It’s been a while since we blogged about a recipe with family history. We’ve been doing quite a bit of commissioned work for Serious Eats, and they’re a professional outfit you know, and you can’t just submit any old tosh on their site (ahem). Their readers are a refined, questing bunch, wanting to get to the nitty gritty of a recipe without having to weed-whack through paragraphs of us arse-ing around talking about our chickens, or what kind of expression our dog is making (bored, if you must know), or that time we tried to juggle seven lemons. As you know, we leave all the old tosh for our own site, so it is with a familiar thud that I dust off the book of Nerds Family History and tell you all about gamush.
Beef & Lamb
Braised Short Ribs with Honey, Soy and Orange
These braised short ribs are cooked low and slow in a delectable sauce flavored with soy, honey, orange and Chinese 5-spice powder. A hearty cold-weather recipe!
As a cooking couple, we’re aware of a lot of the clichés that link food with romance. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The couple that braises together…stayses together. You know, the classics.
It is true that if you can work together and communicate well in the kitchen, if you can appreciate each other’s skills and enjoy your combined successes, and if you can laugh at and learn from your culinary failures, your relationship probably has a pretty solid footing. It helps to have a recipe like this braised short ribs dish. There are a few steps to it, but nothing is time-critical, so you can hang out in the kitchen and talk about how your day was while you do the prep and get the ribs in the oven or slow cooker.
Note: This recipe is part of our on-going series with Serious Eats. You can also find this recipe, and other great ones, on their site.
Hoisin-Glazed Cocktail Meatballs
These sticky, sweet and savory Hoisin-glazed Cocktail Meatballs are the ultimate party snack.
There’s a reason why cocktail meatballs have been a perennial party favorite since the 1960s. They’re incredibly tasty and exactly the kind of snack you want to munch on while holding a martini glass in one hand.
Warm and savory, these little meatballs are pretty much always the first things we run out of at every holiday party we’ve ever hosted.
Lasagna Bolognese with Fontina Béchamel
A revised classic pasta, made with hands, from scratch. Will it take you all weekend? Yes. Is it worth it? YES.
Sweet and Spicy Korean Cocktail Meatballs
These Korean cocktail meatballs, sweet and spicy, are so tiny and cute and delicious you might forget there’s even a game on.
It’s no secret that I’m not really a sports person. I’m the type of nerd who avoids sports bars at all costs. And if I was forced to go to one, I would probably hide in a corner with a book and a set of earplugs.
Luckily for me I married a man that hates watching sports even more than I do. Other than the World Cup and the occasional Wimbledon match, our house is a strictly sports-free zone (unless you consider marathon-watching season 2 of Fargo a sport, which I do).
But there’s one aspect of Superbowl madness I can unequivocally get behind. Game day snacks.
Savory Beef Stew with Mustard and Brandy
I have to say that in general, beef stew is one of those dishes I had always been ‘meh’ about. I never disliked it, but I can’t say I ever craved it either. I think I probably associate it with the gross canned stuff that everybody ate in college. You know, that brownish sludge with chunks of ‘beef’ and … Read more