MEREDITH VIEIRA, co-host:
Back at 8:44. This morning on
HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING TODAY
, using just a half-
pound
of meat, yes, you heard me right, half-
pound
of meat to feed a family of four.
Mark Bittman
is a
New York Times
columnist and author of
"Food Matters:
A Guide to
Conscious Eating
," with more than 75 recipes. Mark, good morning to you.
Mr. MARK BITTMAN:
Good morning.
VIEIRA:
It doesn't sound like this would work.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, but...
VIEIRA:
A half a
pound
for four people.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...but of course it does because meat is really -- I mean, it's something we love to eat, it gives us flavor, it gives us protein, it gives us -- but we don't need a half a
pound
per person, which is sort of what -- when I used to write recipes, I would say a
pound
, a
pound
-and-a-half, two pounds...
VIEIRA:
Right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...but you don't need that. And these are -- these are great recipes to show you how much you can do with half a
pound
of meat.
VIEIRA:
OK. So let's start. What's the first one we're going to do?
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, this is ground chicken. And you need to -- and you need to cook it until the pinkness is gone, pretty much, which we're just about there.
VIEIRA:
You know, people, though, are very nervous about chicken, that if you don't cook it all the way through.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, one great thing about
ground meat
, not just chicken but any
ground meat
, is that it cooks through very quickly.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
OK? And we have some precooked vegetables here that I did a little while ago, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, scallions, and we mixed all that together.
VIEIRA:
So you pour that right in with the chicken. OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Right? And cooked them separately.
VIEIRA:
Or turkey.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Chicken.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Turkey. Whatever you want. And stir that up. You can add a pinch of sugar if you like. Some soy sauce and some
chicken stock
.
VIEIRA:
All right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
So this is really a kind of classic stir-fry. And, you know, stir-fries were sort of the original less-meat kind of main course.
VIEIRA:
Exactly.
Mr. BITTMAN:
So -- but instead of serving this over...
VIEIRA:
Rice, which would you...
Mr. BITTMAN:
...rice...
VIEIRA:
...you would normally do. Now you're using the lettuce leaves.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Put it in these cute little lettuce cups.
VIEIRA:
You're seeing this a lot at restaurants now, too, this use of lettuce.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Yeah. Because it's easy and it's nice. And if you don't make a mess of it, it looks pretty good.
VIEIRA:
Actually, that could serve...
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well...
VIEIRA:
...probably even more than a family of four.
Mr. BITTMAN:
...well, yeah. I mean, you're going to eat three or four of these.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Right? So I think that's...
VIEIRA:
Very, very nice.
Mr. BITTMAN:
So that's one.
VIEIRA:
All right. Moving on.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Two.
VIEIRA:
The next one. This is
pasta
with
broccoli rabe
and sweet
Italian sausage
, is that...
Mr. BITTMAN:
This is like everybody's favorite dish, I think.
Broccoli rabe
and sausage; because the sausage is sweet, the
broccoli rabe
is bitter. So you do the same thing.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
You can slice the sausage if you want or you can crumble it, get it nice and brown. You cook some
broccoli rabe
first, parboil it, chop it up. Put that in there.
VIEIRA:
Why do you have to do it first, parboil it first?
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, because if you just try to cook it in with the sausage, it's not going to get tender, it's not going to have this
beautiful......before it becomes tender, basically.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
A little bit of chilies.
VIEIRA:
Ah, that's good for a little...
Mr. BITTMAN:
I want a little more olive oil in here.
VIEIRA:
...kick there.
Mr. BITTMAN:
And then we toss that with some
pasta
. And you want the
pasta
-- actually you want it quite wet for this because...
VIEIRA:
Why?
Mr. BITTMAN:
I've got more
pasta
than we need.
VIEIRA:
Look at the mess you made.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Well, you know what, this is cooking!
VIEIRA:
You made a mess.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Cooking makes a mess!
VIEIRA:
All right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
What can I tell you?
VIEIRA:
That pan's not big enough.
Mr. BITTMAN:
No, the pan is not big enough. We're going to go throw it in a bowl over here.
VIEIRA:
OK. All right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
In fact -- wait, don't turn your back to the camera.
VIEIRA:
Where you going? All right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
There.
VIEIRA:
Oh. All right, beautiful.
Mr. BITTMAN:
That's nicer. Yes?
VIEIRA:
That's lovely.
Mr. BITTMAN:
OK. So that's that one.
VIEIRA:
Smells good. All right.
Mr. BITTMAN:
And again, this -- if this doesn't serve a family of four...
VIEIRA:
Yeah, that definitely serves a family of four.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Right. So here, you want some?
VIEIRA:
All right. Sure, I'll try some.
Mr. BITTMAN:
I'll have some.
VIEIRA:
All right. I mean, you -- great. While I'm eating this, let's do the last one.
Mr. BITTMAN:
The last one is an unusual dish, quite Middle Eastern actually, and authentic. It's bulgur and vermicelli
pasta
.
VIEIRA:
Sounds like a lot of carb, bulgur and...
Mr. BITTMAN:
But when you brown this -- it's not a lot of
pasta
-- when you brown this
pasta
first, it's so delicious because it gets this extra sort of crispness and the flavors develop more. Ground beef, mushrooms again, some onions and a little bit of parsley. Really?
VIEIRA:
Oh, your microphone -- that was very smooth,
Richie
, very smooth.
Mr. BITTMAN:
OK. So...
VIEIRA:
Oh, it's for me. My mike is not working. Oh, boy. OK.
Mr. BITTMAN:
Speak into the lapel.
VIEIRA:
All right. so how did you do that, essentially the same way you did the other one or...
Mr. BITTMAN:
So this one -- well, this one we brown the noodles first and then with some onions and mushrooms. And then the bulgur and some stock, and again, some parsley at the end, so.
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