Turmeric-Black Pepper Chicken with Asparagus

 

A search for what to do with some leftover asparagus led me to this recipe from the New York Times Cooking pages. Everything was cooked in my indispensable cast-iron skillet.

After cutting chicken breasts into small pieces and tossing with a mixture of flour, turmeric and salt I cooked them with some oil for three minutes on each side. Chopped asparagus was added and then a mixture of water, honey, and pepper. Lastly some rice vinegar was added.

A relatively quick, easy, delicious, and nutritious weeknight dinner.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

 The description of this New York Times recipe begins "Skillet cookies are perfect for lazy nights when everyone wants something sweet but no one wants to work that hard for it." This really was much easier and faster than making a batch of cookies. I will probably never make regular chocolate chip cookies again. I had everything I needed in the pantry, and the cookie baked beautifully in my indispensable cast-iron skillet. Some friends had invited me to dinner and I offered to bring dessert. This was well received, especially when topped with vanilla ice cream - after all it was National Ice Cream Day!

photo from New York Times Cooking Pages

One-Pot Vegan Tomato Basil Spinach Pasta

 

This recipe comes from The Ordinary Vegan  webpage. The print out I have is dated June 24, 2015. I found it stuffed between some other things on my cookbook shelf. I have no recollection of how I originally came across this recipe, but when it fell into my hands recently I realized I had everything I needed to make it, so I did. 

 

Although the recipe calls for linguine, I used some tri-colored bow-tie pasta we bought recently at a fancy-schmancy food store while we were traveling in the mid-west. The preparation was easy and quick. Just about everything went into the pot at the start, even the dry pasta. The pot was covered and the liquid was brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer. The only real prep work was slicing the onion and garlic cloves. The only thing that went in later was the spinach, which was added after seven minutes of cooking. Since this is a vegan dish it did not call for any cheese, but we like cheese so we added a bit of feta to each of our plates.

This had a very peppery flavor, which we both liked. From start to table was about 25 minutes. Easy, quick, delicious.

Cod Almondine

A visit from our Chicago-dwelling adult child always necessitates a fresh-seafood dish. We selected the Roasted White Fish with Lemony Almondine from the New York Times cooking pages for his most recent return. This was simple to prepare, and packed a lot of flavor. Cod filets were placed in a 450 degree oven with a bit of butter for about 10 minutes. While the fish cooked 6 T of butter were browned on the stovetop, and then almonds were added along with lemon juice, lemon zest, and chives along with some salt and pepper. The almond sauce was poured over the cooked fish and served. Roasted potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms were served on the side.

Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms in Miso Butter

When our adult child was visiting recently he made us a meal featuring noodles and miso sauce. We still had some of the miso paste so when this recipe from the New York Times Cooking pages showed up on my Facebook feed I put it on the schedule for this week's dinners.

 I halved the recipe for the mushrooms and scrambled only four eggs as only two of us were eating. This was quick and easy. I tried the method described for giving the eggs a "custardy finish" which worked well. James and I both liked the eggs prepared this way. We will never go back.

Pretty Easy Pasta

Sometimes the most important thing I'm looking for in a meal is what I can prepare without buying any additional ingredients. Yesterday was snowy and I had no desire to go out for any reason, but especially not shopping. 365 Ways to Cook Pasta to the rescue! We had a partial box of spaghetti so I flipped through some recipes and found Spaghetti with Walnuts and Parmesan which I was able to prepare in less than 15 minutes.

While the pasta cooked I coated the bottom of my indispensable cast-iron skillet with olive oil and minced and sautéed a garlic clove. After about a minute I added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and sautéed a few more minutes. Once the pasta was cooked and drained I mixed the contents of the skillet into the pasta and added shredded Parmesan cheese and some dried parsley. Simple, fast, and delicious. James and I were both impressed with the especially nutty flavor.

Pasta and Poppies

We had bought a large bag of spinach leaves at Costco last week in order to make a family favorite: Mashed Potato Casserole (which is detailed on this post) while our adult child was visiting. There was still an awful lot of spinach so we had been looking for ways to use it before it spoiled. I found this super simple recipe in our good ol' 365 Ways to Cook Pasta. 

There are only six ingredients in this one: butter, garlic, spinach, poppy seeds, fettuccini, and shredded Parmesan cheese. 

While the pasta cooked, I crushed a garlic clove and added it to 4 T of melted butter in the indispensable cast-iron skillet and sautéed. The spinach was went in next and cooked until wilted, then 1 T of poppy seeds was added. Once the pasta was cooked it was tossed in a bowl with the spinach mixture, topped with the Parmesan and served with some crusty bread. I imagine this would pair well with a buttery Chardonnay, but we had it with Malbec because...Malbec.

Photo added by James, who did nothing for this meal except shopping
and eating, but who wanted to give this post a bit of color.
Lacking a photo of the meal,   I found this other
poppy reference, with Miss Judy Garland.

Pam's first fried rice

Serendipity is sometimes what brings us to try something new. This week it was a recipe on my Facebook feed from New York Times cooking that featured fried rice with bacon. I heavily modified this to something I could make without doing any additional shopping. We had leftover cooked rice and some uncooked bacon. The recipe also calls for cabbage and scallions, which I did not have so I did not use. 

I began by cutting the bacon into small pieces and cooking in olive oil in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. When the bacon was cooked I removed it and then put in 4 minced garlic cloves which I sauteéd for about a minute and then added them to the bowl with the bacon bits. 

Next I added some olive oil to the pan and then spread the rice in a layer on the bottom of the pan. I added Worcestershire Sauce, salt, and some ground ginger. I let it cook until it became crispy, then stirred it a bit and let it cook just a bit more after re-spreading it then folded in the bacon and garlic along with some sliced carrots and frozen peas. 

As the rice was finishing I quickly cooked four over-easy eggs. The rice was divided onto two plates and two eggs were placed on top of each.

We were pleased with the meal. Easy, nutritious, delicious.

Chicken with Walnuts

A quick recipe from a classic cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book) this used several leftover ingredients that I had in my refrigerator including two half bell peppers (one green, and one orange) and 3 scallions. 

I started by slicing two chicken breasts into about 20 pieces and then slicing the peppers, and scallions. Everything was set aside while I made the sauce which consisted of what was left in my bottle of soy sauce (the recipe says 3 T), 2 t cornstarch, a bit of port wine (in lieu of cooking sherry), a sugar cube, a bit of ground ginger, salt, and crushed red pepper. 

Using my indispensable cast-iron skillet I first sautéed the chopped vegetables for two minutes on high heat with orange-infused olive oil (I chose this flavor cooking oil because the recipe lists kumquats as an option for serving). The veggies were removed and then a cup of chopped walnuts were given a turn in the skillet for one minute. They were removed and then the chicken strips were cooked in the skillet. Once they were cooked through (it only took a few minutes) the sauce was added and then the vegetables and walnuts were put back in. Everything was covered and cooked together for another minute. 

We had some leftover lemon rice with almonds which we heated in the microwave oven and served with the chicken. 

An easy, delicious, and nutritious weeknight meal.

Oeuf Mayo (Egg Mayo)

In honor of Bastille Day James and I had a simple French dish for lunch. Oeuf Mayo showed up on my Facebook feed from the New York Times Cooking Pages. According to NYT the description "it's so beloved in France that it has a society to protect it." As with so many recipes from the New York Times the name of the dish tells the ingredients. In this case eggs and mayo. The recipe says you can use either store-bought mayo and spice it up or make it yourself. I made mayonnaise one time many years ago and decided not to do it again. Vegetable oil (rather than olive oil) seems to be especially important when making your own mayo, and I only had olive oil. I added some fresh parsley and basil from my garden to a few tablespoons of Hellmann's along with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper. I spooned the mayo over the eggs and then added paprika as an additional seasoning. It was a super easy dish to make, but I think I prefer my eggs and mayo as egg salad. We had some mozzarella slices on the side and a crusty french bread (made fresh in our bread machine) to complement the eggs.

Those who have read my very first post know that this blog was inspired by one of my Spanish professors. I was a Spanish major as an undergraduate, and also have a Master's degree in Spanish literature. However, we both also know a bit of French. I learned the language by attending French classes up through the advanced level in college. James has learned mostly by the use of the Duolingo app over the past year - a pandemic project. We actually met in French 101 back in college. It is still a wonder to me how we ever ended up together given James' super poor attendance record in the class.

Gochugaru Salmon with Crispy Rice

When this recipe from the New York Times Cooking pages showed up on my Facebook feed along with a colorful photograph I decided to find out what Gochugaru was (a Korean pepper spice) and find out where I could get such in order to prepare this dish. My husband and adult child went looking locally, both online and irl but struck out, so we resorted to Amazon. The spice arrived just in the knick of time before we left for a long weekend at our near-the-beach house. The salmon was (naturally) purchased at our favorite fishmonger Kyler's Catch Seafood Market. 

This was pretty quick to make. The most time consuming part was waiting for the rice to cook. We only had brown rice, so it took a bit longer than the white rice that the recipe calls for. Once the rice was cooked it was "crisped" in the same pan that the fish cooked in, and then the same pan was used again to make the sauce.

As promised in the original recipe this had a sweet, fruity taste. We all enjoyed this meal and will definitely make again. We will also look for other recipes using this spice.

Eggs Benedict for Father's Day

On the rare occasions that I eat breakfast out I look for Eggs Benedict on the menu. It is one of those things that I (for some reason) believed I could not make at home. I had never even bothered to look up the ingredients to Hollandaise sauce, never mind how easy it was to make. It was a package of Canadian bacon in a recent Crescent Ridge delivery that prompted me to see what I needed to do to make Eggs Benedict at home. Turns out the answer is "not much". We already had the eggs and English muffins and the only ingredients needed for Hollandaise sauce are egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper. I used this recipe from The Kitchn to make it. 

Father's Day breakfast was a big hit. We recommend adding a dash of hot sauce when serving.

Super Simple Spicy Salmon

 On Thursdays we eat pink - pink salmon that is! 

When we bought our near-the-beach house six years ago we had the intention of going there together on Thursday nights when James had his rowing night, and then having a fresh, home-cooked seafood dinner together before heading back to our primary residence in Bridgewater. 

It has not always worked as intended, and this past year (plus) even less so as rowing was shut down. Last night we were back to business as (almost) usual with a stop a Kyler's Catch to pick up some salmon before James went off with his rowing buddies at Whaling City Rowing. Our super wonderful adult child is visiting so we enjoyed a family meal together. We selected an easy recipe from the New York Times Cooking pages: Four-Spice Salmon. 

We had all of the four spices called for (coriander, cloves, cumin, and nutmeg) in our spice rack, so once we had the salmon we were good to go. The only additional ingredients were salt and pepper and butter. I used lemon-pepper seasoning and some coconut-infused sea salt from Saltopia. I seasoned both sides with all the spices (although the recipe only says to do one side) then cooked on the stovetop in butter about 3 minutes per side. I served with super simple sautéed squash. This paired well with an oaky Malbec. 

Final verdict: Three thumbs up!

Two-ingredient cream cheese pancakes (aka "scrambled crepes")

James usually makes us waffles on the weekend, but this Saturday we decided that our big project would be cleaning up our yard after a wind storm blew a tree onto our backyard shed. A friend had posted this recipe on Facebook last week and since we had the two ingredients necessary (cream cheese and eggs) to make these pancakes I told James I would make this super-simple breakfast instead. I used about twice as much cream cheese than called for (4 ounces), but stuck with the same number of eggs (2). It still didn't really make much batter. I put the two ingredients into the blender and mixed them well, then poured the batter directly into my hot skillet. I attempted to make two pancakes to start, which only meant that I ended up with two "first pancakes". They looked more like scrambled eggs than pancakes. I made two more that wound up a bit more pancake shaped, and then that was it for the batter. I decided not to take pictures of this less-than-appetizing looking meal. If you click the link above you'll see what they were supposed to look like, but mine did not turn out in the crepe-like manner depicted at all. We each ate one "first pancake" and one "second pancake" topped with jam and powdered sugar. They weren't bad, but not worth making again. In the future I will either eat scrambled eggs or pancakes.

BLT Pasta

This easy dish is just what it sounds like, and perhaps better than it deserves to be. When I asked Pam for suggestions about dinner, she found this NYT recipe in her saved list, and remembered that local bacon was in the freezer from a recent delivery.

The Hiram

The ingredients are few, and I did not worry too much about proportions. As I have seen with other recipes involving spinach, I rightly guessed that the entire 5-ounce bag of arugula would reduce to a reasonable size as it wilted, though writer Colu Henry was correct that it was a bit unwieldy at first, even in Hiram, our rather large indispensable cast-iron skillet. At that stage, rather than stirring in the traditional sense, I lifted large spoonfuls of the pasta from the perimeter of the pan and set it in the center, repeating until regular stirring was manageable.

The recipe also has few steps, but the third step reads like an entire tango. I simplified this a bit, adding the bacon all at once and the reserved pasta liquid as I saw fit. I did not note emulsification or glossiness, but nonetheless had a good sense of when the sauce was ready.

This dish scores very well on the delicious-nutritious-easy-cheap trade-off matrix. My selection of quality local ingredients made it slightly less cheap but still quite reasonable. This paired nicely with a side dish of fresh local strawberries and a well-chilled Pinot Grigio. We are looking forward to the cold leftovers today!

Dying phone battery made for a fuzzy photo of this pleasing dish.

Cod Almondine

When I mentioned that I would be stopping by our favorite fishmonger on the way home, Pam quickly found a NYT recipe for Fish with Toasted Almonds. Nigella Lawson recommends cod or "any other meaty white fish" but since I was headed to Kyler's, I knew I could find an excellent cut of the real deal.

Dining outside, with our fish-themed placemats!

The fillet I purchased was skinless, so the skin-up/skin-down question -- debated in the recipe comments section -- was moot. My only other departure from the recipe was to use our well-seasoned, indispensable cast-iron skillet instead of a non-stick pan. My only hesitation in using this pan for fish is that it can retain fishiness, but it is seasoned well enough that a quick scrubbing with salt (never detergent or soap) will leave it ready for the next dish. I did wait until the oil and butter were bubbling nicely before adding the fillet, so it cooked pretty quickly.

I prepared simple sides of petite peas and penne with a bit of cheese and parsley. The preparation of the fish was so fast that I should have gotten the pasta water boiling before I even toasted the almonds. The result was a delicious meal -- a bit expensive because top-quality cod is not cheap -- but very good on the nutritious-delicious-easy-cheap trade-off matrix. And in reality, it was not much more expensive than fast food.

I cannot buy cod at Kyler's without commenting on the boats tied up outside.
Federal marshals are leasing part of Kyler's pier to impound two ships belonging
to the notorious Carlos Rafael, the "Codfather" who cheated the entire industry
and the ocean itself over many years. While he sits in prison, the honest fishery
folks in New Bedford and beyond continue to recover from his frauds.

Salmon Provençal

Lucky Day -- my
fishmonger
ticket showed
my birthday
#Maythe4thbewithyou

As we have started spending most weekends (and the occasional weekday evening) at our Fairhaven house near maritime New Bedford -- where we even have a favorite fishmonger -- it is rare for us to eat seafood at our landlocked home in Bridgewater. It is even rarer that we would buy seafood here, so far (almost 20 miles) from the ocean. (This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but increasingly true.)

Every once in a while, though, circumstances lead to me bringing some seafood to Bridgewater, and when I suggested that I might do so today, Pam looked up a couple of NY Times salmon recipes she had saved. When she read the ingredients list to me, I decided to try Provençal Salmon With Fennel, Rosemary and Orange Zest. The recipe's title is essentially its shopping list, though I'm not sure what it has to do with Provence. 

Fennel, rosemary, orange zest

I followed the recipe rather carefully, including asking the expert at Kyler's Catch to skin the salmon fillet I had chosen. I do not bother with this step when grilling, but since the recipe called for it, I did so, and I learned previously that the combination of super-sharp knife and years of experience means that the job is done quickly and efficiently in the shop.

For the two of us, I used a single, one-pound fillet. I did not divide it until the very end, when I tested it for doneness. Whenever I divide a fillet, by the way, I do so crosswise so that we both end up with the same curve from thick to thin.

I preheated the oven to 400F and then combined the titular flavorings in a small bowl after grinding and mincing them myself. The combined aroma was so beautiful that I paused to take the bowl to Pam so she could appreciate a wafting before the cooking began.

Ready for a hot pan

I lightly applied salt and pepper to both sides of the fillet, and then pressed the spice mixture into one side, being careful to cover it. I then heated our indispensable cast-iron skillet and added oil and butter, heating a bit further. I could have let the pan get just a bit hotter, but it was sizzling decently when I put the fillet in -- orange-spice side down. I carefully flipped it after just over a minute, and a nice crust had indeed formed.

The recipe calls for a non-stick skillet, but seasoned cast-iron is preferable to the Teflon-style coatings, especially since this goes into the oven once the bottom has been seared and the fillet turned once. I kept this in the oven for 6 minutes before dividing it to check doneness. It was perfect after a total of 8 minutes.

Sizzling, crusty side up

The result: even though this was quick and easy, it was among the best salmon dish we have made, and we have made a lot of salmon dishes. This paired beautifully with mashed potatoes (which I prepared using a technique Pam recently posted), an orange (from whence I had garnered the zest), and Malbec. 

Lagniappe

I don't know how I failed to include a map in the original post! Provence is the southeast coast of France, nestled against the Mediterranean and Italy.

Skillet Pasta with Summer Squash, Ricotta, and Basil

A wonderful summer dish this one showed up on my Facebook feed a few weeks ago. I followed this one pretty closely. I think the only thing I did different was cooking the pasta in a separate pan while I sauteed the onions, garlic, and squash. We served this as a side dish with a T-bone steak we cooked on the Big Green Egg. A lovely meal.

How a Marylander Makes Crab Cakes

We love crab cakes, but rarely get to enjoy them. We will only order crab cakes when we are in Maryland because Maryland knows from crab cakes. If you are at a restaurant that is not in Maryland and the menu says "Maryland style crab cakes" do not order them. Real Maryland crab cakes are made with lump crab meat, and lots of it. What is generally served in states Other-than-Maryland (OTM) is some kind of soggy cracker slab with essence of crab.

Phillip's restaurant  makes a frozen prepared crab cake available in some grocery stores that is close enough to what we can get when we dine there that we can sometimes enjoy a taste of Maryland without having to travel there. We have also attempted to make crab cakes ourselves from scratch on a few occasions, but were never satisfied with the results. I decided to give homemade crab cakes another try, though, when I saw this recipe from Old Bay. Old Bay is as much a part of Maryland as are crab cakes themselves. And we recently discovered that our favorite fishmonger carries canned lump crab meat (although it is from China, not Maryland). These are really easy to make. Note that the recipe calls for one pound of lump crab meat, and that this ingredient dominates the others. It constitutes not just simply a plurality, but a clear majority of the ingredients.

The recipe makes four crab cakes and calls for either boiling or frying. I made two at a time. For the first meal I used the frying method, and broiled for the second batch a few days later. I had a definite preference for the broiling, and it was quicker (although neither method takes much time) However, both versions turned out a bit drier than I would have liked. More experimenting is in order.

Pasta with Grapes

It's not that we haven't been preparing new recipes of late, it's just that we haven't done a very good job blogging about them. We're finally catching up on our most recent cooking adventures. This recipe comes from the Intercourses cookbook and was quite simple. The recipe calls for pasta spirals. We found a kale, beet, and butternut squash pasta spiral mix at Savas Liquors in Middleboro, Massachusetts which turned out to be a great choice. To the cooked pasta we added some wedges of goat cheese, a handful of seedless grapes, chopped basil (not in the recipe, but it is never wrong to add basil), romaine lettuce (in lieu of watercress), two chopped scallions, zest and juice of one orange, and a bit of olive oil. The cheese melted onto the hot pasta, and blended with the other ingredients to create a sweet, creamy (and rather sensual) dish.