We are finally done with chicken for the week and ready to try something new. I found this recipe on NYTimes Cooking. The pork is cooked sous vide in its sauce and then charred a bit on the grill. The sauce is cooked a little to thicken it while the pork is grilling and poured back over the pork. I also made some rice and a celery/fennel slaw. I really enjoyed the peanut sauce and the sweet sour slaw.
Sous vide pork tenderloin with ginger peanut sauce and a celery fennel slaw
This has turned into “Chicken Week.” I should not have started with chicken on Monday because we went to Costco on Tuesday and I was seduced by the smell of their rotisserie chicken. So to eat up our enormous, economical, savory roast chicken we made un-chiladas (chicken slices with salsa verde but no tortillas) on Tuesday and chicken breast with confetti rice (not enough leftover rice augmented with a bunch of vegetables) on Wednesday.
Hopefully between these two dinners and a few lunches we can move on to not-chicken for dinner on Thursday!
Un-chilada chicken breast with spicy black beans and rice
Roast chicken breast with confetti riceEvery once in a while I need to throw a classic chicken dinner into the line-up. It is comfort food for me. And since for years chicken has been the go-to Monday dish, it is even more comforting to eat it on a Monday. John sous vide the 10 oz. chicken breast which we split between the two of us. I Instant Pot the rutabagas which insures that they will be cooked through and easy to mash. At the end I quickly saute the broccoli and John prepares the gravy. Yum, classic chicken dinner!
Chicken breast with rutabagas, broccoli, and chicken mushroom gravy
Whenever we have Breakfast For Dinner John always makes an omelet and I always make some sort of scrambled eggs because I am too impatient with the whole rigmarole of omelet making. Last night, though, I decided to give it a try. So I sautéed some mushrooms and then added scallions, an ultra-thin piece of ham, and a slice of cheddar to my pan. I poured my beaten eggs over the top. This is not the right order to cook things I discovered. John does his sautéing 0f the vegetables and ham and then removes them from the pan. He pours his pre-mixed eggs into the empty pan next, lets them set a little and then puts his vegetables and ham on top followed by the cheese. Oh well, live and learn. Even though it is much harder to get a perfect omelet with my technique, it is much faster!
Innards on the outside omelet!
While the water was heating up I cooked the mushrooms until they were browned and then added some garlic and onion to the sauté. When the onions had softened I turned the flame to low and waited until the pasta had about 4 minutes to go. At that point I added the broccoli and cooked them with a little pasta water. John dumped the orecchiette into the mushroom mixture and I stirred all together along with some additional reservation pasta water for a moment or two. At that point we filled our bowls and sat down to enjoy a delicious dinner.
Orecchiette with broccoli and mushrooms
I love this combination of red lentils, onion, garlic, ginger, and spices cooked together in a vegetable stock. I found the recipe on an Afghani site and tweaked it to make it my own. John sautéed the onions and spices while I finished the cutting up. Once you put the lentils and broth in, it only needs to cook another twenty minutes. We had the brown rice left over from last week’s un-chiladas and I whipped a Greek salad to round our dinner out.
Red lentils with brown rice and Greek salad
It was hot again tonight and none of my choices from this week’s menu seemed good for preparing in a hot kitchen. I had whipped up some creamy broccoli soup last week and decided on that for dinner along with tuna salad on a bed of spinach.
Creamy vegan broccoli soup and tuna salad with spinach
The soup gets its creaminess from purée-ing the cooked vegetables which include a medium thin skinned potato. There are no dairy products involved. My soup was a combination of part of a head of cauliflower, a lot of broccoli stems I have been saving, the end of a celery bunch, the aforementioned potato, some onion, salt, and 3 cups of vegetable stock. Cook until the vegetables are soft and purée in a blender. The more vegetables you use, the thicker the soup. When I heated it up tonight, I added some broccoli florets. I finished my bowl with a drizzle of our good olive oil.
With temperatures in the upper 90’s I have thrown out my menu for the week and am looking to make dishes that involve minimal cooking. This Thai salad is a riff on the Spicy Pork Thai salad I made a couple of weeks ago. The marinade and dressing for the shrimp and salad is basically nuoc cham with added fresno chile, cilantro, oil, soy sauce, and shallots. Use about a quarter for the marinade and the rest as a dressing for the salad. The shrimp needs only a half hour’s worth of marinating and then a quick cook in a pan or on a grill. The salad is cabbage, herbs, shallots, cucumber, and red bell pepper. This is a spicy dish to cool you off on a hot night!
Shrimp Thai salad
Usually you would not think of having beef stew in the summer but we had a piece of beef chuck in the freezer that needed using and John was in a beefy mood. We decided to do the cooking in the morning and then reheat later. John browned the meat and mushrooms while I cut up the carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, and parsley. We cooked the stew in a bath of red wine and beef stock for 18 minutes on high pressure and then let it cool down on its own.
Next time I think we will do a quicker cool down Because the vegetables were very soft and the meat was a little dry. I also made a side of broccoli for some green on the plate
Beef stew and broccoli
Omnivore 