Chef Tom – Siete de Mayo

Back by popular demand, my best Mexican dishes. The fifth was Thursday, but this weekend there’s more time to cook and enjoy. Here’s some straight-up deliciousness for your post-Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Chef Tom – Nacho Typical Nachos

Nachos – A Primer:
Nachos were born in 1940 when, as the story goes, a group of women walked into the Victory Club in Piedras outside business hours. But Ignacio Anaya, the maître d’hôtel, had no cooks in the kitchen. Anaya was known as Nacho, the traditional nickname for anyone named Ignacio in Spanish-speaking countries.

Chef Tom – Escarole with Italian Sausage and Mongolian Heavy Metal

Escarole is a lovely green from the endive family, slightly bitter with hearty leaves that can stand up to cooking. Although it’s available year round, it can be hard to find in regular grocery stores. Peak season is the spring and summer months. It’s especially popular with Italians, who love their bitter vegetables (think rapinni, or radicchio) because they so deliciously offset rich and fatty meats.

Chef Tom – Olé! Molé!

Don’t be intimidated. These three recipes are dead-simple and REALLY delicious. If you have a hankering for Mexican flavors, and a few people coming over for supper, this is the ticket. Serve with some good (preferably hand-made) tortillas, a tossed green, and a pitcher of cold Margaritas (or some Tecate, or Modelo, or Dos Equis).

Follow the link to find some Molé paste (if you can’t find it at the local Whole Foods).

Chef Tom’s Cure for Boring Breakfasts

Breakfast does NOT have to be boring. Once you get familiar with how to prepare and assemble these breakfast bowls, with their interchangeable ingredients, you can get creative and switch out ingredients to your little tongue’s desire.

Go to Africa with eggplant and peanuts. Go to Mexico with guacamole and chilies. Go to Eastern Europe with Bulgarian feta or grated Kashkaval cheese, and some sautéed cabbage and caraway. Go to Asia with seasoned rice vinegar in the scrambled eggs, roasted bok choy, and a drizzle of sesame oil and Hoisin. 

Chef Tom – Rainbow Trout, Rainbow Girls, Cilantro-Lime Rice and the Shook Twins

This is one of those recipes that could be switched up very easily. It will work with whatever fish is freshest and available. If you don’t have trout fillets, you could use cod or tilapia or even salmon. Pretty much any firm fish will do, skin on or off, depending on what you like. The sauce would even work with a piece of chicken, or a pork tenderloin.

You can pan-fry for a crispy skin, or broil, or even roast. If you have a sous vide at home, cook your fish and finish with the sauce. You could lean more towards Thailand and VietNam by splitting the difference between soy sauce and fish sauce. Add a couple of shakes of good curry powder. Change the toppings to sliced green onions, cilantro leaves, thin slices of colored bell pepper, or throw on some toasted almonds or peanuts. Tons of possibility.

And any of these methods would work fine with the Cilantro-Lime Rice.

Chef Tom – Dominican Chicken and Mathew ‘ET’ Gibbs

Here is a very-easy-to-put-together weeknight dish that’s filling, protein-rich, and surprisingly yummy –a satisfying end to a cold day.

The marinade does take an hour to work its magic, but it’s way worth it. Serve the chicken and the roasted potatoes with a simple green salad and you’re set.

Chef Tom Sez “Embrace Your Sausage”

Still cold out. Still need something to warm the tummy. Not only will this make your home smell like a trip to the South of France, with some crusty French bread and a lovely Bordeaux, or a chewy glass of Vacqueyras, this meal is outstanding.

Switch out the sausages to your liking. Get creative with brats, andouille, boudin, etc. Calls for duck fat, which is lovely and indulgent, but you can use the bacon fat from rendering the bacon, just as easily.

Chef Tom and the Moroccan Spaghetti Meatballs of Wow

As whatever we have melting together in our giant global melting pot, some of the culture clashes really don’t work, and others end up creating something greater than the sum, etc.

Last week we sent Ms. American Meatloaf on an immersion adventure to the Middle East. She came home looking sultry and sensual. You could hear the 3/3/2 rhythms of Arab khaligi beat.

Chef Tom Herndon – Tired of Mom’s Meatloaf? Try Tom’s Meatloaf!

American Comfort Food meets The Middle East

Ok, meatloaf is classic good-ol’-‘mericun comfort food. Like, really comforting. Like jammies, slippers, blankie, and a well-loved movie comforting. \Why the very name contains the word “loaf.”

Meatloaf can also be rather bo-ring. Like desert-is-a-beige-riot boring, or salt-free-chewy-sawdust boring.

I needed to stock the fridge for the week. I wanted something mashers-n-peas, with a big slab o’ meat comforting.

But I also wanted to turn up the volume on flavor. One of my top fave flavor profiles is Middle Eastern. Bold, earthy, tribal ingredients: warm spices like coriander, cumin and cinnamon; the tang of preserved lemons, olives, and feta; the spicy-hot of good harissa; pine nuts, pistachios, and pita bread. Yes?

Traditional Middle Eastern flavor profiles have been proven over centuries. In every mouthful you can taste the history.

So my little chef-mind started buzzing and I came up with this. I have a well-used, plain-Jane recipe that’s tasty enough, and I’ve cooked a hundred times. Something called Mama’s Meatloaf. So I slapped a Middle Eastern filter on my brain-pan and conjured up something that was even tastier. Still pushed all my comfort food buttons, but was not even close to boring. This one’s a keeper.

Try it. You might never return to your mom’s tried-and-true meatloaf again.