Fried Green Tomatoes!

A few weeks ago, I impulse-bought some green tomatoes and fried them with some panko and some random baharat seasoning.  It was supposed to be a side dish, but three tomatoes was more than enough food to be an entire meal for two people and they were so good that whatever it was that was supposed to be the main course got put to the side.

Last night, I made them again as a main course.  I used three tomatoes again, which was (again) too much food.  You'd think I'd learn.  I served them with a steamed artichoke because it's a standby side dish at my house that involves very little effort.  The sauce for the tomatoes is sriracha mayo and the sauce for the artichokes is Greek yogurt and dill.

Pappardelle with Chestnuts, Prosciutto, and Sage

I can't believe I haven't written a post about this pasta dish!  It's been part of my regular rotation for years.  It's very quick and delicious!  I love chestnuts so it's one of my favorite meals to make, especially in winter when it's easier to get chestnuts.  A few years ago, Wegmans only sold Haddon House jarred chestnuts in the baking aisle.  They were nearly always sold out.  Thankfully, they now carry Galil bagged chestnuts year round.  Chestnuts are kind of earthy so I think the salty flavor of the prosciutto goes really well with it.  According to a random episode of Chopped I saw the other night, people don't like to eat raw sage.  This recipe calls for a little as a garnish and I think it's fine.

Lemon and Tarragon Poached Halibut with Blood Orange Sauce (and Seriously Awesome Potatoes)

I enjoyed the saffron-scented halibut that I made a few months ago.  But it needed a sauce.  So I decided to try and make my own sous vide halibut with a fun sauce.  I will admit, this halibut was not as firm as I would like.  I think I'd try a firmer fish next time.  Despite the years I've been cooking, I'm still not that great at picking what types of fish work with what sauces or methods of cooking.  That said, the flavors of the fish and sauce worked well together.  I'd make the sauce for a breaded fish too. I thought blood orange on its own was a bit sweet so I added some lemon juice to tie it in with the poaching liquid and the citrus salt in the potatoes and I think it worked pretty well.  The sauce was kind of sweet and sour, but in a mild way; it didn't overpower the fish.

The potatoes were the star of the dish.  I liked them even more than the jalapeno poached potatoes that are the usual roasted potato staple in my house.  They have two kinds of salt in them.  Why?  Because I have a vast army of nice salts that were given to me as gifts and I want to find more ways to use them.  I've got some citrus salt that is pretty strong and some very nice salt with roasted spices.  I put some citrus salt and pepper on the potatoes and added a little thyme. Before I neglected it this winter and then let my dog run around on it, I grew some lemon thyme in my herb garden.  I figured citrus salt and thyme would work pretty well together since lemon thyme is so good.  I wanted to make sure there was enough salt on the potatoes but I didn't want the citrus to be overpowering, so I added a little of the roasted spice salt as well.  If you don't have any, regular salt would work fine.  The potatoes were perfect.  Just the right amount of crunch and flavor.  They were tangy, but not overly much.  The thyme made them smell fantastic.

Sous Vide Beer Brats and Potato Salad with Basil-Citrus Dressing

Here's a really simple sous vide recipe with a really complicated side dish!  I loved this bratwurst.  It was perfectly tender and the beer flavored it really well.  I seared it for just a few minutes to make it look nice and add a bit of texture.  I should warn you that because it's cooked at a low temperature, the alcohol doesn't cook out.

The potato salad is fantastic!  And pretty.  And I don't really like potatoes that much.  I think the cherry tomatoes make this salad particularly awesome, their acidity goes nice with the creamy dressing.  The citrus is not overwhelming, the ratio in the recipe is just right. For once I didn't add extra and I'm glad. The original recipe also called for roasted carrots, but I left those out because I don't like cooked carrots very much.  Honestly, I think adding them would make the salad too busy.  This salad involves a lot of prep work and it has to sit in the fridge for a bit so it's not good for a work night meal.  We ate the whole batch in the same night so I don't know if it keeps well for the next day.  I'll definitely make both the brats and the potato salad again!

I have descended into full blown cooking nerd mode. (Saffron-Scented Halibut)

I spent most of high school and college avoiding chemistry.  Then I got into cooking.  My husband bought me an immersion circulator for Christmas!  I didn't know that there was a model that could hook on to an ordinary large pot instead of a giant plastic tub.  It looks more like lab equipment than a cooking tool. I've always been curious about cooking with one because I watch way too much Iron Chef America.  The Anovo immersion circulator is very easy to use.  I'm using it here with a pasta pot and some tin foil. One of the first things I wanted to try out was fish.  This is saffron-scented halibut with tomato compute and zucchini.  It was fantastic!  The zucchini was cooked through, yet still crunchy instead of mushy and gross.  The tomatoes had the right amount of softness.  The fish was perfectly cooked.  It was moist, flaky, and evenly cooked.  The saffron sauce had the right amount of zing from the oranges but it didn't overpower the flavor of the fish.  This dish did involve a good bit of prep work but total cooking time for everything was 17 minutes.

To make the meal, I attached the immersion circulator to my pasta pot, set it for 140 degrees F through its very simple touch screen interface, and covered the pot with tin foil.  The instruction manual emphasized that covering the pot is necessary and suggested tin foil if a special lid wasn't available.

I feel a bit like a mad scientist.  

Cream of Broccoli Soup

When I was a kid, cream of whatever soup came in a can, contained my monthly sodium intake, and was usually used to flavor chicken and rice.  It was almost always beige, even if the "whatever" in the soup was a green vegetable like broccoli or asparagus.  In other words: yuck.  That said, home made cream of whatever soup is really good! And in the case of cream of broccoli soup, it's actually green! There's a lot of broccoli in it and not a lot of whatever would make the soup beige.

This recipe is from The New Moosewood Cookbook and is vegetarian.  It has relatively few ingredients and is easy to make, especially if you have an immersion blender.  I seasoned mine with a bit of black salt at the end, that's what the flecks are in the picture.  Even though there is no heavy cream in this soup (I used 1% milk), it was still nice and creamy (and healthier).

Bowtie Pasta with Mascarpone, Asparagus, and Hazelnuts

Back when I was first learning how to cook, this was one of the first "fancy" pasta dishes I tried to make.  In the beginning, I'm pretty sure I added way too much water to the sauce and ended up with watery, bland pasta with some asparagus and cheese on it.  But, I got better at it and it was on regular rotation in our house for about a year.  Then I started accumulating cookbooks.  I wanted to try Indian! Thai! Stir Fry! Mexican!  And this recipe was forgotten for a few years.  

A few weeks ago, I cleaned out my cookbooks to donate some to charity (and make room for more!) and found a "Best of Bon Appetit" cookbook.  This recipe was in it.  I got nostalgic and decided to make it again.  I'd forgotten how much I like it!  It's quick, easy, and vegetarian.  The sauce is pretty mild so it does need some salt and pepper.  But, it's very creamy, slightly sweet, and goes well with the roasted asparagus.  I added some sauteed garlic for extra flavor.  If you can buy blanched hazelnuts in bulk at your grocery store, that will make this dish really quick because then you don't have to do it yourself.  Honestly, if you're strapped for time, leaving the husks on will make your dish less pretty but I don't think it's worth it to remove them unless you're serving guests or have the time to spare.  My main alteration to this recipe is that I barely added any of the reserved cooking water to the sauce.  I did it very slowly and stopped as soon as the sauce reached my desired consistency, which for me was still relatively thick. It was easy to stir and coat everything, but not watery at all.  I definitely recommend this dish for a quick work night dinner.  I served it with some cantaloupe.

Gnocchi with Spinach, Peas, and Lemon

This quick, vegetarian gnocchi dish is a staple in my house.  It's a good way to eat some greens if you don't want to make a salad.  The lemon juice adds a great tang to the sauce and compliments the spinach.  I use a little extra lemon juice because I love the flavor it adds.  There's almost no chopping in this recipe, which makes it easy and quick to prepare.  I use frozen gnocchi, I think it tastes better and has a better texture than the vacuum packed stuff.  I added some extra peas to the dish because I'd had them in my freezer for a while and had about 3/4 cup instead of 1/2.  I think it's fine to add more peas, they're good for you. I also added some extra cheese because cheese is awesome.  The recipe calls for using 1/4 cup of reserved pasta cooking water as part of the sauce.  I eyeballed it and didn't use all of the reserved water, I never do when I make this dish.

Quick Vegetarian Dinner! Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad

This salad involved a bit of chopping but it still didn't take very long to make, about 15 minutes.  The dressing has mayonnaise in it, but not a lot.  It's a pretty healthy vegetarian meal. It would also make a good side dish for a meat entree though you might have leftovers. I made a half recipe, using only one can of hearts of palm.  It made plenty of food for two people for a light dinner on a warm day.  The dressing is tart, but not overwhelming so the hearts of palm aren't smothered.  The original recipe called for yellow cherry tomatoes.  I didn't have any, so I used orange grape tomatoes and it was fine.  I preferred the hearts of palm sliced a little thinner than 1/2 inch.  It's annoying to only use half an avocado in a recipe, so I just ate the rest of it tossed with some lemon juice.

Truffled Potato Gratin and Wild Boar Ragu

The first time I shopped at Wegmans, I noticed the truffles in the produce aisle.  They were locked in a plastic case and at the time it was really strange to me. Who on earth would spend that much money on a mushroom?! I think I'd tried something with a truffle in it once or twice and wrote them off as insanely pricey.  As the years went by, I got more curious but never actively searched for something to make with them.  A few years ago, some friends invited us over for dinner and they served truffled potato gratin.  It was amazing!  My husband and I promised we'd make it ourselves and then we never did.  Last week, my in laws came to visit and we decided to cook for them instead of going out.  It was the perfect excuse to make the potatoes.  They aren't healthy.  They're expensive.  They're fabulous.  

Sprinkle liberally with Lipitor before serving

Butternut Squash Stuffed with Bulgur and Chorizo

Butternut squash is a controversial food in my house.  I love it and my husband can't stand it unless it's prepared a certain way.  This was not it.  If you're a squash-hater, you should probably skip this post.  If you love squash, this is a cheesy, sort of spicy dish that goes nicely with a quick salad.  

I always try to buy cheese in the proper amount so that I don't waste any.  I couldn't get 2 ounces of manchego and I didn't want to pay for a giant block of it.  I used some nice aged cheddar instead. The basic recipe was good, but it definitely needed a little salt and some extra cheese.

One thing I love about Wegmans is that they sell pre-cut vegetables.  I bought the squash already halved and seeded, which saved me a little time.  I would bake it in a little more water next time, the squash wasn't as tender as I would have liked.  This recipe isn't very quick, the squash has to bake for 30 minutes and then it bakes for another 10 with the stuffing.

Overall this is a good dish if you want to eat healthy foods like butternut squash and bulgur.  The whole dish could be considered healthy if you didn't add a ton of extra cheese like I did.  The recipe is very basic and could definitely use some improvement.  If I made it again I would consider adding a spice or two to the mixture and maybe something else.  Nuts? garlic?  It needs something.

Butternut Squash Stuffed with Bulgur and Chorizo (and extra cheese)!
From Real Simple
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 acorn squash, halved and seeded
1/4 cup bulgur
2 ounces manchego or cheddar, grated (plus extra!)
2 ounces cured chorizo, chopped
1/8 cup chopped fresh parsley
1.5 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Method
1) Heat oven to 450 F.  Place squash halves cut side down into a baking dish.  Add about 1/2 inch of water and cover with foil.  Bake for 30 minutes.
2) While the squash is cooking, cook bulgur according to its package.  Then combine it with the cheese, chorizo, parsley, and olive oil.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3) Turn the squash cut side up and fill with the bulgur mixture.  Bake again until the cheese is melted and the filling is heated through, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Serve with a side salad.

Spice Glazed Lamb Chops with Red Wine and Coffee Sauce

I love coffee and red wine.  So putting them together in a sauce sounds amazing.  I've used ground coffee in spice mixes and rubs but I've never brewed up a pot of strong coffee and poured it into a sauce.  I was skeptical at first because I thought it would be bitter, but it was really good!  I couldn't taste anything that was identifiable as coffee.  It was a wine sauce with a nice earthiness to it.  It's definitely important that the coffee be strong.  I used the "strong" setting on my coffee maker and it worked fine. The ancho chile powder added a little bit of heat but the sauce as a whole blended really nicely. Next time I'd serve it over polenta or rice pilaf or something.  Normal people would probably make mashed potatoes (ew).  I used more pearl onions than the recipe called for, it seemed silly to use half a bag.  Plus they went really well with the sauce.  This dish wasn't actively quick, but it didn't take terribly long.  I would say it's doable on a work night if you aren't very busy.  I will definitely make this again because the sauce was fantastic.  I made a full recipe of sauce and didn't use it all.  

The asparagus was completely an afterthought.  

Latkes!

I used to loathe potatoes (the devil's tuber!) but I really love latkes. Mashed potatoes are still gross unless they're filled with garlic or a gallon of sriracha sauce to make them taste not nasty.  But latkes are awesome.  This recipe comes from my mother in law.  My husband is the primary chef for this recipe, he's in charge of the frying pans.  That's right, pans.  He's so badass that he uses two frying pans at once!

Before I looked at her recipe, I had issues with my cut potatoes turning brown.  She suggests soaking the potato pieces in a bowl of ice water to preserve their color and it works really well!  These are great when they're crispy, I would definitely err on making them too crispy versus too soft.  I prefer my latkes with some sour cream mixed with fresh dill and topped with sliced green onions.  I served them with a salad so I could pretend that at least part of this meal is healthy.

My husband and I don't make these terribly often.  Usually we make them right when the weather starts getting colder.  At the bottom of this post, you can see a comparison picture of the first latkes we made.  These are much improved!!  The first attempt was crispy around the edges and kind of mushy in the center.

This recipe supposedly serves two people.  We did eat all of the latkes we made.  However, I'd argue that this recipe serves three or four people because it made eight latkes and I completely stuffed myself because I ate four.

Super Fast: Piquillo Pepper and Chickpea Soup with Chicken

This soup took about 20 minutes to make, from start to finish.  It would have been even faster if I had used pre-cooked rotisserie chicken as the recipe suggested. I had to cook and shred a chicken breast.  I tossed some rice in my rice cooker while I was doing other stuff and it was ready to go when it was time to make dinner. The hummus is mostly in the soup for the creamy texture, the main flavor is from the piquillo peppers, which are different from normal roasted red peppers. They have a little bit of spice to them, but nothing so hot that this soup is off limits for the spice adverse.  If you like roasted, slightly spicy peppers, this is a fantastic work night soup that is made with relatively little effort.  I served it with a salad that I made while the soup was heating on the stove.

The Dowager Countess would not approve of my silverware placement.

"Pesto" Crusted Mahi Mahi with Asparagus

I've become a little obsessed with coating fish with panko.  It's easy, relatively quick, and there are tons of variations!  This picture is terrible, but my camera was telling me it had .0001 seconds of battery life left and so I didn't get a chance to redo it. The crust looks burned, but it really wasn't that bad.  That said, I don't recommend the power burner for heating oil  Just sayin'.

The sauce from the asparagus goes well with the fish, too!

Success! Mushroom Crusted Rockfish with Asian Coleslaw

A local restaurant that I really love makes amazing mushroom crusted fish.  I finally decided to try to make my own without a recipe!  I worked off my basic panko crusted fish recipe, but added some shiitake mushrooms to the panko mix.  Instead of using a lemon and caper sauce, I sauteed a random shallot I had sitting around and put it on top of the fish.  I made some Asian coleslaw with miso dressing to go with it. The slaw has a tasty dressing and a second sauce would have ruined the it.  The panko mushroom mixture browned nicely and the panko stayed crunchy even with the addition of mushrooms. It was the best of both worlds, a nice shiitake flavor but still crispy.

If you have a partner who is not a fan of mushrooms, this dish might be a good way to sneak some in because the flavor isn't overwhelmingly mushroomy. ;)

The Asian coleslaw was fantastic and went really well with the fish.  The dressing was tangy but not overpowering. There also wasn't a ton of it so it didn't make the bottom of the fish too soggy.With only one tablespoon of mayo for 6-8 servings, this salad is pretty healthy!  If you make extra dressing, maybe don't put the fish on top of the slaw.  If you're making both dishes, make the coleslaw first, the fish doesn't take very long.

The Asian Coleslaw is also quite pretty. 

Flank Steak with Corn Salsa and Roasted Potatoes

Back when I was in law school and Dave and I were just dating, he was the cook.  I could successfully boil water and sometimes nuke some ramen without needing to call the fire department.  Occasionally I made "gourmet" ramen which consisted of a sytrofoam cup of ramen with some sliced green onions, a packet of soy sauce, and maybe some Tabasco if I was feeling adventurous.  Dave on the other hand, made actual food.  He used to marinate flank steak and grill it, and it was awesome, especially when my idea of cooking meat was to keep it on the stove for so long that it made "well done" look practically raw.

When I was teaching myself to cook, I bought a copy of the Wine Lover's Cookbook and found a recipe for flank steak with corn salsa.  The first time I made it I thought it was super complicated based upon the number of ingredients in the recipe.  But it was so good that I've made it a ton over the years and now it doesn't seem that tough any more.  It's labor intensive because of all the chopping, marinating, and roasting, but it's definitely worth it!  The salsa is only slightly spicy, most of the heat in this dish comes from the potatoes because they're roasted with jalapenos.  If cooked properly, the flank steak should be tender and relatively pink the middle.  If it's overcooked it'll be tough.

Chicken Kebab with Spicy Bulgur Salad

This was supposed to be a recipe for shrimp kebabs and spicy bulgur salad.  But there was chicken in the freezer, so I used that.  Instead of trying to adapt the shrimp kebab recipe for chicken, I marinated it in olive oil, garlic, and some of the spice mix used in the bulgur salad.  It was simple and fast. But, the rest of this dish is kind of labor intensive, since there are four major components that need to be made: Golden Spice Mix, Chicken Kebabs, Spicy Tomato Dressing, and Spicy Bulgur Salad.  I would say that if you are in a hurry but would love the Spicy Bulgur Salad, the tomato dressing is definitely optional.  I loved it, but if you're strapped for time just omit it, the dish will still be good.  Plus the salad is definitely scalable, it kept in the fridge for 3 days! The spice mix takes no time at all to make and the chicken can cook on the grill while you prepare the bulgur salad ingredients.

The bulgur salad looks deceptively easy, but the dressing requires peeled and seeded tomatoes, which is a huge, time consuming pain in the butt.  That said, it's a fabulous dressing.  It has just the right amount of spiciness for the chicken, and the lemon and ginger stop it from being too tomatoey.

The star of this meal was definitely the bulgur salad.  It was great with the chicken, and I ate the leftovers for lunch two days later!  This recipe comes from Saha, Greg Malouf's first book on Middle Eastern cuisine; it features dishes from Lebanon and Syria.  It's thinner than Turquoise, so it has fewer recipes.  I like how Saha has several different spice mixes and sauces that can be used in the main dish recipes.

Keepin' it klassy with a posh serving dish for the dressing.

Stir Fried Pork with Garlic Scapes

A few weeks ago, my husband and I visited my in-laws.  They took us to the West Side Market and I bought some garlic scapes on a whim.  I'd never cooked them before, but my mother in law said they were pretty awesome.  She suggested that they would taste good with pork.  I looked all over the internet for a tasty sounding pork and garlic scape recipe and stumbled across this one from Tigers and Strawberries, one of my favorite cooking blogs.  I'm sad that it hasn't been updated in a while, I've tried so many of her recipes!  I modified this one a little because I didn't have time to go to the grocery store and made it with what I had already.  So, no pressed tofu or dried mushrooms.  But it still worked out really well, and the garlic scapes really are quite tasty.  They have the consistency of Chinese long beans unless they're blanched.  I wanted a bit of a crunch, so I didn't bother.  They taste like garlic, but lighter and crunchy.

This dish is pretty quick to make if you marinate the pork and then chop everything while it's sitting in the fridge.

My frog chopstick rest is fabulous. 

Pork with Grapes and Tarragon

This relatively quick dish has a fantastic sauce.  I used seedless red grapes and the tannins really do make the wine sauce pop. Normally I imagine that a sauce with grapes would be overly sweet, but that isn't the case here. Since I could only buy large bunches of red grapes, I added a few more than the recipe required. The tarragon and splash of vinegar counteract the sweetness of the fruit to create a balanced sauce. I served it with rice pilaf from a box and some simple sauteed green beans with shallots.

You can almost see my reflection in the sauce.