Last night was spicy crispy beef and tofu, augmented with a few random ends of vegetables that were starting to wilt in the fridge (a stalk of broccoli, a few leaves of chard, etc.). The flavors of ginger, garlic and hot peppers (in this case, sambal oelek and fresh jalapenos) are so assertive in this dish that you don’t even really taste the vegetables. I made what I thought was enough for 3-4 servings and DH and I polished off the whole pan. Oops.
Tonight will be grilled chicken thighs with a salad and a couple of leftover vegetable sides - I have one serving of Brussels gratin for DH, one serving of tahini cauliflower puree for me. @mariacarmen has me craving blue cheese dressing now so I will have to stop at the store for a wedge of something stinky!
i’ve done it with much shorter marination time, but it really benefits from overnight marinating. and yes, much easier to find these simple ingredients. i hope you love it too - good luck!
Monday night was out to dinner with a friend (who is korean) to a vegan korean restaurant (!) even though she isn’t vegan -or vegetarian- we both really enjoyed our meal. Shared several smaller dishes including these pretty veggie/tofu rolls with a creamy peanut sauce, as well as assorted steamed dumplings, a plate of sizzling mushrooms on a hot plate and a bulgolgi tempeh dish that has now converted her to a tempeh lover! Haha.
I stopped in K-town at H mart on my way home that night. So last night i made some stir fried korean rice cakes with a mysterious sauce i bought- i suspect it’s a meat marinade but the ingredients were vegetarian and it’s tasty. Alongside i had a soybean sprout banchan i bought and a bunch of sliced daikon sprinkled with furikake
The crisis de jour at work meant i didn’t have lunch til about 4pm, worked a bit late and just celebrated my Ripe Avocado Day by schmearing it on half a toasted pumpernickel bagel, hefty dose of everything bagel spice ontop. Odd sides of more soybean sprout banchan and some sliced cucumber with a very thin schmear of my light miso.
It’s a classic in here, personally I like more the cured raw ham, jambon sec
Talking about ham sandwich, Monday and Tuesday night was a ham soup. Cooked ham chopped, garlic and onion chopped, add milk, cream and chicken broth and cook it for 10 minutes. Mixed everything.
Cut up some pieces of bread to make croutons, put slices of Emmental cheese and off to oven until the cheese melt. Slice some pickles and put that on the cheese. Put the crouton in a bowl, add the soup! Yum! Actually it is exactly the same ingredient of the jambon beurre sandwich!
Tonight was an unintentional pulled pork… I think the recipe is Malaysian. I changed the recipe with pork, I cooked 2 hours, and the meat was moist and fallen apart… (@mariacarmen, thanks a lot for your recipe!!)
With the left over rice, which I added eggs and pan fried it to have more of that yummy crisps.
Ate with some peas and beans.
Pork tenderloin with olive oil, minced rosemary, minced garlic, salt and pepper, and orange zest. Roasted until done.
Green grapes, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted alongside the pork tenderloin. Then mashed )when I took the pork tenderloin out of the pan to rest) for a “sauce” with the juices from the pork. Red grapes might have looked better than the green, but I had the green to use up, and the sauce worked out nicely.
Leftover rice. And peas & carrots. Because I wanted peas & carrots.
baked ziti, made with a tub of our now-favorite meat sauce (riffed on from Emeril) from the freezer, to which heavy cream was added while reheating, dried chili flakes, minced fresh basil. more parm reg, full-fat shredded mozz, then into the oven for gooification, broiler for Alongside, the BF’s pretty little salad of endive, cabbage, leek, basil, parsley, toasted pine nuts, blue cheese crumbles, and a little daikon because we had it.
Pappardelle, shrimp, asparagus, and chopped tomatoes in a light lemon-cream sauce with shallots and garlic. Probably plated way more than I should have, but it was shrimp and asparagus.
Flap steak kebabs in a marinade of olive oil, soy sauce, smoked paprika, jalapeno powder, cumin and tons of garlic. Pan roasted cherry tomatoes and baked spaghetti squash with tons of butter and asiago cheese alongside. Portuguese red to drink. Very satisfying meal all around!
An old recipe from a 1959 Good Housekeeping that was updated in the mid-80s is WFD tonight: Mushroom Chicken Imperial, with basmati rice and sauteed spinach with garlic and toasted pine nuts.
Wine.
There’s The Ten Commandments on the flat screen on the night before Easter. As usual. But I’ll probably see what’s On Demand again tonight.
I found some gorgeous asparagus today and then poked around for something to do that was more involved than my usual steam/salt/eat. Found this on food52, i almost followed the recipe but left out the brown sugar and laughed at the 1/4 tsp measure for sesame oil (i have the measuring spoon and it holds almost a drop!) so i just used a little dribble. It was easy to put together and really delicious.
I got the most expensive soy sauce for this. Had to read the label carefully to avoid the kind with all kinds of crap in it. Next time you buy soy sauce try reading the ingredient list and you’ll know why.
It ended up being 84° on Easter in the Boston area. So what did I do? Yep - I turned on the oven to roast a boneless leg of lamb! Because that was our family tradition for Easter dinner. And I didn’t turn on the A/C - but I did pull out a couple of room fans for the living room and bedroom for later.
Lamb was rubbed with minced fresh rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Roasted at 450° for 20 minutes, then finished at 325° until registering 140° on an instant read thermometer.
Baby potatoes were steamed and then roasted in the convection oven after being tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of Herbs de Provence. Green beans were steamed. Wine was served, and since I didn’t make a dessert, some Cuarenta y Tres was the afters.
Gratuitous pics of some Easter iris and tulips, and a thoroughly unimpressed Alfalfa. Although he did appreciate ALL of the open windows. And almost went out through the slider screen to chase a bird who landed on the deck railing. Eejit.
Today was like summer- it was in the low 80s! My good friends decided to have a brunch bbq on the terrace and i volunteered to come early and help. I brought some gorgeous asparagus and eggs which i then turned into delived eggs for an appetizer- not really my thing but they were gobbled up quickly and people seemed to love them. (Only photo i took apparently)
I made the salad (massaged kale salad that my friend the hostess loves) while she made burger patties. They grilled burgers and had those on brioche buns
I had entirely too much sparkling rose, an assortment of grilled asparagus, bell pepper, salad and some of the thick corn tortilla chips.
I was full, tipsy, and ready for my nap by 5pm!
I wanted something and just steamed a big pile of edamame, sprinkled with flakey salt. Side of sliced cucumber and baby carrots with furikake
