Tag Archives: weeknight dinners

Jan3

Minestra with turkey meatballs

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I do not usually care for leftovers, but soup is something that I can eat for days (chili too).  So for lunch during the week, I made a big pot of Rachael Ray’s mini meatball minestra.

The only modifications that I made to her recipe were:
* I used bacon instead of pancetta
* Only one head of escarole
* Ground turkey instead of meatloaf mix

I usually add sausage or bacon to soups, so the mini meatballs are a nice change.

Maybe the heads of escarole at my market are larger than average, but one head seemed like plenty.

The turkey meat totally did not want to stay in ball form, but don’t worry.

Before you put them into the soup, drizzle a little bit of olive oil on your hands, then roll the balls between your palms. This will help you to roll the balls more easily.  See?  Mine managed to stay in ball form throughout the cooking process.

Definitely serve them with a squeeze of lemon (or if you love lemon as much as I do, half a lemon’s worth of juice per bowl), and buttered bread. Or go all out and serve with grilled cheese, as Rachael suggests.  It’s not very colorful, but it was delicious!

Dec30

Braised chicken with mustard sauce

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Paco and I are huge lovers (lovahs) of mustard. Not yellow mustard (although I will certainly eat it on a sandwich), but hot sweet, deli style, grainy dijon, etc. Here are the mustards that we currently have in our fridge and pantry.

When I saw Melissa d’Arabian make this, I thought that it would be perfect to make for Paco after his long post-Christmas drive home from the Bay Area. I really like Melissa d’Arabian’s food, but I tend to modify her recipes quite a bit. I think there are a lot of choices that she makes in order to stick to the format of the show (a meal for 4 people for under $10 total), and the changes I make would probably violate the assumptions of the show (e.g., using more/more expensive mushrooms, fresh herbs, etc.).

In this recipe, the only changes I made were to leave the skin on the chicken thighs and to double the amount of mushrooms (I used crimini). I used grainy dijon mustard because that’s what we had, but a creamy mustard would probably give you a smoother flavor (if that’s what you’re going for – ha!).  I also used red wine to deglaze the pan because I didn’t feel like opening a bottle of white wine and because the recipe called for such a small amount.

I served it with egg noodles, as suggested. I tossed mine with a little bit of butter, sour cream, fresh herbs (tarragon and basil, because I had them on hand), salt, and pepper.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Mustard Sauce,
adapted from Melissa d’Arabian

1 1/2 lbs. chicken thighs (bone in, skin on)
Kosher salt and pepper
2 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 lb. crimini mushrooms
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 T flour
2 T fresh tarragon, minced
1/2 c. red wine
1 c. chicken stock
2 T half-and-half (optional)
1/4 c. grainy dijon mustard
2 T sour cream

Position your oven rack to a low level so that there’s space for a Dutch oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 T of oil in a Dutch oven over medium. Brown the chicken thighs by placing them in the pan skin-side down. Flip them when they release easily. When browned on both sides, remove from pan.

Drain off all but 1 T of the chicken fat that is in the pan, then saute the onions until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add mushrooms, continue to cook until mushrooms are soft. Add garlic, continue to cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and flour and cook for a few minutes, stirring the flour into the fat at the bottom of the pan. Add tarragon.

Deglaze the pan by pouring the wine into the pan and letting it boil until the alcohol has cooked off. Add the chicken back to the pan, then add enough chicken stock so that the chicken is half covered.

Cover the pan, then allow to braise in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove the lid after 25 minutes, so that the sauce reduces.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove the pan from the oven and remove the chicken from the pan. Add the optional half–and-half, and allow it to simmer over medium heat for a minute or so. Turn off the heat, then whisk in the mustard and sour cream. Return the chicken to the pan and allow to rest for a few minutes before serving.

Dec22

First night of Hanukkah – Apple and potato latkes

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I love latkes, and what better excuse to make them than Hanukkah!  Paco is “half” Jewish, so this is our main/only form of celebrating the holiday.  (I put “half” in quotes because I have heard it both ways.  Some say you are 100% Jewish if your mother is Jewish, as religion is passed through the mother. I have also been told that Judaism is an ethnicity/culture as well as a religion, in which case you can certainly be half!)

The New York Times had a recipe for apple – potato latkes, which sounded delicious to me, as I always pair latkes with apple sauce. I didn’t make the cinnamon sour cream topping, instead we just topped them with unsweetened apple sauce.

We drank Trader Joe’s holiday ale out of our fancy wedding crystal, just to be festive.

And we watched Love Actually, my favorite Christmas movie these days. It definitely felt like the holidays!

 

Dec20

Whole wheat pasta with pesto, shrimp, and peas

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For a quick lunch yesterday, I made pesto out of basil, pecorino romano/parmesan blend cheese, walnuts, and one clove of garlic.  Put it in a food processor and pulse while streaming olive oil into the mixture.

Boil some whole wheat pasta. While the pasta is cooking, brown a few shrimp in a pan. Remove the shrimp once pink, then add some frozen peas to the pan.  When the peas are defrosted, add a bit of butter and a bit of half-and-half to the pan.

Toss the pasta with the shrimp, the cream and peas mixture, and the pesto.  Serve with tons of black pepper and some cheese.

You can make the pesto in advance or use store-bought pesto to make this even quicker to prepare.

Dec12

Lunch on a rainy day

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Since it’s cold and wet outside, and the doggies won’t leave their blankets, I thought I’d make wonton soup for lunch.  It’s really fast and warming on a cold day.

I had already made pork and crab wontons from the Steamy Kitchen cookbook, so those were ready and waiting in my freezer.  You could also use frozen wontons.

Heat chicken broth with a few dried shitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce, to give the broth an Asian flavor.  Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, so that the flavors infuse into the broth.

Simmer the wontons until the float to the top. Remove them from the broth using a slotted spoon.

Slice up some baby bok choy.

bok_choy

Add it to the broth, along with spinach (because I throw spinach into everything), glass noodles, and a few frozen shrimp.  You could add any other ingredients that you like here–mushrooms, tofu, frozen peas, etc.

Once the noodles are rehydrated and the veggies and shrimp are cooked, ladle the soup over the wontons.

Ta-da!  Perfect for a cold day.