Category: dinners

lime-in-the-coconut mahi

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Without the normal rhythm of spring this year, it seems that summer snuck up on me. Suddenly, we’re having 90-degree days and the roasted, stewed dinners that have been my playbook for the last six months are just not what we need or want.

I find myself going through the same culinary befuddlement every June: what do we eat during the summer? Yes, endless salads of tomatoes and fresh garden vegetables, and lots of grilled meats, but we’re not there yet – it takes a while for summer food to be at its best here in New England. Talk to me in July when the striper is freshly caught and the corn is from local farms; right now I feel lucky to find a good local strawberry. So, what do we eat that feels like summer but still comes from the grocery store?

The answer is a recipe that is not mine, but that of our dear friends Chris and Elizabeth, who also happen to be the Captain and First Mate of our annual spring escape from reality, the Kindred Spirit. I love everything about this meal – the salsa is sweet and tart and a little spicy, and you can make most it a few hours ahead (just wait to add the avocados); if you don’t have fresh mahi (and we don’t in New England, ever) you can easily use frozen mahi or any other firm white fish; the rice uses coconut milk that makes it rich and lovely, and only a little coconutty. The meal is satisfying but won’t weigh you down, and it’s prettier than the effort to make it would suggest. And, amazingly for a fish dish, every person in this house loves when I pull out this recipe. So, even if you’re a bit undecided on cooking fish at home, this one is worth trying.

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bacon + egg fried rice

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What feels like a lifetime ago (and which was, in fact, my newly-minted 9-year-old’s lifetime ago) I wrote about how pasta carbonara is really just breakfast for dinner. And then I saw my friend post this week that she was making migas for dinner – Tex-Mex take on breakfast for dinner that definitely feels like I would not eat it for breakfast. That happened to be the same night that I was making one of my family’s easiest, most favorite weeknight meals that also happens to just be a more dinnery spin on breakfast for dinner inspired by third cuisine: Bacon & Egg Fried Rice.

This is an unapologetically Americanized Asian comfort food, one whose only requirement is leftover rice. (Really. It needs to be cold so it doesn’t absorb all the oil and get soggy/greasy. Day-old is ideal – but make sure you store your leftover rice safely.

Since I keep bacon in my fridge and freezer just about always, and usually use frozen vegetables for this recipe, this really is a pantry meal – and one that comes together in about 20 minutes.

This recipe lends itself to endless riffs, too: None of the quantities are set in stone; I used leftover ham when I made this week after Easter; adding some sriracha or sambal oelek (during preparation or as a condiment) can turn up the heat; toasted sesame seeds look nice and add a nice texture and nuttiness. For vegetables, sometimes I use just peas, or just carrots and peas, or a full-on mix like in the pictures here. Generally consistent vegetable size is helpful, but otherwise don’t be afraid to also use fresh vegetables – snap peas, broccoli florets, shredded cabbage all work well.

I mix this up in a wok because a deep dive into Asian groceries and cooking meant I bought a wok. But I started off making this in my biggest skillet – nonstick is useful, but not necessary.

The truly amazing thing about this recipe (if likely having all ingredients on hand right this minute and being able to get it on the table superfast were not enough) is this: every single person in my family is happy when Bacon & Egg Fried Rice is the answer to “What’s for dinner?”

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mushroom lasagna

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Friday was an unseasonably cool afternoon, and I had spent too many hours this week in front of my computer. I decided to switch gears at noon and began a project. Lasagna is always a project, which is one of the reasons that I really only make one every other year or so … but what do I have now but time – and a relatively new pasta roller? The good news is this lasagna doesn’t have to have homemade noodles or be a multi-day, multi-pot event. Even with making my own pasta, I got this prepared in less than three hours and in one pot (not including the casserole dish) and then just threw it in the oven an hour before dinner.

The original version of this recipe is a pretty famous-on-the-internet and well-loved lasagna, praised for being as “light” as a lasagna can (note: it won’t make you feel like you ate bricks, but it’s not health food.) The original comes from Ina Garten; I have woven in some variations inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perlman; the streamlining is all my own. We enjoyed it along a green salad with a very bright vinaigrette, which works well against the creamy, savory lasagna.

The below recipe does include a guide for making fresh pasta sheets – but this is not necessary (though I find the process to be very zen.) I have also included notes on how to use either store-bought fresh lasagna noodles, no-boil lasagna noodles, and traditional boxed lasagna noodles. They’re all excellent.

A few notes before you start:

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linguine with fresh tomato sauce

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This is such a bumper season; I hardly know what to do, what to wear, what to eat!

The pool is closed, and the nights are cool, and yet when I throw on jeans and an Oxford, I’m wishing I’d gone with a tee-shirt by sometime around noon.  It smells like fall, but still feels like summer might come back to visit.  It’s a bumper season at the farmer’s market, too – there are bins of apples (it’s been an early season here) and new-dug potatoes, but there are also a few baskets of gem-like cherry tomatoes hiding in a corner, not far from a bushel of late peaches.

I’ve been bored with summer cooking lately, so I was tempted to fast forward to stews and breads and bacon-studded goodness, but summer is far too fleeting around here to not really appreciate these last few weeks of having it – or something like it – around.  And, hence, here is this super-simple pasta dinner, that shines because of those last few sweet, vine-ripened beauties and the intense leaves on our now-leggy basil plants.

I always cringe a little when food writers and recipe authors say this, because I believe you can make good food with imperfect ingredients a good portion of the time – but do be sure to use really good ingredients here – they’re the star of the show, and there’s no cooking or fancy techniques to hide behind.

Linguine with Fresh Tomatoes
(Serves 2-3 adults; adapted, generously, from Ina Garten’s “Barefoot Contessa at Home”)

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
1/4 cup fresh basil, julienned
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Kosher Salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 – 3/4 pound linguine fini pasta (or other long, thin, pasta)
3/4 cup to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Combine the tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic, basil leaves, red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper in a large bowl.  Cover and let marinate at room temperature for 4 hours.  Or, if you didn’t read the recipe until right before you put the water on to boil, microwave the tomato mixture for about a minute.

Bring a large pot of water salted with 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt to a boil, and cook the pasta until it’s tender but still has bite.  Drain and add the pasta to the bowl of tomatoes.  Add the Parmesan cheese and toss so that it melts.  If the pasta feels stiff, add a bit more olive oil until it’s to your taste.  Serve with Parmesan and additional basil leaves, if you  like.

andaluzian gazpacho

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So, I may have been taking the whole “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen” adage too much to heart.  Apparently, July’s not cutting us any breaks (I’m not actually complaining, by the way.)  So, I’ve turned to meals that don’t require I turn on an oven or slave over a saute pan.  What better example than good old gazpacho?

I used to have a favorite gazpacho that I would make every year, once.  It required picky, fine chopping, and the resulting bits of tomato, pepper and cucumber swam in a spicy broth of vegetable juice and Tabasco.  It was good, but there’s not a lot I find more tedious than neatly chopping tomatoes. Continue reading “andaluzian gazpacho” →