What I’m Having for Dinner: Roast Pork Loin

My stay with family in Western New York is quickly coming to an end, and I’ll be traveling back to San Francisco on Friday. I do have one more new video recipe to post before I go, and as a little tease, I’ll say it will certainly be a controversial one.

In the meantime, I thought I’d repost this brined roast pork loin recipe, since this is what I’m making for dinner tonight. I’m sure I’ll tweak it somehow, I always do, but I’ll use the same basic technique seen herein. To read the original post, and get the ingredients, follow this link. Enjoy!

Beef Borscht – You Really Can’t Beat This Beet Soup

This delicious and vividly colored beef borscht is the first soup I can ever remember eating. Every summer, we’d drive to New York City to visit my father’s side of the family. His father was Ukrainian, and his mother was Polish, and like the pierogis they’d have ready for us, this beef and beet soup was always a very welcomed part of the trip.

It was also this soup that started my lifelong love of adding sour cream to things. The way the tangy, rich cream melted into the hot, beefy broth was a wonder to behold, and unlike any other soup I’d eat the rest of the year. Speaking of beefy broth, I only used one measly piece of shank, but you are welcome to add one or two more to make this even more awesome.

Of course, there are a thousand versions of borscht, and as usual I have no idea how authentic this is, which is fine since, well, it’s soup for God’s sake. Beside what vegetables to add or delete, there is also the question of temperature.

Word on the street is that the Ukrainian/Russian versions are served piping hot, and that the Polish versions are served chilled. However, there does seem to be a general agreement as far as beverage pairings go. I’ll let one of my YouTube followers, Afterapplepicking, explain:

“Hot, beefy, red, Russian borscht is only to be served with copious amounts of beer or vodka. Which is quite a distinction from the cold, vegetarian, pink Polish borscht, which is only to be served with copious amounts of beer or vodka.”

Well said! Anyway, I hope you give this blast from my soupy past a try soon, and as always, enjoy!

Ingredients (amounts not critical!)

2-3 quarts of beef broth

(to make your own: simmer a well-browned beef shank or two in 3 quarts of water for 4 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone, and completely flavorless)

1 bay leaf

1 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 onion, chopped

3 cups sliced beets

2 cups chopped cabbage

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup white vinegar, or to taste

sour cream and dill or chive to garnish
*This soup doesn't require a lot of thought. Simply simmer everything until tender!

The Friday Night Fish Fry

I’m not exactly sure how it became such a staple of Western New York’s regional cuisine, but every Friday night, all over this part of the Empire State, countless hundreds of restaurants feature what’s simply called a “fish fry.”

It’s a boneless fillet of haddock, usually dipped in some type of beer batter and served humbly with tartar sauce, fries, baked potato, or as you see here, mashed potatoes. I enjoyed this fine example at Countryside Family Restaurant, a few miles from my mom’s home, and it was awesome.

I really want to do a demo for this recipe, especially since I’ve had hundreds of requests for “fish and chips,” which I assume this is a direct descendant of, but to do it properly you really should use a nice big deep-fryer. I may get a turkey fryer in anticipation of the holiday season, and could break it in with this fabulous fish dish. If you have any “fish fry” memories, please feel free to share!

Zucchini and Ricotta Casserole – Help Us End SZF in Our Lifetime

Recent made-up studies have shown that every Fall, millions of Americans suffer from a condition known as Severe Zucchini Fatigue (SZF). 

After months of eating zucchini, their bodies begin to shut down and they simply can’t stomach any more of the ubiquitous summer squash. Well, relief is now just a casserole dish away.

Thanks to the magic of mint, the goodness of garlic, and a generous topping of baked ricotta, your SZF can not only be controlled, it can be cured. For this to be fully effective, be sure to not cheat on the hot oven. 

I know your oven smokes a little bit when set to 450 degrees F. (mostly because you only clean it like once a decade), but that’s the temperature needed to brown the edges of the zucchini and cheese, before the liquids begin to leak out.

This is meant to be a relatively quick and easy vegetable side, but as I ate it I couldn’t help but think what a great one-dish meal this would have made with the addition of some spicy sausages. Maybe scatter a few slices of chorizo or lamb Merguez sausage in there? How is that not going to be great? Anyway, I hope you give this delicious zucchini and ricotta casserole a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 or 4 firm large zucchini

2 or 3 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves crushed garlic

salt to taste
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 cup (packed) thinly sliced mint leaves

1 cup ricotta cheese, or as needed

cayenne to taste

Cheater Pierogi – This is No Polish Joke

During this video for quick and easy cheese pierogi, I joke about my Polish grandmother rolling over in her grave, but after eating several batches of these delicious dumplings, I’m pretty sure Grandma Sophie would have approved. 

I’ve always been a big fan of wonton skins. Not only have I used them for wonton soup, but also for tortellini, ravioli, and various other dumplings.  They’re very user-friendly, but use a damp paper towel to cover the open package as you work, since they can dry out quickly and become harder to work with.

Whenever I post a video like this, the most common questions usually revolve around what alternative fillings would work. Let me handle that issue right now. Anything will work as a filling. Literally. Most high-end grocery stores will have farmer’s cheese, but if you can’t find it, a mixture of half cream cheese and half ricotta would get you very close.

I decided to break with family tradition and serve these with bacon and caramelized onions, as we usually just fry in a little butter and serve with sour cream. I blame Chicago’s Pierogi Heaven for this, since it was during a recent visit that I had a plate served similarly, and it was amazing.

Anyway, whether you’re an old pro, or brand new to the joys of pierogi, I hope you give these easy, cheesy dumplings a try. Remember the old saying...if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 50-60 Pierogi:

1 1/2 cups warm mashed potato

1 1/2 cup farmer’s cheese, or any cheese blend

1 large egg

salt and pepper to taste

pinch of cayenne

50-60 wonton wrappers

sour cream and chives as needed

Bacon and Onion Sauce (enough to garnish about 12 pierogi)

4 slices bacon, sliced thin

1/2 large yellow onion, diced

2 tsp butter

*After bacon is crisp, drain excess fat, reserving about 2 tbsp to fry pierogi.

Poached chicken breast and its sauce for Laura*

Most diet plans and recipes featured in newspaper colour supplements and in magazines will at some point instruct you to eat a poached chicken breast. I am not averse to diet recipes but a poached chicken breast has always struck me as a terrible thing. Tasteless, papery, depressing.

But I have to lose some weight. I don't know how it happened, but I've got fatter. I don't recall eating more, or differently, but some cosmic shift has occurred to make me acquire more weight. I don't know how much because I don't weigh myself, but I know that a few months ago all my clothes fit and now they don't. Specifically certain pairs of jeans. Specifically round my middle. I would go on my own-brand Shitty Food Diet, but it has been failing me. I don't know why.

Things were made worse recently by going on holiday to a Greek island where among the guests were two 40-year-old women who were in terrific shape. They were lean and mean like Japanese calligraphy; they exercised all the time - running down to the beach at 7am to swim to a neighbouring island and back - and ate practically nothing. AND there was this 18 year old boy who had abs you could grate cheese on. He looked like he'd been Photoshopped. All round it was not a terrific week for feeling hot and sexy and whippet-like. And my hands swelled up so much in the heat that I had to stop wearing my wedding ring.

By the way, don't all rush to shriek that I am pregnant, because I am not - chance would be a fine thing. (Not quite as easy second time around, it seems.)

Anyway looking pregnant without actually being pregnant is the worst of both worlds. So I have been casting about for things to eat that won't make me get any fatter and thought that things may have got to such a drastic stage that I will have to give poached chicken breast a whirl.

The thing that made me definitely decide to do this was recalling an interview with Cheryl Cole about two years ago, when we were still in thrall to her and were not yet weary of her chocolatey eyes and perfect teeth and cavernous dimples, where she talked about losing a lot of weight. She would eat for dinner, she said, poached chicken breast (A-HA!) with "some kind of creamy sauce" and steamed vegetables.

The creamy sauce here is key - a rich creamy sauce will liven anything up, even a sodding chicken breast and you can, if you are doing a low-carbohydrate regime, as I am, slobber it all over whatever you're eating. It will just make everything okay.

Please do not be daunted by the sauce I have invented here. It is the same principle as Hollandaise but very easy as you are not required to do that awful buggery thing where you cook the egg-and-butter mixture only for it to fucking split and make you cry (this may only apply if you have PMT). What you sacrifice for ease and speed is a small amount in the way of consistency, which in the case of this sauce is a little thinner than an echt Hollandaise. But it is the key to being thin. So just do it.

Poached chicken with its sauce
For 2

2 chicken breasts
3 egg yolks
200g butter
a dash of vinegar
salt and pepper
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp of stock powder if you have it, don't worry if not


1 In a pan large enough to accommodate both chicken breasts heat up about two inches deep of water with your stock powder and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat until it is simmering and then add the chicken. Cook this for 12 minutes, turning occasionally. Try not to let the water hit a rolling boil, or dip below a brisk simmer.

2 If I were you, I would wait until the chicken was cooked then take it out of the pan to rest before you attempt the sauce because although the sauce is not hard, it is best to have no distractions while you are doing it.

(I made sure Kitty and husband were both watching television while doing this and not liable to pester me for biscuits, stickers, hugs or story-reading. Kitty can be pretty demanding, too.)

The chicken needs to rest for a bit anyway. Don't be put off by how utterly disgusting the chicken looks when cooked - all pale and dead-looking - this will be disguised later; see picture above.

3 For the sauce first melt the butter in a saucepan. If you have one of those marvellous pans with a little pouring lip, use that, if not don't worry. After it has melted keep it over the lowest flame possible to keep warm. Then separate the three yolks into a small bowl.

4 I have an electric whisk for this step. I'm sure you could do it by hand but it might be tough on the old wrists. So, while continuously beating the yolks, add the melted butter in a thin stream. People make a lot of fuss about how hard this is, it really isn't, just be careful.

5 Once add the butter has been added, season with salt, pepper, lemon juice and vinegar. Add all these cautiously and taste all the time. Egg yolks are precious; leftover egg whites are a bore - you do not want to have to do the whole thing all over again. I like a very vinegary Hollandaise - or should I say "Hollandaise" - but you might not.

6 You can just eat this now, or if you need to wait a bit while cooking some veg -  (I made a broccoli accompaniment *cries* by boiling some broccoli for 5 minutes then tossing in toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds) - then get any old pan, fill it 2 inches with water and then heat to skin temperature and keep it there, then place your "Hollandaise" in the water to keep it a sort of baby-bath temperature, which will stop it from going grainy. Stir every now and again anyway.

7 To serve! (And this is key, for morale) slice the chicken into what is know in the restuarant menu trade as "medallions" and lay out on the plate, slather generously with sauce, and also any accompanying boring vegetables.

Giles, to my total astonishment, declared this "the most delicious thing" I've ever cooked. I was stunned. He hasn't said that for ages. So there you go. Although just between you and me, I think he might have just been trying to be nice because I'm so fat and spotty at the moment.

Happy dieting! :(






N.B. I have not been posting because my publisher wants an absolutely terrifying amount of original copy and so I have been sitting in my room in front of my computer not posting anything because any new ideas I have must go into the book... but I haven't been writing any new copy either. What is wrong with me?


*This post is dedicated to a really terrific girl I know on Twitter, @lauraewelsh, who once said the funniest thing to me ever, which is that the greatest skill a parent can have is to eat an entire packet of crisps with their head in a cupboard. She is on a diet, too.

Wishing You a Happy Labor Day Weekend from Manchester NY

I’ll be in lovely Manchester, NY for a few weeks visiting my mother Pauline and the rest of the family. We’ll have a steady stream of new videos as usual, but I am going to try to take a little break from the laptop, and stay offline as much as I can. So far so good…I think I only tweeted four or five times yesterday!

Uncle Billy. One of my most
influential culinary mentors!

Anyway, speaking of family, today is the famous D’Arduini family reunion, and if that name sounds familiar, it should. Despite being one of our older, low-res videos, Chicken D’Arduini, which I filmed here years ago with my uncle Bill D’Arduini, has remained one of our most popular chicken recipes ever. 

To honor the occasion, I’m reposting this wonderful dish just in case you haven’t seen it, or maybe forgot how delicious it really is. I hope you have a great holiday, and as always, enjoy! 

Chicken D’Arduini (click here for the original post and ingredients)