Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

A Pasta Ragu with An Unusual Ingredient

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"Top Chef'' Stephanie Izard's pasta with pork, bacon and apples.

Could this meaty ragu dish prove to be the apple of your eye?

It just might — because besides the expected pork, tomatoes, bacon, garlic and basil, it also contains slices of fresh, juicy apples.

This unusual pasta dish is from “Top Chef” victor Stephanie Izard, the only woman who has thus claimed the title in that Bravo TV show, now in its ninth season. After winning, she went on to open the wildly popular, Girl & the Goat restaurant in Chicago, which was nominated last year for “Best New Restaurant” by the James Beard Foundation.

This recipe is from her new cookbook, “Girl in the Kitchen” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy late last year. The book spotlights her signature rustic cuisine with Mediterranean and Asian influences.

Unlike some ragus, which take hours to cook, “Apple-Pork Ragu with Pappardelle” is quite quick to make. It’s a powerhouse, too, with the sweetness of apples playing off the richness of pork and bacon, and the saltiness of capers. Ladle over homemade fresh paparadelle or most any store-bought dried pasta. (I used orechiette.)

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Part Asian, Part Italian — Momofuku Milk Bar’s Chinese Sausage Focaccia

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Focaccia gets a wonderful Chinese twist.

New York’s Momofuku Milk Bar bakery is famed for its playfully delicious “crack pie,” “compost cookies” and “cereal milk” ice cream.

But when a review copy of  the cookbook, “Momofuku Milk Bar” (Clarkson Potter) by Pastry Chef-Owner Christina Tosi landed in my mail, it was a more savory-spicy concoction that caught my eye.

“Chinese Sausage Focaccia” is a delightful mash-up of Chinese and Italian all in one bite.

It’s focaccia studded with garlic slivers and sweet Chinese sausage slices — with a veneer of Sichuan chile oil baked into it.

How’s that for breathing fire into this new “Year of the Dragon”?

The book offers a range of sweets and desserts sold at Milk Bar and plated up at the various Momofuku eateries started by the often off-color Chef David Chang. They range from the easy (peanut butter cookies) to the quite ambitious (“Tristar Strawberry Sorbet, Macerated Strawberries, Lovage, Ritz crunch and Celery Root Ganache”). The focaccia falls in the middle of those two extremes.

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The Incomparable Cecilia Chiang

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The lovely, pioneering Cecilia Chiang at home in San Francisco.

She has been called the Chinese Julia Child.

As Child is credited with introducing authentic French cuisine to Americans, Cecilia Chiang has done the same for Chinese food in this country.

At a time when Chinese restaurants were all run by men and serving gloppy chop suey, egg foo young and other so-called Cantonese specialties, Chiang — who had never owned a business before — dared to open the elegant Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco in 1961 to cook up the real flavors of her native Shanghai. Ethereal dumplings, spicy Sichuan shrimp, kung pao chicken, tea-smoked duck and minced squab in lettuce cups were novelties in the Bay Area then, but soon after became staples at Chinese restaurants trying to capitalize on Chiang’s runaway success.

The Mandarin closed in 2006, but not before becoming a culinary legend beloved by locals and such glitterati as Child, Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, John Lennon and Jackie Onassis.

At 92, Chiang still cuts an elegant figure with remarkable energy. She still travels to China annually with friends like Waters; remains a mentor to young Asian-American chefs such as Corey Lee at San Francisco’s Benu; dines at Betelnut in San Francisco regularly, wheres she was the opening consulting chef; cooks dinner parties at her penthouse abode in San Francisco; and only stopped driving a year and a half ago, when she got a speeding ticket and her license was taken away.

Recently, I had a chance to meet this amazing woman for the first time for a profile story for Food Arts magazine.

When I marveled at her stamina, she replied with a smile, “I never get tired. And I am interested in so many things. I love to cook, garden, and see movies. Just keep yourself busy — that’s the secret. I never take naps. I eat three meals a day, and I always eat well.”

If food is truly the fountain of youth, then you could hardly do better than to whip up a couple dishes from her classic, “The Seventh Daughter” (Ten Speed Press), a cookbook memoir she wrote in 2007. There’s no better time, too, what with Sunday marking the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Tender eggplant spears tossed with an easy chili-garlic-ginger-soy sauce.

The slightly spicy “Eggplant in Garlic Sauce” is perfect for what promises to be a fiery “Year of the Dragon.”

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Speedy Chicken Chilaquiles with Less Guilt

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A more healthful version of chicken chilaquilles.

Chilaquiles are a guilty pleasure — a traditional Mexican brunch dish of fried tortillas, salsa, eggs, loads of cheese and a generous amount of thick, tangy sour cream.

If you’re wanting to dial that back a bit in the New Year, cookbook authors Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough have a version that won’t bust any waistbands.

It’s included in their new cookbook, “Cooking Light: The Complete Quick Cookbook” (Oxmoor House), of which I recently received a review copy. The book is filled with recipes to get dinner on the table fast during a hectic weeknight. The straightforward recipes make use of time-saving ingredients such as quick cooking grains, bottled minced garlic, canned chickpeas and store-bought rotisserie chicken as in this dish.

A tangy, spicy tomatillo sauce gets whizzed up in a flash in a blender. Corn tortillas are simmered in the sauce, rather than fried. Low-fat milk and a modest amount of Monterey Jack with jalapenos add creaminess without a ton of calories. And shredded rotisserie chicken substitutes for the usual eggs for a more substantial dish.

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