Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

A Chicken Stew with Lovely Riesling & Winners of the Mark Bittman iPhone App

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I never need an excuse to uncork a bottle of Riesling.

It’s one of my favorite varietals because it goes splendidly with sweet-spicy-tangy Asian dishes, boasts a relatively low alcohol percentage compared to many of today’s fruit-bomb wines, and is downright easy to quaff.

But if I ever did need a reason to break open a bottle of this lovely, flowery, aromatic white, this dish would do the trick.

“Chicken in Riesling” is a recipe (see below) from the dearly departed Gourmet magazine.

Think of it as a quicker, lighter version of the classic coq qu vin, which is fortified with red wine and typically takes far longer than the hour needed to make this Riesling-based one.

I think of it as the ultimate in satisfying chicken stews. It’s got a comforting quality about it, what with the whole, little red potatoes (I left them unpeeled, too) and large chunks of carrots bobbing in it. But it also has a slightly luxurious nature from the mere 1/2 cup of creme fraiche or heavy cream that you stir in just before serving.

The result is a pot of tender chicken in a pool of brothy, creamy sauce.

And best yet?

Even after adding the Riesling to the pot, there’s still plenty left in the bottle to enjoy a glass or two with this dinner.

And now, without further adieu, the six winners of the Mark Bittman “How to Cook Everything” iPhone app:

As you recall, for this contest, I asked readers to name the one thing they wished this gifted New York Times food writer, known for his no-nonsense approach to cooking, could make easier in their life. Here are the winners who had the best responses:

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Sara Moulton’s Speedy Moussaka

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Sara Moulton, the executive chef of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine, reinterprets the look of dinner in her newest cookbook, “Sara Moulton’s Everyday Dinners” (Simon & Schuster).

Why settle for boring ol’ chicken with a veg and starch on the side, when you can whip up the likes of “Fried Eggs with Crispy Kimchi Rice,” “Spring Soup with Bread Dumplings,” and “Reuben Pizza” for dinner instead?

Her recipe for “Speedy Moussaka” especially caught my eye. I love a good rendition of this traditional Greek casserole. But I often feel in need of a serious snooze afterward, what with the greasy, fried eggplant slices and the heavy bechamel sauce covering everything.

Moulton’s version calls for a mix of ricotta, feta and yogurt in place of the enriched French milk-butter sauce. The eggplant slices also are baked, rather than fried. The result is a moussaka that’s not only faster to make, but lighter tasting, too.

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Them Bones, Them Bones

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When I was a little girl, I remember many a dinner that featured a platter of little nuggets of Chinese pork spareribs.

No matter if they were coated in salty, pungent black bean sauce or sweet hoisin sauce, my Dad would root around with a serving spoon until he found the exact piece he was looking for.

As a kid, I would watch him digging around, and would wonder why he took so long to do this.

Only as an adult did I realize what he was actually doing.

He wasn’t looking for the meatiest sparerib, but the scrawniest — the one with barely any tender flesh on it. My late-Dad, who was born to first-generation, working-class Chinese immigrants, was used to scrimping, sacrificing, and making do with less. After all, when he was saving money to buy our family’s first and only house in San Francisco, he voluntarily took on the extra duties of cleaning and sweeping the stairs and hallways of the apartment building we lived in then in exchange for a cut in rent from the landlord.

That frugality carried over into his eating, too. When the Lazy-Susan stopped in front of him at a Chinese restaurant, he’d do that thing with the spoon for quite a few seconds, until he found the piece of chicken or duck or pork that was mostly all bone. He left the meatier pieces behind for my Mom, my two brothers, and I.

He’d use his fingers to gnaw on those bony pieces, savoring every last little bit of meat and succulent sauce. When the bone finally was discarded on his plate, it was clean as can be.

My Dad never wasted anything, that’s for sure. But he also knew a good thing when he tasted it. Those bony pieces of meat had some of the best flavor around. Good cooks know that cooking meat on the bone not only helps it cook faster but keeps it juicier, too. Bones also amp up the flavor of meat. That’s why they make such great stocks, why dogs love to chew on them, and why we all love to pick the tender bits off of hefty prime rib bones on holidays.

When I saw Tuty’s recipe for “Roasted Spareribs a la Scent of Spice” on her Scent of Spice blog, I couldn’t help but think of my Dad.

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Cheater’s Baos

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Would you scoff if I told you those fluffy, steamed Asian buns above were made with Pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough?

Yup, the stuff in the tube.

Believe it.

When my buddy, Andrea Nguyen wrote her first cookbook, “Into the Vietnamese Kitchen” (Ten Speed Press) in 2006, there was many a recipe that caught my eye. But none made my jaw drop like this one for “Shortcut Plain Steamed Buns.”

Years ago, Andrea learned this trick from her Chinese-American friend, Victor Fong, who, of course, learned it from his mother.

Crack open a tube of biscuit dough, then separate the rounds of dough. Pat each one into a flattened circle.  Then, fold each circle in half  to create half-moon shapes.

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