mustard-brushed pot roast with cider and horseradish

I’ll be honest with you - until recently, I never really liked pot roast much. It’s only been the past few years that I’ve learned how to properly cook a roast and to coax the flavors together. I generally knew what components were supposed to be there but I never really quite got it. I never really realized that pot roast is supposed to taste like home. It’s supposed to make your entire house smell suffused with love and care, with lightly caramelized onions and fragrant rosemary and that little something extra. I’m excited to go into the season for roasts and more excited to be embracing them. This one is something special, rich and silky with the mounted butter and the dimension of apple cider.

Pot roast is a pretty North American invention. In the broadest strokes, it’s a slowly braised beef dish accompanied by an array of root vegetables and came from adjustments to the French dish bœuf à la mode. There are a fairly wide variety of choices in what meat you select, but make sure it’s well-disposed to long braising and is rich in fat and collagen. The tenderness that pot roast is so praised for will come from the long breakdown of that fat and collagen in the heat of the oven and will melt into the juices and vegetables for extra silkiness and flavor.

4-5 lb beef chuck roast
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup celery, diced (about 3 stalks)
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup yellow onions, diced (about 2 onions)
1.5 cups apple cider
2 cups beef stock
3-4 carrots, large dice
4-5 red potatoes, medium diced
3 parsnips, cored and medium diced
1 beet, peeled and diced
3 sprigs rosemary
3 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp prepared horseradish
2 tbsp butter
1 oz lemon juice
olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper

Preheat oven to 275 F. In a large oven-safe pot with a lid, heat the pan over high heat. Add olive oil and get hot. Salt and pepper the roast generously and then sear off each side of the roast until a nice golden brown on every side. Remove to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium high and add onions and celery. Cook 1-2 minutes, until beginning to be fragrant and translucent, then add garlic and tomato paste. Cook 1-2 minutes further, until garlic is fragrant, then add cider, stock, 1/4 cup mustard, and 1/4 cup horseradish. Taste. Add salt as needed. Return roast to pot and add all vegetables and herbs. Roast for 2-3 hours or until roast is tender and internal temperature reads 145 F.

Mix remaining mustard and horseradish and brush roast. Mix butter and lemon juice in with the vegetables and sauce. Season to taste. Serve.

pumpkin bread with coffee icing

Tis the season. The best season. The season of pumpkin spice and everything nice. As it’s finally fall (today was the first day of fall weather here in NYC), I decided to make a batch of my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The problem is that I always have leftover pumpkin, so it seemed like a natural choice to bake a pumpkin bread loaf. What else do you want on a brisk, crisp fall day than a dense slice of moist bread tasting like the promise of pumpkin pie with just a hint of coffee?

Pumpkin bread is a type of quick bread. All quick bread recipes were created after baking powder and baking soda were introduced in 1845 and then came into high demand during the American Civil War, when quick and transportable recipes were desperately needed. This pumpkin recipe follows the same basic components and structure as a traditional banana or zucchini bread - a wet flavored mixture with a dry mix containing a chemical leavener and flour.

You can adapt this recipe as you see fit. I’ve chosen to use only all-purpose flour for a traditional, dense, banana-bread-like crumb. If you prefer, you can replace up to 1/2 of the flour for either cake flour or bread flour, depending on whether you prefer a lighter, cake-like crumb or a more structurally-sound and dense crumb.

pumpkin bread

15 oz pumpkin puree (I strictly use Libby’s)
105 g canola oil
20 g molasses
3 large eggs
200 g granulated sugar
100 g dark brown sugar
295 g all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tbsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Coffee Icing

2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp brewed coffee or espresso
1/4 c confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter/grease a loaf pan (6 cup) and/or line with parchment.

In a stand mixer, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, molasses, and both sugars. Beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix well and slowly beat into the wet mixture until fully combined but do not mix longer than that. Pour mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until tester comes out clean and inside of bread registers 190 F. Remove and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, combine cream, coffee, and add confectioners sugar until desired pourable consistency is reached. It should be liquid but moderately thick, so that it can coat the back of a spoon and hold a line if you draw one through with your finger. Once bread is cooled, pour coffee icing drizzle over top.

Serve. Preferably with coffee or tea.

roasted rapini + italian sausage

This one is for everyone lazy. It’s a super quick, two-pan meal that comes together in about 30 minutes, most of it in the oven. It hits all the notes for me, bitter rapini, acidic lemon juice, hot red pepper flakes, and richness from potatoes, squash, and italian sausage. It’s exactly what I need after battling a packed Q train during rush hour and having approximately zero interest into doing anything save pouring myself onto the couch and binging Parks and Rec.

Due to the bitterness, I never really liked rapini until recently. But now I’m finding that I love the way it complements notes of sweetness, like squash, and heat, like red pepper flakes. All of the best recipes are a balance of flavors, and this is no different.

1 bunch rapini, chopped
4 links cooked hot italian sausage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 lb fingerling potatoes, large dice
1/2 butternut squash, diced
1 red onion, large dice
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 oz parmesan, shaved or grated
1 oz olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 lemon, zested and juiced
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Boil diced potatoes in a large saucepan in salted water until tender to the fork. Remove from water, drain, and let dry.

Mix olive oil, mustard, worchestershire, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice together. Toss remaining ingredients in this and then spread onto 2 large sheet pans. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Ensure they’re spread well so leaves on the rapini get crispy. Roast for 10 minutes or until leaves are crispy and browning.

matcha + dark chocolate eclairs

It's mildly ironic that I pursued a career as a pastry chef while also being both a type 1 diabetic and not really preferring sweet things very much. But there's this fascination that I have with the way something transforms in pastry - from basic ingredients like flour and sugar and salt - into something incredibly magical and complex and with a structure. Nothing's really better representative than the classic eclair. 

Honestly,we don't know much about eclairs. They pop up first in nineteenth-century France and those who know a thing or two about the subject suspect that the first chef to create them was Antonin Carême. They were originally called "pain a la Duchesse" and later took on the name "eclair" (the French word for lightning), likely due to the shape and shiny surface after confectioner's glaze was applied. 

What we do know is that eclairs still represent pastry craft and require a rigid technique. While they have expanded to be topped and filled with just about anything, the shell is always made of choux pastry - firm and crunchy in exterior and soft and eggy on the inside. 

choux pastry

227 g water
113 g unsalted butter (particular favorites are Plugra and Kerrygold)
3/8 tsp kosher salt (I recommend, and this recipe is formulated for, Diamond Kosher)
149 g all-purpose flour (note that this recipe is written for King Arthur)
4 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 425 F/218 C. Line two sheet trays with parchment paper or silpats. 

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, and salt. Heat, while occasionally stirring, until the butter has fully melted and it comes to a full boil.

Remove the pan from heat and add the flour all at once. Stir aggressively. Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium heat while stirring continuously. Cook until the mixture smooths and it follows the spoon around the pan. This should take 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Allow the mixture to cool. Then place the dough in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on a low speed while incorporating eggs one by one. It's gonna look messed up and curdled for a hot minute but keep mixing until it smooths out to a nice velvet dough.

Fill a piping bag with pate a choux and fit with a size 6 round or star pastry tip. Pipe in even lines approximately 5 inches long. Allow 2 inches between each line. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until eclair shells are a dark golden brown and crispy-firm to the touch.

matcha pastry cream

1.5 cups whole milk
1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
2 tbsp powdered culinary-grade matcha

Heat milk in saucepan to just under boiling. Whisk together remaining ingredients (except matcha) in a large bowl. Slowly, while mixing, add heated milk to mixture. Once fully added, return mixture to pan over medium heat and whisk constantly until thickened. Strain into separate bowl. Mix in matcha. Spread out on silpat or parchment and cover with plastic wrap to prevent forming a skin. Once cooled, place in pastry bag and pipe into cooled eclair shells.

dark chocolate ganache

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Melt chips over a double boiler. Mix in heavy cream. Dip tops of filled eclairs in chocolate. Sit in a cool place to allow to set.

brown butter + sea salt chocolate chip cookies

There are a lot of types of baking and desserts that, while technically more difficult, always seem easier to me than cookies. I think that it's largely due to the fact that cookies are so common, so prevalent, so ensconced in our childhoods - and we all have that one cookie in our memory that we hold up as the perfect one. Is yours soft and chewy? Crisp? Do you like it soft on the inside? Fresh out of the oven? 

This is mine. What I like out of a cookie is something crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Browning the butter is a slightly annoying extra step but hugely rewards with a complex, nutty flavor that deepens the interest in what looks like a simple chocolate chip cookie. The sprinkle of a coarse sea salt on top is all you need to take it to the next level. 

225 g butter
300 g all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
1 teaspoon (4 g) baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 g) coarse sea salt (this is my favorite brand)
198 g packed light brown sugar
99 g granulated sugar
2 large eggs, whisked
2 teaspoons (10 g) vanilla extract
350 g semisweet chocolate chips
flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

1) In a medium saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Once it begins to bowl, swirl constantly until mixture reaches a consistent nutty amber color. Remove from heat, pour into a separate container, and allow to cool to room temperature.

2) Preheat oven to 350 F/176 C and line two sheet pans with parchment paper or Silpats. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.

3) In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat on low with the paddle attachment. Slowly add flour mixture and butter in alternating pattern until fully incorporated. Add chocolate chips and beat until just mixed.

4) Drop cookie batter with a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop on the parchment-lined trays. Allow about 2 inches of space between each cookie to accommodate for baking spread. Top with additional chocolate chips and sprinkle with sea salt.

5) Bake for 9-11 minutes or until edges of cookies have just browned. Remove from oven (cookies will still be soft to touch) and allow to cool.

Makes about 25-30 cookies.

blueberry + honey pavlova

Pavlova's one of those really just simply beautiful desserts. It's light, it's airy. It's heavenly in the angel food cake sort of way. I love the way the meringue-like base is crispy on the outside and like a marshmallow within, topped with barely sweetened whipped cream and tangy, acidic berries. 

We're not entirely sure where it originated (both Australia and New Zealand lay claim) but it was created to celebrate a Russian ballerina named Anna Pavlova in honor of her visit to the region in the 1920s. 

4 large egg whites
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp champagne vinegar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp honey (I used a local wild variety)
1/4 cup blueberries (these can be interchanged with any seasonal berry)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (F). 

Cover a half sheet pan (baking sheet) with parchment paper or a silpat. Mix egg whites and salt in a stand mixer until firm. Slowly pour in sugar until peaks are stiff and glossy. Remove bowl from mixer and dust cornstarch over the mixture, fold in. Add vanilla and vinegar and gently fold in. Turn out mixture onto lined sheet pan and shape into a 9" circle. Bake for 1.5 hours, then turn off heat and, without opening the oven door, allow to cool completely for one additional hour.

Meanwhile, whip the cream in a stand mixer. Once cream has begun to thicken, add vanilla and sugar. Whip until nice and fluffy, but stop as soon as desired consistency is reached. 

Top base with whipped cream, then dot with berries and drizzle with honey. 

seafood pasta puttanesca

It's spring. Finally. I see things growing on my walk to the subway. There are daffodils! And crocuses! And I'n craving seafood, fresh seafood, something I associate with warmer weather. This isn't entirely a spring dish (tomatoes certainly aren't in season yet) but let's just pretend that it is. Deal? Deal.

Pasta puttanesca (literally "prostitute's spaghetti") was allegedly first created in the 1950s by a restaurant called Rancio Fellone. It's a kitchen sink kind of dish. It throws together a little bit of all the condiments you've got sitting around in your cupboards (at least my cupboards) and it creates a delicious, spicy, acidic, and salty sauce that slips easily around the pasta. Use dried pasta, fresh just doesn't have the same feel.

1/4 lb shrimp, deveined and tails removed
1/4 lb clams, cleaned
1/4 lb calamari rings, cleaned
1/2 lb dried pasta
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp capers
1 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you love spicy food)
2 tbsp Kalamata olives, sliced
1/4 cup white onion, diced
1 container anchovies, minced to a paste
1/2 cup white wine
2 cloves garlic, minced

Bring a pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add the dried pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, heat a small saucepot or medium saute pan with straight sides, add olive oil and get it hot. Add onions and garlic and cook until fragrant and onions are transparent. Add tomatoes and wine. Reduce wine by half. Add anchovies, red pepper flakes, olives, and capers. Add shrimp, clams and calamari rings. Cook approximately 2 minutes, until calamari is tender, shrimp are opaque, and clams have opened. 

Add pasta water as needed to thicken sauce. Combine pasta and sauce. Serve.

raviolo di uova

Pasta. Pasta is my one true love. I've recently been sick and all I've wanted to eat, day after day, is a big comforting bowl of pasta. It's warm and delicious, perfectly al dente and capturing the slick hearty sauce of whatever you've paired with it. 

This version is no different. Or maybe a little different, with the intensity and richness of flavor. Have you ever had raviolo di uova? Get ready because I'm about to drop a bombshell on you. This version is homemade pasta, rolled as thinly as possible, filled with tarragon goat cheese and filled with a perfectly poached egg inside. It's like a treasure chest, cutting through the ravioli to reveal the gold within.

Since this is such an involved process, I thought an infographic might be helpful! Take a look and see if you prefer this layout of the recipe.

1 lb all purpose flour
1/2 tbsp salt
4 eggs + 4 yolks
1 oz goat cheese, whipped
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
fleur de sel to taste
pepper to taste
finishing olive oil

Setup your pasta roller. Make a pile of 1 lb ap flour with a well in the center. Crack four eggs in the center and
slowly work the dough together with your hands. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. Wrap in plastic and allow to rest for one hour. 

In the meantime, mix 1/2 cup goat cheese with 2 tbsp tarragon. Roll out the pasta with the pasta roller using the flat roller. Start on the largest setting and progressively work down to the smallest. Cut the dough if it gets too long to work with. Dust your work surface and lay out the pasta dough. Carefully spoon a roughly tablespoon sized dollop of the goat cheese mixture on the dough sheets. 

Create a well in the mixture. Crack an egg and separate from the whites. Save the yolk and gently place in the goat
cheese well. Layer the second sheet of pasta over the first sheet. Be delicate. Use a round pasta cutter or the open
end of a glass to cut around the raviolis.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Carefully lower the ravioli into the water and cook for 2 minutes - until pasta is fully cooked but yolks are runny.

bourbon banana bread

Did you know that quick breads, such as banana and zucchini, date back to not terribly far ago? Approximately, in fact, to the Civil War and the invention of baking soda and powder, which are the chemical agents used in a quick bread to provide the rise. Unlike most breads, a quick bread has no yeast and therefore requires no proofing period, allowing it to go straight from your mixer into the oven. The rise is done with the engagement of baking soda and acid (or baking powder, which is baking soda and an acid which activates in the dough) releasing gas, which inflates those gluten pockets in the flour.

I have to confess to a sin - I like those terribly old, spotty, nearly black bananas. I like them soft and sickly sweet, long past any starchiness, long past their prime. So I nearly never make banana bread because bananas that are perfect for bread are also perfect for me. But here we are - this bread is particularly great. Not too sweet but sweet in that complex way from brown sugar and a bit of molasses, with an element of vanilla from the bourbon, and the pleasant hint of allspice and nutmeg hovering, ever so slightly, in the background. 

3 very ripe bananas, smashed
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1.5 cups flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp bourbon
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter and bananas in a stand mixer and mix until thoroughly smashed and combined. Mix in sugar, egg, bourbon, and vanilla. Combine. Add baking soda. Mix. Finish with adding the flour and mix completely until a batter is formed. Pour mixture into a greased and parchment-lined pan (approximately 4x8). Bake for 45 min - 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. 

roasted jerusalem artichoke soup

Fall. It's here, it's gloriously here and I'm no longer sweating to death simply standing around (nor baking in the overheated subway stations below ground). It's a time for warm things, cocoa and roasted vegetables, hearty potato dishes - and soup. Especially this soup. 

I had it first during our Daniel Boulud session in culinary school. The groundings of this soup, in mirepoix and lardons, cream and a bouquet garni - is impossibly French. It's exactly what I think of when I think of Boulud in the kitchen. This is a soup Julia Child would have loved. It's rich and flavored with the delicate taste of artichokes, brought out by roasting the Jerusalem artichokes gently in the oven, and fades away to a backdrop of complex vegetable flavors. 

2.5 lbs Jerusalem artichokes (or sunchokes), scrubbed and diced
8 cups chicken stock
3 oz pancetta or slab bacon, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
3/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup carrot, diced
1 potato, diced
1 leek, sliced thinly
1 fennel bulb, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
1 bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 1 sprig parsley, 1 sprig thyme, tied up)
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the Jerusalem artichokes out and toss with canola oil. Season with salt. Roast until tender and lightly browned. In a large stockpot, heat butter over medium heat till hot. Add the diced bacon and render until all fat has melted. Remove from pot. Add 2 tbsp canola oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the mirepoix (onion, celery, and carrot) and a pinch of salt. Sweat the vegetables for 2-3 minutes until onion is translucent. Add the leek and garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant. Add stock, potatoes, roasted Jerusalem artichokes, bouquet garni, and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and skim the top often. Cook 20-25 minutes, adjusting seasoning as necessary. Remove from heat, discard bouquet garni, and carefully pour the hot liquid into a blender, puree until smooth and creamy. Add cream and adjust seasoning.