Carne asada street tacos are just one of my favorite culinary gifts from Mexico. We have several local restaurants and tacquerias here that I label authentic based upon my trip to Mexico City last summer. I call myself lucky.
Beef Cheeks are exactly what you think they are, the cheek muscle of a cow. They are tough as nails, with good reason if you think about how much they use it.
A friend of mine is a scallop fanatic, so when he said he was coming to visit the wheels began turning. Thus was born the concept of “Scallopalooza”, a dinner focused on scallops.
Here we call it New York strip steak but it has several aliases. Kansas City and Delmonico are two others, but in New York it was commonly called a shell steak and internationally it’s known as a club steak.
My first taste of Coq Au Vin was at a restaurant called, what else, Le Coq. They closed a few years ago and I wept because it was a favorite dish.
Chicago is renowned for great steak and my mouth began to water when I spied King Cut Prime Steak Au Poivre on the menu.
Paul Prudhomme made blackened redfish famous at his restaurant in the French Quarter, but all the redfish I caught last year in the Louisiana Delta was gone.
The late Anthony Bourdain’s favorite pasta was cacio e pepe. Its simplicity belies its buttery savory flavor, punctuated by the occasional sharp bite of pepper
Spell it Cardinal or Cardinale. Either way, this dish gets it’s name from the beautiful bird and it’s color from tomato in the sauce.
It was a dark and stormy afternoon. The clouds were rolling, the sky was filled with thunder and lightning…and we were hungry! I suggested we have herbed pork chops with mustard sauce.
Roasted pork belly is one of my earliest attempts to recreate a restaurant dish. The chef gave me his recipe and his secret ingredient. Easy!