main courses recipes

A small and simple dish with honest and readily available flavors, using a MIREPOIX base and the simplicity of BEER, but pushing it until it becomes not only its foundation of flavor but the actual structure of the dish, with no interfering extras. A “MIREPOIX”, just like an Italian BATTUTO and SOFFRITTO and a variation of Spanish...

It’s BEAN season (or actually the season for those dried beans that we should use up during the winter) and I don’t feel like I eat enough of them, which ideally would be at least once a week, whether they’re chickpeas or lentils or fancier mixes and my absolute favorite : giant LIMA BEANS (also called BUTTER BEANS in English and...

A chunkier & heartier version of a perfect winter meal with a bottom layer of beer-braised beef, later shredded, cooked with vegetables, later chopped, followed by a layer of whole corn kernels and creamed corn layer too and topped with a layer of partly-crushed boiled root vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips and white carrots and then...

It’s a Greek and Turkish version of SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS but the KEFTEDES meatballs are braised in a spicy KOKKINISTO sauce, which means “reddened”; a rich and warming blend of tomatoes, onions, garlic, red wine, oregano, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, allspice and nutmeg and the rice grain-shaped...

It all began with 4 SLICES of SANDWICH BREAD, aPERFECTLY-SIZED SQUARE BAKING DISH& MOVING DAY ! Not mine of course but some neighbors who moved 2 doors down to my building complex. With many arms carrying boxes and bags and disassembled furniture and many legs going up and down stairs and elevators, it seems like the best...

It’s a comforting MINESTRONE soup with equal parts of everything : an initial 18 cups of the 6 different chopped vegetables and beans and crushed tomatoes and pasta (before partly reducing in volume to 14 cups), all simmering in an equal amount of 12 cups of prepared broth made with extra vegetables and scraps and 2 cups of pasta...

A delightful northern Spanish celebratory dish that’s involves rolling up 4 different layers and creating a multi-layered spiralling loaf, starting with a layer of freshly chopped tuna blended with onions, garlic, parsley, white wine, breadcrumbs and flour, then a layer of Serrano dry-cured ham slices, then an egg omelet layer, then the...

Every season needs its SALAD, according to what’s available and how hot or cold it is out there. It’s autumn so it’ll be some colder and fresher ingredients combined with some warmer, fried or boiled or toasted ingredients on top; and even though my modest version of such a well-known dish, from the southwest of France,...

… But please understand that one man’s DONER KEBAB, is another man’s SOUVLAKI, is another man’s GYRO, is another man’s SHAWARMA, is another man’s SHASHLIK, is another man’s CHUANR, is another man’s KATI ROLL, is another man’s TACO, etc. (and when I...

“PASTITSIO” … such a very Greek dish (as well as Cypriot, Turkish, Egyptian & Maltese) because it’s just so Mediterranean. But the original word “pasticcio” is Italian and signifies a baked pasta & meat dish. It’s not a lasagna nor a beefy macaroni & cheese dish, but something in between...

I know you’re feeling the cold temperatures out there (just like I am), so perhaps something hot & spicy (instead of a soup) can warm you up this weekend and get your blood boiling (or at least pumping) a little more !  The roasted red pepper & tomato sauce was an experiment, using a jar of roasted red peppers to transform a...

RETSINA is a Greek dry white wine with resinous flavors because of the wooden caskets it is aged in, that are sealed with Aleppo pine sap. In my opinion, it’s an ideal alternative flavoring for winter dishes, just like rosemary and pine nuts for savory dishes and mastic resin for sweets. Other years, I focused on warmer flavors like...

It’s something LIGHTER & CLEARER & ZESTIER and more of an autumnal or northern Mediterranean style fish stew or soup, without the tomato base and heavier spices typical of a summery and southern Mediterranean Fisherman’s or Bouillabaisse fish stew, which I also love, especially when its intensity and heat inevitably make me...

And here’s PART 2 or the FILLINGS that go inside the savory pie-crust shell we prepared or will soon be motivated to prepare (see recipe here) ! But like I said in part 1, it’s a bit different because instead of just combining the fillings of roasted vegetables (no frying here) and perhaps too many eggs, heavy cream and grated...

It’s WHITE and it’s GREEN . . . because it was WINTER and then it seemed like SPRING, much earlier than usual. And I planted my seeds and they became seedlings. And then it wasn’t spring any longer and it got colder and then it got really, really colder. Winter to spring to winter. And this happened...