As promised, here is my take on Thai-style sweet chili sauce, or Nam Jim, if you want to sound cool. I do a sort of hybrid between the cooked and fresh versions, and using this technique, I think you get the best of both worlds.
If you can’t find these beautiful Thai bird’s eye chilies, you can make this sauce with any other combination of fresh, preserved, and/or dried chilies. Things like jalapeno, red Fresno, or Serrano chilies work great, as does habanero. If it’s hot, give it a shot.
Above and beyond the array of deep-fried treats you enjoy this stuff with at your favorite southeast-Asian restaurant, it also makes an incredibly good sauce for grilled meats, especially chicken and pork. Even the most insipid boneless-skinless breast shines, once shined with this sauce.
And I wasn’t kidding about the fish sauce being mandatory. It really is a key ingredient here, so I’m counting on you to either get some, or maybe sit this one out. As always, the amounts listed below are what tastes “perfect” to me, but what do I know? So, be sure to taste and adjust before you serve. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for about 1 cup of Thai-Style Sweet Chili Sauce:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 teaspoons sambal chili sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
6 cloves finely crushed garlic
2 tablespoons finely minced Thai chili peppers (or more of a less spicy pepper like Frenso, Jalapeno, or Serrano)
I received a lot of email after publishing our classic demi-glace video, but not the kind I was expecting. Instead of being showered with praise for finally granting this popular food wish, I was being chastised for posting a recipe that required veal bones.
This seemed a little unfair, since veal bones are sort of a key ingredient when making what’s basically a reduced veal stock. However, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I sometimes forget that people don’t live in restaurants, where things like veal knuckles are as ubiquitous as kale.
For your average home cook, veal bones can be expensive, and tricky to find. Plus, they come from baby cows, which many people are against harming. Nope, using adorable young calves is just not an option, although using the bones from ugly, fully-grown chickens is apparently fine.
Anyway, possible hypocrisy aside, this alternative method worked amazingly well, and above and beyond the almost identical look and feel, the flavor was surprisingly close. This didn’t taste like chicken, or like beef, but was somewhere in the middle, which is basically how I’d describe the taste of veal. I really hope you give this cheaper, easier, and possibly more ethical version a try soon. Enjoy!
Makes about 2 quarts of “Cheater” Demi Glace:
5 pounds whole chicken wings
2 pounds beef shanks (about three 1-inch thick slices)
As you may know, I haven’t posted for a while due to the sudden passing of my mother, Pauline. It’d been a tough few weeks, but she was the ultimate, “the show must go on” kind of lady, and so that’s what we’ll do. She had multiple surgeries in recent years that made it difficult, and often painful, to move around her kitchen. Despite this, she’d still somehow manage to bake a cake (or two), or make a big batch of cookies to bring to whatever family event she was attending.
While cooking and eating with family was her greatest joy, she also loved going to restaurants. Going out for dinner on Friday night was one of our great family traditions, and while I don’t remember having Steak Diane cooked table-side, this dish represents that bygone era for me. Looking back, I realize this weekly respitemeant much more to her than just a short break from cooking anddishes.
Before I get into the recipe, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all the amazing thoughts and prayers I received during the last couple weeks. I’ve never met the vast majority of you, but nevertheless, it felt like I was hearing from hundreds of old friends, who somehow knew exactly what to say. There’s no easy way to lose someone you love, but your kind, comforting words, gave me strength.
With that in mind, I present this incredibly delicious, Steak Diane, which I’m hereby renaming Steak Pauline, in my mother’s honor. Of course, there’s no official way to do this, except to simply do it, and hope it catches on. Even if it doesn’t, at the very least, many years from now, while surfing the web, I’ll stumble across a recipe for it, and I’ll smile, thinking of her.
The procedure here is very straightforward, and relatively safe, except maybe for the exploding fireball step. As long as you turn off the flame, and keep your eyebrows at a safe distance while igniting the liquor, there shouldn’t be any real danger, and all those Oo’s and Ah’s are well worth the risk. Hey, that’s what insurance is for.
However, the pyrotechnics are very much for show, and if you’re concerned, you don't have to ignite the cognac. The alcohol will still evaporate as the sauce boils, and the end result will taste the same. By the way, even if you don’t ignite the pan with a lighter, it can still flame up when you turn up the heat to reduce, so you still need to be a little careful.
If you do decide to make this, I hope that above and beyond calling it “Steak Pauline,” you will also enjoy it surrounded by the people you love. While the flames in the pan eventually die out, the smiles they ignite, and the memories they produce, will be with you forever. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 portions:
For the sauce mixture:
1 generous tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon tomato paste
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 cup demi-glace (Or substitute 2 cups rich, low-sodium or salt-free chicken broth. It will take longer to reduce, but will still produce a great sauce. Just be careful with the salt.)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
two (8-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, fully trimmed, pounded to 1/2-inch thick (top sirloin will also work nicely here)
I'm not sure what specifically that would be, but I assume there’s some kind of science behind this amazing, and possibly modern method I happened to stumble upon. I once saw a chef make hollandaise buy adding chucks of cold butter instead of whisking in hot melted butter, and it intrigued me.
Not enough to actually try it, but enough to make me wonder what would happen if we dumped everything in the bowl at once, and just cooked it all together. No one was more shocked than I was when it worked. And worked beautifully. By the way, I’m guessing I’m not the only person to have thought of this, but until I see proof, I will claim to be it’s inventor.
The only way this doesn’t work is if your heat is too high. I don’t have to tell you what will happen if it is. However, over a low flame (or double-boiler if you’re scared) this will come together very gradually, right before your eyes, and you’ll be able to stop anytime you see fit.
Eggs are cheap, so give it a try, and see what happens. Being able to just dump everything into the bowl, and make hollandaise in one step is well worth the investment, especially with Mother’s Day coming up. Hint, hint. I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 portions (this can be scaled-up to how ever much you need):
1 large egg yolk
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (you can always add more to taste)
salt and cayenne or hot sauce to taste NOTE: If sauce gets too thick, just thin with a little hot water.
I can’t believe after all these years of posting videos, I hadn’t done a proper beurre blanc! Well, I guess I still haven’t, if you take into account bit of cream we sneak in, as beurre blanc purists do not approve. That’s okay; we’ll just distract them by pronouncing it wrong.
They consider it “cheating,” since adding cream helps you create a more stable base for emulsifying in cold cubes of butter. I don’t get how that’s a problem, unless the cream somehow ruined the taste of the sauce, but it doesn’t, and you could argue it actually enhances it. I also think it makes for an even more beautiful color.
Cream, or no, the technique is not at all difficult. Once your wine/acid mixture has reduced by about 75%, turn your heat to low, and whisk in the butter a few cubes at a time. That’s really it. By the way, feel free to use a saucepan for this. I used a sauté pan because it’s easier to film in, but it does make the process a little riskier.
You can switch up the type of vinegar, or go with lemon juice; and the shallots can be switched out for garlic, or finely minced onion. Chives are nice in this, but many other herbs will work, such as tarragon; or chervil, if you’re sexy. No matter how you pronounce it, or what ingredients you use in it, I really hope you give this easy sauce recipe a try soon. Enjoy!
Note: Yes, I can see there’s a spot of sauce splattered on the lens during the final scenes. These things will happen. Just pretend it’s not there. Thank you.
Ingredients for 4 portions Beurre Blanc:
1/2 cup of white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice, or white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, herb-infused white vinegar, etc.
2 teaspoons very finely minced shallots
2 tablespoons heavy cream
4 ounces of cold unsalted butter (1/2 cup or 1 stick), cut in one-inch cubes
I have no idea why this amazingly flavorful Genovese-style meat sauce isn’t way more popular than it is. It’s quite simply one of the best pasta sauces you’ll ever taste, thanks to a very slow cooking process, and massive amounts of onions.
So, I just thought of two really good reasons why this isn’t way more popular. The recipe takes you a good 10 hours to make. In case you haven’t heard, this is roughly 9.9 hours longer than your typical Millennial is willing to spend doing something.
Also, slicing six pounds of raw onions by hand is no one’s idea of a great time. And no, you can’t use a food processor, or veggie cutting gizmo you bought at 2AM. These machines will crush and bruise the onions, releasing harsh compounds that negatively alter the taste. Cut your onions by hand, with a sharp knife, or not at all.
As I suggest in the video, cut them one or two at a time, near a breezy window, while you brown the meat, and you’ll be done in no time. Once everything is prepped, the recipe couldn’t be easier. Simmer until the meat and onions melt into each other, and serve. I really hope you give this very old, virtually unknown, but very tasty meat sauce a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for enough sauce for 2 pounds of dry rigatoni (8 servings):
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 ounces pancetta or salt pork, diced
2 1/2 pounds beef chuck, seasoned with 2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
1 rounded tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
2/3 cup white wine
4 pounds yellow onions, sliced
2 pounds red onions, sliced
water or broth as needed to adjust liquid level during simmering
salt to taste
-- To serve, simmer finished sauce with al dente pasta for a few minutes until pasta is cooked through. Finish with fresh marjoram, cayenne, and grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
When someone hears the word pesto, they think of that delicious, but oh so common, basil, garlic, pine nut paste. While that particular pesto is amazing, I hope this walnut and parsley version serves as a reminder that “pesto” is not a recipe, but a technique.
First, grind some garlic and salt into a paste with a mortar and pestle. This releases the full fury of raw garlic’s real flavor. Fair warning: this is some strong medicine, and I mean that literally. To that we add some kind of nuts. Walnuts give you a gorgeous, buttery flavor and texture, and pair beautifully with the aromatic, bittersweet parsley.
Finish to taste with lemon juice and/or vinegar, and olive oil. Loosen with a little water if desired, and season generously with salt. That’s pretty much it. Feel free to add cheese, but I like to keep this as is. It has the flavor and mouthfeel of a rich butter spread, and I think the cheese would get in the way.
You shouldn’t need any cayenne pepper, since raw garlic prepared in this manner is surprisingly hot, but as usual, that’s up to you. I really hope you give this ancient raw sauce a try soon. Enjoy!
Cooking up a few chicken breasts should be a fast, easy, and delicious experience, but for many people it’s actually a slow, hard, and disappointing one. There are several reasons for this, and hopefully this demo for how to pan-roast chicken will eliminate them.
The most important factor is doneness. By “pan-roasting,” you can easily monitor the internal temp, and as I recommend in the video, start the pan sauce when the meat reaches about 150 F. By the time your sauce is done, and the chicken is covered in its hot, buttery goodness, it should have reached 155-160 F., which is what I shoot for.
At this temp, the chicken will be perfectly safe, while remaining moist and tender. I know many recipes, and reference sites, call for longer cooking times, and internal temps of 165-175 F., but that’s just crazy. Unless, you want tough, dry meat; in which case, that works wonderfully.
Also, I think it’s very important we leave the skin on. Not only does this add a lot of flavor, but also much-needed moisture. Even if you’ve been brain-washed into thinking the skin is “bad” for you, which it isn’t, you can peel it off before you eat it, but I recommend leaving it on during the cooking process.
And yes, we’d be getting even more flavor and moisture if we just left the breasts on the bone, but the whole point is for this to be fast to make, and effortless to eat. Otherwise, we might as well roast a whole chicken.
If you’re not into creating your own boneless, skin-on breasts, like we did in the video, you can have the butcher at the market do this for you. You’ll have to go to a larger store where they cut up their own chicken parts, and tell them exactly what you want, but they’ll hook you up at no extra charge. I really hope you give this easy, and very effective technique a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 portions:
4 boneless, but skin-on chicken breasts
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh herbs, optional
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup *vinegar
4 tbsp cold butter, cut in smaller pieces
a splash of chicken broth or water, if needed to thin sauce
*I used apple cider here, but literally any vinegar will work. Some of my favorites are sherry, balsamic, rice, and champagne vinegar.
Every time I use horseradish in a recipe, I get e-mails from people asking me how they can make it at home. They mention they can get the fresh root, but can’t find anything already prepared in the jar, which in some cases is hard to believe – like when the email originates from New York City – but regardless, this is still a very worthwhile thing to learn how to make.
Worthwhile, and somewhat painful, if you’re not careful.As I mention in the video, the fumes produced by this process are very intense, and will cause burning eyes and runny noses, if you’re not in a well-ventilated space.Having said that, using a little common sense, it’s really not that bad, and so totally worth it.
This really is quite easy if you have a food processor, but if you don’t, a heavy-duty blender will work, although you may have to add more water in the first step, to get the mixture fine enough. You can also grate this very fine on a microplane, but that would probably only be practical if you’re making a smaller amount.
Once your horseradish has been ground finely, the technique is very simple. I like to wait two or three minutes (this is supposed to make it hotter), before adding the salt and vinegar. Then, I’ll simply process, adding as much water as necessary, until I have a nice, smooth, creamy mixture.
And while this looks like something from the grocery store, the flavor is incomparable. Intensely hot, and aromatic; this is the real deal. So, whether you’re one of these people, who lives in a place where they don’t have jarred horseradish, like apparently New York City, or you always wanted to try and make some yourself, I really hope you give it a try soon.Enjoy!
Ingredients for about 3 cups: you read this please in here
This incredibly easy to make Alabama white barbecue sauce was invented in 1925 by Robert “Big Bob” Gibson at Big Bob Gibson's Bar-B-Q restaurant, in Decatur. When I first read this bit of culinary history, I had to smile, since I actually know the guy. Well, sort of.
I’ve been to two bbq “boot camps,” run by champion pitmaster Chris Lilly, who trained under a guy, who trained under Big Bob Gibson. Hey, that’s only three degrees of separation. Ironically, Chris never made, or used the white sauce on anything we cooked, but still, I know a guy, who knew a guy, who knew THE guy.
Some people find this concoction quite strange, but not me. It’s eerily similar to the Cornell chicken marinade, which I love. In fact, Mr. Robert C. Baker, the creator of the aforementioned recipe, may have borrowed the idea from Big Bob. I would investigate further, but I have real crimes to solve.
Don’t let this mixture’s appearance stop you from trying what is a devastatingly delicious marinade, baste, and sauce. One tip for basting on the grill: make sure you do it towards the end of cooking, and not over too-high heat. You don’t want flame-ups, as that will cause an off taste.
I brush on two or three applications to each side, over more indirect heat, and as you see in the video, it sears on nicely. As a table sauce, it’s great on any of the traditional barbecued meats, but since it’s really just a salad dressing, it’s also wonderful for making potato salad, coleslaw, and grilled vegetables. I hope you give this white barbecue sauce a try soon. Enjoy!
