donna's daily dish

i'm in a pickle

6/24/2023

Bread-and-Butter Pickles

Apple Chutney & Prosciutto Melt with Gruyere Cheese and Pears

With the new CSA season well underway, my pickle is trying to find, delicious and easy to prepare recipes for the produce that’s coming in. Last week’s CSA box brought more pickles and a zucchini. I could have made Easiest Fridge Pickles from the website Smitten Kitchen, but where’s the fun in that? So, I turned to my favorite source, NYT Cooking, and found a recipe by Melissa Clark for Bread-and-Butter Pickles. For the recipe you’ll need Kirby cucumbers, coarse kosher salt, fresh dill, light brown sugar, cider vinegar, coriander seeds, black pepper corns and allspice berries.

Although an easy recipe to prepare, I did have a problem locating both coriander seeds and allspice berries. I was able to find the coriander seeds at a second food store, but no luck with allspice berries. I substituted ground allspice in the same amount as if I had the berries. (*Note: for difficult to find spices I suggest Penzeys.)

I did it my way

5/20/2023

“A recipe has no soul. You as the cook must bring soul to the recipe.” Thomas Keller

A recipe is someone’s creation that has been tried and improved until perfected. However, sometimes, you as the cook, add your own nuances to achieve the flavor you desire.

Recently I prepared a recipe by Emily Weinstein of The New York Times for One-Pot Tortellini with Meat Sauce. I don’t know where my mind was when I was food shopping last week, instead of tortellini, I accidently bought Wegmans Italian Classics Potato Gnocchi. Beside the pasta for this recipe, you’ll also need fresh garlic cloves, extra-virgin olive oil, one pound of hot or sweet Italian sausage (casing removed) tomato paste, 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, grated Parmesan cheese and grated mozzarella cheese.

low and slow or fast and quick?

2/15/2023

Last week I had some time to braise a chuck roast for dinner. I found a delightful recipe in “Lidia’s Italy” cook book for Beef Braised in Barolo. The meat cooked in a liquid consisting of Barolo wine flavored with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, fresh rosemary, dried porcini mushrooms and fresh sage leaves. For seasonings, freshly grated nutmeg, salt and whole peppercorns. I went to Palmer’s Quality Meats in Neptune City, NJ to select a well-marbled piece of chuck. The recipe serves 6, but since it was just my husband and I, a 3-pound piece was perfect for braising.

To prepare the meat, I is seasoned with salt, browned and caramelized in a large pan with extra virgin olive oil. After browning, the meat is removed and the vegetables are placed in the pan and coated with pan juices. Next, herbs, grated nutmeg, peppercorns, dried porcini, additional salt and pepper are added and the mixture is cooked for several minutes. The vegetables are moved to the outer rim of the pan and the meat and its accumulated juices are returned. A bottle of wine is added with the beef immersed halfway.

is the knife that sharp or the meat that's so tender?

10/10/2022

I recently started to work at Palmer’s Quality Meats in Neptune, NJ and I’m amazed at the various cuts of beef that a whole animal butcher shop has to offer. It’s a nose to tail shop offering locally grown beef, pork and poultry. Have you ever heard of coppa steaks, Thor’s Hammer or organ beef blend, neither did I until now. Now when I read recipes with beef cuts such as Bavette or teres major, I know where to find them. If I need advice about a cut of beef for a recipe, knowledgeable butchers are available to offer suggestions.

not your parents' cheeseburger

6/18/2022

One day in the New York Times newspaper, they featured a recipe by Kay Chun for Korean Cheeseburger with Sesame-Cucumber Pickles. This simple, yet delicious recipe was packed with tons of flavor.

For the recipe you’ll need distilled white vinegar, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, turbinado sugar, Persian cucumbers, low-sodium soy sauce, scallions, fresh garlic, mayonnaise, roasted sesame seed oil, ground beef (preferably chuck or sirloin), American cheese, hamburger buns, butter lettuce, sliced onions and sliced tomatoes.

slow-cooker night

5/19/2022

My local Foodtown had flank steak on special this week for $7.99/lb. I couldn’t resist picking up a package for supper. While I have several good flank steak recipes in my file, a food blogger is always on the lookout for the next, best recipe.

With that in mind, I searched the web for something unique. I came across the website for Taste of Home. In the late 90’s I was given a subscription to this magazine. The magazine uses recipes submitted by home cooks. Once submitted, the Taste of Home test kitchen staff works through each recipe and makes adjustments to ingredients, proportions, to name a few, to ensure consistency with results. Therefore, I felt confident in preparing “Slow-Cooker Mongolian Beef.”

homage to fred sr.

3/15/2022

My late father-in-law’s birthday is the 26th of this month and my husband said, “He was a man of simple tastes.” In observance of his birthday, my husband asked me to make his father’s favorite meal which was meatloaf, mashed potatoes and Le Sueur peas. For dessert, my father-in-law loved lemon meringue pie.

Now my late mother-in-law, Nancy, was not a fancy cook, neither were most mothers of her generation. My mother-in-law also had a three-pot limit in preparing a meal. Her meatloaf consisted of ground beef and a handful of ingredients such as some chopped onion, salt, pepper and 4 ounces of tomato sauce. The balance of the tomato sauce went on top of the meatloaf along with 2-3 slices of bacon. The meatloaf was cooked in a 400° oven for approximately one hour, or until the internal temperature reached 160°.

valentine's day

2/8/2022

Does the prospect of dining out for Valentine’s Day sound unappealing? Do you prefer to make dinner or a special dessert at home? I have some ideas for you.

Starting with breakfast, I recommend red velvet pancakes; I’m craving these right now. This recipe appeared in Southern Living Magazine’s issue of December 2012. The pancakes are delectable, right down to the cream cheese butter that accompanies them. If you want to make them this weekend, I suggest you purchase your cream cheese as soon as possible. My local Wegmans did not have any this past Sunday. Also in lieu of red food coloring, I use Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion made by LorAnn Oils. This item is available at Michael Stores or Shore Cake Supply. I suggest calling before going to make sure it’s in stock. You can also purchase the oil from Amazon. You’ll also need all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, eggs, granulated sugar and the red liquid food coloring or the LorAnn oil.

retirement dinner

1/31/2022

Our neighbor, Jeff, just retired and my husband wanted to have he and his wife over for dinner. This couple has been our neighbor for more than 30 years. What was on the menu you ask? For hors d’oeuvres I made my late cousin’s stuffed mushrooms, crab spread from Mr. Shrimp (Belmar) and Alexian’s Pâté’s Wild Forest Mushroom Pâté served with cornichons. A Stilton and Pear salad was our first course. For dinner, Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew, a recipe from the New York Times, served atop garlic mashed potatoes along with popovers. Dessert was the Financiers that I recently blogged about.

for Nancy

12/28/2021

The last time I posted to my blog was on December 10th. Since that time, I was called upon to watch each of my granddaughters on two separate occasions as they were unable to go to daycare. Despite my babysitting duties and working several days I week, I was still able to prepare home cooked meals. However, after being on my feet all day, I was unable to focus my energy on writing. This led me to post an image on social medial with minimal text which prompted my friend Nancy to post on my Facebook page, “Where r the recipes to all these things u post? The pork chops look delicious!”

I’ll start this blog by listing the recipes I’ve made since early December; then follow up with my review and comments to help you prepare these dishes in your kitchen. Meals prepared since December 10th are: Crockpot Beef Stew found on Food52 website, my sale find at Williams-Sonoma was their Soup Starter for Fast/Slow Cooking – Mushroom Wild Rice, from Lidia Bastianich Jumbo Shrimp Buzara Style, from The New York Times and Melissa Clark, a recipe for Porchetta-Style Pork Chops and lastly, Flank Steak with Caper-Walnut Sauce and Roast Beets from The Wall Street Journal.