Keto

GOOD TO KNOW Kebabs are a good way to incorporate vegetables into from-the-grill dinners. They also allow you to use a small amount of a high-fat food, such as the chorizo in the pork kebabs, to maximum effect. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for thirty minutes before grilling.

WHY IT’S LIGHT Just three-quarters of a pound of beef serves four as a main course when rolled around a filling of peppers and cheese and accompanied by a leafy salad. This dish is just as delicious (and even leaner) with chicken or turkey cutlets instead of beef.

FLAVOR BOOSTER A spicy dry rub is a great, no-calorie way to flavor skinless chicken breasts. Combined with red onion and lime juice, heart-healthy avocado creates a soothing salsa for a nice balance of hot and cool.

FLAVOR BOOSTER After the pork has been roasted, incorporate the flavorful juices and browned bits left in the pan into a savory gravy for serving alongside. Be sure to allow the pork to rest at least ten minutes before slicing (you can make the gravy during this time), for the juiciest meat.

I don’t cook steak very often; but when I do, I choose grass-fed, organically raised beef and cook it on a grill over a wood or charcoal fire. A fine cut for steak is rib eye on the bone; a rib eye steak that is 2 to 2 1/2 inches thick will grill beautifully, crusty on the outside and pink and juicy on the inside, and there will be plenty of meat for two servings. Porterhouse steak is another substantial cut that serves two. For serving more people, try such flavorful, less expensive cuts as hanger steak, skirt steak, sirloin, and flatiron chuck steak. Individual fillet or tenderloin steaks are the most tender.

Leg of lamb cooks well either on the bone or boned. The price per pound will be more when boned, but the advantage is that it makes it very easy to slice and carve for serving. Have it tied by the butcher, or do it yourself at home. Roast lamb is traditionally served with beans, such as green flageolet or cannellini, and for a very good reason: They are a perfect combination.

I like to roast a chicken with nothing more than a few herbs and seasonings. It is always satisfying, and the pan juices make a perfect sauce for the cooked bird.

A boiled dinner, which to be more precise might be called a simmered dinner, is an assortment of meats and vegetables simmered slowly and gently until tender. The resulting broth is clear and full of flavor and the meat is fork-tender and moist, comfort food at its best, restorative to body and soul. A variety of meats can be put into the pot; among them is usually a gelatinous cut to add a bit of body to the broth and a bony one to enrich the flavor. Some favorites are short ribs, brisket, beef cheeks, shanks, oxtail, chuck, beef tongue, chicken (either legs or a whole chicken), and sausage, or sausage-stuffed cabbage leaves. A boiled dinner is often served with the broth as a first course followed by the meats and vegetables, but I prefer to serve it all at once, with the meat and vegetables arranged in deep soup plates, moistened with a generous ladle of broth. Typical accompaniments for the meat are coarse sea salt, pickles, and a piquant sauce such as salsa verde, Dijon mustard, horseradish cream (grated horseradish, heavy cream, a pinch of salt, and a splash of white wine vinegar), or a tomato sauce spiked with capers. It is worthwhile to get the meat a couple of days ahead and to season it generously with salt and pepper. This will make it even more succulent and tasty. When a beef tongue is included (and I am quite partial to tongue in a boiled dinner), it should be soaked in salted water for at least eight hours to purge and season it. When deciding how much meat to buy, plan for ample leftovers. The broth makes fabulous soups and risottos and the meat is great sliced and served hot or cold with salsa verde, or in sandwiches, or chopped for hash. Classically, a boiled dinner is made with water. For a richer, sweeter broth, I like to use chicken broth instead, or half chicken broth and half water. This dish is easy to make, but it does take a while to cook, so plan for a few hours of simmering. Keep the pot at a bare simmer, with bubbles breaking the surface only now and then. Cooking meat at a boil will make it dry and stringy. Because their flavors can dominate the broth’s, beef tongue, sausage, and cabbage should be cooked separately from the beef and chicken. As an option to cabbage and sausage, or as a lovely further addition, consider preparing stuffed cabbage leaves. Add vegetables to be served with the meats towards the end of the cooking so that they leave a fresh, sweet taste in the broth. Here is a recipe for a complete boiled dinner—a classic Italian bollito misto—that includes different cuts of beef, a beef tongue, chicken legs, sausage, and stuffed cabbage. This is a bountiful dish that can easily be pared back all the way to the simplicity of boiled beef with carrots alone. Although this is a long recipe, some parts can be prepared in advance. The meats and tongue can be cooked ahead and stored in their broth. The sausage, stuffed cabbage, and vegetables are best prepared and cooked close to serving time. Timing is not critical; once everything is cooked and ready to eat, all the meats and vegetables can be reheated together in the broth and served.

Carnitas is the traditional crispy pork filling for little tacos that are eaten with chiles, cheese, and all sorts of salsas. It is simply stewed until tender and then browned in its own fat.

Roast pork, with its tender interior and crusty juicy exterior, is superb eating. Pork loin can be roasted boneless or as a standing rib roast. When requesting a bone-in roast, ask your butcher to cut it from the rib end and to remove the chine (or spinal) bone. A bone-in roast can be carved into thick chops with rib bones attached or it can be completely boned after roasting and sliced thin. In that case, cut apart the bones and serve them along with the meat.

You can make your own mild chile powder for this recipe by lightly toasting and grinding whole dried sweet chiles such as Anaheim or ancho.

Sausage is quite easy to make. This recipe is for sausage meat that won’t be stuffed into a casing. It is good for making patties and meatballs, and for stuffings and pasta sauces. In general, for sausage to have a good texture it should contain 25 to 30 percent fat. Much of this fat is rendered while the sausage cooks, but without it the meat will be dry and lack flavor. It follows that the best ground pork to use is ground from the shoulder, which has more fat than the leg or loin. When made with fresh meat, sausage will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

The shank is the best part of the lamb to braise. It is a meaty cut from the foreleg. A shank is a generous serving; braise them whole or ask your butcher to cut them in half lengthwise. Gremolata, a mixture of parsley, garlic, and lemon zest, adds a final bright fresh garnish to the long-cooked braise.

This especially satisfying one-pan dish is delicious served with soft polenta, mashed potatoes, or shell beans. Good choices for the green olives are unpitted Lucques or Picholines.

Industrial shrimp farming takes a heavy toll on coastal areas. Whenever possible, buy fresh, sustainably harvested wild shrimp. These taste the best and are the best for the environment. Shrimp is a delicate food that should be cooked soon after it is purchased. Keep it stored over ice until ready to use. Shrimp is sold by size (large, jumbo, bay, etc.), and some are labeled with numbers that express the number of shrimp to a pound (16-20 means a pound will yield 16 to 20 shrimp, for example). Either peeled or left in the shell, shrimp can be grilled, baked, steamed, boiled, or sautéed. As they cook they turn bright pink or red, depending on the variety. This change of color is the sign that they are done. In their shells, most shrimp will cook in three or four minutes; when peeled, shrimp cook in just a minute or two. Keep a close eye on shrimp while they are cooking. When cooking shrimp in the shell, season it generously; the seasoning needs to penetrate the shell to flavor the meat inside. (The shell itself also flavors the shrimp.) Leave unpeeled shrimp whole when boiling or sautéing. When grilling, baking, or broiling unpeeled shrimp, you can first butterfly (or split) them. Turn the shrimp on its back and cut lengthwise, through the underside to the back shell, leaving the two halves connected. Flatten the shrimp. For easy grilling, skewer the butterflied shrimp, season them, and brush with oil or butter. To peel shrimp, split the shell by gently prying it apart and away with your thumbs, from the underside out. The last joint of the shell and the tail can be left on for color if you want. All shrimp have a sand vein that runs the length of the tail on the dorsal side. The sand veins of large shrimp are sometimes gritty when full. When full, the vein will look dark and should be removed (it is not necessary to remove it when empty). Without cutting too deeply, run your knife down the center of the back of the shrimp, scrape the vein out of the cut, and discard it. I prefer shrimp sautéed in their shells. Peeling with your fingers at the table is a bit messy (some would say fun), but the flavor the shells impart makes it all worthwhile.