dinner prompt – dinner prompt

Eggs

October 14, 2019October 7, 20191 Comment

Eggs are inexpensive, versatile, easy to prepare and well-suited to a multitude of flavors. From simple scrambled or baked eggs to more complicated preparations soufflés or dishes that involve hollandaise, there is an egg recipe for virtually any dinner situation.

There are so many options, in fact, that it might be hard to pick one. Here are three options, all easy, and all perfect for dinner.

Love to Cook: Eggs Florentine with a green salad
Weeknight Reality: Shakshuka with warm pita bread
Need a Miracle: Scrambled eggs with fresh herbs and goat cheese, served with cinnamon toast

Recipe Links

Classic Eggs Florentine – BBC (about 30 minutes, but requires some cooking skill)
Oeufs en Cocotte Florentine – Craig Claiborne & Pierre Franey via NYT (about 40 minutes)
Shakshuka – The Tart Tart, adapted from Melissa Clark’s NYT recipe (about 40 minutes)
Shakshuka – The Tasting Table, adapted from John Gorham, Portland (about 40 minutes)
Simple Goat Cheese & Egg Toasts with Fresh Peas & Dill – Cookie & Kate (about 15 minutes)
Baked Eggs with Fresh Herbs & Goat Cheese – Oprah (about 15 minutes)

Parting Thought

“These eggs are broken. Cracked.”
“Yes, ma’am. That happens sometimes.”
“Does it?”
“Yes, it’s the unfortunate part of being an egg.”

Peter Hedges, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (via goodreads)

Enchanted

October 12, 2019October 7, 2019Leave a comment

Scallops (or fish) in White Wine | Saffron Risotto (or rice) | Steamed Broccoli

Now that the relentless summer heat is gone, you might find fresh, local broccoli at your farmers market. Fresh broccoli is surprisingly fragile when compared to its supermarket relatives, so cook it soon after purchasing – and not for nearly as long as you need cook the conventional grocery kind. Round it out with simple scallops and risotto (or just rice, or bread), and you’re all set.

Love to Cook: Scallops don’t need much fuss; this simple recipe from Food 52 proves it. Although traditionally paired with heartier meat, saffron risotto works just as well with scallops or other seafood. (Risotto might actually be the best comfort food of all time, with cheese grits coming in a close second.) Round it out with simple steamed broccoli – if you get it from the farmers market, it won’t need anything but a touch of salt.

Weeknight Reality: If scallops are too expensive for a weeknight dinner, a firm white fish would be a good substitute. Here’s a recipe for that – one that has more flavors in it, so pairing with plain jasmine rice or even rice noodles would work.

Need a Miracle: Look for pre-marinated fish, or scallops – all you have to do it cook, which will take minutes. Pair with quick-cooking rice noodles and flash-steamed broccoli (bagged florets will work, if you’re not up for hunting down fresh broccoli), dinner can be ready in a flash.

Fingerlings

October 9, 2019October 7, 2019Leave a comment

Take a basic basic (burger and fries) and dress it up a bit, without too much extra work.

Instead of fries, upgrade to a quick potato salad that tastes great served warm. Most of the prep time is oven time (while you make the burgers), so you can get it done on a weeknight.

Use fingerling potatoes instead of anything more conventional. Yes, they look a little odd. Their flavor makes up for it.

Want to wing the potato salad instead of using a recipe? Quarter the potatoes, toss them in olive oil and salt, roast them in a hot oven for 25 minutes, then mix with Duke’s mayonnaise, a dash of cider vinegar, a chopped spring onion or two, some diced Wickles pickles, kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Good stuff there. Serve it on a bed of bitter greens to go heavier on the plant content. Pair with a burger (add blue cheese to beef, or maybe some green chile to turkey), and you’ve got a soul-satisfying dinner that’s easy and beyond basic.

Love to Cook: If you have the time and inclination, this recipe for blue cheese burgers with caramelized onions is worth the effort – especially when served on brioche. Since the burgers are so rich, this lighter potato salad recipe is a good companion.

Weeknight Reality: It’s hard to beat this simple blue cheese burger prep – it takes just minutes. Use the extra time (mostly roasting time) to make this tangy potato salad.

Need a Miracle: Same burger recipe as above; you’ll probably have to opt for purchased potato salad if you’re really in the ‘need a miracle’ mode; another option would be just to wash, halve/quarter, toss in olive oil and roast the potatoes while you’re making the burgers – takes only 20 minutes. Serve them plain instead of making potato salad.

Sour

October 6, 2019October 7, 20192 Comments

Sour foods rode in on a trend five or six years ago, with kimchi and fermented vegetables popping up on grocery shelves everywhere. Sourdough starter made the rounds in our neighborhood, and for a while we had sourdough bread (and pizza crust, and rolls, etc.) weekly.

Sour foods aren’t new, though; they’re just more readily available. And that makes it easy to showcase a pleasantly sour taste as the star of your evening meal.

In moderation, sour can be a theme without being overpowering. Think: yogurt sauce on salad of farro, roasted vegetables, and a mix of greens that include mustard greens, for additional sour-flavor depth. Or, maybe, a charcuterie board with sour pickles or ginger, some ripe cheese, and stoneground crackers.

Or, even easier, feature a loaf of fresh sourdough bread. With the arrival of cooler weather, you might even feel an urge to bake and seek out some sourdough starter. If baking’s not your thing, perhaps you have a friend who loves it. No matter how you acquire it, put a real, honest-to-goodness loaf of sourdough bread as the primary star of your dinner table and build the rest from that flavor.

Why? For one thing (and most important), it tastes good. For another, sourdough bread has more to it, nutrition-wise, than your standard French or Italian loaf.

To enjoy the tart flavor of the bread, serve with something simple, like an herb salad topped with your choice of protein.

[If you’re motivated, here are instructions to make sourdough starter.]

Steak Salad with Herbs | Toasted Sourdough Bread

Love to Cook: This steak salad recipe calls for both eggplant and corn – still available from the market around here. If grilling isn’t an option, you could easily use the oven broiler instead. For a vegetarian option, try this sourdough bread salad with capers and anchovies.

Weeknight Reality: Same as above, but simplify the salad.

Need a Miracle: If you are getting your bread at the grocery and don’t have a stellar bakery section, you may have to select something other than sourdough – say a spouted grain bread, or sprouted grain crackers. Toss the herb salad (Earthbound Farms makes a good ready-to-eat herb blend) in a mustard vinaigrette and top with your choice of quickly prepared protein: rotisserie chicken, deli roast beef, or black bean burgers (warmed in the microwave).

Use the leftover bread for toast the next morning. Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, cut the remainder of the loaf into cubes, toss in olive oil, sprinkle with salt (and maybe some herbs?), and toast in the oven. Voilà; you now have fresh croutons. Make a basic chicken Caesar salad and serve with impunity.

Lentils

October 4, 2019October 7, 2019Leave a comment

Here’s a true story: my mother refused to eat legumes of any kind. She grew up on a farm during the Depression, daughter of a preacher in rural west Tennessee. They ate beans and drank milk and wouldn’t have dared eat a laying hen or allow any of the chicks to hatch.

When I came home from college, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest in hand, and told my mother I was making lentils for dinner, she turned up her nose and said she’d be having something else. I never did persuade her otherwise. That my mother loved eggs (and chicken) but despised milk and every kind of legume is just funny to me, still.

My children, conveniently, love lentils. Since they cook quickly compared to other types of legumes, are great for a weeknight dinner. Even better, they are very versatile.There isn’t a season or type of weather that isn’t right for lentils.

Chilly outside? Lentil soup or stew to the rescue.

Sunny and in the mid-60s? A composed salad makes for a lovely evening meal.

Racing home to make dinner in less than 30 minutes? Use canned lentil soup as a base, adding fresh spinach and topping with crème fraîche (or, if it’s what you’ve got on hand, sour cream).

Confused about different types of lentils? Link at the end of the recipes should help.

Food Ideas

Love to Cook: Try French Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese & Walnuts (David Lebovitz via The Splendid Table) or perhaps Lentil, Cabbage & Bacon Salad (Gourmandistan, adapted from Jacques Pépin)

Weeknight Reality: Quick Red Lentils & Spinach in Tikka Masala Sauce (NOTE: ignore the cooking time printed on the recipe; it reads 1 hr. 20 min., but actual cooking time is under 30 minutes, using prepared Tikka Masala sauce, whether it’s Saffron Road brand or something else) or perhaps Red Lentil Soup with Spicy Crème fraîche (Eating from the Ground Up)

Need a Miracle: Canned lentil soup with added fresh spinach and crème fraîche

Additional Info: Comprehensive Guide to Lentils – Oh My Veggies

Parting Thought

The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘ Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’

Anthony de Mello, via goodreads