The Daily Dish: Best Ever Lamb Tacos with Chile-Tzatziki

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Who doesn’t love tacos? Beef, chicken, tuna, duck, even veggie. For today’s Daily Dish I want to share a recipe for tacos. But with a Greek twist!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 red onion, minced
1 minced jalapeno
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 pound ground lamb
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon sriracha
1 cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
6 mint leaves, fine ribbon
1 cup 1/4-inch diced cucumbers
1/2 head iceberg, finely shredded
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 package small corn tortillas, heated up on grill
extra virgin olive oil for cooking

Directions
In a large skillet or saute pan coated lightly with oil, sautee the garlic, onion, jalapeno and cumin until lightly caramelized.

Add in the lamb, season and cook through, about 5 minutes.

Fold in lemon juice and check for flavor.

Meanwhile, mix the sriracha, yogurt, mint, cukes and lemon zest, season.

Warm tortillas, make tacos.
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Ming Tsai is the host and executive producer of public television series Simply Ming.

The Daily Dish: Shredded Potato Cake with Leeks and Cheese

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Who doesn’t love a potato? Who doesn’t love cheese? So how about potatoes and cheese in a crispy pancake? I snagged this recipe for a Shredded Potato Cake with Leeks and Cheese from the good people of Shelburne Farms. Right on Lake Champlain in central Vermont, this special place is a working farm, cheese maker, inn, and great restaurant.

Ingredients
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 small leeks, white and light-green parts only, cut in half lengthwise, thinly sliced
1-1/2 pounds russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
3/4 cup grated Alpine-style cheese (such as Gruyère)
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher or sea salt

Directions
In a medium-size cast-iron frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-low heat. Add leeks and a big pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until leeks are silky and lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Remove to a plate. Wipe frying pan clean.

Rinse potatoes well, but don’t peel. Shred on a box grater. Place shredded potatoes on a clean dish towel and sprinkle with another generous pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Toss potatoes with your hands to season. Gather towel corners together and twist (over a bowl or sink) to remove as much moisture as possible.

In the still-warm frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add half of the shredded potatoes in an even layer; press them into the pan. Add leeks and cheese in even layers. Add remaining potatoes, pressing them into the pan.

Cover the pan and cook until potatoes are golden brown on the bottom (peek with a spatula), 8 to 10 minutes. Turn a plate (larger than the pan) over on top of the potatoes. Place your hand firmly on top of the plate and carefully flip the pan so the potato cake is on the plate.

Heat remaining oil until shimmering. Slide potato cake back into pan, raw side down; cover, and cook 8 to 10 minutes. Slide from pan and let rest 3 to 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont by Melissa Pasanen with Rick Gencarelli.

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Annie B. Copps is a senior editor at Yankee Magazine. Annie oversees the magazine’s food coverage, both as an editor and as a contributor of feature stories and columns.

The Daily Dish: No Skillet Pasta!

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Delicious pasta without a skillet? That’s right, no skillet is needed for this recipe. Today we are going to take our inspiration from Rome where they prepare pasta without a sauce. This is an easy, satisfying dish that you can make on those days when you need simplicity in your life but still want a wallop of flavor.

Ingredients
One pound cooked pasta
Pecorino cheese
Fresh parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse black pepper to taste

Directions
Drain one pound of cooked pasta

In a warm bowl simply toss the cooked pasta with coarsely grated Pecorino cheese a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water and some chopped parsley, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle plenty of coarsely grated black pepper—and I mean plenty!

Serve it piping hot and buon appetito!

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Lidia Matticchio Bastianich was born in Pola, Istria, on the northeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. She is a cookbook author, restaurateur, and TV chef extraordinaire. Watch Lidia’s Italy Saturdays at 1:30pm on WGBH 2 or Sundays at 4pm on WGBH 44.

The Daily Dish: Chinese Dumplings with Soy Dipping Sauce

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My favorite appetizer of all time has to be Asian dumplings, sometimes called Peking ravioli. There are more than a few ingredients to making good dumplings, but they are worth the effort. If you are making a dozen, you might as well make 100 and freeze them—once you get everything together, the assembly is fun and I have found that the little hands of kids turn this into a fun project.

Preparation Time: 90 minutes
Start to Finish Time: 90 minutes
Yield: 3 dozen dumplings

Ingredients
4 leaves Napa cabbage, finely chopped
5 garlic chives, finely chopped (substitute scallions or chives)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger (1-inch piece)
1 pound ground pork
3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon ground-garlic and chili sauce (such as Sriracha brand)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1 package round dumpling wrappers (substitute square wonton wrappers)
6 tablespoons peanut oil, divided

Directions
In a medium bowl, combine first 10 ingredients. With a dumpling wrapper flat in one hand, place about a tablespoon of filling in the middle in an oblong lump. There should be enough margin left along the wrapper to close it without spilling the filling, but don’t underfill.

Wet your finger and smear a little moisture along the outer edge of the wrapper; then fold the wrapper edges up into a taco shape and pinch the edges together at the top (in the middle) so that they’re stuck together (don’t let the pork filling get caught between). Create a pleat just to the right (or left) of the center pinch. Flatten the pleat next to the middle pinch point and squeeze the dough together.

Continue to the end of the dumpling; you should have two or three pleats from middle to end. At the end, you should have a small opening.

Pinch the end of the loop in toward the center of the dumpling and squeeze together.

Return to the middle pinch point and make pleats on the same side of the wrapper but in the opposite direction. At the end, pinch in the loop and squeeze the dough sealed.

Heat a large sauté pan to very high. Add about 2 tablespoons peanut oil.

Add up to 12 dumplings to the pan (don’t overcrowd) and brown well on both sides.

Add 1/4 cup water; then cover and let steam about 3 minutes. Add another 1/4 cup water; then cover and let steam about 3 minutes longer.

Remove to a plate and continue cooking remaining dumplings in batches. Serve with Soy Dipping Sauce.

Soy Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
• 1 cup light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 scallion, finely sliced

Directions for Dipping Sauce
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients.

Serve with prepared dumplings.
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Annie B. Copps is a senior editor at Yankee Magazine. Annie oversees the magazine’s food coverage, both as an editor and as a contributor of feature stories and columns.

The Daily Dish: Booma’s Revenge Chili

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I am crazy for chili and make it in a variety of ways, but this recipe comes from a prize-winning chili maker and it’ll be a winner for you, too. At Yankee magazine we come across a lot of great home cooks and we write about them in the column “best cook in town.” This recipe is from Jerry Bouma, a home cook who competes and wins in chili competitions—it’s a tamed down version of the competition recipe, which is too hot for us mortals and of course he’d never part with his prize-winning secret.

Ingredients
3 pounds lean ground beef
1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium red pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
3 serrano (medium spicy) chiles, minced
1 10-1/2-ounce can double-strength beef stock (or 2-1/2 cups beef stock boiled down to 1-1/4 cups)
6 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon dry oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 28-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 19-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (optional)

Directions
In a large (7-quart) heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat, cook ground beef, breaking it up with a potato masher until it’s fully cooked. Then drain and discard most of the rendered fat.

In a separate medium-size saute pan over medium heat, add oil and cook red pepper, onion, garlic, and chiles just until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

Add cooked vegetable mixture, beef stock, spices, sugar, and diced tomatoes to the big pot and simmer 1 hour.

Add tomato paste; stir well and cook another half-hour, stirring occasionally. If you’re using beans, stir them in 10 minutes before serving.

(Courtesy: Yankee Magazine)

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Annie B. Copps is a senior editor at Yankee Magazine. Annie oversees the magazine’s food coverage, both as an editor and as a contributor of feature stories and columns.

The Daily Dish: Coconut-Cranberry Chicken Curry

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What happens when you take coconut milk from the East and combine it cranberries from the west? Well, you get today’s dish: a quick Coconut-Cranberry Chicken Curry that introduces India to Cape Cod.

Ingredients

6-8 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in, seasoned for 10 minutes before cooking
2 red onions, sliced
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, 1/2-inch dice
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 heaping tablespoon minced jalapeno
heaping 1/2 cup Craisins
2 tablespoon Madras curry powder
1 13.5 ounce can of coconut milk
1 cup water
Canola oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Steamed Brown Rice

Directions
In a cast iron skillet or stockpot coated very lightly with oil on medium-high heat, sear the chicken, skin-side down, and completely render the fat.

Flip and brown meat-side. Remove chicken. Wipe out excess fat and saute the onions, potatoes, ginger, jalapeno, Craisins and curry powder and season. Add coconut milk and water, check for seasoning, then add chicken back. Bring to a simmer and cook chicken through, about 45 minutes. Serve family style on rice.

Beverage pairing
Jean-Luc Colombo La Violette Viognier From Pays d’Oc, Southern France. The aroma is intensely violet, which is where it gets its name, with nuances of licorice, lychee, apricot and peach. Well-structured, finishes with elegance and opulent fruit. 100% Viognier

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Ming Tsai is the host and executive producer of public television series Simply Ming.

The Daily Dish: Spaetzle

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If you are on your way home tonight and tired of pasta, I have a new idea for you—spaetzle! Spaetzle is a cross between a dumpling and a noodle and it’s a fast weeknight side dish that is fun to make. You can buy a spaetzle makers, but a colander with large holes works just fine.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Place flour in mixing bowl. Add eggs and mix until blended.

Slowly add milk, mixing constantly, to form a stiff dough. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Fill a soup kettle full of water and bring to a boil. Hold colander over kettle (wear heavy, long mitts to avoid burns from steam), pour spaetzle dough into colander, and press through the holes with a rubber spatula, forcing spaetzle into boiling water. When noodles rise to the surface, they are done.

Drain, spoon into a bowl, top with butter, and serve with stew or goulash.

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Annie B. Copps is a senior editor at Yankee Magazine. Annie oversees the magazine’s food coverage, both as an editor and as a contributor of feature stories and columns.

The Daily Dish: Meat Lovers

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Calling all meat lovers! Create a no-mess main course while the soup is perking. I use this recipe all the time. I often add cuts of meat to a big pot of soup I’m cooking. Not only does it add flavor, but when it is done, I remove it and serve it as a second course.

In fact if your pot is big enough, you should be able to drop in a pound or more of meat, like a piece of flat iron beef or chuck. Country style ribs and sausages are also delicious this way.

Directions
Simply wash the meat well in hot water before you add it to the pot and continue cooking your soup.

Remove the meat, keep it warm until ready to serve, then slice, and serve alongside the soup.

Sprinkle with some salt.
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Lidia Matticchio Bastianich was born in Pola, Istria, on the northeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. She is a cookbook author, restaurateur, and TV chef extraordinaire. Watch Lidia’s Italy Saturdays at 1:30pm on WGBH 2 or Sundays at 4pm on WGBH 44.

The Daily Dish: Baked Figs with Shaoxing Sabayon

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One of the first things I had in France as a teenager was figs flambéed in orange liqueur. I realized that’s what they mean when they talk about “manna from heaven.” Since then I’ve combined figs with all kinds of spirits, but for one of the best, I reach to the East for Shaoxing wine.

This Chinese sherry-like wine is great for both sweet and savory cooking, and today we are going to take a trip on the sweet side with my Baked Figs with Shaoxing Sabayon, a warm dessert flavored with honey and candied ginger.

Serves 4

Ingredients
8 ripe, black mission figs, quartered
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon minced candied ginger
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions
Preheat broiler Place figs in oven-proof oval dishes. Over a bain marie, whisk yolks, Shaoxing wine, honey and ginger until thickened, taking care not to curdle eggs. Off the heat, whisk in lemon juice. Nap over figs and broil for about 1 minute, until lightly colored. Garnish with extra ginger and serve warm.

Ey Muscat de Rivesaltes
—Roussillon, France

Taste: Rich and velvety, with flavors of orange rind, lychee, peach and spice leading into a pleasantly bitter finish

Aroma: Aromatic and complex, recalling orange rind, fresh figs and apricot

This delicately sweet dessert wine is exceptional on its own or paired with fresh fruit desserts, pastries and custard. Lovely with the Baked Figs with Shaoxing Sabayon.

—100% Muscat d’Alexandrie

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Ming Tsai is the host and executive producer of public television series Simply Ming.

The Daily Dish: Parsley-Garlic Stuffed Shrimp in Yuzu-Dashi Dip

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If you asked the Japanese to name their most important cooking ingredient, they’d probably say ‘dashi,’ the briny stock they use as a foundation for so many dishes. And if you asked an American the same thing, the ubiquitous herb, parsley, would be right up there. So today I’m combining those two east-west workhorses to flavor a straightforward recipe that produces either an impressive appetizer or entrée…my Parsley-Garlic Stuffed Shrimp in Yuzu-Dashi Dip.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 cup panko
5 cloves garlic
1 cup packed parsley leaves
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
8 colossal shrimp, butterflied
2 cups dashi
2 tablespoon fresh yuzu juice
1 tablespoon naturally brewed soy sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
Turn on broiler and place heat-proof plates under broiler to pre-heat. In a mini food processor fitted with blade, buzz the panko, garlic and parsley with pinch of salt and drizzle in extra virgin olive oil. Pack the shrimp with the mixture.

Remove hot plates from broiler and drizzle extra virgin olive oil on plate. Top with shrimp and broil until done, about 6-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine dashi, yuzu and naturally brewed soy sauce; taste and season, if necessary. Serve broiled shrimp with side of dashi dipping sauce.

Drink pairings
Remy Pannier Sancerre
—Sancerre, Loire Valley, France

Taste: Fresh, dry fruit and well-balanced with a long finish.
Aroma: Grapefruit and gooseberries

—100% Sauvignon Blanc
—Serve chilled; Pairs well with seafood, shellfish and goat cheese.

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Ming Tsai is the host and executive producer of public television series Simply Ming.