I bought Ina Garten's new cookbook the day it came out. While I frequently buy used cookbooks for pennies on the dollar, I'm fine with buying Ina's cookbooks new. Why? They're so well done. She obviously tests and retests her recipes because they just work. And, they're so often relatively quick and easy. Perfect for work nights. That's how I felt about her Flounder Milanese. After reading the book cover to cover and making a list of recipes to try, this one came to the top of the list. I stopped at our favorite fishmongers and picked up some cod instead of the flounder.
We left the office about 7:00 and headed home. I still needed a salad. My idea was celery. A great recipe from the New York Times was on my radar. But, it required a two hour marination. Not happening at 7:00 in the evening! So, on to eatyourbooks.com. I typed in celery, pine nuts, feta, thinking I'd get a bunch of salad ideas. Nope. Just one, from Food 52. So, I used the basic ingredients and made up my own salad dressing.
What did we think? Both recipes were fives. They were SO easy to make. And, SO very good. This is exactly what we like on a late evening. Quick, flavorful and pretty darned good for us.
Cod Milanese
Ingredients:
1 pound cod fillet
1 c all purpose flour
salt and pepper
1 extra large egg
1 c seasoned dry bread crumbs
unsalted butter
good olive oil
1 T drained capers
lime juice
Directions:
Put the flour in a shallow bowl. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water in another shallow bowl. And, the seasoned bread crumbs in another. Since I didn't have seasoned bread crumbs, I put in a good bit of Italian seasoning. Cut the fish into pieces. I cut it based on the thickness of the fish. Pat the fish pieces dry. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet. Add a tablespoon of olive oil. Dip the fillets first in flour, then the egg, then the bread crumbs. When the butter is sizzling, put the thicker fillets in. When they are brown on the first side, flip them and add the balance of the fillets to the skillet. You may need to add more butter and/or oil. The thick fillets (1") took about 8 minutes and the thinner ones took about 4 minutes. Serve topped with capers and a squeeze of lime or lemon. Ina also added salad greens with a lemon vinaigrette.
adapted from Cook Like a Pro by Ina Garten
Celery, Artichoke and Chickpea Salad
Ingredients:
3 celery ribs with leaves, finely diced
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and diced
1 jar hearts of palm, drained and sliced thinly
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 c crumbled feta cheese
2 T toasted pine nuts
mustard vinaigrette
Directions:
Mix the celery, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, chickpeas and vinaigrette together and allow them to marinate while you prep the fish. For the vinaigrette, I had about 3 T of Dijon mustard left in a jar. I added some red wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar, about 2 t of Italian seasoning and then a good bit of EVOO. Serve the salad topped with crumbled feta and toasted pine nuts.
adapted from Food 52
This recipe has been in my Try NOW pile for a couple of weeks. It's just been awaiting the right time to make it. Sunday morning felt like the right time.
Saturday evening we went to Civic Theatre to see Amadeus. Connie said he knew I wanted to leave asap the third time I put my head on his shoulder. I did NOT like the play. Not that it was poorly acted or that the set was bad. I just didn't like the play. We came home at intermission and curled up in our chairs and read the paper. Well, confession here. I read the paperS. I'm a couple of weeks behind. Sunday morning I got up really early and signed on to the office computer and got a lot done. As in enough that I didn't feel like I had to go to the office for a couple of hours before the Colts game. All of the sudden, I had time to make the chickpea flatbread.
I really had no idea what to expect with this. So, what did we think? Amazing. I loved the way the flavors played together. Connie would've given this a five instead of a four (on a scale of one to five) if it'd had less "green stuff on top." I thought the amount of said green stuff was perfect and gave it a five. The only downside is the prep time. You need to leave the batter sitting for half an hour then bake it for an equal amount of time. So, this isn't something you decide to whip up for lunch... But, it's worth every minute of the time!
Now, before we get to the salad, I've got to show you some of my favorite photos from a bit ago. My good friend, Joe, who's the grand poobah of our producers group, came into town to visit. My colleague Grant, from Greencastle, and his associate, Josh, joined Joe and Connie and me at St. Elmos for dinner. If you've never heard of St. Elmo's, it's THE place to go for steak in Indy. They're world renowned for their shrimp cocktail. It's usually wicked hot but this time I didn't even break a sweat. Usually, the sweat is dripping down my brow. Here's Joe and Grant and me:
But, that's not the fun part. Here's the fun part:
That's one of the THREE boxes of goodies I took home. One had spinach and potatoes and the other half of my steak. The other two had bones. Dog bones. Annie was in her element:
Poor Doggie Woggie. Has to have good doggly manners and wait until she's given the bone. It's just like when we get home from the office in the evening. A doggie is expected to SIT in the back seat until her human releases her from the car. She's now made it through three of the five bones. Happy Doggie!
Chickpea Flatbread with Parsley Olive Salad
Ingredients:
For the Flatbread:
1 1/4 cups hummus (about a 10-ounce container)
Generous pinch of ground cumin
Generous pinch of dried rosemary
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
For the Salad:
1 cup fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 T lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions:
First, you need to make the batter and let it sit for half an hour. Combine the hummus, cumin, rosemary
and 1/2 c hot water. Then, whisk in one tablespoon of olive oil followed by the flour.
While the batter is resting, preheat your oven to 450 and make your salad. Combine the parsley, green pepper, green onions and kalamata olives.
Toss that with at tablespoon each of olive oil and lemon juice.
When the batter has been resting for about 20 of its 30 minutes, start heating a 12" cast iron skillet on the stovetop - that's assuming you've got an electric stove and not a gas stove that'll actually heat quickly. At any rate, you want the cast iron skillet to be pretty screaming hot. At 30 minutes, you're going to put the last tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet, pour in the batter and schmear it around to level it then pop the whole thing in the oven. The oil will pop and spatter so be very careful. The recipe said to cook this for 30 minutes then put shards of the flatbread on the plates. Mine cut into lovely quarters.
And, one edge was overcooked but that's because I've got a lousy oven.
adapted from Foodtv.com
My friend, Lauren, stopped by the office today to have me taste a Turkish dish that the folks at Bosphorous prepare. It's called Pepper Delight. And, it is delightful! We had a grand time trying to figure out what's in it. And, because she's an incredible cook, she'll be able to get really close. Once we finished our tasting, our conversation wandered to things we'd recently made. She got through the first recipe and I grabbed a meeting notes page and started scribbling. I knew that even a gimp could toss together the garbanzo bean salad in no time flat. And, I did.
What did we think? Could I have this once a week, please? It's funny. Mom didn't like garbanzo beans - still doesn't - so we never had them growing up. Then again, how many of the things we consider to be staples were "normal" items in a grocery store in the 60's? Sun-dried tomatoes? Red bell peppers? I could go on and on here. We are so very fortunate to have access to all the wonderful food. And, as my blogging friend Liz and I have said many times, the two of us (who live about 4 miles apart) live in a grocery shopping heaven. Trader Joes, Marsh, Kroger, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Sams Club, Costco, Aldi's, Kincaids Meat Market, Taylors Bakery. I'm sure I've missed at least half a dozen. Yes, I'm rambling. Back to the subject at hand - what we thought of this. I absolutely loved it. We typically eat vegetarian at least once a week. You all don't see a lot of the recipes because they're frequently repeats. Beans are so good for you. And, they're easy on the wallet. And, easy on the environment when compared to raising cattle etc. I edited Lauren's recipe a bit based on what was in the fridge and the pantry. This would also be wonderful with black beans. Because I was trying to get dinner fixed and get off this stooopid sprained ankle, I didn't measure as I went. That means that all the measurements below are guesstimates :-)
Lauren's Garbanzo Bean Salad
Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed
small handful - about 2 T craisins
1/4 cucumber, not peeled, diced
1/3 red bell pepper, diced
2 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 c parsley -not packed, just loosely tossed in the measuring cup
extra virgin olive oil
lemon balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
cumin
1/4 c walnuts, toasted and crumbled
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and serve.
