Roast Pork with Garlic and Rosemary p. 754

Final meal of the planned week of meals saga. Closely tied with the ketchup stir fry for best meal of the week.

This meal was relatively easy, but it takes time. Every 15 minutes for over an hour I basted and added more stock to the pan and the pork.



We ended up with a beautiful and delicious pork roast. I had never cooked a boneless pork roast before and it was not my favorite cut of meat. Too fatty for me. Maybe next time I'll try the pork loin roast.

Broiled Lamb Ribs p. 778-9

Bryan and I never had much lamb growing up, so I've had fun experimenting with a "new" meat. We've had it a couple of times since we were married and it always makes a "special" meal.

This recipe is all about the glaze. I'm surprised it doesn't have more of a prominent roll in the title. It should be something like Tangy Glazed Lamb Ribs.

Since the weather is yucky, I broiled these ribs. First you have to parboil them. This seemed odd to me, but when you broil them you are really just finishing off the cooking and adding flavor.

Mix together orange marmalade or syrup (I used plum preserves because that is what I had and it turned out amazing), Dijon mustard, sherry vinegar, and ground cumin. This little glaze is your best friend. I've put similar glazes on pork chops. It'd also be amazing in chicken. Bryan almost liked the bowl clean.

Glaze your lamb on both sides, broil, turn and re-glaze a couple of times until brown and crispy.

Classic Pot Roast p. 742

Yes, somehow after two years of cooking for myself I had not managed to cook a pot roast. I've done stews, which I consider similar, and briskets, but never a pot roast. Determined to change that, I held a family dinner at my house last week serving a classic pot roast. I had to wait to make it for company because there is no way Bryan and I would be able to eat a whole pot roast on our own.

This version of pot roast is cooked on low over the stove top. I always thought it was cooked in the oven, but I was wrong.

I won't go in depth about each step, but my main concern with this recipe is that there aren't nearly enough veggies. Mark Bittman calls for 2 carrots, 1 celery stick, and 2 onions. I intended to follow the recipe to a T since I was nervous feeding a crowd. But the onions were over powering. So I added at least on more celery stalk and 3 or more carrots, I forget now. I've made a note in my book so I remember to add more when I make it again.

The end product was delicious, flavorful, and tender. I served the meat and veggies over homemade mashed potatoes. The perfect causal dinner for a casual get together.

Beef Daube p. 738

Apparently this is a classic French stew. I had never heard of it before. Nor had anything quite like it. But its always excited to try new things. Especially things you aren't sure of how to pronounce. It makes me feel fancy.

Start off by cooking some bacon in a dutch oven until it is crisp and then remove, leaving the fat behind. To the fat add about 2 lbs brisket cut into cubes. Our brisket was seemed fatter than usual, and our end product had a lot of fat. I would suggest using beef chuck instead. Brown all the cubes, this might take a couple of batches to get them all done evenly. Remove once browned.

Next you are going to cook chopped onions, carrots, celery, as well as thyme rosemary, orange peel and salt and pepper. Let it cook for a few minutes and then add red wine and red wine vinegar as well as your browned meat. Let it simmer covered for about an hour. Add your bacon at that point and cook for a while longer.



Now I'm not sure if this is traditional, but we added some cooked shell pasta to our bowls. We had it on hand and the dish by itself seemed to need something. The flavors were amazingly delicious, but overall seemed really fatty. Again, it could be the cut of meat, or the bacon, but I found it difficult to finish. Also, I sliced my carrots pretty thinly. Cutting them thicker might be a better idea for next time.

2009 Favorites: Animal (Poultry and Meat)

Continuing with the theme, today I'll list my favorite poultry and meat recipes:

1. Broiled Skirt Steak. This was the first recipe I posted. It's been a while, but I still think about that deicious skirt steak. I plan on trying it again soon to find out if it was the meat, the local vendor, or the marinade that made it so

2. Steak Au Poivre. Another one I want to try again. The first round I could tell it would be delicious if not for the funky meat. Mark Bittman even made some on the Today Show this morning as an idea for an easy entree when entertaining.

3. Simplest Whole Roast Chicken. 2009 is the year of the roast chicken in our house. I love a roasted chicken. Its so easy and produces the most tender and juiciest meat. It also makes the house smell nice. And then I get to make a chicken stock (I'm seriously obsessed with making my own stock now)!

4. Pan Grilled/Oven Roasted Steaks. This is a recipe I've used several times since the initial posting. There is nothing more decadent to me than a nice steak. I never order steaks when eating out because I know I can perfectly cook a delicious steak at home. And I'd rather be at home than in a restaurant.

Stir Fried Beef with Onions and Ginger p. 731

Ingredients: steak or tender beef cut, peanut oil, onions, garlic, ginger, stock, soy sauce.

This is a quick dish to put together and on the table, but I felt lacking in flavor. Perhaps it is one of those that tastes better the next day, but I never got the chance to eat it the next day.

Slice your beef thinly. I like to prepare all my ingredients ahead of time with stir fries because they cook so quickly. First cook your onions until they are soft and set aside. (I liked this because I could cook the onions and put them on my dish and not Bryan's!) Then cook your galric and ginger before tossing in the beef. After a minute or two add in your soy and stock. Let it cook for a few minutes before serving.

This dish needs veggies or something to go with it. It is not a stand alone meal. Perhaps a bag of frozen stir fry veggies would be a good side with it. I don't know. I wans't overly impressed.



Bryan and I added a lot of hot pepper paste to our beef and rice, which made it a little better.

Braised Pork with Spicy Soy Sauce p. 758

Oh my, just thinking about this dish makes my mouth water. Being a bit behind in my posts, it has been well over a week since I made this delicious pork entree.

Ingredients: pork shoulder, soy sauce, sugar, stock, garlic, ginger, onion, lime juice, pepper.

I left out chiles, onions, and lime juice, simply because we either didn't have it or didn't like it.

Start off by combining almost everything (except lime and salt and pepper, if using). I just noticed that Mark Bittman notes that you can prepare this mixture up to a day in advance and let it marinade together for up to a day... That wouldn't be a bad idea, but not totally necessary.

Bring it to a boil then turn the heat down. Let it cook for a little while (I let mine cook about 30-45 minutes.) Add lime juice, salt and pepper at the last minute and serve over rice.



If there are any left overs they will taste even more delicious the next day.

Broiled Lamb Chops p. 768

This is my first experience cooking with lamb. Bryan has cooked it once for us while we were married and I might have had it once or twice before in my life.

This is a very easy dish, as it is with most of Mark Bittman's simply cooked meats.

Simply heat your broiler and broil for a couple minutes on each side. It cannot get easier than that.

This dish is so easy and so quick to cook that its ridiculous that people even eat out. What are thinking? Are we really that lazy when there are dishes like this that are so easy to cook? I'm speaking to myself on this rant.



I did think they were a little lacking in flavor. Next time I make them, I might try a marinade for an hour or so. It couldn't hurt.



I served mine broiled lamb chops with steamed broccoli and rice.

Shredded Pork p. 759

Ingredients: onion, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, chile, pepper, and of course, a pork shoulder.

I've cooked a pork shoulder before. It was so delicious slowly cooked and then shredded put over various dishes.

This recipe is very similar only with a shorter cooking time, less ingredients, and the pork is cut into smaller bites. Honestly, even though the cooking time was shorter and more convinent, I didn't like working with the smaller bites and didn't like the flavor better.

We didn't use the meat right away. In fact, we used it a night later and put it in quesadillas (look for those tomorrow). We used them another time over nachos and it was a tasty dish. But over all I feel this dish is lacking in flavor.

Maybe its because I'm a Memphian and am used to some very flavorful pork, but I was slightly disappointed in this one.

Stir-Fried Pork with Spinach p. 748

Ingredients: pork, spinach, peanut oil, garlic, soy sauce, lime, stock.

I marinated the pork after I chopped them with soy sauce and white wine vinegar while I did other stuff. I can't testify that it was a huge improvement, but I always enjoy marinated meat and it probably did contribute to the end flavor.

Mark Bittman suggests getting all your ingredients ready before beginning any cooking as stir-frying can go pretty fast. No time in between steps to mince your garlic or juice your lime.

Start by cooking your pork until they lose their pink color. This should only take a couple of minutes. Remove from pan when done.

Next cook your garlic for a few seconds. I tossed in some hot pepper sauce during this step. Bryan likes things spicy. After about 30 seconds add in your spinach to let it wilt. Once it is all wilted add in the pork for a minute or so and remove from heat.



Serve over rice.

Bryan and I enjoyed this dish, but both thought that adding chopped peanuts would really kick it up a notch.

Braised Pork with Red Wine p. 757

Ingredients: pork shoulder, red wine, stock, carrots, garlic, butter.

Mark Bittman suggested cooking this dish in a crock pot. Well, maybe suggested isn’t the right choice of words, but it was an option. And I just love the idea of crock pots. Fixing it and forgetting it. So handy.

I couldn’t find the exact cut of meat suggested and honestly, have no idea what I bought and used. But that was a mistake you should learn from. Neither Bryan and I really liked this dish and we chalked that up to the meat. It was an alright stew-type dish, perfect for winter. But we just weren’t crazy about it. Perhaps the correct choice of pork would have suited it better, I don’t know.

Real Beef Stroganoff p. 739

Ingredients: butter, onion, mushrooms, sirloin, Dijon mustard, tomato sauce, stock, sour cream.

I don’t know the difference between this and “Fake” beef stroganoff… but this is a good dish. I know my mom made beef stroganoff a couple of times while I was growing up and I think it had ground beef, but I can’t be too sure. Maybe a can of mushroom soup.

This dish involved browning onions and mushrooms (Bryan was not a huge fan.) And then your beef. After a few minutes add in your mustard, stock, and tomato sauce. After cooking stir in some sour cream and serve over egg noodles.



Real Beef Stroganoff is a hearty dish. I know I would make more of it if Bryan wasn’t so opposed to onions and mushrooms.

Beef Stew p. 724

Ingredients: oil, garlic, beef, onions, flour, stock, bay leaf, thyme, potatoes, carrots, peas, parsley.

Bryan was sick with a cold last weekend and I offered to make him some chicken noodle soup. He didn’t want that… he thought stew would make him feel better. So I set out to make a stew.

I don’t really want to go into the how with this post. It’s a basic stew, but cooked over the stove. I must have let mine cook a little bit long because the potatoes were a bit mushy. But all in all it had a nice flavor and was very hearty, as a good stew should be. Bryan loved it, but it did not have magical powers to cure him of his cold. Oh well. That’s probably expecting too much.

Pan Grilled/Oven Roasted Steak p. 718

At the beginning of this recipe, Mark Bittman says that a gas grill will not do for grilled steak. This is unfortunate for us since that is all we have at this time. So I began to look at the other 4 ways to prepare a steak.

For this recipe its very simple. Heat an oven proof skillet over the stove for several minutes so that the pan is hot. Then put some course salt on the bottom of the pan, put on your steaks, and immediately put in a very hot oven.



I cooked my steaks, which were a bit less than 1” thick as the recipe called for, 3 minutes on one side and 4 on the other. They were done medium, they way Bryan likes it.


They were delicious, especially topped with Bacon Compound Butter.

Stuffed Flank Steak p. 737

This was probably my second biggest undertaking so far, second only to the tamales. And this round was much more successful than the other. It’s not a difficult dish to make, just a little time consuming. The time estimate given was at least 2 hours and I took about two and a half hours.



Ingredients: Flank steak (obviously), salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic, cilantro (or parsley), carrots, eggs, red or white onion (I used half a red onion), spinach, and EVOO.

The most challenging thing to do was to cut the meat in half. I let Bryan do it and after a few expletives, our meat was cut and ready for stuffing.

Start with your spices and work your way up in consistency.

Here it is with everything but spinach.

Spinach goes on last. Then roll and tie. This was also challenging because I didn’t leave enough room on the edges, so things fell out. The recipe called for three carrots, and I ended up using only two. My steak was very stuffed.

Brown your meat on the stove for a few minutes on each side and then pop in the oven. The cook time is over an hour, which will give you time to clean your kitchen, watch a movie, or do laundry.





Its an impressive dish to serve guests. Prepare, clean up your kitchen, and welcome your guests. They’ll be impressed with the luxurious smell wafting through the house and then you can whip it out oven and they will begin to drool. And you can say, yeah, I cook and excellent meal and hardly even get the kitchen dirty… to their knowledge.

Steak au Poivre p. 730

Also called: Pan-seared steak with black pepper and red wine



Ingredients: tenderloin (I used a strip steak), ground black pepper, butter, shallot, wine, tarragon, salt.

This month I ordered Angel Food Ministries box. I’ve done it once in the past, but didn’t like the quality of meat, so I didn’t order it for quite a few months. This month’s box looked better and promised higher quality. Having taken advantage of perhaps one too many summer sales, I decided a week of cheap food was in order. In the box I received 4 New York strip steaks. I searched through the book to find something I could do with my meat and came across this recipe.

So, what initially drew me to this recipe was that I couldn’t pronounce it. I like it when something I cook is too complicated for me to even pronounce. It makes me feel all fancy. Plus it called for wine, which required a trip to the liquor store to stock up. And once I opened a bottle of wine, that would mean it would be open and some would be left, and I would just have to drink some, otherwise it would be wasteful. I’d hate to waste wine.

Back to the food, this is an easy and fast recipe which results in something tender and delicious. Sprinkle your steaks with some freshly ground pepper and then pan sear them for a few minutes on each side.



Then you cook some shallots (which I didn’t happen to have this time, but certainly would be delicious) with your red wine and tarragon, and reduce the liquid. When you serve your steak pour some of the red wine sauce over it.

I haven’t cooked much with tarragon before, I was actually surprised to find that I had it. But it is a flavor I definitely love and will try to use more of in the future. It’s perfect on steak. We, again, weren’t impressed with the quality of the meat, but we didn’t let that stop us from devouring it. Try this recipe today. It will change your life.


Served with baked potato and green beans

Broiled Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Curry p. 752

Ingredients: Dijon mustard, curry powder, pork tenderloin.

I love serving pork tenderloin when having guests. Its easy to prepare and always delicious. This recipe doesn’t disappoint.

Simply mix your mustard and curry powder (add some salt and pepper while you’re at it) cover your uncooked tenderloin.



Then broil until done… about ten to twenty minutes.



I recently purchased a meat thermometer, which is one of the best kitchen tools. How to Cook Everything often gives the proper meat temperature (there is even a chart in the back of the book for all different types of meat) and it much handier (and more aesthetically pleasing) to pop in the thermometer instead of slicing it open. Inevitably when we sliced the meat pre-thermometer it would always get overcooked. Those days are over. If you haven’t purchased a meat thermometer, please go get one today.


Broiled pork tenderloin with mustard curry, served with creamed corn, and pink eyed peas.

Roasted Tenderloin with Herbs p. 735-736

Tenderloins is my favorite meat of all time. As I explained in the Bearnaise Sauce post, it would be my last meal. I won’t get into it further, because I’m sure you’re bored with my love of tenderloin, just know that I worship at tenderloin’s feet. Not really, but close.

A couple of weeks ago we bought several pounds of tenderloin at the local farmers market from a local vender. We used half for the beef kebabs and put the other half in the freezer. Since it was a holiday weekend, I decided that maybe I would have the energy to put together a somewhat elaborate, more fancy-than-your-average meal. The tenderloin spent a day in the fridge thawing and then the afternoon of cooking, I threw the marinade ingredients in the bag: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and garlic. It marinated for a couple of hours.

When its time to cook, rub off the excess marinade and herbs, and roast for about 20 minutes until the meat is around 125 degrees if you want it medium rare, which I and Mark Bittman recommend.


Here is my tenderloin, post marinade, pre roasting.

Serve with some béarnaise and you’ve got yourself the best meal ever… or at least in my opinion.

Stir Fried Lamb with Green Peppers p. 769

Brief description: cook peppers until brown, brown the lamb, add the peppers, lamb and fermented black beans soaked in wine and cook together for 5-10 minutes.

I was eager to try lamb. And the recipe looked pretty easy, perfect for a weeknight dinner. Bryan doesn’t like peppers, but it was an easy substitution of green beans. Although, when I was at the store they had the worst looking green beans I’ve ever encountered in my life, but being lazy, I went ahead and got them instead of going to Easy Way down the street.

I hadn’t heard of fermented black beans before and couldn’t find any further information on them in the book. I checked the short “ethnic” food aisle at the grocery and didn’t find anything, so I went with a can of regular black beans. Later I looked it up online. Apparently my grocery does not have a “quality” ethnic food aisle. Oh well.

My grocery store also did not have the right cut of lamb. And after a brief discussion with the butcher, if you can call her that, I discovered that lamb is very expensive. I’m not made of money, Mr. Bittman. So I went home, made Bryan take me to dinner, and went to the grocery the next day with an alternative meat in mind. So I purchased some sirloin and went home.

Basically this whole meal was a big failure and I shouldn’t even post that I tried it. All major ingredients were different or wrong. Oh well. We all learn from our mistakes. Today’s lesson: too many substitutions make for a different recipe entirely, as well as don’t buy shady green beans.