dinner | Michael Ruhlman

When I’m in NYC, I live in a studio in the West Village with a teensy kitchen. I see why New Yorkers don’t cook more often. But I’m trying to develop strategies for cooking for one in tight quarters (and keeping a journal about it). This means one-pan meals (my go-to pan is a 12″ cast iron skillet), and dishes that result in a second and third leftover meal. The first, on a frigid weekend night, was a simple milk-based bolognese (diced San Marzanos added late). The next day I asked a friend what I should cook next and she said immediately, “Steak Florentine!” There seems to be no agreed-on specifics as to what this dish is. I presumed it involved spinach. But no. It seems only to designate a steak from particular Florentine breeds of Read On »

Egg promotion is winding down, but what a lot of attention it got! (NPR’s Steve Inskeep talked to me about it on Morning Edition. It inspired an egg-centric stroll through Manhattan with NYTimes reporter Alex Witchel. It was covered favorably in Sunday’s NYTBR by William Grimes. Debbi Snook covered it for my hometown paper. And the Wall Street Journal ran an excerpt on page one of its weekend section.) But now that the fun is subsiding, I reflect on where it began: for me with this humble frittata. In fourth grade someone told me or I saw on TV how to make one. And so, home alone with only four channels to entertain me, the video game Pong a blip on the horizon, and hungry, really hungry, I made the above. It was not just the creation itself that Read On »

Looking for a fun family dinner to share at home try making fish tacos for everyone, via Stay at Stove Dad.

My Dinner with Pardus Originally posted July 31, 2008 Do you have any veal hearts?” Pardus asked. The vendor, with happiness and surprise, said, “I do!” He pulled it out of the cooler and said, “How about five bucks?” “Sold!” What happens when a chef visits for the weekend? My old instructor and now close friend Mike Pardus (pronounced PAR-dus—some people think because he’s a chef, it’s pronounced par-DOO) visited recently. The main fact about Michael is that he is a cook in every fiber of his body, meaning, in part, that when he’s away from his work as a chef instructor at the CIA, when he can do anything he wants because he’s on holiday, he chooses to cook all day. Which is what we did. An impromptu meal, Cleveland style. The occasion Read On »

Posts Tagged: dinner

Steak “Florentine”

It Begins When You Make a Frittata

Family Fish Tacos

Dinner with Pardus