Homemade Tomato Meat Sauce

While trying to find the best off-the-shelf pasta sauce, I realize that nothing beats a homemade recipe. This recipe takes time but is pretty simple. Make a large batch and freeze the rest, it's good for pasta and pizza, or wherever your creativity takes you. I got this recipe from my friend Jenn O., who is a wonderful cook and friend. I guess people who cook good food tend to be great people too, enjoy!

Before...

and After!

Homemade Tomato Meat Sauce 

Ingredients:
Crushed Tomatoes – 3 to 4 cans, 28-oz each (Rienzi or Tuttorosso brand)

Bone-in Pork Chop – 3
Onion - 2, chopped (I like to use sweet onions)

Mushroom - 2 packs (around 16 oz total; I like to use Baby Bella)
Garlic - 15-20 cloves, sliced or chopped

Season with: 
basil, bay leaf, salt, pepper and sugar; can also add parsley or Italian seasoning
(for this batch, I used 2 handfuls of basil and 4 bay leaves)

Serve with: 
Romano Grated Cheese

Optional:
Spicy peppers (I used 8 jalapenos in this recipe and it still wasn't spicy)

Diced Tomatoes – 1-2 cans (for chunkier texture)

Directions:

1. In big pot, put in some olive oil, cook chopped garlic and onion, then pour in tomatoes and all seasoning, cook for 1 hour on low/medium heat.

2. Season pork chop with salt and pepper, brown in frying pan.

3. After 1 hour, add pork chop to sauce. Cook for hours (minimum of 2 hours, but the longer the better) on low heat. Stir occasionally and taste and season, skim fat on top. Careful because sauce can be very splashy. 
4. When it's done, remove the pork chop and bay leaves.

* I used 4 cans of crushed tomatoes for this batch, and it made enough sauce for a meal for about 12 people. I like to freeze half of the sauce, and saute it with sausage/turkey/ground beef, or add mozzarella cheese before serving it with pasta.

Mexico City Style Chicken & Rice Soup

I ordered the this soup at a Tex Mex joint in Houston and totally fell in love. Determined to recreate it in my teeny NYC kitchen and think I got pretty close. This is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I will likely be making this a lot, especially if the winter stays this cold. 

Before...

Soup Base Ingredients

Garnish Ingredients

and After!

You can improvise and add/change up many of the ingredients here. Next time I think I'll try to add daikon to the soup. 

Mexico City Style Chicken & Rice Soup

Ingredients for Chicken Broth: 
Chicken (I like to use a mix of drumsticks and thighs with bones but no skin)
Carrots  
Celery 
Corn
Onion (I prefer yellow/Spanish onion for cooking)
Thyme
optional: Saffron

Ingredients for toppings/garnish: 
Tomatoes
Onion (I prefer red onion for garnish)
Avocado
Jalapeño
Corn - cook briefly in chicken soup, remove and cut off kernels
Cilantro
Rice - cook in rice cooker with slightly less water
Optional: lime

Directions:
1. Boil water and drop in chicken pieces. Cook for 1 hour. In the meantime, drop in whole corn, let cook, remove and cool. Cut off kernels to be used for garnish later.
2. Cut carrots, onion and celery into large chunks. Add carrots, onion, celery, thyme and dash of pepper into the pot. Cook for at least another hour. 
3. While the broth is cooking, prepare the toppings/garnish: chop the tomatoes, red onion and jalapeño into small pieces. Finely chop the cilantro. De-seed and cube/slice/chop avocado (do this last as avocado oxidizes).
2. When the broth looks ready, scoop out the chicken and carrot. De-bond and hand shred chicken meat into small pieces.
3. Pour the remaining soup through a sieve to retain the clear broth. Add chicken and carrots back in and reboil. Flavor with salt and pepper.
4. Scoop out a bowl of hot broth with chicken and carrots. Serve with toppings/garnish on the side.

Yuk Gae Jang (육개장) - Korean Spicy Beef Soup

This is one of my favorite Korean dishes: it's spicy and hearty but not too heavy. I'm drooling just thinking about it! Turns out, this isn't so hard to make - but you do need to be home for a 2-3 hour stretch because it takes at least 2 hours of total cooking time (even though the prep is not too bad). 

Before...

and After!

I would classify the recipe below as "medium spicy." Adjust spice accordingly and enjoy!

Yuk Gae Jang (육개장) - Korean Spicy Beef Soup

Ingredients:

Beef Brisket – 1.5 lb

[for meat seasoning]
Korean red pepper paste – 4 tb
Red pepper powder – 4 tb (can also use crushed red peppers)

Sesame oil – 2 tb

Sesame seeds – 3 tb

Garlic – 4 tb (minced)
Soy Sauce or Gook Ganjang – 4 tb
Black pepper – 1 tsp

[veggies in soup]

Scallions – 2 bunches (cut in half, julienne; reserve and chopped some for garnish)

Mushroom – oyster or shiitake, 1 pack

[optional ingredients] 
* optional veggies for the soup: Korean peppers, spicy peppers (eg jalapeno), bean sprouts, fern bracken / fern brake (available in Japanese markets)

* optional add-in for the soup: Dak Myun (soak in water)

* optional garnish: egg (fried and sliced thinly)

Best serve with rice.

Directions:

1. Drain blood in brisket by letting it sit in water before cooking. Boil brisket briefly in water and drain. Replace water in pot and cook meat for 1 hour. 

2. Remove meat from beef broth, reserve the broth, cool and shred/peel/cut meat into small pieces. 
3. In a large bowl, mix meat with meat seasonings: red pepper paste, red pepper, sesame oil, sesame seed, garlic, soy sauce/gook gangjang, and black pepper. 
3. Re-boil the beef broth. Add back seasoned brisket pieces to pot.
4. After it comes to a boil, add additional veggies: scallions and mushrooms (and other optional ingredients such as Korean peppers and bean sprouts). Add more water as appropriate. Boil for at least 1 hour*.
6. If including dak myun, add into soup towards the last 5 minutes of cooking.
5. Turn off heat. Taste and season with salt or soy sauce. 
6. Garnish with chopped scallions (optional: and eggs). Serve with a bowl of rice on the side.

* This is what it looks like about 30 minutes into cooking. It looks tasty and is edible but not to its full potential. I find that the soup actually tastes best the next day.

Simple Dinner: Prosciutto & Pasta

Although I love eating out, I very often enjoy a simple and tasty dinner at home alone with my TV.  This is a very easy, quick and foolproof recipe that I turn to a lot. Hope you enjoy!

Before...

and After!

Prosciutto & Pasta

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

Prosciutto - 4-6 slices, ~2-3 oz, cut into thin slices

Pasta - 1/3 box

Garlic - 2-3 cloves, minced

[optional]

Tomatoes - 1-2 small, de-seeded and chopped

Cheese - Parmesan, Romano and Asiago
Butter

1. Cook pasta in boiling water until desired tenderness. Drain and side aside.

2. Heat olive oil in pan (you don't need a lot because the proscuitto is already fatty) and toss in garlic.  Cook for 1-2 min and toss in proscuitto. Cook for 1 min and toss in pasta. Mix well and serve. Season with salt and pepper, top with cheese and tomatoes (and optional butter for kick of flavor) and enjoy!