Call it chicken parmesan, parmigiana, or parm, most of the time this winds up being a soggy, insipid dish. BUT–never fear, dear readers, I have improved it! The trick is to put the chicken (or veal) cutlets on top of the sauce, which keeps the breading from getting soft. I keep the cutlets small so […]
sauces
Chimichurri
I don’t know if this is a true chimichurri: if you want a discussion of what that means, read here. What it is is a zingy green-ish sauce that’s good on meat and fish. It’s very intense when you first make it, but it will mellow in the fridge. I used the herbs I had […]
Scalloped Potatoes
Hooray for cheezy comfort food! The key to this recipe is to slice waxy potatoes ethereally thin (no more than 1/8″, ideally more like 1/16″). I accomplished this with the slicing side of my grater. I tried using the food processor, but it didn’t slice them thin enough. Even if you can’t get them that […]
BBQ Meatballs
Where better to turn for down-home comfort food than a church cookbook? We had these at Christmas and they were delicious in an old-fashioned way. They’re basically like meatloaf in ball form, and can be spiced up according to taste. From Elim Centennial 1883-1983 Cookbook, Elk River MN. Makes about 55 1″ balls. Great with […]
Red Pepper Pork Chops
This is a simple-yet-flavorful meal, perfect for a weeknight dinner. It helps if you can season the porkchops an hour or more ahead of time, but not required. Here I serve them over couscous, with Couve Mineira on the side. I used boneless pork chops, but you could use bone-in. In fact, this would probably […]
Enchiladas Verdes
Well, we can’t have a red enchilada recipe without a green enchilada recipe! Heck, we even have a half-assed mole enchilada recipe. I took it upon myself to make these from scratch, since it seems like there are always tomatillos for sale around here, and my food processor is working again. You can use canned […]
Cilantro Chutney
You know what they say about the importance of food presentation…wait, what is it they say? This zingy green sauce is often served with Afghani food. It’s sort of a Central Asian version of pesto, though it does not contain oil. It’s easy to make and keeps well. It’s great on grilled meat, or anything […]
Swedish Meatballs
Herd tu feegoore-a oooot hoo I nefer treeed mekeeng thees clesseec Meennesuta deesh beffure-a. It ceme-a oooot greet! Börk, börk, börk! Ahem….what I mean to say is that this is delicious, especially served over mashed potatoes with lingonberries or cranberries and pickles on the side. It’s a fair amount of work, but very worth it […]
Beef in Cream Sauce with Leeks and Shallots
Alternate name: Alex’s not-quite-beef-stroganoff. This dish started out as a creative way to use up some leeks that were on sale, and evolved into something more complicated since I wanted to make something fancy. It’s very similar in some ways to beef stroganoff, but more subtly flavored and not quite as heavy. Ingredients:1 pound steak […]
Tonkatsu aka How to make a frozen cutlet into a nice meal
UPDATE! Here is an improved salad dressing recipe and a detailed description of making the cutlet from scratch. The dressing below is still good, but not quite as good as the miso style! Technically tonkatsu is a breaded pork cutlet, but you can make chicken-katsu or veal-catsu or chickenmcnugget-katsu (as pictured). It’s traditionally served as […]