recipeworld

I never made too much real grilled cheese growing up. I do remember constructing a sort of haphazard grilled cheese in my boarding school dining hall, using the conveyor belt-style toaster to toast the bread and the microwave to melt the cheese, but that was nothing compared to this.

I like my grilled cheese with real cheese and lots of mustard, kind of like a Croque Monsieur, but this technique would work the same way for a grilled cheese with the traditional Kraft singles and Wonder bread as well.

Grilled Cheese
1 tbsp. softened butter
2 slices white bread (I like the pre-sliced boule from my grocery store: I use the center pieces)
1 tsp. mayonnaise
2 tsp. mustard
2 oz. cheddar cheese
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce

Spread the butter evenly over one side of each slice of bread. Place the pieces, butter side down, on a plate. Spread one slice with mayonnaise and the other with mustard. Arrange the cheese slices over one side of the bread, and close the sandwich.

Preheat a skillet over low heat until warmed. Place the sandwich in the skillet and cook covered. (I like to use a lid that’s a bit too small for my pan so that I can press the sandwich down, panini-style, at the same time.) When one side is browned (after about two-three minutes… keep checking because all bread does not toast the same), flip the sandwich over and repeat on the other side. Sprinkle the finished sandwich with Tabasco sauce and serve.

As I promised, a recipe for yesterday’s home fries. These are easily adaptable to your own tastes: some people like their potatoes with peppers in them, along with the onions. Some like them a little spicier: add more cayenne pepper. It’s really up to you, but in the end the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the starchiness of the potatoes makes an excellent side dish to fried eggs. When I was growing up, we sometimes had this meal as “breakfast for dinner.” I always looked forward to it.
My mother’s hint is to always throw in an extra potato “for the pot.” So if you’re serving four people, use five potatoes. This recipe serves two, but it doubles or even triples very easily. You may have to work in batches depending on the size of your skillet.

Home Fries
2 tbsp. olive oil, separated
1 tbsp. butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 starchy potatoes, like Yukon Gold, sliced into rounds ¼ inch thick
1 tbsp. sweet paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt
Heat one of the tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt in the oil. When the foam subsides, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook only one minute.
Add the other tablespoon of oil. Add all of the sliced potatoes and toss with the onions and oil. Spread the onion and potato mixture out across the skillet and turn the heat down to medium. Cover and allow to cook for five-ten minutes, until the potatoes have crisped and the onions have begun to caramelize.
Add the paprika, cayenne pepper and salt to taste, and then toss the potatoes so that the other side can cook.
When all of the potatoes have cooked through, cook uncovered for an additional three-five minutes.

See… as I promised, no more pasta. Today, I want to talk to you about one of the top breakfast foods around these parts, fried eggs. Sometimes, they’re served with the home fries you see pictured above, but more often than not, it’s just fried eggs with some bread to soak up the yolk.

Fried eggs are really easy to get wrong, but if you get them right, they’re incredible. The secret is in the name: fried.

Fried eggs are not seared eggs, grilled eggs or poached eggs. They need to be fried, and every good cook should know what that means. Basically, think about making French fries: you submerge the potatoes in fat until they’re cooked. Now, that’s deep-frying. Shallow frying, like with eggs or some kinds of fried chicken, involves frying in a pool of fat… and yes, it has to be a pool.

This is where most people make their mistake: in not using enough fat. For three eggs, I usually use a tablespoon each of butter and oil. And before you jump down my throat, you don’t eat it all! When frying properly (i.e. over high heat), the food absorbs very little of the oil.

For Sunny-Side Up Eggs

3 eggs

2 tablespoons fat

salt and pepper

Heat your skillet until very, very hot. Add the fat and allow it to melt and evenly coat the skillet. Crack the eggs into the skillet and add salt and pepper to taste. When the whites are completely set, slide a spatula under each egg and transfer it to a plate.

For Over-Easy or Over-Hard Eggs

3 eggs

2 tablespoons fat

salt and pepper

Heat your skillet until very, very hot. Add the fat and allow it to melt and evenly coat the skillet. Crack the eggs into the skillet and add salt and pepper to taste. When the whites are nearly set, slide a spatula under each egg, and very carefully, flip it over to the other side. This is easiest when you attempt to let the whole surface of the egg hit the pan at once. Cook until yolk is to desired doneness, then slide from the pan (you may need to use the spatula again) and transfer to a plate.

Hash browns recipe to follow…

In general, the way that I invent new recipes is to start with something that I know really well (for example, polenta or pasta) and then to embellish it with flavors that I like.

I used to make polenta quite often, but I hadn’t in a long time until this Peachy Polenta. Having the bag of cornmeal out inspired me, though.

I have made Parmegiano-Reggiano polenta before, as a side dish, but I wanted to make it more filling, as something I could have for my whole dinner. I had some fresh zucchini in the fridge, and so this polenta came to be!

I always have plain yogurt in the fridge: I eat it for breakfast, but I also throw it into some dishes that should be creamy but that I don’t want to make higher in calories and fat. You really shouldn’t cook plain yogurt, unless it’s strained, or it will curdle, but tossing it into something that’s already been cooked is a nice treat.

Polenta with Zucchini

¼ cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
2 tsp. olive oil
1 zucchini, sliced
½ onion, diced
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 small container plain yogurt

Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat or in a microwave until hot, but not boiling. Add the cornmeal, stirring constantly until the polenta has thickened to a porridge consistency. You may need to add water as it cooks. Stir in half of the parmesan cheese as well as some salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover.

In a frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Add the sliced zucchini. Cook on one side until browned, about two minutes, and then flip and cook the other side. Add the yogurt to the polenta, and then stir the zucchini and onion mixture into the polenta. Serve with the extra cheese on the side.

Rice pudding is an easy comfort food: it’s really quite simple to make, and there’s nothing better than having a steaming bow of something hot and sweet to warm you up and make you feel good from the inside out.

This recipe makes just enough for one person (no need to share) so that you can enjoy your little morsel and not have to worry about leftovers (leftover rice pudding doesn’t reheat well.

Rice Pudding

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. Arborio rice

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup whole milk, heated

Heat the butter over medium-high heat in a small saucepan until melted. Add the sugar and stir until melted. Add the rice, vanilla and cinnamon and cook until the rice toasted, about one minute.

Add the milk a few tablespoons at a time, stirring to allow it to absorb before adding more. (This technique is like the one used for risotto: if you are accustomed to making risotto by sight instead of by using instructions, then just do it however makes you comfortable.)

Add enough milk until the rice is cooked through and the pudding becomes creamy. Serve immediately with more cinnamon on top if desired.

In my quest to find new recipes and new styles of cooking, I sometimes forget about the old, faithful dishes that used to work so well when I was just starting out as a fledgling cook. One of my favorite things to cook when I was just starting was chicken piccata: chicken cooked with lemon juice and white wine and often capers. When I was deciding what I would make for dinner this week, with just a hot plate to use, I remembered my old standby, and I was surprised at how easy it was compared with how I remembered it.

It was just as tasty.

Chicken Piccata

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup white flour

1 lemon

½-1 cup white wine

salt and pepper

8 oz. spaghetti

1 cup thawed frozen spinach

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Dredge first in flour, then in egg, allowing the excess to drip off, and then again in flour. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts.

Heat the olive oil in the skillet until hot but not smoking. Lay the chicken breasts in the pan and allow to sear, two minutes on each side. For optimal browning, do not move the chicken while it is browning.

Turn the heat down to medium low and add the wine to the pan. Allow to cook, making sure that there is always liquid in the bottom of the pan so that the chicken does not burn. Turn once.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in the boiling water until al dente, about six minutes. Drain, reserving about a cup of cooking liquid, and add the spinach to the pasta.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the chicken, and then remove to a separate plate. Add more wine to the pan if necessary, and scrape up all of the bits on the bottom. Whisk together and add to the spaghetti. Add the juice of the other half of the lemon.

Serve the chicken over the spaghetti, with cheese on the side if desired.

Comfort food is a funny, funny thing. Sometimes the strangest combinations end up being absolutely delicious.

Take one of my favorite comfort foods. The combination of boiled potatoes, plain yogurt, mustard and chives should not be nearly as delicious as it is. It’s a simple recipe I learned a long time ago from a French family, but I still make it whenever I want something hot and simple for dinner. I used a big potato in this picture, but the presentation is a lot nicer with little, red-skinned new potatoes.

Chive-Mustard Potatoes 

½ lb. new potatoes

2 cups plain yogurt

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. chives

Boil the potatoes until cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. Drain and toss with salt. Place in a large serving bowl.

Combine the yogurt, mustard and chives, adjusting amounts for your preference (I like it spicy and chivey).

Serve potatoes with a bowl of sauce on the side. Some charcuterie (cold cuts like prosciutto, salami and ham) and a fresh, green salad make good accompaniments.

Note: You can also mash the potatoes: increase the sauce proportions by half and mash with the potatoes, adding a pat of butter to each serving.

Once again, I bring you eggs.

This time, I’ve combined pungent gorgonzola cheese and woodsy mushrooms for an omelette that is sturdy enough to be dinner on a winter evening with a side of green salad. I’ll never tire of omelettes, and neither should you: they’re a cheap, delicious way to clean out the fridge and experiment with different combinations of ingredients.
 

Gorgonzola Mushroom Omelette

5-6 crimini mushrooms, sliced

salt and pepper

1 tsp. olive oil

1 tsp. butter

2 oz. Gorgonzola, broken into small chunks

6 eggs

3 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. crème fraiche or sour cream

Heat a skillet over medium head and add the butter and oil. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt (the cheese will bring salt as well). Cook the mushrooms until they have released their liquid and it has evaporated, and they are brown and toasty on the outside. Spread them evenly across the bottom of the skillet. If you need more oil, add another teaspoon of olive oil.

In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk and crème fraiche. Pour the mixture over the mushrooms. Top immediately with the Gorgonzola cheese and black pepper. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cover. Cook just until the omelette has set, about five minutes, checking the bottom for doneness. If necessary, turn the temperature down to low to keep the bottom from burning.

Carefully, flip one side of the omelette over the other to form a half moon. Cook another thirty seconds to set, and then transfer to a plate. Cut into wedges and serve.

This steak was inspired by one of my favorite restaurants: l’Entrecôte in Paris, whose actual recipe is one of the best-kept secrets of the foodie world. Truth be told, it’s actually my mother’s recipe, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me when you try it: it’s incredible. If you can’t find tarragon mustard, you can add fresh tarragon to your mustard, but the infusion of the special mustard is really the key: if you can find it, be sure to get some.

Entrcote a l’Estragon

1 entrecôte (thinly cut sirloin) steak

1 tsp. butter

1 tsp. olive oil

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon tarragon mustard

1 glass red wine

1 tbsp. heavy cream

Bring the meat to room temperature. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the outsides of the meat liberally with salt and black pepper. 

Add the oil and butter, making sure not to burn the butter. When the oil is hot, add the steak. Cook two minutes on each side, not moving the steak until necessary. Remove to a plate and keep warm.

Add the wine to the pan and deglaze the bottom with a whisk. Add the mustard and stir together until the sauce emulsifies. Remove from the heat and add a tablespoon of cream. Serve with roasted potatoes or garlic-rubbed toast to soak up the extra sauce.

I used to really, really hate the combination of sweet and salty. Sweet should be dessert, salty should be in the meal. Salt caramel, duck à l’orange, sweet peanut butter with Thai noodles… all of these these combinations that I now love were completely off limits.

It took a pretty extraordinary cheese plate to change my mind. The cheese course at Napa restaurant Tra Vigne features several delicious cheeses along with whole honeycomb and blueberry preserves. Something about the presentation, the fact that I had just tried lentils for the first time in my life and loved them, and the fact that the whole cheese plate came on a lovely marble slab and just looked so appealing made me venture to try it: a little bit of goat’s cheese with some of the fresh honeycomb on walnut bread… and I was hooked.

Now I love to mix sweet and salty. Some of my favorite salads venture into this realm, combining honey and warm goat’s cheese, like I did that first day, or ham with dried fruit. I love this salad, which combines sweet figs and honey in the dressing with salty prosciutto and gorgonzola cheese.

Fig, Gorgonzola and Prosciutto Salad

Assemble the salad ingredients on a plate. Put all of the dressing ingredients in a jar (except the olive oil) and shake to combine. Whisking with a fork, stir the dressing while pouring the olive oil in in a thin stream. Dress the salad and serve immediately.