Clove-Studded Honey-Glazed Baked Ham

There are so many things to be cooked in this world. That may seem like a really obvious statement, but it's true, and sometimes that means that seemingly common dishes don't get made.

For example, I realized recently that, while I eat ham all the time and have all my life, I'd never actually prepared a ham myself. It's always something I get at other people's homes during the holidays or sliced on sandwich. I didn't even know how or what to buy to make a ham.

Turns out, it's really quite simple. Most of the time, hams you buy at the grocery store are already cooked, which makes the cooking you're going to be doing with it really easy. Most hams are cured in brine (the alternative being a dry brine), so they are nice and juicy. The trick then is not heating them in the oven too long, since you don't want to dry them out.

There's also two basic cuts: shank end or rump end (also referred to as "butt" or "sirloin" end). The rump end is leaner, but the usual shape of its bone makes it a little harder to carve, so many people prefer shank. I ended up with rump and frankly I didn't find it that hard to carve. If you can carve a Thanksgiving turkey, you can carve a ham. Of course there's also the sort-of-pre-carved spiral-cut ham, but I was concerned that all those open cuts would make it more likely to dry out.

When I think of flavors I like with ham, two immediately come to mind: honey, which is amazing with ham and clove, the spiky little spice that adds a decorative look to the outside of the ham but also great flavor. This recipe, which I found on the McCormick's spice company's website, was just what I was looking for.

I scored the ham with a traditional criss-cross pattern and also stuck whole cloves in the meat all over. This ham was so tasty: juicy, sweet and a just a bit spicy.

Clove-Studded Honey-Glazed Baked Ham
Adapted from a recipe by McCormick's

8 lb. precooked ham, shank or butt end
Whole cloves (about 40-50)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Set ham in a roasting pan lined with aluminum foil. Using a sharp knife, score the ham making straight parallel cuts about 1 1/2-inches apart from one side of the ham to the other. Make another series of parallel cuts that intersection the first set of cuts to make a diamond pattern. Be careful not to make the cuts too deep: they should cut through the skin into the layer of fat below it but not into the meat. Use a thin skewer to poke holes in the center of each diamond and place a clove in each hole. Bake the ham for 1 hour.

3. Combine brown sugar, honey, water and ground cloves in a small bowl. Remove the ham from the oven and pour the sugar-honey-clove mixture over the ham. Continue baking the ham another half hour, basting the ham with the honey mixture every 10 minutes. Transfer the ham to a cutting board and let it rest 15 minutes before carving.

Restaurant: The Partisan (Washington, D.C.)

There's been a lot of talk lately about how restaurants are turning their attention more toward vegetables. Vegetables are displacing meat at the center of the dinner plate. Eleven Madison Park replaced beef with carrots in its tartare. Beefsteak, José Andrés restaurant empire's fast-casual expansion, doesn't have a lick of meat in sight.

With all these vegans and vegetarians running around--I count many among my friends and family--loving meat is becoming akin to a quiet embarrassment. Like admitting you still enjoy smoking or reality television. While I'm not into either of those things, and we have cut back on our meat consumption in recent years, I do still sometimes love a good meat dish. For those days, there's The Partisan.

You can fly your meat-loving flag high at this restaurant, an offshoot of Red Apron Butcher, a small local butcher shop and sandwich chain that has expanded from its first location in Union Market to Merrifield and Penn Quarter. It's a great place for lunch: I'm particularly fond of the Butcher's Salad with salami, greens, beans, olives, sundried tomatoes and grana cheese, and the Porkstrami, with its pastrami-style pork and bacon-braised sauerkraut, is a local legend among sandwiches.

A wall of sundries separates the Red Apron Butcher shop from The Partisan, the restaurant space that extends beyond a black curtain in a large rear bar. It's an attractive space decked out in dark wood, exposed brick and red leather. With all those hard surfaces, it's also quite noisy, so be prepared to lean in or raise your voice.

Fried chicken skins

We started with a round of cocktails, both of which were excellent. I immediately fell in love with the  Maybe a Joyful Noise, an inventive cousin of the Manhattan made with Old Forester bourbon, Cocchi Barolo Chianti (an Italian digestif with quinine made from barolo wine), Bonal (a French aperitif, also with quinine) and orange and chocolate bitters. It's a wonderful complex, bitter-sweet drink, among the best cocktails I've had this year (in a year when I've had some pretty amazing cocktails). Chris went with the winning Career Opportunities, a mixture of wheat whiskey, Amaro Montenegro, Dolin Blanc and orange bitters. My initial thought that we'd switch to wine with the meal was axed in favor of another round of these great drinks.

The Partisan menu is divided into themes: snacks, pasta, vegetables, seafood, poultry and small game, beef and lamb, and pork. The meat sections are divided into small-, medium- and large-sized portions, which our server explains allows you to design a small-plates style dinner with lots of options or a family-style meal designed around larger anchors.

Arugula and fig salad

From the snacks selection, who chose the fried chicken skins served with chili powder, a wonderful idea that acknowledges what many of us have known for a long time: when it comes to fried chicken, the skin is the best part. Accompanying such a clearly sinful dish was something more wholesome: a delicious arugula salad with fresh figs, bacon and blue cheese.

Slow-cooked pork shoulder with sides

For our main course, we went the family-style route and ordered the slow-cooked pork shoulder. We chose wisely. The meat was tender and flavorful and, although it didn't need to side of pomegranate reduction, the sauce added a nice sweetness to the meat. The sweet potato puree was also tasty, although I think they may have forgotten the promised ancho chili powder, as we detected zero heat. The Brussels sprouts slaw dressed in mustard was also quite good. Thankfully, there's some buns for soaking up the wonderful juice pooled around the meat.

Fried apple pie

Although we were pretty sated at this point, it was a special occasion, so I didn't want to pass up dessert. We opted for the fried apple pie. On the one hand, this sounds like a unique dessert. On the other, we realized that's what McDonald's used to serve until they starting baking their pies (although I hear they may be bringing the fried version back). Needless to say, this is clearly superior to anything you can get at McDonald's. It doesn't hurt that it's served with candied pecans, whipped cream and salted caramel ice cream.

The Partisan excels at delivering the bold flavors you'd expect from a meat-focused restaurant. This isn't just a glorified butcher shop, but an honest-to-goodness real restaurant with a good menu and service. Despite its location in a particularly competitive neighborhood for good eating, The Partisan has distinguished itself as a worthy destination.

The Partisan, 709 D Street NW (between 7th and 8th Streets), Washington, D.C. (Penn Quarter). (202) 524-5322. Reservations: Open Table.

Changing the Sausage Recipe

Next week my blog will celebrate another anniversary, and with 3 years behind me, I've decided to change my approach a bit.

Up to now, I've been posting almost every weekday, generally grouping recipes around a theme for the week. Interspersed among the recipe posts have been restaurant reviews and a weekly look at others' food writing that started as Food (Section) Fight and morphed into The Feed.

For a long time, I really liked this pace. I considered my blog more of a cooking journal where I could share with you what I'm making, including what works, what doesn't, what's new, what's an old favorite, etc. I've had a lot of fun learning new recipes and coming up with a few on my own. For expanding my cooking repertoire, this approach has served me well.

Now with a decent collection of recipes under my belt, I've decided to shake up that approach. I want to put more focus on each post with a greater emphasis on creative cooking and more thoughtful writing. I want to take more time to think about what makes a certain dish or restaurant interesting and special. There have been some weeks where I feel like I really have to crank out the stories to get them up in time. I look back and I see mistakes and missed opportunities and I don't like that.

So that's how the sausage has been made at Cook In / Dine Out, and I'm ready to try a new recipe. My plan is to take more time with each post. I still anticipate posting frequently--definitely every week and probably multiple times per week, but not every day. That will give me more time to make each post special and (hopefully) less error-ridden.

Also, I am discontinuing The Feed. Although I like that it forces me to keep up with current food news, I don't like that it means I'm always scrambling on Tuesday nights to get the post done. I still plan to keep reading from my favorite food news sources (like the Washington Post Food section), but I won't be sharing them on my blog as much (follow me on Twitter and Facebook, if you don't already, as I plan to do more sharing of interesting stories there).

I also hope to interact more with readers. If you read one of my stories, I hope you will leave a comment. Let me know what you like and what you don't. If you have a question, I'll do my best to answer it as soon as possible. Getting to know other food and cooking fanatics has been one of the best outcomes of having this site. I hope to do more of that this year.

So to turn this post's metaphor into something literal, I'm now actually going to talk about changing sausage.

I made pizza for us on New Year's Eve this week. At the Giant grocery store, I found breakfast sausage, hot sausage and sage sausage, but I couldn't find any Italian sausage--the type with fennel seed and spice that you usually find on pizza. Given that making sausage "Italian" seems mostly to be a matter of spices, I decided to try a quick conversion.

Although there are recipes out there for making Italian sausage from scratch, there are also quite a few that do what I did: mix a few seasonings into pre-ground bulk sausage. I recommend starting with something basic: I used Jimmy Dean regular sausage as my base. From there, I added fennel seed, red chili pepper flakes, garlic, parsley and oregano. This "doctored" sausage was exactly what I wanted for my pizza with homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano-reggiano, caramelized onion and fresh basil. The recipe below is enough for two personal-sized pizzas. Feel free to scale up as needed.

Quick Italian Sausage
Adapted from multiple recipes

1/2 lb. bulk regular sausage
1 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
Pinch of red chili pepper flakes (or more for hot sausage)

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly with a spoon or your hands (your hands work better).

2. For use on pizza, form into small balls, about 1/2-inch wide and cook in a medium frying pan over medium heat until browned on all sides.

Related

Pizza Margherita

Ramen Noodle Pork Tacos

Culinary mash-ups have become a hot fad. The most talked about has to be the cronut, Dominique Ansel's creation that's part croissant part doughnut and has people lining up down the block every morning to snag one from his Soho bakery.

One of the more unusual mashups popping up is the ramen burger, basically a hamburger but with buns made from ramen noodles. Given the saucy condiments burgers are served with, the loose structure of noodles strikes me as a messy bun substitute, but I thought they might work well for tacos.

I've seen recipes for ramen tacos where ramen is just another taco filler. I wanted something more. I wanted ramen to be the taco. Inspired by recipes for ramen pancakes, I set about creating a recipe for ramen tacos consisting of a noodle tortilla and a filling inspired by other ramen soup ingredients.

Making the ramen noodle tortilla

For the ramen tortilla, I used a lot of egg and a little flour as a binding agent for the noodles. These ingredients also filled in the spaces between the noodles, preventing the filling from dribbling out, which would make for messy eating. To help parcel the dough better, I broke the noodles up before cooking them. I cooked them a minute shy of the package directions, figuring they would cook a bit more in dough form while in the hot pan. I was able to make three taco-size tortillas from a single package of ramen.

I wanted the filling to be inspired by ramen soup, but not a slave to it. Pork is a common ramen ingredient, which I used in ground form, since it's more taco-like. I also used shiitake mushrooms, which are also common, along with scallions, although I added them raw as a final topping.

Cooking the pork and vegetable filling

Since slaws also make a great taco filling, I finished the tacos with a simple napa cabbage slaw flavored with the Asian touches of rice vinegar and dark sesame oil.

So, how did they taste? Not bad. The noodles were a bit bland. You could incorporate the seasoning packet, although I think that might make them too salty. Instead, I've recommended adding a pinch of kosher salt. The taco filling was fantastic, albeit a bit greasy, so be sure to drain the ground pork after it has browned.

Slaw topping

As far as cooking time, well, cooking noodles then making tortillas while also prepping and cooking the filling and assembling the slaw is not exactly something you'll want to do in a hurry. Nonetheless, if you have a ramen lover, a taco lover or ideally both, I'm sure they would love you for serving this. It's a foodie hipster's dream mash-up.

Ramen Noodle Pork Tacos

Ramen "tortillas":

2 (3 oz.) packages ramen noodles
1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of kosher salt

Pork filling:

1 lb. ground pork
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, shredded
4-5 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1 tsp. vegetable oil oil
1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp. minced garlic
Pinch of red chili pepper flakes
4 tbsp. low-sodium tamari
1 tbsp. dry sherry
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. water
Fresh ground white pepper, to taste

Slaw topping:

2 cups shredded napa cabbage
1/2 tbsp. rice vinegar
Juice from 1/2 of a lime (about a tablespoon)
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. dark sesame oil

3 scallions (green part), sliced

Make the ramen "tortillas":

1. Break the ramen blocks up into pieces about 2 inches wide. Boil the ramen noodles 1 minute less than package directions (I boiled mine for 2 minutes, since the package said to do it for 3). Drain thoroughly and set aside.

2. Whisk together the eggs, flour and salt. Add the noodles and stir with a spoon (don't use a whisk) until the noodles are thoroughly combined with the egg mixture.

3. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the oil. When hot, scoop 1/3 cup of noodle dough into the pan. Use a small spatula to immediately and carefully spread the dough into a circle of about 5 to 6 inches in diameter, being careful not to create any holes in the middle. Cook for about 2 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. Flip and cook another minute until lightly browned on the other side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate then place in a taco holder (if you have one). Repeat with the remaining dough, which should make 6 tortillas in total (3 tortillas per ramen package; multiply the recipe as desired).

Make the filling:

4. Brown ground pork in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Remove cooked pork with a slotted spoon, reserving the pan drippings (remove any in excess of 1 tablespoon). Increase heat to medium-high. Add onion and carrot and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the shiitake mushrooms and continue sautéing until browned, another 5 minutes. Remove from pan.

5. Add canola oil to pan. When hot, add the ginger, garlic and red chili pepper flakes. Saute briefly, about a minute. Combine the soy sauce, sherry, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, water and fresh-ground white pepper in a small bowl and then add to the pan. When the mixture bubbles, reduce heat to medium low and return cooked pork and vegetables to pan, stirring to combine. Remove from heat.

Make the slaw topping:

6. Place the shredded cabbage in a large bowl. Combine the vinegar, lime juice, vegetable oil and sesame oil in a small bowl and pour over the cabbage. Toss to combine and set aside until ready to use.

Assemble tacos:

7. Place a big spoonful of pork filling on each ramen tortilla, top with slaw and sliced scallions and serve, preferably in a taco holder.

Pressure Cooker Barbecue Spareribs

One of the greatest uses of the pressure cooker is to quickly tenderize cuts of meat. Spareribs can roast in the oven for hours. In a pressure cooker, they're nice and tender in less than a half hour.

To make this recipe as simple as possible, I used a store-bought barbecue sauce for this recipe. I selected a good one: Stubb's Hickory Bourbon.

As I mentioned on Monday, I did have an instance of my pressure cooker not coming up to pressure as expected, possibly either because a valve was clogged or the lid wasn't on right. It happened when I made this dish. Because of that, it boiled for a long time before I fixed the problem and got it cooking under high pressure. So when I made this, I only cooked it under pressure for 15 minutes. But I think 20 minutes is probably more reasonable if you're doing this right.

That's the amount of time in the source recipe for pork loin ribs (better known in the U.S. as "baby back ribs") from the Pressure Cooker Cookbook that I used to inform this dish. I changed the dish in a few ways by substituting spareribs, browning the meat first and changing the sauce a little.

I served these ribs with truffled mac & cheese and simply prepared collard greens.

Pressure Cooker Barbecue Spareribs
Based on Pork Loin Ribs with Barbecue Sauce from The Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Laura Washburn

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
4 lb. pork spareribs, cut into sections with 2 to 4 ribs
1 cup barbecue sauce, plus additional for basting and serving (I used Stubb's Hickory Bourbon)
1 cup water
1 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. seasoned salt (or to taste)
3-4 scallions, greens sliced on a diagonal

1. Heat vegetable oil in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat. Brown spareribs in batches, about 2 minutes per side. Set ribs aside as they are browned.

2. Add the barbecue sauce, water, honey and seasoned salt to the pot. Place the ribs in the pot, turning to coat with the sauce. Lock the lid into place and cook over medium-high heat until high pressure is reached. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook at high pressure for 20 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain pressure. Use a quick-release method (using a release valve or the cold-water method) to quickly depressurize the pressure cooker. Carefully remove the lid to vent any remaining steam away from you.

3. Preheat oven broiler with oven rack about 7 inches from the broiler. Remove the ribs from the pressure cooker and transfer to a baking sheet with the meatier side facing up (you might want to line it with aluminum foil). Brush the rib racks with additional barbecue sauce. Broil for about 3-5 minutes to brown the tops (watch to prevent burning). Serve topped with a few scallion slices and with some additional sauce on the side.

Best of 2013: Main Dishes

Experiments with brined roast chicken, an amazing beef stew and a host of broiled salmon entrees were among my favorite main dishes this year.

Beef and Pork

What makes Jacques Pepin's Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce so good? Perhaps it's the combination of pearl onions, baby carrots and mushrooms with no potatoes. Or the touch of pancetta (or bacon, which I used). Or maybe that the wine cooks slowly in the oven with a whole bottle of wine. Regardless, it was my favorite beef dish this year. Truly exquisite. Other good beef dishes included the Beef Wellington with Gorgonzola, a perennial Christmas tradition in our house, and this Traditional Beef Stroganoff, which I adapted from several recipes seeking an "authentic" recipe for old-school Beef Stroganoff.

My favorite pork dish was these Sweet and Sticky Baby Back Ribs that appeared in The Washington Post, a wonderful indoor way to make flavorful summer ribs. I also enjoyed Le Pigeon (Portland) Chef Gabriel Rucker's recipe for Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Thyme and Bacon and my simple weeknight dinner recipe for Orange Pork Stir Fry with Ginger and Chard.

Chicken and Turkey

I got experimental with chicken this year. Seeking to replicate one of my favorite restaurant dishes, the roast chicken at Palena, I made Spice-Brined Roast Chicken, which turned out fairly close to what you get at the restaurant. Wanting to bring the smoky flavors of outdoor barbecue into the kitchen, another brining experiment yielded this tasty Smoked-Brined Oven BBQ Chicken. Lastly, taking advantage of seasonal sweet corn, I came up with these Roasted Corn and Chicken Enchiladas.

Apart from Thanksgiving, I didn't do much with turkey this year, although we did enjoy the Thanksgiving Leftovers Tacos I invented to use of all those great Thanksgiving dishes.

Fish

Broiled salmon is something I turn to again and again, since it's so easy to prepare quickly during the week and lends itself well to a variety of flavors. This year, I experimented more with Asian flavors, like the umami-rich Dashi-Poached Salmon, Garlic-Ginger Broiled Salmon with Miso-Braised Mustard Greens and Mustard Broiled Salmon with Miso and Honey-Braised Greens. Another salmon dish I liked served with greens was Broiled Salmon with White Bean, Kale and Bacon Ragoût. And if tacos are your thing, Salmon Tacos offered a nice variety to my usual broiled fillet.

Vegetables

Most of the pasta and grains best dishes I featured Friday are vegetarian, but there are a couple other great dishes I wanted to include here: The Vegetable Napoleons with Red Wine Sauce, which is a great dish if you want a dramatic presentation, and Yogurt Kuku, a sort of Middle Eastern frittata, that I served alongside a selection of favorite mezze dishes.

Simple Soba Pork Stir Fry

Finally, a stir-fry. This one is really easy. And really good. Since the vegetables are onion, carrot, celery and scallions, you can make it any time of year.

Simple Soba Pork Stir Fry

9 1/2 oz. buckwheat soba noodles
1 lb. ground pork
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, shredded
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
4 scallions, white part chopped, green part sliced on an angle
2 tsp. canola oil
2 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup soy sauce (I use low sodium tamari)
2 tbsp. dry sherry
1 tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. water
Fresh ground white pepper, to taste
Sesame seeds

1. Cook soba noodles in boiling water according to package directions. Drain and set aside until ready to use (I recommend getting the water going and adding the noodles after you've cooked the meat and sautéed the vegetables).

2. Brown ground pork in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Remove cooked pork with a slotted spoon, reserving the pan drippings. Increase heat to medium-high. Add onion, carrot, celery and white part of the scallions and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan.

3. Add 2 tsp. canola oil to pan. When hot, add the ginger and red pepper flakes. Saute briefly, about a minute. Combine soy sauce, sherry, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, water and fresh-ground white pepper and add to stir into ginger. When it bubbles, reduce heat to medium low and return cooked pork and vegetables to pan, stirring to combine. When reheated, turn off the heat. Add cooked noodles and toss together to combine. Serve in bowls topped with the green part of the scallions and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Shutdown Survival Cooking

Most of the recipes I write about on Cook In / Dine Out can be made in less than an hour. While I'm not aiming to write a convenience cooking site, it's just a practical matter: I work full-time and I don't have time to make elaborate meals during the week. When you do see longer recipes on my site, they're probably ones I made on a weekend.

With the federal government having shut down, many home cooks may find themselves with extra time to explore midweek cooking that's more involved than usual. Seize the opportunity to make something special for your family, your sweetie or just yourself. Besides filling time, a tasty cooking project can nourish your body and your soul. Plus, it provides the satisfaction of accomplishing something.

Below are some of the more time-intensive recipes I've featured, sorted by category. I've also discussed ways to cut costs on some of the recipes, since, non-pay status makes splurging on luxury food items feel like, well, a luxury. By their nature though, a lot of recipes that take a long time to cook don't use expensive ingredients. It's the time and care that bring out their good flavors.

Bolognese lasagna, from Marcella Hazan's recipe, is a great afternoon cooking project with common ingredients.

Meats

The complex flavor of bolognese sauce comes from slowly cooking it over the course of the afternoon. This Bolognese-Style Lasagna takes the better part of the day to make, given the time for the sauce, assembling the dish and baking it. The recipe is from Italian-food cook Marcella Hazan, who died this week. Cost savings: nothing in this recipe is particularly expensive except possibly the tomatoes if you buy an imported brand.

Spice-Brined Roast Chicken will easily fill up several days, since it requires an overnight brine, drying time and the actual roasting. Cost savings: there's no getting around the cost of the chicken, although if you substitute whatever spices you have on hand for the brine, that's really the only cost in this dish.

Slow-cooking meats is the sort of day-long process I usually only have time for on the weekend. Slow cooking is a great way to treat pork shoulder which, in the Carnitas Tacos, gets an additional broil in the oven to crisp it up a bit. Although the pork has many hours of inactive cooking, this recipe will fill that time as you prepare the homemade corn tortillas and corn salsa, refried black beans and guacamole garnishes. Cost savings: the pork shoulder is the only major cost of this dish; the masa harina, while seemingly exotic to some, is less expensive (and way tastier) than store-bought corn tortillas. If you don't have a tortillas press, roll the balls of dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment to about 1/8-inch thickness.

Jacques Pepin's Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce gets a good long roast in the oven.

Stews

The very word "stew" implies something that is cooked slowly over a period of many hours. I've made two really incredible stews this year that are well worth their time. Jacques Pepin's Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce is about the best Beef Bourguignon I've ever had. The meat is first browned on the stove and then roasted in the oven with the wine for a long time. The vegetables are cooked separately and then combined in the end. Cost savings: use less-expensive beef chuck in place of flatiron steak; any red wine will work, although make sure it's one you would also drink (don't substitute a so-called "cooking wine"). 

Smoky Red Wine, Pinto Bean and Bacon Soup, an absolutely wonderful recipe by New York Times writer Melissa Clark, still takes hours to prepare, despite the time I shaved off by cooking the beans with a faster method. If you love beans and bacon, this is the best way I've ever had them together. Cost savings: using dried beans is more economical than canned; use any red wine you have on hand, but don't substitute a bad wine or that will be reflected in your dish.

Sweet Corn Agnolotti, from a recipe by Mike Isabella, takes time to prepare the filling, sauce and assembly.

Homemade Pasta

It's so easy to open a box of dried pasta and boil it. It's another thing to make your own. Fresh pasta has a flavor and texture that dried pasta just cannot beat. For something simple, try Fresh Pasta with Homemade Ricotta and Roasted Tomato Sauce (homemade ricotta is another good cooking project). For something more involved, try Toasted Fazzoletti with Mushrooms and Hazelnuts or, if you're really up to a challenge, Sweet Corn Agnolotti with Mushrooms, from a recipe by Mike Isabella of Graffiato and Top Chef. Cost savings: Although pasta (semolina) flour is often recommended, you can make pasta with standard all-purpose flour. Substitute sauce ingredients as needed. 

Homemade gnocchi is worth the effort as it's much better than store-bought.

Gnocchi

Gnocchi dishes come together in a snap if you use store-bought gnocchi. Making your own takes time, but I think you'll find it's worth it. You can get much lighter, tastier dumplings if you make them yourself. Although potato is traditional, such as in Gnocchi with Sausage-Mushroom Ragu, using other root vegetables like sweet potatoes (Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage) or beets (Beet Gnocchi with Walnut-Sage Butter) are more flavorful. Cost savings: at their most basic, gnocchi are just potato, flour, egg, salt and water, so they're pretty inexpensive; it's the sauces that may set you back more, so feel free to experiment and substitute with what you have on hand.

At the tail end of tomato season, it's the perfect time to roast tomatoes and use them in something like this panzanella.

Roasted Tomatoes

It takes a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours to roast tomatoes, so any of the dishes I've made with them will take at least the afternoon to prepare. Homemade roasted tomatoes are amazing--such a depth of flavor. Recipes include Creamy Roasted Tomato Gazpacho, Roasted Tomato Risotto, Tomatoes Two-Ways Pasta, Pizza, Roasted Tomato Panzanella and even Roasted Tomato Cocktails. Cost savings: although I strongly recommend using fresh, seasonal tomatoes, even grocery-store tomatoes will improve with roasting.

Making your own broth, such as roasted tomato broth, greatly enhances the flavor of this risotto over a store-bought substitute.

Stock

For lots of recipes, I turn to the 2- or 4-cup boxes of premade stocks and broths, which is an enormous time-saver for midweek cooking. But if you have the time, homemade stock is worth it. I've made two vegetable stocks that I really like: one for Navy Bean Soup with Kielbasa and another with Roasted Tomatoes that I used for making risotto. Cost savings: As money-saving dishes go, stocks are one of the best, since you can use whatever vegetables (including scraps) and seasonings you have on hand.

Blackberry-Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust requires first making two separate recipes and putting them together into a delicious final product.

Desserts

The fastest way to slow down a dessert is to add multiple stages. Ice cream pies, for example, require first making cookies and pulverizing them to form the crust ingredients, plus making the ice cream, before forming the crust, spooning in the ice cream and freezing it. It's a great way to showcase unique flavor combinations. Check out Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie with Compost Cookie Crust or Blackberry-Vanilla Ice Cream Pie with Corn Cookie Crust. Cost savings: for the corn cookies, substitute either corn flour or a mix of fine corn meal and flour for the ground freeze-dried corn. Ingredients in the compost cookies can be substituted for whatever snacky things you have on hand--various chips, nuts, etc. 

In addition to being a multi-stage dessert, Cereal Milk Baked Alaska with Brown Butter Cake requires extra time in the freezer between steps (very important time, by the way; the first time I made Baked Alaska I skipped some freezer time and really regretted it). Caramelized Parsnip Layer Cake requires extra time to first prepare, roast and mash the parsnips. Cost savings: for the cereal milk ice cream, substitute any flavorful sugary cereal for the Cinnamon Toast Crunch if you don't have that (Honey-Nut Cheerios would be good, I bet); carrots could be used instead of parsnips in the cake.

Sweet and Sticky Baby Back Ribs

Grilled ribs are delicious thing. When, like me, you don't have access to a grill, you can still enjoy ribs prepared in the kitchen.

Fellow D.C. food blogger Cathy Barrow (who writes Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen) adapted these ribs for the Washington Post, billing them as "The Only Ribs You Need to Know."

These rib racks were too large to fit in my dutch oven, so I cut then down a bit more, into pieces of three or four ribs.

I was skeptical about this dish because the first step in cooking the ribs is boiling them, and boiling is known to make meat tough. But, possibly because of the fat content of pork ribs, it wasn't a problem in this dish. Additionally, the ribs aren't fully cooked in the boiling water, as they are finished in the oven. The resulting meat was deliciously tender and not at all tough.

Once boiled, the ribs look a little gray, but they will be nicely browned once sauced and finished in the oven.

I asked the Whole Foods butcher for about 7 pounds and ended up with two big pieces that I had to cut down to fit in my pot. Cut into segments of four ribs, they actually all fit into my pot, an old 8-quart Revere Ware dutch oven.

I served the ribs with a sweet potato puree spiced similarly to the Moroccan(ish) Spring Stew and simply cooked Swiss chard.

Sweet and Sticky Baby Back Ribs
Adapted from The Only Ribs You Need to Know, tested by Cathy Barrow for The Washington Post as adapted from a recipe by Lee Manigault and Suzanne Pollak

6 servings

7-8 lb. baby back pork ribs, preferably at room temperature, cut into segments to fit in the large pot (about 3-4 ribs for each segment fit in my pot)
2 cups light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups Dijon mustard
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3/4 cup bourbon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with two racks evenly spaced in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

2. Over medium-high heat, bring a large pot of water to a brisk boil. Add the rib racks to the boiling water. Once the water returns to a boil, cook for about 15 minutes. Transfer the racks to a large bowl and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Using a sharp knife, cut between the bones to separate the racks into individual ribs.

3. Make the sauce: Combine brown sugar, mustard, soy sauce and bourbon in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes to thicken the sauce. Remove sauce from heat and pour over ribs. Toss to coat ribs evenly.

4. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment. Spread ribs out over the two baking sheets. Reserve any remaining sauce for basting the ribs. Roast the ribs for about 10 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets top-to-bottom and front-to-back. Baste with sauce. Roast about 10 minutes or so until the ribs are crisped on the edges and well browned. Serve warm with desired sides (they're not bad cold either).

Orange Pork Stir Fry with Ginger and Chard

Because greens like Swiss Chard wilt so nicely when sauteed with oil, I thought it might be an interesting component of a simple midweek stir-fry. Since chard can be a bit bitter, I wanted to balance that with the sweetness of orange, which forms the basis of the sauce in this dish along with generous amounts of fresh ginger and garlic. I love the color of this dish: the orange of the julienned carrots and peanuts nicely illustrates its flavor and contrasts with the dark green of the cooked chard.

Orange Pork Stir Fry with Ginger and Chard

1 lb. ground pork
2 tbsp. canola oil (divided)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, cut julienne (thin strips)
1 bunch of Swiss chard, stems removed, leaves cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 tbsp. minced ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. dry sherry
2 tsp. dark sesame oil
2 tsp. cornstarch
Fresh ground white pepper, to taste
Cooked brown rice


1. Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add ground pork and cook until the meat is browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

2. Add 1 tbsp. of canola oil to pan. When hot (shimmering), add onion and carrot and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the chard and continuing sautéing until the greens have wilted, about another 3 minutes. Remove vegetables from pan and set aside.

3. Add the other tbsp. of canola oil to pan. When hot, add ginger, garlic, peanuts and red pepper flakes and sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes. In a small bowl or a glass measuring cup, combine the orange juice, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, cornstarch and white pepper. Add to pan, stirring with the peanut mixture as the sauce thickens. Reduce heat to medium-low. Return cooked meat and vegetables to pan, stirring to combine with the sauce. Serve with brown rice.

Recipes to Celebrate Portland-Area James Beard Award-Nominated Chefs

I’ve lived in the D.C. area for 14 years now, but there is a part of me that will always call Portland, Oregon home. It was a great place to grow up, and I take pride in the fact that it’s among the group of U.S. cities that elicit an “ah” rather than an “oh” when you tell people that’s where you’re from.

It’s no secret that Portland has a wonderful food scene and has for a long time. For the fourth year in a row, three of the five nominees for the Best Chef Northwest James Beard Award are from Portland (and Portland took four of the five slots in 2009).

I take a special pleasure in knowing that Portland consistently gets more nominations in this category than its larger neighbor to the north, Seattle (Portlanders are naturally competitive with Seattle; we can’t help it). When earlier this year people were declaring the Seattle food scene “in” and Portland “out” I thought “puh-lease.” You have no idea what you’re talking about.

This year’s finalist list includes three talented Portland chefs who are no strangers to James Beard:

• Naomi Pomeroy of Beast, nominated in this category in 2010 and 2012. Beast was named The Oregonian’s favorite restaurant in 2008. 
• Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, frequently named as Portland’s hottest restaurant. Rucker won the James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef in 2011. In 2010, he opened Little Bird Bistro, which the Oregonian named its best restaurant last year (Le Pigeon shared the honor with Beast in 2008), and which I had the pleasure to visit in September.
• Cathy Whims of Nostrana, who has been nominated several times in this category the last few years. Years ago she worked at Genoa, which back in the ‘90s I remember was frequently talked about as the best Italian restaurant in Portland.  

Buttery, herbed croutons for the Nostrana Salad

Unfortunately, apart from Little Bird, I haven’t gotten to try these chefs’ food in person. But I did recently get the chance to experience their talent, albeit indirectly. As luck would have it, all three chefs contributed to The Oregonian Cookbook: Best Recipes from FoodDay, edited by Oregonian FoodDay editor Katherine Miller. I received the book as a generous gift from one of my mother’s friends, a Cook In / Dine Out reader, and I thought there could be no better way to both dive into the book and celebrate Portland’s James Beard nominations than by cooking a dinner featuring all three dishes.

First up was Whims’ Nostrana Salad made with radicchio, a Caesar-like vinaigrette and buttery herbed croutons. She soaks the radicchio in ice water for 2 hours, which mellows its flavor. I actually forgot to do this, so it got maybe 15-20 minutes of soaking, which was enough time to crisp it a bit, but I actually rather like its bitterness, so I didn’t mind. The herb croutons are really great. I made mine with a rosemary boule from Whole Foods.

Bacon-flavored fresh bread crumbs

Next was Rucker’s Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Thyme and Bacon Crumbs. This is a simple, flavorful way to prepare pork chops. I love the bacon-flavored fresh breadcrumbs. Since I had to cook some bacon to render its fat, I tossed a few of the cooked bacon lardons into the Nostrana Salad. Be sure to use thick, bone-in pork chops for this dish. The thin, quick-cooking chops are actually challenging to cook well since they can become tough so easily.

I finished the meal with Pomeroy’s exquisite Chocolate Truffle Cake, which was so divine, I’m giving it a separate post.

A meal of good Oregon chefs’ dishes calls for a good Oregon wine, and nothing says “good Oregon wine” like pinot noir. I opened a bottle of 2009 Brandborg Bench Lands pinot noir, which heralds from the Umpqua Valley, a southern Oregon wine region near where my dear Great Aunt Eva lived. The light, smooth pinot was a nice match for this dinner and a perfect way to toast the success of these great Oregon chefs. I found it at Cordial in Union Market. I wish them all the best of luck at the upcoming James Beard Awards on May 3.

Nostrana Salad
Adapted from a recipe by Cathy Whims of Nostrana, from The Oregonian Cookbook

Note: I divided this recipe in half, omitted the (1 tbsp.) white wine and substituted about ½ tsp. of soy lecithin granules for the raw egg yolk. I also didn’t soak the radicchio in ice water for the full 2 hours, which would have made its flavor milder, but I like its bitter taste. For the croutons, I used an organic rosemary boule, which was delicious with the radicchio.

1 large head radicchio
¼ cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Croutons:
1 cup cubed (3/4-inch) focaccia or other open-textured, herb-flavored artisan bread
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. (total) chopped fresh sage and rosemary

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, peeled
Salt
1 ½ tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 oil-packed anchovy fillets, finely chopped
½ tsp. soy lecithin granules (a substitution for 1 egg yolk)
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper

1. Tear the radicchio into 1 ½-inch pieces and soak in ice water while you make the croutons and dressing.

2. Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake the bread cubes on a large baking sheet until toasted all over, about 10 to 15 minutes. In a medium to large skillet over medium-low heat, melt the butter with the fresh chopped herbs until fragrant. Add the toasted bread cubes and toss to coat. Set aside to cool.

3. Smash the garlic clove then mash it finely with a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle (lacking that, I use a 1-cup glass measuring cup and the rounded end of a cocktail muddler). Add garlic to a food processor (or blender) along with the vinegar, mayonnaise, anchovies and lecithin (or egg yolk). Begin processing then slowly drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube until the dressing is emulsified. Season to taste with salt and fresh-ground black pepper.

4. Drain the radicchio and spin it in a salad spinner to dry. Transfer radicchio to a large salad bowl and add enough dressing to coat it well. Toss to combine then add the croutons and a generous sprinkle of parmesan.

Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Thyme and Bacon Crumbs
Adapted from a recipe by Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, from The Oregonian Cookbook

Note: Like the Nostrana Salad, I divided this in half, since I was cooking for two. I didn’t make any other changes. To make fresh bread crumbs, use slightly stale good-quality bread (I used a few slices of sourdough). Tear the bread into pieces and add to a food processor. Pulse a few times until the bread is reduced to crumbs.

2 tsp. bacon fat (may substitute butter)
3/8 cup fresh bread crumbs (see note above)
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
2 bone-in pork chops, cut 1 to 1 ¼ inches thick (Chef Rucker recommends avoiding pork that has been injected with salt solution)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
6-8 thyme sprigs
Lemon juice

1. In a small frying pan, heat bacon fat over medium heat until melted. Ad breadcrumbs, stir to coat with the fat and cook, stirring frequently, until crumbs are golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. Pat chops dry with paper towels and season liberally with salt. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot (it should shimmer). Place the pork chops in the pan spaced apart a bit. Add the butter and scatter the thyme sprigs in the pan. Cook chops until well browned, about 6 minutes, then flip them over and continue cooking until lightly browned and cooked through to 140 F (medium), about 3 to 5 minutes longer (mine took a bit longer to reach temperature, but I also cooked through over slightly lower heat).

3.  Transfer pork to serving platter, spoon some of the butter from the pan over the chops and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes. Just before serving, squeeze lemon juice over the chops and top with a handful of the breadcrumbs.