Spaghetti squash is easy to prepare, and it forms pasta-like strands when you rake the cooked squash with a fork. Sage provides the anchor for a hearty winter pesto that pairs beautifully with the squash and white beans; prep the pesto while the squash roasts. (I also love spaghetti squash with our Easy All-Purpose Tomato Sauce.) Serve as a side dish or with crusty bread for a meatless winter dinner.
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As Jonathan Bloom notes in his book, American Wasteland: How America Wastes Nearly Half of Its Food (DaCapo Press), bunches of fresh herbs are among the most common items languishing in our refrigerator crispers. Chances are, you bought some fresh herbs, only needing to chop a tablespoon or so for a recipe, and tucked the rest away with every intention of using it up. Pesto is easy to improvise with whatever herbs you have on hand. In this version, sage and parsley provide the anchor for a hearty winter pesto. Serve it over pasta, as a condiment with roast poultry or fish, or spread over crusty bread.
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Butternut squash and a whole-grain risotto are hearty match made in heaven. I came across this risotto technique in the wonderful Ideas in Food blog, by Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot, who are also the authors of the new book Ideas In Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work (Clarkson Potter). They experimented with soaking arborio rice, then adding hot stock, and cooking it for 6 minutes to yield wonderful, creamy risotto. It’s a great technique to use with whole grains like farro or barley to reduce the cooking time yet enjoy creamy risotto-like results with tender yet al dente grains. In fact, this is now the only I make whole-grain risotto. The plan-ahead involves nothing more than putting the grains in a pot to soak before you go to work in the morning. To make the meal come together even more quickly on a weeknight, peel and cube the squash the night before.
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This spin on classic chicken noodle soup is somewhat of an imagined amalgamation of my favorite Asian soups: the star anise-laced Hanoi beef noodle soup and Chinese wonton soup. The flavors bring both comfort and cold-fighting compounds to bring serious “ahhhh” to flu season. To serve, you’ll put paper-thin slices in bowls and top with the flavorful broth. The piping-hot broth will cook the chicken by the time it reaches the table.
2 unpeeled onions, halved and studded with 3 cloves apiece
5 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
7 pounds beef bones
3 pounds chicken carcasses
6 quarts cold water
2 carrots, chopped into 3 pieces each
8 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 (1-inch) pieces of ginger, bruised with the heel of your knife
5 dried Asian red chiles
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
6 ounces rice vermicelli, cooked 3 minutes in boiling water and drained
2 chicken breast halves, cut into paper thin slices across the grain (freeze for 20 minutes to make slicing easier)
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
Char the onions and garlic in a large stockpot over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, until well-colored but not burnt. Add the beef bones, chicken carcasses and water, and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam, gray crud and fat as they rise to the surface. Boil for 45 minutes to an hour, or until there isn’t much foam being produced any longer.
Add carrots, star anise, cinnamon, ginger, chiles and salt. Lower heat so the broth gurgles a few times each second. Let the broth cook at this low heat overnight or for an least 8 hours.
Skim broth one more time and strain through a fine mesh strainer (a Chinois or “China cap”) or a colander lined with cheesecloth. Stir in fish sauce. Rinse out the pot, return the broth to the pot, and bring back to a boil before serving.
To serve, divide vermicelli, chicken breast, cilantro and green onion between 8 large bowls. Ladle broth into each and finish with a squeeze of lime.
Serves 8
This is inspired by my favorite vegetarian sandwich at Chez Lulu, a cafe and bakery in Birmingham, Alabama. I love the combo of thinly sliced sweet pear with pungent goat cheese, lightly dressed greens and toasted nuts. I used a plain version of our Knead-less Olive-Rosemary Bread, but any type of whole grain bread will do the trick.
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We’re calling this a “butter” but it’s really more of a cross between butter and sauce–a thin butter or a thick sauce, if you will. It’s inspired by an abundance of gorgeous pears in a holiday gift box and adapted from a recipe of Farmgirl Fare, a delightful blog that chronicles life on a 240-acre farm in rural Missouri. Most of the sweetness comes from the ripe pears themselves (any variety will do here), but a touch of brown sugar adds a caramel-y touch while the whole star anise brightens the overall flavor. It’s dandy spread on toast or dolloped on waffles or pancakes, and it would be a delicious condiment with our Spiced Roast Pork.
4 pounds ripe pears (any variety), cored and cut into chunks
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of sea salt
3 whole star anise pods
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Place pears in a food processor; pulse until pureed (depending on the capacity of your processor, you may need to do this in batches). Add sugar, juice and salt. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13-inch (4-quart) baking dish. Add star anise. Bake at 300 degrees F for 3 hours or until thick, stirring every 30 minutes. Cool completely (mixture will continue to thicken as it cools). Refrigerate up to 1 week.
Yields about 4 cups
Making a big ole pot of hoppin John is New Year’s Day tradition in the South and features two good-luck foods to start the new year: pork and legumes. Our version calls for brown basmati rice so you’ll start the year with a healthy whole grain (and because the rice swells as it cooks, it’s also thought to boost prosperity). This time of year, you can find containers of presoaked black-eyed peas in the produce section of many supermarkets. You also can substitute 2 cups cooked peas or thawed frozen peas. Serve with our Quick Collards (due to their color, greens are thought to bring money in the new year) and Skillet Corn Bread with Tomatoes and Sage.
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Traditionally, collards are cooked with pork fat and simmered for an hour or two. Our rendition calls for thinly (very thinly, as in a chiffonade) slicing the greens so they saute quickly and maintain their bright green color. They cook so fast that you can enjoy them as an any-night side dish, and this technique works with other hearty greens, such as chard or kale.
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This is an ideal winter cocktail to ring in the new year. The grapefruit juice contributes acidity, sweetness and seasonal flavor, the licorice-flavored absinthe lends a little bitterness and the Champagne adds the must-have sparkle. Absinthe–a k a the Green Fairy–is a powerful liqueur made from wormwood, and it’s making a comeback in artisanal cocktails. If you can’t find it, substitute another anise-flavored liqueur, such as Pernod.
2 ounces pink grapefruit juice
1/2 teaspoon absinthe OR Pernod
3 to 4 ounces Champagne or sparkling wine, chilled
Wedge of grapefruit, for garnish
Pour juice and absinthe into a Champagne flute. Top with the Champagne or sparkling wine. Garnish with the wedge of grapefruit.
Serves 1
It’s amazing what you can pull together when you’ve spent time creating tasty basics. Slow-cooked duck legs with fall-off-the-bone meat can live in the freezer until you’re ready for them, and lentils come together in a flash and can keep nearly all week. The result? One nourishing entree in the form of a fresh frisee salad.
2 Revelationary Duck Confit legs
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 heads frisée, torn
1/4 cup Mustard-Shallot Vinaigrette
2 cups All-Purpose French Lentils
Place duck legs in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat and crisp on all sides, about 8 minutes total. Remove to a cutting board, pull meat from bone and shred. Add onion to pan and sauté for 5 minutes, until golden brown.
In the meantime, toss the frisée with the vinaigrette and mound into 4 bowls. Scatter evenly with lentils, onions and duck, and serve.
Serves 4
