Five Dishes Worth the Time and Effort

In My Kitchen, the latest book from multiple JBF Award winner and last month's Chefs & Champagne® New York honoree, Ted Allen, is perfect for those of us who love to get lost in cooking. We asked the Chopped host to tell us his favorite recipes that are worth the hours they require.

I am very much a slow-food guy. I like nurtured, developed, deep flavors, smokers that give off sweet wisps of porky yummy over the course of an entire day, soups and stocks and sauces that simmer happily for an afternoon. Here are some recipes that take a little time. So what? You have something better to do than cook? There’s almost nothing better to do than cook.

North Carolina Pulled Pork

Yummmmmmm. I cook this stuff for six to eight hours. That is what I am talkin’ about.

Homemade Stock

Especially chicken, seafood, and vegetable. Mandatory. As crucial as salt. As easy as boiling water. Every time I roast a chicken, which is often, the carcass goes into a bag to be frozen and used later for stock. Beef stock is a bit more of an investment, and I don’t usually make it in summer.

Thai Curry with Chicken and Fresh Noodles

Everything here is made from scratch, on the spot, right down to the stock. Nothing is more satisfying to me. Hide the fried shallots when you’re cooking, or your guests will eat them before dinner.

Ultimate Spaghetti and Meatbrawls with Serious Sunday Gravy

Every recipe in my new cookbook contains a little kernel of discovery that changed my cooking life. This one, which I learned from Lidia Bastianich’s book, is that the famous Sunday sauce made by Italians is really not a tomato sauce; it’s all about the soffrito. And about cooking down 12 cups of chicken or turkey stock to just six. Deep, complex, developed flavor.

Belgian Beef Stew with Beer, Onions, and Herb Spaetzle

Save this one for late September or October, ‘cause those cool nights are coming. The classic carbonnade à la flamande, a rich, spicy, stew sweetened with onions and beer, cut with lots of mustard, on the wonderfully funny German noodle, spaetzle. Nothing better.