Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto with Wilted Spinach, Leeks and Chinese Sausage

Congee, you know what I mean? Except not. First, I'll admit that this was not the most convenient meal to make on a weeknight--but it can be done. Just remember to pop the squash in the oven as soon as possible, then begin the rest of your preparation and cooking. That way it should be soft enough by the time the risotto is ready for it to be added. Timing is everything.

Serious Eats gets in a Pickle

Just a friendly tip for all those who are dying to learn more about pickling from three of the best people around: check out Serious Eats this week (the most fun, informative and friendly site for those serious about noshing) for my story and you'll see what this concoction is all about. And have a great Monday!

Beef Shanks Braised with Fennel and Mushrooms

Winter was a good time for oxtails when I was growing up. My dad was fond of the Basque oxtail recipe in Jeff Smith's The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors, a really good soupy dish perfect for sopping up with warm crusty bread. There wasn't much meat on those starburst-shaped discs of bone; it was about the flavor, and of course the gelatinous cartilage that felt slightly more jellyfish-like than fat in your mouth.

Eating in at your favorite restaurants

My friend Sean, an avid cooker, served up one mean lamb and cranberry meat pie last weekend that he’d done a fair share of hunting for. Well, the lamb meat itself came from the Farmer’s Market in Fort Greene Park. But the hunt for the recipe was a twisted road. A few months ago he’d purchased a glazed earthenware English pie dish at an antiques store in New Hampshire. He decided that the best meat pie he’d had was at Tea & Sympathy, a longstanding neighborhood favorite English café in the West Village.

Molten Chocolate Business

Warning: this post contains graphic images not suitable for children under 17 Who had time for Valentine's Day in the middle of last week? Not I. I'm not the only person I know who'd opted to postpone Valentine's Day to a more convenient night this year. But even though I had a long weekend, things kept popping up; people from out of town kept coming to town; there was nothing romantic about Chinese New Year; and then the whole thing was put off until practically a week later. And yet my Netflix queue still hasn't caught up--I'd meant for Chocolat to get here in time.

Pigging Out on Chinese New Year

At the festivities on Mott St. on Sunday

Chickpea Leek Soup

In celebration of "soup month" February and all the cold, soup-worthy weather we've been having recently, here's my contribution to Soup's On at A Veggie Venture. It's funny how much the texture of warm chickpeas can parallel that other vegetable commonly paired with leek in a soup--the potato. While leeks cook up insistently savory, the chickpea balances as a more neutral, slightly nutty accoutrement. Thinking more or less of hummous, a little cumin went into this, soft roasted garlic, a squirt of lemon juice for a tang of refreshment--and although this could very well have been left out, I did think that a small dose of sesame paste added an extra layer of character to the soup. I should add that I didn't have the Middle Eastern type of sesame paste, tahini, in my kitchen, but a jar of Chinese sesame taste, which is slightly sweeter, with a thicker consistency. Sesame can be a strong, overpowering presence so a tablespoon was all that was needed for a subtle, lurking note. A bright splash of herbs later, and I had a vegan soup that could be at once Middle Eastern, Italian (as many bean soups are), French, and Chinese. Weird, huh?

New Toys

What am I going to do with you, good-looking? How do I treat myself? Let me count the ways. Trudging my way from the camp of the kitchen toy have nots to the enviable haves, this week I made a soaring leap with the purchase of a double-pronged sword—er, blade: this Cuisinart food processor and blender.

Pork. Chop. Noodles.

Slurrrp. I do miss a hearty bowl of pork chop soup noodles, the kind you might get for $3 at any number of noodle shops in the lower east realms of Chinatown. Most people think of soup noodles as a wintery dish, but I've seen them devoured by all kinds of people as a summer lunch, shoveling yards of noodles down the chute as perspiration threatens to dot the soup.

Better Tuna Noodle Casserole

I watched Jacques Pepin make a dish on public television that was so appealing for a cold weeknight, a casserole of pasta baked with peas, corn and diced French ham in a simple beschamel with cheese sprinkled on top. He put it in the broiler--one of the most overlooked part of your kitchen, according to Mark Bittman--to brown a warm, cheesy crust on the top, and voila! Gooey and liquid inside, contrasting crisp. Countryish warm fuzzy feelings abound.

Camaje Cooking Class: A Taste of Thai

As a Christmas gift, I was given a one-night class at Camaje cooking classes. The course for the evening at the West Village French bistro that my benefactor chose to enroll me in was "A Taste of Thai." This was the first cooking class I had taken since seventh grade home economics, and I couldn’t wait.

Sweet Potato Chips and Sour Green Dip

This is probably two days past the point to bother saying, but I don’t really do football. I just don’t watch it. And I don’t feel left out of an annual popular culture event by not going to a Super Bowl party, sitting on a friend’s couch and routing for a team, catching the first glimpse of all the “great” commercials, and snacking on endless bowls and mountains of appetizers: tasty fried, stuffed, dipped, blanketed morsels. Okay, maybe I feel left out of the snacking.

Red Wine Pork Stroganoff

For the coldest weekend to date this winter in New York, I had a mind for stew. With far too many types fighting for attention inside it. Beef bourguignon was foremost, then marsalas or perhaps a scallopini, then I thought of making a scallopini of pork medallions instead of veal (which I haven't eaten in ages, and most of my peers don't eat as a rule). And then it all kind of jumbled into one dish, finished with sour cream. So I called it a stroganoff. I don't know.