weekly recap

December 17, 2020 by Shana Liebman in recipes, suburban cooking

Sunday: Leftover Jewish-style Brisket with onions and carrots from our Chanukah party: This was a really easy and traditional brisket which turned out delicious. I made it several days ahead of time and warmed it up at 325 for about 45 minutes before we ate it. We also had the remains of our dinner of sous-vide turkey breast with crispy skin, (see above), which I made for Thanksgiving and then remade a few weeks later because it was so good and so easy. The first time around I made a gravy from Mark Bittman, but this time I bought a house-made gravy from Whole Foods and the whole meal was super simple to make. There wasn’t enough crispy skin, however, either time I made it. But still a keeper.

Monday: We made a delicious and healthy veggie miso soup (with cabbage and shiitakes) from the Milk Street Cookbook. I just gave their new book to a friend for Chanukah so I decided to go back and check out the earlier book, which I love. The soup was light, nutritious and a perfect lunch dish, even though we had it for dinner, with some homemade yogurt pizza.

Tuesday: I returned to the Milk Street cookbook for a Filipino Chicken (marinated and cooked in a vinegar/soy sauce) which was excellent, and I served with (again) the Milk Street Cookbook’s charred brussel sprouts with anchovies and garlic (see above) which were made in a cast iron skillet. White rice on the side to soak up the amazing coconut-milk sauce for the chicken.

Wednesday: I made chicken tacos for the boys and us — which has become quite easy and a good weeknight staple that I can heat up for lunch.

Thursday: The snow day called for stew so we turned to Milk Street—see a theme here? And made their no-sear lamb or beef stew, opting for beef (see above). Skip the lemon juice at the end—otherwise a straightforward recipe for a hearty and warmly spiced stew served with cold yogurt and cilantro. Perfect for a cold night, and doesn’t require much more than some crusty bread and/or a salad.

Friday: I got my first shipment of Fly by Jing chile crisp so I made this excellent recipe from the NYT for Tofu and Green Beans with Chile Crisp. I’ve made it several times before without the green beans and we threw the tofu on a salad or had it with rice for lunch. But the addition of the beans is smart and with some white rice makes a filling meal.

sprouts

December 12, 2019 by Shana Liebman in meatless, suburban cooking

Wow it’s been quite a while since I last posted, so long in fact that ALL my many readers may have assumed this blog dead and gone. Not yet! While I am one of the few holding on to this antiquated form, I persist. Which brings me to Thanksgiving. I did the dry-brined Judy Bird, plus Food 52’s Challah Stuffing and Mark Bittman’s make-ahead gravy, per usual. But this year I did fewer other things and tried to relax a little more and enjoy the festivities.

It also allowed me to take in my mother in law’s beautiful decoration which included a mantle wreath made out of brussel sprouts and radishes—real food!

And after having seen the film Wasted and because I’m helping to plan this year’s inaugural Irvington Theater environmental festival, I felt the need to use those beautiful vegetables in something we could actually consume. So Friday morning I gathered them up and dragged them home. And then thought: what am I going to do with 8 pounds of brussel sprouts and 3 lbs of radishes?

After a few hours in the kitchen, I had brussel sprout soup, roasted sprouts and roasted radishes (plus a few raw ones to use in a salad.) Roasted sprouts with lots of salt and oil is maybe one of the best fall dishes. Plus the soup, with some adjusting, was delicious, freezable and healthy. Bet you never heard of sprout soup! We hadn’t either but it can and should be done!

1 pound brussel sprouts

2 ribs celery

1 small onion

1 to 2 tablespoons butter

3 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/4 cup cream

1 tsp sherry vinegar

1 tsp fish sauce

salt/pepper

Heat the butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Once it is melted, add the celery and onions. Sprinkle with the salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the chopped sprouts and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally until the Brussels sprouts turn a brighter shade of green, about 2 minutes. Add the broth and bring everything just to a boil.

Reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer, cover partially, and cook until the Brussels sprouts are completely tender about 10 minutes.

Use a hand-held immersion blender or regular blender to completely purée the soup as smooth as possible.

Add cream, and season to taste with salt and pepper, vinegar and fish sauce.

pre-turkey lineup

November 29, 2016 by Shana Liebman in dinner party, recipes

For the last few years I have been making this dry brined turkey which always turns out perfect. And this year I added a vegetarian stuffing from Food52 which is a keeper. But since those standards were in place, I spent a little more time on these pre-gamers, aka special hors d'ouerves which I have to say probably got the most respect: rosemary roasted nuts, shots of butternut squash bisque, a NYT recipes for broiled feta with honey, and (below) olive rosemary crackers from Purplefoodie.com, which are incredibly easy to make and look super impressive.

OLIVE ROSEMARY CRACKERS

1 cup all-purpose flour, more as needed
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp parmigiano reggiano cheese, finely grated
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tbsp black olives, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup cream or half-and-half, more as needed
1 Tablespoon milk, if required
Pink Himalayan salt or your favorite topping – coarsely ground pepper, sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Preheat oven to 400°F
Put flour, salt, cheese, rosemary, olives, garlic and olive oil in bowl of a food processor. Pulse until flour and olive oil create little crumbs. In case you don’t have a food processor, simply whisk all the dry ingredients together first. Then add the oil and using a fork or a pastry blender mix till they look like coarse crumbs.
Add about 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half and let machine run for a bit. If the dough is still a little dry after pouring in the cream, add a little milk. Alternatively (without the food processor), pour the cream into the dough mixture and combine it into the dough with your hands..
Roll out dough until 1/4-inch thick or even thinner, adding flour as needed. Lay on pan and score lightly with a sharp knife or pizza cutter to break crackers into squares or rectangles later on. Sprinkle with the salt or topping of your choice.
Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature.

my turkey secret

November 20, 2015 by Shana Liebman in recipes

I've made the Thanksgiving turkey on a few occasions but it wasn't until last year that I discovered that easier is actually better. I used Russ Parson's "Judy bird" recipe which calls for dry brining and the idea is that you cover the bird in salt and let it sit in the fridge for three days. Then you cook it. No fancy stuffing, tying, basting, turning. Just put it in the oven and come back in three hours to a delicious, handsome turkey.

I wrote this post about it last year but thought I'd mention again because I'm gearing up to do the same recipe this year. Really, it's crazy easy.

the judy bird

December 01, 2014 by Shana in recipes, slow cooker

It was my second year on Turkey duty for the annual Moshan Thanksgiving. For the 20+ guests, I decided to dry brine (something I'd been reading about.) The Judy bird is a very simple recipe adapted from San Fransisco chef Judy Roger's French take on roasted chicken. It's almost too simple: cover with salt and let sit for four days in fridge. Then uncover the bird and let it dry out for a day. Then rub with butter and pepper and cook for four hours.

Deliciously moist and beautifully brown! In fact it only took about three hours in a fairly hot oven. With the turkey, I made this stuffing which I thought was the best part of the whole dinner. I made it a few days ahead and froze it in a foil tray. And finally, also a few days in advance, I made Mark Bittman's Make-Ahead-Gravy base and added drippings from the turkey after it was cooked. By the way, for all of these dishes I used my Crock a Stock.

crock a stock

November 16, 2014 by Shana in slow cooker, recipes

Thinking about Thanksgiving in a couple weeks has started me thinking about stock-that essential flavoring that I always leave to the last minute and which always adds more time and cleanup to every recipe. So yesterday while shopping at fairway I bought a bunch of chicken wings with the vague memory of an easy stock that didn't require the whole chicken (or whole carcass). I came home and did some research about easy stocks and discovered a whole thread about making stock in the slow cooker. I decided to try Sara Moulton's Chicken Stock recipe. I skipped the parsley and used the chicken bones from the rotisserie chicken that Michael and Mack were demolishing for lunch. (I saved the extra chicken for another meal or salad.) It turned out a very tasty stock that didn't require a lot of mess or extra steps (no excessive straining, defatting, etc.)I boiled it down some to reduce and concentrate it then froze in in 4-c and 2-c portions.

But I still had 3 pounds of chicken wings in my fridge so I started looking for a more traditional stock recipe and stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen's Perfect Uncluttered Chicken Stock—that happened to be made in a slow cooker! It seems this is sort of a thing. And why not? You're just slow cooking all the ingredients then straining out the liquid. So next I dumped the wings, onion, garlic, salt (and added carrot, celery, peppercorns, thyme and a bay leave ala Moulton.) 10 hours later i had a rich stock (more flavorful and complex than Moulton's recipe) that I could freeze for the weeks ahead. This is the kind of ctockpot use I can appreciate. Less mess, no stove on for many hours. Done.

stock from Smitten Kitchen

3 pounds uncooked chicken wings
3 quarts water
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed
1 teaspoon table salt, or more to taste*

Place all ingredients in a slow-cooker. Cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours or HIGH for 4 to 5.
Strain out chicken parts, onion and garlic. The stock is now ready to use, or, you might prefer to do as we do, and put it in the fridge to chill until any fat solidifies on the top. (Though, there is really very little here, and some might prefer to leave it.) Once defatted, you can now use it or freeze it until needed.)

thanksgiving 2013

November 30, 2013 by Shana

This was my first year on turkey. I followed the New York Times recipe HERE and dry brined two birds for 25 people.

Everything went according to plan until I realized both turkeys wouldn't fit into my oven and I had to borrow the oven in the rec room downstairs which meant running up and down the stairs to baste and check temperatures. By the time I got these monsters in the car---I was cursing the entire holiday. But they were incredibly juicy and if I hadn't miscalculated my oven size or if I was cooking for a smaller group, I would definitely make it again.

For Thanksgiving, I also made the stuffing (recipe here) which was a success and served the leftover cauliflower soup from Turducken because for some reason I made enough to fill a small swimming pool.