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The “dumplings” (molo) in this soup are wontons filled with seasoned pork and egg. I like the dish because it’s Filipino-Chinese rolled into one, like my origin. I was born and raised in the Philippines with a pure Chinese father and a half Filipino, half Chinese mother.

I eat this soup summer or winter with bread. My tip is to sprinkle white pepper while it’s hot before eating to add more flavor and spiciness.

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Serve Cajun sausage stew with toasted crusty bread topped with butter and a dash or two of kosher salt.

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There are many stories about the origins of the “puttanesca” sugo. Theories about the etymology of the word also. And versions with slight variations in Naples, Sicily, and Lazion. It is a wonderful weekend or weeknight sauce that is easy to make with pantry staples.

See the recipe for Cod Puttenesca 

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Beer, half n’ half, and fire roasted tomatoes seemed to make sense. I also used up all my garlic and parsley…thus the amounts shown in the recipe. These turned out great!  I am saving the leftover sauce as a base for a salmon soup or stew. Yum.

P.S. My husband will not be making the mussels again!

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When you are passionate about something, you keep trying things over and over again until you achieve perfection! These wine braised short ribs are no exception. In my life, I have created, modified, adapted, invented over 100 or so dishes. Probably more. But there are only about a dozen that are my pride and joy. Dishes that people know me by and dishes that I’m proud to call “mine!” When friends and family insert the word “your” in front of whatever they want me to cook for them, that’s a sign that a dish has risen to the top of the list. “When are you going to make your crab cakes with the lemon zabaglione sauce” or “You haven’t made your veal Bolognese in a while, hint-hint.”

So, In my own little world, wine braised short ribs have now been promoted to the top of my signature dishes!

Note from the Editors: Be sure to allow for 5 hours braising time in the oven. This dish is lovely served with mashed potatoes and sauteed chanterelle mushrooms.

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A meal for the new year is Nishime. Japanese simmered chicken and vegetables is a popular dish. It is an osechi. This means seasonal food, served especially during the New Year’s season in Japan. Traditionally, shops or supermarkets are closed during new year holidays. Therefore mothers cook dishes to last about a week. Osechi includes different kinds of dishes. These are collectively called osechi dishes.

Each osechi has a meaning, The ingredients in this meal for the new year include simmered shrimp for long life, as well as simmered black beans that mean work well. And so on.

Nishime is a dish of  simmered chicken and vegetables. Nishime is a standard meal for the new year. It is for when we meet on the New Year’s Day. Nishime also has a meaning. It means strong relationship among family members. It has many decorations, so it looks gorgeous.

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The secrets here are twofold: first, we cut our vegetables into beautiful “gems” using a faux-tourné dice. A regular tourné cut involves taking a vegetable such as a carrot or potato and using a knife to basically carve it into what looks like a tiny football. It looks pretty, but it’s unnecessarily complicated, and also wastes an awful lot of vegetable. The faux-tourné, on the other hand, couldn’t be simpler: you just take your vegetable (in our case parsnips and carrots) and cut about an inch off at a 45-degree angle. Then you rotate the veg, cut off another inch-long segment at a 45-degree angle, rotate it again, and keep going until it’s all cut up. The end result are, at least in my eyes, gem-like chunks with clean, flat sides, that cook evenly and look beautiful.

The other secret is that we fortify this stew with a roux, which is a paste of flour fried in fat. A lot of stew recipes simply call for dredging your stew meat in flour before you brown it, but this can make the meat gummy and leave you with little flour deposits sprinkled throughout your finished dish. The better option by far is to make the roux, which enhances the nutty, savory characteristics of the flour while helping to thicken it.

The other two things I do aren’t secrets, and were pioneered by food writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats. First, instead of buying “stew meat” or pre-cubing your meat, you brown whole steaks, and cut them up after the browning is done. This significantly cuts down on moisture in the pan while you brown, which makes it far easier to brown your meat. Secondly, you brown your cut up vegetables before they go in the stew, remove them, and then add them again in the final stages of cooking. This adds flavor via the browning, gives them a jump start on cooking, and means that they’ll retain their shape when you finally go to serve your dish.

The end result is lovely, a savory mix of tender, flavorful beef, beautiful, firm vegetables, and a hearty perfectly thickened base packed with flavor. You can make this even prettier by using a mix of multi-colored carrots (commonly available in many grocery stores), and a shower of finely chopped parsley on the surface right before serving never hurt anyone either.

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