As usual we did not eat last week’s menu totally according to plan so we have the vegetarian tacos left over for this week and ended up eating the steak on Sunday. Not bad, though, we cooked almost everything we set out to do with just a slip for some takeout on Wednesday. This week coming up is a short week as we are going away for a long weekend. There should be something interesting to report foodwise from our adventures.
John sous vide the steak at 125F and then hit it on the grill for about 3 minutes on each side. We agree this morning that it needed to be a touch more done and he will adjust the water temperature upward on our next steak foray. Nonetheless it was really good. Since we do not eat red meat very often splurging on prime beef from Costco is a pleasure we permit ourselves.
Sous vide and grilled rib eye steak, grilled potato, asparagus
For the potato, I split it in half, score it, and rub it with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. After 6 minutes in the microwave, John cooks it on the grill with the steak for those nice grill marks. Asparagus was $2.47/lb. this week so I took advantage. I put this in a covered pan with a little water and a pat of butter. They are done when the water evaporates and the butter coats the spears.
I bet you did not know that Friday was National Margarita Day. Neither did I until I received a helpful email in my inbox. Never to be ones to pass up an important holiday I called upon my personal mixologist to remedy the situation.
Margarita, Santitas tortilla chips, salsa
John makes an especially potent margarita. It is definitely not for the novice drinker. A long time ago when he was just a fledgling programmer at the dawn of the computer age (actually in the 70’s) we were invited to his boss’s house for a BBQ with some other folks. We were served what we now call the “Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita”. Earl passed away way too young and we always toast him when we have a reason to make margaritas.
This is a drink best served in your own home where no driving will be involved. Be sure to have plenty of chips and salsa available plus some other hearty fare. Sip slowly. Never have more than one.
The Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita
3 parts tequila, 1 part Triple Sec, 1 part fresh lime juice – Serve over crushed ice. Salt optional
Drink responsibly.
I think this is the third time we have prepared this Thai dish and each time we are getting a little better at it. The local Thai restaurant that we go to has a really delicious rendition of it. We have not been able to find an exact recipe for it but have found two that are close and have combined them.
Spicy Thai eggplant and tofu with basil
As usual my job is to cut up all the ingredients and make the jasmine rice. I use the Instant Pot for the rice. So quick! First John cooks the tofu, then the eggplant. The onions, peppers, Serrano chiles, and garlic go in next and then the sauce which is thickened with cornstarch. The Thai basil goes on last.
We are still trying to find the right combination of fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and brown sugar. We keep cutting down on the fish sauce because it is too fishy. Also the vegetables were in the sauce a little too long and picked up a boiled taste and texture. But we are getting closer. The tofu and eggplant came out perfectly!
You would simply have to remove the fish sauce to make this a vegan or vegetarian dish. There are recipes on the internet for a vegan fish sauce substitute.
Wow, did this turn out well! Our daughter who always looks askance at anything we cook gave it an A+. We followed Giada De Laurentiis’s recipe tweaking it to make it our own (and better!) While our recipe is for omnivores, this can easily be translated into a vegetarian recipe by using vegetable stock and by substituting a parmesan rind in the stock in place of the pancetta.
Pasta fagioli
As you can see I always write all over my recipes with changes I’ve made or how I might improve this dish the next time I make. The changes we make to Giada’s recipe are:
4 ounces of pancetta instead of 3, 1/2 water and 1/2 stock, 1 can of cannellini beans and 1 can reed kidney beans, ditalini instead of elbow macaroni, the addition of 1/2 cup diced carrots and 1/2 cup diced celery and 1 T tomato paste. When it came to purée the beans we took out 1 cup of white beans for the pureeing so that the soup would not look pink.
You should try this. It is so good especially with a drizzle of good olive oil and some parmesan cheese as garnish.
We have this dinner periodically when we feel like treating ourselves . The shrimp is bathed in a Pernod and white wine cream sauce and is flavored with a brunoise of vegetables and saffron. The recipe is in my post from 11/5/18.
Shrimp in a white wine and Pernod cream sauce with yellow rice
This is really rich and very tasty but you have to be willing to cut up a lot of vegetables into tiny pieces.
This is supposed to turn out like a creamy, tasty risotto except it doesn’t. It is more like a tasteless bunch of barley. I had great hopes for it. But if you really love barley then it is for you. Not me.
Barley risotto with mushrooms and carrots
P.S. John likes it which is good because we have a whole container of leftovers!
We did not quite get to all the dinners I meant to prepare for last week so I have shifted a couple of them to this week. After all I have done the shopping for them already. Instead of carrying the frittata forward we settled on a new dish, barley risotto. I will report on how it works out.
I’ve also upped the number of vegetarian or close to vegetarian meals this week. Usually we have one or two but this week there are three full-fledged vegan or vegetarian meals and one, pasta fagioli, that just has a little meat seasoning. I am happy about this. 
As it often happens, life interrupts my meticulous menu planning. This came in the form of going out to lunch on both Friday and Saturday leaving John and me unhungry and not motivated to make much of a dinner. So out goes spinach and mushroom frittata and Kenwood shrimp and they are replaced by chicken sandwiches made from the leftover Costco chicken and a one egg omelet with a vegetarian sausage pattie and an English muffin.
One egg omelet with vegetarian sausage and English muffin
At this point we decide to just start over with a new menu for the coming week. I will be posting that later today after John and I hash it out. (No actual hash involved!)
I make eggplant parmesan for my honey on Valentine’s Day. I rarely put this on the dinner menu since it is fried and a mess to make. But it is a special request and it is Valentine’s Day plus I know John will do the clean-up.
Eggplant parmesan with whole wheat linguine
I decide to use Chinese eggplant because they have a thinner skin and are sweeter than the Italian ones. In addition the Asian market sells them three to a bag for $1.19 per pound. I cut them on the bias so the pieces are bigger. Each piece is about 1/2 inch thick. I season each step of the breading, flour, eggs, and fresh breadcrumbs, and use canola oil to fry the slices in. This is a shallow fry with the oil just coating the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot it only takes a minute or so for each side to become golden brown and delicious. Once I have all the eggplant slices cooked I put them in a glass baking dish with some tomato sauce on the bottom and layer the slices with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. No sauce on top! That would ruin the crispiness.
John cooks the pasta which we top with some of the tomato sauce. Looking back making eggplant parmesan was not such a big deal and it tasted great. Added bonus is that I have two eggplants left over. I think you will see spicy Thai basil eggplant on the menu next week!
Omnivore 