30-minute meals, Italian food, Pasta and noodles, Poultry

Chicken Saltimbocca, Farfalle with Pesto, and Sauteed Spinach

This menu is quicker and easier to prepare than you might think. The whole dinner took about half an hour to make, start to finish. Plain pasta could certainly be served in lieu of the pesto since the chicken has a nice sauce to it. But if you are trying to use up a pound of fresh basil, pesto is a nice compliment to the buttery, salty chicken. The pesto recipe below makes a large amount of pesto; you will need less than half of the batch for a pound of pasta. I spoon my extra pesto into ice cube trays, then store them in plastic bags in the freezer. For instant pesto year round, take a few cubes out while the pasta of your choice is cooking, then toss the cubes with the hot pasta and a splash or two of the pasta water. Top with freshly grated Parmesan.

Chicken Saltimbocca

Serves 4

1/2 cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 lb (680 g) chicken tenders (or chicken cutlets)
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
3 oz (90 g) thin slices of prosciutto, cut into pieces to match the chicken
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups (360 ml) white wine
juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
4 tablespoons (60 g) butter, cut into 4 pieces and chilled
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves

Preheat the oven to 200°F (100°C).

Combine the flour and pepper in a shallow dish. Pat the tenders dry with paper towels. Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess. Sprinkle the tenders evenly with minced sage. Place 1 prosciutto slice on top of each cutlet, pressing lightly to adhere.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the tenders to the pan, prosciutto side down, and cook until light golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. The prosciutto will adhere to the chicken. Flip and cook on the other side until light golden brown, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. (Note: If the skillet is not large enough to hold all the tenders, cook only half of the tenders, remove from pan, then add 1 tablespoon oil and cook the other tenders as directed.) Transfer the tenders to the oven to keep warm while preparing the sauce.

Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up any browned bits, and simmer until reduced to about 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice. Turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Off the heat, stir in the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon the sauce over the tenders before serving.

***

Pesto

4 cups fresh basil
1 cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, chopped
about 1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup walnuts and/or toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Pulse the basil, parsley, and garlic in a food processor until finely minced. Add the nuts and cheese. While the processor is running, pour in olive oil until the desired thickness is reached. Season with salt and pepper to taste. For use as a pasta sauce, add about 1/2 cup pesto to 12 oz (340 g) cooked pasta and garnish with freshly grated Parmesan.

***

Sauteed Spinach

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 lb (450 g) fresh spinach, washed and thoroughly dried
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To a cold skillet, add the olive oil and garlic. Sauté over a medium-low heat until the garlic just turns golden, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and sauté over a medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the spinach just wilts. Season to taste and serve. Optional add-ins (after cooking): splash of balsamic vinegar, grated Parmesan, lemon zest, or toasted sesame seeds.

Appetizers, Salad dressings, Salads, Seafood

Crab Cakes with Rémoulade Sauce and Baby Spinach Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

I’m coming full circle to finish up my first week of posts, which started with potato cakes and salad and is ending with crab cakes and a simpler, lighter spinach salad. I admit that there are plenty of crab cake recipes out there that are faster to make than this one, but I like that this one sneaks in some vegetables (always a consideration when feeding two little ones). You’ve probably already guessed that we like to eat as much salad as we can in the summertime, while greens are fresh from the garden or market and, in this case, with pretty edible flowers too. The potato cakes and crab cakes were big hits with both of my children — what kid doesn’t like to eat with their hands instead of a fork?

crab cakes with rémoulade sauce

Crab Cakes with Rémoulade Sauce
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

Makes about 24 small cakes to serve as appetizers or 8 to 10 large ones for a main course

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients for the crab cakes, it comes together quicker than you might think, especially if you use a food processor to dice the vegetables (just be careful not to overdo it, you don’t want them to turn to mush). If you have any leftover vegetable mixture, use it with some chopped ham to make a Denver omelette. And as for the rémoulade sauce, store-bought tartar sauce would be a perfectly fine substitute. If you can’t get the Old Bay Seasoning called for here, you could make your own, or just leave it out altogether. And of course you could make this with fresh crab, which is what the original recipe calls for.

We had a couple crab cakes left over that we had for lunch the next day, and surprisingly, they were much better the second day. Consider making them ahead of time and leaving overnight.

2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup (1 small onion) small-diced red onion
1 1/2 cups (4 stalks) small-diced celery
1/2 cup (1 small pepper) small-diced red pepper
1/2 cup (1 small pepper) small-diced yellow pepper
1/4 cup (5 g) minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound (225 g) canned crab meat, drained
1/2 cup (25 g) plain dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup (120 ml)  good mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons (60 g) unsalted butter, for frying
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil, for frying

Place the 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons oil, onion, celery, red and yellow peppers, parsley, capers, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, Old Bay Seasoning, salt, and pepper in a large frying pan over medium-low heat and cook until the vegetables are soft, approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, break the crab meat into small pieces and toss with the breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, and eggs. Add about three-quarters of the cooked vegetable mixture and mix well, then judge whether you need to add more of the vegetable mixture – you don’t want the cakes to be too loose. Alternatively, you could add more breadcrumbs. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes (or overnight to let the flavors develop). Shape into about 2 dozen bite-sized or 8 to 10 larger crab cakes.

Heat the butter and olive oil for frying over a medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the crab cakes and fry for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until browned. Drain on paper towels. Keep them warm in a 250°F (120°C) oven and serve hot with the rémoulade sauce.

Rémoulade Sauce
Makes 3/4 cup (175 ml)

1/2 cup (120 ml) good mayonnaise
2 tablespoons small-diced pickles or cornichons
1 teaspoon coarse-grained mustard
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
pinch sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place all the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse several times until the pickles are finely chopped and all the ingredients are well mixed but not puréed.

***

Baby Spinach Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

To make this salad for 2 adults, I used 2 or 3 handfuls of washed baby spinach, lightly dressed in lemon vinaigrette and topped with halved cherry tomatoes, Parmesan shavings, croutons and edible flowers from our garden (borage, chive and marigold).

Lemon Vinaigrette
from Bon Appétit, December 1998

Makes about 3/4 cup (175 ml)

1/2 cup (120 ml) good-quality olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Whisk all the ingredients in a bowl to blend (or shake to combine in a screw-top jar). Season to taste with salt and pepper. This can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, just bring to room temperature before using.

Desserts, Fruit, Poultry, Salad dressings, Salads

Chicken Wrapped in Parma Ham with Cantaloupe Salsa, Romaine Salad with Lime-Garlic Dressing and Roasted Peaches Stuffed with Amaretti

I’ve been thinking about this cantaloupe salsa ever since seeing it on my favorite cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen, a couple weeks ago. The question was, as ever, what to pair it with as part of a meal (tempting as it may be to just eat it straight up with tortilla chips). Grilled chicken seemed like a good choice, but boring. But chicken wrapped in Parma ham? That’s more like it. Parma ham and melon is a classic combination, and this dinner plays on that. The lime-garlic dressing in this fast, easy spin on a Greek salad also helps to balance out the salty Parma ham and keep the dinner light for summertime. But if you make nothing else from my posts this week, make these melt-in-your-mouth roasted peaches.

chicken wrapped in parma ham with romaine salad

Chicken Wrapped in Parma Ham

Serves 4

Stuffing the chicken breasts with slices of buffalo mozzarella would also work well here — cut the chicken breast in half (but not right through), stuff with two or three mozzarella slices, then fold the breast back together and wrap the Parma ham around it. If you’re serving this without the salsa, you could spread a thin layer of pesto on the Parma ham slices before wrapping the chicken up in them. If you’d like some visual step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the chicken for this recipe, Bon Appétit has a tutorial here.

4 chicken breasts
8 slices Parma ham (or bacon)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and oil a baking tray. Season the chicken breasts with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Lay 2 slices of Parma ham on a piece of greaseproof or parchment paper or aluminium foil, making sure they overlap slightly. Place a chicken breast at one end and, using the paper or foil to get started, gently roll it up in the ham. Carefully transfer the wrapped-up chicken breast to the well-oiled baking tray. Repeat for the other chicken breasts. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve with the cantaloupe salsa spooned on top.

***

Cantaloupe Salsa
from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 2 cups of salsa

2 cups (300 g) diced cantaloupe
1/4 cup (30 g) diced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or cilantro
1 red or green chili, deseeded and minced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix everything and eat immediately.

***

Summer Romaine Salad with Lime-Garlic Dressing
from Orangette

Serves 3 to 4

This dressing will keep, covered and chilled, for up to 1 week. Some fresh finely chopped cilantro added to the dressing would also be good.

for the dressing:
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (or more to taste)
5 tablespoons good-quality olive oil
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

for the salad:
1 head Romaine lettuce, washed, dried and cut into rough 1/2‑inch strips
1 pint (1 punnet) cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
1/2 cup (100 g) feta cheese, crumbled

To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt in a small bowl (or shake to combine in a screw-top jar). Whisk until emulsified and set aside.

In a salad bowl, combine the lettuce, tomatoes, and red onion. Toss with dressing to taste and top with plenty of feta. Serve.

***

Roasted Peaches Stuffed with Amaretti Cookies
from Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis

Serves 6

3 large, ripe, firm peaches (about 5 oz/140 g each), halved and pitted (nectarines would also work well here, or even a mix of peaches and nectarines)
1 1/2 oz (40 g) amaretti cookies (about 12 small cookies)
3 teaspoons sugar (1/2 teaspoon per peach half)
1 tablespoon (15 g) unsalted butter (1/2 teaspoon per peach half)
fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter the bottom of an 8‑inch baking dish and set aside.

Using a melon baller or a spoon, clean out the red flesh from the center of each peach. Arrange the peaches cut side up in the prepared dish. In the bowl of a food processor, add the amaretti cookies and pulse until finely crumbled (or place in a Ziploc bag and bash with a rolling pin). Divide the amaretti crumbs between the peaches, filling the center of each peach with the amaretti cookie crumbs. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of sugar over each. Dot each peach with 1/2 teaspoon of butter.

Bake until the peaches are tender and the filling is crisp on top, about 30 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

30-minute meals, Asian food, Pasta and noodles, Seafood

Orange and Soy Salmon with Soba Noodles and Roasted Broccoli

On my way home from picking the kids up at day care yesterday, I realized that I’d forgotten to buy green beans, which I’d planned to make for dinner that night. What I did have, though, was a head of broccoli, so I went online to search for a roasted broccoli recipe and found this one with soy sauce and sesame seeds, a perfect complement to the salmon I’d started marinating earlier that afternoon. I’d never roasted broccoli before, but when the first search result that came up was “the best broccoli of your life”, I had to try it. My 15-month-old baby certainly seemed to think so — he couldn’t get enough of it, as well as the salmon.

The best thing about this dinner is that broccoli and salmon are two of the top 10 super foods, so it packs a real punch for one plate. It also doesn’t hurt that aside from marinating the salmon (which takes 5 minutes to pull together earlier in the day), the whole dinner takes less than half an hour to make from start to finish, helped by the fact that the salmon and broccoli cook at the same temperature and for the same amount of time.

You could serve this dinner either by combining the roasted broccoli and soba noodles and then serving the salmon fillet on top, or by keeping the three dishes separate.

Roasted Orange and Soy Salmon
from Bon Appétit, April 2003

Serves 4

1/4 cup (60 ml) dry white wine
1/4 cup (60 ml) orange juice
1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce
4 x 6 oz (170 g) salmon fillets, with skin

Mix the wine, orange juice and soy sauce in a glass baking dish large enough to hold all the salmon. Place the salmon, skin side up, in the dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, turning occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Line a baking sheet with foil. Shake any excess marinade off the salmon. Transfer the salmon to the baking sheet, skin side down. Roast until the fish is opaque in the center, about 14 minutes. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and transfer to plates.

***

Roasted Broccoli with Soy Sauce and Sesame Seeds
adapted from VeggieGardener.com

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 lb (450 g) fresh broccoli (1 large or 2 small heads), broken into florets
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C).

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, soy sauce and sesame oil (or shake to combine in a screw-top jar).

Place the broccoli florets in a bowl and toss well with the soy dressing. Arrange the florets in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir and continue roasting for 5 minutes more, or until the broccoli is tender-crisp and slightly browned on the edges.

While the broccoli roasts, toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over a very high heat for 30 to 60 seconds, taking care that they don’t burn. When the broccoli is done, put it back into the bowl, add in the sesame seeds, and toss again. Serve hot.

***

Soba Noodles
from Bobby Flay

Serves 4

1 lb (450 g) soba noodles, cooked al dente
1/2 cup (120 ml) soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 cup (5 g) chopped fresh cilantro
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 scallions, finely chopped

Place the noodles in a large bowl. Whisk together the soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger, olive oil and sesame oil. Pour over the noodles, add the cilantro and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with scallion.

30-minute meals, Pasta and noodles, Vegetarian main dishes

Lemon Fusilli with Arugula

I love Ina Garten’s recipes — they always work and are always delicious — but my god, that woman uses a lot of butter and cream. I reduced the amount of cream she calls for, which makes the lemon flavor stronger. Add some finely chopped fresh chili or a pinch of dried chili flakes if you like a bit of zip. It goes without saying that a green salad and some crusty bread are perfect to round this off.

Lemon Fusilli with Arugula
adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten

Serves 4 to 5

1 tablespoon good-quality olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
zest and juice of 2 lemons
splash of white wine (optional)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets
1 lb (450 g) dried fusilli pasta
1/2 lb (225 g) baby arugula or baby spinach
1/2 cup (25 g) freshly grated Parmesan
1 pint (250 g) grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the cream, lemon zest and juice, splash of wine (optional), and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until it starts to thicken.

Meanwhile, cook the broccoli florets in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain the broccoli and run under cold water to stop it cooking. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the directions on the package, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the pasta in a colander and place it back into the pot. Immediately add the cream mixture and cook it over a medium-low heat for 3 minutes, until most of the sauce has been absorbed in the pasta. Pour the hot pasta into a large bowl, add the arugula, Parmesan, tomatoes, and cooked broccoli. Toss well, season to taste and serve hot.

Appetizers, Asian food, Beef, Desserts, Fruit, Salads

Thai Crumbled Beef in Lettuce Wraps with Cucumber Carrot Salad and Mango Fool

I don’t know what tempted me to try making something with nam pla for the first time — a sauce made from fermented fish doesn’t exactly get your mouth watering. But now if I see a recipe that calls for it, especially when combined with lime juice, chances are good that I’m going to make it. If you’ve never had it before, do try it. (If you’re still not convinced, check out what this couple has to say about fish sauce.) The flavors in this menu are cool, crisp and perfect for summer.

Thai Crumbled Beef in Lettuce Wraps
from Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson

Serves 6 as an appetizer or 2 to 3 as a main course

If you want to perk the lettuce leaves up a little, making sure they curve into appropriate cups for later, leave them in a sinkful of very cold water while you cook the minced beef, then make sure you drain them well before piling them up on a plate.

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 chilies, finely chopped
13 oz (375 g) beef mince
1 scant tablespoon Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
4 green onions, dark green bits removed, finely chopped
zest and juice of 1 lime
3–4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 iceberg lettuce, leaves broken off

Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Add the finely chopped chillies and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally, taking care not to let the chillies burn.

Add the beef, turn up the heat and, breaking up the mince with a wooden spoon or fork, cook for 3 or 4 minutes, until no trace of pink remains. Add the fish sauce and, still stirring, cook till the liquid has evaporated. Off the heat, stir in the spring onions, lime zest and juice and most of the cilantro. Turn into a bowl and sprinkle over the remaining cilantro just before serving. (Note: If your meat is very fatty, strain it into a serving bowl with a slotted spoon.)

Arrange the iceberg lettuce leaves on another plate — they should sit one on top of another easily enough — and let people serve themselves at the table, filling the leaves with spoonfuls of the meat and wrapping it in the lettuce like you would with a burrito.

***

beef wraps with cucumber carrot salad

Cucumber Carrot Salad
adapted from Gourmet, June 1994

Serves 6

The salad can be made up to 4 hours ahead and kept chilled and covered, but the cucumber will wilt and give off liquid.

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 chili, or to taste, seeded and minced
2 cucumbers, deseeded
1 carrot, coarsely grated
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped

In a bowl, stir together the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and chili until the sugar is dissolved.

Thinly slice the cucumbers (a food processor makes short work of this) and add to the chili mixture along with the grated carrot and peanuts. Toss the salad well.

***

Mango Fool
adapted from Gourmet, April 2000

Serves 6

The Gourmet recipe says that canned mangoes are excellent in this dessert if ripe fresh ones are unavailable. Use a drained (1 lb 14 oz/850 g) can of mango slices in syrup. If the canned fruits you buy are Alphonso mangoes (their favorite variety of mango), add an additional 1/2 cup (120 ml) cream. If you don’t want to bother putting the purée through a sieve, it won’t suffer for not having a perfectly smooth texture. I think you could also get away with not adding the gelatin, which would make this more of a traditional fool recipe of just sweetened fruit and whipped cream, though the gelatin elevates this into more of a mousse.

1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 large very ripe mangoes, flesh coarsely chopped (4 cups)
1/4 cup sugar (55 g), or to taste depending on sweetness of mangoes
3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin over the juice in a small heatproof cup and let it stand 1 minute to soften. Purée the mangoes with the sugar in a blender until very smooth and force through a sieve into a large bowl.

Melt the softened gelatin in the cup in a pan of simmering water or in a microwave and stir into the purée. Beat the cream with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks and gently fold into the purée.

Transfer the purée into 6 ramekins, small glasses, etc., or 1 large serving dish. Chill the fool, covered, for at least 8 hours.

Desserts, Fruit, Salads

Turkey Burgers with Smoky Aioli, Carrot Salad with Parsley and Mint and Blueberry Crumb Bars

There is a show currently running in Ireland called Fresh from the Sea, featuring Ireland’s small-scale fishermen and producers with a bit of cooking thrown in at the end. It’s a great series, and the cookbook that accompanies it is turning out to be one of my favorites of the year. In the first episode, Clodagh McKenna is outside on a windy pier, her hair blowing in her face, whipping up a homemade mayonnaise by hand. Well, I thought, if she can make mayonnaise in such a setting, and by hand, no less, then anyone can do it.

Still, lovely and all as homemade mayo or aioli is, I’m not about to suggest that anyone make it. I love to cook, but there are limits to what I’ll make from scratch. This smoky aioli sounds very fancy, but is just store-bought mayonnaise tarted up a bit with spices, olive oil and lemon juice. If you can’t be bothered toasting and grinding the cumin and coriander seeds, just use the ground versions, though when I made these on Saturday, after listening to two whiny kids all day while rushing to meet a work deadline I’d overlooked on Friday, I was in the mood to bash some spices in a mortar and pestle.

turkey burger with smoky aioli

Turkey Burgers with Cheddar and Smoky Aioli
adapted from Bon Appétit, August 2009

Serves 4

The aioli can be made 1 day ahead; just cover and refrigerate. The turkey burgers can also be made 4 hours ahead; cover and chill. If you don’t want to fire up the grill for this dinner, you can pan-fry the burgers for 5 minutes on each side and roast the peppers and onions in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) for about 30 minutes.

for the smoky aioli:
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (or 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin)
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds (or 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander)
1/2 cup (100 ml) mayonnaise
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika

for the turkey burgers:
1 lb (450 g) ground turkey
1/2 cup (25 g) fresh breadcrumbs
2 green onions, minced, white and green part
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 x 1/3‑inch-thick red onion slices
1 large or 2 small red bell peppers, quartered
4 slices white cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese
4 sesame seed hamburger buns, lightly toasted
arugula or baby spinach, to serve

To make theh aioli, toast the cumin seeds and coriander seeds in a small skillet over a medium-high heat until aromatic and slightly darker in color, shaking skillet often, about 1 1/2 minutes. Cool. Finely grind the toasted seeds in spice grinder or in mortar with pestle. Whisk mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, smoked paprika, and ground spices in small bowl. Season the aioli to taste with salt and pepper.

To make the burgers, place the turkey in a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the aioli, the breadcrumbs, green onions and salt and pepper; do not overmix or the burgers will be tough. Using damp hands, divide the turkey mixture into 4 equal portions, then form each into a scant 3/4‑inch thick patty, about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Using your thumb, make a small indentation in the center of each burger (dimpling a burger like this helps it to cook evenly and retain its juices).

Prepare the barbecue (medium-high heat). Sprinkle the burgers with salt and pepper. Brush the onion slices and bell pepper pieces with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill the onions and bell peppers until soft and charred, about 4 minutes per side.

Grill the turkey burgers for 5 minutes. Turn over and grill until almost cooked through, about 4 minutes. Top each burger with 1 cheese slice and grill until the meat is cooked through and the cheese melts, about 1 minute longer. Place 1 turkey burger on each of 4 bun bottoms. Arrange grilled red pepper pieces, then grilled red onion slices over. Top each with dollop of aioli and some arugula or spinach and cover with bun tops.

***

Carrot Salad with Parsley and Mint
adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

Serves 4 to 6

I modified this to double the amount of parsley and mint called for and to use black pepper instead of white.

1 lb (450 g) carrots
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
freshly ground black pepper

Peel, then grate the carrots. Mix the vinegar or lemon juice with the salt, then whisk in the olive oil (or shake to combine in a screw-top jar). Toss with the carrots, parsley and mint and season with pepper to taste. Serve right away or cover and chill for 1 hour.

***

Blueberry Crumb Bars
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes approx. 36 small rectangles

These are good at any time of the day. I never feel (too) guilty about eating desserts with fruit in them for breakfast. I used my food processor to make the dough, which made this even easier to pull together.

1 cup (200 g) white sugar
3 cups (425 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup (225 g) cold butter
1 egg
1/2 cup (100 g) white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
4 cups (600 g) fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 9×13-inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in the salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. (Alternatively, briefly whiz the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a food processor just to combine. Add the butter and egg and blend until a crumbly dough is formed.) Pat half of the dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble the remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares (they will cut even easier if you chill them in the fridge), though cutting just a few crumbly ones still warm from the oven will do no harm to the rest of the pan.

Uncategorized

Welcome!

Thanks for stopping by to have a look at our new collaborative project! To get you started, we already have a week’s worth of menus posted, but from now on we’ll be posting a dinner menu every day. It’s an ambitious goal, but by swapping weeks (Kristin is doing the first week, Kelly will do week 2, and so on), we hope to have enough variety to appeal to everyone, especially as time goes on and our archives grow.

For years now, both of us have sat down with our cookbooks, magazine clippings or bookmarked blog recipes to plan out the meals for the week for our families. Most of the time this is something we enjoy doing, rather than a chore, since we both love to cook and bake. But there are plenty of times too when we’re tired or uninspired, when nothing sounds good or we’ve left it to the last minute. So Kristin got to thinking that it would be a good idea to pool her resources with Kelly, and from there, sharing our menus on a blog was a natural next step.

Our blog is different from most other cooking blogs out there in that we’ll be posting a menu every day, not just a single recipe (unless it’s a one-dish dinner like pasta or stew). Oftentimes when reading blogs or flipping through cookbooks, we think a particular side dish or main course looks great, but are still left to come up with other dishes to serve it with. We hope that our blog will make things that much easier for other busy cooks by providing a complete meal all in one go.

So be sure to check back every day or subscribe in a blog reader or via email so you never miss a recipe, and we’d love it if you passed on the link (http://dinnerdujour.org) to any of your friends and family who you think would enjoy it too.

From our kitchens to yours,
Kelly & Kristin

A Cooking Blog