Ben Cooks Everything

This past August, my parents rented a lovely place upstate in the Hudson Valley and generously invited me and my boyfriend Michael, and my brother Jonathan and his fiancee Eva, to come visit as much as possible. Boy, did we take them up on that. One night, it was just the four of us without the parents, and when Jonathan invited his friends Mikey and Nicole to come over for dinner, I knew we had an excuse to go all out and make something special, something our parents would never go for . We settled on pernil, the slow-roasted Puerto Rican pork shoulder. We planned on using Joshua Bousel’s version of the recipe from his grilling column on Serious Eats. I called up Fleisher’s in Kingston, New York, a finalist for Happiest Place On Earth, and placed an order for the pernil, which is often sold as a picnic shoulder (it’s the lower part of the shoulder, with skin on and bone in).

When my brother went to pick up this beautiful hunk of meat, the woman behind the counter suggested that we score the skin, rub salt and herbs all over the thing, let it sit overnight, brush off the salt, marinate for a few hours, roast in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour to crisp the skin, then finish on an indirect, low grill for 3-4 hours. This differed a bit from the original plan. Always one to trust the butcher, especially at a mecca of fine meatstuffs such as Fleisher’s, I decided to follow this recipe, borrowing from Bousel’s.

After a total of about 5 hours on the grill (plus one hour in the oven to start), the thing was just shy of falling apart tender, salty in places and just plain porky in others, absolutely perfect served with a drizzle of mojo sauce or just some lime juice–something bright and tart to cut the richness of the meat. Hands down one of the best things I’ve ever made. Click “Read More” for the pernil and mojo recipes.

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What do you do with ramps? As little as possible.

The leafy wild leeks that inspire euphoria and rage at the Greenmarket in early spring each year are absolutely delicious but pretty mild. Throwing them in a stir fry with everything else in your fridge is a waste; the flavor of the ramps will get overpowered. No, lately I’ve been thinking that they need as little interference as possible.

Lately I’ve been chopping them up a bit and then scrambling them with eggs. This is great on toast but even better on a corn tortilla with a bit of hot sauce or salsa; the sweet ramps will steal the show. They’re also great in polenta, or tossed with pasta. Click through for the recipe. (more…)

So, I’m a little late here, but you could certainly make this for Valentine’s Day, or the Super Bowl. Or to celebrate that you don’t have bedbugs, and that your paranoid freakout just that, nothing more. Wait, what? I digress.

For these I used toasted pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries, for their Christmas color scheme, and broken up pretzels, because I love any chocolate/pretzel combination. Recipe follows, adapted from this one from the Barefoot Contessa. (more…)

So, this recipe is something I made based on a Minimalist recipe for fish poached in soy sauce, which is a great way to cook any type seafood (flavorful and forgiving). As Bittman noted in his column, the scallions end up being the best part after simmering in the poaching liquid. I threw in some tofu and greens to round out the dish and served it over rice. Click through for the recipe. (more…)

Shopping at the farmer’s market is great for a number of reasons. One of them is the interesting, lesser known vegetables you can get your hands on that are never seen at your local A&P. But what do you do when you get home with a bunch of parsley root? I’ll tell you, below, with a recipe to boot. (more…)

This Thanksgiving, we went to my cousins Sara and Ari’s place in Suffern, NY. Ari is a master of turkey roasting, and for three years now he’s cooked the best bird I’ve ever had. We also got to share the holiday with Ari’s family, which was a pleasure. In addition to the turkey, there was stuffing, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, quinoa, cranberry sauce, and more, all delicious.

For my part, I brought an enormous batch of potato leek soup (secret additional ingredient: Jerusalem artichokes) and a new recipe that I’ve been working on, a carrot salad with miso and ginger. I figured that with all that meat and starch*, a bright, crunchy raw vegetable would be a welcome addition to the Thanksgiving table. It’s equally good on the side of a turkey sandwich. Recipe below. (more…)

If you make beans from scratch, the cooking liquid is the best part. A smoked ham trotter and a couple pounds of beans cost about $3 in total and will leave you with more beans than you know what to do with (freeze them). Cooking them in the oven takes a lot of guesswork out of it for me, and works with or without a soak, though soaking reduces cooking time greatly. My usual method is below, along with a recipe for one of my favorite things to do with the beans: cook them with greens, which makes the most of their delicious broth. (more…)