Two at the Table

Two at the Table_Menu_Week of September 28 2014

We’re going to be traveling this weekend, plus we both know that work will be crazy as we try to fit five days of productivity into four days in the office, so we tried to keep this week simple.

On Sunday, we’re making Half Baked Harvest’s amazing-looking One-Pot Herb Roasted Chicken with Butter Toasted Wild Rice. This dish takes a little while to make, but as we’re making it on a Sunday, we have  a little more time to cook. Plus, it will make leftovers, which will make the rest of the week easier.

On Tuesday, we’re having Martha Stewart’s Lemon-Tarragon Salmon Over Asparagus, which will allow us to use up the tarragon and radishes we have left over from last week.

Since we’ll have some asparagus left over from the salmon dish, on Tuesday we’ll have Spanish Asparagus Revuelto. This is an egg-based dish that also uses chorizo, which we also have left over in the freezer from a couple of weeks ago. We’ve had it before and its quick and flavorful and perfect for a busy week.

We’ll have the left over Herb Roasted Chicken on Wednesday and probably order in on Thursday, which will give us time to pack and get ready to leave for our trip on Friday morning.

We had a bit of a change in plans during the week, so the Scallops with Fennel Grenobloise got pushed to Saturday night. Tony describes how he made this quick, tasty dinner.

To get started, I broke out the mandoline. After trimming the fennel bulb and cutting it in half, I used the mandoline to cut the fennel  into thin slices. Next I measured out the butter and capers, juiced one lemon, and chopped up two tablespoons of parsley. I put this all aside to have it ready to go.

I started heating the olive oil in a large, nonstick pan and while it was heating I seasoned the scallops with salt and pepper. I cooked the scallops over medium-high heat for about 2 1/2 minutes per side and then took them out of the pan.

I melted the butter in the pan, added the fennel and capers, and cooked everything over high heat for about 2 or 3 minutes, just until the fennel had started to get soft. I forgot to add the lemon juice and parsley, but simply sprinkled both over the fennel after I had plated the dish.

The scallops were cooked perfectly and the right balance of tender and chewy. The fennel provided a nice crunch to the dish and added a bit of sweetness, which was offset by the  brininess of the capers and the sourness of the lemon juice. We paired this up with a French white Burgundy for a lovely Saturday dinner that would have been just as easy to make on a weeknight.

On Monday night, we made a new recipe: Emeril Lagasse’s Escolar Stew with Saffron Broth and Wild Mushrooms. We were excited to try something so different, especially on a weeknight. Tony describes how it came together.

As the first step in this recipe, I made the creole seasoning.  The recipe makes a lot more than I wanted to have on hand, so I scaled things down so I would have about enough for this recipe and nothing more. (I technically didn’t make quite enough for this recipe – I was probably short by about half a teaspoon – though it turned out fine.) I did the math and mixed together 1/8 of teaspoon each of dried thyme, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and black pepper; 1/4 of a teaspoon each of garlic powder and salt; and a heaping quarter teaspoon of paprika.

Since we bought a package of pre-sliced mushrooms for this dish, there wasn’t very much prep to do. I sliced the green onion, chopped the basil, and diced the garlic. I then cut the monkfish into 1-inch cubes, sprinkled on the creole seasoning, and mixed the monkfish and spices together until the fish was well-coated. If you’re not familiar with monkfish, it’s a very firm, white fish. It’s been called “the poor mans lobster” and “mock lobster” because of its similar texture and taste. Having had both, I understand the comparison, but I don’t think I would ever use them interchangeably!

Last but not least, I sprinkled the saffron into the chicken broth so the flavors would have a chance to marry. If you haven’t used saffron before, it’s a very interesting spice. It comes in beautiful red threads, but turns dishes yellowish-orange when used. The threads are actually parts of a flower and are harvested by hand, which makes saffron, pound for pound, one of the most expensive spices you can buy. (We bought a jar with three little packets for $9.99, which should be enough for six servings of paella or escolar stew.) The taste is hard to describe; I personally find it very minerally – almost metallic – but I really do like it.

I started cooking as soon as Kim got home. I sautéed the fish over medium-high heat for about 1 minute. I then added the mushrooms, tomatoes, basil, green onions, garlic, and spinach and cooked everything for another minute. As a last step, I added the stock and simmered for about 5 minutes. I stirred in some salt and pepper and as the recipe suggests, served the stew in shallow bowls with crusty bread.

Kim and I were both blown away by the stew. The saffron was the predominant flavor, but the creole seasoning gave the dish a lot of depth. The cayenne pepper stood out, giving the stew a nice but of heat, but it was the interplay of all the spices that really made this a great dinner. The costs of the saffron aside, this was so easy to make that we’ll be sure to have it again soon.

Saturday night, Tony made Green Chilaquiles with Chicken and Squash, one of the first fishers he ever made for Kim. Here he describes what was involved:

Before I start, I have to apologize to Kim. When I posted last week’s menu, I hinted that because of internet problems when Kim placed our Fresh Direct order, I might have to make a grocery store run to get some missing ingredients. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Working from an iPhone and alternating between recipes and the Fresh Direct Website, Kim was able to order everything I needed for this dish, right down to the radishes we used for a garnish. I will never doubt her grocery ordering abilities again : )

The thing to keep in mind with this recipe is that while each step is pretty easy, each step also takes a while to complete, so it is absolutely a weekend dinner. The prep isn’t very hard as all you need to do is chop some onion, peel some garlic, and dice two squash. The first cooking step (or last prep step, depending on how you look at it) in this recipe is to poach a chicken breast.  This is very simple and you can find detailed instruction in the recipe that accompanied the chilaquiles recipe, which you can access here. Basically, you simmer a chicken breast in water (to which you have added onion, garlic, and some herbs) until it’s done and then shred the chicken. It takes a little while – about 20 to 30 minutes in total – but is pretty easy. You can even use the resulting broth later on in the recipe.

Once the chicken is ready, you can start on the rest of dinner. The first step is to simmer the tomatillos in a saucepan of water. Pretty straightforward, but as with other steps in making this dish, you have to allow time to bring the tomatillos to a simmer and then keep them at a simmer for the 10 minutes noted in the recipe. Once this step is done, you put the tomatillos in a blender (I used a food processor) with the chilies, chopped onion, garlic, salt, and cilantro sprigs and blend everything until it’s smooth.

You next have to cook the tomatillo mixture for about five minutes until it thickens. I used our trusty dutch oven, which made this dish very easy, as I didn’t have to work about spilling anything when I stirred the ingredients. When I was done, the mixture looked like this (the blurriness of the photo is because of the steam coming off the tomatillos):

Next I stirred in the stock, brought the whole thing to simmer, and simmered for about 10 minutes, until the dish looked like this:

I stirred in the squash and let things simmer away until the squash was nice and soft. At this point, I also started toasting the tortillas in the microwave. I cooked them for two minutes, then flipped them and cooked them for two minutes more. All told, it took about eight minutes and while it was easy, the tortillas got a tiny bit over toasted (not that this affected their taste in any way). Next time, I will put them in the oven – or work in cycles of one minute like the recipe instructs!

The next to last step was to stir in the shredded, poached chicken and let it warm up, which only took a few minutes.

Last but not least, I stirred in the tortilla chips and let them soften a bit.

Kim was in charge of plating and did a beautiful job, garnishing the dish with queso fresco, sliced radishes, and cilantro.

The dish was as delicious as we remembered, with the unique flavor of the tomatillos coming through along with a good bit of heat from the serrano chiles, but not too much. We paired this with a hoppy India Pale Ale, which was a nice counterpoint to the spices in the dish. We made enough to have leftovers and we can’t wait to have them for dinner later this week!

Two at the Table_Menu_Week of September 21 2014

It’s going to be a light week of cooking this week, as we have a pretty busy social schedule. We have a couple of Yankee games this week: Sunday, which is that last game of our season ticket package and Thursday, which will be Derek Jeter’s last home game ever. We have tickets to the ballet on Saturday, so we’ll probably go out to dinner that night. Last but not least, we have some leftovers from last week, so that’s one more night we won’t have to cook.

On Sunday, we’re going to enjoy some of the great cheeses we bought on our trip to Long Island last weekend. We’ll buy some Italian bread on the way home from the game and pair the cheeses up with the last of the smoked bluefish pate from the Southold Fish Market.

On Monday night, we’re making an entirely new recipe for us: Emeril Lagasse’s Escolar Stew with Saffron Broth and Wild Mushrooms. We saw that monkfish was very highly rated on Fresh Direct this week, and when we found this recipe, which allows for monkish to be substituted for escolar and contains wild mushrooms and saffron, we knew we had a winner. We have to thank our friends at Columbus Wine and Spirits for helping us with a very challenging wine pairing.

Since sea scallops were also very highly rated on Fresh Direct, on Tuesday night we’ll make Scallops with Fennel Grenobloise. This will be our first time making this dish and our first time making scallops in quite a while, so we’re really looking forward to it.

On Wednesday, we’ll have the Green Chilaquiles with Chicken and Squash left over from Saturday night. This was a phenomenal dish, so we’re excited to have it again.

Last but not least is Friday night, when we’ll continue our search for the perfect Oktoberfest dinner by making Ellie Krieger’s Sage-Rubbed Pork Chops with Warm Apple Slaw. We’ve had this dish before and enjoyed it very much, but this time we’ll be comparing it to Beer-Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage that we made least week.

Two at the Table_Menu_Week of September 14 2014

We took a day trip out to Greenport, Long Island on Saturday to take a break and make one last run at the farm stands.  We stocked up on local seafood at the Southold Fish Market for the paella we made Saturday (and scored some smoked bluefish pate!) and fresh duck for the duck at one of our favorite farm stands for the duck tacos we made on Sunday. We were also very happy to find some beautiful heirloom tomatoes and corn and very pleasantly surprised to find tomatillos, which we didn’t think grew on Long Island, and some heirloom carrots, all at Long Season Farms. As no trip would be complete for us without a visit to the goats at Catapano Dairy Farm (www.catapanodairyfarm.com), we stopped there and bought a good supply of goat cheese. This week was definitely a case of the ingredients setting the menu, as we really had no dinner ideas until we finished all of our shopping. We have a couple of new things planned plus some variations on old favorites.

On Sunday night, Kim is making Duck Tacos with Chipotle Cherry Salsa and Goat Cheese, a completely new recipe for us. While we’ve made a lot of great dinner using duck breasts (like the Crispy Skinned Duck Breast with a Cherry Sauce and Creamy Spinach and Polenta we made a few weeks ago), we wanted to try something different. We’re going to have the tacos with the fresh corn on the side.

Monday will probably be a busy day without much time for cooking, so we’re keeping it simple. We’ll have some Paella with Seafood, Chicken, and Chorizo left over from Saturday’s dinner and some of the Smoked Bluefish Pate we bought at the Southold Fish Market.

We’ll have more seafood on Tuesday, specifically Grilled Swordfish with Romesco Sauce and Grilled Zucchini. We’re cheating a bit here, as we already have some romesco sauce in the freezer, but it’s not that hard to make, even on a weeknight. We’ll also have a Heirloom Tomato and Goat Cheese salad on the side.

Wednesday night will feature an old favorite: Ina Garten’s Chicken with Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes. We’re putting a very slight spin on this by using lemon-pepper goat cheese instead of herbed goat cheese; we saw this new (new for us at least!) variety of goat cheese at Catapano Dairy Farm and thought it would be perfect in this dish. We’ll roast the beautiful carrots we bought at Long Season Farms to have alongside the chicken.

For the past couple of years, we’ve had a mini Oktoberfest where we’ve sampled a few different varieties of Oktoberfest beer and tried to make dishes that pair well. This year, we’re going to invite a couple of friends over, so we wanted to experiment with a few recipes for main courses to find the perfect one. This week, we’re going to make Beer-Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage, using local red cabbage. Pork tenderloin is a great dish for company as it cooks very quickly and is pretty easy to get right, so we’re hoping this recipe turns out well.

We’ll take a break from cooking on Friday night, but on Saturday night, Tony will make one of the first dishes her ever made for Kim: Green Chilaquiles With Chicken and Squash. We’ll probably need to do a little extra shopping Saturday morning, as an internet outage made it impossible to look up this recipe while we were putting in our Fresh Direct order. Tony made this dish a while ago and he remembers it being easy but requiring a bit of time, so it’s a perfect dish for a Saturday night.

On Sunday, August 31, after a fun time at the Mets game (despite the fact that we are Yankees fans) with our four nephews and Tony’s sister and brother-in-law, and lots of tasty treats at the ballpark, a light dinner was in order. Kim tells how this simple and quick dinner came together.

I had just recently gotten Rachel Khoo’s Sweet & Savoury Pâtes cookbook and was very anxious to try at least one of the recipes. Many thanks to Powell’s Books for getting it from the U.K. and being so speedy!

To make the tapenade, I used a delicious goat’s milk ricotta from Coach Farm and as the recipe suggested, just put everything into a food processor. I used my mini food processor and it was the perfect size. The tapenade was delightful as written and did not need any special adjustments to the amounts of ingredients used.

We enjoyed the tapenade on some crusty bread and paired with some slices of dried Italian sausage for simple, savory dinner.

I can’t wait to make this tapenade again—definitely a great appetizer for guests—as well as many others from Rachel Khoo’s Sweet & Savoury Pâtes cookbook.

Q: How do you decide what to make?

A: A lot of things factor in to how we create our menus. One of the most important is just looking at the Web site of our online grocer, Fresh Direct. They rate all of their veggies, produce, fish, and meat, so if we see something that looks really good, or that’s featured because it’s in season or is on sale, we’ll work around that. We try to have seafood once a week, usually Sunday or Monday (or maybe Tuesday), so that we can use fresh fish and not frozen. We also try to eat vegetarian once a week. We hate to waste food, even herbs, so if we need a bunch of dill or head of cabbage for a recipe one week, we’ll try to find another recipe for later in the same week or early in the next that uses that same ingredient.

There always seems to be one dish on the menu that got there because of a conversation that started with “You know, we haven’t had X in forever”. At the same time, we’re looking at new recipes throughout the week and if we see something new and fun we’ll add that to the menu too. Occasionally, we’ll take a trip somewhere and see ingredients that help us plan a menu, like duck or shellfish or fresh veggies when we take day trips to Long Island. Last but not least, we generally save more complicated dishes for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays because we have more time to cook.