My Favorite Breakfasts by Alison Roman

One question I receive frequently is, “what is Alison really good at?” My answers always include a rambly list about things like roast chickens and middle eastern spices, before I usually arrive at “breakfast!” 

She’s really good at breakfast. Like me, she prefers savory over sweet. No pancakes or waffles (I know she released a pancake recipe in a newsletter recently, but her cookbook has none of that). I find myself craving and returning to her breakfasts almost more than any other type of recipe. And no one seems to mind. 

All of her breakfast recipes (found in Dining In) are worth making. I plan to eat all of them again. Some of them I've even made three or four times each in the past year. While every breakfast recipe deserves its moment in the sun, these three are bound to show up in my kitchen many more times in the years to come. 

1. Baked Eggs with Crushed Chickpeas, Chorizo, and Bread Crumbs. I’ve tried it with chorizo and spicy italian sausage, and chorizo easily wins the day. Or should I say the dish. Spicy sausage is just a little too spicy. Chorizo hits the perfect balance of salt to spice. There’s a lot more I have to say about this recipe, but I’ll just leave you with the link to my blog post about it (above). 

2. Crispy Kimchi and Cheddar Omelette. It’s as simple as a scrambled egg omelette with cheddar and kimchi (don’t you love obvious recipe titles?). But who else has thought to put kimchi in an omelette? Right. Exactly. 

3. Matzo Brei. Matzo crackers come in a box of 10, which left me with a pleasant dilemma after my first go at matzo brei. What to do with the leftover 8 crackers? More matzo brei, of course! I haven’t strayed from the matzo breaking and soaking methods I tried initially (read more in the link), but I continue to turn the heat down more and let the onions spend even longer time over the stove to truly caramelize. The reward is absolutely worth the wait.  

My Favorite Weeknight Dinners by Alison Roman

You worked really hard today. You attended back-to-back meetings, wrote countless emails, and got interrupted more times than you thought you could handle. After you finally make it home from the office (or, if you’re working from home, you finally shut your laptop), you’re in the mood for a tasty dinner. But the last thing you feel like doing is standing by the stove for an hour or more. And you can’t stomach one more frozen meal…

You need a compromise. Something that takes 30 minutes or less and still delivers results. You need to make these fabulous, under 30-minute recipes by Alison Roman…

• Cold Soba with Cucumbers, Watercress, and Sesame. You probably have most of the ingredients on hand already, since it calls for shelf staples like soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. There’s room for creative substitution too. Soba noodles or another kind of spaghetti. Watercress or arugula. Throw in some snow peas or shredded carrots on the side. Serve with fried tofu squares. The list goes on…

• Vinegared Romaine with Sour Cream, Bacon, and Herbs. I’d eat this for dinner, lunch, and on certain mornings, even breakfast. The world’s your oyster when it comes to variations (sometimes I use cucumbers or cherry tomatoes or goat cheese or crumbled potato chips), but whatever you do, do NOT skip the crispy bacon and herbs. 

• Tomato-y White Beans with Breadcrumbs and Preserved Lemon. Another quick meal that relies primarily on kitchen staples like beans and tomato paste. If you really want to make this low maintenance, you can skip the breadcrumbs (though that should not be a hasty decision - consider what you’re giving up). I’ve made this dish many times, and sometimes add harissa paste to up the spice levels. I’ve also experimented with goat cheese. 

• Halibut and Asparagus with Brown Butter Peas. Halibut is not your typical weeknight dinner protein, especially when considering the price. But if you’re one of those special people who don’t mind splurging on your fish, then this recipe will deliver a most satisfying, healthy, and flavorful meal. No need to add anything else to the menu. 

• Spelt with Crispy Sausage, Flowering Broccoli, and Green Garlic. On nights when I have little energy for cooking, I often find myself cooking up some Italian sausages and combining them with whatever vegetables and grains I have on hand. I consider this Alison’s version of my go-to low-energy dinner.  

• Black Bass with Salty, Spicy Celery. Again, another slightly expensive fish option, but wow. What a combo. The beauty of the foil packet method makes this meal prep fly by. 

• Cumin Lamb Chops with Charred Scallions and Peanuts. From start to finish, these lamb chops take no time at all. The most labor intensive task involves crushing cumin seeds. Don’t skip the peanuts. I served this with a kale salad. Sweet potatoes would have been nice, too. 

• Tiny Creamy Pasta with Black Pepper and Pecorino. aka fancy mac ‘n cheese. It’s not as simple as adding cheese powder to milk, but it’s only 30-minutes of stirring and doesn’t even require boiling water for your noodles! 

Double-Crusted Peach Pie with Honey, Ginger, and Lime by Alison Roman

It’s been a minute! I just took a full two weeks off of this project to relax, reconnect with my husband, and spend time in nature. We spent a few days up in Northern Minnesota in the Boundary Waters, which is a collection of over 1,000 lakes and many islands between the Minnesota and Canadian borders. To get to our campsite, it took eight miles of canoeing and six different portage sites where we had to move all our gear, including the canoes, from one side of an island to another. It was hard work, but very rewarding. 

We spent our second week of vacation mostly in Door County, WI. We biked, hiked, sailed, and ate some surprisingly fantastic meals. I even discovered what Jordan calls “my spirit restaurant.” A magical, thoughtful, incredibly delicious place called Trixie’s. It was so good that we ate there on two different nights. I plan to write about it at some point because it really was that special. 

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Alright, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Because what you’re really here for is pie. A peach pie. A double-crusted peach pie. A double-crusted peach pie with honey, ginger, and lime. A pie for the summer, for standing apart from other regular fruit pies, for making a statement. 

As per usual, I made both pie crust discs from King Arthur’s Gluten-Free Pie Crust recipe. It’s become a reliable staple for me as I venture further on this gluten-less journey, and I recommend it to all others who find themselves on the same gluten-less road. Once I prepared the dough and let it chill for about two hours, I followed Alison’s suggestion to roll both discs out to roughly 14-inch rounds and then stuck both of them back in the fridge to cool. It was a really hot day, so the butter seemed glad to spend maximum time in the cold. 

Meanwhile, I prepared the filling, which consists of 4 lbs. of ripe peaches, sugar, honey, lime zest and juice, cornstarch, and a good bit of freshly grated ginger. Unlike some of Alison’s other fruit desserts, I actually followed the suggested amount of peaches. In the past, I’ve found that for whatever reason, her quantities of fruit far surpass the capacity of my baking dishes. So I’ve ended up with anywhere from 1-2 lbs. of extra sliced fruit. Not the worst problem to have, but not ideal either. But this time around, I had a feeling that the pie could handle a piled-high mound of slices. And so it could. 

The rest of the process was rather straightforward as far as pie construction goes. One crust on the bottom, filling added, another crust on top with three slices into the dough to allow steam to escape. The whole thing is covered in egg wash and a third cup of Demerara sugar. The tough part is the time! The pie spends roughly an hour and forty-five minutes in the oven, and then it needs three hours to cool! Talk about an opportunity for character development. The pie most certainly tested my patience. 

But boy, the reward was worth it. As I said in the beginning, this is no ordinary fruit pie. The lime zest and ginger, though simple, add complexity and elevate the peaches to a tangy, snappy sweetness. The ginger mellowed out a bit by day two of leftover pie, but it was still the strongest flavor. If you don’t love ginger, don’t cut it out completely, just cut it in half, or reduce it by a third. In my opinion, ginger is the key to a non-boring peach pie. And you don’t want to be boring, right? 

125 recipes cooked, 100 to go!!!!!

Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken with Buttered Tomatoes by Alison Roman

There are a lot of reasons why this dish is featured on the cover of Alison’s second book, nothing fancy. It’s crazy delicious. It’s easy to make: virtually no cooking skill required beyond assembly and sticking it in the oven. Finally, it seems like a blatant oxymoron. How can a dish that fancy, for lack of a better term, be not fancy? Makes you want to open the book to find out, doesn’t it? (I see what you did there, Alison & her book publishers.) 

Important note, by cooking this recipe right off the bat, I was clued into what I think Alison means by the book title, nothing fancy. The food in it sure looks fancy, and definitely tastes fancy. But that doesn’t mean that only advanced cooks can make this food. The skill levels required, and the amount of steps in each recipe, are far less than what you might think. Example A, see Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken on Page 189-190. 

The recipe calls for a whole chicken, 3.5-4 lbs. I bought a whole chicken only a handful of times in the past, as I found it intimidating to both cook and carve a whole bird. (And the bones, bones always spooked me out.) I usually shop at Trader Joes, so that’s where I went to buy this chicken. 

Note on whole chickens at Trader Joes, to give you a lay of the land if you need one. In my recently frequent experience in this section of the store, I’ve learned there are three types of chickens to choose from. There’s the standard chicken: non-organic, large birds in the 5-8 lb. range and a less expensive option. There’s the heirloom chicken: smaller birds in the 2-3.5 lb. range, in a non-organic but all the disclaimers like vegetarian-fed and antibiotic-free, etc., and just as expensive per pound as organic. Then there’s a standard organic chicken but their smallest bird is no less than 5.5 lbs. 

I first made this recipe for Jordan and I, so a 3.5 lb. heirloom chicken seemed best for feeding 2 and having leftovers the next day. I was right. 

The dish was so killer that I had to make it for a larger audience. My in-laws came over a few days later and I reprised it. There were 5 of us total, so I opted for a larger, organic bird of 5.5 lbs, and there were no leftovers to be found. If you’re going to serve this to guests, don’t expect leftovers, both due to the amount of chicken and sheer irresistibility.

Step 1 of the recipe tells you to cover the chicken in salt and pepper. Alison says this can be done right before cooking, but tells you in parentheses that if you have time to do it earlier in the day, do! Consider it a “casual brine.” If there’s one thing I know about cooking meat, it’s that meat always tastes better if it’s had a salt bath first. I’m all in for that casual brine. 

When you’re about 3 hours from meal time, it’s time to assemble your dish. When it comes to the chicken itself, the ingredients are simple and few (not fancy). Fennel seeds, salt, pepper, olive oil, and of course, fresh oregano. I followed her quantities to a tee, and proportionately scaled them up with the 5.5 lb bird. 

The seasoned chicken is nestled in a nest of halved garlic heads and vine-ripened tomatoes, and more fresh oregano. Very little chopping involved, and you don’t even have to remove the paper around the garlic. Throw in some butter and pop her into the oven at a low temperature for 2.5-3 hrs. 

Note about fresh oregano. My Trader Joes doesn’t carry it, so I had to go to Whole Foods to buy it. This isn’t one of those times where you can swap in the dried version and alter the quantity accordingly. It’s gotta be the fresh version. 

At this point, the recipe only tells you when to take the dish out of the oven. My dear friend who gifted me nothing fancy, and whose favorite dish is also this dish, told me to drizzle olive oil over the bird every 30 minutes during the cooking process. Why not keep the chicken as moist and shiny as possible? A wonderful recommendation to follow, if you ask me. But hey, if you need this to be a totally hands-off roast, I get it! Skip the extra olive oil, and I’m sure the chicken will turn out great anyway. In Alison, we trust. 

We’re almost at the point where the dish is ready to be served. Once you remove her from the oven (look for that golden brown skin and jammy tomatoes), you get to spoon some red wine vinegar over the tomatoes and let it sink in for 10 minutes. Then, she’s ready to be carved and served.

Alison wisely recommends serving it with fresh bread. I happen to be on a sourdough baking kick, so I was eager to oblige with homemade bread. But I know that fresh bread from a grocery store, preferably one with a nice soft middle, and crispy crust, will do just fine. Fun tip, the garlic will have been confit-ted, aka turned into a spreadable, caramel-colored clove that I highly recommend spreading over your bread like butter. 

Like I said, this dish is a true winner. One I will return to again and again for hosting and casual weeknight dinners alike. It’s the whole package. Tangy, jammy tomatoes, perfectly moist chicken meat with a golden crispy crust with chopped fennel that gives it a slightly crunchy bite, and spreadable, golden garlic over fresh bread. Serve it with a simple green salad, and you will be thanking yourself, and dear Alison, for days to come. 

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I made this recipe another time for a family that is very near to my heart. The Hammitt/Self family lives out a grace-centered, actively service-oriented type of love for one another that is contagious. This chicken was the backdrop to a meaningful evening with them. Rachel graciously offered to take these photos for my blog — I was just about to launch it then, though I’m just posting these now. Thank you, Rachel. I love you!

56 recipes cooked, 169 to go.

Photography credit goes to my brilliant friend, Rachel Hammitt @ Hammitt Design: https://hammittdesign.com/

Roasted Broccolini and Lemon with Crispy Parmesan by Alison Roman

There are recipes I feel jazzed to write about. There are recipes about which I have not much to say. This is one of the latter. 

I didn’t begin to love vegetables as an adult until I learned how to oven roast them. I learned the vegetable to oil and salt ratio, a general oven temperature range, a sense for how to time it, and I haven’t looked back. Here is a great example of one vegetable to roast and how to pair it with other flavors. Broccolini roasted with lemon and some parmesan that gets all crispy. Everything you need to know is in the title.

My pal Margaret, who I reference often, encouraged me to keep it real here. I think I’ve done that thus far, but it’s a post like this that tempts me to embellish more than is necessary. So for brevity and clarity sake, I’ll bring this to a close. If you like roasted broccolini, and you think pairing it with lemon or parmesan sounds nice, then you my friend, should make some. 

44 recipes cooked, 181 to go.