One of the biggest challenges in our menu planning is trying to find fish dishes that Dan and I both enjoy. He’ll eat just about any type of fish, prepared in a variety of ways, but I’m picky about fish and usually only like it if it doesn’t taste like fish and has some sort of sauce or salsa to distract me from the fact that it is fish. (I’m easy like that.) We also try to make sure the sauce or other fish disguisers aren’t so unhealthy as to cancel out the health benefits of eating fish in the first place. We found this swordfish recipe in one of Mario Batali’s cookbooks and liked the flavor of the (relatively) simple barbecue sauce that complemented but didn’t overpower the swordfish. An added bonus is that Chef Batali included a recipe for a delicious olive and cucumber salad to accompany the fish and further mask any “too fishy” flavor. The salad was really good as a side dish (post coming soon!), but not necessary as a topping because the swordfish wasn’t fishy at all and had a subtle savory flavor from the barbecue sauce.
Category: Main Courses
Lasagne
Lasagne is one of Dan’s specialty dishes and one of the ultimate comfort foods. With its multiple rich layers of three kinds of cheese, pasta and meaty sauce, lasagne is not the most healthy of our recipes, so we don’t make it for ourselves all that often. But it’s our go-to meal to make for friends and family in need of a little comfort food or to celebrate special occasions. While not particularly complicated, the recipe takes a fair amount of time and effort to prepare — which makes it even more meaningful and satisfying when you’re cooking this dish for loved ones or someone deserving of a special meal. But, lest you think we are completely selfless with 100% pure motivation, this recipe also lends itself very well to incorporating enough extra ingredients to make a small batch for yourself when you’re preparing one for someone else. Win, win!
“Cold-Smoked” Chicken with Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce
Bobby Flay has a new cookbook, “Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook,” chock-full of recipes from his New York restaurant Bar Americain. We’ve never been to his restaurant, but we’re big fans of his recipes from his other books. He has a creative, yet no-nonsense and relatively simple approach to cooking that we find easy to adapt to our home cooking and grilling. Although many restaurant-based cookbooks can be quite intimidating, this first recipe we tried from Chef Flay’s book wasn’t difficult at all, and the result was restaurant-quality food at home. The chicken was perfectly roasted with a slightly smoky flavor, and the black pepper vinegar sauce was one of the best sauces for chicken we’ve ever tasted. The sauce is the star of this dish and it is crazy simple to make. It might also be good as a salad dressing. Heck, I could almost drink it, it’s so good.
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Slow-Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Now that it’s officially Fall and the temps are finally under 100 degrees, it’s time to dust off our slow-cooker and indulge in more comfort food recipes. We found this one in the book “Slowcook” and adapted it after researching some other beef stroganoff recipes online. We love how the flavor turned out — rich and meaty — but the sauce was a little more thin and broth-y than we would prefer. We talked about creative ways to thicken it up next time — saute the mushrooms before adding them to the pot or do something different with the flour — but concluded that the easiest solution is also the most obvious. Next time we make it, we’ll put in less beef broth and that should do the trick. As Homer Simpson would say, “S-M-R-T!” Update: We got a super smart tip from our good friends Paula and Matt — use cream cheese instead of sour cream. Adds more flavor and might help thicken up the sauce. Thanks Guys!
Tortellini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Prosciutto
We’re always looking for new sources of recipes for easy but delicious weeknight meals. On a recent trip to the grocery store, we found a magazine titled “30-Minute Suppers” by Cook’s Illustrated. The source is an old favorite, but the magazine itself is new (and should still be available in stores until October, if you’re interested.) Cook’s Illustrated’s cookbook “The Best 30-Minute Recipe” is one of our most-used books, so we figured the magazine would have lots of recipes we would enjoy as well. So far, we have tried two recipes from the magazine and were happy with the resulting meals that tasted like they took a lot of effort, but were on the table in just half an hour. We liked the combination of flavors and textures in this tortellini dish very much: cheesy tortellini, peppery arugula, sweet and slightly chewy sun-dried tomatoes, crispy prosciutto, bright lemon and rich olive oil. The only thing we would change is to create more of a sauce for the finished dish. Next time we make it we’ll see if we can tweak the recipe a bit and post an update here.
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Lobster Cobb Salad (with leftover lobster)
We found this recipe in Ina Garten’s cookbook, “Barefoot Contessa Family Style,” and loved it. Ina recommends that you “make this elegant salad when your mother-in-law comes for lunch,” but unfortunately, my mother-in-law doesn’t prefer lobster. More for me! Only kidding (Hi Elaine!) — you can also make this salad with chicken or shrimp and it will still be delicious and decadent. We think it’s the combination of Dijon in the dressing, bacon and blue cheese topping, peppery arugula and creamy avocado that make this salad exceptional. As Ina says, “this is a special meal for times when you really want to please someone.”
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Grilled Buffalo Wings
Dan’s favorite season has finally begun. No, not Fall — it’s Football Season! While I don’t share Dan’s love of the NFL, his penchant for watching games allllllll day on Sunday, or his obsession with tracking the scores from BOTH of his fantasy football leagues, I will support the marriage team by watching Steeler games, and I do enjoy the food that comes with this time of year. This season, we decided to cook some of our football-watching bar food favorites at home, starting with buffalo wings. We researched several recipes, expecting to find at least one with some secret ingredient for making the buffalo sauce so delicious. Turns out that there really is no secret, or if there is a special ingredient, it’s being kept secret. Pretty much all the recipes we found called for the simple combination of “hot sauce,” butter and vinegar. In some recipes, the wings were grilled, others called for frying them, and some required baking them in the oven. In the interest of making them just a teeny bit more healthy, we decided to grill our wings. The resulting grill flavor complemented the buffalo sauce nicely. We’ll make these again and maybe tweak the sauce a bit to come up with our own secret ingredient.
“Italian Sub” Chop Salad
Sub, hoagie, grinder, hero — whatever you like to call it, Dan is a big fan of this type of sandwich, especially when filled with Italian meats, a little provolone cheese, assorted veggies and accompanied by Italian dressing. While he likes a good sub sandwich, I’m more of a salad girl. I especially like a good chop salad, where all the ingredients are chopped up small enough that you get a little taste of each component in every bite. This salad is a nice compromise between our taste preferences — I get the chop salad texture while Dan gets the Italian sub flavor. Win win. Even better, the chop salad is really versatile and can be made with whatever ingredients you prefer or happen to have on hand — no recipe required. The ingredients that work to create a salad that tastes like a sandwich Dan would order from our local pizza joint include: lettuce, celery, cucumber, red onion, pepperoncini, kalamata olives, provolone cheese, salami — all tossed with a creamy Italian dressing.
Horseradish-Maple Glazed Pork Chops
We often use leftover pork for a second meal during the week, including such dishes as stir-fried pork, banh mi sandwiches and moo shoo pork. Sometimes I prefer pork as a leftover because so many of these dishes have a sauce or other components to liven up the pork, which otherwise can be a little bland. These chops are anything but bland, yet not too flavor-specific that they can’t be turned into a totally different second meal (we used our leftover chops in fried rice.) I found the recipe in one of Bobby Flay’s cookbooks, “Boy Meets Grill.” Chef Flay writes, “think about these three flavors going together — grilled pork chops, pungent horseradish, and sweet maple syrup — it makes sense.” We initially thought that pairing horseradish with syrup actually does not make sense, but we are not accomplished chefs, nor Food Network stars. So we took Bobby’s word for it and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the sweet, yet spicy flavor.
Chicken Stew with Green Olives
Now that it’s September, cooler weather is FINALLY on the way, and we could not be happier. It’s been a brutal summer here, but we have been blessed with glorious temperatures in the low 80s for the last couple of days and we are excited for fall. In addition to a break from the hot weather, fall means cooking more of our favorite soups, chili and other comfort-food dishes. This stew, adapted from a recipe in Glamour magazine, is a great dish for the transition from summer to fall. The olives and basil give it a bright, summery flavor, while the broth and tomatoes provide richness. It’s also really easy to make with simple ingredients: chicken, leeks, olive oil, garlic, white wine, tomatoes, chicken stock, green olives and basil.