CHEWING THE FAT

We cut the cooking time for Marcella Hazan’s robust Minestrone down from 3 hours to 1 by using our 6-quart Instant Pot. Minestrone, literally translated from Italian, means “Big Soup”.  This recipe lives up to its name.  It’s hearty, flavorful, and loaded with vegetables. While…

Renato Poliafito and Matt Lewis built their bakery “Baked” in Red Hook, Brooklyn on this brownie. Sumptuous, chocolate-rich, and slightly fudgy, the “Baked” Brownie is for purists.  Both “America’s Test Kitchen” and NBC’s Today Show crowned this brownie as Best Brownie. Now the world is…

 Gyoza, Asian Dumplings, Greens, and Chile Butter make for an easy and intriguing one-skillet dinner. Garlicky Greek yogurt is topped with Trader Joe’s* Gyoza, a handful of spinach, toasted pine nuts, and finally, a chile-spiced drizzle of butter seasoned with mild chile pepper, smoked paprika,…

A NEW-TO-US TECHNIQUE YIELDS  PERFECT PORK CHOPS IN MINUTES Turn, turn, turn to cook perfect pork chops in minutes…then enhance them with a simple pan sauce of sage, garlic, and butter poured over the finished chop. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been cooking, you…

“Sometimes you want chicken to taste like chicken” and One Skillet Chicken does just that. So wrote J.T. of Madison Wisconsin of this wonderful recipe when it appeared in Bon Appetit. Here all you do is salt and pepper bone-in skin on, chicken thighs and…

OVER THE HOLIDAYS I JUMPED AT THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE FRENCH ONION SOUP. Locked in the house on a streak of cold, rain-soaked days, I had plenty of time to make this French Classic. Caramelized onions cooked in a rich, beefy broth, topped with a…

Of all the joys of Christmas, a great Christmas Breakfast has always been a part of ours. Over the years, every Christmas Breakfast we’ve indulged in everything from Waffles to Pain Perdu (that’s French Toast to the rest of us). We have had plenty of…

A Q&A with Monte Mathews, the man behind Saveur’s perennially popular, five-ingredient, “cheap ham” recipe called “Monte’s Ham” Connie McCabe for Saveur Magazine In the 1990s, when I was a senior associate editor at Saveur, the magazine published recipes for Filet de Boeuf Grille avec…

  WHEN IT’S COLD OUTSIDE THERE’S NOTHING LIKE TEXAS BEEF BRISKET CHILI WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH Every year about this time, we get a blast of cold air that makes us yearn for a big bowl of chili. I am certainly no Texan and even though…

OF ALL THE DISHES SERVED FOR HANUKKAH, NONE IS MORE CLOSELY LINKED TO THE HOLIDAY THAN THIS SIMPLE POTATO LATKE. The Shammash being used to light the candles on the Hanakkah Menorah Friday is the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.  The…

We’d be hard-pressed to find anything easier to cook than Ina’s Seared Salmon with Red Pepper Aioli. The prep times for this recipe is 10 minutes tops, the cooking is 6 minutes and the fish rests for up to 5.  As Ina would say “How…

Would it be Thanksgiving without Bell’s? Ah, Thanksgiving. That singular day when the aroma of roasting turkey wafts through homes, bringing families together and ensuring you’ll need a nap by 3 PM. And for many, one key ingredient has been at the heart of that…

Thanksgiving Desserts at our house From left to right: Caramel Apple Pie, Sables, Pear, and Honey Cake, Southern Pecan Pie, Chocolate Tart  Chewing the Fat gets regular read-outs of what people are looking at and searching for most.  It came as no great surprise that…

With a little planning, we can make all 5 of our best Thanksgiving recipes ever! I can’t think of a year when we don’t look forward to Thanksgiving. It’s just a week away from the big day but menu planning now makes life a lot…