Pizza Sauce – Let’s Play ‘Hide the Little Fish’

I can assure you that the anchovies in this pizza sauce recipe are there for the subtle saltiness and unique savoriness they provide, and not just so you can tell your friend (the one who really hates anchovies) that they just ate some. Could it be for both? Sure.

This pizza sauce recipe represents a new and improved version of the one we posted way back in 2007. We snuck in some of the aforementioned fish, and we’re also using both fresh and dried oregano. I love this sauce. If there’s a tastier, all-purpose pizza sauce recipe out there, I haven’t tried it.

Convention wisdom says that great pizza is all about the crust. Which is certainly a huge factor, but if you were given the choice between a great crust topped with a bad sauce, and a grocery store crust made with a delicious, world-class sauce, which would you prefer?

Texture aside, no mater how they're combined, flour, water, and yeast can only taste so bad. But, a terrible sauce can actually make a slice of pizza inedible. I can’t remember ever not eating a piece of pizza because the crust was so awful, but I've given up after biting into an inferior sauce before.

Of course, around these parts the argument is completely academic since we’ve not only provided you with a plan for perfect sauce, but given you several great pizza dough recipes, like our famous no-knead pizza dough, as well as the venerable Wolfgang Puck California-style dough recipe. I hope you make pizza soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients (makes about 3 cups):

3 tbsp olive oil

2 anchovy filets

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 can (28 oz) whole peeled “San Marzano” tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp sugar

very small pinch baking soda

Balsamic Beurre Noir – A Black Butter Sauce Any Femme Fatale Would Love

It’s too bad I didn’t go to film school. If I had, I could have done a clever play on the film noir genre for this balsamic beurre noir recipe. 

Of course, it would have been done in black and white, and featured a chain-smoking, fishnet stocking-clad femme fatale who would eventually double-cross me after a few extended close-ups of spinning ceiling fans. But, I didn’t, so all you get is this plain old video for an incredibly easy and delicious, garlic-spiked, balsamic butter sauce. 

The name is going to confuse a few culinary students out there. Technically, a “beurre noir” refers to a sauce where the butter is cooked until it turns a very dark brown, almost black color. I’m using the term “beurre noir,” as one would use “beurre blanc,” a butter sauce made with reduced white wine, or “beurre rouge,” one made with red wine. The technique is identical for these types of sauces, and we just change the name depending on the color.

For you guys out there looking for Valentine’s Day recipe ideas, you can’t go wrong with this very sexy sauce. Everyone knows cooking dinner for your sweetheart on V-Day is way more romantic than taking her out, and you really can’t beat the old home field advantage for these occasions. You don’t have to hire a private dick to figure that one out.

Anyway, I hope you give this a try soon. Rent some classic film noir, grill up some meat or fish, and spoon over this dark, dangerous, and deeply delicious sauce. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 2-3 portions:

2 tsp melted butter

1 sliced garlic clove

1/3 cup aged balsamic vinegar

1 tsp minced red chilies

1/2 tsp tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp unsalted butter

Spicy Peanut Butter & Pepper Jelly Chicken Wings – Gimmicky, But No Gimmick

On the surface, it may seem as though this gimmicky-sounding peanut butter and jelly chicken wings video is nothing more than a cheap attempt to get a recipe to go viral right before the Super Bowl. Sure, the semi-shocking name will probably generate some added buzz, but I promise you, this is no gimmick.

I was thinking of doing some kind of chicken wing glazed with an Asian-style peanut sauce, but texturally wanted something a little stickier. That brought thoughts of a possible peanut butter and jelly collaboration, which came into final focus after a brilliant suggestion by Michele to use pepper jelly.

The result was a spicy, sticky, and, thanks to the peanut sauce base, quite unusual chicken wing-eating experience. If you're a fan of satay, you should enjoy this approach. As I mention in the video, this recipe can be easily adapted, and finding unique brands of pepper jelly would be just one way to tweak it.

I’m also excited to share a method I’ve been working on for getting oven-baked wings with a texture closer to something that comes out of a deep fryer. By adding a thin layer of potato starch to the wings, a nice crusty exterior is forged in the hot oven, which not only adds some great texture, but really helps grab on to the sauce.

With the NFL playoffs in full swing, it’s time to raise your game when it comes to the snack table. Have your Buffalo wings become too predictable? Has that ranch dip lost a step? Then I hope you consider shaking up the roster with these spicy peanut butter and pepper jelly wings. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 40 pieces of Peanut Butter & Pepper Jelly Chicken Wings:

For the wings:

5 pounds chicken wing sections, thawed, patted very dry

toss with…

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp black pepper

cayenne to taste

1/4 cup instant mashed potato powder or flakes

*Bake at 425 for about 50 minutes, turning once

For the sauce:

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup pepper jelly

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar

2 tbsp fish sauce

sriracha hot sauce to taste

4 cloves crushed garlic

1/2 tsp red chili flakes

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Creamy Mushroom Meatloaf – An Experiment in Letting Your Meat Loaf

If you’ve ever said goodbye to someone, and on the way out added a hearty, “Hey, don’t let your meat loaf!” then I just gave you a virtual high-five. In this context however, we’re taking about letting your meat “loaf” for a long time in a low oven, sitting in a rich, creamy shiitake mushroom gravy.

The main point of this exercise was to determine the benefits of cooking a meatloaf and sauce at the same time, in the same pan, but I was also planning on giving you a very nice “three meatloaf” recipe (using beef, pork and veal). Unfortunately, I wasn’t totally thrilled with the results, so you’ll have to wait until I perfect the final formula.

This "Three Meatloaf" recipe was good,
but not Food Wishes good, yet. Stay tuned!

Regardless, this technique will work with just about any meatloaf recipe out there. I really liked how the roasting meatloaf fortified the sauce with its flavorful drippings. The meatloaf was very moist, and seemed to have picked up some nuances from the sauce as well. One negative is you do have to skim a lot of fat off the top, but that seems a small price to pay for a quality one-dish meal.

You can adjust the texture of your gravy by adding more broth if it seems to be drying out during the cooking time, or, like I did, boil the sauce for a few minutes at the end to thicken it up a bit. Anyway, the next time you’re in the mood for meat in loaf form, and a creamy mushroom gravy, I hope you give this tasty technique a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups cold beef broth

1/2 cup cream

1 ready for the oven meatloaf (2-3 pounds)

My Goose Was Already Cooked

Many years ago I remember trying to cook a Christmas goose. It wasn’t a total disaster, but I do remember gamey, less-than-tender meat, and copious amounts of grease. So, despite several food wishes for this iconic holiday roast, I decided it wasn’t something I wanted to revisit.

Then, I received an offer to try a pre-cooked, smoked goose from Schiltz Foods. They’re the country’s largest goose producer, and a sponsor of this year’s Tasty Awards. They were offering their geese to select Tasty Award nominees to try out, so I decided to give it a whirl.

I’ll admit to being skeptical since reheating pre-cooked meats usually don’t produce the best results. However, this turned out amazingly well. As you’ll see, the skin roasted up perfectly crisp, and the meat was moist and flavorful. By the way, I did zero food styling in this video, and the magazine-quality final product you see in these photos was exactly what came out of the oven.

Since the bird is brined and smoked, the taste is that of a very rich, moderately salty ham. So, if you want a Christmas goose that actually tastes like goose, this may not be your best choice. But, if you’re considering a holiday ham, and want a real showstopper in the center of the table, I think this is a great choice. Think of it as a delicious ham with wings.

I sacrificed half the wings to make a basic reduction sauce, and the subtle smokiness worked wonderfully with the red wine, balsamic vinegar, and blackberry notes. The sauce is certainly optional, as this could be served plain with just some cranberry sauce on the side. I hope you’re able to give this very easy-to-prepare, gorgeous roast goose a try. Enjoy!

1 whole pre-cooked smoked goose (mine was about 6 pounds)

For the sauce:

2 flat sections of goose’s wings

1/2 cup red wine

3 cups water

1 star anise

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup blackberry jam

2-3 tablespoons cold butter, cut in cubes

salt to taste

Disclaimer: As stated above, this post was made possible by Schiltz Foods, Inc., who provided the smoked goose free of charge. I’d like to thank them for bringing goose back into my life. If you want more information, or are interested in ordering a goose for the holidays, please follow this link to their official website.

All Gravies Are Sauces, But Not All Sauces Are Gravies

I got a bunch of emails after posting the Turkey Gravy with Porcini Mushrooms and Marsala Wine video, asking about the difference between a “gravy” and a “sauce.” Basically, a gravy is a sauce made from the pan drippings, both fat and juices, after a piece of meat is roasted. So, all gravies are sauces, but not all sauces are gravies. Got it?

So, my Turkey Gravy with Porcini Mushrooms and Marsala is technically a sauce, which I called a gravy purely for SEO-related reasons. This time of year, people are searching for turkey gravies, not turkey sauces.

Anyway, here’s a repost of a real turkey gravy, from our two-part Thanksgiving special we ran back in 2008. This just covers the gravy, so if you want to see how we got to this point, you can check out part one here. To read the original gravy post, click here. Enjoy!

Turkey Gravy with Porcini Mushrooms and Marsala Wine – Make-Ahead So You Don’t Get Behind

They say timing is everything; to which I would add, “was” everything, and “will be” everything. So, with that in mind I present this “make-ahead” turkey gravy with porcini mushrooms and Marsala wine.

The Thanksgiving Day kitchen is a busy, hectic scene that can intimidate even the most experienced cooks. As dinnertime approaches, you’re flying around the kitchen trying to get everything to the table, hot, looking delicious, and most importantly, on time.

While the turkey is resting under foil, you’re mashing potatoes, reheating sweet potatoes, warming rolls, and probably trying to finish a gravy. That’s a lot of stuff going on, and one reason new cooks are so afraid to try a big holiday meal.

However, by doing your gravy ahead of time, you make that last-minute production a lot easier, and your other offerings will benefit from the extra attention. That’s not to say I want you to throw away all those lovely turkey pan juices sitting in your roasting pan. Time permitting of course, strain them into a saucepan, boil them down, and add them to this sauce.

This recipe is made for adaptation, so feel free to use a drier white wine, sherry, or none at all. I highly recommend the caramelized porcini mushrooms, which are easy to find dried in any large grocery store, but you can also use any fresh varieties with delicious results. Anyway, if you’re looking to “gourmet up” this year’s turkey gravy, I hope you give this a try. Enjoy!

Turkey Gravy Ingredients (makes about 3-4 cups gravy):

For the turkey neck stock:

2 tsp vegetable oil

3-4 turkey necks

1 onion

1 rib celery

1 carrot
1/3 cup Marsala wine, or white wine

2 quarts cold water

2 garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

1/4 oz dried porcini mushrooms

For the sauce:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 oz dried porcini mushrooms

3 tbsp flour

about 6 cups of the reserved turkey neck stock

2 tbsp heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

“Mango Cranbango” – Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Dried Mango and Ghost Pepper

Don’t let the ridiculous name fool you; this delicious cranberry sauce recipe would make a wonderful condiment for your Thanksgiving turkey. My wife Michele, a cranberry sauce aficionado, says it’s the best she’s ever tasted.

Conservative estimates have the number of different cranberry sauces she’s tasted over the years at somewhere around 37, so that’s very high praise indeed. While the taste of this sauce is an unmitigated success, the name is another story.

You’ll have to forgive me, but when you post as many recipes as I do, once in a while you just have to give “half the peace sign” to those search engine algorithms, and simply amuse yourself. The “mango” and the “cran” in the name are obvious, but the “bango” comes from a few drops of hot sauce featuring the infamous ghost pepper.

I’m not sure if it’s the hottest pepper in the world, but the Bhut Jolokia is right up there. You can get the actual pepper if you look hard enough, but I had a bottle of Dave's Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce in the fridge, which worked perfectly.

It’s amazing how hot this stuff really is, and a few drops were all I needed. Believe it or not, more than just providing a searing heat, the pepper is actually celebrated for its fruity sweetness as well. By the way, while it may look like blatant product placement in the video, I can assure you I was not paid to use this specific brand (not that I’d be above such a thing…Dave, call me).

Anyway, if you’re looking for a creative, unusual, yet still relatively familiar fresh cranberry sauce for your holiday table, I hope you give this a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

12 oz fresh whole cranberries

4 oz dried candied mango

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 orange

1 cup fresh orange juice, plus the juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

1 tsp garam masala (or other Indian-style curry spice blend)
dash of hot sauce, to taste

pinch of salt

Slow Cooker Braised Pork Shoulder Roast with Apple Butter Sauce – Reducing the Need for Roux

Man, I’ve been making a lot of rouxs lately (which you’ll be seeing in all their buttery glory in a series of upcoming holiday videos), but for this apple cider braised pork roast, I wanted to keep things a little lighter and decided to use a classic reduction.

We’ve done dozens of similar style sauces, but most of those were traditional pan sauces, where the skillet is deglazed with some kind of flavorful liquid, which is reduced down, and finally finished with butter.

This is basically the same technique; except here we’re reducing the braising liquid from the slow cooker while our pork rests. By the way, I keep saying “cider” because it sounds and looks better in print, but I actually used apple juice. Both work very well, but a just-pressed, unfiltered cider would be my official recommendation.

One thing to remember about these types of reduction sauces is that a little goes a long way. You’re taking an already flavorful liquid and reducing down to maybe 25% of its original volume. This is also the reason you shouldn’t season it until the end. After the cold butter is whisked into the sauce, and your herb of choice has been added, give it a taste and adjust for salt then.

Since we’re using a relatively small amount of braising liquid for this big a hunk of meat, I decided to use the slow cooker. You can certainly do this on the stovetop, over very low heat, or in a slow (275 degrees F.) oven, but neither is quite as convenient. Regardless of your cooking method, I hope you give this delicious pork shoulder a try soon. Enjoy!
 

Ingredients:
4-5 pound pork shoulder roast (boneless or bone-in work fine)

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp vegetable oil

a couple shallots or yellow onion, sliced

1 rib celery, chopped

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

2 1/2 cups apple cider or juice

4 peeled garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

cayenne to taste

1 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons cold butter cut into small cubes

1 tbsp fresh herb – parsley, sage, thyme, etc.

Country Gravy – Deliciously Dingy and Definitely Diner

This sausage country gravy recipe comes from a time before cooks tried to think of ways to trim a few calories, but rather, thought of ways to sneak more calories into a dish. This was a meal that was meant to fill you up and keep you satisfied for a long time.

In addition to the astronomically high calorie count, another advantage of a milk gravy that’s been thickened with a roux made from the rendered fat of meat scraps, is it’s very cheap. So, when you combine “cheap,” with “filling,” and “delicious,” you have all the makings of a diner classic, which this certainly is.

In a diner, this gravy (also known as sausage gravy or cream gravy) would be made with leftover cooked sausage links and other breakfast meat scrapes like crumbled bacon, or ham ends. Since we’re making ours from scratch, we have the advantage of all that freshly rendered fat to make the light roux.

This method is more authentic and flavorful, but admittedly does nothing to improve the recipe’s dingy color and questionable appearance. Let’s face it, some great recipes are just plain ugly and that’s the way it is. I used a low fat milk, which makes for the dingiest color, but whole milk or cream, if you want this extra rich, do look marginally better.

As I mention in the video, if you’ve eaten this before, and know how shockingly good it can be, the look of the dish never crosses your mind. If this were a blind date, the recipe would be described as being “really fun with an amazing personality.”

As far as serving suggestions go, you can’t miss with fresh baked buttermilk biscuits (even though I used store bought, we have a great recipe, which you can see here), but this is also out-of-this-world on things like country-fried steak, and fried chicken. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

8 oz breakfast sausage

4 strips bacon

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/3 cup packed all-purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste

2 1/2 cups milk, more or less as needed

My Mayo Method Steak Sauce Formula – Looks Like Math, Tastes Like Magic

When I need a fast and easy sauce for grilled steaks, I love to use this sort of mayonnaise-based condiment. As I explain in the video, the basic formula is mayo + salt + spice + acid + herb. I don’t think I’ve ever made the exact same one twice, which is not surprising when you realize how many combinations are possible.

I’m not calling this aioli because it doesn’t contain any garlic, but you can if you want to, since nowadays any flavored mayonnaise is called an aioli. That reminds me, this would be really good with garlic.

By the way, don’t let the name fool you; this is great on so many things besides steak. In fact, making up a ramekin to keep in the fridge is not a bad idea at all. It makes a super sandwich spread, a stellar salad dressing starter, and a vegetable dip so good, it will make you forget how much you hate raw broccoli. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for my Rosemary Harissa Mayonnaise:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tbsp anchovy oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Harissa or other hot chili paste

2 tsp minced rosemary

Beautiful Breast of Lamb with Honey Parsley Vinegar Sauce - Hey, My Eyes are Up Here!

You know I love lamb, as evidenced by the various chops, shanks, legs, and shoulders I've featured in the past. These are among the most popular meat recipes on the blog, so it seems many share my love. Here we have a brand new cut to celebrate, the lamb breast.

This is not common in your regular supermarkets. There's an inverse relationship between the size of the parking lot, and the chances you'll find breast of lamb in the meat case. However, a visit to a real butcher (look for lots of tats and facial hair) should be rewarded with some slabs of this bony, fatty, but richly flavored meat.

Since I hadn't cooked this in ages, I decided to play it safe, and use a time-tested Mediterranean-inspired spice rub, and it could not have worked more perfectly. The exotic spices made the rich meat seem even more decadent, all of which was nicely balanced by the vinegar sauce's astringency.

A bright green chimichurri sauce on a well-marbled piece of meat is one of the best things ever, and this dish definitely borrows from that playbook. It's not like you'd want to eat a spoon of the condiment right out of the bowl, but slathered over the glistening meat, it's a thing of beauty.

I hope that if you are a fan of lamb, and you haven't tried lamb breast yet, that you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 pieces lamb breast, about 3 1/2 pounds

For the spice rub:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs seasoning (dried rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano blend)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon paprika

For the sauce: (note - this is all "to taste")

1/2 cup packed chopped Italian parsley

2 cloves crushed garlic

1/3 cup white wine vinegar, more as needed

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 or 2 teaspoon honey

juice from 1 lemon

pinch of salt

North South East West Carolina-Style Barbecue Sauce

The only thing I know for sure about Carolina-style barbecue sauce is that there isn't one. The base is usually always vinegar and pepper, but then depending on which part of the state(s) you're dealing with, there are countless additions and variations.

This one features fresh apple to add a little extra something, but otherwise it's a fairly straightforward, totally in-your-face with tang and heat barbecue sauce recipe. It was fantastic on a molasses-brined pork chop that you'll see in an upcoming video.

One note for those of you that pay particularly close attention to these videos; you may wonder why I mash the cooked apples in the saucepan, when I'm going to put the sauce in the blender anyway. Extreme sauce ugliness, that's why.

I was originally going to leave the sauce unblended, with the hopes the apple would basically disintegrate into the sauce, but when I stirred in the mustard the sauce suddenly looked like the opposite of something you'd want to eat.

Happily a quick trip to the blender made everything okay again, and I was blessed with a superb summer grilling sauce. It's beautiful for basting, or as a can't-miss condiment. It was really nice on these chops, but I think it shines brightest with pulled pork. I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 apple, peeled, cubed

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

Fresh Peach Chutney – A Sunny Sauce for Summer

I can't think of many cold sauces that are as versatile as this fresh peach chutney. Whether it's used to top a ham and cheese snack cracker, as seen in the video, or brushed on grilled pork chops, or used as a topping for vanilla ice cream (true story), this easy fresh peach sauce will help make your summer entertaining a little sunnier.

This recipe is part of a series of eight snack videos I did for Kellogg's Snackpicks.com. When you click on the video player below, you'll be taken to their website to view the videos and get the written instructions. If you have questions or comments, please come on back and post them here. Thanks, and enjoy!

Does this Hollandaise-less Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict Make Me a Traitor?

I'm probably not the first person you think of when discussing adapting high-calorie recipes into lower fat ones. I know I've done a few, but generally I believe one should make something in its full fat glory, or not at all. I hate to break it to you, but shredded, steamed chicken with fat-free yogurt on quinoa chips isn’t really "nachos."

This hollandaise-less smoked salmon eggs Benedict, however, has me on the other side of that argument. As promised, here is a video recipe for the plate you saw in the How to Poach Eggs demo. You'll have to take my word for it when I say that despite the absence of the traditional hollandaise sauce, it was really, really good.

As I explain in the clip, the dill butter spread, and the yolks from the poached eggs combine to form a fine substitute for the world's highest calorie sauce. I think this idea can be adapted to feature any number of compound butters and meat combinations, and I'd love to hear about any such breakfast experiments. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for the Dill Butter:

1/2 stick butter

2 tablespoons dill

1 teaspoon lemon zest

salt, fresh ground black pepper, and cayenne to taste

Chicken with Chipotle and Green Onion Gravy - Practice Makes Pan Sauces Perfect

I know it's Easter Sunday, but the show must go on. I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this delicious chicken with chipotle and green onion gravy recipe, but this week is so insanely busy, I wanted to get it up as soon as it was ready.

Nothing groundbreaking this time, just a simple exercise in pan gravy perfection. If I only had one day to teach someone how to cook, you better believe this archetypal sauce recipe would be one of the first things I'd demonstrate.

This entire procedure takes about 20 minutes, and the basic technique can be adapted countless ways. I usually avoid those yawn-inspiring, "Easy Weeknight Dinner" recipe lists, but this fits that description perfectly.

It's also a great random chicken recipe generator. You could make this same dish every Thursday night for a year, and by switching up the flavorings and spices, never have the exact same recipe twice. You can also recklessly rotate the starchy, gravy-absorbing side dishes, as this shines with any manner of rice, pasta, or potatoes.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your holiday, don't eat too many leftover Easter eggs, and the next time you're looking for an easy weeknight dinner, give this chicken and gravy recipe a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

3/4 cup chicken broth, or as needed to adjust thickness

1/2 teaspoon chipotle, or to taste

2 tablespoons minced green onions

Prick Your Tongue with Chicken Piccata

As with any old recipe, there are numerous theories as to how the dish came to be named. The one I subscribe to claims it's an Italian adaptation of the French word "piquer," which means to prick or poke with something sharp. This makes absolutely no sense, until you taste it.

The "to prick" is apparently a metaphor for the sharp, intensely flavored sauce. Thanks to lots of lemon, capers, and wine, this sauce is about as subtle as a right hook (apologies to non-boxing fans for the reference).

Here, I've demonstrated a very basic version of a recipe that begs for variation. I'll sometimes add minced shallots, or garlic; sometimes I'll use wine, other times just straight lemon. Italian parsley is wonderful as the finishing herb, but switching that out for tarragon or basil will also bring much pleasure.

One note about the chicken: I like to use larger breasts, pounded to about 1/2-inch thick. If you are using small 6-oz chicken breasts, there's no need to pound out. Most versions I've seen call for the meat to be pounded extremely thin, but I believe this comes from the fact that the original recipe used thin veal medallions, aka scaloppini.

At home we have the luxury of a few extra minutes, and I think the slightly thicker chicken gives you a little nicer bite. Anyway, I hope this post "piques" your interest, and you give this quick and delicious recipe a try!

Chicken Piccata Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness

salt and fresh ground black pepper as needed

cayenne to taste

all-purpose flour for dredging

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon capers, drained (tip: for more intense flavor, mince 1 teaspoon of the capers, leaving the rest whole)

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup water or chicken stock

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut in 1/4-in slices

2 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Ditalini with Roasted Tomato Sauce, Oregano, and Goat Cheese - More Than Meets the Eye

At first glance, this roasted tomato sauce recipe may not seem like something that's worth the trouble. That is, until you realize it's actually less work, and about the same amount of time as a stove-top version.

However, don't make this because of any procedural advantages, make it because it tastes awesome. What the hot oven does to the deep red San Marzano tomatoes is a wonder to behold, and produces a pasta sauce with some serious depth of flavor.

After it's post-roast re-hydration, this sauce is ready to rock. This would be amazing for a chicken parmesan or beef pizzaiola, or even more simply showcased, as it is here. The always entertaining ditalini are a perfect medium for the rich sauce, smoky oregano, and creamy, tangy goat cheese.

By the way, this is a great trick when you already have the oven on for roasting some meat or chicken. While your roast is cooking, you can also be making the sauce for your pasta side dish. Also, the sauce will add moisture and aroma to the oven, so it's a win-win. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup good olive oil

28-oz can San Marzano plum tomatoes, regular or packed with basil

1/2 onion, sliced

6 cloves garlic

1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes

2-3 springs fresh oregano

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups cold water

Homemade Crème Fraiche – Nobody's Ever Made it Just Once

Crème fraiche is French for "fresh cream," which makes it one of the most ironically named foods ever, since it's made by leaving cream out in a warm spot until it’s soured and thickened by a growing colony of bacteria. Yeah, fresh.

Regardless, making crème fraiche is very easy and as the title implies, once you taste the magic of homemade sour cream, you'll have a hard time not repeating this somewhat esoteric exercise. Sure it takes a couple days, but the effort is minimal for such a marvelous payoff.

As I mention in the video, besides the amazing taste and luxurious texture, maybe the best thing about crème fraiche is its ability to be cooked. Because of it's composition and fat content, it doesn’t curdle and separate when you heat it like sour cream.

This makes it an incredibly versatile addition to countless recipes. I can't think of many pan sauces that don’t benefit from a spoon or two. Yesterday on this blog, you saw it stirred into fried rice. Next week, you'll see it turn an ordinary pan of braised beef into a world-class Stroganoff. I could go on and on, and for SEO purposes I probably should, but you get the idea.

As long as your jars and utensils are very clean, preferably sterilized, there isn’t a lot that can go wrong. Be sure to get your hands on the best, freshest cream you can find. In the supermarket you'll want to look for "pasteurized," not "ultra-pasteurized" heavy whipping cream. Also, be sure to use cultured buttermilk otherwise you’re going to be waiting a full day to see nothing happen.

By the way, I'm extremely proud of this video recipe and blog post, but not for the usual reasons. It's because I didn’t make one single Randy Marsh joke! You South Park fans know what I'm talking about, and those of you that don’t should really check out this crème fraiche-themed episode. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons cultured buttermilk

Mix together and leave in a warm spot (about 70-75 degrees F.) for 24 hours, or until thick. Refrigerate for 24 hours before using. Should last a week or two. 

Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin Medallions – Half the Fat, All the Inauthenticity

Whenever you see those headlines like, "Worst Take-Out Food Choices Ever," on the various websites, you can be sure that sweet and sour pork will be near the top of the list. 

That's because it's usually made from fatty pieces of pork shoulder, cut into cubes, dipped in a thick batter, deep-fried, and finally coated with a super-sugary, thick, starchy sauce.

I'm no shrinking violet around high-calorie food, but classic Chinese-American take-out sweet and sour pork is basically deep-fried, sugar-coated, fatty pork chunks. And yes, once in a while, it's pretty damn awesome (like twice a decade).

For a more reasonable way to enjoy the same basic flavors, I think this pork tenderloin version is a nice alternative. As I say in the video, pork tenderloin is lean, very easy to cook (as long as you can get past those ridiculous fears about slightly pink pork), and the sauce takes about two minutes to prep.

By the way, this is not simply fake Chinese food; it's actually fake, fake Chinese food. The aforementioned death nuggets we call sweet and sour pork are not even remotely close to any kind of authentic sweet and sour preparation in real Chinese cuisine. Or at least that’s what I heard Anthony Bourdain say one time. Now that's research.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this plate of florescent food, and if you're a fan of the Chinese take-out version, I believe you will too. Also, I would suggest tossing in some green onions (the white parts) along with the garlic, and save the green tops to garnish with as I did with the chives. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin Ingredients:

For the sauce:

1/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar

reserved pineapple juice from can

2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup chopped green onions, white parts, optional

2 teaspoons Asian hot chili sauce (sambal or sriracha), or to taste

1/4 cup water or chicken broth to thin sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce, or to taste

For the pork medallions:

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed, cut, flattened into four medallions

salt and fresh ground black pepper as needed

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon butter

1 can (8-oz) pineapple chunks, drained, juice reserved

4 cups cooked white rice

2 tablespoon chopped green onion tops or chives to garnish