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13 January 2010
What's for dinner? Bonus question: what should I have for dinner?→[More:]I have potatoes, and a big-ass savoy cabbage, but not much else that I want to eat. I also have a mr alto who has the car today and who is willing to shop on the way home.
Have you seen this idea for roasted cabbage? I haven't made it, but based on the OHMYGOURD deliciousness of roasted Brussels sprouts and roasted cauliflower, I bet its OHMYGOURD delicious with or without the bacon. Would be good with a baked potato, maybe a chunk of cheese and a glass of wine.
We are having friends over for a night of dinner and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It's a standing-date kinda thing, sometimes at their place, sometimes at ours. This week, in the wake of the holidays and all, we promised to keep it simple and relaxed. Accordingly, I'm serving:
jalepeno jelly (homemade by The Fella's mom) with cream cheese and crackers
frittata with caramelized onions, mushrooms, and spinach
sourdough bread (our guests are making some, and offered to bring a loaf)
salad: greens, chili-toasted almonds, sliced apple, dried cranberries, lemon dressing
and a sweet brought by the guests.
Super-simple, and almost no work once the guests arrive.
Frittata seems to be my go-to meal lately; I can never think of anything else to make.
I'm not really sure yet. I haven't been provision shopping in far too long, and as a result, this week's dinners have been somewhat odd and ad hoc. Too much eating out over the weekend, which we shouldn't really do that often, followed by the decadent "pigs in blankets" Round 2 with the remaining pigs and blankets, and last night, the unimaginative takeout pizza.
I took out a container of mushroom risotto leftovers that I had in the freezer, and a couple links of garlic pork sausage from a local farm that I also had in the freezer, and I have some idea of making grilled sausage with risotto cakes and having that with brussels sprouts, probably roasted. But I also have a small odd assortment of veggies, including carrots and parsnips, and could roast the veggies in chunks with the sausage instead and ignore the risotto for tonight. We'll see what happens this evening.
Oh _ I forgot to answer your question, altolinguistic! You have a start on bubble and squeak, though I don't know how that work with savoy cabbage.
I really like using savoy cabbage in Asian Slaw, which goes really well with lots of stuff - salmon, grilled chicken, turkey burgers, dumplings, shrimp, fried tofu... I notice Alton Brown puts peanut butter in his Asian Slaw. I don't bother with that.
ooh now I have ideas, thank you! That roasted cabbage looks yummy, though I'm not sure how a crinkly cabbage would fare in the high heat. One can roast most things with baaaaaacon (religion/vegetarianism permitting) and get a good result, of that I'm sure.
altolinguistic, after I posted, I actually had the same fleeting thought about crinkly cabbage. When I try that roasted cabbage, I'm planning to blanch it first; I always blanch sprouts and cauliflower before roasting, and they turn out so luscious and sweet!
Chipaccoli: bits of roasted chicken, steamed broccoli and pasta tossed with some olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and lots of freshly ground black pepper.
Probably a filet mignon. My partner and I are going out to our favorite fancy steakhouse tonight, to celebrate our 20th anniversary. :) (THIS is what it takes to get us out of the house on a weeknight.)
I believe that we are having chicken sauteed with artichoke hearts, lemon, and oregano, in order to use up some of last night's roast chicken. I may also throw some red bell peppers in there, or roast them and have them on the side, because I bought too many the other day and I don't want them to go bad.
All of this is assuming that I don't suddenly get inspired to do something else on the way home.
I hardly ever cook with cabbage, so I got nothing for you, alto.
Tonight is girl's night so we order in, don't know where from yet. I am hoping for Indian or Mexican.
You should make oven fries with the potatoes which you should dip in sour cream and this lebanese cabbage salad, but with fresh minced garlic instead of powder.
It's what you should do.
Like Miko, I have some mushroom risotto leftovers to use up so dinner will be risotto cakes fried in panko and paprika with some monterey jack cheese melted in with them. I'm getting to the point with these were I like the leftover risotto cakes more than the risotto!
I haven't been good about eating vegetables this week so I think I am going to make a small spinach salad to go with that.
I'm really bad with cabbage - when we get it in the CSA, the only thing I ever make with it is eggrolls. They are a good amount of work, but they freeze beautifully and then we eat them for lunch or pull them out of the freezer and re-heat them in the oven to put on the side of a stirfry.
Hmm....maybe I'll go get some cabbage and do that this weekend...
Can any of y'all who are actually able to make risotto cakes post or link me to an explanation of your technique? I know that this is supposed to be the proper way of dealing with leftover risotto, but I seem to be completely incapable of making it work.
I would just say roasted potatoes, but I hate cabbage. (I'm okay with it in eggrolls, but that's about it.)
Dinner tonight is my brother's recipe of noodles+sauce (does what it says on the tin: box of elbow macaroni with one of those wee cans of pasta sauce) and perhaps some Italian-dressing marinated chicken and an apple before dance class and then likely some cereal afterwards. I'm slacking on veggies this week, even though I've got some cinnamon carrots already made and in the fridge.
I LOVE colcannon. I don't know what I'll have for dinner. I'm packing for my skiing trip and making sure the house isn't a total untidy dump for the neighbor who sits on the cats. I don't want take-out leftovers in the house while I'm gone, so I'll probably just make a cheese sandwich with spicy brown mustard.
Happy Anniversary, BoPo!
Tonight we are having clam chowder for the meat eaters (my husband and I) and corn chowder for the non-meat eater (the boy). I need to get one of the men to peel the potatoes, because that is one thing I DON'T like to do in the kitchen. I've got some old bananas, so I suppose it's banana bread or banana cake for dessert, followed up by a heaping helping of season 3 of BSG.
Here's what I do, which is based on the America's Test Kitchen cookbook's version.
I put about a cup of panko into a bowl and mix it with some paprika, salt and pepper. I suspect you could use breadcrumbs, but I really like how panko fries up so that's what I use.
I crack an egg into another bowl.
Then, I grate about a cup of monterey jack or cheddar (I prefer the monterey jack though) and mix it into the risotto.
Squish a small handful of the risotto mixture into a cake, dip it into the egg, cover it with the panko (patting it onto it so it sticks).
Fry in a very small amount of canola oil, just browning each side, put on a plate in a low oven if you'd like (200 degrees) to keep warm as you fry the rest.
Cook's Illustrated has you serve them with lemon, I never do.
Just like Sil here (except I use plain breadcrumbs, though I bet panko is delicious, and I don't usally mix cheese in, though that is a very good idea).
I have had a fair number of risotto-cake failures due to sticking, and as a result have learned some tips that help: 1. Use a truly nonstick nonstick pan, which also means you can use less oil - but you still need oil because the cakes are just that sticky. 2. The bread crumbs are essential because they also help prevent sticking. When I made them naked they stuck a lot. 3. Fry them at a fairly high (but not smoky) heat so the outsides seal off quickly. 4. Don't try to move them around a lot to see if they're sticking - or they will. Just let them sit and sizzle for a few minutes.
I loooooove risotto cakes, and have reached the state where I make the risotto just to have the cakes a day later. I usually mix an egg and some shredded parmesan into the cold risotto, dredge them in seasoned breadcrumbs (but not in egg), and fry in olive oil or butter. Mmmm. Great on a bed of greens.
Another tip to keep them from sticking, if you don't want to go through the whole breadcrumbing process: Make them into cakes and freeze overnight (or for several weeks). Go directly from the freezer into a hot pan with oil. Dust some flour on if they've been sitting out long enough to get tacky.
I like them breaded, but sometimes don't want to go to the effort or dirty other bowls, so I like the quick-and-(less)-dirty freezer method.
I was too nervous to eat dinner last night (I had a test today) but tonight I made egg fried rice and a chicken and veggie stir-fry with some kind of Chinese sauce that I bought a while ago. It was lovely and there's enough for tomorrow as well.
Pasztet (paté) with blueberries (bizarre but lovely) on a little bread. I'm picking up Polish mealtimes - breakfast, second breakfast, giant meal at 3-4 o'clock, pre-bed nibbles.
Hey, I tried mudpuppie's "freeze the cakes first" trick and it really did make the cakes stay together, nice and firm. I didn't even freeze them for that long, maybe 1/2 hour while I was cooking other stuff. Great "pro tip."
Thank you for all the risotto cake suggestions, especially the freezing one, as I can't use breadcrumbs because ikkyu2 can't eat gluten (and gluten-free breadcrumbs are just really not food).
It also makes me feel slightly better to know that not using breadcrumbs in the past would explain my previous cake coherency incompetence.
Update: we had nice steak (it was an anniversary dinner for us too, being our only night in during the week of our wedding anniversary), saute potatoes and the green beans that I'd forgotten about. My tummy is still happy.
So I still have potatoes and cabbage, and might go for Melismata's idea tomorrow. mmmmmm.
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