Ribs and Roasted Potatoes

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Susan

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Here in Florida, September is still a very hot month.  And while the kids are back in school and the stores inexplicably have started selling sweaters and jackets (which we can’t wear here for about another two months), we straddle the line between feeling like fall and still wearing shorts and t-shirts.  And since it’s Friday, and no one in the family has any plans other than to be home for dinner—we’re having one of our favorite combinations, ribs and potatoes—both slow roasted in the oven—with the ribs finished briefly on the grill afterwards.

Of course, you can serve either of these recipes on their own.  But you’ll notice that both of them require 2 hours of slow cooking at the beginning.  So, this meal is good to make when you’re home for the afternoon, but you have things to do other than cook too much.  And the  smell of the ribs and potatoes that slowly comes into the kitchen while they’re cooking makes everybody feel hungry by the time everything is done.  I like to make a green salad to go along with this meal too—and I serve extra barbecue sauce on the side.

Grilled Baby Back Ribs
Preparation Time:  15 minutes
Cook Time:  2 hours and 10 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 slabs of baby back ribs, each slab cut in half (about 5 or 6 ribs per piece)
Kosher Salt
Fresh, coarsely ground black pepper
½ cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Cut four pieces of aluminum foil, each one big enough to completely wrap one serving of the ribs.  Place one-half slab of ribs on each of piece of foil.  Salt and pepper both sides of the slabs.  Wrap each one up with a tight seal and place all four packages on a baking sheet.  Bake in the oven for 2 hours.

Preheat or light your grill.  Remove the ribs from the oven, open each package and put the rib slabs back on the baking sheet.  Brush both sides of each slab with the barbecue sauce.  Grill for 5 minutes per side until the sauce is nicely browned on the ribs.  Remove to a platter and serve.

Slow Roasted Potatoes
Preparation Time:  10 minutesDSC_0014
Cook Time:  2 hours

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 pounds small white or  red potatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup mint, packed, leaves only, finely chopped
1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.DSC_0016

Wash the potatoes well, dry them thoroughly and prick each one with a fork a couple of times.  (You do this to keep them from exploding in your oven.)  Put the potatoes in a roasting pan and roast for 2 hours.  Remove from the oven, cool for about 10 minutes and cut each potato in half.  Put the potatoes in a bowl big enough to toss them thoroughly.

Mix together the garlic, oil, mint, sea salt and pepper and pour over the potatoes while they’re still hot.  Correct the seasoning to your taste. Let the mixture stand for a while—at least 30 minutes, but they can rest longer.  Serve at room temperature or, if you’d like them warmer, run them back in the oven for about 10 minutes to heat them up.

Posted in Main Course, Pork | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Oatmeal Cookies

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Susan

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One of the things I like best about being a Mom to two boys is the opportunity to make cookies without hesitation.  Obviously, I’m not making them for myself, I’m making them for the kids, right?  Riiiiiiight.  This one makes the house smell good and very cozy. On a summer, winter, spring or fall afternoon, we pour ourselves a glass of milk and relax with these.

Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 3 Dozen

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.  Beat the butter and both sugars together until well blended.  Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is fluffy and smooth.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter.  When the flour mixture is fully incorporated, add in the oats.  Drop by rounded teaspoonsful onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 to 11 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and let rest for a few minutes, then transfer the individual cookies to cooling racks.

Posted in Cookies, Dessert | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Thai Baked Fish

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Susan

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Making this dish is easy and therapeutic—and it involves several things that I love about cooking—working with interesting ingredients, chopping and layering. To start with, I considered the fish.  Having tasted this, I now think it would also be amazing with salmon, but I selected halibut for this inaugural tasting—fresh, wild caught (wildly expensive I might add…) but it was firm-fleshed and sweet smelling—just like fresh fish is supposed to be.  Rubbing the lemon juice and oil into the fish mingled the sweet smell of the fish and the lemon and it was clean and fresh looking in its glass dish.

Second, I chopped.  This is a very happy chopping dish—and I find chopping relaxing as long as I have time to do it.  Make this when you have the time and the inclination to meditate.  (Or, if you don’t feel romantic about chopping, just use a food processor and knock it out.)

Combining the spice mixture, I could see that this dish was going to be full flavored and beautifully colored.  For fun, I ground the fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle—which really made me feel like a cook—I really need to use that dandy little tool more.

And then, when I fired up the skillet and cooked the onions, everybody in the house went by and said  “hmmm…what are you making”…(they always do that when you sauté onions) and as I layered on the garlic and the ginger and the chile, tomato and spice mixture the whole mess was very aromatic and drew even more comments from my peanut gallery.  The final addition of the coconut milk smoothed it all out and I just knew that this was going to taste really good as long as I didn’t overcook the fish.  I didn’t.  And now I have a new addition to my favorite fish recipe file.

Thai Baked Fish

Serves 4-6

Ingredients for the Fish

2 pounds thick, firm fish fillets (halibut, salmon or cod work well)
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Ingredients for the spice mixture

6 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon  ground turmeric
½ teaspoon fennel seeds, coarsely ground
1 ¼ teaspoon salt

Ingredients for the Sauce

2 cups finely chopped onion
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced green chile (Serrano or jalapeno)
1 large fresh tomato, chopped
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
¼, coarsely chopped cilantro for garnish

Preparation:

Cut the filets into serving size pieces.  Combine the lemon juice and vegetable oil and massage it into the fish.  Cover and refrigerate while you make the sauce.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium skillet, sauté the onion in the vegetable oil over medium high heat until the onion is soft and just beginning to brown.  Add the garlic, ginger and green chili and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the spice mixture and tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently until the tomatoes have softened.  Add the coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes.

Arrange the fish in a single layer in a lightly oiled baking dish.  Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

For a wonderful rice recipe that would be perfect with this fish, I’m grateful to the cooks at the blog Muse in the Kitchen who recently posted this recipe.

A special note: I’ve submitted this recipe as an entry in A Taste of Yellow, a celebration and awareness for Cancer survivors. To learn more about it, here is the link http://www.winosandfoodies.com/2009/08/livestrong-with-a-taste-of-yellow-2009.html

Posted in Fish, Main Course | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Thai Steak Salad

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Susan

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One of the great passages in life is when your kids are growing up and you become friends with the parents of your kids’ best friends.  So it is in our lives right now.  For the past several years, we have developed a solid friendship among three families that altogether have six boys. Collectively and separately, we have squired these kids through swimming, tubing, rock climbing, paint ball wars, skiing, and hours and hours of play in our yards and in our driveways’ basketball hoops.  The kids have become fairly inseparable—and so in the process of organizing their social lives, we parents have joined in—and one of our favorite activities is a monthly “country” dinner. Note:  our kids are no slouches when it comes to eating well—they all love exotic food of any stripe—they are fun to eat with.

Each family contributes dishes—whatever we want to make—and the host family coordinates so that we don’t end up with only six appetizers or six desserts. This past weekend, we cooked Thai food—and today’s recipe is the Thai Steak Salad that my family contributed.  It’s a hybrid recipe inspired by something I saw Bobby Flay do, with elements of the Thai steak salad that my neighborhood Thai restaurant serves.   This is a good recipe to make for a party—you can wash the greens, chop the salad, make the dressing, marinate and grill the beef—and at the last minute, put it all together really easily.

Thai Steak Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients for Steak

3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon garlic chili paste
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 filets mignons

Preparation for Steak

Whisk together the soy sauce, lime juice, chili paste, ginger and peanut oil.  Put the steaks in a small glass dish, and pour the marinade over. DSC_0038 Refrigerate and marinate for 1 to 3 hours, turning occasionally.  Remove the steaks from the marinade, pat dry, sprinkle with pepper on both sides and grill or broil on high for 4 to 6 minutes per side or until medium rare. (If making ahead, wrap the steaks tightly in foil and let rest in a warm place in the kitchen until ready to serve, otherwise, let rest for 10 minutes.) Slice thinly and arrange on the salad.

Ingredients for Dressing

3 tablespoons fresh lime juiceDSC_0040
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons peanut oil

Ingredients for Salad

1 head butter lettuce, washed and in bite-sized piecesDSC_0078
2 cups arugula, well-rinsed and in bite-size pieces
1 cucumber, peeled, seeds removed and sliced
2 carrots, julienned
1 small yellow or red onion, sliced
½ cup cilantro sprigs

Combine all of the salad ingredients.  Toss the salad with 6 tablespoons of the dressing.  Arrange the salad on plates or a platter and top with the steak.  Spoon an additional tablespoon of the dressing over each serving of the steak or serve the remaining dressing separately.

Posted in Beef, Salad | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Mediterranean Comfort

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Susan


Today’s recipe was one we first enjoyed during a summer dinner on a deck in Georgetown. Our friends had arranged their townhouse backyard so that the dinner table was placed on a deck that overlooked their Koi pond, lushly surrounded by lots of healthy plants, interesting sculpture, and well-placed lights and candles. Conversation was easy, the wine was flowing and this chicken dish was memorable. Tops on this recipe’s list of attributes are the colors—slices of peppers and onions in red, yellow, green and purple make this look like you’ve gone to a lot of trouble, when really—you haven’t—its just an artful arrangement. And when this pungent spice mixture cooks into the chicken and the vegetables, the flavors you end up with are rich and complex. This is a good dish to make when you want to have it all ready to go in advance. Even though you’ll cook it just before eating, it isn’t hard and it isn’t messy—a baste or two and you’ve got a well-seasoned treat for your company.

Mediterranean Chicken

Serves 8

Ingredients:

8 boned chicken breasts
1 large red onion, sliced into 8 slices
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, sliced into 8 rings,
1 red pepper, sliced into 8 rings
1 yellow pepper, sliced into 8 rings
2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ cup melted butter
2 cups chicken stock

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the chicken in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Lay 1 onion slice, one of each pepper, some of the garlic and some of the tomato on each chicken breast. Sprinkle the seasonings over all. Drizzle each chicken breast with some of the melted butter. Add the chicken stock to the pan. Bake for 45 minutes, basting every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Posted in Chicken | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Irish Stew

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Susan

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Since Ted Kennedy’s death last week, I’ve been thinking about the Irish. Somewhere around half of my own heritage is Irish–and while I was watching the news coverage about the Senator and his family–it was interesting that as much of an icon of America as the Kennedy family has become–they are so frequently cited for their Irishness. I noted that Ted Kennedy was called “a great big burly Irishman”…or a “fun-loving romantic Irishman”…or his “Irish love of the sea” or “Irish sense of humor” were used to describe his nature.

And when I walked into the library this morning front and center was a display of books on the Kennedy family and in particular, Teddy Kennedy. And I thought that ever since I was a little girl, the Kennedy family has periodically become the center of our country’s attention–sometimes for good, sometimes not–but their influence on our country and our shared fascination about them is really remarkable.

So when it came time to think about dinner, I decided that in honor of Teddy, and the Kennedy’s, I would make a traditional Irish stew. Made with lamb, potatoes, carrots and onions, this famous stew is easy to make and a comfort to eat, especially with a slice or two of crusty bread to soak up the sauce.

May your day be touched
By a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love.

Irish Stew

First make a Lamb Stock:

Ingredients for Lamb Stock

Bones from a 4-5 pound lamb shoulder
2 celery ribs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, sliced in 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup tomato paste

Preparation for Lamb Stock

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the lamb bones, onion, celery and carrots into a roasting pan and roast until the bone is browned and the vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes. Put the bones and the vegetables into a stockpot. Add a cup or two of water to the roasting pan and scrape up all of the brown bits. Pour the liquid into the stockpot. Add 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and add the tomato paste, stirring until combined. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour and a half. Remove the bones and the vegetables and strain the stock.

Ingredients for Stew
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1 4-5 pound lamb shoulder, bones removed and reserved to make the stock
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
2 onions, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces
8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
1/3 cup flour
Lamb Stock
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 4 fresh sprigs)
1 bay leaf
3 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 turnip, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice

Preparation for Stew

Cut the lamb into cubes, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the lamb, onions, carrots, mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring for five minutes or until the onions are wilted.
Sprinkle the flour over the meat mixture and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add lamb stock to cover, the thyme and the bay leaf. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Cook the diced potatoes and turnip in a separate pot of boiling, salted water for 10 minutes. When the stew has finished simmering, add the potatoes and turnips and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Correct the seasoning and serve.

Posted in Lamb, Soup and Stew | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments