I’m an off the cuff cook most of the time. Look in the freezer and fridge and ask myself what can I put together. I’m think there are are few of us around here. Tonight was a perfect example. Wife’s working on an art project inside and I’m outside in the pool house on guitar jamming to old rock and roll. Play lead like I cook. Can’t read a note but my fingers tend to find their way most of the time. Most of all I have a good time.
Tonight I looked in the kitchen and found some mini peppers that had seen better days, half a shallot, a few mini yellow tomatoes, some sliced mango and romaine. In the freeze I had a small vac bag of Patagonian scallops. Got to work and sliced it all up and seasoned the scallops. Cooked up the shallots, most of the tomatoes and peppers with the mango to make a cooked “salsa” then hit the scallops with Wondra ( I love this stuff) and gave them a quick flash in the pan. Toasted some corn tortillas on the camal, layered it all up and it was dinner. There is a certain gratification of turning very little into something tasty
Kitchen projects galore today. Started a pork shoulder sous vide at 165 for dinner tomorrow. Making some bacon jam to eat with eggs throughout the week. Deviled eggs for snacks. And there will be Buffalo wings later. A veritable festival of meat!
Prime boneless rib eye from Costco . I pre salted it and into the fridge for 24 hr. Will cook in ci along with a couple garlic cloves and a sprig of rosemary .Sautéed zucchini matchsticks . Cannellini beans cooked with a small piece of ham and fresh bay leaves . A bottle of red to drink
Someone on eGullet did something interesting and smoked can tuna. I thought that’s brilliant and gave it a try using my electric smoker outside. Worked really well. Used it to make a mayo based tuna salad. Maded some corn fritters to go with it
Scooby , I have a electric smoker . What’s the trick to making the smoked tuna ? Sounds fantastic . It will put a twist on the perciatelli with tuna and capers I’m going to make tomorrow .
Another really hot day here. I made the nytimes version of persian yogurt soup this morning and let it chill all day, i just used 1/4 raisins since I didn’t want too many in there. Really excellent, loved the walnuts in it- will definitely be a repeat recipe
Drained and dumped a couple of cans of albacore on foil folded into a tray. Broke it up a little and placed it on a perforated foil pan and tossed it in the smoker with apple chips for a couple hours. Temp was around 170. Enough to keep the chips smoking. Let it cool a bit then made a tuna salad with it and tossed it in the fridge. The smoke flavor developed further as it cooled. Nothing earth shaking but it was a twist on canned tuna that made it different and delicious.
Busy morning getting dinner ready for a friend, who became a Mom on Friday night! She’s bringing her new daughter home from the hospital this afternoon, so we’re stopping by later to stock her fridge and freezer. Thanks to the advice of you HOs, I made a couple of baguettes, a rhubarb streusel coffee cake, some chicken salad (grilled chicken, red peppers, scallions, kalamatas, feta, thyme and parsley in a garlic mayo dressing), stuffed shells (half with spinach, half with sausage) and a platter of deviled eggs. Hopefully that will keep Mom and Dad happy for a while, as well as any guests that might stop by!
I got the idea of putting canned tuna ( AS do Mar brand packed in olive oil ) in the smoker from Scuba…do . From this I am going to make Bucatini with tuna and capers . I’ll sauté a little red onion , garlic , anchovy , and fennel bulb together . Then add some tomato puree . I like the Mutti brand from Italy . Cook for a couple minutes . Then add the smoked tuna and capers with some red pepper flake . Cook another couple minutes , toss in some parsley when finished . Onto the bucatini . I am thinking of maybe tossing some toasted bread crumbs over the dish and garnish with a few Castelvetrano olives .
I found some cooked lentils in my freezer this morning and made the first part of this recipe that i love where they are left to marinate and soak up a lot of flavor. For dinner i chopped up and added in cucumber, radishes, green onion, some yellow bell pepper, a handful of salad greens and some hemp seeds. Looking forward to leftovers for lunches
Friday night the BF made dinner, kinda on the fly, and he wasn’t all that happy with it, but i thought it was pretty good! duck/bacon sausage, which we always love, broccolini he braised with some of my fino sherry (fab!) and a smashed potato/goat cheese side dish. also tasty.
last night i split a cheese plate with 3 other friends and had too many drinks. came home, crammed another piece of cheese in my mouth and passed out, still hungry.
tonight i made paella with chorizo cantimpalo, morcilla, mussels, and ñora peppers. despite it turning out really tasty, it could definitely have used more paprika, salt, sausage, etc. More oomph. leftovers will be fixed and served up as dinner another night this week. salad consisted of red leaf lettuce, shallots, radicchio, and radishes in a walnut oil/sherry vinegar vinaigrette. a little of my favorite Beso del Sol (boxed sangria - so incredibly good), as hair of the dog.
also prepped a ground pork/coconut/black bean/pineapple juice mixture for tacos tomorrow night. it tasted a bit bland to me, but may the flavors will have married a by bit tomorrow. if not, i’m going to stir in a bit of fish sauce while it’s heating.
A mini-vacation on Cape Cod over the weekend. A much needed break from “stuff”. So I’ll do an @mariacarmen to catch up.
Out to dinner with a small group of friends on Friday night - I chose Orange-Glazed Salmon with Broccoli (they could have left off the mandarin orange slices). But it was good, and the company was fun.
Saturday was breakfast out on my own at my favorite diner in Falmouth; met up with some other friends for lunch and had a lobster roll and a frozen mango margarita. The 'rita was great. The lobster roll pretty told me I can no longer eat lobster – or at least THIS much lobster – as I almost didn’t make the party in the evening. I ended up making it but only had a couple of rolls to eat before my tummy settled down. I was able to drink some of my sangria and had a bit of cake at the end of the evening.
I recovered on Sunday morning to head back to my favorite diner with friends for some French Toast.
Fortification for the drive home. Sunday night’s dinner was Skinny Orange Chicken (a bit too much teriyaki sauce and cornstarch; the sauce was a bit gloopy - will add a sploosh or water or wine for leftovers).
Spent today doing errands without weekend crazy drivers on the road; got caught in a fast and hard rainstorm as I was loading stuff into the car. Rained in one town; didn’t in another. Tonight’s dinner was planned after seeing that my local farm stand had "local corn (from Hadley, MA)- Steak tips in Firecracker marinade and grilled, finished in the oven to a perfect medium-rare; half a FrankenTater with butter, salt, pepper, chives, and sour cream on the side, and one of the local COTC, Wine - fortification for going back to work tomorrow.
Patagonian scallops? Interesting! We were in Argentinian Patagonia and Ushuaia about 3 years ago and never encountered scallops. What’s the story, Morning Glory? Did we miss out on something big?!
Sorry about your distress post-lobster roll, but it looks amazing. Falmouth is not a town on the Cape we normally stop by, but that photo might cause us to make a pitstop.
