recipes – Page 31 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Lemon Spaghetti with Tuna

This is yet another Giada pasta dinner. My affection for Everyday Italian has been increasing lately, and I suspect tonight’s dinner will be pulled from its pages as well. The only change I made, to make it seem just a little more substantial, was adding tuna (well, and forgetting the basil) but even with tuna this was an simple, quick, light, summery dinner, perfect for these early days of spring. Also, the tuna steak I bought at the hippy mart was the biggest danged tuna steak I’ve ever seen.

I often worry that these pasta recipes with all of, like, two ingredients are going to be boring, but they never are. I was worried that this pasta would be overwhelmingly lemony, but it wasn’t. Its only drawback is that it looks boring, and it wouldn’t even look boring if I hadn’t forgotten the basil. Besides which, the only people who care if food looks boring are chefs and food bloggers, and I’m starting to get so obsessive about it that I often let food get cold while I’m taking pictures and arranging prettiness. I should just accept the fact that the food I’m actually planning to eat probably won’t ever look as nice as the food in the pages of Bon Appetit and just enjoy my meals already.

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An ESADE Acceptance Celebratory Feast

So how dumb am I? Last night I put together a Mediterranean-style feast in celebration of my housemate’s acceptance to business school in Spain. I made crostini with tapenade and artichokes and aioli and marinated olives and delicious cheese and little chocolate tarts and plated everything and it was lovely and then I forgot to take pictures. We were just so excited! My excitement is mixed with extreme sadness at her imminent departure, but I’m still excited for her.

I suppose it’s really just as well, because this was about the most semi-homemade dinner I’ve ever made. But I was proud of myself for putting the whole idea together in the grocery store in about 10 minutes, and Crystal was overjoyed, although at that point I suspect she would have been overjoyed no matter what. So, I’m not going to write up anything long and fancy, but I do some quick words to share.

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Mac and cheese indulgence, with a bit of spring

Cheesy goodness

With the weather as crappy as it was all week, and a refrigerator full of fancy cheese, a mac and cheese night seemed like a necessity. Freezing rain in April makes me want to indulge myself, and stick things in the oven, and enjoy the comfort of a big bowl of cheesy noodles.

To my mind, macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food, which I’m sure is true for many, many people. My mom recalls times when I refused to eat anything else. Of course, in my childhood it was Kraft, or an odd favorite of mine, Golden Grain that was so often clamored for. In college, I tasted Annie’s mac and cheese and was an instant convert. After Annie’s, Kraft just tastes like nothing. When I first moved to Boston, I probably ate macaroni and cheese at least once a week (with tuna, which some people find disgusting, for reasons I can’t fathom). And of course once I started cooking and realized how easy homemade macaroni and cheese really is, well…I can’t even remember the last time I bought a box of Annie’s.

Of course, the homemade macaroni and cheese I made Wednesday night did take over an hour, which is probably the reason the boxed version will never truly disappear from even the most ardent chef’s kitchen. But this week, that hour seemed best spent in a warm kitchen, watching the windows steam up while outside there was nothing but gray and drizzle and bleh.

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Pepper Crusted Salmon with Creamy Chickpea Vinaigrette

Pepper Crusted Salmon and Chickpeas

I still have a lot to learn about how to properly cook fish. The thing is, I like fish to be pretty well done, which I know is not the way it’s supposed to be eaten. I just feel squeamish about the mushy texture of some raw fish. Tuna fillets? It’s ok if they’re a bit pink in the middle. Salmon and other flaky fish? No mush, thanks.

These salmon fillets were even harder to cook properly, because they were very thin on one side and very thick on the other, which is actually pretty normal, but hey. What do I know about fish? I was so afraid of burning it (and I did end up with a very smoky kitchen) that, sadly, the inside of the salmon was a little too pink for my taste. However, that could have been just perfect for someone else.

Despite my undercooked fish issues, this was a really unique and tasty dinner that left me feeling all healthy and nourished. And, yes, it was easy, though it did result in more dishes than I usually care to clean, including the difficult food processor. The chickpea side was also excellent the next day, sans fish, just tossed with some spinach and tomatoes. (Tomatoes which, by the way, seem to be coming back in season, at least if you get them imported from somewhere warmer than here.)

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Two Super Speedy Dinners: Penne with Arugula and Shrimp and Grilled Asparagus and Pesto Potato Salad

Penne with Arugula and Shrimp

Neither of these dinners really seemed to merit their own special posts. There are no innovative or difficult cooking techniques involved. Neither of them require unique combinations of ingredients or sought-after spices or even new-to-me greenery. Well, I never really cooked with arugula before, but otherwise this is all pretty run-of-the-mill. However, they were both so fast and delicious and felt so perfect for spring (which I’m still patiently waiting for, here in Boston) that I did want to share them. They are both perfect when you come home from work starving and want something healthier than a microwavable meal, but just as easy. In short, they will quickly become staples in my kitchen, I am sure.

A few key ingredients served to make these super speedy: store-bought pesto and frozen shrimp. How I can even think of writing about frozen shrimp on this, my food blog, is beyond me, except that it’s actually a good food innovation. Sorry to all you purists out there who wouldn’t even consider frozen shrimp. You can plug your ears and hum a little tune through all of this.

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The Most Ultimate of Awesome Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

The Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich

In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, we decided we had to concoct the very best, most ultimate grilled cheese sandwich of all time. And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that pesky cast iron skillet! Actually, they were pretty awesome, despite sticking in the worst way to the pan, thus diminishing their prettiness for the camera. And while it might be possible for someone to create a more ultimate grilled cheese sandwich, I think it would be very difficult.

How does one grilled cheese sandwich end up more ultimate than another? We took our cue from a local Boston restaurant, Picco, which, instead of coating the bread with butter before grilling, coats each slice with a healthy dose of Mornay sauce. I have not actually had this famous grilled cheese, only read about it Boston Magazine’s January 2006 food issue, but as soon as I read it, I knew I’d have to try it. But that innovation was not enough. This sandwich would need something else to become ultimate, and that something else was…bacon!

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Radicchio and Prosciutto Risotto

Radicchio and Proscuitto Risotto

More risotto experimentation, and this one was a winner. The bitterness of the radicchio and the saltiness of the prosciutto are a perfect complement. I also learned another important piece of the risotto puzzle: Using a too-large skillet causes the stock to evaporate too quickly, thereby not cooking the rice exactly to its peak of creamy perfection. Dang! At least now I know. The big skillet is for risotto for six, the smaller skillet is for risotto for my household.

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Beets, glorious Beets

Beets and wine

I love beets. I have strong, passionate feelings about beets. This is belied by the fact that I hardly ever cook them. It’s not that I’m afraid of the pink-dyed hands, or the pink-dyed sink, or pink-dyed anything, really. It’s not that they’re time consuming–I cook lots of time consuming things. It’s not that they’re unavailable–I always see beets at the market. I don’t really know why I never cook beets. I just don’t. Until this week. And I was reminded of my love once again, as I ate up my lovely pink-dyed salad today.

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Green Curry with Snow Peas and Chicken

Green Curry

I am very new to the world of Asian cooking. So new, in fact, that this is the first time I’ve made curry that didn’t come straight from a jar, though I love curries of all kinds. For my first attempt, I have to say I’m pretty proud of myself. It could have used perhaps a bit more of the curry flavor, but it was buttery and spicy and the chicken stayed tender and overall, I count it a success.

Even better, it’s pretty darned healthy, which has become a big concern (er, obsession) with me lately. I blame reading Morgan Spurlock and Michael Pollan. Whatever the reason, this dinner fit right in: fresh veggies, organic chicken, and brown rice–I even used light coconut milk, which didn’t seem to diminish the buttery effect I love so much in curry at all. Bonus!

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Pipettes with Sauteed Shrimp and Peppers

Up on Shrimpy Mountain

More fun with alliteration! And a picture that obviously demonstrates Mr. X’s superiority at plating. This alliterative shrimp mountain was actually Saturday night’s dinner, which I’m only getting around to posting about now, despite the fact that it was totally easy and uncomplicated, because I am lazy. Actually, for once, I can claim busy-ness rather than laziness as the reason for my absence. I am currently in the midst of the one two-week period of each semester that I’m actually busy, but have decided today that I had to take my lunch break to satisfy my reading public. Ha. Aaaanyway.

Saturday night’s pasta dinner was awesome, and including prep took under half an hour. And I didn’t even buy my vegetables pre-sliced, a la Rachel Ray. The shrimp were a brilliant afterthought, too–we saw them at the market for less than the peppers cost, so in they went and I am glad they did. Not for the least reason that I got a great lesson in how to devein shrimp, way more efficiently than I did it last time I tried. Yay! Poop veins begone!

I’ll actually relay the recipe with all the prep steps included, so you can see that it really does take only about half an hour to do everything. Faster, even, if you’re a better chopper than me. I’m pretty slow with a knife, thus dooming any hopes I have of becoming a professional chef. Ah well.

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