Weekly Menu — 1/28/13

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Week of January 28th

We just returned from a cruise yesterday, so expect a very stream-lined and easy menu this week.

Monday:
  • Slow-cooker pork chile verde (I made this before our trip and kept it in the freezer so I wouldn’t be scrambling for dinner our first week back).
  • Freshly made guacamole
  • Crisp green salad with feta cheese, toasted pepitas and a spicy lime vinaigrette (whisk lime juice, oil and sriracha sauce to taste. Add salt and pepper and there is your salad dressing).

Pork Chile Verde Recipe: 

This is crazy easy and is open to all sorts of interpretation:

Toss into a slow cooker the following: 1 to 2 pounds cubed boneless pork loin, several cans of diced green chile peppers, 1 diced white onion & 1 to 2 jars of your favorite green salsa. Add a sprinkle or two of ground cumin, 1 cup of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of beer. Stir. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 6. I like to serve it with loads of fresh chopped cilantro, cubed feta cheese, warm corn tortillas and sliced pickled jalapenos.

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Tuesday:
  • Whole wheat pasta with a quick pomodoro sauce
  • Shaved fennel and butter lettuce salad with garbonzo beans and sherry wine vinegar

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Wednesday:
  • Pan-seared fish (whatever looks fresh at the fish market on the way home from work)
  • Wilted garlic spinach
  • Roasted spiced butternut squash

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Thursday:
  • Leftover chile verde
  • Green salad

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 Friday:
  • Dinner out!

Crispy Duck — Quack!

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This recipe was my first foray into playing with duck and it’s one I go back to again and again. It’s truly easy enough for a weeknight meal and elegant enough for a dinner party. The sauce can be made days ahead so you aren’t stuck trying to monkey around with a pan sauce while guests are seated at your dinner table. In fact, I have made the sauce in double batches and often freeze half to pull out later when I spot a fresh duck at the market.

The only trick with this one is coaxing out all of that quack fat to render the skin crispy crunchy, which, let’s face it, is the best part of any feathered creature on our plates.  What I love about this dish, however, is that the fabulous sauce makes up for just about any mistake with the duck. Limp duck skin? No problem, ladle on that sauce. Just past the perfect rosy medium rare? Sauce to the rescue. Skin charred black? Peel it off and dump on the sauce. This is nearly a fool-proof recipe. Whether you’ve tackled duck 100 times in your kitchen or have shied away from our web-footed friend, give this dish a whirl.

Crispy Duck & "Celery Root" Remoulade

Crispy Duck with Pomegranate Chile Sauce & “Celery Root” Remoulade

I know some of you are wondering why the remoulade is fluorescent yellow. If you are not wondering, you should be. Alas, Whole Foods did not have celeriac available and thus, I substituted golden beets and rutabagas. I do not recommend trying this at home.

Roasted Greek Shrimp

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This dish is so easy for a weeknight — no real recipe or measuring required here. Prep the shrimp the day before and you are all set for a fast and healthy dinner. If you like tomatoes, capers and shellfish, you can’t go wrong with this dish. I served the shrimp with a salad of red leaf lettuce, shaved fennel & dried blueberries dressed with just lemon juice and olive oil.

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Ingredients:

  • 2 to 3 cups diced tomatoes (can also just use canned tomatoes if you wish)
  • Handful of capers, rinsed
  • Several minced garlic cloves
  • 1 pound of shrimp or scallops (or a combination)
  • feta cheese
  • fresh herbs such as basil, dill or oregano
  • several shakes of red chile flakes if you like things spicy

Preparation:

  • Heat oven to 450 degrees
  • Dump tomatoes in a shallow baking dish, sprinkle with garlic, capers, chile flakes and salt & pepper
  • Add shrimp and a drizzle of olive oil — more chile flakes here if you wish and bake until bubbling — 10 minutes or so.
  • Remove from oven and sprinkle feta on top. Bake an additional 5 minutes or so until shrimp are nice and pink. Sprinkle chopped fresh herbs on top and serve with hunks of crusty bread.

Greek shrimp

Sunday Night Supper

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When I opened my packages of Cornish game hens and instantly smelled barnyard, I had a pretty good idea of how the evening’s meal was going to turn out. I honestly don’t know whether the birdies truly tasted like barn or if my olfactory senses were simply bamboozled by the odor from preparing them, but either which way, I do think the fowl truly fouled up my dinner … sorry, couldn’t resist.
Seriously though, how could cute little chickens slathered with lemon, butter and honey turn out to be anything but delicious? They were ok and my husband liked them enough, but the game hens were, in fact, gamey. I have roasted game hens a number of times and this was a first. Next time I’ll stick with a petit poulet, which I often choose when game hens are unavailable. I still don’t know why the package reads “petit poulet” rather than simply “little chicken,” but no matter, I am confident a petit poulet will deliver flavorful, non-barnyardy results.

Cornish Game Hens

Cornish Game Hens

I do think this recipe (please see weekly menu for a link) warrants a second try, however, especially since I am always looking for something to do with the preserved lemons I make during the summer influx of citrus. If you can find preserved lemons at the market, by all mean buy them, but they are also a breeze to make. The following is my go-to preserved lemon recipe from Dean & Deluca. The recipe can easily be doubled.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 Lemons
  • 1/3 cup coarse salt
  • 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

  • Wash the lemons well. Cut each lemon into 8 sections and place them in a glass jar. Add the remaining ingredients. Cover tightly and shake jar well to combine ingredients. Leave lemons at room temperature, shaking the jar every day for 2 weeks. Rinse lemons before using.
  • Refrigerate after opening. Lemons will keep in the refrigerator for 6 months.
Preserved Lemons

Preserved Lemons

I know I sort of made fun of the quinoa on my menu, but it was actually quite good and had a very pleasant nutty flavor. And, as my husband said between forkfuls of the hallowed ancient grain, “I can feel my muscles growing bigger.” Needless to say, he has requested the leftovers as part of his work lunches this week.

As for the roasted red pepper and onion salad — absolutely delicious. Something magical happens to vegetables when they are blasted with heat and allowed to caramelize. I spooned the vegetables over arugula and added just a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt. Definitely try this one.

Caramelized Vegetables

Caramelized Vegetables

Plated Caramelized Vegetable Salad

Plated Caramelized Vegetable Salad with blue cheese wedges