Meat Free Monday meals don't get much tastier than this one from Cooking Light Magazine. Bursting with Indian spices such as cardamom, cumin, and ginger, this satisfying dish gets some meat-like heft from the garbanzos, and a luxurious mouth-feel from the fat in the yogurt.
Entrees
Spatchcocked Chicken
It's funny how some recipes come to be. This one started out as a means to finally use up a few heads of roasted garlic that had been meandering around the fridge for a while. Luckily they were sharing a shelf with my preserved lemons and had become friendly. A few sprigs of rosemary asked if they could join the party and before you know it they were all crying for some butter to crash the gathering (guess they felt they needed a social lubricant to kick things up a bit).
The whole mash-up reminded me a bit of the compound butter used to make Ana Sortun's Crispy Lemon Chicken with Z'atar, and from there is wasn't long before I was pulling out my poultry shears and spatchcocking a few organic birds. Et voila….these stars were born!
Flank Steak with Soy Mustard Sauce
Ask a bunch of friends what defines a really great restaurant meal and you're likely to hear all sorts of answers. For some it's the service, for some the ambiance of the space, for others the caché of securing a table at the latest outpost of a top chef. For many though, the answer will be that it's all about the sauces. There is just something about a well made sauce that seems to elevate a restaurant meal well beyond what most folks ever hope to accomplish at home.
Fact is, many of the best sauces you'll enjoy in a top restaurant ARE daunting to make, taking days to craft from the initial roasting of bones and veggies for stock, to the long slow reduction of same, fortifying with aromatics, and finally finishing with cream or butter. A true made-from-scratch classic sauce is a labor of love, only attempted by the most devout and ambitious home cook.
Cod with Kale and Chorizo
Up until this point the only unqualified success I've had in getting the kids to eat kale was with kale chips. Every other preparation, whether tossed with pasta, served up in a soup, or just sauteed with some garlic has met with tepid acceptance. I know that the fact they eat kale at all is cause for celebration, especially when I think that most of their friends have never even heard of it before…..but still.
Grilled Pork Chops with Clementine Marmalade
I have never been to New Orleans.
I have a number of friends who make an annual pilgrimage to the Big Easy; some for the food, some for the music, and all for the joie de vivre for which the city is so famous. As a lover of great food (and jazz), I'm embarrassed and a bit sad to admit that I've never made the trip myself. New Orleans has long been known as one of this country's premier food and music destinations, and while I'm thinking that the whole Mardis Gras scene would be a bit much for me, it is definitely high on my list of spots to visit one day.
Spring Risotto with Poached Eggs
Here's a dish that is perfect for the transitional weather we're having here in the Northeast. While we are warming up slowly, most days have still been pretty cool and our nights continue to dip into the low 40s. That said, we are just starting to see spring's local bounty showing up in the markets, so I was excited to make this dish which calls for some lovely spring green veggies, but also has the soul-warming feel of a dish made for cool weather.
Steak Tacos with Lime Mayo
I've got some pretty exciting news to share today. It turns out that the folks at Cooking Light Magazine have been a fan of Oui, Chef for a while now and have asked me to join their "Cooking Light Blogger's Connection". See that cool new "Cooking Light" badge on the right of your screen? Click on it and it will deliver you to my Cooking Light Blogger Profile, and from there you're only a short step away from all the great healthy knowledge and recipes that reside on their site.
Part of what I (along with about 80 other, terrific food bloggers) do as members of the Blogger Connection is cook and share our favorite recipes from Cooking Light to help spread the gospel of preparing and eating wholesome, "real" food with an eye to keeping things, light, fresh and nutritious.
I dare say that description sums up these tacos perfectly.
Asian Pulled Pork Tacos with Cilantro Cream
So…have you made a big batch of Soy Slow Cooker Pork yet? Yes?…….Good.
And you've got a few bites left-over, right? Excellent.
Because here's what you're going to do with all that pork and almond goodness marking time in your fridge. You're gonna make these incredibly tasty soft tacos, and have yourself a really easy and incredibly delicious weeknight meal that the whole gang will cheer.
You're welcome.
Soy Slow Cooker Pork with Ginger and Almonds
This is a recipe I adapted from one that recently ran in Fine Cooking, and that I made last week when our weather was stuck on cool, rainy, and generally crappy. On days like that I find it helps to fire up some great smelling kitchen projects to keep all our spirits up. Things like a loaf of freshly baked bread, a long simmering pot of rich bolognese, a few sheets of chocolate chip cookies, or a multi-hour braise like this dish.
Orecchiette with Blue Cheese, Leeks and Brussels Sprouts
This recipe is one inspired by a dish showcased in Fine Cooking a few months back, and should hop right to the top of the list for your next "Meatless Monday" meal. My version teams roasted leeks and brussels sprouts with salty blue cheese, sweet craisins, and earthy brown-butter pecans for a hearty and well balanced vegetarian treat.
