Entrees

Shrimp Fried Rice

October 18, 2009 By Steve Dunn 1 Comment

This is a recipe that was inspired by a Pineapple Rice dish that I recently found featured on the fabulous 101 Cookbooks blog. I took Heidi’s recipe and adapted it to what I had on-hand at the time when I first made this a few weeks ago. It came out so well, that I thought I’d reproduce (and document) it for all of you.

Fried rice is absolutely one of those everything but the kitchen sink dishes, that lends itself well to any leftovers you have laying about. You will find some combinations you like better than others, but as long as you start with a few cups of cold, cooked rice, and the makings of a tasty dressing, almost anything else you throw into the mix is sure to yield a satisfying meal.

Arthas put in some time working on his knife skills to pull this meal together, tailing and cutting the shrimp, mincing the garlic, and prepping the clementines. This is one of those meals that is really all about prep, so if you have the space in your kitchen, pull a few of the kids into duty to speed along the slicing, dicing, and mincing process. Once your “mise” is ready, only about five minutes of high heat stand between you and a healthy, delicious meal.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Fried Rice

by: Inspired by Heidi Swanson of "101 Cookbooks"

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup mild olive oil, or sunflower oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
pinch of kosher salt
2 cups cooked brown long grain rice, cold from the fridge
24 large, cooked, peeled and de-veined shrimp, cut into thirds
4 cups baby spinach leaves
2 ears of corn, kernels stripped from the cob
3 clementines, each segment cut in half cross-wise
1 shallot, finely minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
1 cup roasted, salted cashews, roughly chopped
1 small chile, seeded and finely minced
3 eggs, scrambled, cooked into a thin omelette, and cubed.
Fresh Cilantro

Instructions

Make the dressing by whisking the first nine ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.
Whisk the eggs with a little salt and pepper, and pour into a pre-heated small non-stick skillet. Cook on low-medium heat, undisturbed, until totally set. Flip briefly if you wish before slipping the omelette onto a cutting board to cool. Cut into cubes and reserve.
In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon high-heat canola oil to almost smoking.
Add the corn kernels and cook for 1 minute.
Add the shallot, chile, rice, scallions, shrimp, and half the dressing, and cook till heated through.
Add the spinach, cooked egg, clementines, and cashews, and cook until the spinach wilts.
Taste for seasoning, adding more dressing if required.
Serve immediately, topped with freshly minced cilantro.

Chorizo and Spinach Frittata

October 9, 2009 By Steve Dunn 1 Comment

Making a frittata, much like a fried rice, is a great way to use up all the left-overs in your fridge. Pick a few main ingredients that will define your flavor profile, and then feel free to toss in little remnants of past meals that are hanging on, begging not to become a science experiment in the back of your refrigerator.

The dish is endlessly versatile, can be tossed together in minutes, is great hot or cold, travels well, can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. As long as you like eggs, it is a nearly perfect food. I’ve even thought of making a large one each Sunday, strictly for use throughout the coming week. A slice is great re-heated for a quick breakfast, can be a healthy addition to a school lunch, and a satisfying meal on the fly with a quick salad as you race between appointments on your evening schedule.

Soup au Pistou

September 24, 2009 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

This is a dish that may not be a home-run with very young kids because its absolutely packed with veggies (YUK, what are you trying to do, poison me?), but its easy, flavorful, and can provide plenty of room for creativity for your budding teenage cooks. Soup au Pistou is a traditional Provencal dish that is made in as many different ways as there are cooks who make it. Loosely speaking, it is a summer vegetable soup served with a blast of fresh pesto, and many serve it, as I do, with a pesto topped crouton floating on top as well.

This is a great soup to make on your local Farmer’s Market day. If you can, bring the kids with you to meet the farmers who grow your local veggies, and let them choose some of the bounty that will find its way into the soup. There are no hard and fast rules as to what to include, and in fact, every time I make it, I end up with a distinctly different soup in the end. As long as you buy the freshest veggies you can get your hands on, and work to include a variety of color and texture in your choices, you’ll have a beautiful, fresh and satisfying soup in the end. If you use a store bought chicken stock, make sure it is a low sodium brand, and if you have the time, allow an hour at the start to infuse it with some aromatics to add a little more interest and depth to your soup.

Peyton missed the trip to the Farmer’s market this time around, but was fully up to the task of practicing her knife skills (which are really coming along) by prepping our mise of chopped, sliced, and diced veggies. While she was busy doing her ginsu thing, I crafted a little sachet that included, white peppercorns, anise seed, fresh thyme, and fresh rosemary, and set it steeping in our barely simmering store bought stock. The finished soup is delicious hot or cold, with a crusty bread as accompaniment.

Soup au Pistou

by: Steve Dunn

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 16 ounce can of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/4 pound green beans, cut into 1 inch lengths
10 leaves of swiss chard or kale, sliced into 1/2" thick ribbons
1/2 cup of shelled peas
2 cups of tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced into rounds (on a Kyocera Adjustable Mandoline Slicer, Red , if you have one)
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
EVOO
Salt and Pepper
Basil Pesto
aromatics - 1 stem fresh rosemary, 3 stems fresh thyme, 1 teaspoon peppercorns, 1 teaspoon anise seeds

Instructions

Place chicken stock and water in a sauce pan over low-medium heat. Add the aromatics tied in a cheese cloth bundle, and simmer for 1 hour. Remove the bundle and reserve the stock.
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot over low-medium heat. Add the onion and carrot and saute 15 minutes to soften. Raise the heat to medium, and add the green beans, zucchini, cannelini beans, tomatoes, and chicken stock to the pan, and cook 10-15 minutes. You want the soup at a simmer, not a rolling boil. Add the corn, peas, and swiss chard and cook for another 5 minutes. Check seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into warm bowls and top with a spoonful of fresh pesto. You can also make a crouton by taking a slice of baguette, topping it with some gruyere cheese, and toasting it under the broiler. Spoon some pesto onto the crouton and float it on top of your soup. Oh, la, la.

Roasted Halibut with Tomato – Shallot Salsa

September 19, 2009 By Steve Dunn 2 Comments

This is one of my favorite kind of recipes to cook with the kids. It offers a healthy and beautiful dish, that because of it’s component parts, can be modified when plated to satisfy almost anyone’s tastes. It can be a struggle with kids, trying to bend the family menus to suit everyone. You lean too much to the kid’s tastes and you eat nothing but mac and cheese, to the adults, and you end up with frustrated kids that won’t eat their dinner because its too much of a reach for their young taste buds. The magic of this dish is in the salsa that can be served over the fish for the more adventurous, on the side of the plate for those willing to at least try it, or be eliminated entirely for the younger kids who won’t even give it a chance. One meal, and three ways of serving it that can satisfy almost any member of the family.

Creamy Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

September 8, 2009 By Steve Dunn 3 Comments

I am happy to report that the four basil plants that almost snuffed it before reaching their adolescence due to the horribly wet weather we had in the Spring, have recently turned into the most prolific producers in our garden. Twice over the past few weeks I have had to seriously prune them back before they collapsed under their own weight. Hallelujah!
While there are many creative ways to use basil in the kitchen, whether it be to brighten a sumptuous panzanella salad of freshly diced tomatoes, toasted cubes of peasant bread, and a drizzle of EVOO and balsamico, or a quick puree with cannelini beans and a little lemon juice for a crostini topping or crudite dip, there is no finer use for basil, in my humble opinion, than to use it in a homemade pesto. To me, pesto is a nearly perfect food. The sharpness of the raw garlic, the earthy warmth of the toasted pine nuts, the vibrant color and herbal aroma of the basil itself, and the salty chew of the fresh parmesan…..I could eat it by the bucket-full. Don’t laugh….I really could.

Chicken Paillards with Lemon Caper Sauce

September 3, 2009 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

I think that many people struggle with cooking at home because they get bored. Most people don’t have the time, or the inclination to pull out a cookbook each night and push themselves to try a NEW recipe. Instead, they rely on a handful of old favorites that they can make from memory, and cook them again, and again, and again, until everyone in the family finally cries UNCLE!

When kids are part of the mix, the challenges to more creative cooking are often multiplied. When the kids are young, many families feel held hostage to their immature palates, and their unwillingness to eat anything but hot dogs, peas, and mac and cheese (yes, this was me as an ankle-biter). As the kids get older, the fates unfurl a cruel joke on most families. On one hand, the kids’ are more accepting of experimentation, and they become eager to try new foods. On the other, the family’s schedule becomes such that most people can only find time to slam together the quickest and most routine dishes for dinner. In addition to the time constraints imposed by a busy family life, the pinch on the budget caused by the food intake demands of growing teens, has folks reaching for the mac and cheese and hot dogs all over again!

"My Meal" aka Pork Cutlet Milanese

July 27, 2009 By Steve Dunn 4 Comments

Each of the kids has a favorite meal that they regularly ask for, but none of the others do so with the frequency, and tenacity of Boris.

HEY DAD, WHAT’S FOR DINNER?

Not sure, buddy. Today is market day…I’ll see what looks good.

CAN WE HAVE "MY MEAL"?

Uh…didn’t we just have your meal?

NO, IT’S BEEN AWHILE SINCE WE’VE HAD MY MEAL. YOU MUST BE THINKING ABOUT ARTHAS……WE JUST HAD HIS MEAL.

Hmmmm….

REALLY DAD, ITS BEEN LIKE FOREVER SINCE WE’VE HAD MY MEAL.

Forever? Don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a bit, buddy?

ARTHAS, GRID, PEYTON, AND MUPPET ALWAYS GET THEIR MEALS. WHEN IS IT GOING TO BE MY TURN?

Huh?

YOU LOVE THEM MORE THAN ME, DON’T YOU?

Don’t be silly…….hey, are you tracking all these meals on a calendar or something?

DUH….OF COURSE I DO. IT’S THE ONLY WAY I CAN GUARANTEE THAT I DON’T GET SHAFTED BY YOUR WHOLE MEAL SELECTION PROCESS. I HAVE TO SAY THAT YOUR CURRENT METHOD SEEMS SERIOUSLY INDIFFERENT TO MY NEEDS!

You're kidding right?

Don't tell me….you suspect that a vast right-wing conspiracy is at work, plotting to continually deny you your favorite meal.

HEY, I'M JUST CALLING IT LIKE I SEE IT.

You, my young Padawan, are a nut-bag!

And so it was that we came to have Boris’ meal the other night. The rarely made, most often ignored, and practically forgotten, Pork Cutlet Milanese.

Spaghetti Carbonara

July 6, 2009 By Steve Dunn 14 Comments

A recent commenter to the blog asked for a really easy meal to make on a weeknight with her kids, so when I reached for this dish myself last week, on a cool and rainy spring night, I decided that this would be a perfect recipe to pass along. This is hands-down my favorite pasta recipe, and is fast becoming that of my kids’ as well. It requires only a handful of ingredients, and can literally be tossed together in minutes. In fact, when we made this meal last week, we were rushing to get to a movie, and were able to prep, cook, eat, and clean-up after dinner in about 45 minutes (and that even included time to shoot the photos for this post).

Spaghetti Carbonara, loosely translated from Italian means “Coal Miner’s Pasta.” As legend has it, it was a favored dish of said Italian miners because they could easily carry the few ingredients required underground and cook them simply on a camp stove. I’ve even read that the liberal sprinkling of fresh ground black pepper to finish the dish is meant to evoke the coal dust that inevitably settled on each plate of the miners’ meal. The dish is rumored to have been imported to the states by GIs returning home from duty in WWII. It is said to have been a favorite meal prepared for our soldiers by recently liberated, and very grateful Italian families, who cooked with ingredients that they knew the GIs were homesick for, bacon and eggs.

Arthus, my WWII aficionado son, finally got drafted into kitchen slavery for this meal, and was so taken with my explanation of the history of the dish, that he promptly fell into character as a dutiful US serviceman for the duration.

“PRIVATE FIRST CLASS ARTHUS PADFOOT REPORTING FOR MESS DUTY, SIR!

“Ok…you with the weird name, I need you to prep our mise for the evening meal, are you game, soldier?

I’M PREPARED TO DO ANYTHING ASKED OF ME FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY SIR!

Excellent Padfoot, I need you to dice the pancetta, grate the cheese, whisk the eggs, and chop the garlic and parsley, pronto.”

WHAT, NO GRENADE TO THROW MYSELF ON SIR, YOU’RE KIDDING RIGHT? I WAS HOPING FOR A MISSION THAT WAS A LITTLE MORE HEROIC AND MANLY, YOU KNOW SOME REAL ACTION, SIR, NOT JUST THIS DICING AND GRATING SILLY STUFF!

We’ll if you really want to come face to face with the mayhem and carnage of war, then you COULD go clean your room, I mean, the place looks like central London after the blitzkrieg.

HA….VERY FUNNY SIR, YOU HAVE SUCH A GIFTED COMIC MIND!

AHHH…SO, LET’S SEE, THE BACON, EGGS, CHEESE, GARLIC AND GREEN STUFF….SIR, YES SIR! I’M HAPPY TO DO IT SIR!

Thank you PFC, carry-on.

Steak Frites with Sauce Bérnaise

June 27, 2009 By Steve Dunn 7 Comments

OK, I know what you’re thinking….”sauce bérnaise” sounds way too scary, fussy, and time consuming for you to EVER contemplate cooking, let alone with your kids. I get it, and I used to think that too, until I was taught how to make it while at Le Cordon Bleu. The fact is, sauce bérnaise is really quite simple to make, hardly takes any time at all, and is such a perfect complement to grilled steak, that once you’ve made it, you’re going to weep like a baby thinking about how every steak you have ever made in the past was just a shadow of what it could have been had you only known how to craft the magical bérnaise.

Really, I’m not kidding.

Now, this is not a meal that I recommend you reach for every week (as much as you might want to), because between the fries and the bérnaise it is a real artery menace. But, once you get some confidence with the sauce , and get your timing down for the fries, it is a meal that is totally doable on a weeknight, and mastering a classic French sauce is a great confidence builder for a novice cook.

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Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients

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Soup au Pistou

Ingredients

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