Category: Dinner

Indian-ish Chicken Breasts

Our first month of participating in the Kitchn’s Cookbook Club was a resounding success! We impressed ourselves by making several things out of September’s selection – Salt Fat Acid Heat. [See: Pasta with Clams & Sausage, Chocolate Cupcakes with Rosewater Cream, and Sausages & Roasted Veggies in Agrodolce] For October, the book selected is Indian (-ish): Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family, by Priya Krishna. I’m super excited about this selection because this is exactly why we joined the cookbook club… this is not a book I probably would’ve picked up on my own. It’s apparently pretty popular though (or tons of people in this city are doing the cookbook club too), because all of the copies are checked out at my local libraries. Henrico County Public Library has NINETEEN holds ahead of me! Luckily, I’m in decent position on the e-book wait list. But until I get a hold of the actual book, we’re going to give some of the recipes from the book that are published on the internet a whirl.

This first choice turned out to be a good one. The marinade is easy to make, though with a one new-to-me ingredient (amchur powder). We loved the flavor and the method of cooking the chicken kept it moist. We made a few adjustments, but didn’t want to experiment too much since we’re not Indian cooking experts by any means!

Indian-ish Chicken Breasts

(Adapted from Indian-ish, via Today)
Ingredients:
  • 8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • Fresh mint
  • Fresh cilantro
  • 1 tbsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp amchur
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 large boneless chicken breasts
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions:
  1. Combine all ingredients (including 1 tbsp of chopped mint and 1 tbsp of chopped cilantro) except the chicken and coconut oil to form marinade.
  2. Add the chicken to the marinade in a large plastic bag or in a glass dish. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. (We did ours overnight.)
  3. Heat the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the pan is hot and oil is liquified, cook the chicken for 2 minutes on each side.
  4. Then turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes. Then turn the heat off, (remove from burner if electric stove), and keep the lid on for another 10-15 minutes.
  5. Ensure doneness (165 internal degrees) and then slice. Serve topped with more torn cilantro and mint if desired.
Serves 2

Sausages & Roasted Veggies in Agrodolce

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Today’s the last day of September and therefore the last day of our first month of the Kitchn Cookbook Club. We did an even better job than anticipated of cooking through Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat. We shared our Pasta with Clams & Sausage and Chocolate Cupcakes with Rosewater Cream, but we also made a gorgeous salad from her Avocado Salad Matrix, a nice roast whole chicken, and some green beans that we didn’t love. We still have a few more recipes bookmarked – the Butternut Squash and Brussel Sprouts in Agrodolce, the Autumn Panzanella Salad, and the Vietnamese Cucumber Salad in particular. We clearly won’t get to all of them before the end of the month, given that we only have a few hours of September left, but for dinner tonight we riffed on the squash and sprouts recipe.

The dish as written is vegetarian and would make a beautiful side dish – Samin says she serves it on her Thanksgiving spread! (Selim wants to do the same!) We decided to throw some sausages in the oven with the veggies to make it a full meal with a protein. I was initially attracted to the recipe because of the vinegar. I love vinegar and have learned from this book how the punch of acid improves most dishes by brightening other flavors. And now, I know what agrodolce means! “Agro” + “dolce” = “sour” + “sweet” in Italian. At its most basic, an agrodolce is a sauce of vinegar and sugar. It can be adjusted in many different ways – various vinegars, subbing honey or syrups for the sugar, and adding other ingredients, like herbs, spices, fruits, nuts, olives, and basically anything else!

We both loved this recipe and plan to add it to the regular rotation. The roasting and the vinegar really brought out the inherent sweetness of the vegetables. The sausages were a welcome addition and their fattiness stood up well to the vinegar. The end result is a little messy, but really delicious. We both independently thought that it would have been better if we’d cut the squash into cubes, instead of slicing as the original recommended. I think we’ll try that next time, but left the recipe with the sliced recommendation since that’s how we made it.*

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Sausages & Roasted Veggies in Agrodolce

(Adapted from Salt Fat Acid Heat)
Ingredients:
  • 1 large butternut squash
  • 1 lb brussel sprouts
  • 5 Italian sausages
  • Olive oil
  • Salt & pepper
  • 1/3 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Fresh mint leaves
Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Slice the squash in half, scoop out any seeds, and slice into crescents*. Halve these if too large. Place in a large bowl and toss with enough olive oil to coat and ~ 1/4 tsp salt and a few turns of fresh ground black pepper. Spread out in a single layer on a lined cookie sheet.
  3. Halve the brussel sprouts and do the same as above with additional olive oil, a pinch of salt, and pepper. Place them on a second lined cookie sheet.
  4. Place the sausages on another sheet, or on one of the previous ones if there is room without crowding. (Mine fit easily with the brussel sprouts.)
  5. Place the veggies and sausages in the the oven. Roast for 25-30 minutes, turning and adjusting the position of the cookie sheets in the oven about halfway through so everything roasts evenly. [Keep a close eye out towards the end – the brussel sprouts may cook faster than the squash. We like ours on the burnt side of crispy, but you may want to take them out about 5 minutes earlier.]
  6. Meanwhile, submerge the onions in the vinegar to macerate while everything is cooking (at least 20 minutes).
  7. In another small bowl, whisk together 2 tbsp olive oil, sugar, red pepper flakes, and garlic.
  8. Once the veggies are cooked, place them in large bowl. Slice the sausages into bite-sized rounds and place in the bowl as well. Whisk the onions and vinegar into the olive oil mixture and then, once well-combined, pour the mixture into the large bowl. Toss to coat.
  9. Serve on a platter topped with additional salt if needed and a handful of torn mint leaves.
Serves 4

Pasta with Clams & Sausage

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On Instagram a few weeks back, The Kitchn announced that they were creating a virtual cookbook club (ie: a book club, but with cookbooks…). I got really excited! I love cookbooks, trying new recipes, and getting inspired from different sources, but honestly sometimes I’m a little lazy about it. Frankly, a lot of times it’s easier to browse Pinterest or google “what should I make for dinner tonight?” I always am telling myself that I need to use my cookbooks more and trying to reign myself in from buying all the beautiful new ones. So, I joined The Kitchn Cookbook Club and have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the first selection. And finally it arrived!

The first book selected was Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. I was excited, like most of the group – Salt Fat Acid Heat has become a little bit of a cultural phenomenon. Ms. Nosrat now has a Netflix show, a column in the NYT magazine, and obviously a very popular book! This cookbook is less of a cookbook than most. It’s mostly an educational manual of food science with recipes and some general guidelines. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book – I learned a lot about some of the science of cooking! Honestly, I need to reread some of it to get these principles ingrained in my head even better. Now for my unpopular opinion – I found it a little disappointing as a cookbook. And really, she’s not going for traditional cookbook here so maybe that’s the point. But I was hoping for a bit more in terms of recipes. None the less, I really enjoyed the recipe I selected and had fun making it!

{Side note: if you’re interested in participating in the cookbook club, you can either request to join the FB group “Kitchn’s Cookbook Club,” or use/follow the hashtag #kitchncookbookclub on Instagram.}

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I love clams and have always loved traditional spaghetti alle vongole! My favorite part of the recipe section of the book is the fact that she shares variations of many of the recipes – the addition of the sausage was a variation that sounded excellent to me! I made a handful of adjustments, based on our tastes and my laziness (only cooking the clams one way instead of two). Most dramatically, I made homemade pasta, which was delicious in this recipe, but definitely makes it more of a two person endeavor and adds to your cooking time. [If you don’t want to make your own pasta with this recipe – skip all of the pasta-making steps, cook it in boiling water until just less than al dente, and then add it to the sauce as below.] I also added the lemon zest and omitted the lemon juice, added a little Aleppo pepper, and cooked the sausage in a separate pan. I was concerned that the sausage would release too much fat if I kept it in the main pot, but it probably would have been fine in retrospect. I really loved this dish! It has a great briny flavor without being too salty! I think I did a good job with all of the elements and can definitely see why she uses this recipe in the book about salt, fat, acid, and heat! They were all in beautiful harmony here!

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Pasta with Clams & Sausage

(Adapted from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat)
Ingredients: 
  • Pasta
    • 2 cups AP flour
    • 3/4 tsp salt
    • 3 eggs
    • 2 tsp olive oil
  • Clams & Sausage
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 1 medium onion, diced & reserving the root ends
    • 1 bunch parsley (3 whole sprigs & 1/4 cup finely chopped)
    • 4 lb littleneck clams
    • 1 cup dry white wine
    • 1/2 lb ground spicy Italian sausage
    • 4 cloves garlic
    • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
    • 1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
    • 1 lemon, zested
    • 2 tbsp butter
    • 2oz Parmesan cheese, finely grated
    • Salt & pepper
Instructions: 
  1. Prepare the pasta: on a clean, dry counter-top or in a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt and form it into a volcano (a mound with a crater scooped out in the middle). Crack the eggs into that center well/crater.
  2. Using a fork, slowly mix the egg into the flour. Try to keep the eggs within the crater, pulling in more and more flour. (If you fail, don’t worry, life will go on.) Once the egg is mixed into the flour enough that it’s not trying to run away anymore, switch to use your hands. Fold together until well combined. Now add the olive oil.
  3. Continue kneading the dough, stretching and folding, for at least 5 and up to 10 minutes. By this point, the dough should be smoother and elastic, so that you can form into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, and up to two hours.
  4. Once the dough has set, roll out and divide into quarters. Using the pasta roller attachment on the stand mixer, flatten out (to #5 if using KitchenAid’s model). Let the flattened dough rest on a floured surface.
  5. Cut into spaghetti (or linguine or whatever pasta shape you desire). [Follow your particular pasta roller/cutter’s instructions for doing these things.] Tip: keep your hands and the surface of the dough lightly floured during this process.
  6. Now get to work on the clams/sausage/sauce. In one pan, cook the sausage until cooked through. Then remove to the side and drain of excess oil.
  7. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat in another large pan. Add the root ends of the onion, 3 sprigs of parsley, and one layer of clams. Pour in the white wine and cover. Steam for 3-4 minutes, until clams open.
  8. Remove the clams to the side with tongs or a slotted spoon and repeat until all of the clams are cooked. Discard any clams that do not open.
  9. Strain cooking liquid and set aside. Once the clams are cool enough to handle, remove from shells and coarsely chop. Place the chopped clams into the cooking liquid.
  10. Now, generously salt and bring another pot of water to a boil.
  11. Rinse the pan, then heat another 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the diced onion, a pinch of salt, and several turns of fresh ground black pepper. Cook for 10 minutes. Follow this with the garlic and pepper flakes. Cook for just another 2 minutes.
  12. Now return the chopped clams and liquid to the pan, along with the lemon zest and sausage. Allow to cook together for 5 minutes over medium heat and then taste.
  13. Once the pot of water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for only 1-2 minutes. After this time, move the noodles into the pan with the clams, sausage, and liquid. (Reserve the pasta water.) Allow the noodles to continue to cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring to coat the noodles with the liquid and spread out the. Add additional pasta water if needed to keep it nice and juicy.
  14. Taste and adjust for salt, acid, and spiciness as desired. Add butter and Parmesan cheese, stir them to melt and coat the pasta.
  15. Serve topped with chopped parsley and more Parmesan if desired.
Serves 4-6

Lemony Chicken & Orzo

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After I typed up the recipe portion of this recipe, I looked up at our most recent posts and apparently we’re going a little overboard with the lemon (Lemon Blueberry Muffins, Lemon Blueberry Skillet Cake)! So sorry, but we’re featuring lemons again tonight. This is one of those recipes that got passed around because it’s just so good! My sister saw it on Half Baked Harvest and made it for my parents earlier this summer. My mom thought it was so good (and easy!) that she decided to make it for us in the week or so after we came home with the baby. We loved it too and now I have to add it to my repertoire (and share it on here…)

It’s a great dish that feels a little fancier than what we normally have on weeknights, but really isn’t that much work! It uses one pot and takes maybe 30 or 40 minutes to completely come together. And your protein, starch, and vegetable are all right there in the one pot! Win, win, win!

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Lemony Chicken & Orzo

(Adapted from the always delicious Half Baked Harvest)
Ingredients: 
  • 2+ tbsp neutral oil
  • 4 (bone-in, skin-on) chicken thighs
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced 
  • 1 cup orzo
  • 1/3 cup white wine
  • 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 bunch kale, destemmed & roughly torn
  • 2 lemons (1 zested & juiced, 1 sliced)
  • Salt & pepper
Instructions: 
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Generously season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tbsp oil in cast iron skillet, dutch oven, or another stove & oven – safe dish over medium-high heat. Once hot, sear the chicken thighs, starting with the skin-side, for ~5 minutes on each side. Then remove the chicken to the side.
  3. Turn the heat down to medium. [If there isn’t enough oil/chicken grease, add another tbsp. We had plenty!] Add the garlic and orzo and cook, tossing frequently, for just 2-3 minutes.
  4. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Follow this with the chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest, and kale. You might have to add the kale in batches, pushing them into the liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil.
  5. Return the chicken to the pan. Nestle them into the liquid with the skin exposed and top with lemon slices. Place in the oven and cook for 15 – 20 minutes.
  6. Serve topped with an additional sprinkle of salt if desired.
Serves 4

Pork Tenderloin with Honey-Goat Cheese Sauce

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I love this blog. I love that we’ve kept up with it for a few years now. I love that I can look back on some of the fun dishes we’ve made and especially that I have a record to refer to when I want to remake a recipe. What I don’t love? Actually writing these posts. I feel like I don’t have all that much to say. And that I frequently say the same thing over and over! (“This dish is amazing!” 🙄🙄) But even though the blog is more for us as a culinary diary than for anyone else, I still feel like I have to say something each time, instead of just posting the recipe. Oh well – we can’t all be brilliant and insightful all the time!

This dish came together quickly and easily. Definitely do-able on a weeknight. I may or may not have set off the smoke detector while searing the pork, despite having the vent hood on high, but otherwise it took me less than a half hour from prep to serving. One tip: keep the goat cheese sauce warm and stir frequently until serving. When goat cheese sauces like this start to cool, they get a little gritty. Still tastes good, but the texture is less desirable. Speaking of tastes good… For some reason I always want a sweet and savory combo when eating pork like this. Just me? This fits the bill, as does pretty much every other pork recipe we’ve shared here (see: Maple & Mustard Pork with Shallots, Pork Tenderloin with Fig Chutney, Braised Balsamic Pork with Grapes).

 
Pork Tenderloin with Honey-Goat Cheese Sauce

(Sauce adapted from Half Baked Harvest)
Ingredients:
  • ~1lb pork tenderloin
  • Salt & pepper
  • 6oz goat cheese, room temperature
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
Instructions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Season all sides of the tenderloin with salt and pepper. Sear all sides in a cast iron skillet over high heat for just 1-2 minutes on each side.
  2. Once the tenderloin is seared, move it in the skillet to the hot oven for ~15 minutes. (You want an internal temperature of 145 degrees, at minimum.)
  3. Whisk together the remaining ingredients (or combine in food processor). Heat in a small saucepan over low heat while the pork is cooking.
  4. Allow the pork to rest for ~5 minutes before slicing. (If you prefer pork on the medium-rare side, remove it at an internal temp of 135-140, since it will cook a little more while resting.) Serve with sauce on top!
Serves 3-4

Lamb Meatballs with Minty Pesto

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Here’s our first guest chef post courtesy of Ally’s mom! How this hasn’t happened before is mind-boggling because she is an amazing cook. Ally was super lucky to grow up with a mom who made homemade dinner essentially every night of the week. As a typical ungrateful teenager, Ally used to not appreciate this as much as she does now, instead being jealous of her friends who got to order pizza for dinner. But we definitely appreciate it now! Ally’s mom has a repertoire of her classic dinners that they ate growing up, that her kids salivate over now. But she also has started experimenting and trying new recipes, now that she doesn’t have four whiny kids to cook for every night.

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Last night we were definitely the grateful beneficiaries of one of her new attempts. Hopefully it becomes a family classic because it was so delicious! The recipe originates with Bon Appetit magazine; she made very slight changes to that recipe. The meatballs are flavorful and juicy, and the pesto is an interesting change, with the minty flavor and a sharp bite of garlic. This dinner is also a nice option for a dinner party as it can be scaled up easily, it can be pre-assembled up until the point of rolling out and baking the meatballs, and it looks pretty!

Lamb Meatballs with Minty Pesto

(Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine)
Ingredients: 
  • Meatballs
    • 1 egg
    • 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
    • 1/2 tsp cumin
    • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
    • 1/4 tsp turmeric
    • 1 1/2 tsp salt
    • 2 cloves garlic, minced
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
    • 1 lb ground lamb
  • Pesto
    • 1 cup fresh parsley
    • 1 cup fresh mint
    • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 3 tbsp raisins
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • Greek yogurt for serving
Instructions: 
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Whisk the egg together with all of the other meatball ingredients, except the lamb. Once combined, work the lamb in with your hands.
  3. Meanwhile, combine all of the pesto ingredients in a food processor. Blitz until herbs are finely chopped and the sauce is well-combined. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
  4. Using your hands, roll the meat into golf-ball-sized meatballs. [This should yield ~20 small meatballs.] Place the meatballs on a foil-lined cookie sheet.
  5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until browned.
  6. Serve meatballs with pesto and a dollop of greek yogurt. Rice or couscous is a nice side to go with these meatballs.
Serves 3-4

Corn Cacio e Pepe

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Happy Mac n Cheese Day! When we realized that was today, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity! We love mac n cheese around here – from the classic Kraft blue box to the most upscale restaurant variation. The dish we made tonight falls somewhere in the middle. The pasta did come from a box – sorry, way too hot and pregnant to make my own pasta tonight – but cacio e pepe always seems a little fancier than American mac n cheese, just by virtue of its non-English name! In reality, Cacio e pepe is just as simple and homey to Italians as our American mac n cheese is to us, but we can always pretend to be fancy! (PS: you can check out our other mac n cheese creations too on this important day of celebration – Summer Mac n Cheese and Goat Mac). This recipe is courtesy of Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, one of Selim’s favorite blogs, who now has a column in our favorite magazine, Bon Appetit! This variation adds corn for a sweet, summery update. If you check out our previous attempt at a classic Cacio e Pepe, we followed some very specific instructions to make our cacio e pepe not fall victim to clumpiness, which worked beautifully. Deb’s recipe is simpler, without additional fat of butter and/or oil, so we decided to try her way this time. It’s not quite as silky as our other recipe, but definitely wouldn’t call it clumpy! Happy with the result and the saving of a few calories. Our only change from her recipe was to add a little Aleppo pepper, which I really enjoyed.

 

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Corn Cacio e Pepe

(Adapted from Bon Appetit)
Ingredients: 
  • 16oz medium sized pasta
  • 3 ears corn
  • 8oz Pecorino Romano or Parmesan, grated
  • 1/3 cup cold water
  • 1 tsp Aleppo pepper
  • 2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
  • Salt
  • [Reserved pasta water]
Instructions: 
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the ears of corn for ~5 minutes and then remove to the side. Once cool enough to handle, slice the kernels off of the cob.
  2. Return the water to a boil and add salt liberally. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.
  3. Drain and set the pasta aside in a large bowl. Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid.
  4. While the pasta and corn are cooking, combine the cheese and peppers in a medium bowl. Mash together with the 1/3 cup cold water until a thick paste forms.
  5. Combine pasta, corn kernels, and cheese paste. Toss together. Slowly add pasta water, stirring continuously until you reach your preferred sauce-like coating consistency.
  6. Serve topped with additional cheese and pepper as desired.
Serves ~4