Two at the Table_Menu_Week of June 1 2014

A bit of a busy week this week, with a couple of Yankee games on Sunday and Monday; a lecture at the New York Historical Society on 19th century architecture in Paris on Tuesday; and tickets to the Governor’s Ball music festival Friday and Saturday. Even so, we still planned to make dinner four nights this week, including Sunday after the game and Tuesday after the lecture.

First up is Cuban Sandwiches on Sunday. (This is how we used up the leftovers from the Chili-Glazed Pork from last week.) No specific recipe to give you here, but we’ll walk you through it step-by-step.

Tuesday night is Fish with Lemon and Brown Butter Sauce. This is a recipe from Rachel Khoo’s fantastic”The Little Paris Kitchen” cookbook. If you’re not familiar with Rachel’s blog or her show “Little Paris Kitchen” on the Cooking Channel, you owe it to yourself to check them out. We thought this would be a great meal after the lecture, not only because it’s pretty quick but also because French food after a lecture on Paris just seemed right.

On Wednesday night, we made another recipe perfect for a busy week: Flaky Mushroom and Gruyère Tarts. Since this dish uses packaged pastry dough, it’s really a snap. It’s very light, so we usually make the whole recipe, which serves four, and a simple salad. We’ve this paired it with a few different kinds of white wine (Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Sancerre) and even a rosé.

For dinner on Thursday, we tried something new, Chicken with Morels. This was our first attempt at this dish. We’ve shied away from it in the past because morel mushrooms are kind of expensive, but our local internet grocer had them on sale, so we decided we would splurge. This one is a bit rich (it uses, butter, heavy cream, and creme fraiche – a type of sour cream – and Madeira wine, a fortified wine from Portugal), but we really wanted to give it a try! This recipe serves six, so we decided to cut it in half and have one serving left over to take to work for lunch.

We’re spending Friday and Saturday night (Sunday too!) at Governor’s Ball, so no home-cooked dinners those nights, but we’ll report back on the food trucks!