Cheever Sauce

Cooking comes pretty natural to me. Am I coming off too arrogant? I should pat myself on the back a couple more times and submit my blog to the James Beard Foundationwith a statement like that. But what I mean by that is, cooking just makes sense to me. I get it. Chess? No. Cooking? Yes. So it came as a surprise to me that while I was surfing other food blogs for recipe ideas, a pretty basic Italian dish…sort of stumped me. I can’t put a finger on exactly what was so confusing to me about the idea of a rollatini, it seamed simple enough, but I nevertheless felt uncomfortable with the idea of rolling up some ingredients, in a breaded additional ingredient, topped with some more ingredients, and then baking it. Would this even work? Even the name of it -rollatini - sounded so foreign and uncertain to me. #foodbloggerproblems

 I guess because I never ate rollatinis growing up, and wasn’t familiar with the dish, (I’m guessing I spent my whole life scanning over it at Italian restaurants, in between the veal parmesean and pasta bolognese) I was sort of stumped out of pure jealousy. As a huge fan of stacking, why hadn’t I ever thought to roll up my ingredients and bake them all together? It’s genius. All of the sudden everywhere I looked I found a rollatini On menus, my interns leftover lunch, even a friend posted it to her food blog (Jewtalian - check her out!). So I decided it was time to buckle down and make some rollatini. With a protein craving paving the way, I decided to go the chicken route.

Apparently, you can roll anything inside a chicken. Chicken rollatini with zucchini and mozaarella, chicken rollatini Alfredo, Chicken rollatini with asparagus and pancetta…the sky’s the limits with this poultry, and while the options are endless, I decided to go basic. I found this recipe on Skinny Taste and boy does that Gina know how to lighten up a dish without sacrificing flavor. The whole process was extremely easy and painless and the end result was a perfect winter dish. The best part is that you’re getting all your flavors in one bite, and everything comes together in a simple and elegant way. I can’t wait to try a different version next time I cook it - and now that I am no longer a rollatini virgin, it’s time to get down and dirty - eggplant I’m looking at you.

Read on for the recipe adapted from Skinny Taste!

Stepping outside the past couple days, I am finally getting those wonderful hints of cool and crisp, yet still wonderfully warm air that NYC fall brings. Everyone around seems to have a little extra pep in their step, because us New Yorkers know that our sweltering concrete heat, and hot, humid subway days are finally behind us. So store away those bathing suits and summer shorts, and bring out your cable knits and cashmere, because I am welcoming fall with wide open arms.

What better way to ring in October then a cozy, hearty, vegetable and bean stew. For those of you who are thinking “gross!” - shame on you - stews are fantastic! And this particular one, topped with a toasted whole grain roll, fresh grated parmesan, and a fried egg, is so delicious you’ll be making a triple recipe and freezing the rest for when gasp!…the snow starts to fall and you’re hibernating in your apartment until late March.

When I first started writing this blog I conducted a bit of research on other popular food blogs. One of my (and more then 10,000 others) favorites is Smitten Kitchen, which is actually run by a fellow New Yorker. So for the next couple posts, get ready for CheeverSauce’s Smitten Kitchen dump - because I cooked up about 3 recipes I bookmarked of hers, and was dying to try this weekend. 

I have to admit I cheated a little on this recipe. I took full advantage of NYC grocery store’s tendencies to have a full display case of pre-chopped vegetables. So this recipe took fraction of the time for me because my carrots, celery, onions, and garlic were all conveniently prepped for me, and all I had to do was throw them into a pot. Hey, when you’re in the center of the produce aisle and on your right side you have perfectly chopped veggies and on your left you have full vegetables that come with a vision of a cutting board, sharp knife, food scraps, extra garbage, too much time, and a future arthritis bill, who could blame me? 

Onward to the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Chard and White Bean Stew:

Lately I’ve been trying to take advantage of twitter (a social media outlet I used to roll my eyes at but now obsessively check every 15 min) by following other food bloggers. American’s Test Kitchen tweeted this recipe and I was immediately drawn to the lima beans it called for. Lima beans were like a one time a year treat my Yiayia would make at Christmas (my bet is on she boiled them in butter versus broth). I never really knew where to find them in the grocery store or how to cook them (I tend to steer clear of the frozen vegetable isle). 

But what really grabbed my attention was…ragoût. Ooo I’ve never made a ragoût before. How wonderfully French of me it would be.

Now I made this dinner last week (it’s been a busy week and I’ve been lagging behind in my blogging) when it was raining, and the dish was a perfect, classic, hearty dinner for a rainy day. When roasting a chicken the conventional way, one will season the raw whole chicken or chicken part, and then roast the meat in the oven. This recipe gave me a little quick tip, which I always appreciate, instructing me to brown the bone-in chicken pieces on the skillet before finishing them in the oven. This step is literally genius because not only does the skin get crisp on the stove, it also quicken the time the meat needs to be cooked through in the oven. As it cooks the ragoût simultaneously comes together in the stove. 

The beauty of this dish? After the chopped onions and mushrooms are sautéed with garlic, the sauce comes together with a wine and chicken broth reduction and a finishing toss-in of lima beans and olives. The ragoût and the roast chicken are then reunited on the serving platter.

This dish was amazing - the first night I cooked it my friend Skye inhaled it and the same goes for the next night when Sophie (who gave me the French approval) did the same thing. Literally - didn’t look up from her plate once while she ate. 

Onto the recipe:

The Cheever family took over Drakes Island this weekend - and I say take over because Grandpa Cheever (who lives on Drakes Island in Wells, Maine) currently has: 5 children, 5 daughter/son in-laws, 24 grandchildren, 8 grandchildren in-laws (not sure how else to put it?), 11 great-grandchildren, 1 future grandchild in-law, 2 possible grandchildren in-laws (wink, wink) and two more great grandchildren on the way. So it’s safe to say that when the Cheever family is there, the rest of the island knows it.

We all grew up with summers visiting Grammy and Grandpa on Drakes Island, and even though over the years we have traded sandcastles for beach Bocce (booze included) and cartoons for late night poker games (even more booze included), one tradition that will always last is our Maine lobster dinners. I enjoyed my lobster the good ole’ Cheever way this weekend, but today I whipped up the lobster roll below with a few ingredients I thought would be delicious. The result? So amazing I am convinced I need to set up a West Village lobster roll stand for the rest of the summer. 

So spoil yourself tonight - Maine style- with either of these dishes, because while lobster may not be practical and certainly isn’t cheap (in the mid 19th century, it somehow finagled its way from the plates of peasants and fisherman to the fine china of Boston and New York elite), it is definitely and always will be…delicious. 

To prepare:

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Wow. I feel like it’s been months since my last post. There’s only so long a girl can go without her camera. I’ve become addicted to blogging the food I make, so I felt like I couldn’t cook anything without taking a picture, (sort of an exaggeration - I cooked twice) which meant a week without my camera = a week of catching up with my favorite sushi and falafel take outs and sneaking in several dinners with friends. Bad news, now I am broke. Good news, I got my camera back!

Because it has been my first post in a while I really wanted to make something special. I’ve been reading about “sliced squashed, ribbon squash, cold squash” salads in every cooking magazine all summer long, so I decided it was time I finally jumped on the bandwagon. I was also craving some meat, but wasn’t in the mood for chicken or red meat so I found a perfect recipe for the other, other white meat (as Jess calls it): Pork. 

I paired the pork with a grilled plum salad and the combination was SO GOOD I was a little disappointed I wasted such a fabulous meal on just Jess and I.

This meal as a whole was top notch. A real prize. Dinner party status. A Giada De Laurentiis serving Wills and Kate quality dish. 

Now for the recipe…

(to be read in an English accent)

Just saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 last night. It was brilliant mate. Really, I cried, I laughed, I was scared, I was excited (even though I’ve read all the books at least 5 times each). The bees knees this movie was. In honor of Harry Potter, I decided it was time for me to cook up some British grub.

Now, when considering British fare, one thinks trifle, bangers and mash, fish and chips, meat and potatoes, Bubble & Squeak, Toad-in-the-Hole. And while these dishes are all luvvly-jubbly, they aren’t really my cup of tea, and they’re definitely not CheeverSauce friendly, so it wasn’t bloomin’ likely that I was about to cook up any of these.

Now listen chums, some will say London Broil isn’t even a British dish - I say that’s all a bunch of rubbish, (they’re actually right - it was originated in North America) so go buy yourself some flank steak and lets make some nosh here. I added a side of asparagus to my meat because it seemed appropriate enough, and there ya go - good ol’ British meal - just like The Boy Who Lived would eat.

Carry on for the recipe.

I made movie plans with my friend Nicky the other night and I thought it was only appropriate to have him over for dinner to enjoy a CheeverSauce original. Now, I have mixed feelings about CheeverSauce originals because they usually consist of me stealing recipes from friends/family or restaurants I’ve been to, mixed with me compiling a bunch of ingredients I’m assuming will go well together. So I guess when it comes down to it CheeverSauce original = 1 part plagarism + 1 part guesswork (grrreat). 

Now let me give you a little backstory about this dish (does anyone care about these besides me?). This weekend I ate at a wonderful restaurant called Community Table, whose mission is to prepare the highest quality locally grown and procured ingredients to serve their community in a casual atmosphere. Needless to say the food, wine (who knew Woodbury CT had a winery?), company, and atmosphere were amazing. However, what I was most intrigued by was executive Chef Joel Viehland’s Grilled Romaine Salad, served with a creamy peppercorn dressing. When we arrived there were only two left in the kitchen (clearly a coveted item) so we ordered them immediately. When Joel came out to say hi, I explained to him how I wrote a food blog and that I was interested in how he cooked his grilled romaine. Because CheeverSauce doesn’t condone creamy peppercorn dressing (trying to eat healthy here) Joel suggested I serve it with a light caesar. Click! I now had the perfect solution: David Cheever’s Caesar Salad (adapted from Silver Palette Cookbook) which is perfectly in-line with CheeverSauce as a no measuring, no nonsense dish. 

Onto the recipes:

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to cook a fabulous feast with the one and only Maria Taylor. This really just consisted of me sitting at her kitchen table with my computer, typing out her instructions as she cooked - but hey, I stirred the pot for a little so I feel like it’s ok for me to post the meal here. 

The morning this meal was made, I woke up at my friend’s house on Lake Waramaug and felt ambitious enough to tackle an early morning run with my friend Pat. What started off as an easy breezy 3 mile run turned into:

Me: “Oh my goodness, this is just like the most perfect morning, and it is SOOOO beautiful out here. Pat - I feel like we might just need to run the whole lake.”

Pat: “Yeah sure, I could do that.”

Me: (Sudden intense moment of panic and regret where I realize Pat just completed a triathlon and the last time I ran the 8 mile lake run was my senior year in high school…barely.) “…Ok let’s do it!”

Needless to say, 2 more miles in, Pat left me in the dust and I was left to fend for myself for another 5 grueling miles. For some, this is an excellent time to for self-reflections and soul searching. For me, this was an excellent time for me to figure out what I wanted for dinner. While I ran (slash walked - who are we kidding?) around probably the most beautiful lake in CT, all I could think of was one thing: PASTA. The lake inspired me to run (pun intended!) with the idea of a shellfish based dish (and yes I know clams and mussels don’t come from lakes), so afterwards, I let Maria know what was to be the dish of the night. 

To Make Marinara Sauce: 
I have never made a homemade tomato sauce in my life. It always just seemed silly with all the rows and rows of tomato sauce jars at the supermarket. I decided it was time to learn and I thought who better to teach me then an Italian mother. A chef from the South of Italy taught Maria that you NEVER make marinara sauce without your hands because you will completely bruise and take all of the flavor out of the tomato if you use knife or blender. So…

Who doesn’t like a Quesadilla? This is one Mexican food favorite I can never turn down so I thought it was only appropriate to cook and post the dish here.

Chicken…Beef…Veggies…add any of these with melted cheese and wrap it up in a warm tortilla and it doesn’t get much better than that. I like this recipe because it calls for a can of black beans, which is a lot easier to prepare than chicken or beef, and is still such a good source of protein. The mix between the sharpness of the Monterey Jack cheese and softness of the light, creamy textured goat cheese, balance off all these ingredients perfectly (I know I know, I am always blabbing about the mixing and the perfect balancing of ingredients…but its true!) Oh, and the dish is pulled together with THE ingredient of all ingredients: cilantro. Enough said.

1. Combine in a bowl 1 can of drained black beans, 1 small log of coat cheese (crumbled), a large handful of shredded Monterey Jack cheese, 2 minced jalapenos (stem and seeds removed), 1 head of minced cilantro, 4 dashes of ground cumin, dash of salt, and dash of pepper.  (CheeverSauce tip of the day: do not mix this with your hands, try to use a spoon. Don’t mix this with your hands especially if you’re going to a Bikram Yoga class that’s 101 degree room will open your pores and absorb hot jalapeno juice. To say my hands were on FIRE is an understatement).

   Keep reading to get the rest of the recipe.

Meat lovers rejoice! I thought for all the vegetarian dishes I have been cooking it’s only fair to throw in some good ole’ red meat and bacon to the mix for those followers looking to get their iron fix. CheeverSauce is all about eating healthy so would I recommend a meal like this every night of the week? No. But it is definitely ok to eat once a week and allows you to feel like your indulging (in reality this meal is low in calories because it contains no butter or creamy béarnaise sauce)

So as far as healthiness goes it gets a -10 points for the meat’s cholesterol and +10 points for…no carbs? See! Balances out perfectly (good thing I am not a nutritionist). 

I personally love this recipe because the steak is cooked in a sauté pan, allowing the steak tips to brown well and form flavorful crusts. To achieve this, make sure to turn the meat pieces occasionally with tongs rather then stirring or moving them frequently. The balsamic vinegar also draws all the elements together and adds a sweet-tart accent to the meaty, salty flavors of the steak, tomatoes, bacon, and cheese. I used watercress for my salad because it adds a subtle bitter crunch to the meal which balances out the rest of the ingredients. 

Onto the recipe - another one from America’s Test Kitchen’s 30 Minute Meals (loving this!) 

Tonight we’re eating light folks. It’s been a long (but wonderful) holiday weekend filled with clambake dinners, seafood quiche’s, strawberry pavlovas, Bloody Mary’s and lots and lots and lots and lots of Rosé. CheeverSauce took the weekend off and the real chefs of the house (my parents) treated friends and family to a weekend of delicious food at our house in Nantucket. 

Now that I am back in the real world (whomp whomp) I had to snap back to healthy eating reality and whip up something light because my stomach is still recovering from the weekend’s feasts. At times like these, some girls often want to starve themselves for days in an effort to balance out their recent caloric intake. This is very dumb. Eat a light meal like this one so you don’t shock system into turning your metabolism into a debilitated slug. 

When I first read this recipe I saw in called for “tahini.” Tah-what? The name sounded familiar, so I assumed it would be easy to find in the grocery store. It could be in one of those spice racks right? Whelp - turns out tahini is actually a paste of ground sesame seeds. It is an ingredient used in many Middle Eastern foods, but can also be found in some Chinese, Korean, and Japanese dishes as well. I found mine in a jar next to all the peanut and almond butters.

The recipe itself was incredibly fast and easy to make and the leftovers will make a great lunch tomorrow. 

Onward onto the recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen latest issue

It’s hard to argue that New York City is the pizza capital of this country. Sure, New Haven has their dynamic duo Frank Pepe and Sally’s Apizza, and the lines at Pizzeria Bianca in Phoenix are just as famous as their pie. Chicago boasts its new celebrity Great Lake Pizza (finally some genius over there decided to ditch the deep dish) but there really is no city so obsessed with their pie then New York. I’ve witnessed heated arguments over Lombardi’s vs. Grimaldi’s and seen people pay $100 cash for people’s pizza at Di Fara just so they don’t have to wait in its massively long line. But whether you travel all the way to Coney Island for Totonno’s Pizzeria Napolitano or stop at your local Ray’s, Patsy’s, Artichoke Basille…(there’s just too many to name!) you’re guaranteed an amazingly cheesy, mouthwatering saucy, perfectly tasting NYC pizza. 

SO! As you can see (now that I am finished with my rant) with all these amazing pizza options at my disposal, I was initially skeptical about taking the time to cook a (semi) homemade pizza. But this specific recipe caught my eye because it called for one of my all time favorite summer vegetables: corn.

I know, I know, it seems like pizza blasphemy to put such a thing on a pizza but I swear to you - as soon as I took my first bite of this I felt like “CheeverSauce headquarters” needed to be added to the list of notorieties above. I made one whole pizza which I reluctantly shared with Olivia and Jess. When we all finished our pieces, all our taste buds and stomachs (although already full) wished for was more. 

Now for the recipe…