Usually on Cinco de Mayo we are enjoying tacos or enchiladas and washing it all down with margaritas. But this year of the very-stubborn-pneumonia when I am still on a bunch of drugs we had a much more sedate celebration—nachos washed down with water.
I was going to scramble some eggs and dot the top with them but ran out of steam. So I settled for beans, corn, cheese, green onions, and tortilla chips. The plate looked pretty, was filling, and tasty.
Interesting thing that happened. I defrosted some corn kernels and then put them in the microwave for a quick heat-up. In less than a minute, boom, they exploded all over the microwave. Huh. This ever happen to you?
Tonight we used the vegetables left in the crisper for a simple chicken stir-fry. John manned the stove while I chopped up all the vegetables. I had made the brown rice using the oven method earlier in the day. It comes out perfectly every time.
John sautéed some chicken tenders pieces that I had marinated earlier in soy sauce, garlic powder, and ginger powder. When they were almost cooked through he set them aside and stir fried mushrooms, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, broccoli, and cabbage. Then he added back in the chicken and created a sauce using soy sauce, chicken stock, sesame oil, and corn starch. The chicken stir-fry was served over the brown rice.
Korea meets Italy in this new recipe we tried tonight. This is a really simple and quick dish. In the time it takes to get the water to boiling and cook the pasta you can make the sauce.
Although John was pretty happy with the outcome, I thought the dish needed a little help. First of all it was not spicy or tart enough. Some sriracha fixed that. It also needed more salt than called for. I am also not a fan of the cherry tomato sauce. I felt it imparted very little flavor and its main contribution was a bunch of tough tomato skins. I would use canned tomatoes next time. Some different texture would be great too. I am just not sure what would fit. Lastly I have a long-standing dislike of the combination of seafood and tomatoes but that’s just me.
Here’s the recipe. It serves 4 but is easily divisible for 2.
Roasted tilapia with a sriracha tartar sauce, rice/quinoa mix, and sautéed zucchini, onions, and garlic
Originally dinner tonight was supposed to be the fish, polenta, and broccoli. But I was feeling a bit broccoli-ed out so we decided to switch gears. The result was quite tasty!
John seasoned and roasted the tilapia in a 400F oven for about 12 minutes. I heated up the rice mix and sautéed the zucchini, onions, and garlic in a bit of oil and butter while the fish cooked. When the fish was done I quickly mixed up a mayo-sweet relish-lemon juice-sriracha tartar sauce to give the tilapia a little more personality. Our gear-switching for dinner produced a really satisfying meal!
John grilled flank steak to a nice rosy medium rare and also put some char on the sweet potatoes that I had microwaved. Part of the darkness on the sweet potatoes comes from the use of chipotle powder which unfortunately we do not have a shaker top for so it came out in a big clump. Tasted good, though. It gave the sweet potatoes a smoky, spicy vibe. Rounding out the dinner is some steamed broccoli. Sometimes broccoli is the only thing that looks decent in the produce department.
I have an old recipe which I actually like better but it uses lamb shoulder. Getting enough meat off the jumble of muscles, bones, and sinew is quite a task. Clark’s recipe starts with ground lamb and that really simplifies the process.
First you brown the meat and then let it drain on paper towels while you dump the excess fat. Then you bloom the chili spices and sauté the onions, cilantro stems, poblano peppers, Serrano or jalapeño chiles, and garlic. Add some tomato paste and then red wine to deglaze the pan. Open two cans of beans and drain. He used cannellini and pinto beans. Put the beans in the Dutch oven with two cups of chicken broth. At this point he also added a 14 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes. Bring up to a simmer. Add the meat back in.
We cooked it for an hour or so. It needed some tweaking at the end —more salt, a little vinegar, and that great flavor enhancer, fish sauce.
To serve, crush a handful of tortilla chips in, a hearty squeeze of lime, some cilantro and, for some brightness and pizazz, a squirt of sriracha.
Our go-to dinner on Sunday is Breakfast for Dinner or some sort of dish that revolves around eggs. John always makes an omelet with ham, cheese, mushrooms, and green onions and I always make something different each week. Since the vegetable bin was getting very low I only had a shallot, cabbage, carrot, and celery to work with.
First I cooked up the vegetables in some neutral oil, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes. In the meantime I microwaved a 60 second combo cup of quinoa and rice. I mixed that in with my veg. Finally in a separate pan I scrambled up an egg and laid it on top of the dish. After adding a few more drops of soy sauce, dinner was ready.
I bought some frozen chicken tenders on sale at Safeway and figured that when the bag said “Cook from Frozen” prominently on the front that it meant I could pop them in the microwave for a few minutes and, voila, cooked chicken. Since I was planning on using them shredded for chicken tacos, in soup, or maybe chicken salad for lunch I did not need browning. Sadly I should have read the back of the package which said pan fry, oven roast, or grill.
So we roasted the tenders in the oven and they came out fine, just took longer. I cut my piece up into strips to put put in my “stand-up taco shell (heat briefly in microwave)”, then added salsa verde, salsa, cheese, cabbage, onion, and cilantro. Next I heated the taco and its filling in the microwave for 30 seconds. The microwaving gave the taco a more leathery texture which was good since it did not end up shattering all over the place.
The beans were simply a mix of canned black beans, Rotel, and cilantro stems. Since I am cutting down on salt they probably could have used some chipotle powder to give them a flavor boost.
Omnivore 