Family Dinner with JP

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I present a delightful side dish, seasonal and non-traditional. Straight from the pages of Bon Appetit (webpages, whatever), as suggested by Justin, these crusty carrots present a ton of kick and a real heartiness lacking in your mundane side salad or "really, brussel sprouts AGAIN?" Aside from the harissa paste, which can be easily located in your hummus aisle, nearly everything else in this recipe is likely already in your cabinet! The tricks to this recipe: do not be afraid to let the carrots get a dark crust, and learn to embrace the heat. What may at first glance appear to be burnt parts are in fact a deliberate charring of the smokey spices in this dish, creating the caramelized crust that gives the carrots their bite. And dive in to the harissa yogurt! While the harissa paste certainly kicks the spice level up on its own, the balance of the yogurt and citrus provides a wonderful taste experience, peaking and cooling down your mouth...

Look at that picture above. As a friend noted, perhaps the best selling point of this recipe is that this is a crusty fish recipe with no added breading. This recipe comes straight out of the Thomas Keller Ad Hoc cookbook, a wonderful coffee table style cookbook with beautiful photographs to accompany the aspirational recipes. Which is not to say the recipes are difficult to make, so much as difficult on the wallet. The first time I tried this recipe was years ago, when Josh made it for me for a fancy lunch. I readily admit that when I saw how much oil he used in the pan, I kind of scrunched my face at him. There must have been half an inch of cooking oil! Was he trying to deep fry this thing? Clearly mistakes had been made ... how much wine had we all been drinking? But no, Josh was correct, the instructions were correct, and, despite the wine (or perhaps because of it), the fish ended up amazing! By cooking the hearty halibut in a deeper amount of oil, a thick crusty bottom for...

Mussels. Let me tell you a little bit about mussels. See, when you grow up in Maryland, and spend your summers down Ocean City, mussels are inevitable. Of course, we're talking rough and tumble, steamed in water, served with a wedge of lemon and a ramekin of melted butter, no frills mussels. And they are delicious! For the uninitiated, I think of mussels as the textural middle ground between clams (more chewy) and oysters (more viscous). Mussels are perfect: cheap, easy to make, poppable, fun to share, and can look absolutely beautiful! What follows is a bit of a primer on making mussels. This is clearly a food that should be demystified, so that everyone can eat mussels all of the time. Once you know a few things, like how to sort out the bad from the good, and how to ensure the mussels are clean and without grit, this becomes a fast meal that you can adapt to any flavor profile you want. So of course, following the Tao of Julia, I made mussels in the French fashion - steam...

The idea for this dish came from a Jamie Oliver recipe from several years ago. Well ... okay, from TWO Jamie Oliver recipes, mashed up to make this delicious, simple, one pan dinner. Think of it - chicken thighs and sweet Italian sausages, roasting on top of a bed of tomatoes and potatoes. As the juices simmer out of the meats, as the tomatoes stew and liquefy, the potatoes are there to soak up all of the flavors! The red wine vinegar gives it all a really good acidic punch, and at the end of the roasting, the pan should have a delicious sauce you can spoon out on top of the meat and potatoes, or sop up with a hunk of crusty bread. The joy of this dish is its mostly hands-off cooking. Aside from prepping the potatoes, this is mostly a set it and forget it kind of meal. It makes enough for a small army, so keep that in mind when cooking for one. Hahaha just kidding! Who would cook such a huge amount of food for one person? Don't be silly. Thanks to Kenji and Cyndi for host...

I just don't get it. Risotto. It is a delicious, tender, flavor-infused dish. It is versatile, and can be made seasonal in a moment's notice. It take very little time. It is always a fan favorite. So why aren't people making risottos like constantly?! This is one of those types of dishes that impresses non-cooks immediately. Which is not to say they're wrong - a finely executed risotto is beautiful and delicious and tastes BIG. But there is this mistake or perpetuated myth that a risotto is tough to make. Spoiler: this one is easy as hell! All it takes is two hands - one to hold your wine and one to do the consistent (not constant) stirring. Time and patience and consistency are the keys to succeeding at just about anything in life. Oh ... and wine. Time, patience, consistency, ample wine. The trick to this particular risotto is the tomato water mixture, which you will use to hydrate the rice as well as infuse everything with a wonderful tomato flavor. Thi...

Given that two of the most popular recipes I've posted on the blog are the pickles and the fried chicken recipes, in hindsight this post seems almost inevitable. But no, yet again I turn to the pages of Bon Appetit for inspiration and recipe.  This pickle-brined fried chicken is a signature dish at Rose's Luxury, recently named the best new restaurant in the United States by Bon Appetit (woooo go DC!), and who am I to disagree? Pickles? Fried chicken? Yes please! So I made this once, and my friend Jess made it once as well. We compared some notes on the process, and in the end, I am adapting the recipe just slightly. Here's a statement I never thought I would make: go with chicken breast instead of thighs. I think this is an issue of expectation - when I bit into the amazing fried chicken, I wanted it to be like a chicken tender - juicy white meat. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like sipping a diet coke that turns out to be an iced tea. But I think I like my b...