in rustic-chic dishes.

Of course, most of us don’t have the patience or inclination to make a lot of chef dishes. That’s why we go out to restaurants instead, right?

But “Braised Chicken with Apples and Calvados” is one of those straight-forward, one-pot dishes that anyone can do.

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Sensual Spinach Baked with Ricotta & Nutmeg

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A less rich -- but no less satisfying -- version of creamed spinach.

A less rich — but no less satisfying — version of creamed spinach.

 

This dish is rather cheeky.

It combines the voluptuousness of soft ricotta with the pert green of spinach.

Eggs, whipped to a luscious froth, add a custardy body. And grated parmesan a delicious saltiness.

I rather fancy it, especially late at night when everyone else is asleep, and I saunter silently downstairs in my silk robe to eat it brazenly with fingertips straight out of the fridge.

Forgive me my Nigella impersonation. But I can’t help myself, as this dish surely will have you feeling a little like that British culinary bombshell. “Spinach Baked with Ricotta & Nutmeg” is from Nigella Lawson’s newest cookbook, “Nigellissima” (Clarkson Potter).

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Aida Mollenkamp’s Shrimp Simmered in Garlicky Beer Sauce

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Pour yourself a cold beer to enjoy this easy shrimp dish heady with your favorite bar food-flavors.

Does the thought of noshing on handful after handful of honey-mustard pretzels chased with a frosty beer sound like bliss?

Then, you’re sure to go wild for this dish from Food Network host Aida Mollenkamp that boasts all of those favorite bar-food flavors.

“Shrimp Simmered in Garlicky Beer Sauce” is from her cookbook, “Keys to the Kitchen” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy. The host of “Ask Aida,” who studied at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, has created a reference book to put you at ease in the kitchen. The book includes 305 recipes for straightforward dishes that will take you through morning, noon and night.  Also included are primers on various cuts of protein, cooking equipment, spices to keep on hand, and illustrations on how to expertly cut up a chicken and fillet a whole fish.

This shrimp dish is simple enough to make on a weeknight as it cooks up in less than half an hour. Large shrimp are simmered in butter, loads of garlic, a pinch of cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, a drizzle of honey and some lager beer. Mollenkamp calls for light lager, but I just used regular lager.

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A Soup or A Side: Curried Parsnips

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Curried parsnips star as a side or the foundation of a soup.

Before spring is sprung, I had to get in one last fix of my favorite parsnips.

An often overlooked root veggie, they have a lovely nutty, vanilla taste, making them ideal for using in so many ways.

Take these “Curried Parsnips.”

As is, they make for an easy side dish. But mixed with two cups of stock, then pureed, they also make for the base of a comforting, velvety soup.

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Ina Garten’s Easy Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Croutons

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Tomato soup gets a whole lot more fun with grilled cheese croutons.

If ever there was a food that transports us back to childhood with just one sip, it’s tomato soup.

I remember digging a spoon into a deep bowl of that cheerful orange-red, velvety soup as an after-school snack, alongside a stack of saltine crackers. I remember yearning for it on rainy days, especially. And I remember it as the perfect pick-me-up sure to cure any teenage funk.

Of course, back then, my tomato soup did come out of a can.

Now, leave it to Food Network Star Ina Garten to come up with a homemade version of that beloved staple so many of us grew up on. Hers is decidedly more grown-up, yet still maintains the heart and soul we all love about the canned kind.

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