Paul Shetler Fast

The Hungry Hounds -- Best of 2014

Paul Shetler Fast
The Hungry Hounds -- Best of 2014

Last March, Paul proposed a joint hobby...a food blog. I'll admit, I was skeptical at first. But, when I saw his first post, sourdough rye bread, I was all in, and we haven't looked back. We have loved watching our readership grow, and receiving your many emails, pictures, and recipe ideas. Thank you. With the addition of a return visitor from Zambia this morning, we now have regular readers in 164 countries. Paul gets especially excited by the growing number of people reading our blog in translation, from Vietnamese to Slovak, Turkish to Tagalog.

Food is powerful. It is evocative, universal, and yet uniquely enmeshed in culture. This blog is driven by our passion for connection through food -- to the people across the table, to the farmers behind our ingredients, to the culinary traditions that root us, and the natural world around us. 

To ring in the New Year, we wanted to share our readers' favorite recipes from 2014 (click directly on the images above or recipe titles below):

Spring, Sides, Vegetables, Salads, Regional Specialties, QuickPaul Shetler Fastasparagus, eggs, herbComment

Asparagus with Fresh Herb Sauce Gribiche

Paul and I started dating 12 years ago, and quickly found that we had some pretty distinct food preferences. At the time, I professed to hate red meat, Paul loved it. I obsessed over salty briney flavors, which caused Paul to shudder. Time has made converts of us both. In fact, one of the first things I craved on a trip back to to North America from Haiti was a perfectly grilled steak. Paul's tastes have changed as well. Half a dozen years ago, when I first started making tangy sauce gribiche, I was on my own eating it. No longer. We like to make a big pile of asparagus and slather on this winning mustardy, eggy, French sauce gribiche. For the French cooking enthusiasts out there, I will note that this is my own, non-traditional version of the classic sauce gribiche.

Spring, Sides, Vegetables, Salads, Regional Specialties, QuickPaul Shetler Fastasparagus, eggs, herbComment
Asparagus with Fresh Herb Sauce Gribiche
Meat, Soups, Gluten Free, World Cooking, DIYPaul Shetler Fastchicken, soy sauce, fish sauce, basil, cilantro, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, green onions, mint, radish, red onionComment

Vietnamese Chicken Soup, Phở Gà

Food has the power to connect us to people and places around the world. In 2007, Rebecca and I spent three months traveling through South East Asia together. Leaving Cambodia on the back of moto-bikes, we arrived for the night, hot and dusty, in a small village in rural Vietnam. After dropping off our packs, we sat down on the rickety plastic stools of the town's only food stand, famished. Without asking what we wanted, two pungent bowls of Phở Gà, Vietnam's famous chicken noodle soup, were plunked down in front of us. We were hooked! As we made our way north over the next several weeks, we enjoyed many local variations of Phở: from the dark, rich, and beefy to bright and spicy with shrimp. Our favorite Phở, on which our recipe is based, was eaten from steaming bowls one early morning overlooking Hạ Long Bay. This version used chicken that had been marinated and grilled, rather than boiled in the soup, giving it a crispy texture and sweet charred flavor. 

Each sip of flavorful broth reminds us also of the people and culture that created it. Phở is an aromatic and visual dish, one that we like to serve in our  Vietnamese blue petal bowls made in the Kinh family workshop in the famous pottery village of Bat Trang, Vietnam. By partnering with a local non-profit and Ten Thousand Villages, women potters are able to make a living for their families, continue a rich cultural tradition, and gain access to tools, education, training, interest-free loans, and literacy classes. We buy many of our dishes and gifts from Ten Thousand Villages each year, and appreciate their commitment to ethical partnerships with local artisans around the world. 

Meat, Soups, Gluten Free, World Cooking, DIYPaul Shetler Fastchicken, soy sauce, fish sauce, basil, cilantro, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, green onions, mint, radish, red onionComment
Vietnamese Chicken Soup, Phở Gà
Gluten Free, Mains, Meat, World CookingPaul Shetler Fastpork, lime, garlic, onion, cinnamon, oregano, allspice, clove, cumin, bay leafComment

Slow Roasted Mayan Pork with Garlic Salsa

Today marks Madeline's first full week outside the womb, and most aspects of our life have irreversibly changed. Cooking and eating together has been the one constant in this topsy turvy new world since we arrived home from the hospital. A food focus persisted during labor as I panted out a list of food requests in between contractions. Paul, both remembered every request and has been cheerfully cooking up a storm this last week. Yesterdays' creation was a yeasty sugar rush of homemade cinnamon rolls, but the vast majority of my requests have been for roasted aromatic meats like this Slow Roasted Mayan Pork with Garlic Salsa. This dish is a Paul invention, which means making use of some extraordinary homemade condiments (Xac spice mix and charred garlic salsa), the end result is transcendent.

Gluten Free, Mains, Meat, World CookingPaul Shetler Fastpork, lime, garlic, onion, cinnamon, oregano, allspice, clove, cumin, bay leafComment
Slow Roasted Mayan Pork with Garlic Salsa
Gluten Free, Grilled, Mains, MeatPaul Shetler Fastmolasses, honey, cider vinegar, worchestershireComment

Chilmole Slow Roasted Spareribs

Yesterday, both Paul and my sister celebrated their birthdays. Food, as usual, is our vehicle of celebration with an office birthday lunch featuring Paul's favorite Haitian dish, kalalou, stewed okra with slow cooked beef. Unfortunately, an ocean separates us from celebrating with my sister this year, but we in Haiti will spend our weekend in food revelries! Paul has requested his usual quirky birthday-food combinations; buttermilk biscuits, hot fudge pudding cake and watermelon chiffon pie, all fairly doable with minor adaptations. But this year he also requested ribs. Hmm. Since we have some gorgeous chilmole paste in our fridge right now, I am planning to make Paul a grilled version of our recipe for Yucatán Chilmole Slow Roasted Spareribs, a finger-licking rib recipe that we perfected in Pittsburgh before we left. Smoky, spicy, juicy, delicious. 

Gluten Free, Grilled, Mains, MeatPaul Shetler Fastmolasses, honey, cider vinegar, worchestershireComment
Chilmole Slow Roasted Spareribs
FavoritesRebecca Shetler FastComment

Best of 2015

Looking back, 2015 has been a pivotal year for us, we've changed jobs, careers, houses, countries, and in just a few weeks, our two will become three. Throughout all these transitions, food has played an important role, from eagerly trying our hand at Haitian recipes in anticipation of our move, to the sometimes bizarre pendulum swing of my pregnancy cravings, to meals shared with family and friends, celebrating holidays and saying goodbye. We have loved watching our readership grow, and receiving your many emails, recipe pictures, comments and support through these many life changes, thank you. 

To start off the New Year, we wanted to share our readers' favorite recipes from 2015 (click directly on the images above or recipe titles below):

  1. Berbere Spiced Chicken, Doro Wat

  2. Smokey Ancho Cheddar Burgers

  3. Yucatan Citrus Roasted Pork, Cochinita Pibil

  4. Flemish Beer Braised Beef and Onions

  5. Gascon Vegetable Soup

  6. Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Milkshakes

  7. Barley Risotto

  8. Yucatan Quick Pickled Mexican Red Onions

  9. West African Kale & Peanut Stew

  10. Grilled Greek Greek Salad

  11. Garlic Ancho Chile Paste

  12. Whiskey Glazed Chicken Thighs

  13. Black Fudge Pudding Cake

  14. Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

  15. Blackstrap Molasses & Fresh Ginger Cake & Salted Maple Buttercream

  16. Wild Rice & Quinoa Salad with Mushrooms & Asparagus

FavoritesRebecca Shetler FastComment
Best of 2015