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Sunday Supper

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Dinner Menu: porchetta-style pork chops, roasted tomatoes, fennel and orange salad

Pig: bone-sucking delicious.

Prepped for the grill
Porchetta-style chops, roasted tomatoes, fresh lemon

 

Roasted tomatoes: slow roasting and a shower of blue cheese render waxy winter tomatoes divine.

Fennel & orange salad: refreshing and bright.

Fennel salad

Husband: AWESOME. He took it upon himself to grill the pig in the snow … that’s my man!

 

 

On The Menu

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Saturday

No cooking for me tonight. We are going with friends to check out a restaurant my husband has been clamoring to try. Definitely more to come …

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Sunday

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Monday
    • Asian inspired “rice” bowls with freekeh:  apparently freekeh is the new super grain with more protein than quinoa. I plan to serve bowls of hot freekeh with a buffet of sides and Asian sauces so we can spice up our individual bowls to our liking. Fun fixings as follows:
    • Stir-fried baby bok choy with soy sauce and garlic
    • Soft boiled eggs — I love it when these are soft and gooey in the middle and barely cooked. YUM!
    • Stir-fried tofu and mushrooms with some sort of sauce and heat factor — will figure that out in the kitchen
    • Chopped peanuts, fresh herbs and kimchee
    • My own special hot sauce I like to call Jo Ssam … more to come on that.

 

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Tuesday
  • Stuffed peppers with tomato sauce:  season ground beef or turkey with your favorite spices, add in a bit of rice (or in my case, leftover freekeh) and mix together. Stuff into bell peppers, top with your favorite tomato sauce and bake. I might even sprinkle on a bit of cheese.
  • Roasted cauliflower:  cauliflower florets. Olive oil. Salt and pepper. Blast in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes and you get vegetable candy. Delicious.

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Wednesday
  • Leftovers: freekeh bowls or stuffed peppers, whichever has yet to be transformed into work lunches.

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Thursday

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 Friday

Date night! Wheeeee!

Wine Time

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The 2005 Balletto Pinot Noir was definitely the standout this week. I still have a lot to learn about wine, but I thought it paired beautifully with the simple omelets we enjoyed. This isn’t a wine that’s good just because it’s 10 years old, it’s just darn good. I’ll let the Balletto folks do the describing for me: Balletto 2005 Pinot Noir

We also opened a decent inexpensive wine out of france, which made for a nice, weeknight glass of vino. This was a D’autrefois pinot noir, which was a new one for us. I enjoyed the tart, cranberry-ish flavors and especially loved the low alcohol content at 12.5%. Bottoms up!

 

Whole Fish

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I love whole fish on the grill. Crispy skin, moist meat, a bit of char … oh my. Well, it’s winter and it’s cold, but my craving for whole fish — head and all — doesn’t disappear when grilling season sets. Sometimes I can convince my husband to bundle up and brave the frigid temperatures to tend the grill, but whole fish is just as easy in the oven.

Whole Fish

Whole Fish Wrapped in Grape Leaves: 

Ask your fish monger to clean and scale the fish for you. Bronzino is always a good choice as is red snapper or black bass (above). Salt and pepper the entire fish, stuff with a few lemon slices and fresh herbs, then wrap tightly in grape leaves. The skin certainly won’t crisp up with this method, but you are guaranteed moist fish! Drizzle the whole darn thing with olive oil and bake in a 400 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes (for a 1 1/2 to 2 pound fish). Unwrap and enjoy.

Recipe adapted from the cookbook Zahav by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook

Curry, Curry Everywhere!

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I won’t lie, this was a bit of a project, but definitely worthwhile. Of course, now my house, my clothes and even my kitty smell like curry, but in a good way.

The spiced, curried meatballs were wonderful. I used grass-fed beef at 15% fat and I cannot figure out why they were so incredibly soft and meltingly tender. Perhaps the yogurt folded in with the meat? Regardless — success! These little balls of heaven were flavorful enough on their own, but nestle them into a vat of spicy Indian curry and it’s a showstopper.

Indian meatballs

I paired the meatballs with a curried beet and carrot salad, a sweet and sour tomato chutney and an herbed yogurt sauce. I look forward to making this meal again and serving it to friends for a full review.