Not a fan of turkey? You can cube chicken and toss it in the balsamic to make a glaze. Also, a vegan option here would b seitan!

The post Balsamic Turkey Meatballs with Kale & Radicchio Salad appeared first on Dining with Skyler.

The post The Bouchard Family Beef Wellington Recipe appeared first on Dining with Skyler.

To be specific, this recipe calls for pork loin chops, not pork shoulder chops. You *could* use pork shoulder chops, but if you want them just like mine, go with the bone-in pork loin chops. My store didn’t specify if I purchased rib chops or center cut, but I think (based off of the shape) they were rib chops. Regardless, either will be great. Here is a guide about different pork chops from the Kitchn for your pork chop questions. Anyway, you can make this recipe with any leaner cut of pork, so don’t get upset I you can’t find the same exact ones that I used.

Let’s talk about the sauce. I was going to serve a full blown apple chutney here, but after testing this recipe, I realized that I wanted something quick and …. to put it simply: cooked in the remaining butter and pork fat in the pan. I took the flavors and ingredients of an apple chutney (minus extra fruit juices) and cooked them with the same method that’s used to make a pan sauce. To make this as convenient as possible, it cooks in the 10 minutes that we are letting our pork chops rest. That way everything is ready on time and we have a bomb a$$ meal.

For side dishes, I went with my honey dijon kale salad and added roasted Brussels sprouts and apple slices instead of avocado. You could also go with my dijon chickpeas and a kale salad. Or, just roast your fave vegetable and serve that right on the side! You do you!

The post Seared Pork Chops with a Quick Apple Chutney-ish Pan Sauce appeared first on Dining with Skyler.

The only thing that didn’t really work out was that I wayyyyyy overestimated the amount of meat I would need to feed only five people. Turns out, 4.5 lbs was WAY too much meat, and when you make beef tenderloin, you only need the Chateaubriand cut from the center of the tenderloin, and you don’t need the whole tenderloin. You have to trim the tails off. Needless to say, I was left with a lot of beef tenderloin meat leftovers and I was determined to cook with every oz. of it after Thanksgiving. Beef tenderloin roasts are expensive! You want to make sure you eat it all at all costs. Speaking of beef tenderloin roasts, check out my simple beef tenderloin roast recipe below and tutorial on how to get it absolutely perfect.

How-To: Beef Tenderloin Roast 

Anyway, this recipe stemmed from playing with those leftovers…and wow. I surprised myself with this one! This was a creation that stemmed from a lazy day off, where I planned to not worry about remembering a recipe while I was cooking, and instead, just cook. BUT it was so easy and delicious that I had to post it.

Let’s talk about the flavor/subs/swaps, etc. Yes, it’s very obvious at this point that I used beef tenderloin here, lol. You can 10000% make this sauce with  any cut of steak, so long as you prepare it by searing it in a pan. This would be delicious with skirt steak, flank steak or sirloin, to name a few.

I usually like to use ginger when I’m making an Asian-inspired sauce. I was bummed when I realized I didn’t have it in my pantry, but since I didn’t plan to make a recipe, I just rolled with it. I did have mirin (a sweet Japanese rice wine commonly used in cooking,) soy sauce and looooots of garlic. Those are the 3 ingredients that make up this sauce, and it turns out, you don’t even miss the ginger! If you have ginger, feel free to add it, though of course.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Skyler Bouchard Oppenheim (@diningwithskyler)

My final note here is that this recipe calls for mirin, which is a sweet rice wine. You can actually sub it for rice vinegar or apple cider and just add a little, tiny bit of honey or agave nectar to bring some sweetness. However, I recommend using mirin if you can! Linking a few options below to get on Amazon. Something else I am loving for searing my steaks lately is this ghee oil which I’ve also linked below!

The post Beef Tenderloin Steaks with an Easy Japanese-Inspired Pan Sauce appeared first on Dining with Skyler.

Maybe its just me, but roasted meats seem very intimidating. If you’re an avid reader/follower here, you know I say this all the time I think this is because nice cuts of meat are usually expensive, and you really only have one shot to *nail* it. It took me years to feel confident enough to even try to make a roast at home (if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that my first roast attempt led to me ultimately being roasted on the internet for cooking up a very pale roast chicken.) But now I’m here to help you feel confident enough to give roasting a try!!! And I also accept everyone who makes pale roast chicken!!! There is no roasting judgement here!!!

One of my favorite roasts to make for a special occasion is a beef tenderloin (highly recommend that you check out my recipe!) It’s essentially a long cut of filet mignon, that’s flavorful, silky and delicious.

Another roast I love is a chicken (obv) but today, I wanted to do something a little different. Lamb is a wonderful roast to make at home (especially for date night or another special occasion,) and there are a few different cuts to go with. For this particular recipe, we are going with a boneless lamb shoulder because it’s actually not that expensive and its a very forgiving piece of meat. Even if you overcook it a smidge, it will still taste tender and delicious. That being said, our goal is to not overcook or botch this lamb shoulder! And that’s why I’ve made a full video tutorial on how to make this. 

We’re going for a medium rare internal temp, which is typically 125-135 degrees F after resting. I pulled my lamb out of the oven when it hit 120 degrees F. If you are nervous about consuming medium rare meat (please give it a try if you’ve never done it) then feel free to go with a final temp of 145 degrees internally (remove at 130 or 135.) I don’t recommend going over that, but once again, do your research and figure out a temperature that you would like the most.

Preparing the meat:

There are two steps to this recipe that I consider to be the most important. Step 1: trimming the lamb and getting rid of any extremeeee excess fat or membranes. I’m not talking about a little white splotch here and there when I say excess fat. I’m talking about the large, thick pieces of fat that rest on large surface areas around the outside of the meat. We want to get rid of those and trim accordingly with a pairing knife. Step 2: trussing the meat. I know there’s probably a tried and true method of how to tie your lamb roast up, but I think you should know the reason *why* you’re doing it, instead of focusing on getting the knots or tie perfect. Trussing is tying the lamb up with cooking twine. I don’t care how fabulous your butcher is, no piece of meat will be perfectly or evenly sized. So, the goal when we truss (AKA tie up) the lamb is to roll it up into a uniform shape, and have the string hold the meat in that uniform shape while it cooks. Why? Because our lamb will cook more evenly if the roast is the same thickness throughout and also so the juices will distribute evenly throughout the roast, resulting in juicy meat. The only pieces that will be cooked a little more than the rest of the roast will be the ends, but if the roast is trussed to be the same thickness and height throughout, then the majority will be perfectly and evenly cooked. Now that you know the purpose of trussing the lamb, you can tie it up however you want, as long as its tight, taught and uniform in shape and size. The way I trussed it in my video was completely weird, but the result was fabulous.

I sliced my lamb in the middle to fold in some of my spice blend (that’s the green line you see running through the cooked lamb) but that’s optional. I then topped the lamb with a mint and parsley dressing (a little natural play on mint jelly) and then paired it with my favorite red lentil mash with labneh and chives as a side, which I highly recommend! It’s a very hands-off type of side dish and you can make it for large groups without doing much.

The post Spiced Lamb Shoulder Roast with a Mint and Parsley Dressing appeared first on Dining with Skyler.

Let’s talk about this dish. It reminds me of what I used to order at farm to table restaurants when they would debut their fall harvest menus. A hearty short rib braised in red wine, paired with a root vegetable and a splash of color or another fall flavor. For my version, I decided to add pomegranate juice to my red wine braising liquid (this adds a nice pop of tart fruitiness that pairs beautifully with the beefy meat) and then I paired it with simple roasted rainbow carrots that are topped with parsley, goat cheese and more pomegranate seeds. I mean, pomegranates are in season so let’s do it up!!!

Meat:

I tested this recipe with boneless and bone-in short ribs. I think it’s more elegant to use boneless here, but bone-in actually end up being a bit more tender, due to the fat content. They also fall right off the bone, so they end up being served as smaller boneless short ribs (as seen above.) Choose whatever you want here, but if you choose boneless, make sure you do not over-sear them in the beginning of this recipe as they will end up dry and tough. Boneless short ribs tend to be thinner than bone-in, so that’s why its important not to over-sear. You can see how I did it in my YouTube video, which I linked at the top of this blog post. I go through the whole recipe from start to finish.

Cooking method:

I used a classic dutch oven for this recipe (linking some of my faves below.) However, if you don’t have a dutch oven, feel free to do all your searing and sauté work in a skillet and then deglaze with a bit of the liquid, then transfer all of it to a slow cooker. If you use a slow cooker, you can cook on high for 3-4 hours, or you can cook on low for 6 hours or so. If you have a multi-cooker (such as the instant pot) you can also use that as your slow cooker. There should be a slow cook function!

As always, if you have any other cooking questions and they aren’t answered in my YouTube video, please feel free to DM me on Instagram!!! I am always here to help as much as I can. Now let’s get cooking!

The post Red Wine Pomegranate Braised Short Ribs with Rainbow Carrots appeared first on Dining with Skyler.

That being said, this stir fry dish is definitely my Americanized spin on a fusion of three cuisines: Indonesian, Thai and Chinese. Did you know that peanut sauce actually originated in Indonesia? It’s now used all over the world, particularly in Indonesia and Thailand, plus other parts of Southeast Asia, where it’s common to use peanuts in savory styles of cooking. I’m sure you’ve seen chicken satay (chicken skewers with a sweet and salty peanut sauce) on Asian fusion, Indonesian or Thai restaurant menus before. So with this recipe, I am taking inspiration from this peanut sauce and giving it some sriracha spice (which you can skip.) Then, I’m pairing it with some pork, veggies and egg noodles and stir frying it all together. You can use any kind of noodle here and you can also skip the meat and use tofu or tempeh instead.

Let’s do this! Full video tutorial is below if you want to watch as you cook.

The post Pork and Noodle Stir Fry in a Savory Peanut Sauce appeared first on Dining with Skyler.