Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Matt Horn’s Oxtails with Sweet Barbecue Sauce

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Oxtails with sweet barbecue sauce from the new "Horn Barbecue'' cookbook.
Oxtails with sweet barbecue sauce from the new “Horn Barbecue” cookbook.

If like me, you greatly admire people who persevere against punishing odds, then Matt Horn surely deserves your utmost esteem.

Read the first few pages of his new cookbook, “Horn Barbecue” (Harvard Common Press), of which I received a review copy, and it will just about break your heart.

In it, Horn recounts his earliest pop-up in 2016 in the broiling summer heat in Tracy. He had been up all night, readying his spareribs, pulled pork, and brisket that he set up in a cramped black tent outside Ralph’s Bar. Horn, who intended to stay there until all the food was sold, was joined by his wife, who was then eight months pregnant.

As the hours ticked by, the sweltering temperatures rose only higher. In that time, only one customer made a purchase. Just one.

Horn couldn’t have felt more dejected or more like giving up.

The last thing he wanted to do was to have to cart all that food back home — along with his wounded pride. So, he loaded it all up and drove to an impoverished part of town, where many were unhoused. He started doling out the food for free to eager and hungry folks. It was at that moment that he felt the true power of his cooking — the ability to connect and bring joy to people.

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Coq Au Vin — In Meatball Form

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Moist chicken meatballs and meaty shiitakes, all in a creamy-dreamy sauce.
Moist chicken meatballs and meaty shiitakes, all in a creamy-dreamy sauce.

Classic French coq au vin in winter is total comfort. But when the weather warms, you might not crave something quite so hearty, heavy, and long-simmered.

Enter “Coq Au Vin Blanc Meatballs,” which lightens up the traditional chicken parts braised in red wine until fork-tender for flavorful little meatballs simmered in white wine instead. This version also shaves off a good amount of cooking time.

This fun recipe is from “Half Baked Harvest Every Day” (Clarkson Potter) by New York Times best-selling cookbook author Tieghan Gerard of Colorado, whose Half Baked Harvest blog has grown into a true phenomenon.

In her newest cookbook, she offers up more than 120 recipes sure to get you salivating morning, noon and night. Try your hand at everything from “Giant Spinach and Artichoke Soft Pretzel” and “Pizza Pasta” to “Blackened Salmon Skewers with Feta Caprese,” “Malted Milk Cookie Dough Cups,” and “Spiced Blackberry Whisky Sour.”

Just like classic coq au vin, there’s bacon involved. Chopped pieces get rendered in a pan, then set aside. Meatballs, formed from ground chicken mixed with an egg, panko, and salt and pepper, then get seared in the residual bacon fat.

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Everything’s Coming Up Roses, Part I: The Roast Chicken

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Dried rose petals make this roast chicken extra pretty and even more delicious.
Dried rose petals make this roast chicken extra pretty and even more delicious.

Let me just flat-out say that this dish of “Rosy Harissa Chicken” proved to be the most deeply flavorful chicken I’ve had in a long time.

Part of the reason? The addition of dried rose petals.

I know, I know, you’re squinting your eyes in disbelief, thinking that surely that ingredient would make this roast chicken taste unappetizingly of your mother’s face cream.

Granted, on its own, there is a rather potpourri quality to dried rose petals. But when used judiciously with other complementary ingredients, they make everything all together soar.

I got mine as a sample from Selefina Spices, a new online business by Adagio Teas. It’s a natural extension for the tea company, which already sources from farms all over the world.

Selefina's fragrant dried rose petals.
Selefina’s fragrant dried rose petals.

What’s especially nice is that it sells in small quantities to ensure freshness. So, you can buy just the amount you need. For instance, you can get a 0.07-ounce sample of the dried rose petals for only 75 cents, a 2-ounce pinch for $3, or a 1.5-ounce refill for $6.

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Cornish Game Hen Soup — To Sooth and Satisfy

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Cornish game hen in a total comfort dish.
Cornish game hen in a total comfort dish.

Our fickle spring weather may be warm one day, and chilly the next. But this is one recipe to keep handy whenever you need a restorative slurp that’s like a great big hug in a bowl.

“Cornish Game Hen Soup” is all that, and straightforward to make, too.

It’s from the new “Korean American” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy, by the gifted New York Times staff food writer Eric Kim.

In this wonderful cookbook, Kim tells the story of being born to Korean immigrant parents trying to make a new life in an Atlanta suburb, where there was no Korean grocery to be found. So, his mother, whom he frustratingly says never measures anything nor ever gives out an entire recipe willingly, adapted and made do. The Korean home-cooking he grew up on was not necessarily completely traditional food, but a delicious amalgamation of cultures and countries flavored with unmistakable can-do spirit.

With bright technicolor photos, the book brings to life his bold, playful, and comforting dishes such as “Creamy Butatini with Roasted Seaweed,” “Meatloaf-Glazed Kalbi with Gamja Salad,” “Kimchi Sandwiches,” and “No-Churn Ice Cream with Dalgona Butterscotch Sauce.”

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A Leaner, Meaner Meatloaf

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You can see the grated carrot that gives this quinoa-fortified turkey meatloaf exceptional moistness.
You can see the grated carrot that gives this quinoa-fortified turkey meatloaf exceptional moistness.

When I say “meatloaf,” you go “Yeah, baby!”

When I say “turkey meatloaf,” you go “Uh, okay.”

And when I say “turkey quinoa meatloaf,” do you groan, “Ehhh?!”

If so, you reacted just like my husband when I first proposed making this for dinner.

And like him, you’ll surely be won over from the first moist, flavorful bite.

“Turkey Quinoa Meatloaf” is a recipe from the new “The Art of Pantry Cooking” (Rizzoli), of which I received a review copy. It’s by Ronda Carman, a lifestyle writer and former recipe contributor to Southern Living.

As the name implies, the book’s 100-plus recipes make use of pantry basics that we all do — or should — keep on hand.

What’s more, the chapters are even arranged by ingredient. For instance, got a half-bag of bulgur lying around? Then, make “Lemon-Bulgur Ricotta Pancakes” or “Hearty Tomato Soup with Bulgar.” Hiding a can of chickpeas in the back of a cabinet? Dig it out to use in “Lemon-Parmesan Chickpea Pasta.” Have some leftover panko? Whip up “Sheet-Pan Panko Lamb Meatballs with Walnut Chimichurri Sauce.”

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