Bolognese sauce

OK, who doesn’t have a soft spot in their hearts for spagetti bolognese? It was one of my favorite things to eat growing up and usually consisted of canned spagetti sauce, some ground beef and frozen (amazing!), greasy garlic bread. It was delicious. My roomate in college raved about her Mom’s famous spagetti. It was a big deal when I finally got to try it for myself during a weekend trip home with her. And now, guess what? I get to rave about my very own spagetti recipe. After years of trying to find a good canned sauce for bolognese and lasagne, I’ve learned to just use canned tomatoes, building flavors and seasoning myself to find the perfect salty/spicy/sweet/herby balance. This sauce also has red wine in it, which gives it tons of body and depth. It’s best when you take your time, but it can be made in a pinch and do the trick.

Baked eggs with spicy tomato, red pepper and ground beef sauce

Eggs. Ground beef. Two staples in my kitchen. I buy eggs by cartons of 30 and usually have no problem finishing them over the course of their two-week shelf life. Fried, scrambled, hard-boiled, in quiches, cakes, cookies… I am a huge fan of American breakfast, and have no problem whatsoever eating eggs for dinner. Jérôme, however, does not feel the same way. In a pinch, I can convince him to eat eggs and bacon as an afternoon or nightly meal, but usually only if there’s nothing heartier left in the fridge.

A few months ago I ate at a Kurd restaurant in Paris with my colleagues. There, I was served a spicy and fragrant ragout of sorts that appeared to be some combination of ground beef or lamb and spices, and topped with a just-cooked egg. It was clearly baked and was definitely delicious, so I decided to try to recreate the dish at home.

Crab cakes with tomato ginger jam

Part two of my New Year’s Eve feast. You can read about my main course, roasted turkey with vanilla bean, honey and lemon zest marinade, here. I needed a fun appetizer that could stand alone, something to go between the spice-roasted chickpeas and the full-on main course. I wanted something flavorful, out of the ordinary (for us, anyway). I saw a commercial early in the week for canned crab, and couldn’t get it out of my head. While I could easily have purchased fresh, we’re not that big on sea food so the preserved version seemed like the perfect compromise.

I came across a recipe pairing crunchy crab cakes with sweet, tangy tomato ginger jam and I was sold. I made the jam immediately, but continued to root around on the internet for the perfect crab cake recipe. I ended up mixing a few different ones, including making my own take on the Old Bay seasoning that the first called for, and that I had no hopes of finding here in France.