New salmon

By in left overs, quick 1 Comment

I tried a new recipe tonight, salmon with dill sauce. The recipe I used, calls for a cucumber dill sauce which I modified to suit the contents of my fridge. The salmon came out of the broiler crispy on top and tender inside, the dill sauce made the dish.

• Salmon with Dill Sauce •
Adapted from Bon Appetit

For the salmon:
Cook the salmon in the broiler, with lemon and orange juice, exactly as in this recipe from Bon Appetit.

For the Dill Sauce:
Using a food processor or stick blender, blend about 2 cups of washed, fresh, dill leaves with 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and 2/3 cups of plain yogurt. Add a dash of cayenne and season with salt to taste.  

We had my new favorite salad dressing over escarole lettuce and fennel. And for starch, some leftover potato gratin.

The Steady Table has been around for a few months now, but I’ve never posted a photo of my own kitchen. So, here goes. This is my kitchen in the middle of hurried weeknight dinner-prep, hairy legs and all.

 

Can I marry a salad?

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If I could marry a salad (and I wasn’t already married), it would be this one.

Escarole & White Bean Salad with Fennel & Gruyere Cheese is a keeper*. I never thought to put creme fraiche in salad dressing before but I’m going to do it all the time now. I served the two parts of the salad, the beans and the greens, separately because my peeps are not escarole fans. We (meaning they) also had sausage from Italian Farms, our local deli, which I shop at almost daily.

*If you are somewhat dense at times, as I can be, it might take you a while to realize that there is a line break missing in the recipe. It is not 1/4 teaspoon of salt mustard vinaigrette as the recipe states, it is 1/4 teaspoon salt (line break) mustard vinaigrette.

Pizza celebration

By in dining out

Rose did her first bridge-kickover at gymnastics this evening. I hadn’t planned to eat out, but this big development warranted a celebration. We tried Joey’s Pizza in Maspeth, and it was pretty good in a classic New York slice/parlor kind of a way.

Mixed messages

By in uncategorized 3 Comments

It seems kind of like a mixed message to serve steak and creamy, cheesy, buttery potato gratin with a raw kale salad, but I did.

The potato gratin we like is Gratin Dauphinois from Darina Allen’s Easy Entertaining cookbook. I’ll post my version of it below. In order to balance things out (or send mixed messages) I made  a variation on this raw kale salad.

• Gratin Dauphinois •
adapted from Darina Allen’s Easy Entertaining
1 cup milk 
1/2 cup cream
1 clove garlic, minced
2 1/4 lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced thin, about 1/4″
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces 
4 oz cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste 

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine milk, cream, minced garlic and salt & peper in a glass pie dish. Put pie dish in oven to heat milk & cream. Meanwhile, peel and thinly slice the potatoes and grate the cheese. When the milk bubbles, remove pie dish from the oven and add potato slices, try to separate them a bit, add butter pieces and top with grated cheese. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until browned on top and potatoes are cooked through.

Soup, pasta, broccoli

By in quick 3 Comments

A very simple butternut squash soup, Faux Penne alla Vodka &  roasted broccoli. This dinner can be on the table in 20-30 minutes! To make it quick, use soup you’ve already made, or have in the freezer, or even pick some up at the store. Faux Penne alla Vodka doesn’t take long at all. If you put the broccoli in the oven first, you can heat up the soup and make the pasta while it cooks.

• Roasted Broccoli •
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Halve or quarter your broccoli florets lengthwise. Toss broccoli with a good amount of olive oil (2-3 tablespoons for a small head), and salt & pepper to taste, until well coated. Lay florets out on a rimmed baking tray in more or less one layer and roast for 15-25 minutes, until broccoli starts to brown in places. So good!

All hail the dinner sandwich

By in dishes by shane, quick

Shane doesn’t consider sandwiches to be a “proper meal” so we rarely have them for dinner when he’s home. But, the stars must have been aligned just right tonight. When I said “Pasta or eggs and don’t say takeout because we’re kinda broke right now” the response was, miraculously: sandwiches.

Shane makes his grilled cheese either in a cast-iron panini pan, or in a Toastmaster Snackster (don’t you love that name?) Either way, his pressed sandwiches come out better than mine because I am perpetually guilty of over-stuffing, which doesn’t work with a pressed sandwich.

To balance things out we had arugula salad and some kind of green, both from my csa box. The green was pretty and kale-like, in fact, it probably was some kind of kale. I cooked it like Japanese salad turnips, with miso butter.

La Esquina

By in dining out

Last night we found our way to La Esquina, a Mexican restaurant in Williamsburg. The food was great, though I have to take issue when restaurants do not provide salt on the table. I understand that the chefs may find their food perfectly seasoned, but I like salt, you know?

I set the bread on fire

By in quick

Tonight I set the bread (bruschetta, to be precise) on fire, literally, and that is why it isn’t pictured here. Before burning it (literally, I’m talking flames), I topped the bruschetta with pesto left over from Monday’s pasta, and had planned to top that with some bufala mozzarella.

On a more positive note, I feel like I’m on a roll with the good weeknight recipes. Tonight’s Chicken Parm Meatballs were particularly easy and quick to prepare. Shane and Rose said they were a for sure make-again. I totally get why they’re one of the internet’s most popular dishes this week. Thank you DALS.

Because I’m not a good planner-aheader, I made my meatballs with turkey and without mozzarella. In lieu of mozzarella, I sprinkled a bit more pecorino on top after broiling. I also left out the parsley because a certain someone was sure to reject the meatballs if there was green in them.

For salad we had arugula with toasted almonds and a slightly sweet balsamic dressing. Did you know you can buy toasted, slivered almonds at Trader Joe’s? They are perfect for people like me, who can’t seem to use the broiler with out starting a fire.

Lazy Wednesday: Japanese salad turnips

By in quick

Japanese salad turnips, oh how I love you. I didn’t even know these little gems existed until I first got them in my csa box. Now I look forward to them every time, and wish they came more often.

The recipe I use, if I’m not just eating them raw, is Salad Turnips with Miso, from the Golden Earthworm Farm’s blog. I alter the recipe ever so slightly by using only 1/3 cup of water, this makes the sauce thicker. Also, because the size of a bunch of turnips can vary, I add the miso butter somewhat gradually, tasting as I go to make sure it doesn’t get too salty. You can easily substitute rice wine vinegar for the mirin.

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