The recipe that follows comes from my Italian American grandmother and will yield at least 2 meals for a hungry family. Grandma taught me that the keys to delicious meatballs include creating a base of milk-soaked bread for moisture, using different kinds of meat for depth of flavor and letting the meat rest before combining so that the meatballs hold together.

The meatballs freeze and re-heat beautifully, so I recommend preparing them for your next Sunday night supper and then freezing the leftovers for a rainy, hungry day.

Grandma’s Meatballs

Served in a meatball sub with grated parm.

2 slices white bread
1/3 c milk
1 ½ lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 ½ lbs lean ground pork
½ onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 t garlic powder
½ t black pepper, freshly ground
½ t salt
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried basil
2 t fresh parsley
Pinch of hot pepper (optional)
½ c parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs, beaten

Remove crusts from the bread and discard. Chop bread in food processor to create small crumbs. Place bread in large bowl and cover with milk. Let bread sit in milk for 5 minutes and then mash with fork to form a smooth paste.

Add ground meats to the bowl containing the bread and milk. Process onion and garlic in food process until finely minced (can also be done with fine knife skills). Add to the bowl with the meat. Add seasonings including garlic powder, black pepper, salt, oregano, basil, fresh parsley and hot pepper. Gently mix together with fork or spoon to distribute seasonings and bread paste – do not mix with your hands as the warmth will toughen the meat.

Add the grated parmesan cheese to the mixture. A quick note here that I strongly advise that you use real parmesan cheese and not that stuff that comes pre-grated in the green cardboard cylinder. That is not cheese!

Add the eggs and gently mix meat mixture together. Cover bowl with wrap or foil and refrigerate meat mixture at least one hour – two is even better.

About 1 hour before you wish to eat the meatballs, warm up your favorite tomato sauce in a large pot. (Hopefully you already have a family favorite recipe for red sauce but if not then try out Alton Brown’s recipe.)

Preheat oven broiler to low. Next, line a baking sheet with foil and cover with nonstick spray. Portion meat mixture into about 16 meatballs and place on foil lined baking sheet. A medium sized disher or ice cream scoop is ideal for maintaining consistently sized meatballs.

Broil the meatballs on low for 5-7 minutes or until deeply browned, but not burnt. Check meatballs often as broiler intensity and cooking times vary. Remove from oven, turn over meatballs and return to broiler for another 5-7 minutes. Once browned on both sides, remove meatballs from oven and place in barely simmering tomato sauce. Allow meatballs to complete cooking in sauce for 10 more minutes. Remove meatballs and sauce from heat and allow meatballs to rest in sauce another 10 minutes before serving.

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It’s finally starting to get warm around here and unfortunately the higher temperature makes me a lazier cook, if that were possible. Who wants to slave over a hot stove or oven when a warm, beautiful day beckons?

Dinner last night was one of those “what do I have lying around that I can throw together” concoctions. I usually keep a pack of sausage in the fridge for just such a meal. It always make for an easy, tasty meal and who doesn’t like sausage? Bell peppers and onions are obvious accompaniments and I had a couple of lovely, ripe tomatoes to throw in the mix.

The twist this time around, though, was with the rice. I had a pack of Aidells Cajun Style Andouille sausage, which made me think of paella, which made me think of saffron, which is what I decided to add to my rice. And it was delicious! Rourke has recently decided that he doesn’t like eating brown rice anymore, so I endeavor to find ways to make him eat it. Even HE lapped up the rice.

I guess you could almost consider this a very lazy person’s abridged paella.

Andouille Sausage with Peppers and Onions over Saffron Rice
- serves 2 -

3 sausage links, about 9 oz., sliced into 1/4″ or so rounds
1 yellow or red bell pepper, julienned
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 medium ripe tomatoes, diced
granulated white sugar
kosher salt
olive oil
1 cup of brown rice
pinch of saffron threads, approx. 10 or so threads

1. Start cooking the rice using your preferred method, except this time add the saffron to the water at the beginning of the cooking process. I prefer cooking brown rice in my rice cooker, and you can find my instructions here.

2. When the rice is about 15-20 minutes from being finished, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan or skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and toss to coat in the oil. After a minute, add a large pinch of salt and a large pinch of sugar and mix. Lower the heat to medium low and cover. Continue cooking until the onions are soft and a light brown, about 10 minutes. Remove onions from pan when done.

3. Raise the heat to medium and in the same pan, add the sausage rounds in a single layer. After one side is browned, flip the sausage rounds. After the second side is browned, drain the fat from the pan. I generally use the lid to cover most of the pan and tip to let the fat drain off.

4. Return the onions to the pan, and add the tomatoes and bell pepper to the pan and mix together. Cover and cook for about 3-5 minutes, until the tomatoes start to break down and give up their juice, and the bell peppers are soft.

5. Spoon mixture over saffron rice and serve.

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I offer you this approach to BBQ sauce based on a family recipe from a dear friend who hails from Kansas City. Give it a try the next time you fire up the grill. Once you make BBQ sauce at home you’ll realize how easy it is and you’ll never go back to that bottle of Bull’s Eye again.

Classic BBQ Sauce

2 garlic cloves
1 inch piece of ginger
3 T unsalted butter
1 ¼ c Heinz ketchup
¼ c water
3 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T honey
3 T fresh lemon juice
hot sauce

Peel ginger and grate using a micro-plane. Peel garlic and then mince it or pass it through a garlic press.

Place heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat. Add butter to pot and swirl until melted. Add ginger and garlic to the melted butter. Cook on medium heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Do not let garlic and ginger brown.

Add ketchup and water to pot and stir until combined. Next add Worcestershire sauce, honey, lemon juice and hot sauce (to taste). Stir to combine, reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Keep stirring every 5-7 minutes to prevent scorching.

Taste sauce after simmering has finished and adjust seasoning with additional lemon juice or hot sauce as you like. Sauce is best when made the night before use, allowing flavors to meld. It can be kept in a glass container in the fridge for up to 7 days.

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No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: Oven-Braised Duck Legs with Five-Spice Powder.

Personally, I preferred the brown sauce. I always thought white sauce was kind of weird.

Anyhow, last week I picked up some bok choy at the farmer’s market and one of my favorite dishes is bok choy with brown sauce. Add some ground pork and serve it with brown rice for a quick, balanced, and healthy meal.

Bok Choy with Ground Pork in Brown Sauce
- serves 2 -

3/4 lb bok choy, rinsed and chopped into 2″ x 2″ pieces
1/2 lb ground pork
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2″ knob of ginger, washed and sliced thinly
1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce (I like Lee Kum Kee’s Premium Oyster Sauce)
1.5 Tbsp soy sauce
canola oil
kosher salt
Sriracha (optional)

1. Heat a skillet or saute pan over medium heat with 1 tsp of canola oil.

2. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and stir fry until fragrant, approx 30 seconds.

3. Add ground pork with a couple pinches of salt and stir fry until all traces of pink almost disappear.

4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl make the brown sauce by mixing together the oyster sauce and soy sauce, with a squirt of sriracha if you’d like. Taste and adjust, but keep in mind it won’t seem as salty once you add it to the pan. If you think it’s too salty, though, you can add water to dilute. Start with a tsp of water and go from there, adjusting according to taste.

5. When the pork is almost completely cooked, push the pork to the sides of the pan and add the ginger slices to the now empty center of the pan. Fry the ginger until fragrant, about a minute or so.

6. Add the bok choy to the pan and mix it with the pork and ginger, then add the brown sauce to the pan and mix thoroughly. Cover and cook until the bok choy is crisp tender, not more than a couple of minutes. Serve!

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2. Orecchiette with Pork, Tomatoes, and Arugula
3. Rigatoni with Pork Ragu

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day!

Whenever I think of Valentine’s Day and food, I inevitably think of ragu. The thought process goes something like this (bear with me, here): Valentine’s Day -> a day when I’m pampered -> Rourke cooks for me -> Rourke likes pasta -> the first pasta dish Rourke ever made for me was ragu.

Is that a frightening peek into my psyche or what?

Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever met a ragu I didn’t like. Meat, tomatoes, aromatics, and spices. What’s not to like? The mere thought of it conjures images of a matriarch, lovingly stirring a large pot of the gently simmering ragu with a wooden spoon. She’s in a large, eat-in-kitchen with a long wooden table, perhaps a small child and a pet adorably getting under foot. Except in my house it is my husband who is slaving, and I am both laughing and crying with incredulity at the HUGE mess he’s made: carrot peels randomly strewn across the kitchen counter and behind the toaster oven (how?!?), bits of diced onion on the floor, splotches of sauce all over the stove. Oh yeah, and my kitchen is about 7 feet long by 3 feet wide.

The recipe for this ragu comes from the Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast: Pasta cookbook. The inclusion of it in the book is a bit of head-scratcher, though. The book claims that all of its recipes are ready to serve in 30 minutes, yet the recipe calls for simmering the sauce for 1 hour. Wha? The first time Rourke made the recipe it was a weeknight and he hadn’t read through the instructions before making it (his bad). I don’t think we ate until almost 10pm that night. Either way, it’s a great, easy recipe and I’m glad we have it. Just make sure you plan accordingly.

Rigatoni with Pork Ragu
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma’s Food Made Fast: Pasta
- serves 4 -

1/4 cup olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 tsp. ground fennel seed
1 lb. ground pork*
1 cup dry red wine
32 oz. (4 cups) canned whole plum tomatoes, chopped, with juice
1/4 cup tomato paste
kosher salt
1 tsp. oregano (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
1 tsp. red chili flakes (optional)
1 tbsp. red wine or balsamic vinegar (optional)

Rigatoni and grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

1. In a heavy pot over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the ground fennel seed, oregano, chili flakes,and garlic (if using) and saute until garlic and spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add the pork and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat colors slightly, about 4 minutes.

4. Stir in the wine and cool until most of the alcohol has evaporated, 1-2 minutes.

5. Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, 1/2 tsp salt, and vinegar (if using). Stir well to combine. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened and the flavors have melded, about 1 hour. If the sauce seems to be drying out, add a few tbsp of water.

6. When ready, taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese over cooked rigatoni.

* You can also use 1/2 beef, 1/2 pork if that’s your thing. We like it that way, too.

Ingredients listed as optional are additions that we’ve made to the original recipe.

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3. Brown Sauce

Another year, another set of resolutions. Many of the food blogs are buzzing with food resolutions for the new year: try new cuisines, tackle that certain cookbook, cook more veggies,etc. I haven’t made any for the year because let’s be honest, I won’t keep any of them. If you’re in the market for recipes that’ll help with your resolutions, however, this one might fit the bill. It:

• Is Asian, if you’d like to cook more Asian food
• Incorporates more veggies than meat
• Takes only 30 minutes to make, start to finish, if you want to cook more but don’t have a lot of time given work and what is likely going to be a more intensive gym schedule this month
• Is inexpensive per serving, if you’re looking to trim the monthly budget

A word about the ingredients used in the dish:

• Noodles. I like using the ones in the below photo. They are essentially skinny egg noodles that have been previously fried and then dried. They come in both egg flavor and shrimp flavor, and you could simply boil them, but I like them best pan fried and crispy. Prepared this way, the outside is crisp while the inside of the noodle cake is nice and chewy. I also prefer the shrimp flavor over the plain egg flavor. You can find this type of noodle in any Asian market that carries Chinese ingredients:

• Fish sauce. If you’ve never used fish sauce before, you might be a little surprised by its pungency in the bottle, but it really does taste more mellow than it smells. Just make sure your exhaust fan is on before it hits the pan. You can buy this in any Asian market, usually somewhere near the soy sauce. Last time I looked, there were at least eight different brands on the shelf, and there’s debate over which brands are best depending on whether you’re cooking a Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, etc. dish. I like the Three Crabs brand, and there’s also consensus around Squid and Golden Boy.
• The veggies. I like baby chard, but you could easily substitute green chard or any sturdy Asian green, such as gai lan (chinese broccoli), choy sum, or even bok choy. Just cut into bite sized-ish strips. I’ve tried using spinach and I thought it was a little too wimpy for the dish.

Pan Fried Noodles with Ground Pork and Baby Chard
- serves 2 -

3 clumps of dried noodles
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1/3 lb of ground pork
2/3 lb of baby chard, cleaned and rinsed
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
peanut oil
canola oil
salt

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles according to package directions. When cooked, drain the noodles using a strainer and set aside.

2. Heat a skillet over medium heat with 1 Tbsp of peanut oil. You could use canola oil instead, but you can taste the difference between using peanut or canola here. Peanut oil is better.

3. When the oil is hot, add the drained noodles to the pan, spreading the noodles into an even layer (about 1/2″ thick or so) that covers the bottom of the pan.* Once you’ve spread the noodles, do not disturb them. Cook until the bottom of the noodles are golden brown and crisp, about 5 minutes or so. When ready, flip the noodles the way you would a pancake. Lower the heat a touch after the flip and continue cooking until the other side turns golden brown. This is what it usually looks like after I’ve flipped it:

4. While the noodles are cooking, heat a separate pan over medium heat with 1 tsp of canola oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the ground pork and a small pinch of salt.

5. When the pork is no longer pink, add the fish sauce, low-sodium soy sauce, and sugar. Stir and adjust seasoning to taste, then add the baby chard. Stir fry until the baby chard is cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning.

6. To serve, slide the noodles onto a plate and top with the pork/vegetable mix. I use a slotted spoon to transfer the pork/vegetable mix because there’s a fair amount of liquid that collects in the pan and it would make the noodles soggy if you dumped it all on the plate. You could squirt some Sriracha over the top if you like things a little spicy.

* NOTE: I usually split the noodles across two skillets when I’m cooking for two because I like having more crispy edges. The instructions above assume you don’t want to dirty the additional pan and will cook the noodles in one large skillet.

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Turkey and tofu. I know what you’re thinking: two boring flavors, together at last. This spicy Szechuan dish will change your mind. It’s very similar to mapo tofu, but without the black beans. It’s easy to make, and after you try it once, you’ll be craving it again.

It’s fair to say that I do most of the cooking in our house, but my fiancé came to the party with a small, but excellent set of dishes she has perfected. Turkey Tofu is one of those dishes, and it’s become a staple in our house. It was a staple in her family before we ever met, and the greasy, beat-up copy of The Chinese Cookbook is proof. Set it on the table, and it automatically falls open to the recipe for Spicy Pork & Bean Curd, the ancestor of Turkey Tofu. In our copy, “pork” is crossed out, and “beef” is written in by hand, but my fiancé swears it’s been made with ground turkey since day one. Who am I to argue?

Pork, beef, or turkey?

Turkey Tofu
- serves 4 to 6 -

2 14 oz. packages of firm tofu
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 Tbsp. chili paste with garlic
1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. oil
2 Tbsp. finely minced ginger
2 Tbsp. finely minced garlic
3/4 C. chicken broth
1 tsp. ground, toasted Szechuan peppercorns
1/3 C. minced scallions, green part only.
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
Chopped cilantro for garnish.

Turkey Tofu Ingredients

1. Mix the ground turkey, chili paste, dark soy suace, and sugar, and set aside to marinate.

2. Bring a pot of water to boil with a pinch of salt. Boil the 2 blocks of tofu for 4 minutes. Drain and cool.

3. When the tofu is cool, cut it into 1 inch cubes.

4. In a wok or large skillet, heat the tablespoon of oil. The original recipe calls for 1/4 C of oil, which is simply unnecessary. You can even just use a generous coat of spray oil.

5. Add the turkey and chili paste mixture and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly to break the meat up.

6. Add the ginger and garlic, stir, and cook for 30 more seconds.

7. Add the chicken broth and cook for another minute.

8. Add the tofu and stir gently, trying not to break it up too much. Cook for two minutes, then mix in the Szechuan peppercorns and scallions.

9. Mix the cornstarch and water. Add the mixture to the wok, give it a quick stir, and let the dish cook just until the sauce thickens from the starch.

10. Transfer to a platter for serving and drizzle the sesame oil over the top.

Serve with rice or noodles. Sprinkle the chopped cilantro on top.

Szechuan Peppercorns

The Szechuan peppercorns are the key to this dish. Apparently, they were illegal in the U.S. for a while, but you can get them at Asian grocery stores now. Sometimes they’re labeled as “Chinese prickly ash.” They start as little red berries. Toast them in a dry skillet for a minute or two until they turn dark brown, just shy of burnt. Then grind them in a spice or coffee grinder. Like any spice, they’re best right after you toast them, but you can toast and grind a few tablespoons and keep the leftovers in an airtight container. After you’ve made the dish a few times, you’ll probably end up using more than a teaspoon every time any way. We use nearly triple!

Speaking of Asian groceries, one of my favorite aspects of this dish is the cookbook it comes from. First published in 1972, it’s loaded with helpful suggestions, like finding esoteric ingredients such as ginger and tofu in Chinese markets or by mail order. How far we’ve come.

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