Author: Chef M

Be sure to use bananas that are way overripe. If yours aren’t quite there yet, one trick is to put bananas in the oven while it preheats and cook them until they’re black. We opted for quick oats because they won’t be chewy like rolled oats. We’ve used walnut oil in this recipe for the moisture and flavor boost roasted walnut oil provides a deeper nut flavor than walnuts alone.

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A roomy Dutch oven is a true multitasker especially when it comes to creative one-pot cooking. While developing our take on Southern-style smothered pork chops in a rich, oniony gravy, we wondered whether we could make a side dish in the same pot without saturating our whole meal with the heavy gravy. We discovered that we could braise the pork chops until they were nearly tender, then use a steamer basket to elevate broccoli florets above the chops, utilizing the moisture already in the pot to steam the vegetable to crisp-tender perfection. Cutting slits in the pork chops prevented them…

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Cuban ropa vieja is a hearty, rustic dish of braised and shredded beef, sliced peppers and onions, chopped green olives, and a brothy sauce. Traditionally, the dish requires simmering beef in one pot, and then using the meat and some of its broth in a separate sauté of onions, peppers, and spices. To simplify, we combined the two steps into the ease of a Dutch oven braise, which also meant that all the beef’s flavorful juices ended up in the final dish. We eschewed typical flank steak, which can turn out dry, in favor of brisket, which has great beefy…

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Cheesecake is my brother-in-law Steve’s very favorite dessert. When you ask him what he’d like for his birthday, cheesecake is always the answer. Special occasions? Cheesecake, of course. For this recipe, I combined a bit of his favorite cheesecake (the filling) along with Bart’s favorite topping (the buttermilk praline) and Mama’s favorite crust (pecan shortbread). If you aren’t a huge fan of nuts, just omit them from the crust and the topping and this will still make for a crowd-pleasing dessert. Unless you tell them, they probably won’t even guess that you replaced some of the cream cheese with ricotta…

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