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Dining out: Prawn and basil curry. 5/25/24
Looks like this is going to be a no-cook weekend! We headed up to Sonoma County and enjoyed an olive oil tasting at the Olive Press which is in the Jacuzzi Winery and then some wine sipping at Imagery Winery. We settled on a late lunch at the Yeti Restaurant which serves Himalayan and Indian food. I chose prawns and basil curry and John had Rogen Josh lamb. We shared some basmati rice and naan.
Both dishes were yummy. I especially liked sopping up the curry sauce with the naan.
Dining out on Ethiopian food. 5/24/24
A combination of Miser Wot (red lentils), Kik Alitcha (yellow split peas), Atakelt Wot (cabbage, potatoes, carrots), Gomen Wot (collard greens), miser kitfo (more lentils) and ye-beg tibs (sautéed lamb with peppers and onions) served on and with injera, Ethiopian bread
We love going out for Ethiopian food. In fact we have eaten it in Venice, Amsterdam, and Basel. We always seek it out when we travel. Tonight is our local favorite, Zeni Restaurant, in San Jose. Their rendition of a veggie combo includes five vegetable dishes served on and with injera, Ethiopian bread. We also ordered sautéed lamb with onions and peppers but forgot to add the salad which is usually served in the middle of the platter.
The food is spiced with berbere which gives it a distinctive Ethiopian flavor. Your utensil is a small piece of injera that you use to pick up a portion of the meat or vegetables. Injera is a spongy, sourdough-tasting bread which complements the spicy food. All in all it is a very tasty interactive meal.
Orecchiette with mushrooms and kale. 5/22/24
We started watching Ciao House this week. The culinary area of this competition* is Puglia, Italy. We have spent a lot of our visits to Italy in Puglia and watching the show made us want to prepare an Apulian dish. One of their iconic dishes is orecchiette with broccoli rabe. Sometimes sausage is included. Since we wanted to keep this vegetarian (vegan if you use non-dairy cheese or omit the cheese), we made ours with mushrooms and substituted kale for the broccoli rabe since that is what we had on hand.
Our orecchiette took a long time to cook (15 minutes) since it was quite thick. We used a whole grain Italian brand called Manta that we bought through Amazon. Next time we will just get Barilla. Anyway, between the time we had getting the salted water boiling and then the 15 minutes cooking we had ample time to make a sauce.
First in olive oil I sautéed the mushrooms and then added chopped onion, then garlic and red pepper flakes. When the pasta was nearly done I added the kale and some pasta water to the mushrooms etc. Finally we drained the pasta and added it to the pan of vegetables with more pasta water and additional olive oil. Very enjoyable!
*Last year when we watched season 1 of Ciao House the less talented chefs got together and voted off the better chefs. So it really was not much of a competition. It was more like a culinary manipulation. We were not sure that we would even watch it again but since they would be showcasing Puglia and Apulian food we are giving the show a second try. Hopefully the chefs will be less manipulative this season.
Posted in Easy, Italian, Methods, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners
Tagged mushrooms, pasta
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Quick Vietnamese Beef Pho. 5/21/24
I have been willing to make pho just with beef broth and its usual accompaniments. But the we saw Jet Tila make a quick pho broth on his show, Ready, Jet, Cook and decided to give it a try. Here’s his recipe.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/quick-beef-pho-7112948
We took a few shortcuts like using deli roast beef torn into bite size pieces. I also made the rice noodles separately in cases we had leftovers. I have had rice noodles disintegrate overnight in the broth. LOL, as if we would have leftovers.
Our accompaniments along with the noodles and roast beef were basil, cilantro, green onions, bean sprouts, and jalapeños. It turned out very tasty and we ate the whole pot of soup.
Posted in Asian, Beef, Recipes, soup, Vegetables, Vietnamese, Weeknight dinners
Tagged Beef, pho, rice noodles
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Weekly Menu. May 20 – 26, 2024
I am a little late getting our menu posted this week. I am doing better than last week though when I never figured out what we were preparing for dinner until the day of.
Posted in Weekly menu
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Stir-fried vegetables and egg over rice. 5/19/24
Sunday is Breakfast For Dinner day. I had some broccoli left over from Friday’s dinner so I combined that with some sliced carrot, onion, shredded cabbage, and scrambled egg. I seasoned the whole thing with tamari plus ground ginger and garlic and served it over microwaveable rice for a quick, satisfying dinner.
Posted in American, Asian, Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), Easy, Eggs, rice, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners
Tagged Eggs
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Buffalo chicken wings and salad. 5/20/24
I cannot take much credit for tonight’s dinner. The chicken wings were from a frozen bag and the salad was from Taylor Farms pre-prepared line of salads.
We had a late appointment to see how my pneumonia was doing (much better!) What with hitting the commute traffic we got home close to 6:30. It was great knowing we had a quick, easy dinner when we got home.
Posted in American, Easy, Poultry, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners
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Grilled leg of lamb, potatoes, and broccoli. 5/18/24
Several weeks ago we bought a boneless leg of lamb. It was too much for the three of us to eat so John made up a packet of bits and pieces and also a piece that was one large muscle and froze them. On Saturday he grilled the large piece which was slightly over one pound. He did a beautiful job cooking the lamb to a perfect medium rare.
I baked some potatoes in the oven and he finished them on the grill while he was cooking the lamb. In order to dress up the broccoli I took the leftover hummus sauce from Wednesday and spiced it up with additional harissa and sriracha.
What a delicious dinner! Worthy of a special occasion. Plus I used a leftover piece of lamb and leftover sauce. Economical too!
Posted in American, Easy, Grilling, Lamb, leftovers, Methods, Special occasion, Uncategorized, Vegetables
Tagged Lamb
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Penne arrabbiata 5/17/24
This is a recipe that I found on Serious Eats and adapted to our tastes. Here’s the original website https://www.seriouseats.com/penne-pasta-arrabbiata-sauce-recipe. We changed it up a bit because we like our spiciness coming from various sources—the red pepper flakes for overall heat, Tabasco for front of the mouth spiciness, and Sriracha for zingy sweetness.
The original recipe says it serves six but that is less than 3 ounces a person. That’s definitely not enough for us! We made all the sauce for 8 ounces of pasta. There was some sauce left over but that is always okay in our house. Someone will always find a use for it.
Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners
Tagged pasta
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Omnivore 