Oops …

I am a bad, bad food blogger. I ignored my own Tuesday night menu in favor of going out to dinner last night instead. I was too tired after work to deal with chopping vegetables, making a sauce and poaching eggs. Although, if I am completely honest with myself, the real reason was simply that I needed meat. After several days of vegetarian-ish meals, I was desperate to sink my carnivorous teeth into meat. Any meat! All meat! Preferably something beefy and bloody. Ahhhh, I found my satisfaction at Blue Hill Tavern, our favorite neighborhood restaurant.

As usual, Blue Hill did not disappoint. We love cozying up to the bar and enjoying their spectacular happy hour specials as much as we enjoy sitting down to a lovely, leisurely meal in the dining room (the Chateaubriand for two is one of our favorites). Last night, however, was a casual bar night. I had a hankering for their chopped salad followed by a bowl of the Spanish beef soup. This soup is beefy, tomatoey, spicy and absolutely perfect on a cold night. My husband, after contemplating between his two usual favorites — the Kobe beef burger and the crispy calamari salad — went with the squid. Clearly, he did not share my overwhelming desire  for a dose of meat. Traitor. Although, to be fair, he likely was still recovering from his “homemade” canned chicken nachos on Super Bowl Sunday. We are both looking forward to returning to Blue Hill soon to sample some of the new menu items, particularly the whole fish, blackened tuna and veal chop. That is, of course, if we can pass up the Chateaubriand.

So clearly, I nixed my original plan to dine on Tunisian poached eggs in favor of a bowl of meat. Oh well, it happens. Expect the dish to surface on another menu soon, especially since I already made the harissa sauce.  I promise to get back into the kitchen tonight.

Soup, Salad & Mussels Night

Please see my Weekly Menu sidebar for all of the following recipes.

Velvety cauliflower soup
Yum! I love this first course soup. It is such a beautiful color and seems so sinfully creamy despite containing only olive oil and a curl of Parmesan cheese on top (the original recipe does call for butter, but I have made both versions and cannot tell the difference). Toss in a few seared scallops and you have yourself an elegant main course.

Creamy cauliflower soup with Parmesan cheese curls

Creamy cauliflower soup with Parmesan cheese curls

Kale salad with feta & orange vinaigrette
My favorite thing about this salad? You can make the entire thing ahead and it gets even better after a few days in the fridge. Leftovers make terrific lunches with grilled chicken, poached salmon or tuna. This also packs a serious vitamin, fiber and antioxidant punch.

Kale salad with roasted squash

Kale salad with roasted squash

Mussels with tomatoes, anise & wine
So fast and easy. Just be sure to allow the bivalves to breathe so they don’t die on you and cook them the same day you buy them. Vary the sauce by using onions instead of fennel, red wine instead of white or butter, garlic and broth in place of the tomatoes and anise liqueur.

Mussels swimming in Pernod

Mussels swimming in Pernod

Vegetarian Super Bowl

I hadn’t originally planned on making a vegetarian curry this week. However, when I overheard my husband on the phone, sweetly offering up his “chicken” nachos to our vegan friend hosting a Super Bowl shindig, I had to step in with something. As an aside, I do use the word “chicken” here loosely given that my sweetie pie likes to dump CANNED chicken over his nachos. I guarantee you, If a vegan is going to cheat, it most certainly won’t be with chicken out of a can.

 
But I digress. The Penang curry came out warm and comforting in all of its vegetable glory, but I am looking forward to tossing in shrimp or chicken chunks when we enjoy the leftovers. I do admit, however, that I completely ignored the recipe. I used homemade curry paste in addition to a squirt of sambal oelek, omitted the peanut butter and added kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, broccoli and shiitake mushrooms. I ladled the whole mess over brown rice and served it with small bowls of freshly toasted coconut, crushed peanuts and lime wedges.

Penang vegetable curry

Penang vegetable curry

Weekly Menu — 2/3/2013

Week of February 3rd

Sunday:
  • Penang vegetable curry  we are headed to a Super Bowl gathering hosted by a vegan, so I’ll be giving tofu a whirl in this dish.  I have chunks of homemade Penang curry paste in the freezer to pull out and use, but any brand of your favorite red curry paste will work for this dish. These types of curries are very forgiving, so use any vegetables you have on hand and dial-up the heat factor with more curry paste and less coconut milk. Certainly add shrimp or chicken to turn this into a meat-lovers dish. Set out dishes of crushed peanuts, lime wedges and coconut shavings as toppings. 
  • Brown rice

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Monday:
  • Cauliflower soup with truffle salt and Parmesan curls: make this on Sunday and it’s easy to whip out on a weeknight. This is a lovely, easy soup. I omit the butter and just use olive oil and like to swap out the chives for fresh tarragon. Sometimes I roast the cauliflower rather than simmer it for a more robust, earthy flavor. Makes great leftovers as well. 
  • Mussels with tomatoes, anise and wine: I like to swap fennel for the onion and add toasted fennel seeds as the raw fennel cooks. Serve with hunks of sourdough bread for dunking
  • Raw kale salad with roasted vegetables, feta and orange vinaigrette:  my husband, who swears he hates kale, actually loves this salad. The recipe calls for beets and barley, but I sometimes swap in roasted butternut squash and parsnips instead. I also often use dried orange peel in place of freshly grated orange peel as I always have the dried version handy in the pantry. This makes delicious leftover lunches topped with grilled chicken or tuna. 

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Tuesday:

Homemade Harissa

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Wednesday:
  • Prosciutto-wrapped halibut: this is just as it sounds. Take a hunk of fresh halibut, rub flesh with olive oil, any fresh herbs on hand (such as tarragon and thyme) and salt & pepper. Wrap fish in 2 to 3 slices of prosciutto and pan sear until crispy – about 2 minutes per side. Leave fish in the pan and transfer to a 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes. You can also make a quick pan sauce with drippings by adding chopped shallots, a splash of white wine and a swirl of butter. 
  • Simple green salad with balsamic-Dijon vinaigrette

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Thursday:
  • Leftover Penang curry

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Friday:
  • Out to try a new restaurant with friends!

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Homemade Harissa

Homemade Harissa

1 to 2 TBSP ancho chili powder
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBSP tomato paste
1 TSP sea-salt
2 TSP toasted ground coriander
1 TSP toasted ground caraway
1 TSP cayenne pepper, or more to taste
fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Grind all ingredients except lemon juice in a mortar and pestle or food processor. Add lemon juice to taste. Store in a  glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Will keep in the refrigerator for at least a month.

Recipe from Joyce Goldstein’s Mediterranean Fresh cookbook