Long, cold New England winters would be unbearable if it weren’t for braises. There’s a solid six months between picking the last of the summer’s tomatoes and trimming the first spear of asparagus, and during that time I turn to sturdy long-cooked recipes like these short ribs, which have the added benefit of warming your kitchen as they cook. This is a recipe intended for a cold day, when the wind is blowing sideways and the snow shoveling feels never-ending.
Main course
Milk-Braised Chicken Legs with Spiced Rice
Milk may not seem a likely braising liquid, but it works beautifully, tenderizing the meat and combining with the chicken juices and spices to create the sauce. You can brown the meat in advance, assemble the braise and refrigerate it, then pop it into the oven just before you want to eat; in under an hour you’ll have a comforting main course that’s perfect for a snowy evening.
Faith’s Hearty Curried Lentil Vegetable Soup
This is one of Faith’s favorite go-to soup-as-a-meal recipes. She prefers red lentils, simply because she finds them beautiful, but you could use brown lentils if that’s what you have or what you like. As a last step, she uses an immersion blender to thicken the soup, but you don’t have to if you like the texture of the plump cooked lentils as they are.
Chris Prosperi’s Gluten-Free Stress-Reducing Chicken Soup
Aside from its comfort and restorative potential, it’s also just plain ol’ delicious.
Alex Province’s Seafood Soup with Sherry Wine
The same way I save the chicken carcass after a chicken dinner to make stock, I save lobster shells all summer long and turn them into broth. You can do this with shrimp shells, too. What do the shells add to the broth? A beautiful brininess. It’s the essence of the sea.
Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary and Fig and Balsamic Agrodolce
Chris Prosperi made this pork tenderloin for us as our pre-show meal, and it was outstanding. We wholeheartedly recommend you try it for a weeknight dinner or the next time guests come for dinner.
