We always appreciate the one-dish-wonder type of dinner — a meal that incorporates all the basics (protein, vegetable and starch or carb) into a single recipe. Such meals are especially useful during particularly stressful and/or busy times, such as when one is settling in at a brand new job in a new city and state, preparing to move to said new location, and selling a house and many of its contents in the old job’s location. Or maybe that’s just us. Wait, that actually IS us, right now. Hectic as things may be, all is going well and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Amidst the chaos, it’s usually a lot easier to run out for a quick dinner at a restaurant or, even easier, order dinner delivered rather than cook. But taking the time and making the effort to prepare a home-cooked meal is something we’re trying to make a conscious choice to do more often during these transitional times, as one kitchen gets packed up and the other is currently very sparsely outfitted. For us, cooking and enjoying a meal together is what helps make a house feel like home, no matter the zip code (or fact that we may have to eat dinner sitting in patio chairs with paper plates on our laps.) This recipe is a good reminder to slow down, spend some quality time in the kitchen, and enjoy the smells of roasting tomatoes and sauteeing mushrooms, onions and garlic. Layering in some chicken, feta and parmesan cheeses and pasta adds comfort-food heartiness to the dish. Finish with a little wilted spinach for color and nutritional value, and you’ve got a delicious and healthy meal that not only represents the major food groups in one pot, but also defines the “home” in “homemade.”
Continue reading “Penne w/ Roasted Tomatoes, Chicken & Mushrooms”
Category: Recipes
Tzatziki
For us, one of the best parts of Greek food is the tzatziki. Take the gyro — equal parts sandwich and vehicle for consuming creamy, cucumber-y, dill-spiced tzatziki sauce. At home, we love serving tzatziki alongside simple, olive oil and herb-marinated grilled lamb. Tzatziki is also really good as a dip with pita bread, which is how we served it as an appetizer when we recently had friends over for a Mediterranean-inspired dinner with a different sort of lamb (Guinness-Glazed) as the main course. Our tzatziki recipe has been a bit of a work-in-progress as we tested and adapted other recipes, trying to come up with the easiest and most tasty version. Ours might not be the most authentic tzatziki out there, but it’s quick and easy to make (no draining the yogurt!) with fresh, bright and tangy flavors that are addicting.
Ponzu Sea Bass
My dislike of fishy-tasting fish is pretty well-documented on this blog. I don’t like fish, but I do like to try to eat healthy, and since fish can be a really good-for-you food to consume, I’m always looking for seafood recipes that don’t make me want to gag. Bonus points if said recipe is also easy to prepare. This fish dish fits both requirements, and then some. The recipe is inspired by one I heard about on the fourth hour of the Today Show (I know, I judge me too) from Hoda Kotb, who makes delicious sea bass by putting the fish in a shallow baking dish, adding ponzu sauce and baking it in the oven for about half an hour. That’s it. Hoda and Kathie Lee raved about the fish so much that we had to try it. We adapted the recipe a bit to have more of a sauce or glaze for the finished sea bass (fish with a sauce always seems more appetizing to me than plain fish), and we could not be happier with the result. Our recipe was further inspired by this one, which includes a marinade made with sake, mirin and soy. Instead of just ponzu and ginger for the sauce, we added sesame oil and brown sugar. With both a marinade and a sauce, the recipe sounds complicated, but it’s really easy. Just marinate the sea bass for about 30 minutes, sear it on both sides in a hot skillet, then finish by baking in the oven while the sauce simmers and thickens on the stove. I’m truly not exaggerating when I say that this is our new favorite fish dish, and that I actually crave it. If you like subtle Asian flavors, you will love this dish — even if you don’t particularly care for fish. Fellow Fish Haters (you know who you are): I hereby double-dog-dare you to try it. In fact, I insist!
Eggplant “Meatballs”
The eggplant we put in our garden this year has done really well. So well, in fact, that we’ve realized we don’t even really like eggplant that much! It’s good every once in a while, when we’re in the mood for a vegetarian meal, like this pasta dish. But our garden has produced enough eggplant this summer, that we’ve tried in enough different recipes (mostly side dishes) to discover that it’s not our favorite. Among the dishes we’ve tried, however, this recipe is one that we probably liked the best. The roasted eggplant has a rich, meaty flavor and the texture is very similar to “real” meatballs (made with meat.) They likely wouldn’t beat the real thing in a blind taste-test, but eggplant “meatballs” are a good vegetarian alternative and a great way to use up an abundance of eggplant from the garden.
Rib Eye w/ Goat Cheese & Lemon-Honey Mustard
Goat cheese on a steak? We too were a little skeptical, at first. But the recipe comes from Bobby Flay’s latest cookbook, “Barbecue Addiction,” so we felt confident that the combination would be more delicious than disaster. We own several of Bobby’s cookbooks (we’re on a first-name basis because we met him once, for 25 whole seconds at a book signing) and we’ve learned that he has a great knack for pairing rather unusual flavor profiles, as well as creating unique sauces and garnishes to perfectly accompany various grilled meats. And this rib eye recipe is no exception. Don’t just take our word for it, take it from Bobby himself: “This dish may sound like a crazy combination, but I have to tell you, it works.” Chef Flay is absolutely correct that the tangy goat cheese and bright lemon-honey-mustard sauce come together to complement the rich beefiness of the marbled rib eye. It’s a match made in steak heaven.
Continue reading “Rib Eye w/ Goat Cheese & Lemon-Honey Mustard”
Salad Nicoise
Salad niçoise (pronounced “nee-swaz,” in my best, butchering attempt at a French accent) is one of those menu items that we tend to skip right over in search of something that sounds a bit more appealing on the plate. The idea of lettuce, potatoes, green beans and tuna served together in the same salad always seemed more odd than appetizing, so we’ve never actually ordered salad niçoise in a restaurant (plus, I like being able to pronounce what I’m about to eat, although I’m also a fan of the point-and-mumble style of advising the wait staff of my selection from the menu. Whatever works.) We decided to try salad niçoise at home because we’re always looking for new fish dishes to try and we found a relatively easy recipe in a Cook’s Illustrated magazine, “Modern Classics.” And cooking a new dish at home, then deciding you don’t really like it is preferable to trying (and paying for) something new at a restaurant and deciding you hate it. Luckily, neither scenario occurred here. We absolutely loved this salad and will add it to our regular rotation. The combination of lettuce, potatoes, green beans and tuna wasn’t strange at all, especially with the addition of hard boiled eggs, Kalamata olives and a tomato-onion mixture. The vinaigrette made with olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon, shallot and fresh basil, thyme and oregano simultaneously brings out the best flavors from the different ingredients and ties them all together beautifully. Salad niçoise is a dish that we will crave from now on, even if I still can’t reliably pronounce or spell it.
Karen’s Stew
We’ve never met Karen, but she is a friend of my aunt and uncle, by way of Albuquerque. And we’ve always heard really good things about this easy and delicious stew recipe she made up using ground turkey, chicken breasts, green chili salsa and white beans. My aunt and uncle made it for my parents, who liked it so much that they make their own version all the time (omitting the chicken breasts for more of a chili texture than stew.) My parents have raved about this dish often enough that we finally had to try it for ourselves, and it will become a regular in our recipe rotation as well. This chili / stew is healthy comfort food that is also light enough to serve during the heat of summer (especially garnished with fresh avocado and a squeeze of lime) and could not be much easier to make. We adapted the recipe a bit (of course we did), but will continue to foster the shout-out to the Karen who created the original recipe by continuing to call it “Karen’s Stew,” even though our version is a little different and is really more of a chili than a stew. It’s the right thing to do.
Chicken w/ Wild Mushrooms
What is it about poultry and mushrooms that makes them pair so well with each other? We’re not sure, but we certainly seem to enjoy the pairing a lot, considering how many recipes we’ve posted featuring these ingredients in the same dish (including turkey pot pie, chicken cacciatore, turkey and mushroom risotto, and turkey tetrazzini, to name a few.) Although we may disagree with Ina Garten’s statement that “[c]hicken and mushrooms can be boring,” we’re glad she came up with this decidedly-not-boring recipe that brings out the best of these 2 ingredients together. The dish creates its own sauce — flavored with garlic, thyme, sherry, white wine, chicken stock and a bit of butter — that cooks in the same pot and transforms chicken and mushrooms into perfectly delicious BFFs (Best Food Friends.)
Firecracker Salmon
As much as we have tried, and want to, love (or even like) grilled salmon, we’ve yet to find a recipe that musters anything more than a “good-not-great” reaction from us. But we very much enjoy smoked salmon, and often have it for a weekend breakfast with cream cheese on a toasted English muffin, some finely chopped red onion or shallot, and maybe a little bit of diced hard-boiled egg and/or tomato. Dan will sometimes order salmon in a restaurant, but only when it is Copper River Salmon, which is only available for a limited amount of time once per year. So why don’t we like salmon? Mostly the taste. To us, salmon has one of those love it or hate it flavors, which is tough to describe, other than “it tastes like salmon.” I also have issues with the texture of salmon, which is a meaty fish. Grilled salmon will flake, but the texture is still pretty dense, which I don’t really prefer. So why do a post on grilled salmon if we don’t love it? Because salmon is amazingly healthy for you (with loads of protein and omega-3 fatty acids), and if you like salmon even a little, this recipe is a tasty way to prepare it, with a lightly spicy Asian marinade and good grill flavor. In the meantime, our quest for the perfect salmon dish — preferably one that doesn’t taste like salmon — continues.
BBQ Chicken
Barbecued chicken is one of those classic summer dishes that conjures images of picnic-table-meals with cold potato and macaroni side salads and thick watermelon slices for dessert. Bonus points if you are lucky to live somewhere with easy access to fresh, picked-that-morning corn on the cob. Dan grew up in one of those places and fondly remembers corn on the cob and BBQ chicken dinners from childhood summers, not necessarily because of the chicken itself, but because his dad did the barbecuing while he and his brothers got up to whatever summer shenanigans 3 boys within a couple years of each other’s ages are wont to do. Although his family’s version of BBQ chicken is not one he’s ever made as an adult (boiled until fully cooked — took no chances on raw poultry in those days! — then dipped in BBQ sauce diluted with a little beer and grilled over direct heat until the sauce began to burn caramelize), the memories of summers as a kid are happy and good. And now, with this recipe for “foolproof barbecued chicken” from Cook’s Illustrated, he can reminisce on those days while also enjoying flavorful, perfectly-cooked, juicy chicken grilled with a homemade BBQ sauce that has just the right tangy / spicy / sweet ratio. If only we had some farm-fresh, Pennsylvania corn to go with it!