Southwestern Pulled Brisket Tacos with Spicy Pickled Shallots and Spicy Green Onion Slaw

When left to his own devices, if I ask Alex to pick out a recipe for dinner he will pick an Asian (or Asian-influenced) recipe nine times out of ten.  I usually go with it, but Sunday night I wasn't in the mood for Asian food.  Thursday night Alex and I went to Ma Peche for dinner for upscale Vietnamese-influenced food.  Then we made a chicken stir-fry over sizzling rice for dinner on Friday.  On Saturday Alex and I took his brother to Biang! in Flushing and then gorged ourselves on dumplings that we picked up in Flushing that evening.  And then Sunday afternoon we made a tofu dish from Every Grain of Rice:  Simple Chinese Home Cooking.  Enough already.  Don't get me wrong - I love Asian food.  But sometimes I want to experiment with other cuisines.  I crave variety.  So I called an audible on the brisket recipe that Alex had selected (braised brisket with star anise, soy, etc.) and declared that we were making a brisket taco recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen instead.  The recipe at Smitten Kitchen called for cooking the brisket in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours but I was too lazy to get the slow cooker out of storage so we decided to braise it in the oven instead.  In some ways I wish we had used the slow cooker because the brisket might have been more tender, but whatever.  It might also have helped with the tenderness if we bought a brisket with slightly more fat on it.  Our brisket was fairly lean, but I wasn't going to hit the grocery store again for a fattier piece.

This dish was one where each element contributed to the final dish in some crucial way.  When I sampled each component I wasn't blown away by any of them.  But when you combine them something really delicious happens.  The brisket was sweet, meaty and (relatively) tender.  It represented one of the few instances where I thought that molasses did wonderful things to a dish by providing depth of flavor and sweetness, without being too overpowering.  The slaw and the pickled shallots added some much needed heat and acidity to the tacos.  I really liked the combinatation of olive oil and mayo in the slaw because it added moisture and creaminess without cooling the slaw down too much and making it heavy and mayo-laden.  As a side note, this isn't a slaw that I would eat on its own - I think it is a little aggressively spicy for that (perhaps if I used one chili it would be better for snacking), but it was the perfect slaw to serve on top of (or with) the brisket to really kick it up a notch.

Recipes after the jump!

Asian Glazed Salmon and Aaron McCargo's Broccoli Slaw

Sometimes I am really creative in the kitchen - the creative juices get flowing and I start conceptualing dishes from seemingly out of nowhere.  Sometimes I have a case of cook's block.  We had wild Coho salmon from Whole Foods in the fridge and while I am generally pretty excited about wild salmon, I literally couldn't think of a single recipe I wanted to make.  My fallback recipe for wild salmon is this Salt and Pepper Salmon by Tyler Florence, but I wanted something new.  We had just made the Salt and Pepper salmon two weekends ago when we had Alex's brother over for dinner.  Plus these fillets were on the thin side so they weren't exactly ideal for the recipe.  I briefly considered making a variation on Rachel Ray's Roasted Salmon with Lemon-Herb Matzo Crust, but I wasn't really feeling it.  I halfheartedly proposed it and Alex shot it down.  So then we were back to having salmon in the fridge with no idea how to cook it.  So I decided to back into the recipe by deciding on the side dish and then figuring out what to do with the salmon.  I knew I wanted to make a broccoli slaw at some point so we settled on the broccoli slaw recipe (which, I kid you not, is called "Packin' A Punch Broccoli Slaw") and then went back to finding a simple salmon recipe to go with the slaw.  In the end we settled on an Asian Glazed Salmon recipe from the New Legal See Foods Cookbook that I found online.  I'm not typically a fan of glazed salmon (it's generally too sweet for me) but I literally couldn't think of anything else that sounded better.  And this glazed salmon was no different, even though we cut back on the amount of brown sugar in the glaze (partially because we ran out).  I think I should learn to stay away from anything with "glaze" in the title.  Beyond being a little too sweet from me, I just thought it was kind of blah.  And that is as much my fault as the recipe's since I was never really that excited about it in the first place.  It didn't do much to highlight the flavor of the salmon so it was probably not the best recipe to use with nice wild salmon.  It might make more sense with farmed salmon that doesn't have quite as much flavor or to those who don't particularly enjoy the flavor of salmon.  As for the broccoli slaw, I thought it was ok.  I liked it more than the salmon, although I wouldn't say that I loved it.  I liked the hint of heat from the jalapeno and the red pepper flakes and the acidity from the cider vinegar and lime, which I thought contrasted nicely against the sweetness of the salmon.  What I enjoy most about broccoli slaw is the crisp texture.  I think I will buy another bag of broccoli slaw mix from Trader Joe's and go with some sort of Asian-inspired slaw and see how that turns out.  I know that if I played around a little more I could come up with a kickass broccoli slaw.  Perhaps I will add some slivered almonds for additional crunch and then go from there...

Recipes after the jump!

Cayenne Cinnamon Baby Back Ribs with Maple Glaze, Spicy Coleslaw and Buttermilk Cornbread

 

A friend came over for dinner this weekend and we decided to make ribs.  We went back and forth for almost an hour trying to decide what to make for dinner - we started with Thai and Indian cuisine and somehow ended up with ribs.  We couldn't think of anything that would be relatively easy to make and wouldn't require too much attention or effort.  Then Alex remembered that I had sent him a recipe from Steamy Kitchen for some baby back ribs about a month ago.  It seemed like a good option because we could just throw it in the oven and go hang out.  Good call hon.  As sides for the ribs we threw together some spicy coleslaw and buttermilk cornbread.  Rather than using one of the recipes that we have made in the past for cornbread (and there have been a few), I decided to try something new.  I wanted a plain, but moist cornbread to go with the ribs and coleslaw.  While puttering around on the internet for some inspiration for the cornbread, I  found a buttermilk cornbread recipe on Allrecipes with some of the strangest directions I have ever seen.  So I decided to go ahead and make it because that's just the way I roll.  We also made dessert, but I will post about that later.

According to Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, there are two camps when it comes to ribs - those who want the meat to be fall off the bone tender, and those who want a little "bite" and "chew" to their ribs.  Alex is decidedly in the second camp.  These ribs are as well.  I tend to like my ribs a little on the more tender side - I don't need the meat to fall right off the bone, but I don't really want any resistance in the meat when I go to bite it off the bone.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, I liked the ribs, thought they were interesting (if a little sweet), but I would probably cook them low and slow next time for a much longer period of time so that they get a little more tender.  I would probably also cut down on the amount of brown sugar slightly since the maple glaze gives the ribs plenty of sweetness.  Considering this was our first attempt at making baby back ribs, I think it went really well.  As far as the spicy coleslaw went, it was vinegary and spicy.  I tend to not like coleslaws that are mayonnaise-based, so I decided to make an apple cider vinegar-based dressing and add just a tiny bit of mayo for creaminess.  If I had thought about it I might have cut back on the vinegar a little bit and maybe added some lime juice.  I also would have adjusted the seasonings.  I saw some recipes for sweet and spicy coleslaw that I might try out next time.  And as for the cornbread, I really enjoyed it.  It was on the sweet side, but I thought that it was really nice.  I might cut back on the amount of sugar just a little bit and throw in some frozen (or fresh) corn for texture and go with it.  The cornbread turned out nice and moist and is a nice basic recipe that you could add a variety of ingredients and flavors to.  I have been considering making a white cheddar, poblano pepper cornbread for awhile and this might be the perfect base recipe to use for that experiment.  I thought it was a really nice summery meal - sweet and spicy ribs, spicy coleslaw and sweet buttermilk cornbread.  It's like a backyard barbeque, in the safety of our NYC apartment.

Recipes after the jump!

Kogi-Inspired Bulgogi Tacos with Spicy Slaw

When I went out of town last weekend I instructed Alex to eat leftovers and use up some ground beef we had defrosted.  I thought he was going to make some tacos (as in the type that comes in the Old El Paso kit with the taco sauce, taco seasoning, and hard taco shells).  Alex likes those box kit tacos, but it's usually a fairly hard sell to get me to indulge because I would rather have shrimp tacos or fish tacos.  Or if I have to have beef tacos, how about skirt steak tacos?  Since this was his one opportunity to have ghetto box tacos without having to sell me on it first, I was pretty surprised when Alex told me that instead of box tacos, he was making bulgogi tacos from a recipe he found online.  Then again, Alex loves Korean food so I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised.

So I brought in some of the leftovers for lunch today and was actually pretty impressed.  Go Alex!  The tacos are pretty delicious.  Now, I say all that with one caveat.  You absolutely have to make the slaw and you have to serve your tacos with a decent serving of slaw on top.  The slaw is really what makes the tacos so good.  The beef is good - slightly sweet, with just a hint of sesame oil.  But if you have it by itself it's kind of dry and boring.  And you wouldn't immediately realize that the tacos are supposed to be Asian-influenced.  But when you add in the slaw, you get much needed moisture, all kinds of flavor, a little bit of spice and a nice crunchy texture.  I really liked the addition of the ginger in the slaw because it really brightens the dish up.  For some reason I wasn't digging the flour tortillas, which I don't think really go with the tacos.  But I'm not sure what alternatives exist.  I think corn tortillas (and hard taco shells) wouldn't work at all.  Maybe just some lettuce to make ssams?  Flour tortillas are probably the best option, but maybe I will try eating more of the leftover meat as a ssam and see how that goes.  Alex's take on the tacos was that they were tasty and relatively easy to make.  He said (and I agree) that they reminded him of the burritos from the Korilla BBQ truck.  Actually, another option with the ground beef and slaw is to make it into a burrito with some rice, etc.  Apparently I should leave Alex at home alone for the weekend more often because when I do yummy leftover lunches await.

Recipe after the jump!

Asian Winter Slaw

Our Japanese-Style Hamburgers demanded a vegetable side, with some crispy/crunchy texture to contrast with the tenderness of the hamburgers.  I have been considering making this recipe for Asian Winter Slaw ever since I happened across a bag of broccoli slaw at Trader Joe's.  Have I mentioned recently how much I love that place?  Anyway, the slaw seemed like the perfect accompaniment to the burgers so we went ahead and threw it together today.  It's light and crunchy, and the flavor of the white miso in the dressing is really nice.  It has never occurred to me to make an Asian-inspired slaw using miso paste, nor did it ever cross my mind that you could make a broccoli slaw.  That is partially due to the fact that I don't typically like coleslaw all that much, although I do make an exception for good Asian versions of coleslaw.  I thought that the very crunchy texture of the broccoli slaw was perfect with the burgers.  A more traditional cabbage slaw just wouldn't have provided enough textural contrast.

Recipe after the jump!

Asian Kohlrabi Slaw

Our meal tonight was another attempt to use up produce from our CSA, as well as food from our freezer.  Since we had frozen pork and chive dumpling filling and frozen wonton wrappers, we made pork dumplings.  To go with it we threw together an Asian slaw with the kohlrabi and cabbage from the CSA.  I'm not usually a huge coleslaw component - all of that cabbage and mayo together just throws me off.  But what else do you do with a head of cabbage and some kohlrabi?  I liked the idea of an Asian-inspired slaw because it wouldn't require the use of mayonnaise.  I know that I am ridiculous in my bias against mayo, but I just can't help it.  So instead of mayo I made a dressing with toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, fish sauce and lime juice.  Yum.  This slaw is a lovely side dish for any meal, Asian, Asian-inspired, or not, and is perfect for a hot summer day when the thought of eating anything heavy just makes you cringe.  It is light, fresh, and very tasty.

Recipe after the jump!