Two at the Table

This Week’s Menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of April 6 2015

Easter is here and we were very successful overall in avoiding the things we gave up for Lent: meats, sweets, snacks, and quacks. (The quacks represent poultry; not many words rhyme with poultry.) We weren’t perfect, but if you’ve been reading our blog, you know that we didn’t make any dishes with meat or make any desserts. All of the times we cheated were tied to plans we had made before Lent started or celebrations of various sorts with friends or co-workers. We weighed the options and it seemed justified (or at least justifiable!) to cheat a little bit in those cases.

Now that there are no restrictions on what we can make, we were both a little surprised that the first dish out of the post-Lent gate wasn’t something like Steak Au Poivre or Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lamb. We found we didn’t miss meat as much as we thought we would, plus we both lost a little weight. We don’t have any plans to go vegetarian, but we’re probably going to feature more vegetarian dishes on the blog going forward. (Full disclosure though: we’re spending Easter with Tony’s parents, which means spaghetti and meatballs followed by roasted lamb, so it’s not like we went very long without eating meat again!)

It’s another busy week, but we’re going to try to make four dishes, two that we’ve made before and two that are entirely new. We were also able to get a reservation on Saturday night for El Original, Lisa Fain, The Homesick Texan’s new restaurant, so we’re super-excited about that!

Tony is going to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium with some friends on Monday, so he will probably go out for dinner with his buddies. Since Kim also has dinner plans, so we won’t be making dinner.

On Tuesday though, we’re making a fun dish from Ina Garten, Herb-Roasted Fish, which we’ve made a couple of times before, including once for our friends Tom and Sharon. Making this dish involves using parchment paper to make a packet containing the fish, some thyme, and green olives, and then baking the packet in the oven. It’s simple and delicious. We’ll serve this with some sautéed broccolini and a 2014 Wolffer Estate Rose suggested by Michael from Wines by the Flask.

We’ll try a new recipe on Wednesday, one that will let us continue out mostly meatless theme: Real Simple’s Mustardy Kale Salad With Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple. We’ve never made this one before, but it sounds easy and very different from what we normally make, so we want to give it a try. We’ll have this dish with a 2013 Domain Daniel Pollier Macon-Fuisee, a white burgundy wine.

Kim will be out of town Thursday night, so Tony will be on his own. He is planning to make the Hip Foodie Mom’s Mushroom, Onion and Thyme Galette, which he has made before. This is a little ambitious for a weeknight, but we’ve purchased pre-sliced mushrooms and will try to slice up the onions in advance too. Even though the galette has to bake for quite a whole, making the dough is very easy, so this is not as daring as it seems. Tony will enjoy this with a 2012 Marchione Langhe Arenas.

We saw a new recipe in the New York Times today for Roasted Chicken Provencal and we thought it would be a fun dish for a Friday night. It’s made with shallots and herbs de Provence (a mixture that usually contains savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano and lavender). We love both, so we were won over right away. We’ll serve this with a simple green salad with a mustard vinaigrette and lots of crusty French bread. We’ll pair it with a 2012 Cuvee Marie Juracon Sec.

This week’s menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of March 29 2015

Kim’s jury duty ends on Monday, but with our schedules for the week still a bit crazy, we’ll only be making three dinners at home this week. All of them are new recipes for us from favorite cookbooks, both old and new.

We recently learned that Lisa Fain, the Homesick Texan, is opening a restaurant in New York City called El Original. (You can read her announcement on Twitter here or get a bit more detail on the restaurant from Grubstreet.com here or check out the menu at www.eloriginaltxmx.com.) Once we stopped jumping up and down, we decided that we needed to make something from Lisa’s “The Homesick Texan Cookbook” and decided on Green Chile Posole with Black Beans. Posole is a hearty soup that sounded like a perfect dish to get us through these last few cold days of March. We recommended you buy Lisa’s cookbooks, but if you want to read the recipe online, you can find a write up by Martha Stewart here. We’ll have the posole with Shiner Ruby Redbird, a lager brewed with Texas ruby-red grapefruit.

Kim has a Junior League call Monday night and Tony has his fantasy baseball draft, so we’ll have leftover posole for dinner. On Tuesday night, we’re going to try to attend the new member reception at the The Frick Collection, a small art museum located near Central Park that we joined over the winter. We figure it will be simpler to order in or eat out after the reception, so that is the plan. Tony will be on his own Wednesday night, as Kim has a Junior League meeting and we’ll be having dinner with a group on Thursday night to celebrate our friend Lynee’s birthday. We’re going to Lombardi’s on the Lower East Side, which bills itself as America’s first pizzeria. First, second, or last, this is some seriously good thin crust pizza and we can’t wait.

We’ll be making Quinoa Stuffed Peppers from Gina Homolka’s skinnytaste cookbook on Good Friday (the Friday before Easter). This is a simple recipe that looks to be very satisfying and a great vegetarian option for one of our last meatless days. We also recommended you buy Gina’s cookbook, but if you want to see an online recipe, you can find a write up on the Lori Lange’s Recipe Girl blog here. We’ll have this with a 2012 Lang & Reed Cabernet Franc suggested by Wines by the Flask.

We’re planning another day trip to Greenport Long Island this Saturday. In addition to visiting the baby goats at Catapano Dairy Farm (which is honestly the main reason for the trip) and buying lots of tasty goat cheese, we’ll also have lunch in Greenport, hit some vineyards on the way out of town, and visit the Freehold Fish Market too. We’ll stock up on local seafood so that we can make Food & Wine’s Provencal Fish Stew (or Bourride), which was one of the recipes in the cookbook our friend Manon gave us after our dinner with her and the Wines by the Flask crew, Michael and Eric. We’ll serve the stew with some crusty French bread that we’ll get at the Blue Duck Bakery Cafe in Greenport. We’ll pair it with Bedell Cellars Blanc de Blanc, a sparkling white wine that we first had at our friend Jennifer’s wedding reception at the Bedell vineyard. This wine was so new when we first purchased it, the bartender had to go into the storage room to get the labels to stick on the bottles! We had such a great time at the wedding that the trip to Greenport has become a special getaway for us and the wine one that we look forward to having every chance we get.

Like all New Yorkers, we are very ready for spring to arrive but the colder temperatures on Sunday, March 22 made for a perfect match for Ina Garten’s Easy Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Croutons.  We worked together on this dish with the majority of the actual cooking being done by Kim so she’ll share how it went.

There actually is not too much prep work with this recipe but we got a later start than we would have liked to on dinner so we decided to share some of the work. Tony started by getting out the bread, chopping two large yellow onions, and mincing the garlic. Meanwhile, I grated four ounces of Gruyère cheese and got out the four cups vegetable stock (substituted for chicken stock), tomatoes, saffron, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. For the sandwiches, I also got out two tablespoons of butter and set up the grill pan (the recipe suggests using a panini press, which we don’t have or need as the grill pan works just fine!) The soup also called for adding orzo, but we decided to forgo this step since it involved getting down another pot, plus the colander.

Once the onions were chopped, I began to saute them in the Dutch oven over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, they were nicely golden brown and I was ready to add the garlic.  I cooked the garlic and onions together for about a minute and then I was ready to add the vegetable stock, crushed tomatoes, saffron, and salt and pepper. I turned the heat up and the soup came to a boil rather quickly and then I simmered it on low for about 15 minutes.

After the soup had simmered for about 10 minutes, we turned our attention to the sandwiches. I melted the two tablespoons of butter in the microwave and Tony spread it evenly (very evenly, I’d like to point out; he takes great care with all things sandwich-related) on four slices of bread. I kept an eye on the soup and began to heat the grill pan somewhere between medium and medium-low.

By this time, I was ready to add the heavy cream to the soup and let it simmer for another 10 minutes as well as to start making some sandwiches. I put two slices of bread butter side down on the grill pan and then carefully placed half of the grated cheese on each slice. I then topped the cheese with the remaining two slices of the buttered bread. After a few minutes, the sandwiches were ready to be flipped and after another couple of minutes more, they were ready to be eaten, as was the soup. Considering how little effort it took, I definitely agree with calling the soup “easy.”

I cut each sandwich into 16 croutons and put just a few of the grilled cheese croutons into the soup so they wouldn’t get soggy. I put our remaining croutons onto plates to add to our soup as we ate it. (Note that the recipe does not call for a whole sandwich per person, but I’m not sure either one of us would have been willing to share.)

The soup was bright tasting with great tomato flavor, while the saffron really added to the color and slightly sweet flavor from the tomatoes. The grilled cheese croutons were the perfect crunchy, creamy bite to cut through the acidity and slight richness of the soup. I would also say we didn’t miss the orzo one bit!  The tomato soup and grilled cheese croutons were a lovely match with 2013 Cateus des Tours Brouilly. This wine, suggested by Wines by the Flask, is a lighter-bodied red and is a beautiful reddish-deep purple color. We might welcome another cold snap just so we can have this again!

This week’s menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of March 22, 2015 

Our “get back on track” plans for last week got thrown off track a bit when Kim was selected for jury duty. Despite out recently busier schedules and with a few minor scheduling changes, we managed to make several of the dishes we had planned last week – like The Newlywed Kitchen’s Red Wine and Mushroom Risotto on Sunday; the kitchn’s Shrimp with White Beans, Spinach, and Tomatoes on Wednesday (not Tuesday, as planned); and Bon Appetit’s Avocado Toasts on Thursday (not Wednesday, as planned)–but also ordered in a couple of times. This week’s menu includes two recipes we didn’t make last week, plus two new ones, as well as one for tuna burgers that is entirely a Two at the Table creation.

It was not an easy decision to pass on making  Ina Garten’s Easy Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Croutons last week, so we’re going to make it Sunday night. After a brief flirtation with spring, New York City has returned to winter, and this dish is the perfect antidote to the returning colder weather. We’ll have this with the 2013 Cateus des Tours Brouilly a lighter-bodied red Wines by the Flask suggested for us last week.

Kim and I both had disappointing tuna burgers last week while dining out. They were perfectly tasty, but not what we were hoping for. As we talked about it, we realized that when we said “burgers” we didn’t want patties made out of chopped-up tuna but rather seared tuna steaks served on a roll, so that’s exactly what we’re going to make. Grilling the tuna with just a little salt and pepper is really simple, so no recipe is required, but we’re going to experiment a bit and try to come up with sour own condiment: ginger scallion mayo. We’ll pair the burgers with a simple green salad.

We return to an old favorite on Tuesday in the form of Ina Garten’s Panko-Crusted Salmon, which we have featured on the blog before, but as we haven’t made it during Lent yet, or in a long time for that matter, we wanted to have it again. We will have this with some simple sautéed spinach.

On Wednesday we’ll have Food & Wine’s Barbecue Shrimp, a dish that has been on menu for three weeks now. We really want to make it, but once we passed on it during the week when we originally planned to make it and put the shrimp in the freezer, it became hard to get back to it. We will make it this week and have it with the 2012 Cederberg Chenin Blanc from South Africa that Wines by the Flask suggested to us when we first brought the recipe to them. We’ll pair this with a simple green salad.

We’ll go back to The Newlywed Kitchen Cookbook on Thursday, and make Parmesan Roasted Asparagus, Tomatoes and Eggs. We haven’t made eggs for dinner in a little while and have never tried this recipe, we’re looking forward to it. (Please note that the link above take you to the recipe on Google books.)

We decided we would treat ourselves by ordering in on Friday and going out on Saturday.

Often for Sunday night dinner, we will tackle a more elaborate dish or something that requires a longer cooking time. Last Sunday (March 15), Kim made Red Wine and Mushroom Risotto from the “The Newlywed’s Kitchen” cookbook. Kim shares how it went.

I have to say I was a bit intimidated to make risotto (All that stirring! What if the rice didn’t absorb the liquid?), but I am really glad I have this recipe a try.

I started by doing all the prep in advance thinking that I would be able to do little else during the stirring phase. While this was mostly true, I think I could have handled sautéing the mushrooms and stirring together.

I started first by doing the prep for the mushrooms: dicing the shallots, cleaning and slicing the mushrooms (I used baby Portobello mushrooms), chopping parsley and stripping thyme leaves from their stems.

I then turned to doing the other prep work: measuring the wine (2012 Tre Vigne Barbera D’Asti  recommended by Wines by the Flask) and vegetable stock. (The recipe suggested chicken stock but since we gave up meat and poultry for the 40 days before Easter, I decided to make this substitution.) I also measured out the rice, grated the cheese, and finely sliced the leek.

My final prep was making a quick lemon-Dijon vinaigrette for a simple green salad.

I started the cooking portion of the recipe with the mushroom. I followed the instructions of melting butter and olive oil together and then sautéing the shallots until almost caramelized–mine took about three minutes. I then proceeded to add the mushrooms, thyme, and parsley and sautéed for about four minutes. I did not have tamari (I had looked diligently for it in several local places for another recipe a few months back and did not have time then or now to search at an Asian market), so I decided to substitute balsamic vinegar, which turned out to be a great choice.

As the mushrooms were sautéing, I began getting the wine/stock mixture going. When the mushrooms were done and the wine/stock mixture was nice and hot, I turned my attention to sautéing the leeks in butter (I used a Dutch oven). I then added the rice to the pot and began coating it in the butter/leek mixture. Now things were really starting to smell great!

It was now time for the step I was the most nervous about–adding the wine/stock and stirring the rice until the liquid is absorbed and only then adding more liquid. I found this step really to be pretty straightforward– it was clear when the liquid was absorbed by the rice and it was quite satisfying to see the grains of rice become plumper and plumper and turn creamy and a beautiful reddish-purple as they absorbed the liquid. This step took patience, but it was well worth it; the methodical nature of it all was sort of soothing.

After the liquid was all absorbed it was time to stir in the Parmesan cheese and mushrooms. I called Tony over to look at what I would say was some rather beautiful risotto. I tasted and adjusted the seasoning by adding a little salt and pepper. (I suspect in particular it needed at little more salt since I used balsamic vinegar rather than tamari, which would have added a little saltiness.)

I dressed the salad and plated the risotto adding some finishing touches of freshly snipped chives and a drizzle of truffle oil.

The risotto was rich and creamy and extremely flavorful. The mushrooms of course gave a hearty, earthy meatiness to the dish and the wine (both in and paired with the risotto) gave it a nice tanginess, plus and the acidity cut thought the creaminess nicely. The chives and the truffle oil were nice touch–I think I could have even added at bit more truffle oil to give it an even richer flavor.

We both look forward to enjoying this again and I will definitely no longer be intimidated by risotto recipes!

This week’s menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of March 15, 2015

We had a bit of a rough start to last week, so we’re going to try to get back on track starting on Sunday. We’re “recycling” a few recipes from last week and adding a few new ones. Here’s what we have planned:

We were supposed to make The Newlywed Kitchen’s Red Wine and Mushroom Risotto on Friday night, but we both got home from work kind of late and decided to order in sushi. (Please note that the link above take you to the recipe on Google books.) We’ll have this on Sunday night and as we noted last week, the recipe uses chicken stock, but we’re going to substitute vegetable stock. We plan to have this with a 2012 Tre Vigne Barbera D’Asti that our friends at Wines by the Flask picked out for us last week.

Kim will be having dinner with friends on Monday night, so Tony will be on his on. On Tuesday, we’re trying a new recipe: the kitchn’s Shrimp with White Beans, Spinach, and Tomatoes. Wins by the Flask picked out a very unusual wine for us to pair with this dish: a 2012 Azienda Agricola Cos Rami Bianco, which is known as an “orange wine”. When wines oxidize, which is what happens when a bottle is opened and the wine comes into contact with air, they develop different flavors. As Eric explained it to Tony, with orange wines, the wine makers start the oxidation process during fermentation, in the hopes of introducing a very different flavor profile. We’re very excited to try this wine; it’s like nothing we’ve ever had (or even heard of) before.

We wanted to do something simple on Wednesday night and our friend Alexandra came up with a great idea for us in the form of Bon Appetit’s Avocado Toasts. We’ll have this with a simple green salad and a 2011 Trimbach Gewürztraminer. The sweetness of the wine should be a nice balance to the spiciness of the red pepper flakes that feature in the recipe.

On Thursday night, we’ll have Food & Wine’s Barbecue Shrimp with a simple green salad, which is another dish we were supposed to have last week. Wines by the Flash picked out a 2012 Cederberg Chenin Blanc from South Africa for us to try with this dish, but we opened that to have with the sushi (which turned out to be a pretty good pairing, by the way), so we picked up another bottle for dinner on Thursday.

We’re going with pure comfort food on Friday and making Ina Garten’s Easy Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Croutons. We’ve made this before and it really is as easy as the name would lead you believe. Winter seems to be on its way out here in New York City, but it’s not entirely gone yet, so this dish will be a nice way to stay warm and cozy until spring truly arrives. Normally, we’d have a dish like this with beer, but we wanted to try something different. Wines by the Flask suggested a 2013 Cateus des Tours Brouilly, which is made from Gamay grapes. This is a lighter-bodied red, which should complement the soup without overwhelming it.

On Thursday night, we were supposed to have Food & Wine’s Barbecue Shrimp. The bad news is, we forgot to take the shrimp out of the freezer before we left for work. The good news is, that meant we could have Food & Wine’s Rigatoni with Lemony Kale-and-Pecorino Pesto. This was the very first recipe in the Food & Wine cookbook that our friend Manon, who joined us for our podcast dinner with Wines by the Flask and took all the great photos for that post, was nice enough to give us. Tony made the pesto Sunday afternoon, so all we had to do was make the pasta on Thursday. Here’s how the whole process went, from pesto making to pasta eating:

There was not a lot of prep involved with this recipe, which was nice. I removed the stems from the kale using the  shortcut we use when we make Barbecued Chicken with Short-Cut Collard Greens. (The photos below are of collard greens, but you get the idea.)

I then zested one lemon and grated up about half a cup of Pecorino Toscano cheese, which is a little softer and a little less salty than Pecorino Romano.

I had put a pot of water on to boil before starting the prep work and also filled a bowl with water and ice cubes. I boiled the kale for about one minute, drained it in a colander, and transferred the kale to the ice bath. It cooled pretty quickly, at which point I drained it again, laid it out on the cutting board, and gave it a rough chop.

I transferred the kale to a food processor, added the garlic and pine nuts, and pulsed everything until it was pretty well chopped. I added the oil and processed until the pesto was smooth, then transferred it to a bowl, at which point I added the Pecorino and lemon zest, plus salt and pepper.

On Thursday night, we made the rigatoni per the instructions on the box. We drained it in a colander and transferred it back to the pot as the recipe instructs. We turned the heat to medium-low and added about two-thirds of the pesto to the pasta (we wanted to save a little bit to have again) and cooked it for about two minutes. While the pasta was cooking, Kim chopped up some dried Calabrian chiles that we planned to use as garnish. (The recipe said to use Aleppo peppers, but we have a boatload of Calabrian chiles and this was a good chance to use about 1% of our total stash.) We plated the pasta, sprinkled on the chiles, and sat down to dinner.

The pesto was really wonderful; it was garlicky and just the tiniest bit bitter, which was a nice touch. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and mixing it in the pot with the pesto meant that every piece was coated evenly. We enjoyed the pesto a lot; the only change we might make when we have the rest is to grate some lemon zest on top to bring out the lemon flavor in the pesto a bit more. The chilies added a nice bit of heat without being overwhelming. The 2013 Claudio Morelli Bianchello Del Metauro suggested by our friends at Wines by the Flask was a great pairing for this dish. It was light and crisp with enough acid to cut through the oil in the pesto and enough fruitiness to stand up to the garlic.

On Wednesday night Tony was on his own and he made Smitten Kitchen’s Emmentaler on Rye with Sweet and Sour Red Onions. Here’s how it went.

As the recipes lays out, there are only three steps to this recipe: cooking the onions, assembling the sandwich, and cooking the sandwich. I usually start my recipes by doing all the prep work up front, which is not always the most efficient way to work, so  I decided to just do things as I went along to save some time.

I cut half a red onion into thin slices and sautéed it for about 5 minutes in half a tablespoon of butter and half a tablespoon of olive oil. While the onions were cooking, I measured out the brown sugar and salt and also “buttered” the bread. (The butter was straight out of the fridge, so all I did at this stage was place small pats of butter on the bread so it could soften a bit.) I next added the brown sugar and salt to the onions and cooked everything for another ten minutes. While this was going on, I grated the cheese. I added the vinegar to the onions, cooked for a minute or two and then put the cooked onions in a ramekin. The recipe says to cool the onions to lukewarm, but I was too hungry to wait for that to happen, so I put them into the freezer for about 5 minutes. While waiting for the onions to cool, I finished buttering the bread

Next, I started heating the grill pan over medium-low heat. While the pan heated, I assembled the sandwich. I spread the onions on the non buttered side of one slice of bread, sprinkled the cheese on top, and then placed the other slice of bread, butter side out, on top. I put the sandwich on the grill pan and cooked it for about 10 minutes per side; this is a lot longer than the recipe calls for, but I was working over very low heat. I sliced the sandwich in half, popped open a beer, and sat down to dinner.

The sandwich was as good as I remembered. It’s simple to make, but is such a complex mix of flavors (sweet, sour, salty) and textures (crunchy, creamy), that’s it’s incredibly satisfying. The only mistake I made was to drink the last Stone IPA while making dinner and the last Abita Amber Ale with the sandwich. I wish I had switched the order, because the bitter IPA would have offered a better contrast to the sandwich than the maltier, slightly sweet ale. I’ll have to remember this the next time we make this sandwich!

We had some very ambitious plans this week – Fonda San Miguel’s Enchiladas Suizas de Queso on Sunday and  Food & Wine’s Rigatoni with Lemony Kale-and-Pecorino Pesto – but they all fell apart when we needed to get some emergency repairs done on our apartment on Sunday and Monday. So, while Tony did make the pesto on Sunday, we ordered in dinner both Sunday and Monday night. By the time Tuesday rolled around, the repairs were done and we were ready to cook Yellow Table’s Whole-Roasted Branzino Grilled with Brussels Sprouts & Fingerlings as planned. Tony tells how it went:

This recipe was about as simple as could be. I cut the stems off the Brussels sprouts, sliced them in half, and placed them on a foil-lined pan. I wasn’t able to find fingerling potatoes, so I bought some small Russet potatoes, cut them in half, and then sliced each half into three wedges. I added the potatoes to the same pan as the sprouts, drizzled on some olive oil, sprinkled on plenty of salt and pepper, and tossed everything together. The sprouts and potato then went into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes as I prepped the fish.

I patted the fish dry inside and out with paper towels and then sprinkled the cavity with salt and pepper. I purchased butterflied fish (as result, I didn’t actually have to debone the fish like I thought I would), so I was able to spread the fish flat and lay the herbs – thyme, rosemary, and marjoram – inside. I laid the lemon slices on top of the herbs and then closed the fish up. My thinking was to keep the herbs close to the flesh of the fish so that the flavors would permeate the meat. I placed the fish on another foil lined pan and put it into the oven for 25 minutes. Then it was time to eat.

Serving was easy – I just opened the fish, took out the herbs and lemons, and split the fish in half along the back. I plated each piece, leaving the skin on, with the potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

I was worried the fish would be a little overcooked, but it was moist and flaky. The fish really did pick up the flavors of the herbs as well as the lemon, which was a nice combination The Brussels sprouts were cooked perfectly: tender on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside. The potatoes were delicious too, as they crisped up nicely on the outside but were soft and creamy on the inside. The wine we chose (or that Wines by the Flask chose for us), a 2013 Campuget Viognier, was a perfect a pairing. This was a very easy dish that made for a wonderful dinner, which was even more delicious since it was the first dinner we were able to make this week.

This week’s menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of March 8 2015

We have a great menu planned this week, with fives new recipes and one old favorite. A bit ambitious, but we’re going to do our best!

We’ll start on Sunday with Fonda San Miguel’s Enchiladas Suizas de Queso. Fonda is one of Austin’s best Mexican restaurants. When we visited over this past Christmas, we loved everything we ate so much, we had to buy the cookbook. (There’s no recipe for us to link to on-line, so if you have a chance to buy the cookbook, you should.) What we’re really dying to make is their duck enchiladas, but since we’re still trying to keep mostly meatless for Lent (the 40 days before Easter), we decided to make these cheese enchiladas instead. We’re having out friend Lynee over for dinner. so hopefully we’ll be able to convince her to write up her impressions of dinner. We’ll pair this up with a Sixpoint Brewery Bengali IPA.

On Monday, Tony will be on his own for dinner, so he’ll make Food & Wine’s Rigatoni with Lemony Kale-and-Pecorino Pesto. This dish is a bit involved for a Monday night, so Tony will tackle making the kale pesto on Sunday so that all he will have to do on Monday is make the pasta. We’re going to pair this up with a 2013 Claudio Morelli Bianchello Del Metauro suggested by our friends at Wines by the Flask.

We’ve loved everything we’ve made from their cookbook, so on Tuesday, we’re making Yellow Table’s Whole-Roasted Branzino Grilled with Brussels Sprouts & Fingerlings. (Note that the link above will take you the Yellow Table’s website and their recipe for Roasted Branzini & Brussel Sprouts. Unlike this version of the recipe, the  recipe in the cookbook has fingerling potatoes. The solution is simple: using the same weight of potatoes as Brussels sprouts, cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and cook them together with the sprouts at the same temperature for the same amount of time.) This recipe will be simple to make but dramatic to serve, as we’ll have to debone the fish. We typically only make fish like this in the summer, but the branzino was very highly rated on Fresh Direct, so we wanted to give it a try. We’re going to have this with a 2013 Campuget Viognier.

Tony will be on his own again on Wednesday, so he decided to make Smitten Kitchen’s Emmentaler on Rye with Sweet and Sour Red Onions. He’s made this one before and it was fantastic, so he’s very excited to try it again. He’ll have this with beer, probably an Abita Amber Ale.

We’ve been on a big shrimp kick these past few weeks, so we figured, whey stop now? On Thursday night, we’ll have Food & Wine’s Barbecue Shrimp.  Normally, we would have something like this with beer, but we wanted to do something very different and try it with wine, so Wines by the Flash picked out a 2012 Cederberg Chenin Blanc from South Africa.

On Friday night. we’re making a recipe form a cookbook we got as a wedding gift five years ago, but have not really used. We found a great recipe though, so we’re going to make The Newlywed Kitchen’s Red Wine and Mushroom Risotto. (Please note that the link above take you to the recipe on Google books.) The recipe calls for chicken stock, but we’re going to substitute vegetable stock, in keeping with our mostly meatless theme. We’ll have this with a 2012 Tre Vigne Barbera D’Asti.

No cooking on Saturday night, as we’re going to see a great jazz singer/pianist, Diana Krall, at the Beacon Theater so we’ll have dinner out. And that should wrap up another great week for Two at the Table!