A roast chicken that has been brined, notice shiny skin. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman
[Update 1/16: Winners have been chosen; their dishes are at the bottom of this post.]
Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post on staple meals because I’m fascinated by what people eat at home when they don’t want to think about what to make, what their go-to, middle-of-the-week meal is, because they are invariably quick, efficient, economical, and well, good enough to eat once a week forever. (I think they also tell us a lot about who we are).
The woman who has been cutting my hair for 12 years, three kids 16 and younger, husband not always at home, an “I don’t have a lot of time” mom. She makes chicken legs on a small rotisserie, and will do lamb or steak, with beans and rice. Soup once a week with what’s in the fridge (lamb or chicken bones for the brown, with leftover, pasta, rice, veg). Fresh vegetables are hardest because of the prep time she told me.
For us, it’s a stir fry, or THE best all purpose meal, roast chicken. Roast chicken, baked potato and baked cauliflower with brown butter, all thrown into the oven at the same time and then, well, what to do? It takes an hour, what on earth to do with all that time? It’s up to you.
Afterward, I pick beans and boil them, though they can be roasted too, with whole cloves of garlic, cumin and red pepper.
Chicken that has been given an aggressive salting before roasting.
I like to hear about those special preparations for holidays or fancy dinner parties—the home-cured ham, the torchon au foie gras, the butter poached lobster with beets and leeks—but how we eat day to day, what we cook for our family in the middle of the week, is what interests me.
In order to learn more about what we eat, I’m asking again, with an incentive. Go try to buy my book Ruhlman’s Twenty on Amazon. Not to be had, alas (sold out, back in stock 2/22). But I’m giving away three copies here to those who describe their best staple meal in comments below. Please be more specific than “roast chicken” or “steak fajitas,” and list the entire menu, details of cooking or seasoning are welcome but not required. If you want to be in the drawing, leave an actual email (it won’t leave my site, promise) so that I can contact you if you’re one of the randomly chosen three. (I must add with my apologies that I can only ship within the US, customs and costs are too much; but feel free to comment anyway, I still want to know what you eat in India or England or Australia!) If you want to enter more than once, you may but it has to be a bonafide staple meal. Also, please note if it fits a special category: vegetarian, gluten-free, or vegan. Winners will be announced here and on Twitter via my account @ruhlman on Monday.
So: what’s for dinner?
Update 1/16: Comments for the giveaway are now closed. Many thanks to all for making this such a fascinating ride through American dinner time.
The following winners have been chosen by Random.org:
Bradley January 16, 2012 at 7:38 am
As for a recipe I… -sweat about half of a yellow onion diced. -add some garlic and chili flake -add 1 cup arborio or carnaroli -stir and toast or risollet the rice -add about ⅓ c wine -reduce wine -cover with stock -cook over med high heat adding stock as needed throughout -When the rice is done I add whatever I want: peas, mushrooms, radicchio, etc. -I finish the rice with a lot of butter 3T or more and whatever cheese I have if any, I
I cook my rice on pretty high heat and I can crank it out in 25 minutes easy. I dont stir the hell out of it because I buy good rice and the starch is released as the rice is self agitated by the bubbling.
Judie B. January 12, 2012 at 11:03 am
Since my husband’s heart by-pass surgery, I try to serve fish twice a week. He loves spicy things,so I make up big batches of artichoke caponata and puttanesca and divide them up into small freezer containers. Depending on the fish purchased at the fish store, one of these sauces will be served with it ( usually halibut, grouper or swordfish) which has been grilled or pan sauteed. First, we always have a mixed green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, red onion and beans (usually black) tossed with my home-made shallot/garlic vinaigrette. Veggies (whatever looked good at the store) cooked in the microwave are served on the side. The second fish we always have is salmon. My favorite way to prepare that is to coat it with a mixture of equal parts Dijon and maple syrup and then roll it in finely chopped pecans and pan saute. Michael, we love Cleveland; we used to live in Chagrin Falls.
Josh January 11, 2012 at 10:57 am
Our go-to meal: skirt steak tacos with caramelized onions. Only a handful of ingredients (skirt steak, chipotles, garlic, onions, tortillas), most of which we have on hand all the time. We make a marinade by blending the garlic and the chipotles en adobo. Let that sit on the steak for 15-20 minutes. Cook it quickly under a broiler, rest, cut against the grain. Meanwhile, caramelize a couple white onions. Serve it all with warm tortillas, good beer, and, if we’re feeling ambitious, homemade guacamole. It’s an awesome, simple meal.
The other go-to would be lemon pasta. We make a vinaigrette of fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, parm, good olive oil. Cook whatever pasta we have on hand and toss it in the dressing.
If you liked this post on Staple Meals, check out these other links:
- Stay at Stove Dad is a blog about dads who cook for their families written by John Donohue, a New Yorker editor, journalist, and sometime cartoonist.
- Looking for some new recipes and interesting articles, have a look at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen.
- 2011 food trends shared by Food Tech Connect.
© 2012 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2012 Donna Turner-Ruhlman. All rights reserved
The go to meal we eat once a week here is fried rice.
It's simple to make out of whatever you have on hand (chicken, left over pork, shrimp, you name it) and the vegetables that need to get used before they start to start becoming shapeless masses in the crisper drawer (that half a green pepper, mushrooms, the last carrot or two in the bag).
Saute the veggies, add whatever flavors you like in your fried rice (family here like Teriyaki), fry quickly until tender, toss in the leftover meat, some rice, mix, hollow out the middle, drop in a scrambled egg, let cook 30 seconds, then mix with everything else.
Serve and enjoy. I haven't made one yet that wasn't completely devoured.
Pizza, with beans and greens. Lately we're trying out the gluten-free thing, so we are still experimenting with the best GF pizza dough, but usually I make one pie with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a bit of salt and pepper, and mozzarella cheese (the kids like this one). The other usually has tomatoes (sometimes sauce, if I've made some), salt, pepper, basil, and cheese.
As for the beans and greens, that's kale braised in broth with garlic, plus white beans. If there's bacon in the house, we'll add some. This is topped with a bit of Parmesan cheese when served.
Our staple is generally a form of "Hmm, what's left over and needs to be used?" Invariably, we'll have either some cooked beef or turkey in the fridge from earlier in the week, so into the pan that goes for reheating and seasoning.
Next up is the veggies. Again, whatever may be on hand (broccoli, spinach, kale, mushrooms, onion, etc) will get chopped up and tossed in the pan as well for a bit of sauteing with the meat.
Next up is the decision point - are we putting this on pasta, or on rice/cous cous? Whichever is selected, get the water boiling and cook that up.
If it's pasta, we'll make some sort of a sauce, likely from roasted diced tomatoes and spices, or could be from some packed pumpkin. For rice or cous cous, we skip the sauce, and just mix the goodies in the pain with the grains.
All told, can be pretty quickly put together, ends up tasty, and makes sure things aren't going to waste.
I'm a vegetarian, so it's a little trickier to have delicious, quick meals.
But for me, brown fried rice is the way to go. I put the rice in my rice cooker with veggies in the steamer tray above. Set it and forget it -- then throw it together with some scrambled eggs, tofu and soy sauce. Delicious (and great as leftovers).
my husband is actually the cook in our house, so when i'm left to my own devices i either go with a soup (my family's recipe-- brisket soup: made with a $15-25 piece of brisket, 2 cans whole tomatoes, a bag of carrots, stock, celery root, onion with egg noodles and potato pancakes) or regular pancakes (stir the batter so much less than you think you need to!).
Zuni Cafe chicken and bread salad, with or without the bread salad.
My go to meal is some variation of cheese and starch. My most common is macaroni and cheese; I found a recipe recently that uses a bechamel with cheddar cheese, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce that's been pretty awesome. I'll also make pizza when I have some dough around; I use a no-knead pizza dough recipe, set it up before I leave for work, then when I come back it's ready to go.
My staple meat is chicken. I love roasting it a la Michael Ruhlman/Thomas Keller, but another great preparation is Hainanese Chicken Rice. Easy to prepare and the steamed rice flavored with chicken fat and ginger always make me happy.
Sauteed chicken breast, then add seasoning, spice or marinates, but it has great flexibility to add veggies, or rice. I use Springer Mountain Farms and a little olive oil. It's fast, healthy and usually can get my 7 year old to eat it!
My go-to meal is udon or ramen. I go to a Korean market a lot here in Chicago and try to pick up veggies I've never tried and I always make sure to check out the noodle aisle. I make the regular packaged ramen, but sometimes I throw in some pork belly, chop up a mushroom, maybe a seafood mix, cilantro, some garlic-chili sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce. When it's all done and ready to be dumped into a bowl, I crack an egg and drop it in. I mix it roughly to make sure the egg gets cooked, and sometimes the result is a nice runny bit of egg white. It's a delicious winter-time meal that takes about 6 minutes to make.
Our go to meal was always an Indian (Gujarati) dish called Khichadi. It's my dad's favorite and is basically pureed lentils cooked with rice - sometimes it'll have vegetables in it, but oftentimes we ate it with a spoon of ghee and some yogurt. Always on the side was cooked onions and potatoes in a tomato gravy (kanda-bataka nu shak) and the ubiquitous lemon pickle.
Roast Chicken, for one. Leeks, potatoes, carrots underneath it in a pan in the oven, Keller style.
Saag Paneer with tofu over basmati rice (curried, creamed spinach with Indian cheese and tofu) or a quick black-eyed pea based vegetable soup is what's on for weeknight cooking. Leftovers of entrees that have been frozen previously or the remainder of things cooked fresh during the week fill in the gaps.
I generally rush home from work late and then have to leave the house for evening plans soon after, so my go-to meal is an omelette. simple, filling, and (like all the go-tos, it seems) allows you to use whatever cheese, vegetable, or other add-ins that are in your fridge. I always have eggs and the time it takes is minimal. add a salad of greens with a quick lemony vinaigrette, and you have a perfect dinner.
I go with my "Greek Salad" pasta. It's a big hit with my family, with enormous variables. I use whatever pasta we have (penne is a preference, but doesn't really matter). I dice whatever meat we have in the house (I usually have a good salami as a fail-safe option, but bacon, chichen, pork loin, sausage all would work). I need a good cheese of some kind, usually feta (always on hand), and typically some parmesan as well. I toss in some additional vegetables (often good quality frozen peas or frozen corn - family especially likes Trader Joe's roasted corn). Also good to toss in some spinach or argula if on hand. While pasta is cooking, briefly cook the meat, toss in olives and other vegetables (but not greens yet), then add a basic sauce. I have been using either a creamy tomato/vodka sauce, or a marinara with a little cream thrown in. When pasta is ready, drain, and toss with sauce, then add cheese(s) and greens. add some cracked pepper. Easy and excellent, with enough variable to allow for whatever is in the fridge that night.
Our to go meal that's fast to prepare - is Honey Mustard and Soy sauce - a long name for a quick dish. You saute 2 onions, add strips of chicken cutlets with some salt and pepper. You can then add any vegetables like strips of pepper or mushrooms. (I skip this is there is vegetables in my orzo). Once it's 3/4 finished - about 5-7 minutes. I add in 2 tablespoons honey, 2 T. mustard and 2 T. soy sauce. Stir and cook on a high flame for about 10 minutes. Perfect over rice or orzo.
Rice and Tofu is our go to meal. Works every time.
Cook your preferred style of rice in rice cooker, add cubed firm tofu or tofu-lin when rice is done, leave cooker on "keep warm" setting. Wait until tofu is warm. Top with sesame oil, soy, sriracha and furikake. Sometimes I add sliced avocado and some "orange" sauce which is just mayo mixed with sriracha and sesame oil (same stuff that's in spicy sushi rolls)
Rack of Lamb- seasoned then prepped with a rub of dijon mustard, rosemary, garlic, and Italian bread crumbs. In the oven for 25 minutes at 450- then rested in the oven for 20, then rested on the counter for 10. Easy- perfect. Combine with some beans and I eat like a king.
Thai curry. I always have several of the Mae Ploy pastes on hand, canned coconut milk (optional), fish sauce, roasted chilli paste, plus any assortment of meat and/or vegetables on hand. Pot of jasmine rice. That's it.
Steamed rice and pork adobo. That's just how it is in the Philippines. We sear the pork slices in a pan, brown up (sautee) some chopped garlic and grated ginger, deglaze with sugar cane vinegar, then season with soy sauce and pepper. Braise the pork (or chicken) in the sauce and there we have a standard Filipino adobo. ALWAYS served with steamed plain rice (steamed with pandan leaves).
Runner up #1: good pasta with tomato/butter/onion sauce à la Marcella Hazan, light grating of parm.
I make a sausage pasta with red peppers and onions that everyone in the family loves. I brown a pound of sage sausage (local Amish stuff), add in a sliced onion, a sliced red pepper and some garlic. Once the pasta is done I ladle in a bit of pasta water and a bunch of butter to make a sauce and then mix in the pasta. I serve this with steamed broccoli or a salad. It's very easy and all three children and my husband love it. I use brown rice pasta as we do not eat much wheat.
Breakfast potatoes with eggs, hands down. Extra points if I have veggies like mushrooms or bell peppers.
Cube potatoes (any kind, including sweet), toss into a large hot pan with bacon fat to start. (Olive oil after that, a teensy bit of butter to finish at the end.) I put a cover on to help the potatoes cook through while I chop the onions and other veggies. I season with Lowry's & black pepper. Take the cover off, the potatoes should be mostly cooked by now. Toss in the onions and veggies and let them cook through and carmelize a little. For added protein, I'll whisk 2 or 3 eggs and turn off the heat and pour the whisked eggs right over the veggies, letting their heat scramble the eggs. A little grated cheddar is good on top.
Pot of black/mixed beans and sausage/ham cooked in the crockpot. It's good for two the three days and then a couple of servings into the freezer for a *really* quick meal.
Spaghetti with homemade sauce and meatballs is the go-to recipe in our household when we're all too tired to think about what to make. Big can of Roma tomatoes smashed by hand, seasoned simply. Meatballs with fresh breadcrumbs, parsley, Parmesan/Romano cheese - cooked in the sauce until done or maybe a little longer. 🙂 Sometimes we throw an italian sausage in the mix to spice things up a bit. All this talk is making me hungry, I think I'll cook this tonight. 🙂
We usually have the spices for it around the house, so we'll make a Kitchen Sink Curry. Last time, it was a mushroom curry over basmati. Just sauteed onions and garlic, added the spices (chili, turmeric, cumin, etc), tossed in button mushrooms, let them saute for a bit. Added a can of tomato sauce, covered the pot, waited about 15 minutes (while the rice cooks, naturally) and take everything out at once. Sprinkle with some cilantro and done.
We also make soup pretty regularly, and freeze about half the batch, to reheat on the stove (we don't own a microwave) when we don't want to do any work at all. I'd say most of the cooking the wife and I do anyway is an effort to simplify/speed-up the recipes in cookbooks from high end restaurants.
Runner up #2: Stir fry with whatever satisfies the following conditions:
-delicious
-in the fridge
-passes the stilltasty.com test
-tastes good with soy/rice vinegar/sambal oelek sauce
Street tacos are my go to meal. It's simple and full of flavor. You boil chicken until it's cooked and begin the time consuming part: shredding the chicken. While shredding, steam some corn tortillas. Once the chicken is shredded, toss it with some taco sauce (either store bought or home made), mix it up and divvy it up among the tortillas, throw some shredded cheese on it, and eat!
I'll usually heat up some refried black beans to serve with it. Although, if I have more time, I'll start making some spanish rice before I start the tacos and beans so there's a more complete meal.
Bayless' "Everyday Mexican" has been helpful. I freeze salsas and portions of chorizo sausage, and keep black beans in the pantry (dry, if I can plan in advance to use the crock pot, or canned). With that on hand I can combine them with whatever else is around (potatoes, tortillas, eggs, tomatoes, stuff in our CSA share) and Iron Chef something together.
Also: we get a lot of Swiss Chard in our CSA share, so I fry bacon, then cook chopped onion, garlic and chard stem in the bacon fat. I add the greens, salt, and pepper, and after they wilt I add a little cider vinegar and the cooked bacon. After cooking down a couple minutes I serve it over salted red or gold potatoes. Quick, terrific, and goes well with a white wine like an Alsace riesling.
My go to meal is any riff on lentil soup. After a busy day of working on cakes & cookies, I'm usually too beat to really cook. But, I want a hot, nourishing meal to put on the table. With lentil soup, I can use any stock I have around, alter the seasoning, add whatever vegetables work and throw in pasta or rice at the end. Served w/ a simple green salad, and I look like a hero.
My go to... is something in the slow-cooker on Sunday afternoon this time of year. Spaghetti n' meatballs! starting with the meatballs (pork/veal/beef) fresh herbs, bread crumbs, egg yolks and parmesan cheese. I just made some this past Sunday, see FB link...)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.314637588580898.81459.100001039790067&type=1&l=2066c04bce
And of course, homemade sauce (tomato puree... never sauce), garlic, onions, and seaonings. Now I have leftovers to freeze, and eat during the week... and who doesn't love a good meatball sandwich for lunch during the week.
This time I made smaller ones, about the size of a golf ball, perfect for sandwiches, and got about 40 from a 3 pound mix. Can't beat it!
I call it "Sausage Rice" but it's basically a risotto to which I add sliced or diced smoked beef or turkey sausage (the ones you buy vacuum packed in a U shape). I start with sweated onions to which I add some garlic, then I add (instant) rice (for speed) and chicken broth. I build it up slowly like a real risotto, then just before it's done, I add the (precooked) smoked sausage and then serve with parmesan. I can knock this one out in 30 mins in my sleep I've made it for my family so many times 🙂
Grilled steak w/mashed potatoes, green beans and a side salad!
Chicken/Beef Fajitas
Grill a quick marinated or dry rubbed chicken breast. Slice and serve with tortillas (I prefer corn, my girlfriend flour), sauteed/grilled peppers and onions and some grated cheese. Hot Sauce on top is optional but recommended
I would love to review a copy of your book! I also adore roast chicken and vegetables, but usually do a cauliflower mash on the side. Another comfort meal my family loves is Chicken and Okra Gumbo. I taught school in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, near Chef John Folse's restaurant, Lafitte's Landing, and learned by using his recipe. Just delicious! @fromagechick
My go to meal is Quinoa. I will usually saute up some bacon, asparagus (or whatever veggie I have), yellow onion, and garlic in a separate pan. Then at the end I will add some toasted pine nuts and fresh basil (or whatever fresh herbs I have). Then mix it all together with the cooked quinoa. I usually top it with a dollop of sour cream or a fried egg.
During the week, my wife generally cooks. If I miss dinner, it's nearly always the same thing that I cook for myself. Two slices of bacon in a cast iron skillet, cooked slowly, so they're more chewy than crisp. Those come out, and an egg goes in with black pepper on top. Meanwhile, I toast some bread and slice some sharp cheddar. When it's done, I put it over the egg to help the cheese melt a bit. I usually have some caramelized onions in the fridge, so I throw that in the pan to warm up a bit too. Then I assemble, add some greens if I have them, and eat with potato chips and an IPA.
I cook a total of three staple meals for my boyfriend (when its my turn to cook). Pot Roast in the Crock Pot: I take a nice chuck roast and season it heavily with season salt, kosher salt, pepper, and whatever else I see around that sounds good that day. I brown it in a skillet with a bit of oil, then dump it in the slow cooker with carrots, 1/2 an onion, and a bit of water or beef stock. I serve it with mashed potatoes and make a thicker gravy out of the juice.
Shrimp Pasta: Basic linguini or other thicker pasta. I sautee a pound of shrimp (peeled and deveined, salt and peppered) in some olive oil, butter, shallots, and garlic. Add a half cup of white wine (pino grigio tastes great) and the juice of one lemon. I add a bit of the liquid from cooking the pasta, toss and done in about 30 minutes.
I also do a roast chicken. I follow Tyler Florence's Roast Chicken recipe. Its very easy, but I don't brine it. We eat it so quickly and the skin does get very crisp and golden.
Pizza at home is our go-to meal, especially when my husband's teenaged son is staying with us. We make the crust from scratch and do our best to keep the ingredients as fresh as possible, usually onions, mushrooms, garlic, sauerkraut, and pepperoni (okay, not all fresh, but tell a teenager he can't have pepperoni on his pizza). Even though pizza isn't one of the most healthy meals out there, it's nice to know what we're putting in instead of getting it frozen in a box or from take-out.
At least once a week we have just a large Caesar salad with homemade dressing and grilled chicken. Simple, quick and easy and delicious. Another staple is roast chicken, which I do with pieces, topped with rosemary, thyme and lemon and lots of olive oil. Sides would be quick mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables or just a simple salad.
Chicken caesar salad - Ruhlman's head is going to explode! 😉
If it's just me, I'll throw leftover meat and vegetables together with noodles and broth, for a faux-Asian noodle bowl/ramen type concoction.
If my fiancée's eating too, we have a few go-to meals... black bean burgers crumbled over a salad, chicken cooked with coconut milk and chiles over pasta, etc,
We don't really have a 'go-to' meal. What I do is cook almost all day on Sunday to prep for the entire week. For example, I cooked off cubed chicken thighs marinated in garlic, oregano, s&p, sherry vinegar and olive oil and steamed some potatoes. When it comes time to cook, I'll re-heat the chicken in a little oil, sautee some greens (swiss chard and black cabbage) in some garlic and olive oil, put in the sliced cooked potatoes and some cracked olives - a Greek bubble and squeak if you will. Total time to table is like 20 minutes as it is all cooked. Had veg curry early in the week and having pasta in spinach sauce with white beans later in the week. 3 wholesome home cooked meals with about 5 hours on Sunday and 10-30 minutes a night from fridge to table.
It is always like this - have it prepped and ready to go in the fridge and all you have to do is add some heat, herbs and acid to get homecooked on the table in 20. Screw you RR, nothing from a jar.
Ours is bbq chicken bites. We will take a pound of boneless chick. Cut it into small bitesize pieces, and soak in buttermilk. Heat the frydaddy to 350, dredge the bites in seasoned flour(pap,garlic, snp, poultry seas) and fry about 8 min. Remove and coat w warm sauce(we make our own but feel free to use a storebought) and shake to coat. Place in the oven 350 for 10 min to glaze. We will serve w rice and a veg.
My 7 year-old daughter is obsessed with hot wings right now. So we have hot wings every week. Sometimes we get them at or favorite local dive restaurant/bar and sometimes we make them. We always have leftovers and we use those to make Mattie's World Famous Buffolo Wing Pizza. (She proudly invented it all by herself.). I make the dough and Mattie applies the toppings. She uses the regulars...marinara, mozzarella cheese...but also adds the deboned chicken wing meat, extra hot sauce and sometimes a bit of sausage as well. The best part? We are making great memories!
My go to meal is Lentils. They are quick to make, require little prep, and get you a good balanced meal. It's also a good way to play with classical flavor combinations by varying choice of aromatics and spice mixes.
I start with a meat choice, generally a type of sausage, occasionally something else. Cut into uniform pieces, brown in a bit of oil in a saucepot. Remove.
Based on my choice of meat, I'll choose my aromatics. Basically a different choice of trinity to go along with where my sausage originates. Sauteed in the leftover oil from the meat and all those delicious brown bits with a good pinch of salt and a suitable mix of spices.
When the vegetables have softened a bit, I add the meat back in and add liquid. Water will do, but I try to use broth or stock if I have it handy. Bring to a boil. Generally I do a 3:1 ratio of liquid to lentils, more if I feel like having soup.
Prep the lentils with a quick wash and check for rocks, then add them to the mix and cook covered for around 45 minutes on low.
I tend to make a big batch over the weekend to use as quick meals for lunch at work. Hearty, tasty, healthy, and cheap.
Anything with eggs! Typically, an omelette with leftover veggies and meats chopped and tossed makes for a scrumptious and satisfying meal. Serve with whole-wheat pitas toasted in a toaster.
Turkey Burgers ... red onion, chives, dijon mustard and cumin. Top with guacamole /insert into face.
I have two staple dishes I make often, when I don't have much time to cook: soup, or pasta. Soup is easy. Just last night I made butternut squash soup: 1 butternut squash (I don't know why people complain about preping it, I use a peeler and a sharp knife), 1 onion, 1 apple, 4 cups chicken broth, cook until tender, process with immersion blender. Done. Plus you can add any spices: curry, cinnamon, whatever. For pasta, I cook a protein while the pasta boils, and roast some tomatoes or other vegetables in the oven. All in less than 30 minutes. I can't wait to come back to read other comments for ideas!
In the winter, my staple is a very basic chili. Ground beef, kidney beans, canned diced tomatoes, just like my mom always made. In the summer, hot dogs and fresh corn on the cob on the grill with whatever fruit we have on hand!
Pork chops with apples and onions; salsa chicken, which it's made by baking chicken breasts with a sauce made of salsa, mustard, and brown sugar; pot roast in the slow cooker with cream of mushroom soup,potatoes, carrots and onions.
I do most of my real cooking on the weekend and I always make extra so that I can make quick weeknight meals.
Lately my weeknight obsession has been an orzo pasta dish. I brown a cup of orzo in some butter and then add 2 cups of liquid. I make it two ways depending on what kind of left overs I have in the fridge. If I have chicken I'll add chicken stock and some lemon juice and lemon peel. If I have beef or hamburger I'll use beef stock and thyme and beef seasonings. I put a lid on that and let it cook down for 15-20 minutes till almost all the liquid is absorbed.
While that is cooking I use a frying pan to heat up whatever vegetables and meat I have. Things that end up in there are red pepper, onion, carrot, broccoli, green beans, etc. I usually am using left over meats that are cooked so I just add them at the end to warm it. When the orzo is done I add it into the frying pan with the veggie/meat mixture and add some herbs and Parmesan cheese.
It isn't so much a recipe, as an ongoing experiment with whatever is left in the fridge and it's usually on the table within 30 minutes. Usually there is enough for a meal for my husband and I and then another lunch for me.
Nicoise salad. Mixed greens (or baby arugula or spinach) with blanched green beans, new potatoes, hard boiled egg, seared tuna, anchovies, tomatoes, olives, tossed with a warm shallot vinaigrette. Maybe some bacon on top.
Various stuffed peppers with roasted veggies.
These are great because while a staple, they can vary wildly so you don't really get sick of them, and they are easy to make the night before if need be. Plus leftovers are great.
We use ground pork, lamb, turkey or beef (sometimes grind own but certainly not necessary) - and essentially make homemade "sausage". Pre mixed sausage seasoning (generally paprika, crushed red pepper, thyme, fennel seed, salt & pepper - whatever you like). For leaner meats add some kind of fat (or even ricotta cheese for moisture) and fresh garlic. We stuff the mixture into either cubanelle or poblanos and put them on a bed of homemade tomato sauce (canned whole tomatoes, fresh bail, garlic, olive oil, food processor.) Bake them off along with either cauliflower, broccoli, broccolini, asparagus, or brussel sprouts mixed with olive oil and salt and pepper. Takes about 30-40 minutes and you can add cheese on top at the end if you prefer. Very simple and doesn't get boring. Fairly healthy too. More of a technique I guess than a recipe. You can really add whatever you'd like to the meat mixture. Hardly any cleanup either.
Salmon filets, with just salt, pepper and olive oil, skin side up, broiled in the oven for 6-8 minutes. then i quickly saute garlic, baby bok choi with mushrooms (shiitake or whatever is available), with a little teriyaki or oyster sauce. When the salmon comes out, I brush it with teriyaki/oyster sauce and place on top of the veggies. Sometimes jasmine/brown rice on the side. So quick and so good! I always make it when I'm tired of chicken/pasta/cheesy dishes.
kelp and alaria stew/soup with red lentils, barley, red peppers and diced tomatoes.
Spaghetti Carbonara. It's quick, easy, and cheap; it doesn't call for many ingredients, so no fussing with a list at the grocery store; and the leftovers taste even better. Started with the old Craig Claiborne recipe and made it my own.
so many, but one that comes to mind is a Korean-style chicken soup with rice. I make a quick clear chicken broth with chicken thighs. Shred the chicken and season it with a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and chopped green onions and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. In a bowl, a scoop of cooked rice, a couple of spoonfuls of the shredded chicken, and broth. Served with a side of kimchi (rinsed and drained for the kids).
Kale and whatever vegetable looks good. I've been Kale crazy lately, raw salads, wilted salads, in a quick soup, I usually see what vegetable looks good at the market and find a way to cook it with Kale.
It would be a toss up between pizza or vegetarian tacos. The frig is always stocked with at least two kinds of cooked beans, rice, cabbage, jalapenos and corn tortillas, toss in some roasted potatoes and whatever else is hanging around and tacos are a snap to throw together.
Pizza is an on going experiment for the ideal cooking temperature for the perfect crust on my cast iron pizza stone. Like tacos, whatever is laying around is fair game to end up on top. The sauce of canned tomatoes, garlic and crushed red pepper and pinch of oregano can be thrown together and cooled while the oven is heating up.
A healthy favorite in my house is seaweed salad. I pour boiling water over dried seaweed to rehydrate. Then I roast shitake mushrooms & marinated tofu. I toss them with the seaweed and toss it all with a simple rice wine and sesame oil mixture & sesame seeds.
The go-to meal in our house in colder months, given that we have two little girls who typically eat dinner before we do, is typically made the night before in a braise - usually chicken or turkey thighs, or tonight a lambs neck, braised with aromats, wine, stock, and greens of some kind cooled and chilled overnight in braising liquid, then reheated the next evening for dinner - first at 5 for the girls and then at 7 for us - along with colorful vegetables of some kind. I feel like the overnight rest improves the flavors. This takes the time pressure off and still allows for healthy and satisfying meals.
In the summer, we grill a ton of leaner proteins and really up the vegetables as they are in season and cheaper. The quick outdoor cooking is a huge plus in the Chicago summer.
I like to make sauces (salsa verde, chili paste and vinaigrettes primarily) on Sunday for the week to add as needed.
Frijoles borrachas with homemade corn tortillas. Vegetarian version, so no bacon. Make a sofrito w/ jalapeños and serranos, season w/ cumin and paprika. Add half a pack of diced fakin bacon and sauté until browned nicely. Deglaze w/ tequila. Add can of pink beans and a bottle of beer. Cook until liquid evaporated, about 30 min. Top w/ avocado, tomato and cotija cheese (if you want). Yum!
My nearly-every-week staple is a stewed chicken. I rub a whole (local, near-organic) chicken with my own celery salt, then stuff it in the crockpot with carrots and whatever other vegetables I have on hand or in the garden. I always include onions and/or garlic, with extra garlic and turmeric if anyone's sick with anything, a few peppercorns, sometimes cardamom pods... depends on the available veggies. I add an acid (usually lemon juice or a pear vinegar) to leach minerals from the bones, cover with water, and stew on low until it's done, usually about 5 hrs but it depends on the size of the chicken and how cold it was when I started. Then I pick all the meat off, strain the stock, and store 2-3 meals worth of chicken in stock for later in the week while turning some of the remaining stock into gravy for chicken that evening. There's usually extra stock even after that, which I use to cook rice or couscous to get those nutrients into my produce-phobic 7 year old.
I make a tagine dinner once a week- usually involving chicken or veggies and almost always with North African flavors. In the summer, we lean toward more lemony vibrant tagines and during winter we go a little heavier on the cinnamon and cardamom.
Greek chicken- bone in thighs in olive oil, lemon juice and oregano (dried works on this one if no fresh on hand), salt and pepper, marinated for up to an hour if there's time. Served with rice, potatoes, naan, green beans, whatever I have on hand. I'm actually having it tonight.
Omelets!
At least once a week all of my bits and scraps of whatever leftover delights that would otherwise find the trash can instead find their way into an omelet.
It's often the best meal of the week, and it allows me to sneak things my 4-year-old would normally snub her nose at into the repertoire.
My staple meal involves using my rice cooker and I have a simple formula I like to follow: 1 part rice / 1 part beans / 1 part protein / seasoning (carmelized onions, roasted peppers, cajun seasoning, etc) / & Broth (I keep homemade frozen broth on hand). So versatile that it could be Wild Rice with Edamame and Summer Sausage. Or Brown Rice with Black Beans and Turkey to make Burritos. Or Jasmine Rice with Tuna, White Beans and Spinach. It just depends on what I have leftover that needs to be repurposed. I can set my Rice Cooker in the AM and have a hot meal ready at 5PM.
Chicken thighs, a little rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper under the skin, and salt and pepper on the outside too, 5 minutes a side in olive oil and butter on the stovetop in the cast iron skillet, then into the oven, covered for about ten minutes, then uncovered for another ten or so till they come up to temp, turning every five minutes or so. Once the chicken is on the stovetop, I saute some minced onion in butter in a saucepan for a few minutes, then add basmati rice and saute for a few more. Add stock (1:1.5 rice to stock ratio), bring to a boil, pinch of salt and pepper, quick stir, then cover with a dish towel under the lid (thanks Cook's Illustrated) and cook over low heat. 17 minutes later, turn off the heat and let it sit till the chicken's done. I'm happy with starch and meat only for a quick weeknight meal, but If I'm dying for a green or have company, I'll saute sliced garlic and red pepper flakes and maybe a couple of anchovies in olive oil, dump in a bag of baby spinach, cover and keep over low heat until wilted, then uncover and saute on med-high for a minute or two.
As a plant based eater our go to once a week meal when we're feeling lazy is a bowl of calypso beans cooked with bay, a pile of steamed kale and a peanut ginger vinaigrette. When we're not quite as lazy dinner is a bowl of quinoa with glazed tofu, shredded raw beets and carrots, sliced purple cabbage, toasted almonds and a tahini soy drizzle. And when we're really going for it pizza from Nancy Silverton's Mozza. Michael, have you tried her pizza crust recipe? The stuff is etherial and bakes up like a dream in a home oven. Yummy! And no, I don't doctor it with WW flour. it is perfect as it is.
GOOD OLD GHOSHT AND CHOICE CHAVAL (MEAT & RICE TO YOU)
1. Chuck some oil in a saucepan.
2. Chuck in some chopped onions to half fry ‘em.
3. Chuck in too, garlic, ginger, chillies, as much as ya fancy!
4. Chuck in too, 2 cardamoms, 6 cloves and 2 or 3 cinnamon sticks or, if you are lazy, a spoonful of garam masala instead.
5. Chuck in some meat, say some keema (minced lamb) or chops or dicey lamb with a bit o’ salt and turn up the jolly old heat to cauterize it, stirring vigorously.
6. Chuck in a teaspoon of haldi (turmeric) after it’s dried out a bit.
7. Chuck in half a tin or 3 fresh-skinned tomatoes, cut finely.
8. Stick on the lid and cook slowly for 45 minutes at the lowest heat BUT keep on stirring the stuff.
9. Then turn up the heat to fry it for a minute or two.
10. Take out what you wanna keep for another day and cool it, okay!
11. Pop a level tablespoon of cumin seeds in a hot dry pan - like POP!
12. Add the popped cumin seeds to the meat ya left in the pan.
13. Chuck in some cubed spud and fry it for half a minute to colour it.
14. Sling in two cups of water and a dosh more salt.
15. Chuck in 2 or 3 tablespoons of yoghourt or a whole carton if you like! Any size!
16. Bring it quickly to the boil.
17. Chuck in one cup of washed and drained rice.
18. Simmer it down a bit and cook it ’til the water disappears.
19. Gently toss it and leave it on the lowest heat for ten minutes but DON’T burn it.
20. Arrange it nicely on a plate and EAT it!
21. If you don’t like it, then remember the bit you kept - chuck in some tomato puree, oregano and thyme and eat it with spaghetti with loads of grated medium Cheddar cheese on top!
Frittata
I absolutely love frittata it's one of those universal dishes that can be served at any time of the day. It's fast, inexpensive and delicious. The best part is it can be made with just about anything!!!! Last night I made one with Mexican chorizo, white onion and some fried potatoes. Along side of this I served a salad of field green dressed simply with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
Chorizo, potato and onion frittata:
Peel potato and slice into thin rounds. Fry potato until crisp, season w/ salt and pepper, place to the side. Render chorizo in pan and toss in half of a finely diced white onion. In a bowl crack 6 eggs, whisk vigorously and season with salt and pepper. Once chorizo and onion mixture is cooked, add fried potatoes in the pan, spread around evenly and pour in eggs. At this point you simply want to drag sides toward the middle so the eggs begin to set slightly, once you notice the bottom of the frittata is set, place in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes till the middle cooked all the way through. Cut into wedges and serve with side salad.
Note: use either an oven safe non stick pan or a well seasoned cast iron pan.
For us it's usually pasta, with lots of vegetables and a small amount of protein. I try to prep and cook ingredients such as greens, meat, mushrooms, or other vegetables in larger quantities so I can use them several times during the week. I can then quickly pull together the rest of the dish from what's around while the pasta is cooking.
Right now I have on hand sauteed kale with garlic, most of a ham, taken off the bone and packaged in small portions, white beans, pitted kalamata olives, frozen vegetables, a couple of red peppers, two leftover turkey cutlets sauteed in butter and lemon... so I'm pretty much set for the rest of the week.
Tonight, I am making shells with white beans, a little bit of ham, and kale; other times it might be egg noodles with sauteed onions, peas, mushrooms and slivered ham in a light cream sauce, or penne with hot sausage, kidney beans, olives, Italian green beans and tomatoes. I think tomorrow night will be olives, turkey, red peppers, scallions, a little concentrated chicken stock with rotini.
Brian, that pizza sounds wonderful.
My go-to meal is Tomato Eggs over rice - a simple, essentially an omelet with sauteed tomatoes, yet delicious Chinese dish. It can be prepared quickly and it requires only a few ingredients... eggs, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and chopped scallions for garnishing.
I will tell you my best weeknight staple meal, but you have to remember that I live in NYC and can walk 1-1/2 blocks from the Subway after work to Fairway to pick up the ingredients and then go home and cook. Since I usually cook for two adults, eating at 8:00 p.m. is not only acceptable, it's when we like to eat. However, this dinner can be made quickly by anyone, especially if you already have the ingredients in the house; it just might be better to start earlier than I usually do.
The meal is grilled loin lamb chops cooked on an installed Gaggenau electric grill, sauteed cherry tomatoes, a plain salad with romaine lettuce, and if I want a starch, steamed creamer potatoes tossed in butter, salt, and pepper. (If I had enough time, I would bake Idaho potatoes, which I LOVE with lamb chops; but I can't do that when I just walk in the house and start to cook.)
The first thing I do when I get in the kitchen and am ready to cook is turn on the grill to heat it, wash the cherry tomatoes, cut them in half, and peel and slice the garlic (2 cloves) , removing the green core. I also wash the (usually red creamer) potatoes if I am using them, and get out a 2-quart saucepan, put in a basket steamer and add water and start the potatoes right away.
When the grill is hot, I run the fat on the side of the chops over the grates to slick the grill up, plop the chops on, and cook till done just barely medium, turning over a few times. I remove them to a dish and let them sit for a few minutes (only two or three) and sprinkle Maldon Salt on them. (I usually follow Judy Rodgers admonition to salt meat first, but in this case, I am discussing what I cook on a busy work night.)
While the chops are cooking, I heat some olive oil in a small saute pan, throw in two sliced cloves of garlic. When the garlic starts to emit its fragrance but not turn color, I throw in the washed, cut-in-half cherry (not grape) tomatoes and cook until they are tomatoes with a little of their juice turned into sauce. I add some Maldon salt to them, but no pepper.
I make a plain salad with crisp, cut-with-a-knife (sorry) romaine leaves. If I have just shopped for everything, it is often the packaged organic, washed romaine leaves. The dressing is a small amount of high-quality (not Balsamic) red wine vinegar (O Zinfandel is a favorite) put in a large bowl and left to sit for a few minutes with a healthy pinch of (again) Maldon Salt diluting in it. Then I add full-flavored extra-virgin olive oil and whisk to form an emulsion. (Note, no mustard) I dump in the lettuce as soon as the emulsion is made and toss, toss, toss (which is why I use a large bowl). Before the final toss, I grind black pepper over the top.
If I'm doing the potatoes, I keep checking them with a cake tester, remove them and the steamer when they are done, melt a little butter in the same pan. I gauge when to toss the potatoes in the hot butter depending on how the meal is coming together. I toss the potatoes in the pan with the hot butter with the heat on, add some salt (of course Maldon) and pepper and stir.
I make hash topped with a fried egg! The one my family loves the most is Curried Chick Pea and Red Potato Hash (which is posted here: http://www.cuizoo.com/2009/07/01/curried-chick-pea-and-red-potato-hash/) ... hashes are super easy, use up a bunch of leftovers and odds and ends, quick, and healthy. The Curried Hash has chick peas as the protein, but obviously it's entirely flexible and you can use up that leftover chicken, pork, or steak too. The seasonings go every which way ... sometimes it's leftover chicken with barbecue sauce and corn in the hash, sometimes its leftover pork with soy sauce, lots of green onions, and Asian flavors, etc. But it's always based on chopped potatoes, some onions, some protein, some distinct seasonings, topped with fresh herbs and a fried egg. We love it.
Gehaktbollen, Dutch style meat balls. Ground beef and pork, breadcrumbs and egg, sauteed onion, plenty of Maggi flavoring. I've done this dish so often that the groove is deep. Without thinking, 18 1.5 oz balls get roasted in a high oven and provide a meal, and good leftovers. Bread and salad to go with.
Blackened catfish w/ cheese grits and wilted spinach. I usually have a jar of homemade blackening spices on hand and catfish cooks quick in grandma's cast iron skillet. Quick grits (not instant) w/ a little cheddar or smoked gouda. When the catfish is done, add a little oil to the pan and wilt the spinach with some garlic, add a squirt of lemon juice when it's done. The whole thing can be done in about 20 minutes, and it doesn't mess up every dish in the cupboard, but the result is still a tasty, well-balanced protein/starch/veg plate of grub.
Tajine cooking, I like to keep every meal interesting, I have a majaar, so I throw everything in the tajine, place it over the coals, and 1-2 hours later dinner, this week it was shoulder of lamb with turnips, always add preserved lemon, olives, and serve with flat bread to scoop up all the juices
Without question my staple meal is risotto. I always have the ingredients in my pantry and fridge- Arborio rice, stock, onions, butter, parmesean cheese- and can add in random things I have leftover like pieces of meat or vegetables. Since I cook only for myself, it makes enough leftovers for two more meals, and I very much enjoy leftover risotto. I heat it up for a minute or two in the microwave after work and voila! a homemade dinner is served.
Risotto is a great staple meal because you can make it many times without having it be exactly like the last time. I tend to enjoy adding some saffron to mine but it can be mixed with pureed greens, bright pesto for big flavor, make it spicy by stirring in purred chipotle peppers, use reconstituted dried mushrooms and add their soaking liquid with the stock, you can roast vegetables in the oven to add at the end while you are stirring on the stove top, you can use seafood stock and add scallops or shrimp, top with perfectly poached eggs for some added protein and nutrients, etc. There are endless options and all will be delicious, satisfying and quick.
Also, I too have been loving Tamar Adler's "An Everlasting Meal" and risotto is a perfect way to use up all that saved cooking liquid from boiling vegetables and pasta and a great pairing with all the roasted vegetables that get made on the "cooking" day.
*Pureed! not purred. hm.
Some form of panroasted or fried chicken breast and rice on teh side.
Our go to meal(s) are one of the following:
--Soba noodles with bok choy and duck breast
Sear duck breast (we prefer the smoked duck breast because of its flavor), slice after resting for a few minutes
Make broth with Japanese Seven Spice, dried ginger, slices of scallion, soy sauce, and stock (if we have pork stock around, we use that, otherwise a good rich chicken stock works too - always homemade.)
Cook soba noodles
Steam bok choy
Assemble and eat! Dinner in less than half an hour!
--Arctic Char with Quinoa and cucumber/tomato/peppers/mint salad
Make quiona
Slather char with tamari sauce, put in broiler or pan cook until desired doneness
Assemble salad: cucumber slices, tomato chunks, pieces of bell pepper, cilantro, mint and lime juice (seasoning to taste of course)
Put char piece on bed of quinoa and salad on plate - dinner in about 45 minutes
-- Chicken legs with kale greens and brown rice
Sautee onion and garlic in pan, add chicken legs (I usually break this into the drumstick and the thigh to expedite the cooking process) - cook through, sometimes I will add some leftover white wine to the pan for a sauce
Steam kale in pan with salt, pepper, and sometimes thin garlic slices; drizzle with dijon vinaigrette once served
Make brown rice, or potatoes, or whatever sounds good
Plate when all elements are completed cooking
Dinner in about 45 minutes
My husband and I try to have chicken on hand at all times just because it can lead to so many easy to throw together options: chicken fajitas, "fake" chicken parmigiana (chicken is just sauteed instead of baked), stir fry, salads, and so on.
Also, "breakfast for dinner" is a big hit around here. Plenty of omelettes with hash browns and/or toast have been made in the evening post-work or post-workouts.
The go-to meal for my vegetarian family of 4 (with 2 small children) is baked black bean taquitos. I use a can of black beans, a can of Rotel tomatoes, some cilantro and whatever leftover cooked veggies are in the fridge (after chopping them up). The mixture is wrapped in softened corn tortillas, secured with a toothpick, sprayed with a little olive oil (to help them crisp) and then baked at 400 for 20 minutes.
They're served up with salsa and avocado crema for dipping and spanish rice on the side - a crowd please at my house, for sure and can be prepared in under 30 minutes.
Our go-to simple meal is pasta with chile, garlic and parm. It is easy for us because it only requires one fresh ingredient, garlic, which we buy in bulk so we always have it. Everything else is non-perishable. First, I heat extra virgin olive oil with chopped garlic and crushed red pepper until it sizzles, then take it off the heat. During this time, I cook up 1 lb of pasta, either bucatini, linguine or spaghetti. I don't use anything with complex shapes because I find that the sauce (garlic, parm, etc.) tends to collect in the shapes and doesn't distribute evenly.
Once the pasta is al dente, it gets transferred into the pan with the oil, garlic and chile. I toss it all together with freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.
Alongside, we have the salad we have just about every night. A mixture of spinach and arugula, with equal amounts of chopped cremini mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, persian cucumbers, red onion, crushed black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic and feta cheese. It's all added into a big bowl and tossed together. No need to make the dressing on the side and add it separately.
Frittata -- eggs, onions, whatever else is handy, any kind of cheese on top with oregano or Italian herbs on top. Great when you're hungry and really tired, or need to eat but don't know what you want because --- you're hungry and really tired. Good for any meal.
We roast chicken thighs at least once a week. We make our own seasoning blends to keep the chicken lively. This month we are rotating between a blackening seasoning and a 16 spice seasoning. We also always have braised vegetables on the side because they are so easy to make and can be varied depending on the season. Last night, we did a medley of braised cabbage, whole scallions, carrots, and parsnips. Simply delicious!
Poached eggs atop sautéed kale atop toasted bread. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll rub garlic over the toast and add a bit of Parmesan cheese. This is usually my Wednesday night go to meal after I visit a local farm's farm stand that morning.
My go-too meal is an omelet, greens, and toast. I do my shopping on Saturdays and plan meals for most days. My ideas always seem to run out by Thursday so pretty much every week I end up with a Thursday night egg dish with greens. I like this combo because eggs are a delicious protein that keeps in the fridge for a long time. Same with kale or chard. They are hardy veg which don't mind sitting in the fridge for a week.
I fry up an onion and any other random veg in the fridge. Steam or sauté the greens. Make the omelet and add whatever cheese is left over from earlier in the week. If I have milk or cream I add that to the egg too. I usually have some bread in the freezer and if not I find some grain that I can quickly whip up. Sometimes I make due with tortilla chips. The wife never minds.
There are 2 in heavy oration at our house. The first is a maple-mustard glazed chicken. Use whatever cuts you have lying around - we most often used thighs or breasts. Mix 1/2 C Dijon mustard, 1/4 C map syrup and 1 TBS rice vinegar. Pour on 4 liberally salted + peppered chicken. Bake @ 450 for 25 mins (grill in the summer).
We typically roast some veggies along with the chicken - usually cauliflower or garlicky broccoli. Brussels sprouts with bacon drippings if they're in season. In the summer serve with a mixed-green salad.
The other is a Korean beef stir-fry; this entire meal only takes about 20 minutes.
Cut 1 lb flank steak in thin strips across grain. Mix marinade of 2 TBS soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 TBS grated fresh ginger, 1 garlic clove, finely minced, 2 tsp brown sugar. Add the beef and toss to coat. Let marinate a few minutes. Heat large skillet to med/high and cook 1/2 diced onion 1-2 min. Add beef and cook until just pink. Add in veggies (julienne carrots and zucchini are good) and cook for 1-2 min. Toss in 3-4 large handfuls of fresh baby spinach and cook until wilted. We serve this over rice (I like the frozen organic stuff in the store for quick dinners).
We have 2 kids – ages almost 2 and 5. We both work but manage to have home cooked meals 4 nights a week (leftovers 2 nights, dinner out the last night). These are 2 of their favorite meals.
Heavy rotation not oration. Damn autocorrect.
My go to mid week meal is pizza! I keep balls of dough in the freezer, and come Wednesday or Thursday I use leftover meats and odds and ends of fresh vegetables I have in the fridge. It's a great way to stretch what may be enough protien to make a meal for one to feed the whole family. Last week was chicken Alfredo with broccoli spinach and Roma tomatoes, this week is steak fajita, little salsa instead of pizza sauce, steak strips onion and
peppers, with sliced avocado to top after its baked
Pizza. Keep homemade dough in the freezer and sauce in the fridge. Make two pies. One for the adults, often a "Bacon and Egg" pizza with butter and finely chopped onions/garlic as the sauce, crumbled bacon and a cheddar/jack cheese, with three eggs cracked into wells in the cheese on top. And one for the kids, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella.
One of our favorite go-to weeknight meals is shepherd's pie made from the weekend pot roast. Always make extra mashed potatoes to go with the pot roast to use for the pie. Heat up the leftover meat and gravy, shred it, place in pie pan, top with frozen corn and the leftover mashed potatoes. Top with grated sharp cheddar. we almost enjoy it more than the original pot roast dinner!
My go-to is grilled chicken breast (marinated in a quick vinegarette marinade) with veggies (sauteed/roasted broccoli, grilled asparagus, green beans) - often with roasted potatoes as well. Only takes about 45 minutes...quick and easy, tasty too!
Pork chops. Cooked on the skillet via Mark Bittman's recipe. Usually with a green salad, and maybe rice or roast potatoes (usually quartered & roasted w/ olive oil and herbs). Had it on Sunday (with mashed potatoes).
Other "no think" meals include homemade pizza, roast chicken and fakes (greek lentil soup).
Oh, forgot to mention (since it's now January), but for a couple of months in the summer when our garden had heirloom tomatoes out the kazoo, I made Ruhlman's tomato water pasta every week.
Our go-to quick meals lately seem to alternate between Lentil Chili or quick Rice & Beans, both ready in an hour, and hearty enough to satisfy our carnivores despite the fact that they are vegetarian meals. It be even quicker if we kept lentils or rice cooked and ready in the fridge.
Grilled bone-in chicken breast, marinated in a soy-based marinade or mojo sauce or Italian Dressing, long-grain and wild rice, and a spring mix or spinach salad, tossed in a large bowl with dressing. We cook more chicken than we need for the one meal, and the next night, we use the left over chicken for Chicken Quesidillas, served with grilled sauteed vegetables. The key here is the grill. I grill outdoors (or under an outdoor covering) about 200 nights a year! Nothing fancy, but the seasonings and varying the salad and side (sometimes using roast Yukon Gold Potatoes or new red potatoes) keeps the meal fresh and interesting.
I have two staples: Frittatas and Quesadillas. One is a base of eggs and cheese, the other bread and cheese. Add a vegetable and a protein, leftover or fresh, and dinner is served. Leftover roast chicken with fresh or frozen spinach makes a great frittata. Add some cubed, pre-cooked potatoes for added heft. That same roast chicken with whatever vegetable or green you have lying around, sprinkled with cheese, is filling and tasty on a toasty quesadilla.
My go to meal is a white bean and quinoa salad. Cook the quinoa as directed and warm or cook beans (depending if using canned or dried.) I saute some mushrooms, red onions, and bacon (if it's around) in butter, red wine, and Dijon mustard. Mix all together with greens (usually spinach but kale and other greens work well too.) Last time I had a few cans of artichokes hearts that I tossed in, as well as some sad looking asparagus I roasted and mixed in as well.
Our go to is pulled pork tacos. Every six weeks or so I braise a big pork shoulder with oregano cumin coriander, some dried chipotle peppers and cherry juice (I still don't remember where I got that idea from). Then we portion the pork out into containers and freeze them. One day a week we take the frozen pork and put it in a steamer insert in a sauce pan an while it's coming to temp we cut serranos avacados, cilantro, lines, pickled red onions (thanks Live to Cook!) and other toppings on tortillas. Good eating!
Black Beans as the staple. Everything else can change depending upon what is in the fridge/pantry. Aromatics can range from onions, shallots, carrots, bell pepper, leeks, celery, garlic etc... softened in fat (generally oil, but or if there is bacon, or sausage, or salt pork/fatback around that goes in too). Spices are generally bay leaves, coriander, cumin, cayenne, and grains of paradise. I also enjoy a few shots of hot sauce and/or cider vinegar as well. Use a little stock or water to make a gravy like consistency and serve with rice, or add some additional stock and it makes a soup. Canned beans go in a regular pot, dried go into a pressure cooker.
Our staple meal is a salad of arugula, over sauteed mushrooms and shallots deglazed with chicken stock, with a farm fresh poached or soft boiled egg on top. Sometimes I add meat if we have any leftover - chicken, duck, etc. Super simple.
I saute mushrooms and shallots in butter while cooking the egg, deglaze with chicken stock, and when reduced, toss in a whole bunch of arugula off the heat until just slightly wilted and then plate with the egg on top. Mix the egg yolk in with the chicken stock sauce and mushrooms and arugula on the plate, and you have a 20 minute meal. The egg combines with the reduced stock and butter to make the best sauce in the world.
Variations are endless - last week we added sliced radishes and leftover roasted chicken (which is where the stock usually comes from - sunday roast leftovers.). Sometimes I add fresh herbs when in season to the arugula. Skip the arugula and use spinach. Sometimes I start with lardons. The whole point is the richness of the sauce / and egg yolk with a nice bitter salad green. Just lovely.
My number 1 no-fuss go to meal is pizza. I have a home office, so it is easy for me to start my dough around mid-day and let it ferment and set until supper time. I keep a ready supply of marinara on hand, either canned or home-made. I also buy mozzarella cheese literally every time I go to the grocery, so I am never out. I top it with virtually anything remotely savory from the fridge, fresh or left-over. Favorites are Italian sausage (from a pig I helped slaughter), steak, various store-bought charcuterie (I know, I know...), shrimp, anchovies, fresh veggies, marinated artichoke hearts, etc.
Making pizza, for me, is quick, easy, cathartic, and delicious. I prefer a thin, medium-crispy crust and I've developed a good, consistent crust recipe that, while not truly Neapolitan, gets the job done quite while considering I don't have 00 flour.
My wife loves it. She told me the other evening that if I would just alternate between my pizza and my bruschetta, she would be happy.
By the way, I already have "Twenty," and I really like it. I plan to cook through it this year.
Our staple isn't celiac friendly but can be as vegan or vegetarian as you want: we make pizza a lot, and I mean A LOT. If we ordered take out pizza as often as we do homemade pizza we'd be 100 lbs heavier and considerably poorer. Homemade pizza ingredients make big batches that happen to freeze superbly (tomato sauce, dough) so we almost always have some on hand. Drop six bucks for a nice ball of fresh mozzarella and then scrounge for whatever else is in the fridge or pantry (onions, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, and anchovies make their appearance most frequently since they're often the items lingering when a food shopping trip hasn't occurred for a couple of days). Sometimes if we're lacking mozzarella or other cheese I give it a liberal hand of parmesan and it does the job.
I get home, turn on the oven immediately, change into sweats, pour myself some wine and veg for a few minutes. Then some chopping, prepping, rolling out the dough, and a quick flick of the wrist sends it onto the stone. 9-11 minutes after that we have a pizza as good as anything we could get for takeout in about the same amount of time, sized perfectly for two. Good thing we really love pizza.
My other staple meal is roast broccoli: drizzle liberally with olive oil, roast until crisp and brown, finish with more olive oil, salt, a squeeze of lemon and some grated parmesan. I can polish off two heads of broccoli in a single sitting with this preparation. Vegetarian, gluten-free (vegan if you skip the parmesan). A perfect meal.
OK, I should win this one because my goto meal is via your blog.
The main is a Mustard Crusted Salmon Filet. via Eric Ripert's Get Toasted series. In the past I've subsituted the mustard with pesto, a spicy tomato chutney, etc. And if you remember to cover the pan with foil, clean up is trivial.
For a veggie, I'll just take any green veggie, parboil (or microwave it) then finish it in a hot pan with butter, salt, pepper and shallots or garlic. I believe it was Bob Del Grasso who told me about this technique from this post: https://ruhlmancom.bigscoots-staging.com/2009/01/blanching-shocking-refreshing/
And with these two a starch is either rice/couscous cooked with a few ice cubes of chicken stock or any pasta on hand.
takes less than 20 minutes from start to finish, I can use either fresh or frozen and clean up is easy.
Meatballs florentine in a red wine sauce over rice. I serve it with seasonal colorful veggies on the side (and of course more wine to drink!) Basic ingredients but impressive enough for a party.
We eat refried beans at least once a week. I use tons of garlic and onion with either black or pinto beans. We'll serve them with small quesadillas on corn tortillas with sharp cheddar and buffalo chipotle sauce. On the side will be either kale or collards sauteed with garlic. It takes no more than 20 minutes from start to finish and we always have the ingredients on hand.
A staple in my house that we never get tired of eating is a pot of homemade hearty beef stew over brown rice.
Actual prep time is about 20 minutes, after it is on the stove, nothing to do but wait...
In a stockpot brown a pound or so of stew meat in olive oil, throw in a finely chopped onion and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. Saute beef with onion and garlic until onions become translucent. Add 4-5 beef bullion cubes and add 6-8 cups of hot water or you could use beef or vegetable stock. Throw in sliced carrots, sliced celery, and couple of large cut up potatoes. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer for at least 90 minutes. We always have canned vegetables in the pantry so we usually add a can of corn and a can of peas once stew has finished simmering. We also always have brown rice available in the rice cooker, so it is used in many meals.
Serve over a half cup of cooked brown rice in a soup bowl and enjoy!
Our easy staple meal is pasta. We always have our pantry stocked with many different types and it is so versatile. While the pasta is boiling I can saute a little fresh garlic in olive oil, open a can or two of San Marzano tomatoes and add some dried herbs. Viola! I toss it all together and top it with a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese and dinner is ready. You can't get any easier than that. Of course I sometimes will make a quick cheese-based sauce instead. And I sometimes add whatever veggies we may have to the pasta dish. There is just so much you can do with pasta!
Oh, and we always have some of our local farmer's incredible homemade Italian sausage in the freezer which thaws pretty quickly in cold water and can be added to make the pasta dish EXTRA special and yummy. I swear he makes the best Italian sausage I have ever had!
Our go-to meal: skirt steak tacos with caramelized onions. Only a handful of ingredients (skirt steak, chipotles, garlic, onions, tortillas), most of which we have on hand all the time. We make a marinade by blending the garlic and the chipotles en adobo. Let that sit on the steak for 15-20 minutes. Cook it quickly under a broiler, rest, cut against the grain. Meanwhile, caramelize a couple white onions. Serve it all with warm tortillas, good beer, and, if we're feeling ambitious, homemade guacamole. It's an awesome, simple meal.
The other go-to would be lemon pasta. We make a vinaigrette of fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, parm, good olive oil. Cook whatever pasta we have on hand and toss it in the dressing.
For us, it's pasta with sauce (insert whatever pasta and sauce we have on hand or have ingredients for) with some kind of sauteed or steamed veggie. We're quasi-vegetarian for financial and environmental reasons, so this is a good quick dinner for us. Tonight we're actually doing spaghetti with marinara sauce and sauteed squash.
We love pork in this house. So we often make a pork butt in the slow cooker which leaves us with at least a lb of meat leftover. I use it in a lot of dishes, but the go to is hash. Just shred a couple potatoes and a nice, big onion; add salt and pepper and let them give off their liquid in a skillet. Then add the chopped pork, some worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, any other little additions. Then let is cook down to a nice slightly crispy, slightly soft, hot, and delicious bowl full of comfort food.
Wednesday means Nacho Night at our home. We melt cheddar and pepper jack cheese on tortilla chips and then top 'em with a mixture of beans (black, pinto, and kidney) and corn. Add some salsa, pickled red onions, and a dollop of homemade guacamole and you're good to go. As an added bonus, the leftovers get used to make wraps for the kids' lunches the next day.
My go to is Corned Beef and Cabbage with parships,carrots,celery,potatoe,onion.Brined overnight in lots of spices and cooked low and slow.Served with rye bread with thousand island dressing and horseradish.
Spaghetti carbonara. I follow a blend of an old Gourmet recipe and Cook's Illustrated. We always have bacon or pancetta, eggs and parm in the house. The "sauce" is done well before the pasta is cooked; it's warm, filling and my whole family just loves it. Comfort food at it's best.
If I've planned well enough ahead, we could also opt for homemade duck confit with a salad. That's an investment in time that pays off handsomely!
I'd say that grilled cheese is our go-to meal. I always have homemade bread left from the weekend and then we just use whatever cheese needs to be used up. Sometimes we'll add veggies (especially tomatoes!) or whatever meat we have.
We call it a Chef Jim's Veggie Saute! I open the fridge and pull out whatever veggies are there adding onions and/or shallot and garlic. So it could be things like zucchini, eggplant, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans- whatever. Then when all browned up toss on a can of diced tomatoes and fresh herbs, chives, parsley, basil, again whatever. From the pantry I have added sun-dried tomatoes or roasted red pepper or frozen artichoke hearts or olives. Pour this over pasta and add cheese, always whatever and a squeeze of lemon never hurts! Each time its different than the last time but usually tasty.
My go-to meal is very versatile and one that I've been eating since childhood. My mom always just called it "beans & greens"; it's just cannellini beans with some kind of leafy green, and can be anything from a side dish to a soup to a stew. Saute thinly sliced garlic in olive oil until barely golden brown and fragrant, then add good chicken stock, soaked cannellini beans and your choice of leafy green.
As I said, this is very versatile and can be varied almost infinitely: I've used escarole, spinach, kale, chard and mixtures of them all for the greens, but escarole alone is my favorite. Usually I use more or less equal amounts of beans and greens, but you can change the proportions depending on how you are serving this: add enough stock, and you have soup; add more beans and some of their soaking liquid and you have a thick-ish stew; add less stock and more greens than beans, and you have a nice side dish for a roast chicken. Add crushed red pepper if you want it spicy, or add shredded chicken if you want something heartier.
I love this because I usually have everything on hand, and it's quick, simple, filling and delicious. I serve it with crusty bread and good salted butter.
I roast chicken breasts and thighs (bone in and skin on) and vegetables. Dry the chicken pieces, rub with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Place in a roasting pan with an assortment of vegetables: carrots, quartered red onions, quartered potatoes (fingerlings are great for this), sliced portabello or halved cremini mushrooms, garlic heads (outer paper removed and top cut 1/4 in) and other vegetables I may have in the fridge: brussels sprouts, cauliflower, are good additions. (I long ago purchased an All-Clad roasting pan - for half price - that is perfect for this - a most prized possession.) Toss vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper. Add parsley and thyme sprigs, white wine and/or chicken broth to the pan. Roast 400 for first 15 minutes, reduce to 350 to finish. Check to ensure it doesn't get overly browned, but the browned vegetables are great. Remove from oven, place chicken and vegetables on serving plattter and cover. Make gravy in roasting pan. Leftovers are great as is, but makes a great soup/stew later on. It's raining and "chilly" today -thinking I'll "go to" this tonight.
Risotto. If I'm absolutely clueless and ambivalent as to what to eat, I make risotto. I always have a box of carnaroli rice, I always have onions, and I always have stock reserved from a recent roasted bird (in the rare instance I have no stock, I have tap water-or wine!) A plain old risotto is perfect on its own but a really simple medium to add whatever other things may be lounging around my fridge or on the counter. It is really simple but still feels like I'm actually making something...as opposed to pouring a box of penne rigate into a pot of water and 9 minutes later tossing it in garlic and olive oil and a can of sardines-which I do some times also. But usually...its risotto.
My repertoire of go to meals is spaghetti carbonara with peas (and sometimes sausage instead of bacon), a risotto (preferably wild mushroom and a stinky cheese), "clean out the fridge frittata", or a quick, pan roasted salmon fillet with rice and veg. I always have salmon filets in the freezer ready to go. Other options are always a quick soup with freezer stock or soba noodles and leftover veg.
I can't think of a staple meal that is stable across time. But comfort food, I can do that.
Paprikash!
2 pounds onions
2 pounds pork
2 pounds of sour cream
2 sticks of butter
2T of high end mail order paprika
caraway seeds
egg noodles
Melt the butter in a large skillet. Dice the pork and onion into large roughly equal sized pieces. Fry the pork until it is well browned. Add the onions and cook until they begin to soften. Add the paprika, being careful because it burns easily. Add the sour cream. Lightly crush the caraway seeds and add them at the last minute. Serve over egg noodles.
Getting good paprika is really the key. It should be sweet, bright red, and fresh.
This recipe scales easily. Just change the number 2 to make more or less of it.
Also, if you're boring, you can drastically cut back on the butter and sour cream by frying in a dash of ghee, then simmering the pork and onions in chicken broth for about 30 minutes, then adding in a small amount of sour cream to make the sauce.
My kids love pasta, so a great quick meal is old school pasta carbonara and a simple salad with whatever greens, lettuce and vegetables I have around. Ingredients are 8 oz diced pancetta, (can’t find guanciale locally), linguine, eggs, 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and black pepper. It’s really simple, delicious and takes 30 minutes from start to finish including prep. Dice the pancetta and render over low heat in a 12” skillet until it gets a bit crispy. Remove from heat and set aside. Beat four eggs in a bowl. Cook your pasta (any long pasta is fine, I like linguine) to al dente and scoop out a ladle or two of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the pancetta, add some of the past water and toss over low heat for a minute. Remove from the heat, add the cheese, eggs and pepper and mix thoroughly. If the sauce is too thick, add some more pasta water. Plate and serve.
Mine mid-week go-to meal is always some variation of Vegetable, Starch, Sauce with whatever leftover or easily cooked meat I have. I also like to use these kinds of impromptu meals to experiment with flavors - they are quick, easy and, if I don't like it, get eaten up in one night.
Lately, my favorite has been crispy bacon bits with sauteed winter vegetables (onion, carrots, parsnips, cabbage) tossed with a thick egg noodle, a good bit of dill weed, some caraway seeds, a dash of smoked paprika and a big dollop of plain yogurt. It satisfies my desire for all things creamy without being really terrible diet-wise - but I bet it would be AWESOME with sour cream.
Being in MN, our go-to meal depends entirely if it's summer or winter but will be simple either way with lots of leftovers.
In the summer, typically it will be something off the grill, likely chicken thighs marinated in olive oil, salt, pepper,garlic and herbs from the garden. Sides are either grilled veges from said garden or from one of the many markets in Mpls or its suburbs - snap peas, leeks or asparagus in spring; zucchini, peppers, sweet corn and tomatoes later in the season.
When it gets cold, I start making lots of chicken stock and always have some in the freezer for soup. My wife loves a play on tortilla soup, which I make with red potatoes, bell and jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic, shredded chicken, frozen MN sweet corn from the summer,good canned tomatoes, lots of cumin and masa to thicken, garnished with cilantro, avocado, lime wedges and fried tortillas strips.
One go-to meal for us is chicken piccata with mafaldine pasta (or similar broad, textured pasta). Excepting the chicken breasts, all of the remaining ingredients (lemon, bread crumbs, butter, capers, chicken stock) are generally to hand, and we have been known to fry up a bunch of chicken cultlets before doing a deep-fried turkey, so even these might be available to use without prep.
Vegetable may be a Spinach genovese or mixed salad or pan-roasted broccoli (Cook's Illustrated recipe) depending on what the shopping for the has in our crisper.
Our go-to meal is a stir fry. Specifically, we take fried tofu from the market and stir fry it with ground pork, onions, bell pepper, green onion, and cilantro with a soy- and oyster-sauce. We'll eat that with stir-fried greens with garlic (whatever's on hand) and jasmine rice.
The meat stir fry plus vegetable stir fry plus rice is definitely a regular thing in both our families, and this is our favorite combination.
A favorite staple of mine (and more importantly my wife) is a recipe called Spanish Lemony chicken (or something of that sort). You start off by browning boneless skinless thighs seasoned with paprika, oregano, salt and pepper, then add chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest, sliced green and red peppers and cover and simmer for 30 mins or so. Since I started making this dish 5+ years ago I've added garlic, shallots and/or onions to the mix as well or whatever herbs have around. After the chicken is cooked through and tender, you add ketchup mixed with a little chicken stock and reduce. I like serving the dish over whole weat orzo with a side of steamed and sauteed garlicky green beans.
We make something similar but add extra liquid (usually chicken broth) and put rice in the bottom. VERY flavorful rice to accompany the tomatoy-garlicky-lemony chicken.
I was a single mom for 12yrs, working outside the home and with a kid who did practically every extra-curricular activity under the sun. So I've got a ton of those staple meals in my kitchen repertoire. 🙂
#1 favorite meal in our house: quesadillas! Made on a double-burner griddle, with canned refried beans, and served with a quick salad. If I had leftover meat in the fridge from a previous night's roast, I'd cut up and add to the quesadilla (easy way way to stretch what would otherwise be 1 serving of meat). In fact, this is what we're making tonight for dinner.
Chicken Posole Soup. Already have main ingredients from weekly roasted chicken. Blend fresh chicken stock w/ 2 reconstituted ancho (or New Mexico) chiles for base. Add s&p to taste, mushrooms (porcini best IMO) and can of hominy (or white corn if unavailable), cook for ~10 minutes, then add shredded chicken and cilantro for 5 more minutes. While simmering, fry corn tortilla strips in separate pan. Ladle to bowls, topped w/ cotija cheese and fresh tortilla strips.
Living in San Diego, my go-to 30 minute meal is usually on the grill. I'll defrost a steak, chicken thighs, or fish and season it for grilling. I make a foil packet and put in 2 chopped potatoes with oil and my favorite spice blend from Penzey's, Galena Street. I also do a green vegetable that can go on the grill, like asparagus, and then I don't have any dishes to do except for my plate, utensils and any prep stuff.
We have a "breakfast for dinner" go-to that we usually keep in reserve for especially rushed nights or times when the cupboards are looking bare.
Fry up some sausages (chorizo works well, but whatever you like) in a big pan. It works best if they are fairly fatty and render a bit while they cook. In the mean time, make a salad of whatever greens and other vegetables are in the fridge/garden (for us, lettuce, bitter greens, radish, tomato if summer and garden herbs) but don't dress it. If there is time, soak some chopped onion or shallot in vinegar and toss that into the salad before serving. When the sausages are almost done, put some eggs in the pan and keep the heat fairly high - the white should be slightly crispy with sausage essence and the yolk very runny. Mix the salad with the onion/shallot/vinegar (or if you ran out of time, toss with some appropriate vinegar) and put it on plates. Put the sausage & eggs on top of the salad (still hot!), and pour the oil/sauce from the pan on top.
The greens will wilt a bit and the egg yolk / pan sauce mixes with the vinegar to make a nice dressing for the salad. We usually eat it as is but sometimes serve with bread or potatoes if we are extra hungry!. One pan and one salad bowl, and if you keep some sausages in reserve in the freezer you can usually make it with other stuff you have on hand.
My staple is pan fried chicken breast. Depending on the amount of time I have I can do it in many different ways. My favorite is to marinate the chicken breast in a lemon pepper season while I'm away at work. However, if I didn't plan ahead I can pull a breast out of the freezer and defrost in the microwave or a bowl of warm water while I change out of my work clothes. I then give it a seasoning of salt and pepper and sear it on both sides of a warm saute pan with olive oil for about 4-5 minutes per side. Pull the chicken out of the pan to rest. If I didn't marinade the breast and I need a sauce I will then deglaze the pan with whatever wine I have open, add a little chicken stock (~1/4 to 1/2 cup) and bring it to a boil, add a similar amount of cream and then finish with a few pats of butter. On the side I'll usually saute whatever vegetables I have on hand but I can also cut the chicken up and add it to a salad with a quickly made vinaigrette; over pasta with sauteed vegetables and italian dressing or other sauce; over rice with vegetables and an asian sauce that I have on hand; or pretend it is a hamburger and put it on a toasted bun with cheese and serve it alongside fresh cut french fries. There are so many ways you can tweak it to make it seem like a completely different meal than you had yesterday or last week and prep and cook time is 15 minutes or less.
The other easy-freezie dish is chicken enchiladas - We often make a large batch of enchilada sauce, so have some in the freezer, and left-over roast chicken as well (why roast only 1, when you can do 2?). All that is needed are tortillas (we use flour, but that's a personal preference), cheddar cheese (always have a block in the fridge), and sour cream (opt). Bake, eat, have leftovers (of leftovers).
Steamed soycatash (Trader joes) or green beans are an easy addition to the plate.
Got a little trigger happy and submitted before I was done with my tagine post... I make a tagine dinner once a week- usually involving chicken or veggies and almost always with North African flavors. In the summer, we lean toward more lemony vibrant tagines and during winter we go a little heavier on the cinnamon and cardamom.
I slowly heat up my clay tagine for a few minutes on VERY LOW heat. Learned this the hard way when my first clay tagine exploded because of too high heat.
Marinate chicken (or sometimes pork) with whatever combination of spices tickle my fancy. Cumin, cardamom, cinnamon are always in the mix, but lately I have been using a pre-made Morroccan Spice blend from William Sonoma and tweaking it to our liking.
After cranking up the heat and adding a little olive oil to the tagine, I sear the meat and sliced onions then remove to a plate. Lower the heat and add chicken stock, slices of lemons, olives (black or green depending on the mood), minced garlic, a bay leaf, and a couple strands of saffron. I'll throw in more cinnamon and the combination of spices used on the chicken, then let it simmer a bit. After 10 minutes, add the chicken, chick peas or lentils, and let it slow cook on low for about 45 minutes. NO peeking! Don't let the heat out.
Serve over rice (or Cous Cous occasionally). I use some of the broth to make the rice and then thicken the tagine sauce, if need be.
Tagine recipes are super versatile and easy to set it and forget it, which is why we make it once a week. Sometimes we go strictly vegetarian and other times, I load it up with meat. We always make more than enough so there are leftovers.
Pasta with onion tomato sauce. Start cooking pasta, then saute a whole chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic. Sometimes I deglaze with balsamic vinegar or red wine, sometimes not. Add tomato paste (I keep little dollops frozen individually in the freezer) and brown a little, then add a little pasta water, and herbs (oregano, basil, etc.). Sometimes I add olives or capers. Mix sauce with pasta and top with parmesan cheese and a poached egg. All done in 10-15 minutes with stuff I always have on hand that doesn't spoil easily.
Two jobs and law school keep me from spending as much time in the kitchen as I'd like. Because of this, when I do cook, I need it to last at least four meals. I usually default to a spatchcocked chicken with a little butter, maldon salt, fresh black pepper, and parsley stuffed under the skin. To go along with it I'll typically do a salad of arugala, goat cheese or shaved parm, and chopped nuts of whatever sort I have on hand in a balsamic or champagne vinaigrette. Alternately, I'll sautee some veg and whatever greens I have and toss with quinoa and a little butter. The chicken can be shredded and mixed with the quinoa or thrown in with the salad if the food needs to travel in a single container.
It's not terribly elegant, but it's healthy, tastes good, and travels well.
Pan roast; one of my favorite things to make is a pan roast with whatever proteins i have in the refrigerator. Pretty simple; put rice in the cooker. Maybe rehydrate some dried mushrooms. Saute a little garlic and add the protein (shrimp, chicken, smoked sausage,i always have a jar of Heinz chili sauce; throw that into the pan. Heat that up, then add a little half and half ( or cream depending if i ran that day) add some spices. Throw that all on top of the rice; all done!
(If i don't have the chili sauce; i will sometimes play around with ketchup, sirrachi, garlic, and sambal chili sauce)
Traditional Italian families prepare staple meals every day of the week, though this may be changing a bit in "modern Italy" Italian cuisine has been built on simple, practical, every day meals that work in real life scenarios. With this said, I'm nominating Pasta with Parsley, Garlic, and Olive Oil or Alio e Olio as my staple meal.
Here's our entry from our site (http://www.scordo.com/2008/05/pasta-with-parsley-garlic-and.html):
As a young chap, I lived with my grandparents in the typical "Everyone Loves Raymond" environment; that is to say, my parents lived on the second floor apartment of a two family home while my grandparents occupied the first floor apartment. On most Saturday afternoons I would wander down to my grandparents place and receive a boatful of kisses and the eternal question, "what do you want to eat for lunch?" And my answer would always be, "Nonna,can I please have Pasta Alio e Olio?"
Pasta Alio e Olio, translated literally as pasta with garlic and oil, is still one of my favorites and I end up making it a few times a month and when I'm filling particularly lazy once per week.
Ingredients:
Pasta: linguine or linguine fini works nice for this dish
One bunch of finely chopped parsley
Thinly chopped garlic (5-6 cloves).
1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Kosher salt and pepper to taste.
Red Pepper Flakes
Process:
Bring a large pot of fresh water to boil and drop the pasta into the pot. Add a bit of salt and stir (linguine usually takes between 7-10 minutes, depending on brand).
While the pasta cooks, add olive oil to a hot pan along with the garlic, sautéing slowly. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Drain the pasta and save a bit of the starchy water. Add the pasta to the saute pan along with the parsley and mix well (at this point either add a bit more olive oil or some of the pasta water, I usually do both). Use kitchen tongues to work the condiment into the pasta.
Finally, add the cheese and mix one more time. Plate the pasta and add a little bit more cheese. The pasta dish is simple, classic, and real southern Italian comfort food.
Pizza made with homemade 100% whole wheat dough from freshly milled flour (including leftover sourdough starter when I have some extra). The sauce is made using homemade tomato passato, canned over the summer at the peak of freshness. Cheese will usually include some parmigiano reggiano, maybe pecorino romano, and a locally made or homemade mozzarella. Local Italian sausage from pastured chicken or pork. Other toppings vary depending on what's in season from our CSA or the farmers markets.
My staple meal is a one-pot dump dish. Slice garlic and brown in a dutch oven. Remove and reserve. Slice large onion and brown. Add garlic back and add two cans of crushed tomatoes, a quart of chicken stock, a can of tomatillos, salt, pepper, oregano and thyme, and two pounds of meatloaf mix (ground beef, pork, veal). At this point the dish becomes a free style event. Got beans? Add them. Got zuccini? Add some. Got anything else that seems like it would taste good? Add some of that. Simmer on low until the meat is tender. Adjust salt if needed. And eat it for dinner, next day breakfast, may lunches for a few days.
my dad is raises cows, so we have a fully stocked freezer full of beef - most of which is simply ground hamburger. i like to make spaghetti and meatballs. oregano, rosemary, and mustard give the meatballs some flavor, and then i just dump in some diced tomatoes, sauteed onions and garlic, a little chili powder, basil, and a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar. sometimes i'll steam fresh broccoli, but more often than not we turn to something green from the freezer.
One word: meatloaf. I have three strapping boys with huge appetites and it's always a sure bet to make everyone happy. And with a few relatively small ingredient additions you can make a plain meatloaf into an Italian, Mexican, Asian, or BBQ version. Two pounds of some sort of ground meat, 1/2 tsp salt, an egg or two, and breadcrumbs as a base. Then you can swing it any way you're up for. Italian: add oregano, minced garlic, tomato paste, and parm, sauce on top. Asian: green onions, soy sauce, minced ginger, teriyaki on top. Mexican: salsa, green chiles, chili powder, cheddar, more salsa on top. BBQ: chopped onions, your favorite BBQ sauce, top with bacon slices and more BBQ sauce. Oven 325 for an hour and shazam, time to eat.
Our go-to quick meal is always "tapas." This is a great way to use up small bits of leftovers in the fridge and we always have certain items on hand, such as imported feta (drizzled with olive oil and cracked pepper is good), imported mixed olives (both of the latter from the Med. store in the west side market), we sautee almonds in OO and toss them with big, chunky sea salt and a little cayenne, we use up the last of the jar of roasted red peppers, maybe with some banana peppers, we'll throw in a small can of Tonno tuna with capers and cracked pepper, and maybe make a quick white bean dip from canned white beans with olive oil, chopped garlic, a small splash of red wine vin and salt and pepper in the food processor, and any other leftover veg and fruit. Dried figs or even raisins and walnuts are usually there, maybe a spread of jam or marmalade, and then different kinds of crackers or a baguette if we have one. It's easy, quick, filling, and is like a picnic without ants or bees. 🙂
Well, I guess I can't say Roasted Chicken.... 🙂
So i'll say the next logical step.. We usually make soup with the stock made using the bird eaten the night before. Some venison, tomatos, greens, and onion. Salt to taste, enjoy with bread.
It took a while to think, but the answer is completely obvious in the end, noodles. Not the instant ramen throw a pouch of preservatives into water and boom, but like noodle dishes. My husband and I love noodles, and I don't think we go one week without having some sort of noodle dish. We have several types of noodles at home so really it depends on the cuisine we want to aim for.
If its Chinese we usually go for Dan Dan mian. We always stock pile somen and soba. There are alot of Vietnamese noodle bowls eaten at home (with some sort of grilled meat). I make a pretty delicious curry udon using Japanese curry blocks.
When we make hot pot (which is the easiest thing ever) I always throw a packet of bean noodles. Their texture and way they can pick up flavor is awesome in hot pots. Usually our hot pot involves the Asian style meatballs (beef tendon meatballs), a load of greens (bok Choy or whatever looks good), mushrooms, ginger, bamboo shoots, in a chicken stock. Then I make a dumplingesque sauce or a peanut dipping sauce.
Always to accompany the noodles is some sort of pickle. Maybe it's daikon and carrots, maybe it's kimchi. personally one of my favorites, which should have a comeback, are pickled boiled eggs. Try your noodles with one of those and you'll never go back to regular hard boiled eggs.
My go to meal is something we call a bowl of something good. It usually starts with roasted potatoes (or sweet potatoes), then a roasted or sauteed vegetable. Next we add whatever we have on hand. If a roasted chicken was on the menu earlier in the week it may get shredded, seasoned and tossed on top. I love it with shitake mushrooms and paneer on top of the potatoes. In the summer it usually includes squash or quickly sauteed tomatoes. If we are lucky there is a chili sauce to include or cheese to include.
It is really informal, but we usually re-season a the vegetables, potatoes, and re-imagine leftovers. It does not feel like we are just reheating leftovers, sometimes it is sort of southwestern, other times it is a little closer to Indian or stir-fry.
another quick-ish staple that's a favorite in this house, and a vegetarian option, is multi-grain sour cream pancakes. I typically add frozen or dried cranberries, leftover roasted sweet potato, that stray overripe banana in the fruit basket, or even canned pumpkin, to make it even more nutritious & yummy. By varying the fruit/veg I add and the spices, no one ever gets bored of the pancakes. (by multi-grain I mean AP, whole wheat, rolled oats, and cornflour in equal amounts)
Our staple meal is chicken breasts sauteed in white wine with oven-roasted vegetables, My husband pounds the chicken breasts with a meat tenderizer, then puts them in a dish and covers with salt, fresh lemon juice, and extra-virgin olive oil to marinate and puts them in the refrigerator. While the chicken breasts marinate, I prep the vegetables for roasting. I usually use sweet potatoes, halved and cut into thick slices, which I've briefly pre-cooked in the microwave, an onion cut into quarters and divided into separate layers, several cloves of garlic, zucchini and yellow straight-neck squash cut into 1-inch slices. I throw everything into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt, drizzle with olive oil, add herbs de provence, and toss to coat. I spread the vegetables on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast in a 400-degree oven for 25 minutes. Then I turn the oven to broil for another 5 minutes to give the vegetables a little crispy char, similar to a barbecue. During this last five minutes, my husband sautes the chicken breasts in olive oil, then removes them from the pan and de-glazes the pan with white wine, creating a quick sauce that he pours over the chicken. We usually eat this meal with a nice glass of wine too.
For me, it's a stir fry. That usually means chicken (breast + thigh meat), cut thin, high heat, with onion, red bell pepper, garlic, ginger, plus a sort-of-Thai sauce (soy sauce, fish sauce, sambal, brown sugar, basil, mint if I have it, lemon or lime juice for acidity, maybe a little corn starch to thicken, but not always. Chopped peanuts or cashews in the mix if I want a little extra protein. Put it on top of some jasmine rice, green salad with homemade vinaigrette on the side. and I'm ready to eat in half an hour.
Quesadillas (with whatever the leftover protein from Sunday dinner happens to be, or a mix of corn, cheese, and green chills) or baked potatoes (quick-started in the microwave and finished in the oven, topped with the beef chuck chili I always have frozen portions of) are pretty close seconds.
One of our staple meals is lamb meatballs. Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, breadcrumbs and a hit of cumin, then pan fried. While the meatballs are frying, we make rice and a simple cuke/green onion salad. For a Mediterranean touch dress the salad with a yogurt based dressing. Since meatballs take 5 minutes to season and mix, the whole meal is about 25 min long.
Another easy but rewarding meal is a stroganoff. Can be made with either ground beef or sliced steak, sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, fish sauce (for umami), soy sauce (same reason), and a cream or creme fraiche or sour cream sauce with a bit of mustard. Serve over any noodles.
We definitely do the odd pasta which can either be based on a cheese sauce (mac and cheese style), with added elk hot dogs, zucchini, mushrooms. Or a looser sauce of olive oil, garlic, herbs, anchovies. Can be had with egg on top, or as a side to any meat.
We do a French bread pizza fairly often, from a Cooking Light magazine. It involves sauteeing chorizo (homemade tupperware chorizo), garlic, drained canned clams and sliced mushrooms. Then add a bit of milk, flour, oregano and a cup of grated parmesan. Dump the cheezy topping on top of sliced in half French bread loaf, and bake for 15 min to brown the top. Sprinkle with parsley to serve. Tastes so complex and sophisticated you won't believe it.
And last but not least, bacon wrapped chicken. Any boneless, skinless chicken part gets slathered in mustard, garlic (yes, everything we cook has garlic), wrapped in bacon and shoved in the oven. It's forgiving as it needs no attention, bacon keeps it moist and salty, and can be served over salad, or with any starch.
Omelet! Usually with cheese and black beans, tortilla chips, and salsa (if I have the fixin's for salsa). I always have these things, and it doesn't take long to make.
I'm a vegan, so it's usually a vegetable curry with some form of rice. Until I get "20," my default go-to cookbook is Raghavan Iyer's "660 Curries." Those should keep me busy--and satisfied--for a while.
We have a couple. In the cooler months we keep a supply of chicken paprikash on hand. Usually made in the slow cooker and leftovers freeze well. Boneless skinless chicken breasts make up the bulk of the protein because that is what my wife and son prefer but I usually put a layer of bone in thighs on the bottom; I think they are tasty and add some depth to the sauce. Brown the chicken in a pan, sauté diced onion and a bell pepper and then add a couple tablespoons of good quality paprika as they begin to soften. Deglaze the pan with some chicken stock and then add crushed tomatoes (whole plums I crush by hand). Layer it in the slow cooer and cook on low for 5 or 6 hours. We usually service with rice or noodles
In the summer I like making chicken with fruit glazes Basically brown chicken breasts in olive oil and transfer to the oven to finish cooking. I add shallots to the pan. Once they's softened, deglaze with with Chenin Blanc or Petite Syrah then add a touch of chicken stock and either apricot or blackberry preserves, a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme and let the sauce reduce and thicken. When the chicken is done I return it to the pan for a minute or two so the sauce coats it. Steamed or sautéed broccoli, green beans or even (sorry to name drop) Jaques Pepin's quick asparagus and its time to eat! Fast, healthy, minimal clean up and Oh look! There is a bottle of wine open! We can't let that go to waste 🙂
Lots of these meals look familiar to me -though I'm definitely taking notes on new ideas! Our go-to quick meal/I'm lazy/I'm tired after work is taco salad. Brown ground turkey (sometimes turkey sausage) and season with penzey's chicken taco seasoning. Add a can of beans from pantry. In the spring & fall, I have greens from my garden, but always have something raw as the base. Tomatoes from the garden, bell peppers & cucumbers (again, depending on season), cheese, salsa, little sour cream or greek yogurt. And top with some crumbled tortilla chips for extra crunch.
wow, so many options jumping around in my head (pasta and veg chili are right up front), but I'll go with BEAN ENCHILADAS. Yes, it's a mostly open-and-dump meal (canned fat-free refried beans [jazzed up with some sauteed onion], canned enchilada sauce, packaged tortillas, shredded cheese), but it is super-easy and delicious without a lot of cleanup. Also affordable. Served with a salad on the side, it's also pretty healthy.
Enchiladas were something that I enjoyed eating out, but for some reason intimidated me in the kitchen. I overcame that in the past year and now I laugh at how easy they are to prepare. And it allows me to control the ingredients, bumping up the health factor.
I don't eat meat, so I'm lucky that most of my go-to meals do not require defrosting anything.
Once a week, I make a big pot of beans on a night that I don't plan on eating them. Because of the altitude in Denver, beans take a long time to cook, so I usually put them on when I get home from work and they are ready for the fridge by bed time. The next day, dinner is beans and brown rice with salsa verde made with jalepenos, tomatillos, lime juice, and cilantro. We alternate bean varieties - mostly black or pinto beans, but occasionally we'll try something different like mayacoba beans, which are delicious but also contain about twice the fat of standard beans (so they are good for hearty winter meals). A little cotija cheese crumbled on top is the perfect garnish. I usually make enough beans so that I have leftovers for lunchtime burritos.
On the night the beans are cooking, we often make chilaquiles by frying leftover corn tortilla strips, adding eggs, onions, and sometimes leftover veggies or chicken. A quick sauce can be made by steeping dried chiles in hot water, pureeing, and straining.
Thanks to this blog, we also do a whole chicken fairly regularly, which has the added advantage of providing the bones and tasty bits for making chicken stock for soups and sauces later on.
Spaghetti and Meatballs: Got the recipe from the movie “The Godfather” Clemenza shows Michael how to make it when they are feeding the whole gang. Very simple oil, garlic, tomatoes, red wine, sugar and some meatballs.
In Spring or Summer, we go to whatever greens are in season from the Farmer's Market, together with boiled eggs, tomatoes, sunflower seeds or pepitas and flax seed, dressed with a light vinagrette.
In Fall or Winter, it will either be a chili with lots of tomatoes, chiles, onions, peppers and beef; or roasted root vegetables with pork tenderloin wrapped in the thinnest prosciutto I can get and seasoned simply with salt, pepper and olive oil.
The "get it ready in advance 'cause we're riduculosly busy" meal: Pot roast in the slow cooker. The mid week days are always busy with Scouts, sports, church and everything else piling up, it makes a dinner that hits the three main goals:
1: Easy over the full day.
2: Kids can help with prep and finishing.
3: Can be raided over the course of the evening.
We usually have a suitable piece of chuck (or something!) floating around in the fridge or freezer.
Thaw it (if needed), brown it and put it in the cooker.
Add some liquid (Guinness, wine, coffee), an onion, a stalk of celery, some crushed garlic, bit of salt and some pepper. Let slow cooker do its thing.
When the kids get home from school, get some starch in the picture. Perhaps cubed potatoes, get some ready for mashing or roasting. Sometimes rice, couscous or noodles.
Veggies and /or salad. If there is time, put a batch of rolls or biscuits together (and I am not ashamed to say I use a bread machine to mix the roll dough!)
The last few times we've done this, variations have included:
Made demi-baguettes and pot roast sandwiches.
Use salsa and liquid smoke and serve on tortillas
Made shepherds' pie by putting mash on top and broiling for a minute or two.
Leftovers become lunch or soup the next day.
Our go-to-last-minute-don't-think-about-it-easy-meal is a pasta improvvisazione! Whatever pasta (usually dry but sometimes handmade) we have in the house with whatever we have in the fridge and pantry. It can be simply butter or olive oil and sweated minced garlic with some gratings of Parmesan or Romano, or crumbled bacon or sausage with cream or olive oil or butter, or alla Gricia with red pepper flakes, crisped diced pancetta and sautéed minced onions and garlic. Pasta is so versatile with whatever is around. Gotta piece of leftover chicken or other protein, dice it up. Got some leftover veggies, dice 'em up and throw 'em in. Shrimp with a little butter, garlic and parsley and a clam broth. It goes on and on.
Our to go meal is a simple and quick vegetarian meal: Persian rice made in a rice cooker (basmati, butter, olive oil, salt, water put in cooker, with the switch forced to remain on for 45 minutes - yielding tadich, the delicious burnt rice crust). Quickly cook some french green lentils with a chile or two, some garlic, s+p. Sautee greens of any variety and carmelize some thinly sliced onions. Top with some yogurt and you've got yourself a nourishing and delicious meal in under an hour...with very few dishes (and hopefully some leftovers for lunch!).
Pasta! Specifically I steep some garlic in warmed olive oil in a large skillet, remove the garlic and then add some ripped up prosciutto into the pan to brown while I chop a couple of tomatoes, and some black olives. When the prosciutto is slightly browned I throw back in the garlice, the olives, tomatoes, some pine nuts and a huge handful of fresh spinach. Add a little more olive oil and once the spinach is wilted, toss with some al dente Farfalle - I've done many variations but just adding or taking away whatever ingredients I have on had...some artichoke hearts, a little squeeze of fresh lemon juice, some left over chicken...etc. Even the kids love it!
I came across this great easy chicken curry one time, and ever since then we almost always have the ingredients on hand. Cut up some chicken and brown it, set it aside, then saute minced garlic and ginger in the same pan. Add curry powder, then coconut milk and chicken broth. Finally, add some canned chickpeas and fresh spinach until just wilted, throw the chicken back in, and serve over rice.
Ever since the first time I made this, I've made sure to always have coconut milk and chickpeas in the pantry. We ALWAYS have garlic, and whenever I buy fresh ginger I mince it all up and freeze it in tablespoon sized portions, so I can just grab a few when I need them. Depending on whether we have chicken in the house (which is most of the time), the only thing I typically need to remember to get ahead of time is the spinach - though I think that next time I'm going to give this a shot some time with swiss chard and see how it goes.
This is a shameless plug for your book, but your "Weeknight Coq au Vin" has quickly become a staple in our house. Not only is it amazing, but the recipe yields about two glasses of wine leftover--perfect for my wife and I! We usually just have it over egg noodles, but are now moving towards whole grains to be healthier in the new year. Perhaps quinoa or some nice wild rice this week. This recipe is easily worth the cost of the cookbook. Everything else in there is just a bonus from our perspective!
Pasta, two ways: first, we make huge quantities of bolognese and then freeze it, so we've always got a quick defrost-and-dump sauce for store bought noodles. Second, pesto - also made at home and frozen. We can cook up a chicken breast or throw some salmon in the oven, or just crack open some canned salmon. Either way we make it, it all tastes great, the baby loves it, pairs with whatever table wine is left over from the weekend, and it's so easy to throw a mess of greens or a piece of crusty bread along side it to balance out the meai.
Our new staple is a turkey sausage sage gravy recipe that we have converted as a pasta sauce. Michael Symon had this recipe on the Chew around Thanksgiving and we use our own homemade pork sausage and skim milk and it makes an incredible pasta sauce for farfelle pasta. My wife loves it so much she requested it for her 45th birthday.
My staple is a roasted chicken... but what I do is cut up carrots, onions, and potatoes and throw them under the chicken as I roast it. Once the chicken is done, I let it rest, and then let the rest of it roast in the oven for a few more minutes... delicious!
This time of year, when it is cold outside, it is broccoli soup and cheddar and cream scones for me and my wife. We’ll actually happily eat this twice a week in the winter, as this recipe is more than ample for four servings. The scones you can find here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cheddar-and-Cream-Scones-107689. For the soup, slice enough onion thinly for about two cups, mince a couple of cloves of garlic, and cook in a medium low Dutch oven with about two TBS of olive oil and a good pinch of salt, stirring occasionally until the onions start to take on some color. While the onions are cooking, clean two stalks of broccoli, cutting into bite-size pieces. When the onions have color, add the broccoli, just enough chicken broth to cover the vegetables, and simmer until the broccoli is very tender (this takes enough time to get the scones put together and cooking in the oven). Puree the soup however you do it (if you are going to do a lot of this, an immersible hand blender is the only way to go) until it is smooth, add the juice of half a lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. I usually garnish with a little fresh dill, grated cheddar and/or sour cream. This same routine works great with cauliflower, and it makes you feel that you are eating righteously – at least until you go back for a third scone.
I've got to say that roast chicken and rice is the easiest staple in my household. My husband and I are always working or too tired to put together a complicated meal.
Thankfully, it's gotten to the point where even my husband (who typically doesn't cook beyond boiling pasta) can help me with this meal. We usually either do the Julia Child's style roast chicken soaked in lemon juice, salt/pepper, and garlic or sometimes when we're feeling really homey, we turn to a Filipino staple: Adobo, which is vinegar (I've found coconut vinegar really makes a big difference), soy sauce, garlic, and pepper.
Once the chicken is roasting in the oven, that usually leaves plenty of time for us to pop some brown rice and chicken stock into the rice maker. And to round the meal out, I typically do some sort of stir fry or steamed vegetables.
It's been difficult, recently, to cook a variety of meals because I recently was diagnosed with Diabetes. It seems like so many foods are on the "no no" list. But thankfully roasted chicken with brown rice and steamed veggies is an acceptable meal and quite delicious!
My staple meals almost always involve chicken breasts and frozen veggies since it's easy and cost effective to buy both ingredients in bulk and freeze them. I try to change it up as we tend to eat them more than once a week.
One example is a baked chicken breast (coated with either lemon pepper, barbecue, tomato sauce and cheese, or an olive mixture) and a side of whatever kind of vegetables we have on hand. It's usually rather healthy, simple and delicious.
Another example is the chicken breast stir fry. Similar idea to the baked chicken breast except it's cut up with the veggies and usually there's a curry or something added to it. Also very simple and delicious, though the sauce can sometimes add extra calories.
I get bored easily and love to cook so I try to do a lot of different things with the same base ingredients. It's good because the fiance and I would both be very bored very quickly if I made the exact same thing all the time.
Mac and cheese!
I do it in one small stock pot. I boil the noodles in salted water, then reserve maybe a 1/4 cup of the pasta water, drain the noodles and let them sit in a strainer while I make the sauce. I add a tablespoon of butter to the pot, fry up whatever sausage I have on hand (sliced and quartered kielbasa usually, though I've used chicken sausage, andouille, diced up bacon, even leftover chopped up pepperoni and once I used sliced deli ham). I throw in small diced onion (or shallot, if I have it) in with the sausage, add some minced garlic. Then I add a tablespoon of flour to make a light roux, give it a quick stir, then add a cup of milk (or combine lowfat milk with half-and-half or cream - again, whatever is in the fridge) and a bit of the pasta water. Then I turn off the burner and add grated cheese - usually a high percentage of orange cheddar because the kids like the color. Smaller proportions of fontina and/or gouda are often added into the mix. Once the cheese is mostly melted, the pasta goes back in and gets mixed up. After the noodles are boiled the whole process takes less than 10 minutes.
I'm not a fan of baked mac and cheese that seems to be standard in food blogs and on restaurant menus, and this version is quicker too.
Our go-to meal is generally an omelet or egg scramble and quick biscuits. We ALWAYS have too many eggs, and a quick sautee of leftover meat and veg and cheese ends is always great. Quick drop biscuits come together in less than 15 minutes. I also do a soup every other week or so in the winter with leftover chicken parts, chick peas and whatever veggies we have in the fridge, spiced accordingly (Oregano, garlic, basil/curry, ginger, cilantro/chili, cumin). Both of these have been greatly added to by the bounty of my mom's yard garden this year. It's wonderful to have sunchokes and potatoes, carrots, broccoli, garlic, peppers and onions from the yard on hand most of the time.
Each week I cook a pot of beans in my bean pot seasoned with some salt at the end and tossed with a small amount of tomato salsa. This way I have a go to dish anytime the rest of the week. My favorite bean right now is a rebosero (from Ranch Gordo), a Mexican pinto bean. With these beans I can refry them with garlic and onion, or serve them as is as a side dish to chicken or steak. But my favorite quick comforting meal is to fry up some Mexican chorizo, add some diced potatoes, throw it all in with the beans. Top this soupy mixture with some queso fresco, and serve it with some corn tortillas and I am satisfied and happy. Adding a Mexican beer to drink on the side puts this dish over the top for comfort food.
It's winter in Montana, and a goal for 2012 is to incorporate more grains into my diet. So I'm working on a good Barley Risotto. I make vegetable stock once a week with trimmings plus onions, carrots, celery, parsley. I start the risotto with leeks because I love their tenderness, sel de Guérande, some thyme or rosemary from the pot in the bay window where a cat or two sleep during the day, a crisp white wine, barley of course (black if I have it), my vegetable stock, and at the end toss in some peas (frozen because it's winter in Montana) and Parmesan. Does all that stirring take some time? Sure, but it's contemplative, and it anchors me to the kitchen so I can listen to All Things Considered without missing anything because of too much multitasking. Risotto is a stand-in-one place dinner, and a good way to slow the day way down. Leftovers make excellent cakes to serve over a big salad. Oh, and bread because a 2012 rule is that I can only eat bread if I make it, and the year is very young yet.
You know, I hadn't realized it before, but we don't really have a "staple" meal that gets made once a week, or even once a month. I definitely have basics that get made time & time again: my chicken soup (homemade stock, rice, never noodles, and chicken breast for convenience), mashed potatoes (skin on, with sauteed garlic & fresh herbs), pizza (homemade everything). But since we eat locally, and seasonally, the "go-to" meal changes with the seasons: in winter I'll often make a big batch of a meaty, hearty stew and we'll eat that for days, over various vegetables & grains; in summer we live on tomato, cucumber & feta salad as soon as local tomatoes appear; in spring it's fritatta, loaded with leafy greens, scallions, and the season's first pastured milk fresh cheese; in fall we roast butternut squash with red bell pepper, parmesan & parsley until it's crispy and nearly caramelized.
I guess you can say one thing about eating seasonally: we never get bored!
Our biggest staple meal is a warm salad. We fry up some bacon, and then cook kale in the bacon drippings. We then add a can of cannellini, and add the bacon back in. It's VERY quick, and very tasty and filling.
GoTo Meal has to be any type of frozen seafood I have in the freezer (always keep a few fillets and shrimp) and some frozen vegetables (always have a few of these).
My go to meal is Jambalaya in the pressure cooker. Money is really tight and I have to find ways to stretch what little meat I can afford. One chicken breast and 1/3 of a turkey kielbasa ring will feed my family dinner and provide 2 lunches for my husband and myself to take to work. Here is my recipe:
1 large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, in strips or diced (I keep a bag of strips in the freezer from when I find a good deal on peppers)
2 stalks celery, diced
1 large clove of garlic
6 ounces smoked sausage
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup converted long-grain rice
1 can or 1 1/2 cups chicken broth or stock
1 cup or one small can tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
a few dashes of hot sauce
salt & pepper to taste
Mince the garlic and cube the chicken. Cut the sausage into slices.
Heat some oil in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Cook the chicken and sausage until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the veggies and cook until they begin to soften. Add the rice and cook for one minute. Add the stock, tomato sauce, bay leaf, thyme, cayenne, hot sauce, salt & pepper.
Cover pressure cooker and bring to full pressure. Reduce heat and cook for 8 minutes. Release pressure and stir in the chicken and sausage. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Well, I almost always have pecorino in the fridge, so my go-to meal is cacio e pepe. Had never even heard of it until I saw it on your buddy Bourdain's Rome show (and I've been to Rome!), and I've been hooked ever since. It's stupid simple, with only 4 or 5 ingredients (pecorino, pepper, pasta and butter and/or olive oil... I use 2 Tbsp each, I think). And after a long, hard day, that first bite of cacio e pepe totally makes you feel like you won.
Roughly, you:
- start your pasta (spaghetti) boiling
- then heat up your skillet, throw in the butter and oil, and add nearly a Tbsp of fresh cracked black pepper (start with less if you're skittish), letting the pepper roast for a minute
- when the pasta's almost done, drain it, reserving a cup or so of the pasta water
- add the pasta & some of the pasta water to the skillet and toss
- then add about a half cup of the grated pecorino and toss again, really getting all the ingredients to mix and mingle. The starch in the pasta water has some kind of magical, chemical reaction with the butter and oil and cheese, forming a creamy, delicious sauce right before your very eyes.
- grate more cheese on top, if you like, but I find the sauce to be quite cheesy enough.
This makes a ginormous portion for one, or 2 daintier portions. I usually serve it with roasted asparagus when in season, or a simple salad of mixed greens with dried figs, pecans and maybe a little chevre if i have it on hand. Oh, and any red wine that can play nice with all that pepper.
My families "staple" meal is a Mexican dish called Mixotes. The main reason this is a staple is because it can be prepared the night before, so we usually prepare it on a Sunday so we can just come home from work on Monday and steam them. We usually have leftovers for a few days to take for our work lunch, so it economical as well! One note is we usually prepare one package aside from the chipotle sauce for my 6 year old. She does not like spicy foods yet!
Mixotes de Pollo
• 8 chicken legs
• 8 chicken thighs
• 10-12 dried chipotles (Chipotle Mora)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 lb. of Nopales cleaned and cut into ½ inch strips
• 1 medium white onion sliced into thin rings
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
• Salt
• black pepper
• 8 Banana leaves cut to 12 inch lengths
1. Boil the dried chipotles until tender about 10 minutes. Leave in water to cool.
2. Boil the Nopales in slightly salted water for 10 minutes, drain and set aside.
3. Remove the stems and seeds from the chipotles and place in blender.
4. Add the clove of garlic to the chipotles and puree with a bit of water to a creamy, but not watery consistency.
5. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, mix in a large mixing bowl with the chipotle puree, the cilantro, onion, and the nopales. Mix Well! Let sit for about 10 minutes to incorporate the flavors.
6. Take 1 Chicken Leg, 1 chicken thigh, and a large spoonful of the vegetables and place in a banana leaf wrapper and tie with either the banana leaf stem or some butchers twine. You will make 8 packages.
7. At this point you can refrigerate the packages for later, or place the packages in a steamer and steam them for about 40-45 minutes or until the chicken is 185F.
We always serve Mixotes with rice, beans, and corn tortillas. The beans are simply black beans boiled in our Olla (a clay pot) with a bit of onion, a clove of garlic, salt, and dried epazote. We also prepare this the day before and simply reheat on Monday. The rice is prepared the same night while the Mixotes are steaming away. This is prepared the traditional Mexican way, rinsed with hot water to remove the starches, fried pilaf style in a bit of corn oil, then simmered, covered, over low heat. We choose to steam the Mixotes in banana leaves because they are biodegradable, my mother-in-law uses foil wrap.
I hope you get the chance to make this! It is delicious!
My weekly staple is pork tenderloin. Lean and quite inexpensive, it can be changed up based on whatever seasonings or marinade you've got on hand. In the summer we grill it and in winter I roast it. A simple pasta side using shallot, lemon, egg, parmesan and spinach comes together fairly quickly for a weeknight. Whatever veggies we receive in our Fresh Fork that week is what we'll use. Usually squash, broccoli or brussels sprouts.
Maybe not quite once a week, but at least once a month I'll make beef with broccoli. I got the original recipe from Pei Mei's books (http://www.amazon.com/Pei-Meis-Chinese-Cook-Book/dp/0917056086), an amazing set of books from "the Chinese Julia Child".
My go-to meal is simple, incredibly nutritious, and lends itself to endless variation. The core ingredients are canned tuna and eggs. At it's most basic, I drain the tuna, mix with salt & pepper, maybe some vinegar, then I fry a couple eggs and throw them on top of the tuna. The yolk makes a sauce for the tuna. Alternatively I heat the tuna in a pan and add the eggs until scrambled. Or I mix the tuna and eggs and cook the mixture as a tuna pancake of sorts.
Seasonings can range from salsa, to chopped pickles, capers, and the like, to funkier things like nuoc cham, or rooster sauce, or ketchup, or mustard, or garlic of course, or about any kind of spice you can imagine.
The meal can also be extended by mixing vegetables with the tuna, either leftovers or steamed.
I'm a college student who just started cooking seriously about a year ago and am still learning how to cook "economically" -- that is, not making three or four completely different meals a week and emptying my bank account to get all the separate ingredients. I'm learning to cook with what I have and improvise. My go-to has increasingly (unoriginally, I see) become Thomas Keller's Bouchon roasted chicken with vegetables. The vegetables vary with what is on sale and what I have (potatoes always, carrots, squash, etc.). Depending on the vegetable, I save the peels/ends for stock later on. I prepare the chicken in the simple way Keller does, with just salt, pepper, and whatever spice I have on hand. The chicken is crispy and delicious, so I don't mind eating it multiple days in a row, although if it gets boring, I pair it with mustard. This past week I made chicken on a Monday, the next day put the chicken meat into tacos, the next day put the meat into chili, and finally used the bones to make stock, which I'll put into a white wine sauce for pasta tonight and make soup with later in the week.
Here's a frequent go-to when I'm tired & starving: penne pasta with sausage and a very sage-y tomato sauce. I almost always have a basic sweet Italian-style sausage in the freezer since it is useful in multiple meals. I peel the casing off, or, if the sausage is unfrozen, squeeze little teaspoon-sized lumps out. They thaw quickly, and I roll them into little balls and fry them in a large skillet with a little olive oil.
Start a pot of water boiling, salt it, and cook enough pasta while the sauce gets finished.
When they are nicely browned, I add a bunch of either trimmed fresh or dried sage leaves, between 20 and 30 leaves. Once the leaves are a little crisp, I add a 16oz can of either good diced tomatoes or whole good tomatoes (which I `dice' in the can with a pair of scissors). Season with salt and pepper, and serve over penne, or really any pasta, and grate a bunch of Pecorino on top.
This dish is very sage-y, very flavorful, which is what I want when I'm exhausted. Nothing worse, for me, than bland food when I'm really hungry.
See a picture here.
Our go-to meal is soup. Plan and simple. We almost always have either a roasted or smoked carcass (or just pork shoulder bone) in the freezer, usually its a smoked chicken (they make GREAT stock bones).
We'll pick the meat off the carcass before we freeze it (we seal the meat right in with the carcass, but its impossible to pull that meat off while its frozen). Throw the whole thing (still frozen) in a pot with some onions and carrots, simmer for an hour or so, strain it into a bowl, then dump it right back into the pot. After you reduce it a little bit to the amount of stock you want for that meal, you start adding whatever you have. Any vegetables we have that need to get used go in there. Usually we have some leftover corn or something in the freezer that gets thrown in. A handful of pearl barley takes care of any need for noodles or the like. Finish it near the end with the leftover chicken meat as well as whatever seasonings you like (usually salt and pepper is enough to make it delicious), and a squeeze of lemon juice, and you've got yourself one of the best "Watching-Football-On-A-Sunday-Don't-Want-To-Cook-Much-But-Don't-Want-Pizza" meals you've ever made.
My grandmother was the one who taught me to cook like this. All the leftovers would go into the gallon ice cream pails, and every other week or so, it'd get dumped into a pot with some stock, and something delicious would come out on the other side.
Our go to meal is simple. Chicken Salsa. A whole chicken, or chicken in parts, whatever is in the freezer. Place them in a pot; add salt, pepper and garlic; put in the oven at 350 for about an hour; add a good slathering, meaning at least a cup of your favorite salsa, return to oven for another hour. Serve with brown rice (basamati is our favorite) add a salad on the side and you're done. Easy peasy.
There's always some sort of confit in the fridge: lamb necks, chicken wings, duck legs. Mid-week dinners = digging hunks of meat out of fat, sauteeing in some of aforementioned fat until crispy and serving over a salad, some 5-minute couscous, or (personal fave with the lamb necks) the gigande bean salad from Whole Foods.
Since I was a kid my family's go-to weeknight meal has been what we call Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce because it can easily be made in the time it takes the pasta to cook - and it's tasty.
I simply thinly slice around 4 nice big cloves of garlic and saute it in a good amount of extra virgin olive oil (it doesn't cook very long and its flavor is important). When they just start to turn golden, I take the pan off the heat and add 2 cans light tuna fish (drained) along with a good bit of lemon juice, a palmful of dried Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste. Then it just goes back on the heat to warm through and it's done. We always serve it over the spaghetti with a side of cooked frozen peas and lots of parm cheese (and I admit, the canned kind, as a hold-over from my childhood)
Our only adjustment in 25-30 years is to use whole-wheat pasta (and I do use a lot more garlic and seasoning than my mom used to).
About every other week we cook “smashed” chicken thighs on the stovetop. We cook them in a pan with a press on them, and they cook in about half the time. Usually we serve them with a teriyaki like sauce or with a bunch of herbs thrown in the pan while they cook. We almost always have baked brown rice and roasted veggie with the chicken. Our two year olds’ favorite veggie is pan roasted rosemary cauliflower, so that’s usually what we have.
Our staple meal is whole-wheat pasta (dried for speed) with some vegetables, olive oil or cream, grated cheese, and a simple salad. Of course, within this, there are infinite variables. The pasta shape can be anything. The vegetable can be as simple as crushed garlic. Left-over vegetables can be used. Mixed vegetables for color. I LOVE red sweet peppers. Herbs if I have fresh ones that will work with everything else. Fast, satisfying, always seems special, and no meat!
Well, sometimes a little meat, like pancetta or prosciutto, but it's not necessary. We're not vegetarians, but following Bittman, we are focusing on eating less meat. We find we don't miss meat--especially with whole grains and beans--but still really enjoy meat when we do have it.
Pork chops from hogs we grew and dressed ourselves - grilled if the weather allows, pan fried on cast iron if not.
Greenbeans that we canned over the summer - sauteed in the pan leavin's from the chops or in bacon grease with lots of pepper.
Cheesy polenta made quick with corn meal, home canned stock, milk, and a handful of cheese.
Easy peasy, most of it came from our yard. And yeah... I used the instructions in Charcuterie to cure and smoke the bacon.
I take a whole chicken and 1 pkg Onion Soup Mix. Rub the Onion Soup Mix over whole chicken incl. insides and then stick it on 'the obscene chicken cooker' (metal piece that sticks up the chicken NO BEER CAN) pour in 1 glass water and into oven at 350F for 1 1/2 hours w/o basting or anything...the most moist chicken u will ever eat; I could eat one chicken by myself.
Pasta Carbonara is definitely a perfect dish for the middle of the week, when its been a few days since getting to the market. The whole family loves its simplicity and its a snap to make. The ingredients always seem to be one hand as well - pasta, bacon or pancetta, eggs and Parm. Add a simple salad on the side and you have a complete meal.
Another good one is Arrabiata sauce with onion and bacon.
I'm often accused of never cooking any recipe more than once, but there are a few quick ones I like to make somewhat regularly. I do a microwave chicken - I know it's a scandal -inspired by a NYC subway recipe card some 35 years ago. (Note: this is the only entree I have ever cooked in a microwave, but it just works and was a go-to meal when we had a weekend house and would arrive on a Friday night and need a fast meal. I could take chicken out of the freezer, thaw it in 15 minutes and cook it in 20. Hard to beat.) It features cutting chicken into pieces (I have a preference for legs), making a goo out of one package of onion soup mix, 1 jar of my homemade rhubarb chutney (original was apricot preserves), a large spoonful of mayo, a squirt of ketchup. It looks gross, but slather it on the chicken pieces in a micro safe pan or pie plate. Cover with waxed paper and nuke for 20 minutes on high. This makes a really good BBQ style chicken. The pan will have a lot of oil that separates so drain the pieces carefully. While it cooks make either rice or orzo or couscous and a salad. Dinner in 30 minutes!
40 Cloves and a Chicken, Sauteed Greens, and plenty of bread that gets brushed with the garlicky oil
Braised anything in 12” Griswold skillet:
It could be chicken on the bone, beef short ribs or really any beef, country style rib (pork shoulder) maybe a lamb or venison shank directly from the freezer. It’s almost routine when I haven’t planned anything special. It starts with onions in oil and maybe some rough chopped garlic. Then I open a bottle of wine appropriate to drink and cook with, and pour a couple of glasses.
I add the herb, some combination of sage, rosemary, thyme for pork, chicken, lamb, or game, tarragon & rosemary for beef and I add fresh ground black pepper. If I’m adding dry beans I don’t use salt until they soften, otherwise I add salt also. I flour the meat lightly and place it in the skillet. If it is chicken on the bone it goes skin down and gets flipped once, any other meat gets tossed or rolled in the hot oil, herbs & onions. I throw in diced carrots and any other appropriate stewing vegetables that I have (turnip, winter squash, parsnip, celery). Usually, I’ll crumble in a small handful of the dried black trumpets which I always have on hand.
At this point I make a decision on where I’m going for the starch. It often has to do with how long the meat will need to braise and how much attention I want to give the meal. The starch needs to go in at the appropriate time, better later than earlier as it is worse to under braise the meat than to cook it a bit extra while finishing up the starch. My go-to is barley and wheat berries (45-50 minutes at least). I may add some fast-cooking (small) dry beans which will give me an hour or more, may add potatoes 30 – 40 minutes or so, maybe I’ll leave it brothy to go on a pasta (thick cut egg noodles) or add a quick-bread crust when it’s done and then throw the whole skillet in the oven for a bit. This decision usually requires another glass of wine.
Once I’ve committed to the final shape of the meal I deglaze the pan with the wine, 1/2 cup or so and add some stock or broth appropriate to the meat.
The skillet then goes to the back of the stove on medium-low flame until the meat is tender. If the meat is not covered with liquid I will cover the skillet, if the meat is submerged it doesn’t matter. It is stirred randomly. Depending on the meat it may be finished with the first bottle of wine, it may take an additional bottle.
When the meat is done I’ll add a little bit more of the herbs and salt and pepper if needed and it’s ready to eat.
My go-to meal generally starts with a comfort staple - cheese grits. If you don't think you like grits, I urge you to try the organic, stone ground ones from http://mcewenandsons.com/ - they will change your life. I follow the package directions, 4 cups of boiling water and a pinch of salt for 1 cup dry grits, dropping the heat after stirring in the grits and cooking slowly for about 25 minutes until thickened. Add in 1-1.5 cups shredded cheese when the grits are almost thickened and then stir until the cheese has melted. Any good melting cheese will do, I almost always have cheddar around, last time I made it I had some gruyere around too and used a combo.
While the grits are cooking, I heat some oil in a 10-12 inch skillet and make a quick stir-fry with sliced chicken/pork/beef, onion, garlic, mushroom, bell pepper and a can of diced tomatoes. Serve the stir-fry over a heaping mound of the grits.
Ever since he could eat solid foods, my son (now 10) has loved Pot Roast (aka "Steak in a red pot" because we us our enameled Dutch Oven). That has become our go to meal.
I season a 2.5lb. to 3.5lb. boneless chuck roast with salt and pepper and sear in some olive oil in a Dutch Oven on the stove top. When it is browned on both sides, remove and cook one diced onion in the same pot. After the onions have been in for about 5 minutes de-glaze with red wine then add and cook down a 15oz. can of diced tomatoes.
After it has reduced by half return chuck roast, cover and braise in a 320 degree oven for 2.5 to 3 hours. With 45 minutes to go, add a small box of button mushrooms whole.
When done remove the roast and mushrooms and cover.
Separate the fat from the sauce and make a rue using one tablespoon of fat and flour. Return sauce to make a gravy.
Since he loves potatoes we usually serve with mashed potatoes or for my daughter over cooked egg noodles.
It is an easy dish to do because it is one pot and really just hangs out in the oven for 3 hours.
My staple meal for the last couple of months has been bean and beef burritos.
I fry ground beef and season it with garlic salt, black pepper and sometimes mix hot sauce (cholula) into it.
When it is pretty close to done, I add a can of pinto beans and cook until they are warm.
I usually season everything with sea salt at this point.
Scoop the filling into flour tortillas, add cheese and roll.
An omelette, well-stuffed with whatever I have in the fridge--asparagus, mushrooms, broccoli, bell peppers, artichokes, cheese, fresh herbs. Toast on the side, with butter. Fast and easy
Roast a chicken over the weekend and then use leftovers to make chicken pot pie during the week(with shameful secret of using premade pie crust from Trader Joe's). Also, frozen stew quickly turns into cottage pie
every Sunday roast chix, mashed potatos and a vege...mid week always requested meal is Cincinnati Chili with cheddar cheese and onion on top. So easy 1.5 lbs ground chuck, 2 cups tomato sauce 2 cups chix stock and spices, cinnamon, alspice, garlic, onions. Served on Spagetti so easy every child loves it.
It's not fussy. It's not original. And I'll be accused of stealing it from you. But, my all-time go-to dinner is a thyme-lemon whole roasted chicken with root vegetables and yukon gold potatoes.
But, them Mr. Ruhlman, I suspect you fell (deeper?) in love with it when you were at CIA as did I, which BTW, was about 7 months before I started. (I went on my extern break when Becoming A Chef was released at Christmas time- and I almost didn't go back to school, I was "lost" in my soul. Your real account restored my faith, and I was back in Chef Coppedge's bread kitchen at 5:30am on a cold January morning. But that's another story)
At the time, the rumor at CIA of President Metz's favorite meal being roasted chicken helped the most challenged of young cooks aim for excellence in simplicity, and the hot-shots to cool their jets and focus on doing the classics right.
But even though I've eaten a whole coup of roasted chickens since graduation in 1998, each time, I learn something new.
This week: I put only the potatoes in the pan with the chicken, allowing them to practically confit in the rendered chicken fat, while obtaining a golden, delicious, brown crust on the one side, soft, almost marshmellow-like texture on the other. The carrots, onions and parsnips cooked separately in some fresh time, rough-cracked black pepper and some extra virgin olive oil my sister brought me home from Sabina in Italy (heaven).
The one thing I never change: starting the (always) trussed chicken at 400degrees until it starts to brown (about 35 minutes) and then turning it down to 345. In go the veggies, and about 80 minutes later, a crisply, salted and liberally herbed chicken skin glistens atop potatoes you could eat out of the pan. Caramelized onions flavor the carrots and parsnips with just the right amount of toothsome texture. Sourdough bread, more of that precious oil and a bottle of grenache. The best part: I shared it with that same sister and my 4 year old daughter on a cold January evening. My mind returned to breaking down chickens in Intro to hot foods, and I'm in love all over again.
The wife is Hungarian so most food I do swings that way. Our most favorite and fast meal would be Rizses lecsó kolbásszal. Basically meaning lecsó with rice and sausage. Lecsó is both a dish and a condiment. 2 parts hungarian wax peppers (mix of sweet and hot): 1 part tomato and 1 part onion. A few cloves of garlic and thats it. In the summer its comes right from our garden. In the fall we can it. To make the dish fresh, the onions and garlic are sweat, the peppers and tomatoes are added and salted to
...release their water. The sausage, usually a smoked one kinda like Polish Kielbasa, is added along with a bit of rice. After about 20 min its done. Some crusty bread and your laughing. The canned version is even faster. Perfect healthy meal in under 20min. It can even be made vegetarian, although I've no idea why.
The Hungarian meat market I used to go to on Second Avenue, NYC, had a fire; the last time I went to get sausage to make lesco, it was all boarded up.
Bende from Chicago makes really good stuff. The Gyulai is absolutely addictive! Very reasonable prices and they ship! http://www.bende.com/meats-salami-smoked-sausage-bacon-pork-loin-ribs-c-56/
My go to, easy, mid-week, no brainer meal is a pasta dish. First, you can make it with whatever you have on hand - with meat, without, with shrimp, with chicken. You can use any vegetables you like - and usually it's a great way to get some extra vegetables into your meal. How you "finish" the dish is so versatile - maybe just extra virgin olive oil, maybe a marinara based sauce, maybe some broth, maybe a bit of butter, maybe a hit of heavy cream when you're feeling thin enough to afford the calories. Sometimes cheese, sometimes not. Sometimes chili flakes, sometimes not. It's a great place to throw in some fresh herbs that are on their last legs. it doesn't matter if the basil is a bit limp if you're going to simmer it with everything else. Your selection of pasta types is only limited by your pantry space. And for midweek meals, is there anything better than a one dish meal? Yet for all of those "benefits", you can pull it together in about 20 minutes. Oh yeah, and don't forget to make a larger batch than you need - then tomorrow's lunch is covered too!
We started this one when the munchkin was small. It's still fast, filling and easy:
2 packages ramen noodles
1 packet seasoning
8 oz surimi
1 lb mixed frozen vegetables (we liked broccoli, cauliflower, and red pepper for color)
Break up ramen, and simmer in 2 cups hot water for 3 minutes until al dente. Add one seasoning packet, surimi broken into bite-sized pieces, and frozen vegetables.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 8 minutes more.
Serves 3-4
I never used to cook much except on the weekends, but several years ago my daughter became anorexic and after a visit to the nutritionist, we were given a list of healthy foods and portion sizes for each day. From that day forward, I cooked every family meal and packed school lunches. Having the nutritionist give her recipes and portion sizes was key to getting her to eat more than weight watchers dinners. She ate pretty much the same thing every day for two years, but it was all homemade or fresh. Happily she recovered and eats pretty much everything now. One of my favorites is a fast curry chicken stir fry using frozen precooked chicken strips. Saute onions in olives oil. Add spices (combination of curry powder, cinnamon, and cumin plus flour). Chicken broth for deglazing (I try to keep homemade in the freezer). Add chicken and whatever veggies (frozen or fresh). I serve it over brown rice and with naan. Fast, low fat and healthy.
My go-to is _____ with an egg on top. Whatever is in the refridgerator hash, succotash, greens&beans or just greens. Never takes me much longer than 30 minutes and is always delicious.
My kids call it Ultimate Mac & Cheese. I cook a pound of dried penne pasta, sous vide 4 chicken cutlets tossed in an Italian vinaigrette, make a simple white sauce and add shredded, smoked Gouda. The pasta is tossed with the cheese sauce and the chicken is sliced and presented on top of the pasta. The kids clean their plate every time. For the adults, I will typically do a quick sauté of whatever veg is best in season with some shallots. The veg gets served on top with the chicken. Setting the hour the chicken needs to sous vide, this dish easily comes in under an hour. If you are really smart, you batch cook sous vide chicken once a week and have it ready to go on demand.
Build-your-own 'sushi': make a pot of brown rice and assemble easy little ingredients. Green onions, carrots, hard-cooked egg, pickled vegetables, fresh sardines, lox. Wrap in nori a la a hand roll. Serve with a simple miso soup (1.5 tbsp red or white miso, 1 tsp tamari or soy, maybe some diced tofu, per each cup of water, simmer), some cold noodles in rice vinegar or a quick wakame salad (rehydrate wakame in rice vinegar, add chopped green onions, red pepper flakes, sesame oil). We often eat this at least once or twice a week.
I've been cooking a version of this meal since I graduated college. Now, I cook it weekly for my wife and I.
Loads of flavor and low cal.
Vegetable Risotto
Dice carrot in to rice shaped dice. Saute with diced onion until softened, but without taking on color. Add hot stock (preferably pork stock) to vegetable mixture. Simmer with pulverized dried mushrooms, diced garlic, and grated ginger until carrots are slightly softened. Season with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and fish sauce (Squid brand).
Correction and my apologies: "The Making of a Chef"
Salmon, with a "marinade" of greek yogurt, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, chopped fresh rosemary leaves, dill. We put it in a foil packet and either grill it or bake it in the oven. A snap to prepare. We usually serve this with a green salad or with peas (Frozen peas are one item we can't survive without in our house.)
Other staple meals involve eggs, either scrambled, or in a frittata. And then there's always Breakfast for Dinner, which could be waffles, or pancakes with bacon or sausages. Homemade sausages in the freezer give us a lot of staple meal options. 🙂
One side dish that is in our repertoire weekly is sauteed crimini mushrooms and leeks, cut in 1/4 inch rounds, seasoned with salt, pepper, fresh herbs and thyme. Sometimes we saute in olive oil, but this is even better in butter.
Our go-to meal is refrigerator fried rice. The great thing about it is it uses up the leftover veggies and meat from the weekend.
Typically, I'll chop bell pepper, onion, scallions, brocolli, etc. and saute them in oil that's been simmering with minced garlic and ginger. I'll then throw in the leftover rice (or whatever grain I have. Quinoa works great!) Then I'll make a well in the middle and cook an egg or two. At the end, I'll throw in the protein, usually chicken or pork, but sometimes tofu, and toss till warm. Off the heat, a splash of soy. Simple, fresh tasting, and healthy.
Chao Nan Gua, or Kabocha Squash with Ginger. I found the recipe over a year ago in Saveur. I love it! It is so simple, tasty fast, and comforting. We eat it at least once a week when the winter squashes are in season and use kabocha or butternut. Lately we mix in some roasted tofu and whatever vegetable we have around- mushrooms, or kale, or spinach, or shredded brussels sprouts. I love it so much I blogged about it here http://www.pedalnpurl.com/2011/11/26/comfort-food
Homemade pizza! We always have flour, mozzarella and tomato sauce on hand for when we don't feel like thinking. We make two pizzas, one is plain and the other is half pepperoni and half buffalo chicken (we save little leftover pieces of chicken and put it in a freezer baggie just for pizza!) We have made this so often over the years and our family still smiles when they smell the pizza stones heating up and they see the dough riding under towels on the kitchen counter.
While roast chicken is an obvious favorite, my go-to easy dinner is chili. Not authentic, not "best-ever", but it has two different meats, a load of veggies, is pleasantly spiced, and very filling. Ground beef and regular pork breakfast sausage are browned, seasoned with chili powder, ground cumin, and (dare I admit?) garlic and onion powders. Two chopped onions and two chopped green bell peppers are added and cooked soft. 4-6 minced garlic cloves finish the sautée. To fortify, canned diced tomatoes, canned black beans, a chili (jalapeño) or two, and a big handful of corn kernels complete the chili. Simmer for an hour, serve over brown rice.
The biggest compliment I ever received on this chili was from two young Mexican mothers who happily finished two bowls each, then asked for the recipe!
For me, it would be a simple pot of red sauce. It's so flexible. There's the obvious use being over pasta, but there's also homemade pizza, and it's great for poaching eggs in.
A pot of beans (any kind). We add beans to red sauce, eat as a side with olive oil, salt and pepper, and my favorite, heat up in a small skillet until they sing and then crack an egg or two on top.
Lastly, there's frozen cubes of summer pesto. Great for curing "what's for dinner" quickly. Again, there's the obvious use, pasta. But it can also be used to finish soup and on pizza dough (when the red sauce is all gone).
My go to meal is to take chicken legs and brown them in a large skillet with a little olive oil. I think add roughly 20-40 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and some sprigs of fresh thyme (dried if that's all I have). I then pop it into a 350 degree oven to finish cooking and to roast the garlic cloves.
I then serve the chicken legs with crusty bread (if I have homemade ready to go great, if not store bought is fine) that I smear the roasted garlic on and soak up the pan's olive oil.
The best part is that with any left over chicken and garlic you can chop it up into an awesome chicken-salad the next day and have lunch ready to go.
Chicken parmesan. one link italian sausage, de-cased and pan seared, then chopped fine and added to a jar of Prego & heated. One chicken breast pounded thin; seasoned and dredged in breadcrumbs, sauteed in the same pan that seared the sausage with a bit of olive oil. Layer sauce, chicken, shredded mozzerella cheese, sauce again and top with parmesan & bake 20 minutes to finish cooking and toast the top. served with a salad. & Chianti Eggplant can substitute for chicken.
Our weekly "go-to" is a breakfast dinner night. We always have the ingredients for pancakes or waffles plus either sausage or bacon in the freezer and we have the added bonus of extras for a quick hot before school breakfast. It's sometimes as simple as just plain pancakes, but we've been branching out lately--brown sugar glazed bacon waffles was actually last night's
Salad with protein.
Take a head of red leaf lettuce, a head of green leaf lettuce (or whatever you picked up at the West Side Market). Maybe some carrots, a hard boiled egg or two, red peppers, any veg from the fridge. Then either flank steak (or round) or a pork tenderloin.
Sear protein on the stove over high heat, meanwhile whisk some mustard, balsamic, and olive oil in a large bowl until emulsified. Wash lettuce and rip into bit-sized pieces. If using pork transfer to oven at 350 for a bit to finish, if beef you can pull off the stove and rest for a bit. Chop and veg and eggs, toss with lettuce and dressing in the bowl. Crumbled bleu or take a veg peeler to a hunk of pecorino, then slice meat.
Place salad on a plate, place meat on the salad to wilt slightly. Pour some wine.
Sometimes it's not the cooking, it's the shopping that I cannot face. My easy meal is lentil soup (lentils, tomatoes, carrots and onions plus seasonings in chicken stock) with cornbread. The soup has cheese garnishing it (usually swiss) liberally. Fast, ingredients I always have, and really tasty.
I alternate grilling chicken and pork t-loins in various marinades, most often Thai/Vietnamese and Mexican flavors. These go into soft tacos with both corn and flour tortillas, or into bahn mi sandwiches. Endless variations; a favorite is a Rick Bayless salsa purloined from Xoco here in Chicago, which comprises ground habanero chiles, carrots (!), garlic, white onion, white vinegar, salt, & sugar. Great for both the sandwiches and the soft tacos. Good eats!
Beef stroganoff. And I start with a frozen steak.
I usually keep a couple of frozen top loin/top round steaks in the freezer. If I get home at 6pm and have no other clue about dinner, I pull out the steak (and hopefully some homemade beef or veal stock). Leave the package on the counter so it defrosts enough so you can get it out of the packaging. Heat up a high-sided skillet. Add oil to skillet. Add steak to skillet, cook a few minutes on each side to get some color. While it cooks, slice onions and some mushrooms. When the steak comes out to rest, the veggies go in, maybe a little more oil, salt, peppper, and a sprig of thyme. Cook until they are to your liking, then add your thickening starch of choice. Add your beef or veal stock and bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
Oh yeah.. the steak again! Slice it against the grain as thinly as possible. With it seared on the outside it's actually a little easier to handle than a pure raw steak, and you can get pretty thin slices. But you'll see when you slice... it's still totally raw on the inside. Hopefully the whole process gave the steak enough time to rest so the juices don't leak out - also makes cutting it a lot easier. When it's all sliced up, just add it back into the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. If inclined, stir in some sour cream. Serve with noodles, mashed potatoes, over polenta... it's all good.
It's easy, it's quick, and it's cheap since you're not using a primo steak and you can get a LOT of meat out of it when you slice it thinly.
as it seems, the same as a lot of other people, i roast a chicken every sunday for my boys and i. i take an organic bird, wash and dry it inside and out. i stuff the inside with half a vidalia onion and some crushed garlic cloves and truss. the outside gets a little salt and pepper and goes into a 450 oven in my trusty lodge cast iron pan for about an hour (depending on the weight of the bird) along with that i serve baked potatoes and sauteed spinach and garlic. during the week, my easy, get home from work at 5:30, dinner by 6(ish) is grilled chicken taco's. i season the chicken breasts with chipolte and chili powder, a little salt and pepper, and grill on my stovetop grill, and cube after cooking and a 5 minute rest. i serve with all the fixin's (shredded mex cheese, diced tomato, salsa, fresh avocado, and guacamole) for a make your own taco night with my boys. yum.
My wife's the primary chef in our family, and her go-to meal is a variant on the Chinese dish Ma Po Tofu. It's a wok stir-fry of ground pork, black bean chilli sauce (my wife makes this periodically and it keeps bottled forever), firm tofu, garlic, green onions, fermented tofu, ketchup and shrimp (the shrimp is non-traditional but something we "borrowed" from the version at Henry's Hunan in San Francisco). You don't need a wok, a saute pan will work just as well for this dish.
For us, we have all those ingredients in the pantry (frozen shrimp work fine) except for ground pork, so it doesn't require much to assemble ingredients. Our rice cooker is fast and does timer cooking, so getting rice ready is a snap. She'll also often use the same wok to stir fry some Chinese green vegetables (whatever we have in the fridge -- last night was Chinese spinach) to go along with it.
We eat this about once a week and it's always a favorite (plus, it makes great leftovers).
I love either tacos/tostadas/burritos for quick, hearty, and fridge friendly.
Utilizing lean proteins (chicken, pork, even tofu), I do a quick pan fry along with odds and ends of the veggie drawer. Frozen veggies make for even quicker prep, and sometimes fresher ingredients. Season with cumin, garlic, onion, achiote, paprika, etc...
Mash up a can of rinsed black, pint or red beans, pinch of salt, cumin and garlic powder and you have the perfect refried beans.
Top tortillas or tostads with a smear of beans, spoonful or two of protein mixture, sprinkle of cheese and a drizzle of sour cream.
Quick, easy, hearty. That's what a go-to meal should be.
One go to evening meal I often make is marinated chicken thighs and vegetable stir fry. I marinate boneless chicken thighs in a bit of soy sauce, olive oil. minced garlic and fresh grated ginger for 30 min. to 3 hours. Sautee the chicken until just about done and throw in seasonal mixed vegetables along with some sort of spicy chilies. Serve over rice and you have a quick and tasty meal.
It will have to be bulghur salad, since I LOVE grain salads. I buy 5 kg packets (about 10 pounds) at Turkish or oriental grocery stores and store it in a big jar. I always have spring onions or some herbs like coriander and parsley at home. Sometimes I do the traditional tabouleh where the bulghur takes the supporting role and parsley is the protagonist, but I use bulgur mainly by guess and by gosh...tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, fried leeks or onions, chopped nuts. I either soak it in lukewarm water for 15-20 minutes or roast it shortly in a pan with a little oil (walnut oil is very nice) before adding stock and maybe some spices. It is a perfect snack when I have a busy day, taking it with me in a plastic container.
I have 2 basic meals.
First, stir-fry / steam-fry. I usually make enough so I can eat it for a couple days. It's not too complicated. Over very high heat in my wok, onion, garlic, carrot, sweet pepper if I have it, whatever fresh veggie I have - green beans are a favorite, broccoli, gai-lan, baby bok-choy, etc... Add a little water and cover until it's about a minute from done (bok-choy barely takes 2 minutes), stir in a little (goes a long way) black bean sauce or oyster sauce and serve over rice (which is always on hand). This takes about an hour thought to table depending on how much prep the veggies need.
Second, soup. Again, very uncomplicated. Whatever noodle I have on hand (fresh noodles work best - udon is my favorite) cooked in a simple miso soup: miso paste in water. Sometimes I'll add a little tofu. Once the noodles are cooked, pour the whole thing over a big handful of fresh spinach. Add a drizzle of soy sauce. This takes about 15 minutes, mostly waiting for the water to boil.
Grilled cheese- any cheese, any bread, and if I am lucky- hubby makes it for me! 🙂
I seem to run in phases of what is a go to meal, but my wife is more consistent. She's from Brazil and makes a stroganoff which isn't like the stroganoff my my mom used to make. Who knew there was a Brazilian version...
Anyway, You slice up some chicken breasts or thighs and salt and pepper them and then brown them in a saute pan on high heat to give them some color. Once done, you remove those from the pan and add in a half pound of so of mushrooms cut into decently large chunks along with some butter and olive oil. Once browned you place those on top of the chicken to rest and then throw in some onions and sweat those down until they get sweet.
Now to season everything, you deglaze the pan with white wine, keeping the onions in. Cook down a bit. Next add cheap yellow mustard and ketchup (I know!). Add lots of worcestershire and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer and add the chicken and mushrooms back in. Cook until you get a nice creamy consistency that's still very saucy. Season as appropriate. Use lots of Worcestershire!
She'll usually hand cut some potatoes and fry them in a bit of oil (if we have time, we'll double fry them for the extra crispiness) or sometimes we buy that polenta that comes shaped like sausage, You slice that into wedges, dredge in just flour and fry that up in a skillet. For a veggie, we'll saute some chard in olive oil and finish with garlic and of course this all gets served over white or brown rice.
It's a very comforting meal, especially during the rainy months in Seattle.
I am a husband/father that works fulltime, but I love to cook for my family on Sundays. My go to staple dish is Spaghetti Carbonara. I enjoy making it because it is simple and delicious. Some good olive oil and pancetta, spaghetti, grated parmesan, black pepper and fresh eggs. I'll pair the dish with whatever vegetable is in season or a nice salad.
It's one of my favorite go to dishes and my family loves it. I need only look as far as my 3yr old daughter who devours whatever amount she is given.
Refrigerator vegetable soup.
Easy enough, and yes its only soup but . . .
Start with an onion and garlic, perhaps some carrot and celery.
Cook briefly in oil, throw in some herbs, add some tomato paste, perhaps a chipotle.
Add some vegetable stock, throw in a handful of rice, small dried pasta, or any leftover grain that might be lurking about. Boil, then simmer.
Finish with some olive oil and serve with some bread
I live in a small apartment in the city and do most of my grocery shopping without a car, so most of the time I'm shopping purposefully for a meal, not to stock my (very tiny) pantry... so it's often hard for me to assemble a meal on the fly from random ingredients.
However I always do have things like eggs and random veggies plus various exotic condiments. I used to always make an omelet in those situations, but I've recently switched up to gussying up instant ramen.
My current favorite is to chop up some bacon and fry it while bringing some water and miso paste up to a boil. I'll add some chili oil and the pork fat to the water with the instant noodles and some quick cooking vegetables like snap peas and mushrooms. Once the noodles and vegetables are cooked I stir in some spinach to wilt . Then I'll "egg drop" a beaten egg to add some body to finish. Top with the bacon and chopped scallions if I have them.
We have 2 standard meals that work. The first is "leftover soup" where I take bits of extra vegetables and chop up some leftovers and put them in homemade chicken stock which is always on hand. It's pretty rare that the sometimes odd mix doesn't turn into really good soup. Serve it with some good bread and salad. The second standby is pasta plus almost anything handy (leftover roast chicken, our most frequent Sunday dinner, or any braised dish) along with some quickly cooked veggies. The most successful mix is equal parts pasta, meat, and veggies. When ready drizzle a little good olive oil on top. Adding a glass of decent wine to any of the above makes an ordinary easy meal seem a little bit special. A nice piece of fruit and a bit of good chocolate make a very satisfying dessert.
Our go-to meal is burritos. A quick fresh salsa, black or pinto beans made in stock (usually chicken) with a chipotle or two for depth (use canned if we haven't been that prescient). Then cheese, sometimes chicken or steak, brown rice, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, and guac on the table served with flour tortillas. If we are feeling wild and crazy, we make green chile (the real green chile they make in New Mexico, not the tomato-y stuff they make in Colorado) and have smothered burritos.
My wife and kids eat that. I eat the green chile, beans, and rice with cheese and chicken from a bowl. This dish is one of my Death Week Meals, i.e. my all-time favorite meals I will eat the week before I die. (This gives me 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 7 dinners) This is one of the dinners, probably the last dinner.
Yeah Wednesday nights when the kids are all coming and going to things before and after school, this makes it easy for us to grab and go.
I do roasted chicken wings probably once a week. Basic, cheap fryer wings. If I'm really pressed for time it's just a brush of melted butter, salt, & pepper. Otherwise I throw them into a modified version of Thomas Keller's chicken brine in the morning (zested lemon, salt, honey, peppercorns, garlic, fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme if I have them). Then when I get home from work just line a baking sheet with foil, dry the wings with paper towels, and pop them in the oven for 45 minutes. Sides are a bagged salad with a quick lemon dijon vinaigrette, and my mom's easy rice recipe (sweat diced onions and celery in butter in the microwave, stir in longrain rice, add heated chicken stock, s&p, and dried thyme. 30 minutes in the oven while the chicken cooks = perfect).
I don't really have a staple for my nights with my boyfriend, as we usually like to find something new to cook together. But I do live alone, and when eating alone, a quick and delicious, coincidentally vegetarian go-to is a sweet potato, scrubbed, oiled, salted, and poked all over with a fork, baked at 400 for about 45 minutes, and then topped with plain yogurt or sour cream and sprinkled with smoked paprika. The skin is the best part.
During the week, it's usually chicken in some variation of creamy sauce, with herbs, over pasta. Lately, that means either cottage cheese [FP'd into silkiness] or neufchatel [ditto]; the herbs are fresh parsley (not too much, or it just tastes like parsley) and oregano from the kitchen window plants, and a little dried marjoram or basil, thinned with water from cooking the [short] pasta, and then warmed; I'll add freshly grated Parmesan too. Then I add vegetables -- if I have no time, thawed and warmed frozen stir-fry vegetables, or T&WF mixed vegetables. If I have a little time, sauteed onion, garlic and carrot, with frozen peas as above. We almost always have cooked, chopped chicken in the freezer (I roast a couple of chickens a month and buy skinless, boneless breasts, too, that I brown with garlic and onions and then simmer in homemade chicken stock).
I flavor chicken with a spice rub (I make a batch ans store Emeril's Rustic Rub from his cookbook) and then sautee the chicken. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and mix into Sapnish Rice.
My go-to healthy weeknight meal is pan roasted (curry salt) salmon. I grab salmon fillets from the freezer and after a quick defrost, add a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of curry salt (1 part curry powder, 2 parts salt) to both sides of the fish. I sear one side in a hot skillet, flip and finish over medium heat. I usually serve it with sauteed spinach and brown rice. It's simple, delicious and done in 30 minutes!
My wife and I like to keep it simple, we like scrambled eggs with truffle salt homemade bacon and toast. Dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes, and our three year old eats it too!
Our favorite is Eggplant Confit with Italian Sausage...sounds way harder than it is.
Chop a peeled eggplant in to 1" cubes, throw in some fresh roasted rep pepper cut into strips (along with the juices after letting them rest before peeling), a can of whole tomatoes (slightly crushed), a little dry oregano, sprig of fresh thyme, a bay leaf and a little crushed red pepper. Toss it all in a baking dish with a few spicy Italian sausages, and cover with good quality extra virgin. Let it roast in the oven for an hour or so @ 375 or until the eggplant is nice and soft. Serve over warm crusty baguette or pasta. YUM!
Easy and ridiculously delicious!
@Joshua - that looks delicious; I have all the ingredients, and I am so making that this weekend
@ruhlman - My staple meal is quesadillas. I just look and see if I have any small bits of leftover vegetables hanging out in my fridge and then just assemble it with some cheese.
Simple meatballs. Basically Italian spices, some bread crumbs, onion, bit of liquid (usually beer or wine). Broil them for a bit then toss them into a simple marinara or left over sauce that needs consumed. Serve it all on/with what ever is at hand (pasta, french bread, rice).
Since it's just the 2 of us, I make and freeze a lot. So, we often have meals or components in the freezer to work with. Stock, tomato sauce, pizza sauce, pesto, breaded eggplant, chili, meatballs... are usually on hand. They make for a quick convenience meal and I'm a big fan of doing the work once and enjoying the results multiple times.
My from scratch staple meal is a homemade black bean veggie burger. I throw black beans, bell peppers, onions and garlic into a food processor and then add breadcrumbs, egg, flax seed, corn, cumin, chili powder, salt... The burgers are then formed and cooked on stoneware in the oven.
While I'm doing that, my husband slices some sweet potatoes into fries. I add olive oil to the bottom of a bowl and throw in a variety of seasonings- cumin, chili, cayenne, coriander, curry, oregano, salt, pepper, cilantro and whatever else jumps out at me. I toss the sweet potatoes in the mixture and add them to their own stoneware.
While they're cooking for about 30 minutes, I make an aioli and my husband thaws a couple of pretzel buns and slices some Meadow Maid pepperjack cheese. The dishes are done well before the food comes out of the oven, and we almost always have all of the necessary ingredients on hand. It's easy, healthy and delicious- and it counts as our once a week veggie meal!
Chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet filmed with bacon fat, seared and put into a hot oven. In the same oven roasted new potatoes and sauteed collards with red flake pepper and garlic.
Pot of rice, some kind of fish or chicken and a coconut sauce. We serve small sheets of Nori and everyone makes their own small wraps. I serve quick sweet pickles, chopped nuts and a veg like boccoli. It is my favorite meal!! My Jewish mother would not be proud, she would like me to serve a roast chicken!!
My go to for the longest time has been fried rice. In the largest pan our family has, a distinctively red Chinese sausage (lap xuong) is fried,sliced, and set aside. Next, minced garlic and chopped onion are tossed into the used to cook. Perhaps a bit more oil is tossed into the pan before the cooked rice from the previous meal is thrown in and stirred to break down, then an egg is cracked in, along with a good dosing of fish sauce. The Chinese sausage is thrown back into the rice, and the fried rice is served with Vietnamese mustard pickles.
The pressure cooker and cast iron skillet are my best friends in the kitchen. My secret ingredient: palacios dried chorizo, an import from Spain. Why Palacios Chorizo? Because it adds a rich smoky flavor and beautiful saffron red/orange color to any dish.. And who doesn't love a good Chorizo?! One life gole of mine is to make dried chorizo at home with a similar flavor profile.. Working on it!..
With the skillet I regularly make "Baked rice with chorizo". Takes about an hour and starts on the stove top with some good oliveO, chorizo, white onion, garlic, white wine, chicken stock, and Arborio rice. after the initial sizzle and melding of flavors on the stove top it gets moved into a hot oven for around 20 min. This dish also lends its self well to a hand full of fresh little neck clams on top during the last 10 min of baking... Yum! I'll serve this with shredded cabbage and fennel salad with a nice hit of seasoned rice wine vinegar, meyer lemon zest, and sometimes some truffle infused oil.
With the Pressure cooker I make beans! I love to make any kind of beans, but my favorite lately have been great northerns (so creamy), or runner cannellini beans if I'm in the mood for bigger, more toothsome beans. Those in the pot, with water, whole dried chorizo, a couple black peppercorns, and one or two fresh sprigs of sage. Cook under high pressure for 20-30 min. Remove from pressure, slice the chorizo, add salt and cook down to desired been to liquid ratio. In the last 10 min of cooking I like to add de-ribbed, chopped kale making this a one pot meal!
At the risk of being redundant, my go-to weekday meal is a roast "beer can" chicken. I'm a father of two that works full time. My wife also works full time but has a much longer commute--so I do most of the cooking. I sometimes dry-brine the chicken for a few days if I remember--otherwise I season it right before it goes in. I have a "leave-in" thermometer and pull the chicken out when the breast temp hits 160. I often use beer in the can, but sometimes opt for a fruit juice or even tea.
The dead-simple starch option is boxed couscous. Boil water, add the couscous and it's done. The vegetable varies--it's often a simple salad (did I mention we're really busy during the week?), sometimes something grilled or stir-fried (broccoli, asparagus, etc.) We may opt to drink some wine with the meal. We often use the Bota Box brand of zinfandel. For those that scoff at boxed wines--try it, it's actually not all that bad!
Pizza. On Saturday or Sunday I will make the dough and let it rise for the day. After punching it down I will put it in the fridge to ferment. I will pull the dough out in the morning before work sometime between Monday and Thursday. When I get home I will either heat the oven or the big green egg. The beauty of pizza is it can accomodate whatever ingredients are in the house. I've made everything from tomato pies to mexican pizza to a garlic clam pizza. Very versitile.
Bobby Flay's tomato sauce from this recipe: http://goo.gl/xbH00
Easy to keep these ingredients on hand. It's a versatile sauce. Serve it with fish, pasta, chicken parm. Had it last night with spaghetti squash. Had leftover sauce for lunch today with leftover pork chop from the night before.
So many great ideas here! I'm salivating...
Our staple meal is probably the laziest pasta dish ever, but it's tasty, healthy, and effortless.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, salt it liberally, and add pasta. While the pasta cooks, grate parmesan, grind fresh black pepper, and set out red pepper flakes.
When the pasta is about 3 minutes away from al dente, grab a head of broccoli or cauliflower and shave florets directly into the pasta pot. (You can add or substitute any vegetable that tastes good when blanched). Then roughly chop a bunch of sun-dried tomatoes and add them to the pot when there's 1 minute remaining.
Drain into a colander, toss, and serve, passing the parm and peppers around the table. Buon appetito 🙂
Chef Robert Danhi's Pad Thai from Southeast Asian Flavors. I discovered his book from this very blog. A nearby Asian market makes it easy for us to have the ingredients--which are all shelf stable, save eggs-- on hand. Throw in some shrimp and it's an easy and awesome weekday meal. It only takes about 20 minutes to actually cook, and perhaps 20 minutes to prep.
Scarlett Runner – You won’t miss the meat
For the vegetarians --
Sometimes beans are most perfect when they are almost completely unadorned. The right bean can be the centerpiece to a great meal, and if anything is going to convert a life-long carnivore into an enthusiastic born-again vegetarian, Scarlett Runner beans from Rancho Gordo market can do it. These hefty, rich beauties are the epitome of vegetarian comfort food, and they are perfect to come home to on a cold fall or winter day. I think of them as bean haiku – simple and minimalist on the surface, yet full of richness and depth when truly savored. You could do nothing but boil and simmer them until soft, adding salt at the very end, but that feels like cheating. If you want to feel like you’re actually cooking something, here’s how we make them:
One pound of dried Scarlett Runner beans
As many varieties of mushrooms as you can find. (Dried porcinis, white, portobella, etc.)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
Kosher salt
Rinse dried beans in cold water.
Place beans in a large pot with 8 – 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low simmer. Chop mushrooms into small pieces and add to bean pot. (No need to reconstitute the dried mushrooms. They will be fine in the boiling water.)
In the meantime, sauté onion, carrots and celery with 1 teaspoon of salt for 10 minutes until soft, then add garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes more, being careful not to burn it. Add vegetables to bean broth while beans are cooking.
Cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until beans soften to taste. Add salt (about 1 tablespoon) and pepper to taste.
Serve with a big loaf of crusty bread, a salad, and a glass of red wine.
I have 2 go-to meals. One is a frittata with anything that's languishing in the crisper drawer plus cheese. The other is black beans and rice. I always keep the ingredients on hand - a few cans of black beans seasoned with smoked paprika, garlic and some vinegar. If I have some greens in the freezer I'll throw those in too.
Ditto on the roasted chicken. I make one usually once a week in the oven or on the Big Green Egg. I like to do them over a pan of veggies so it's a one-pan meal.
Pasta is certainly, my go-to, don't feel like cooking, awfully hungry now meal. A little olive oil, garlic, onion, with pasta water and an egg dropped in at the end carbonara style. But, if I have a few more minutes and am looking for something that I'll never get sick of and is oh so special but just as easy as pasta, I go to chicken adobo. Cut up some cheap chicken pieces, throw in garlic, lots of vinegar (hopefully coconut if I have it), bay leaf, pepper and soy and turn up the heat until it becomes a gooey and glorious meal. Rice underneath and sauteed green leaf veggie on the side makes it.
Fried Chicken, white rice, gravy, lima beans with okra. My parents and sister were all born in South Carolina then moved to California before I was born. This is a meal from my childhood that I still eat on a regular basis. The fried chicken isn't the frou-frou buttermilk coated stuff that is all the rage. Rather, bone-in, skin on chicken thighs are salted, dredged in flour seasoned with pepper and fried in a cast iron skillet until dark brown and crispy. The gravy is made with the toasty brown bits. But the meal isn't complete without the lima beans and okra. The limas would be butter beans if I lived in the south, but frozen limas are all that are available to me. So the limas and frozen whole okra go into a pot of salted water and cook until the okra has given up some of its slime. The gravy and limas go on the rice and the chicken goes on the side. This is a great meal.
Taco Salad: just brown up some hamburger or sausage with taco seasoning, chop up some fresh veggies, top with sour cream and salsa, mix on your plate, and eat with tortilla chips.
Super fast, easy, and delicious
My quick go to is a pan seared steak with mushrooms and pan gravy and one veggie (usually asparagus bc it's super quick.) Put a little olive oil, grey sea salt and herbs de provence on the steak. Sear it in a stainless steel pan to medium rare. While the steak is resting, I saute some mushrooms and onions in the same pan with a pat of butter and some salt. Once tender, I put them on top of the steak. I add a pat of butter and some flour to the pan to make a roux. Add some chicken stock and boil it a minute or two to thicken while scrapping all the brown bits out of the pan. Add the pan gravy to the top of the steaks. Put some steamed asparagus on the plate with a touch of Parmesan and a splash of lemon juice. Dinner is ready in 20 minutes with only one pan to clean. My kind of night 🙂
Portuguese Potato & Kale Soup. It's a great one pot that provides all the satisfaction and warmth of a classic meat and potatoes meal with little fuss, especially on a cold winter's evening. Since it's so simple and unfussy, you can also use it as a base for cleaning out your fridge leftovers meats and veggies.
The true flavor comes from rounds of Spanish chorizo (salt cured, not the various fresh Mexican or South American varieties), which adds spice and depth to the handful of remaining ingredients, most of which you'll likely have on hand or can easily find at the market: minced garlic, diced onions and potatoes, chopped kale (pre-bagged is fine), chicken stock to cover (you have some stored on your stove top all week, right?) and salt and pepper. Add some red pepper flakes if you want a bit of heat. Simmer until the potatoes are soft and kale is wilted. Serve with some warm, crusty bread.
If you want more protein, you can always add some leftover roast chicken or pork. Want some variety? Switch out regular potatoes for sweet potatoes and add some smoked paprika. Between the sweet potatoes and kale, you know have 2 "super foods" in one pot! Want to make it even more simple? Use red potatoes and skip the peeling. Adds a nice touch of color, too. Even simpler, substitute that random can of white or red beans in your pantry and skip prepping potatoes all together!
One that we're new to, but is likely to hit the rotation is home ramen. Inspired by Issue 1 of Lucky Peach (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/luckypeach).
If you're a regular chicken roaster, you'll have fresh stock on hand (we've found organic chicken, even from CostCo, provide A LOT more flavor).
You can also make and store dashi, or just make it on-the-spot. For our purposes dashi is an "umami-bomb", and you'll spoon a couple tablespoons into the bottom of your bowl before adding anything else. Basically, take a glutamate-rich item (katsuobushi (shaved, dried fish) or konbu (dried kelp) for authenticity (and readily available at your local Asian Market) or bacon, tomato, or mushrooms if you have a more normal pantry, and steep them for as long as you can. Try to keep the water around 150, Lucky Peach says, to maximize extraction. You can use any combination of those items and each will bring different flavor with the glutamate. Momofuku uses a bacon dashi and what I've tried, and it's excellent. Yes, just drop a tomato and bacon into heated water. You can freeze leftovers for a month or two.
While at the Asian market, pick up a more interesting fermented soy sauce, and some ramen noodles (they sell A LOT of noodle options, but most importantly it is noodles without terrible soup powder and dried ingredients).
With these items in your pantry, it's easy to
-heat the stock
-cook the noodles in the stock until done, then remove
-dump some diced carrot, canned corn, any leftover meat at all, kale or spinach, whatever you like or have in the fridge in the stock until cooked/heated through
-meanwhile heat/make a dashi
-if you want to get fancy, place an egg per dish into a strainer, place in a pot that is at a rolling boil for 5:30 - 6:00 minutes, pull out and run under water and peel.
-throw it all in a bowl, garnish with the soy sauce, srirachi
Hi! We have several staple meals. Using two CSAs and visiting lots of local UPick farms have let us well stocked for the winter time. I like to have a go to list of items that we can easily make for dinner. We are trying hard not to order pizza on a whim due to laziness.
My goto recipe is fajitas.
local ground beef or chicken
onions
bell peppers
mushrooms
Penzeys fajita seasoning (or make your own mix)
home-canned tomatoe sauce
I cook the meat and drain it. Then, I cook all of the other ingredients in a bit of olive oil. Mix together with the meat.
Serve over or with - tortillas (home made wheat), rice, brown rice, quinoa etc.
Garnish with cheese, yogurt
A simple roasted chicken (rubbed with butter, salt, pepper, a halved lemon in the butt) with roasted vegetables (usually fennel, carrots, potatoes). Add some crusty bread and wine and it's pretty well perfect.
Salmon, sashimi grade, that I buy from a wholesaler that sells to sushi bars. I buy a whole fish, which has been filleted, take it home and remove the pin bones and cut it into two serving size pieces, vacuum seal, and freeze. The cost is about $6/lb. Favorite preparation is to thaw, cut into individual servings, lightly salt, and then coat with sesame oil and roll in sesame seeds. Grill over coals starting skin side down, until mostly opaque. Sides vary - salad, roasted or grilled vegetables, rice, etc. - just whatever we happen to have on hand. But we never get tired of a good piece of salmon whether its cooked or raw, and its always there in the freezer.
easy easy crock pot cooking!!! peel and have two medium onions, set in bottom of the pot. Place a pork butt/shoulder on top. S&P then add 3/4 of a jar of Tomatilla salsa (or homemade when i have it) add a teaspoon of liquid smoke and cook all day. pork shreds beautifully and becomes burritos with the fixings one night, sandwiches with BBQ sauce two nights later. Dinner in less than 30 minutes when I get home!
We have two:
"American Tacos", complete with the McCormick seasoning packets and oil-fried tortillas (both corn and flour). My wife and I each grew up eating these and there is something nostalgic about eating them. The 4 year old boy loves making his own taco with basic lettuce, tomato, sharp cheddar, and avocado. There is usually enough left overs for nachos a couple of days later.
The other is home-made chicken nuggets, A basic flour-egg-panko breading on chicken breast "nuggets" pan fried to golden deliciousness. We usually make some home-made honey mustard to dip them into. Coupled with steamed broccoli, asparagus, or spinach makes a complete meal. Plus there are left overs for lunch the next day.
Weekends are for making the cool meals, stock, etc.
I have several as I work and cook the meals. I get home at 5 and we eat at 7. I try to fit 30 - 45 mins of excercise in that time frame. My favorite is pasta. It takes about 1 1/2 hours, but much of that is just letting the sauce cook. In this dish I use my own home made pancetta (recipe from your book, Charcuterie and home ground pork sausage, a variation from your book)
Ingredients:
1/4 lb pancetta. diced
1 lb Sausage has basil, garlic, fennel, chili flakes salt and sugar.
Half a yellow onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic diced
tsp tomato paste
2 anhcovie filets
1/2 cup white wine
28 ounce can of whole Marzano tomatoes
9 oz of linguine or pasta of your choice
2 tblsp of butter
dash of olive oil
salt
Heavy Cream (optional)
Add a dash of olive oil to a 2 quart sauce pan over medium heat. When it's hot add the pancetta and cook until it's crispy. Add the onions and sweat for a few minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook until the onions just begin to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the half (or less) cup of white wine and let it cook until almost all the liquid is gone. Move the onion, pancetta to one side of the pan and add the tsp of paste and the anchovie filets into the open area of the pan bottom. Stir and crush the anchovies and carmelize the tomato paste for a few minutes. Add the sausage. Mix it all together and brown for a few minutes. Crush the tomatoes by hand or whiz up in a blender and add them to the pan. Add a tsp of salt. Stir. When it starts to bubble put it on low and let it sit for about an hour. This is when I try to exercise or as often as not have a beer.
When the beer is gone, I mean when I finish exercising I start some pasta water. When the water boils add a tsp of salt and toss in the pasta. Turn off the heat under the sauce. When the pasta is almost done take a 3 or 4 quart saute pan and add 2 tblsp of butter. When the pasta is ready add it to the saute pan and toss it to coat the pasta. At this point I sometimes add 1/4 cup of heavy cream to the sauceand then add the sauce and mix with the pasta. I usually start some brocolli steaming at this point which allows the pasta to finish cooking in the sauce. when the brocolli si tender it's time to eat.
This easily makes pasta for 4 and since there are only two of us it makes 2 dinners and at least one lunch.
Buon appetito!
I always try to have cooked rib roast 1 lb. peices vacuum sealed in my freezer. I cook a 7 (or 9 when I can find it) bone standing rib roast, have a fest with it the night its cooked, then cut and freeze the rest. I usually end up with 10 pieces which I can defrost and serve within 20 minutes. I cook rare initally so that when reheating the pieces come out medium.
What we have with it, depends on how much time I have to make the accompaniments. If I've given a lot of forethought, baked potato, broiled asparagus and salad. If not (which is usually the case:) a piece of home made bread (which is vacuum sealed frozen) and.....that's right... frozen green beans or broccoli, sautéed in olive oil and garlic.
Like a lot of folks here, I roast a chicken once a week, more or less. But my quick go-to meal for years has been something I call "Spinach Stuff" (I'm sire the Italians have a more lyrical name, but, sadly, io non parlo italiano.) It can expand or contract depending on how much money I have or what's in the fridge, but the basic ingredients, especially when I need to lose a few pounds, are a 10-ounce package of frozen spinach, a sauteed minced onion and a couple of minced garlic cloves, ricotta cheese and parmesan. If I have ham or bacon, I happily cube/crumble it and add it. Tomato sauce adds a whole new dimension. When losing weight isn't such a consideration, I might add lots of mozzarella, penne or macaroni, or put it in a pie crust or puff pastry.
This is easily the most forgiving recipe in my repertoire, and it never fails me. I have dressed it up for company, and I have eaten it straight from the pan more than once!
Fridge Frittata -
Really the only thing I HAVE to have on hand is eggs, although I prefer to have sausage as well.
Saute up some aromatics (and pre-cook the sausage if necessary), cook the appropriate contents from fridge (which this week includes some beet greens, bell peppers, and a little left over broccoli), add eggs, and cook at a low flame until set; sprinkle cheese and broil as you like.
It's a one pan meal, provides a handy way of using the vegetable remnants (and occasionally other leftovers), is tasty, can incorporate the major food groups, and warm.
Plus, whatever doesn't get eaten makes a quick and great breakfast
Our family of four has two go to meals:
First I would say we usually save a roast (bone in chuck roast or we also do the same with beef shanks) in the freezer from the farmers market for that "go to" meal day. I let it thaw a day or two on a wire rack, out of the package, so that it dries a bit and doesn't sit in it's juice. We then put it over a bed of onions and put whatever we have left over the onions (beer, wine, broth, etc) and let it cook down until falling off the bone. We usually eat it with quinoa, rice, bulgar, or potatoes (we love simple heavily salted water to boil new potatoes.) Add a green veg for a side. Then we basically eat a salad almost every meal with olive oil and vinegar.
Second meal would be soup. We always have stock on hand. We save our chicken carcasses (or turkey) until we have a few, and usually will make about 8+ quarts of rich stock. Usually whatever we have on hand can be made into any number of great soups or stews. Have a ham hock? soak some beans and make Bean Soup. Have veg that needs to be eaten soon? We make any number of soups and they can usually be put together quickly, cook with minimal supervision, and are healthy and tasty! Soups usually eaten with bread and salad.
The best part about both of these meals is that they last for a couple days (and part of the soup can be frozen to warm up for a real short on time day)!
My go-to lately when I haven't been good about planning is Huevos Rancheros. I use Smitten Kitchen's guidelines. Basically tortilla, melted cheese and a messy fried egg. I heat up black beans on the side, offer salsa, sour cream, sliced avocado, and then some sort of fruit, lately its been fresh pineapple or I supreme a few grapefruits. Easy, and there is never any complaining when its Huevos night.
My go-to meal is: starts with a local free range chicken from "Goose Pond Farm" in N. Alabama. I brine the chicken using Chef Keller's "Lemon" brine recipe the night before cooking. After air-drying in the refrigerator, I let it sit while I get my Big Green Egg ready for the cook. I like to use Pecan or Apple wood w/chicken; makes for a good, but light smokey flavor. While the chicken is cooking, I'll prepare asparagus spears & whole onions for the side dishes. I like to grill asparagus w/olive oil & fresh-ground sea-salt & black pepper. The onions (Vidalia when available, "sweet" onions otherwise), are prepared by cutting off the tops, leaving the root end; 1. cutting the onion into quarters down to the intact root; 2. pressing a couple of slices of salted butter into the top of the two cuts (separating the quarters just enough to hold the butter, but not separate the quarters); 3. Pushing a beef boullion cube into the same area. 4. wrapping the onion from root end up w/ 2-layers of aluminum foil. Since the chicken will cook for about 1.5 hours (even if I cook more than one), I put the onions on the Green Egg spaced around the chicken on its rack for about the last 30 minutes. The onions cook in their foil into something akin to onion soup! When the chicken is ready (Thermopen internal temp 165 F), I take it off & wrap it to let it rest. The onions can stay on if needed (you can carefully squeeze them - if they are pretty soft, they're ready). I toss the asparagus in a plastic bag w/the EVO & salt & pepper & then grill them over direct heat in a grill-ready wok or similar. Closing off the lid lets them cook w/just the right bit of smokey flavor as well. I also may thrown a couple of foil-wrapped sections of french loaf bread on to bake while the asparagus. The asparagus cooks "al dente" in about 15 minutes or less. When its done, take it in & call everybody to dinner!
My go-to is pasta. Always pasta. There's 3 main variations, however each is rarely made the exact same way twice.
First is usually linguini, cooked in heavily salted water, then tossed in the pan with broccoli sauteed in extra virgin olive oil (sometimes zucchini, although I like zucchini more with a red sauce), copious amounts of fresh minced garlic, salt, and cracked black pepper. Sometimes I'll add some white wine, butter, other herbs, etc. and make a "fancier" sauce, but it's usually just the above.
Second, will also usually be linguini and some other veggie (like zucchini), and a simple marinara sauce. Sauteed yellow onions in olive oil, garlic, cheap red wine, chopped canned tomatoes (unless it's summer, then fresh!), salt, pepper, and a few shakes of the "italian seasoning" blend.
Third, if I'm feeling like I can spare the extra calories: spaghetti alla carbonara. I like Mario Batali's recipe. And very important for this one: No cream. Ever.
All are topped with generous amounts of fresh grated parmigiano reggiano. Sometimes pecorino romano.
By myself: either a classic French omelete (3 eggs, butter, tri-fold) and two pieces of toast or open-faced anchovy sandwich on rye with mayonnaise, black pepper and sriracha.
For family: it has to be spaghetti with sauce and steamed veggies.
Our staple meal comes from an Italian restaurant I served at 10 years ago. My husband is a chef so for him it is quick and easy and since it is one of my favorites, it has become a regular for us, even though it isn't the healthiest dish in the world. Pasta Piselli was the menu item name and that dish consisted of conchiglie, prosciutto, peas, and a parmesan cream sauce. We have eaten a ton of variations of this dish over the years depending on what's in the fridge, but if it doesn't have peas it isn't Pasta Piselli.
Pasta Puttanesca… we usually have everything on hand, and it’s an easy dish. Our kids are still young enough to make evenings unpredictable, so we don’t do any meals on a strict rotation yet, but this one shows up at least 2-3 times a month…There are countless recipes online; we roughly follow the one in the Cooks Illustrated book. The quantities are probably a matter of taste, but the ingredients are standard: olive oil, anchovies, crushed red pepper, garlic, diced tomatoes, lots of black pepper, olives, capers, parsley, and (of course) pasta. They go into the pan in about that order, and the whole meal only takes about 15-20 minutes to cook.
Spatchcock chicken on my large big green egg. Asparagus on the medium.
Our go-to meal rotates on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. Right now I'm pregnant and eating is either totally unappealing or of the utmost importance, immediately. I've been doing many variations of chicken breast and pasta with a cream sauce. I have a huge supply of sundried tomatoes so I usually cube and brown the chicken, add shallots and garlic to brown for a few minutes. Add ample sundried tomatoes, I'm using ones in oil so I drain them well first or it gets too greasy. Add tarragon. Cook 2-3 minutes, add sherry or port or red wine - about a cup and cook down until barely any's left. Throw in some cream or milk and toss with pasta. Fettuccine is best but I'm working through some costco spaghetti. It's great b/c we get dinner and two lunches each! And its winter and I'm pregnant so I don't feel at all guilty about the generous cream usage.
Staple meal is broiled steak, mash potatoes, and kale. Season the by sprinkling low-sodium Goya Adobo powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and fresh cracked black peppercorns. Broiling the steak (depending on the thickness) takes no more than 12min. Also, to make quick fresh mash potatoes I'll take a veggie peeler to the skin, chunk-chop them, drop them in a bowl with a touch of cool water and stick them in the microwave for 5min. Add a little milk to them and they're done. I keep frozen kale in the freezer for a quick veggie fix-usually I'll add it into the mash potatoes.
I make copious amounts of pesto at the end of summer and freeze them into cubes.
My go to meal is pasta with pesto from freezer and crusty bread.
In North Carolina we are blessed with delicious delicious shrimp for almost the entire year. Whenever the day slips away and I need a quick plan for dinner, I steam the afforementioned shrimp over a little water, a roasty craft beer and a generous dose of Old Bay. While they are steaming (only 5-6 minutes), I mix 1 part heinz ketchup with 1/2 part horseradish (plus a little lemon juice, worcesterchire, salt and pepper).
super easy.
my go to if I am stumped is a pasta with pesto, italian sausage, and broccoli rabe.
I make pesto using basil from t he garden all summer long and freeze it--the usual, chopped fresh basil, garlic, parmesan, salt, pepper, and pine nuts or walnuts, processed to a paste and then add EVOO to proper consistency.
I look for italian sausage on sale at market--usually the local philly Maglio brand--and then freeze it.
When I want the dish, I thaw out sausage and the pesto.
start the pot of salted water boiling.
Then I remove sausage from casing and cook til done, then saute rabe in pan with some hot pepper flakes, when wilted add a little water, reduce heat, and cover.
Meanwhile I cook pasta--typically campanelle.
My GF is a low carb person so I will nuke some spaghetti squash for her "noodles."
To do that I slice squash in half, seed it, and put in baking dish with a little water a nuke for like 15 minutes or so.
then I use fork to turn squash into strands
When pasta and squash is done, I toss with pesto and then mix with rabe and sausage.
top with some fresh grated parm.
leftovers are great for lunch too...
pantry pasta. it's probably the most basic, oft repeated recipe out there, but it's served in our house at least once a week. my wife is a vegetarian, and this is a "compromise" dish we both enjoy.
(1) 28 oz. can of whole plum tomatoes drained & chopped (or squished)
(3-4) cloves of chopped garlic
about 3/4 cup chopped onion
a few glugs of olive oil
salt, pepper, crushed red pepper to taste.
3/4 lb. boiled pasta
saute garlic & onion in olive oil to soft, add tomatoes, salt pepper, & crushed red, simmer for a few minutes, and toss in hot cooked pasta.
now that's the basics, but it always gets tweaked depending what's in the fridge or in season. of course fresh basil, capers, olives, anchovies, peppers (fresh or roasted) or anything that really floats your boat. we make dried beans every week for lunch, salads, etc... red, black, pinto, black eyed...great protein, and have been known to throw a grip in the sauce too. we also make our own pasta from time to time, but this is pretty much a recipe of stuff you could stock with a long shelf life, and just grab at a moments notice to throw together.
i've tried most imported or fancy brands of plum tomatoes out there, but seem to alway go back to Dei Fratelli. when it comes to dried pasta, Barilla is my go to.
probably going to have this tonight.
I'll fry some ground lamb with cumin, cinnamon, maybe some cardamom, toss in some onions and/or tomatoes and some leftover rice. Easy, tasty, and any leftovers can be wrapped in dough to make a meat pie.
Not to be trite, but roast chicken is my staple. The rest of the staple meal is always rice pilaf (old Armenian recipe with some type of pasta browned in butter and good chicken stock) and usually a simply sauteed green vegetable (asparagus, greens, peas) or during the summer just some chopped up raw vegetables (peppers, cucumbers, etc.) or corn.
Sausage and peppers
Like Frank Pentangeli says, "Hey, where's the sausage and peppers?"
Grab some fresh Italian sausage (2 sausages = 1 serving) at the grocery store on the way home, along with some bell peppers (mixing up the colors yields a nice look; 2 or more peppers per serving). Also grab some good bread, and white wine and chicken stock (if you don't keep these on hand). Pasta is optional.
Brown the sausages in a big skillet in some olive oil, set aside. In the same skillet, sweat some chopped onion (1 medium onion for two servings) and some chopped garlic (as much as you dare!) until soft. Add the peppers, which have been cored, seeded, and chopped into one inch squares. Toss to mix.
Add back the sausages, nestling them in the onion-pepper-garlic mixture. Add about a cup of liquid: chicken stock and/or white wine, or even water if you forget to grab these.
Typically Italian sausages are pretty flavorful, but you could add some basil, oregano, thyme--whatever suits your palate. Salt and pepper to taste.
Cover and simmer until the peppers are nicely yielding and the sausages are fully cooked.
Serve hot with or over pasta, or all by itself, accompanied by some good bread. And wine.
Oh, yeah! Almost forgot: Chicken and peppers.
Same technique, but substitute boneless chicken thighs, quartered, for the sausage, and add a cup or so of tomato sauce, if you like.
Left over turkey? Works fine, too.
Boun appetito!
This time of year, my fave quick meal is a pot of sausage with beans and escarole. Fry up some Italian sausage and drain off most of the excess fat, then add in chicken stock, cooked (canned) cannellini beans, a parmesan rind, and a pinch of chile flake. Simmer for 10 mins. Pull out the rind, add a bunch of chopped escarole and stir together. The escarole will cook in 1-2 mins. Ladle into bowls and garnish with grated parm and a drizzle of good olive oil. This has endless variations - more or less stock, various combos of beans, sausage and hearty greens, etc.
Typically, it's a stir fry using seasonal veggies, tofu, and a small amount of meat (whether it's chicken, lamb, or beef). For seasoning the meat, I use fresh garlic, some soy sauce and my own spice blend rendition based on Uighur kebob spices - cumin, paprika, cayenne, corriander, caraway. As with all stir fries, improvisation is the norm so I put that on rice (white or brown) or a noodle like udon.
I make a stir fry with whatever vegetables I have. Sometimes I use fresh vegetables like bell peppers, zucchini, spinach and mushrooms. Sometimes I use frozen or canned vegetables like green beans or edamame, straw mushrooms or bamboo shoots. I mix up a different sauce each time using ingredients like soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, hoisin sauce, honey, rice vinegar, ponzu, or sriracha.
Scrambled egg, potato, and chorizo burritto. Quick and easy, but satisfying and delicious. Season the potatoes with some smoked paprika or cumin. Add scallion and a little of whatever cheese is on hand. Once this gets back into the regular rotation it's hard to take it out!
I have several staple meals, because I usually have to make dinner in 30 minutes. Pizza happens almost weekly, with dough kept in the freezer and whatever sauce, cheese, and toppings are around. Sometimes I even plan a topping in advance. I keep a lot of stuff in my freezer - if I make meatballs (Bon Appetit had an excellent recipe that used bread crumbs soaked in milk and a ton of grated parmesan, I'm convinced those two ingredients make all the difference), I make extra and freeze them, and have meatball sandwiches on a weeknight. My son's personal favorite is sloppy joes, just some ground beef, worstershire sauce, tomato sauce and paste, brown sugar, and spices/seasonings, cook it for a while, and serve on a brioche bun with some roasted vegetables on the side. Come to think of it, maybe it's also my favorite 🙂
My girlfriend is partially chinese, so if we're in the middle of a stress-filled week, where i may working later than usual, she'll prepare wok seared veggies with a spicy soy sauce and some steamed brown rice. We sometimes eat it with just veggies, but often the meal is supplemented by shrimp, chicken, or whatever's around. I think tonight we're having it with some fresh chicken wings. Yum!
We also love frittatas. I use some vegetables like spinach, asparagus, peppers or tomatoes along with onions and garlic. After lightly sauteeing them in an oven proof skillet, I add the eggs and cream, sometimes some herbs as well. Once the bottom is firm I place the skillet in the oven to cook the top. Makes it go a lot faster than just cooking in the oven, plus it's cheap and easy!
I have 2:
Crispy skin roast chicken
- butterfly a whole chicken, rub butter/herbs/s&p under and on top of the skin.
- in lower oiled roasting pan, add halved baby red potatoes, a few sprigs of thyme. Place chicken on roasting rack above potatoes. Roast on high heat (450F) til desired internal temp
Pasta with Tuna and Lemon
- warm olive in a cold pan, add a crushed clove of garlic, remove when lightly toasted
- add well drained tuna (or tuna in oil) to pan, lemon juice, parmesan and maybe some capers
- toss with pasta, finish with lemon zest, salt/pepper and parsley if you have it and another dusting of parmesan
My family's go-to meal is, without a doubt, spaghetti. We like it made with whole-wheat pasta, grass-fed beef, our own canned tomatoes, and lots of garlic and mushrooms! This is our favorite, though most any pasta dish is exciting for us.
My go to meal is a vegetable chili made with black beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans -- any combination of these beans or just black beans, depending what's on hand. Saute onion, green pepper, carrots, zucchini, add hominy (or corn), tom. paste, roasted toms, cumin, oregano, cinnamon stick, chili powder, stir and combine, liquid (water, veg. broth, beer whatever you have or want) to cover and simmer for about 45", maybe more depending how softened you want the vegetables/beans. Serve with tortillas, add cheese if want.
Stir Fry! Whether chicken, beef or pork, any cut can make the cut (and the serving size of protein shrinks dramatically). We usually throw any produce that look close to their expry date in first (green beans, squash, even cabbage or pineapple) along with always on hand staples like mushrooms onion and garlic. Sometimes include rice or noodle but not always.
So fast and easy bc chop is relatively uniform. Sauce is a simple combo of soy sauce, lime juice and chili flakes.
20 min start to finish, fresh, and usually cleans out the veg drawer!
We never eat anything every week but I would say our most common meal is pork tenderloin marinated in teriyaki sauce and cooked on the grill. That's usually eaten with sweet potatoes and a seasonal green vegetable like green beans or broccoli. It's a "can't miss" meal!
I like to boil chicken and shred it. Then I mix it with a little sour cream the make tacos topped with diced onion, cilantro, and maybe a little chihuahua cheese. Super quick and simple and if all the chicken doesn't get ate it makes for sandwiches or you can use leftovers from a roast chicken and it all tastes great.
It used to be pasta with a cream or tomato sauce made from any leftovers in the fridge. My wife and daughter (9yrs old) have celiac disease now so we still have quinoa pasta, but not nearly as often. Now that we are gluten free, the "staple weeknight go to" is a big thick steak(NY or Ribeye) and baked potato. My daughter loves it very pink and well rested. we let it come to room temp while the potatoes bake(oiled and salted skin). For the steak, lots of salt and ground pepper, into a hot cast iron pan, few minutes on each side and into the oven till MR. We always have a bag of brown chicken stock ice cubes in the freeze. With a few of those cubes we make a pan sauce from the brown bits in the steak pan while the steaks rests. Hazel says sour cream for the potato is important, but a well rested pink steak is critical. We usually do this on Tuesday because that is SKI P.E. day. She has no idea how good she really has it. Living the good life in Telluride! P.S. This is in the winter when the farmers market is not going on. Whole different game in peak veggie season here in the mountains. Rhulman, we have never talked or even met and you are my food mentor. Thank you for what you do(so well).
Shrimp and grits of all things. The shrimp pan is just shrimp, pork product (fat back, bacon, or something of the sort), and tomatoes. The grits are standard with jalapeno and cheese added. The shrimp can be put in a quickly thrown together marinade while I chop the pork and tomatoes and start cooking the grits. Since I do about once a week, it actually goes rather quickly. A little cilantro on top to finish is a bonus.
We have two, both of them guaranteed to preclude complaining at the table. When I've had a long day it's not so much the cooking I mind, it's the griping I have no energy for.
1. Pasta carbonara. If I have the bacon fried ahead of time, it takes all of 15 minutes. The kids can even make it themselves, except for draining the big pot of pasta. We use whole wheat linguine, with freshly grated parmesan (I use the microplane so it melts instantly), a tiny bit of lemon zest and tons of freshly grated pepper. I would add peas, but that would foil my no-complaints plan.
2. Pizza. I make the dough the night before, which takes all of five minutes. It rises overnight on the counter. I make one pizza with just homemade tomatoes and mozzarella/parmesan, and then use the others to get a little more creative: egg, pesto, fresh greens, homemade ricotta.
And with both of these I'll serve either pan-fried green beans or broccoli. Once again: the only two guaranteed no-gripe vegetables. I use the Cook's Illustrated method and, again, tons of pepper.
We make mapo tofu quite often. Spooned over a bowl of steamed rice and topped with scallions and cilantro. Never gets old.
Spaghetti squash has been a favorite of ours for a while. It's pretty versatile - Italian (obviously), French (mmm, creamy garlicy gratin), or even Asian. And, aside from the fats and oils we add, is great for the days we want to go vegetarian.
Don't worry though, that's only 1 or 2 days a week.
What a great post! I love hearing what other people eat. 🙂 We seem to have two go-to meals. One is to create pizza using whatever leftovers are in the fridge (we did one with taco beans and roasted chicken this week), or a really simple version of black beans and rice. We saute some onion and garlic, and maybe some green pepper in a good size skillet. Then we add about a cup (??) of cooked, drained black beans and 1 1/4 cups of rice. Add enough water to cover the rice and cook, covered until the rice is done. We like to top it with salsa and shredded cheese to make it a complete protein - adding avacados is also yum. Its basic enough that just about anything would make it tastier.
Thanks so much for sharing all your research with us! I really enjoyed reading "Ratio" a few weeks ago.
God bless!
[vegetarian] My family's not vegetarian, but my family's favorite staple midweek dinner is Mark Bittman's nut burgers. I'm not a fan of bean-based veggie burgers (I think they taste like poorly made falafels), but Bittman's nut burgers have their own unique taste. I season them with smoked paprika, and sub the egg for 2 tbsp miso (something Bittman suggests in his book). I usually serve them on homemade whole wheat buns, or in homemade pita pockets, top them with cheddar cheese, and serve them with the usual burger fixins with a light salad on the side. As a matter of fact, this is what's for dinner tonight!
our version of bucatini alla carbonara using the pancetta from your book (always in my freezer), farmers' market eggs, parsley from my garden and costco parmesan. i might add a splash of wine, some shallots and garlic and any other herbs surviving the elements but if i don't have any of these, no biggie (except for wine to drink of course.) by the time the water boils for the pasta the sauce is practically ready. drain the pasta water to heat the bowls and bob's your uncle.
When I really being lazy I poach a few eggs, toast some English muffins, slice a bit of cheddar and make an egg sandwich. But my actual....I don't even have to think about it meal is blackened boneless chicken breast using a fairly standard mix of spices served with orzo and a fresh vegetable. I heat a cast iron skilled till smoking hot and drop the chicken breast in and cook for about 3 min per side and then through in a 350 oven til cooked (about 15 minutes). I cook some orzo (8 minutes) drain and add a bit of butter, parmesan and lemon zest and of course season with salt and pepper. For my vegetables like a green bean i will blanch and then saute with a bit of shallot and butter. This meal is quick and very tasty.
I have to add to the comment above by Bud that you are really helping my skill sets in the kitchen. I am happy to say that I have a copy of the book and I am on chapter 13. This is the first cook book that I have read from cover to cover. Should I receive an additional copy I would forward to a relative who is also passionate about food.
Pesole! Traditional green chile stew. Amazingly tasty, and has a lot of variations that can be used to save time.
Heat up a couple of quarts of chicken stock, and chop up 1 onion, 2 serranos, 2 jalepenos, and 2 cloves garlic. Also cube up 2 chicken breasts (no skin), and season liberally with your favorite chile, cumin, salt, pepper, thyme, cilantro, and mexican oregano. If you've got time, brown the chicken, then vegetables and garlic slightly in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Add to the pot along with canned green chile and canned hominy (drained). Simmer everyone together until the chicken is done. Squeeze with lime juice or hot sauce just before serving. Can also be served with tortilla chips.
Also, if you want to be a bit more authentic, cubed pork butt can be used in place of the chicken, but it will need to be simmered for about an hour before adding vegetables to become nice and tender.
15 minutes prep, 15 minutes simmering, and it's ready to eat. It keeps wonderfully for leftovers, and freezes well too.
i live alone and i think that may alter it somewhat... it use to be sauted chicken breast with a balsamic & raspberry jam reduction (found recipe years ago in cooking light mag. I then saute broccolli with a squeeze of lemon. if i don't have fresh chicken, it is soup thrown together with whatever is in the kitchen. usually potato soup or more recently letil with a can of tomatoes & sauted onion and/or celery. Simple tasty food. And all the dishes warm up well the next day for lunch at work.
I have a few meals that are staples at our house.
The first one is potatoes, bacon & eggs (for dinner). I put some bacon on a cookie sheet & toss it in the oven. In the meantime I fry up small diced potatoes in bacon fat. Sometimes I'll add onion. Once the potatoes are golden brown & cooked through, I'll either poach an egg or fry it up over easy & put on top of the potatoes. Finally I add some sambal oleek for some heat & extra flavor.
Another dish is Fried Chicken. Nothing fancy, just chicken breasts dipped in egg & flour. Fried up & served with mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, & biscuits. (Have to have blackberry jam for the biscuits)
Soup is always a staple at our house. Today it's Chicken Noodle Soup with stock from a Chicken roasted on Sunday and started while I was lunch today. Some of our favorite soups are Pasta Fagioli, Tortilla Soup, Potato Soup, & Roasted Tomato Soup.
Sandwiches are always good too. One of my favorites is thinly sliced med. rare roast beef, any type of cheese (I like brie or havarti), spinach, and a roasted red pepper mayo on ciabatta bread. Add some potato chips (yes, put the chips on your sandwich, just try it once, you'll understand) & you have a quick filling meal.
Finally , when my husband is craving Tuna Casserole, my kids & I have Smoked Fontina Fondue (smoked fontina cheese tossed with cornstarch, shallots, champagne vinegar, & chicken stock or water) with bread & prosciutto and chocolate fondue with angel food cake & various fruits.
We really like to try new dishes but there are some nights that we either want something we know we like or that we don't have time to be in the kitchen for an hour or two.
my go to meal is beef strogonoff easy to do and so so tasty
Our big staple when we had a young child was homemade macaroni and cheese, speeded along with liberal use of the microwave. Now I would say it is spaghetti with bean sauce. I prefer to use small red beans, like aduki, which cook in about 20 minutes. I saute onion and mushrooms (an important ingredient to boost a meaty taste), add a can of Cento crushed tomatoes (the purest such product I have found on the grocery shelves), and season according to the mood I'm in. Seasonings usually include pressed garlic, oregano and thyme, salt, freshly ground pepper, and something for a little heat, like a teaspoon of oriental chili/garlic sauce. I make sure to add a half-cup or so of red wine to the sauce - it makes a big difference to the flavor. Add beans when they are velvety but not mushy, enough so that the distribution looks like a hamburg meat sauce. I serve this with vermicelli or angel hair, one of the new varieties that has been fortified with legume flour. I also serve either a green salad or a steamed green vegetable, like broccoli or peas.
My husband does not have a good sense of smell or taste and judges food a lot by mouth-feel. He likes this dish because it feels like spaghetti with hamburg meat sauce in his mouth.
The staple or the simple meal for us is usually lentils (like an indian dhal) and rice and whatever veggies we can can cook quick in a pan (usually broccoli and carrots).
Well a well salted steak seared in cast iron pan til barely medium rare with a baguette and a quick green salad with homemade vinaigrette is one. But we probably do more of the "kitchen cacciatore" stir frys than anything else. Some protein, some veg and an impromptu sauce from my collection of Asian seasonings, juices, vinegar and random chillis served over rice is it.
In the winter, it's pasta with prosciutto that has been crisped up in butter and some freshly grated parmesan cheese. 1 ounce of pasta, 1 ounce of prosciutto, 1 ounce of cheese, 1 tbsp butter per person, can easily be increased as needed. Yummy!
In the summer, it's pizza on the grill. There is always a batch of dough in the fridge. I marinate fresh grape tomatoes and chunks of fresh mozzarella in olive oil and balsamic, with a little salt, Grill the dough with some olive oil, then rub it with a freshly cut clove of garlic and top with the tomato/cheese mixture. It's summer on a plate!
Count me as another spaghetti fan. It's easy enough to break up and fry some Italian sausage with diced onions and garlic and add tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, parmigiano rinds and let it simmer for a half hour or so while I'm playing with my 2 little boys.
Staple meals should be called 'hope at the end of a very long day'.
Ground turkey with fresh parsley, a dash of cumin, can of beans (any variety) and two chopped tomatoes is the cure for my dinner angst. Ready in seven minutes.
Believe it or not, the expert on weeknight meal planning does have her kitchen panic moments.
For us, it's a bunch of vegetables but up, seasoned and tossed with balsamic vinegar, and roasted on a sheet pan. Usually tossed with pasta at about a 1:1 ratio, or eaten straight up.
In the summer, it's usually a mix of zucchini, yellow squash, corn and tomatoes. Last night, it was carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potato and red onion.
My simple go to meal would definitely have to be a slow-cooked pork butt or shoulder. A good 3-4 lb, shoulder or butt roast typically goes on sale every 2 weeks or so. I scanned the store for the best deal and typically, for $8-11 it's a steal. I typically bring it home on a day that I already have a meal planned, give it a healthy rubbing of sea salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper and olive oil and may give it a few quick injections of a heavy brine. I'll put it in the fridge overnight and in the morning while I feed the cat, take a shower, and make the coffee, I pull it out and let it warm up. Before I leave for the office I just give it a good hard sear on all edges and throw it in the crock pot with about 1/2-3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, salt, carrots, onions and celery, and whatever flavorful stock I may have sitting around and leave it for the day. 8-10 hours later when I get home, there is a tender roast waiting for me that is fall off the bone delicious. I'll typically strain off some of the cooking liquid and reduce it to make a gravy while either steaming up a pot of rice or cleaning up the pot from the morning. I'll reach into my pantry and pull out a can of 3-bean salad, or saute up a handful of seasonal veggies and dinner is served.
The meal is versatile too, because you essentially have a source of tender pulled pork that can then be turned into an future meal of enchiladas or tacos, added to a pasta sauce, or slathered with a tangy BBQ sauce for lunch the next day. By the time all your pork has been used, you're ready for something new for a few days, but then on when the circular comes out, the pork is on sale again and the cycle starts all over again.
Cheers and good eating.....
A staple meal for my husband and I in Trinidad is wholewheat sada roti and curried egg and potato. It is a great meatless option and it comes together really fast. A couple boiled eggs are lightly fried in two tablespoons of oil and put aside. Fenugreek is roasted in some canola oil first because it gives a splendid aroma. And then the curry is properly fried. Pigeon peas and potatoes are then curried together and seasoned with minced garlic, chadon beni (a version of cilantro) and onions. When the potatoes are cooked, the eggs are put in the curry for colour and flavouring. Eaten with sada roti (leavened bread cooked on a flat iron), you really don't need anything else.
If there's a better, more reliable weeknight dinner than Carbonara, I've yet to find it. I almost always have everything on hand (assuming some flexibility on the particularities of cured pork products), and can make it in my sleep by now. It's also unreasonably delicious.
All that said, I find that Carbonara is also a very telling preparation. Much like your beloved roast chicken, its simplicity belies the subtlety and technique involved in the making of the dish. I believe that a cook's Carbonara can tell you a lot about his/her skill and mentality. Egg cookery, sauce technique, an understanding of proper seasoning, and the urge to resist gilding the lily are all important, here.
When I can't be bothered to actually cook for my wife and daughter, I pressure cook boneless chicken: a couple of quartered potatoes, about a half a bag of baby carrots, a couple of cups of chicken stock, and a chicken breast and two chicken thighs liberally seasoned with whatever sounds interesting. When everything's done I pull out all the solids and thicken the cooking juice (puree one of the potato quarters and a hand full of the cooked carrots in the cooker with an immersion blender, add a bit of corn starch if it doesn't seem thick enough).
The McKay house go to meal is Tuna Pasta based on three ingredients. Sirena Tuna in oil, penne and frozen peas.
Boil the pasta to just before al dente. half way through add the frozen peas. Cool & rinse under running water and drain.
Empty Sirena tuna with all or some of the oil (no other brand works as well) into heavy bottomed (preferably enamel) pan and heat on high with the lid on until the water in the oil stops spitting.
Pour in pasta and peas, pepper (lots) and salt and mix.
put the lid back on and cook for 5 minutes or so on high heat to get crusty bits of tuna and pasta to stick to the pan, this is vital.
serve with the crusty scrapings as garnish.
this can have fresh chili, garlic, parsley etc or different vegetables if you want.
simple, quick and absolutely delightful
Tacos, rice & beans. I have 2 picky eaters plus a vegetarian. This is a meal that all of them will eat. I use rotisserie chicken, shred and season it with *gasp* a taco seasoning packet. I make rice flavored with garlic and tomato paste, and heat up a can pinto beans. I shred lettuce and have sliced olives, sour cream, hot sauce, sliced jalepenos, and shredded cheese. The vegetarian has bean tacos with all the fixings, while the rest of us have chicken tacos with varying degrees of the fixings. Sometimes - when I have time - I'll make corn bread too. If I don't have pre-made taco shells, we stuff everything into a tortilla and have - BURRITOS!
For an everyday Whatever-are-we-going-to-eat-tonight meal, it's almost always Pasta Somehow. "Somehow" depends on what's in the fridge needing to be used. Often something like broccoli, garlic, some goat cheese melted in.
When I want a quick special meal for some reason, I defrost the two duck scallops that I keep in the freezer (and add them to the shopping list). They're not that cheap, but are nice for a special meal. Because they're thin, they defrost very quickly. S&P, dredge lightly in flour, sauté. The pan deglazed with ... balsamic vinegar perhaps ... to make a quick pan sauce. Usually serve this with orzo, since that's my DH's favorite, and it is a special meal after all. And a bit of veg (peas from the freezer, broccoli, or whatever's available).
This time of year, one of our staple dinners is beef brisket with coleslaw. The coleslaw I make up ahead of time (like the night before or in the morning) and stick in the fridge -- just shredded cabbage, poppy seeds, mayo, vinegar, sugar. If I'm feeling ambitious I throw a few extra veggies in - shredded carrots, green onions, whatever. The brisket gets rubbed with salt, pepper, brown sugar, smoked paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, dried oregano and then cooked "low and slow" all day either tightly covered on a rack in a roasting pan that has a bit of water or beer in it (so, steaming rather than roasting, really) or in a slow cooker with no liquid added. This meal is great when the kids have a lot of after school stuff -- knowing I can come home, rest the meat while I steam some baby carrots or a head of broccoli or something in the microwave, slice it all up and just pull the coleslaw out of the fridge and give it a toss before serving keeps me from running us through the drive-through somewhere on our way home.
Our go-to meal is either Salmon, or Bran crusted chicken breast on a bed of brown rice with broccoli. The salmon is broiled PERIOD. The chicken breast is dredged in egg and crushed Nature's Path Flax Bran flakes and then baked until 165F internal temp. The brown rice is prepared by sauteing onions and garlic - dumping in the rice and adding chicken stock. Then it's covered and put in the oven for 75 minutes. Add the broccoli when it comes out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Perfection.
My "go to" meal during the week is an easy grilled/roasted chicken salad with fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers. The night before I'll throw the chicken in some Italian dressing for an easy marinade. When I get home from work, I'll throw the chicken in the over or on the grill during the summer, cut up some romaine, fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers. Once the chicken is done Ill slice it up and throw it on top and dinner is served. All toll, it's done in 30 minutes, clean up is easy and more often than not I have leftovers for lunch the next day.
This is what we make when we want a quick meal, that we all like, with ingredients we have on hand.
Garlic Lover's Pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
A little bit of oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 (28-ounce) can Italian-style tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped
1 box of linguine
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
The "go to" here is something we call Mexican Chicken. It uses two ingredients I always stock up on : roasted Poblano chiles and toasted and finely ground Ancho chiles (which are dried Poblanos ).
I put a quick pan sear on chicken breasts, take them out of the pan and sweat onions and roasted garlic in the fat and juices. Liberally toss the powdered Ancho chile on the onions, stir with a flat wooden spatula to get up any pan bits. Toss in some chopped roasted Poblanos. When they are all just short of burning, pour in a can of Hunt's Tomato Sauce (yes, Hunt's Tomato Sauce) and stir.
Replace the chicken breasts in the sauce and let simmer for a while, then top with Monterey Jack cheese and set in the broiler until the cheese developes some brown spots.
Serve with quick cooking rice and a green veggie.
BTW I already own a copy of "Ruhlman's Twenty", so I'll exempt myself from the competition.
When my college student sons, husband and I get home and we're all starving, our go-to meal(s) are either Asian or Mexican.
Asian consists of brown or white rice in the rice cooker; tofu, scallions, chili peanuts, and whatever bits and pieces of meat and/or vegetables leftover or available for a quick chop - all thrown in the wok with a concocted sauce mixture (featuring whatever's handy and in stock: ponzu, hoisin, soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, siracha, crushed red pepper, rice wine vinegar, chili sauce). The only question is "how spicy do you want it?"
Mexican is similar. The corn and flour tortillas come out of the fridge to become tacos, burritos or quesadillas with a variety of sauces (salsa, taco, hot chili, cheese), leftover chicken or beef of any sort, shredded cheddar/jack , canned beans in any shape or form (refried, whole black, kidney, garbanzo, cannelini, pinto, etc. - sometimes even refried on the spot with a bit of oil, chili powder, cumin and garlic), some quick chopped lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, olives - whatever's handy. Everybody assembles their own and nukes the result. We call it scavenging.
Blackened fish, rice, and fresh green beans. There is an indoor farmers market nearby with a good seafood vendor, and I'm there every Thursday. If money it tight that week, it's catfish. If I feel like splurging, wild salmon or something else fancy. We always have the spices on hand, and then it's like 6 minutes in the broiler or grill. Rice practically makes itself, and I usually just blanche the green beans and dress them with oil and balsamic vinegar. Bonus that they're still good if I buy them at the beginning of the week and don't make them right away. My go-to used to be pasta dishes but I've developed a gluten sensitivity recently.
I already have Twenty, but I wanted to contribute anyway 🙂
Without a doubt, it's pasta.
Once a week, I make a large stock pot of red vodka sauce. Really simple. 3 cans of whole tomatoes, some browned Italian sausage and pork neck bones, and if I have time some home made meatballs. Just let it simmer for a couple of hours with salt, pepper, basil, parseky, and oregeno. About halfway through, add about a cup of vodka and cup of heavy cream.
If I can make fresh pasta or gnochi I will, but if not I have a whole bunch of boxed, dried pasta.
As long as I have the sauce, i can change it up by making pasta, soup, or maybe even a casserole or eggplant.
Because I make about 5 quarts at a time, it allows me to be creative or simple during the week, especially when I don't want to have to run to the store, because my fridge and pantry are low.
By "best" you could either mean the easiest to regular meal to prepare, or the one you enjoy best out of the ones you make that is quick and easy. I'll go with the latter definition, and my staple meal is based on a sauteed protein (either fish or pork) with a mustard cream sauce, along with a green vegetable. A mustard cream sauce is quick to prepare and adds a richness and touch of elegance to a meal.
One meal is sauteed salmon in a mustard cream sauce with green beans. After opening a bottle of white wine for cooking I freeze the remainder in silicone ice cube trays and put the trays inside a zip bag in the freezer. So to make this meal I put some water in a pot to boil, and then use a fork to scrape one of the cubes of wine (it doesn't freeze hard, is more like slush) into a small saucepan and put on med heat. When the pan is almost dry I add in heavy cream (I always have a pint of this in the fridge) and reduce it by about 1/2, then stir in a glop of mustard and add salt to taste. Sauce is done; turn heat to low to keep it warm. Right after adding the cream I began heating a separate nonstick pan on medium. When the sauce is done the pan is warm enough to cook the fish so I add a pat of butter or splash of oil to the pan, sprinkle the fillets with salt (and sometimes a prepared spice mix such as Chesapeake Bay from Penzeys), and lay down the best side. When the fillets are cooked 1/2 way up the side I flip them. I also give the sauce a quick stir to keep it evenly heated. By this time the water is at a boil and a handful of green beans go into the pot along with a generous helping of salt. I put 2 plates in the sink and run hot water on them to warm them a bit. When the fillets are done (about 2 minutes after flipping I dry the plates, spoon some sauce onto the plates, put a fillet on top, then put a dab more sauce on top of each fillet. I test a bean with tongs, and when done grab the beans with the pair of tongs and plate, putting the remaining sauce along side.
An alternative is pork chops in a mustard cream sauce with broccoli. Its pretty much the same steps as above except I use a regular pan instead of nonstick for the chops to get better color. I use pork chops that are about 3/4" think so they cook relatively quickly. I sometimes sprinkle the chops with a seasoning in addition to the salt before adding to the pan. I prefer steamed broccoli to boiled since I think the texture comes out better.
Frittata. I almost always have eggs in the house and what goes in it depends on what else I have. Bacon is always welcome! Garlic, sundried tomatoes, any leafy greens that I can saute, cheese, onions, leeks... This can be vegetarian, can be dairy-free, usually gluten free.
Hi Michael!
I'm not going to win any points for originality, but my staple meal, at least October to April, is the basic roast chicken. I make mine by putting chopped ginger, thyme, and a lemon (sliced in two) in the cavity. If I'm feeling gourmet, I baste it with wine. With baked potatoes, it's a no-work meal.
If I'm busy (such as tonight!) I prep the birds in the morning, let them sit in the fridge uncovered in the roasting pan all day, and have my wife pop them in the oven before I get home. That way she can feed my girls and I can have dinner upon my arrival. And I did say birds, not bird. I do two chickens at once, and then eat the cold one for the rest of the week, for lunch or with salad or pasta and pesto sauce. It's always handy to have a roast chicken in the fridge.
I have a couple. The first is chili, usually made with stew meat. The "recipe" varies, but I always brown the meat in a little lard and put everything into the slow-cooker with home-canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilies (fresh!), cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, oregano, and sometimes something like cocoa or allspice to kick it up a bit. We eat it topped with various things--cheese, cilantro, scallions, fresh tomato, guac--because we all like different flavors. I love the smell of something that's been cooking in the crock pot all day.
Our other staple is roasted sweet potatoes (in ghee or bacon fat, depending on the day) alongside a simple sausage and greens saute. We're lucky enough to have a fabulous source for sausages in our CSA, so we rotate through lamb and pork. Sometimes I'll get chorizo or andouille from Whole Foods. The greens rotate between collards and kale, depending on what's available. It's our simplest meal, but usually the best. We eat it at least twice a week. I add spices as I want, but usually the sausage gives the greens enough flavor so as to need nothing extra.
Ragu Bolognese. Easy to make in quantity. Freezer meals that can be put on the table in less than 30 minutes.
I have 2, one of which I actually made last night!
The first is 40-Clove Garlic Chicken, using chicken breast strips, an insane amount of garlic, olive oil & a whole lemon sliced thinly. Peel the garlic, drop it & the chicken in a 9x13 pan and toss with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Then, lay the thin slices of lemon over the top of the chicken. Roast at 350 until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. I usually turn on the broiler for a couple minutes at the end to give the chicken & lemon some additional color. Serve with couscous and good bread. An amber lager or glass of pinot grigio is optional.
The second is shepherd's pie, which was last night's dinner. Make mashed potatoes, adding some roasted garlic (I cheated and used instant, as I was late leaving work; homemade potatoes are definitely better). Brown a pound or so of ground beef, adding 1 medium chopped onion and about 2 tablespoons of garlic. Add about 2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables (or chopped fresh vegetables, if you're so inclined, but frozen is faster) to the beef. As they start to thaw & cook, add about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of vegetable broth and 2 -3 tablespoons of tomato paste. Keep mixing it in the skillet until the tomato paste mixes into the broth. Add about a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of fresh ground pepper & half a teaspoon of tumeric. As it is cooking down, dissolve a teaspoon of corn starch in a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of cold water. When it is completely dissolved, pour it into the ground beef mixture, stirring constantly until it is mixed into the liquid (the color will change from bright red to orange). Let it stay on the heat until it comes to a boil to allow the starch to cook. Grease a casserole pan and pour in the mixture, creating a level surface. Spoon the mashed potatoes over the top, covering all of the beef & vegetable mixture. Put the casserole into the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes, then under the broiler for a couple minutes to get the top of the potatoes to brown.
I have two go-to dinners I use in the winter. (In the summer, my go-to meal is almost always a protein on the grill, veggies from the garden, and a good bread. I love summer. 🙂 )
The first go-to meal is pasta with cherry tomatoes, spinach and feta cheese. Cook the pasta (I usually use penne). While it cooks, halve a pint of cherry tomatoes. Open a bag/container of baby spinach. In a small bowl, juice 1 lemon, add about 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper, 2 tbsp good olive oil. In another bowl crumble 5-8 oz feta cheese (use the block cheese, not the pre-crumbled - cheaper and better tasting). When pasta is cooked al dente, drain and return to cooking pot. Add bowl with lemon juice and oil, stir well. Add crumbled cheese, stir well. Add spinach and tomatoes, stir well. Put top on pot and let sit 1-2 minutes to wilt spinach. Serve with good, crusty bread.
The second go-to recipe I make in the winter is pork chops with red cabbage. Sprinkle 2-4 pork chops with salt and pepper. Liberally rub each with dried thyme. In a large skillet, brown chops on each side with some olive oil; remove from pan. While chops brown, vertically slice one large red onion. After chops come out of pan, add more oil if needed, then add onions to cook until soft. While onion cooks, coarsely chop 1 small-medium red cabbage. (Can be cut into 1"x1" pieces - not shredded.) When onion is soft, add cabbage. Pour in 1/4-1/3 cup red wine vinegar, sprinkle cabbage with 1 big pinch of sugar (a tablespoon, probably). Place chops on top of cabbage, cover skillet, and simmer on stovetop 15-25 minutes, or until pork chops are cooked the way you like them. (15 minutes tops for those really skinny grocery store chops, longer for thick cut chops - I tend to take the meat thermometer to the thicker ones.) This recipe also works with chicken thighs, but the cooking time is more like 35 minutes.
I have two. The most popular by far is chorizo and eggs. We make a large batch of bulk chorizo (using the recipe from Charcuterie, of course) and I freeze it in 1/2 pound flat portions. I take it out of the freezer and run cold water over it, it's usually thawed in about 5 minutes. I make enchilada sauce 2-3 times a year and freeze it in individual portions as well. I fry the chorizo up in a frying pan and add scrambled eggs. My kids like it plain or rolled up in a tortilla. My husband and I like to add the sauce. Everyone's happy!
Our other option is pesto pasta. I make tons of pesto in the summer and freeze it in ice cube trays. I start a pot of water boiling, cut up some katamala olives and sundried tomatos, and put on large pot on medium. I put a little olive oil in the pot and toast some pine nuts. When they are toasted, I add the pesto and olives and tomatos and turn the heat to low. When the pasta is done, I add a little of the pasta water to the pot with the pesto, drain the pasta and add it along with some freshly grated parm. Done and delicious!
Easy go-to is Pasta and Sauce. The sauce is always home made, I hardly ever buy jarred sauce anymore. Puree a 28 oz can of tomatoes (I don't like chunks), add in an onion cut in half, a couple crushed garlic cloves, some fresh herbs and butter and olive oil--simmer for 45 minutes and fish out the aromatics. I have bread along with my pasta and sauce. Again, always home made. I almost always have a bucket of no-need bread in the fridge and if I don't I'll make up a quick focaccia.
I can't believe that I am the first person to mention risotto as my staple meal. Once I learned how to make a nice basic risotto, I now use it at least once a week, usually as a means of using up leftovers. I keep a steady supply of arborio and carnaroli on hand, and now, thanks to Ratio (with a little additional help from Alton), I have homemade stock always ready in the freezer.
I start with a basic risotto and add things like leftover roasted chicken with sundried tomatoes, artichokes and a few porcini. Or, I use a combination of different mushrooms for a rich mushroom risotto. If I'm feeling a little upscale, I run over to my local seafood market and pick up shrimp or scallops for the pan. The other day I made one with smoked sausage and tomatoes, using the tomato juices for the bulk of my cooking liquid.
I live alone, so my staple meals fall into two categories: things I can refrigerate and eat three more times during the week, and things that make exactly one meal and take close to zero effort. In category 2, I like to go with a simple beans and meat dish. Dump a can of red beans into a pot and slice in two hot dogs. Add about a cup of corn and a half-cup of sliced carrots. Salt and spices to taste--I use a mix of herbs, usually parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and black pepper. Cover and simmer for about half an hour until the beans are soft and not gritty any more, then dump into a bowl and eat.
Huevos Rancheros. First a spicy tomato sauce with onion and jalapeño/serrano/chipotle/whatever peppers are on hand. Then a simple refried bean recipe with little more than onion, can of beans, peppers, and some water. Finally, poach the eggs in the tomatoes. So good, satisfying, and even fits into anyone's lo-fat, lo-carb diet.
Our staple meal has to be tacos. And I use that term loosely because although they are on our revolving list of meals, they are also a go to when nothing else sounds good or time is not on our side. We always have corn and flour tortillas in the fridge and almost always cilantro and/or parsley. Sometimes they are made with leftovers, other times something is quickly thawed. A little oil, chili powder, onion, garlic, and whatever other seasonings sound good that evening go in a skillet with the leftover meat from last night’s chicken, pork, I’ve used ham and even summer sausage. Add a little water once the onions look good and let it cook down for a minute. I’ve been known to add an egg or two just for good measure. Run the tortillas through a hot skillet to loosen them up and your ready. Top with whatever fresh herb we have in the fridge and it’s dinner time!
My favorite has to be meatloaf, mashed potatoes and frozen corn. Just made it two days ago, again. Meatloaf is made with a ketchup/brown sugar topping, potatoes with cream and butter. There is only three of us eating so there is usually leftovers for a meatloaf sandwich the next day. (Which I had for lunch yesterday) I can have everything in the oven or on the stove in less than 15 min.
I am almost afraid to say it because it is fairly simple.
My household includes 3 young kids so when we need a quick staple meal, the last thing we want to hear is a complaint. Thus, we go with soup. Yes, soup. A simple soup but soup none the less and one that can prevent complaints and is still easy to create.
I take out frozen stock and heat it to a boil and then season it. I bring out all of the leftovers on hand (sausage, chicken, beans, Ham from the pizza two nights ago, tomatoes, onions, etc...) and other staples like carrots and celery as well as some very thin pasta.
I chop everything up very fine only as each person requests it (e.g. - celery, carrots, mushrooms and sausage for my son takes about 20 seconds of chopping tops), put the results in a serving bowl and then pour the boiling soup over it and give it enough time to both cool down and heat/reheat all of the ingredients. Everyone loves it because each person gets to pick and choose but I only had to reheat/season stock, pull already cooked items from the fridge and do a tiny bit of tiny chopping. It looks like a lot of trouble but the time invested is small.
I get an extra benefit out of it because a few members of my family like some of their vegetables at different levels of doneness. If someone wants to hear the crunch of a carrot when they bite into it, I just cut the carrot pieces larger to accomodate.
Also - it is a good excuse for 12+ year old kids to practice their chopping.
Our current quick, go-to meal involves boneless, skinnless chicken breasts, which I'd always poo-pooed as being flavorless, dry, tough and boring. Now, it's the vehicle for flavor! I pound out the breasts, cut into medalions and season with salt, pepper and whatever herb I have a taste for. then dredge in flour. I heat a couple tbsps of olive oil and a tbsp of butter until sizzling, add the chicken and brown on both sides. Here's where it varies: I've dumped chopped mushrooms into the pan with the chicken and poured in marsala wine, partially covered the pan and low simmered it for another 10 minutes until it's thickened. I vary that application by using different wine combined with garlic or chick broth or lemon or other juices or tomatoes,. I've added capers and lemon for a picata variation, added breadcrumbs and parmesan as the chicken coating and added stewed tomatoes with wine for a quick caccitore, I've used cream and procuitto and a variety of cheeses and I've used broth, wine and grapes. The chicken is always tender and moist and it comes together quickly. While it's cooking I boil pasta or rice or potatoes and steam or saute some vegetables. It's on the table in about 1/2 hour..sometimes less...and it hasn't disappointed yet!
My favorite go-to staple meal is Hainan chicken rice. It's cheap, tastes great, and the leftovers are versatile. I strain and season some of the poaching broth and use it as a soup course, with pickled cucumber and carrot salad on the side. The chicken & rice leftovers are perfect for stir fry, with more broth for soup, and a chicken carcass for stock.
Pizza margherita hands down! It takes 15 mins to make and is cheap and delicious with few ingredients. When i get home, I put a cast-iron pizza pan in the oven and turn it up as high as it will go (530 degrees for me). I use frozen pizza dough, pureed San Marzano tomatoes (uncooked) as the sauce, sliced fresh mozzarella, sea salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook for 6-7 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is light brown. Top with chiffonade of basil and dins is ready 🙂
My go to most favorite few times a month meal, well, meat, is the flank steak. People people people. Stop blowing you hard earned money on the standard ribeyes, fillets, strips, etc. A flank has tons of flavor and the biggest one would only cost you $8. You can feed the family on this guy. You just have to cook it, and most importantly, cut it correctly.
First, if you get the cut like I do, from a butcher, it usually has a lot of the silver skin and film on the meat. I remove as much as I can but usually i cheat with the film an cut very shallow slices every 1.5 inches across the grain on both sides. When it cooks this film will basically disappear.
I have a signature marinade I make with this but anything with salt and oil will work fine. I drop at least 2 - 3 tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 onion, and whatever green I have starting to turn in the fridge (parsley, cilantro, or basil) in the blender. Anything! turn it on and start salting, grinding pepper, and pouring in about 3/4 cup of olive oil. Salt to taste, then add a bit more.
Marinade your flank for at least 6 hours or up to 24hrs.
Now grill it with high heat until rare to medium rare. You really don't want to over cook this meat and be careful, because it cooks through quickly.
Let stand for 10min. and now for the important part. Slice the meat in thin slices at a 45 degree angle ACROSS the grain. This is so important to the texture. Sliced any other way and you'll be chewing awhile.
Served with a tomato pie and wow do you have a meal.
we have three go-to meals:
1) a fried egg over rice, with whatever greens happen to be available (e.g. spinach, chard, bok choy) sauteed. the seasoning varies according to whim--it can be as simple as freshly ground black pepper, a dash of soy sauce, a bit of chili paste, or shichimi togarashi.
2) "clean out the fridge pasta"--pasta tossed with whatever veggies/ leftover meat is available, plus other staples that might be on hand (e.g. capers, olives, artichoke hearts, etc.). grate cheese over it and add freshly ground black pepper.
3) quesadillas--put cheese in a tortilla, fold in half, melt cheese using heat source of choice (lazy method = microwave; i prefer the toaster oven, but have also done it in a skillet on the stove). in its simplest form, just add salsa. we also vary it depending on whatever is in the fridge (e.g. leftover meat, beans, veggies, pickled jalepenos, etc.)
Brown chicken parts,skin side down. Remove. Saute onions and garlic, add wine (red or white), dijon, an herb (usually tarragon or thyme), sometimes tomato or tomato paste, simmer covered 30 minutes, add beurre manie, simmer a little longer and thicken. With bread or noodles.
Fried rice. We usually have leftover rice, so I make it with eggs scrambled in the wok and whatever else is in the fridge: ham, lunch meat, almost any veggie, frozen peas, or even hot dogs (the kids like that one). Takes me about 15-20 mins.
Love this theme! I'll be trolling the comments for ideas for months to come.
My go-to staple meal for the cooler months is Keller's Roast Chicken (Elise's version from Simply Recipes). If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll do sauteed green beans or a spinach salad (with walnuts and cranberries, please) on the side, but it's often a one-dish dinner around here.
I hate to prep rutabagas so I skip those, and add sweet potatoes to the mix to make my daughters happy. We're a gluten free household and I love how I can make this recipe (and I do just about every week) with zero revisions.
My staple for myself, my wife, and my two young daughters is typically boneless pork chops, seasoned with salt, pepper, and maybe a bit of cumin, seared on a cast iron skillet, then finished in the oven. Sometimes I'll make a pan sauce out of the drippings, but the girls don't like the sauces much.
Sides are egg noodles, buttered, with lots of parmesan and a bit of parsley, and green beans from the freezer.
One of our favorites is Eggs in Purgatory, served with crusty bread (crusty bread might be the only true go-to in my house). That same spicy tomato sauce over pasta, maybe with some olives or artichoke hearts tossed in. Also various bean-based chilis, served over rice or with tortilla chips. A stir-fry of tofu, green peppers, scallions and pineapple in mushroom sauce served over rice or noodles. And sometimes, bread and cheese and a green salad suffice.
Linguini with white clam sauce. Garlic, olive oil, white wine, canned clams, red pepper flakes. Fresh parsley if I have it.
Best and easiest staple meal:
Cut yams, beets and butternut squash in 1" pieces, coat with olive oil and mixture of curry and ground cinnamon. Cut onions and colourful peppers in wedges, coat all with olive oil and mixture of chopped garlic and ginger. Spread each mixture in 1 layer on different roasting pans. Add pork tenderloin seasoned with freshly ground pepper and salt (optional) to one roasting pan. Roast everything at 400 degrees F for 20 to 30 min. Wow!
another go-to weeknight dish, the one I "created" for my oldest son and which I cooked for him the night before his high school cross-country or track races: a short tube pasta (elbows, pennette, rigatoni) with a garlicky bolognese (turkey or beef) spiced up with sambal oelek. Ready in about 45mins with minimal prepwork, since the only thing that needs chopping is the fresh garlic.
Egg Wrap with eggs from farmer down the road. Peppers, Onions, whatever cheese is in fridge. Quickly grate a potato to mix in also. With a dash of hot sauce!
Homemade roti topped with melted cheese, avocado mashed up with garlic and lime juice, cilantro, and cherry tomatoes, or polenta and roasted broccoli. What I would prefer to eat for every single meal for the rest of my life is an enormous bowl of of spaghetti topped with a mountain freshly grated Parmesan and a river of unsalted butter in which a half a dozen cloves of Rocambole garlic have been gently sweated, followed by vanilla ice cream with freshly made salted caramel and whipped cream. {But I would also like to be able to zip my pants.}
Since my husband and I have a 3 hour a day commute, EVERY weeknight dinner must be a no-brainer. I echo many of the above comments: carbonara, breakfast-for-dinner, spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce, quesadillas, but what I didn't see was a simple salad. I usually get a clamshell of organic greens of some sort each week, then you just need to dice up some veggies and make a fresh blue cheese dressing, or open a can of tuna, some cannelini beans and whip up a simple vinaigrette, or fry some bacon, add a splash of vinegar for hot bacon dressing, top with a fried egg and thinly sliced radish - quick, healthy, vegetarian, delicious. Toast some cubed bread for fresh croutons and you're set!
Our staple meal ... breakfast. My family loves breakfast, it's easy to make, and somehow feels a tad wrong when it is oh so right.
First, the bacon. Thanks to you, I have been curing my own bacon, and sharing it with my family, for years. I use the basic recipe you have in "Charcuterie", but with a few twists to satisfy my audience: my kids and my nieces and nephews. It's a sweeter bacon, so I don't skimp on the maple syrup during the cure. Seriously, I could eat a floor board if it had good maple syrup on it. Second, before I smoke it, I sprinkle on just a hint of fresh cracked pepper, and then my kicker: maple sugar. I told you it was sweet. Applewood smoke it and you are good to go. I use
Pancakes are usually the staple in our house (with the kids and all), and when we're in a hurry we use box (oh noes!). A quick strawberry or blueberry add and we're done.
Finish that up with some fresh cut fruit and you are good to go.
The roast chicken from this site has made its way into a weekend staple. I picked up a Jamie Oliver roasted root veg that goes with it that has quickly turned into THE hit.
A few years back I saw Alton Brown state that the broiler was really an upside down gas grill. That observation led directly to two of our staples.
During the week it's one of these:
Broiled chicken breasts in winter (usually with BBQ sauce); on grill in summer with potatoes, rice, or noodles.
Broiled tilapia or salmon with honey or olive oil and rice or noodles.
My wife's excellent fried chicken with potatoes or noodles.
Pancakes or French Toast (always with maple syrup from Burton, OH) with sausage or bacon. I like a sunny side up egg with it. We call this "Binner" short for BreakfastDinner
I never though I would says this, but our go to item is quinoa. Such a healthy and tasty grain. We love that it is an item that can be made weekly, but tastes different every time.
We choose to cook the quinoa in our homemade chicken soup. You can't go wrong adding items you canned in the summertime. My favorite - oven roasted cherry tomatoes from the summer garden.
Simply pick and choose what to add. In the past we used a mix of oven roasted tomatoes - maybe homemade pesto, green onions,roast some peppers, variety of beans,dried berries, nuts,herbs, etc. And why not add leftover meat from other meals and you are done. Serve warm or cold. Love it with parmesan cheese too!
Or the other day we made quinoa with fresh squeezed orange juice with veggies. So delicious! The options are endless. And if any is left over you can add it to a wrap or in a salad for lunch the next day.
my family's go-to-without-a-second-thought would be spaghetti carbonara - farm fresh eggs, nitrate-free pancetta/bacon and spaghetti, it just doesn't get any easier...plus the kids get to feel like they are having breakfast for dinner which is something that we do rarely as my husband detests breakfast for dinner...a close second would be frittata - you can use up any veggies hanging around in the crisper and any cheeses in the cheese drawer as well - with some crusty bread and a simple green salad, all of your bases are covered
My 9 year old daughter's favorite dinner is steamed clams. They are so easy and quick we make them weekly. Sautee some garlic & shallots, add some wine, throw in the clams, cover and voila 5 minutes later you have dinner. A big chunk of tasty bread rounds out the meal. Sometimes we make homemade linguine and make the meal special.
breakfast burritos - eggs, bacon, canned black beans, salsa if we have the ingredients, whatever greens we have in the fridge, hopefully tomatoes.
marcella hazan's tomato sauce with butter and an onion
fried rice with crispy ginger and garlic and a fried egg happens often too. or a roast chicken. mmmmm.
My quick to throw together when things are hectic is oven fries and a scrambler. The trick for the oven fries is to soak the sliced potatoes before tossing them in olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper.
Scrambler is sautéing whatever veggies are available in the fridge, crack eggs over top, melt some cheese over everything. Easy, quick, and a family pleaser!
It was interesting to see another pasta/tuna recipe in the comments. My go-to pasta is oil-packed tuna, chopped shallots, a clove of garlic (this is for one person), 2 anchovy fillets, and some white wine. Saute the shallots, garlic and anchovy until softened. Add the tuna and the white wine and simmer slowly while the pasta cooks - I like farfale with this. Add the slighly undercooked pasta to the saute pan and toss for a few minutes. 20 mins from beginning to end and a delicious and satisfying dinner.
For fast everyday meals I love the grill. Here's a rundown of a go to grilled meal I make frequently:
I dump some lump charcoal into the Weber grill (cover half the coal grate) and light it with a weed burner. I have the grill in place so I'm cleaning the grill while lighting the charcoal. Once that's getting going (in about 2 minutes) I throw a couple red peppers on the coals. I also put a steel plate onto the grill right above the fire to get it nice and hot.
While that's going I go into the kitchen and slice a few tomatoes and onions into 1/4" to 1/2" slices, sprinkle with veal salt, pepper and drizzle with EVOO. I also sprinkle 2 steaks, usually sirloins, with salt and Guajillo pepper. Once that's done I take everything outside (grab a beer or wine on the way) and turn the peppers to char all sides if they need it. Take the peppers off the fire when done, and put in a paper bag to rest. I scrub the grill and steel plate with a grill brush and then wipe with an EVOO soaked paper towel. Throw the tomatoes and onions onto the steel plate - I don't move them at all, and let them get really burnt on one side. Once they're burnt I remove the tomatoes to a plate (uncooked side facing down) and flip the onions so they cook on both sides. I slide the steel plate across the grill so it's off the fire, and throw the steaks onto the grill directly over the fire. Flip once after a couple minutes and then take everything inside. Wash and seed the peppers, slice and mix with the onion rings. The tomatoes go on top of the steaks, burnt side up. I usually serve with some sliced French bread or rice with cilantro and scallions. Done.
One of my favorite things about this meal is that clean up consists of 2 plates, tongs, spatula, and a knife.
Since I am a strict vegetarian (vegan) and my family is not, finding something to be a staple dinner for all of us turned out to be problematic. I got away with serving Texturized Vegetable Protein (TVP) based chili and spaghetti sauce a couple of times, but the only thing that works consistently is a variation on lamacuns that I make. I may not make it weekly, but it's pretty close to it.
I hydrate the TVP and some dried mushrooms with vegetable stock that has simmered with some jalapeno chilis to give it some bite. Then I mix in minced garlic, minced onion, freshly ground coriander and cumin, a glug or two of olive oil and a good dollop of red pepper or tomato paste.
I mix that thoroughly, and put it in the fridge for a few minutes, I pre-heat the oven to 350 with one rack on the second highest position and the other right in the middle. While it's heating I split a half dozen or so pitas into single layer disks (smooth side down), and start spreading the TVP mixture on the upper surface so that it nearly reaches the edge.
When the oven's ready, I have two cookie sheets, sprayed with olive oil, ready with two pita disks on each. The first tray goes on the middle rack for 4-5 minutes then I move it to the top rack and put the second tray in. After another 4-5 minutes I pull the first tray, move the second up, unload the first, then reload it and continue that process until all of the disks have been cooked.
It sounds far more complicated than it really is. I'm so used to making this that I don't remember what the original proportions were and judge it all by eye. If you plan it right, the whole operation takes less than 20 minutes,
This is a very changeable recipe, nearly anything that you would use to top a pizza can be brought into the mix. I'm particularly fond of pitted oil-cured black olives, My wife and youngest son like to have cheese on theirs.
Give it a try. It's easy and fun.
Chicken breast that have been flattened out very thin and breaded in Panko. I quickly pan fry them and make a sauce with lemons, butter and chives. Serve this along side mashed potatoes and I have a simple meal in about 30 minutes that seems to go with any any season.
Start by cooking chopped chorizo sausage. Throw in can of chick peas drained. Add diced shallot and cherry tomatoes when in season. Red bell pepper otherwise. Diced. Finally turn up heat and toss in raw calamari. Cook on high and toss just until color changes to white (2 minutes). 1 Tbs mustard. Splash of vinegar. Serve on rice or with salad or on polenta.
A staple meal for my family is an "Italian" pasta casserole that I make. I make a meat sauce with ground beef (sometimes I make my own sauce, sometimes I use jarred), and layer it with rigatoni noodles, cottage cheese, and mozzarella cheese (fresh and bagged shredded). After assembling I heat it in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes. We ate it the other night with a sliced baguette and salad.
My go-to winter dinner is roasted vegetables -- parsnips, beets, celeriac, butternut squash, red onions, carrots, brussels sprouts, or whatever other seasonal vegetables I have on hand -- dressed with olive oil, kosher salt and home made chimichurri (basil, thyme, oregano, summer savory grown in my garden and dried with paprika and garlic salt) and some chicken cooked in a grill pan and seasoned with Penzey's Northern Woods spice. I could eat it every cold night here in Vermont!
We always have venison in the freezer so our go to is a grilled venison steak usually seasoned with just salt, pepper and butter. We have a roasted green veggie, asparagus, broccoli or brussel sprouts for a side and usually some roasted Yukon Gold potatoes with rosemary, all from our garden.
My quick go-to meals are pizza, stir fry (which is a whatever-veggies-I-have-on-hand dish) with rice, or big salad (lettuce and/or spinach + whatever I have in my refrigerator/freezer/pantry which might in any way be considered a salad ingredient).
My staple meal is a simple pasta with cream sauce. I make the noodles from scratch and cut them fettuccine-style. After cooking, they're tossed with a sauce made of heavy cream, butter, nutmeg, and Parmesan. Almost an alfredo. Depending on what's in the fridge, I throw in some sauteed leeks, crispy bacon, or smoked turkey sausage. I like to eat it with a simple salad of diced vegetables - again, whatever's at hand: tomato, carrot, cucumber, radish, snap peas, mixed with feta and olive oil/balsamic.
And wine. Lots of wine.
Kale and Cannelloni beans warm salad
I fry up 3-4 slices of bacon (diced) and let the bacon drain on a paper towel when crispy. I then dice a medium onion (any kind) and sauté in bacon fat (salt and pepper onions to taste). Drain and rinse one can of Cannelloni beans and add to onions. Add fresh chopped kale and add a few tablespoons of water to pan and cover with lid until kale is bright green and to your preferred doneness. We like ours with a little crunch left. Serve in big heaping bowls, top with bacon and add salt and pepper as desired. Garlic and white wine can also be added as well as chicken broth for a soupier or wetter warm kale salad.
Thank you for this generous offer, and for encouraging your readers to share their favorites. How interesting! Mine is a French green lentil soup with Indian spices made with onion, garlic, fresh ginger, good homemade stock, carrot and lots of spinach (the spinach is organic frozen). Sometimes I add whatever other vegetables are on hand that seem to fit, e.g., cauliflower florettes, pieces of Blue Lake beans, etc. I serve it with phulka roti made fresh by me while the soup is simmering. (Roti is a small Indian flatbread that puffs up beautifully when cooked for about two minutes on a hot griddle. I buy generic uncooked roti in quantity from an Indian grocer.) If I have roasted butternut squash on hand -- as I usually do this time of year, either in the freezer or the fridge -- I make red lentil (masoor dal) soup with Indian spices and the squash, served with raita and a leaf lettuce salad that typically includes toasted nuts and persimmon, apple or pear slices. If I'm out of roti, I toast some of my homemade bread. We eat one of the two lentil soups described above at least once every ten days from October through April or May. And we never get tired of either of them. ;o)
My go to weekday meal is a meat sauce made with hot italian sausage served over radiatorre pasta. All of the ingredients are usually in my pantry save the sausage and the butcher a block away has that. I'm excited that with my new meat grinder that I got for xmas, I can start making my own sausage and skip the butcher trip as well.
While the sauce takes about an hour to simmer, the actual hands on cooking time is only about 15 minutes. As an added bonus, the recipe is from my girlfriend's mother, so it's a good comfort food for her to have waiting on the table after a hard day's work.
My second go to meal is a green chile risotto (adapted from the Pink Adobe cookbook) served with a southwestern chicken breast. Since I buy a bushel of hatch chiles every year and keep them in the freezer, this is another dish I usually have the ingredients for without shopping.
A favorite around here is curry night. It happens about every other Tuesday. Typically it is a chicken dish such as a murghi makhani (butter chicken) or chicken tikka masala . . . you'll see these two things on a menu and they're pretty much the same thing. I always use chicken thighs because it's pretty hard to overcook them. Debone and skin them in the morning, cube them, marinate them in yogurt, garam masala, ginger, garlic, salt, and hot indian red pepper all day. Make up a tomato cream sauce with out of the ordinary things like kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) and spices that we might consider "pie spices" in this country cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. Serve with basmati rice and naan---or onion kulchas if you can find them. To really take it to the next level serve a pakora, a vegetable (our favorite is cauliflower) deep fried in a chick pea flour batter. It's a little slice of heaven . . . or maybe nirvana is more appropriate here.
I have two staples:
Chicken Paprikash, Mom's recipe. Chicken w/ bones, onion, red or green pepper, an obscene amount of paprika, and a smidge of sour cream. Served with homemade galushka (Hungarian dumplings/spaetzle) and cucumber vinegar salad. Takes an hour to cook (I keep galushka in freezer ready to go) with maybe 20 minutes of actual work.
2nd staple is a Kale Quinoa "salad" or maybe it's more of a casserole. But I steam the kale, throw it in with cooked quinoa, add lemon zest and juice, walnuts, and goat cheese. Healthy and delicious.
A few staples:
1. Pasta Carbonara plus Veg. I always have pancetta on hand, chop it and fry it up while prepping accompanying veg. Slivers of kale, or brussel sprouts work well, tossed into the pan with the pancetta fat. The easiest cheat of all is once the pasta is nearly done is to toss a few handfuls of petite frozen peas into the pasta water before you drain it - let it cook no more than one minute drain and continue as usual for pasta carbornara.
2. Good sausages (this is where a good butcher comes in), browned in the pan while some vert du puy lentils cook. Bitter greens salad on the side.
3. Ultimate quick, feed the child: Migas! Granted these are bastardized migas, but this is how I do it. Tear up fresh corn tortillas and cook them in a pan with a sprinkle of salt while you beat the eggs. Add a spoonful of salsa to the eggs if you have it. Pour the eggs over the tortilla pieces and scramble together til nearly cooked. This is now an opportunity to fold in complementary leftovers and extend them (roast chicken, bits of steak, some chopped chorizo, black beans). While this is cooking prep some fresh avocado, a bit of a salsa with what you have on hand, maybe a bit of cheese or even a drizzle of creme fraiche for the top. Tip the eggs out of the pan and top them off and enjoy. A very filling meal that easily extends what wouldn't have been enough for one or two people.
For many years, my go-to pantry meal was red beans and rice with kielbasa, from Penzey's. Assuming one has kielbasa, it's quick and easy and makes a lot.
However, then we started buying 10-15 pounds of varied meats from a grass-fed farm, and no more kielbasa. Woez!
So at this point my easy meal is probably pasta with veg, and with chops or steaks along with it.
Now, if I have a bit more time, I do casseroles like lasagna, enchiladas, moussaka, etc. These are great because they make roughly 8 servings.
Our staple is roast chicken - but served in a special way.
It's basically Keller's simple roast chicken - bathed and rubbed down in olive oil and copious amounts of salt. It's usually brined - thanks to you and Charcutepalooza - but occasionally not. Roasted at 485 for about an hour and 10 minutes. That usually makes a perfect chicken with my oven, without smoke.
But here's where it gets special - I make a really simple pan sauce with the juices. I just stick the roasting pan on the burner, add a big knob of butter, thyme, wine (sometimes), garlic, salt, simmer, and pour it all in a bowl. I break the chicken down into chunks - crispy skin and "the popes nose" for David and Edie, reserved chunks of breast for Lucy - set it on a wooden board with the bowl of sauce and bring it to the living room coffee table. No flatware, no plates, just a roll of paper towels to wipe our chins. We sit around the table, dipping chunks of chicken into the sauce and eating it, quite messily, with our fingers. It is chaotic and raucous affair, but the kids always gobble it up. Sometimes we add a salad for David and I, sometimes french fries dipped in sauce for the kids. Someone might grab the brown mustard out of the fridge door. But usually the chicken is just the thing. It's its own thing. The main event. It needs nothing else.
If you come to our house and ask the kids what they want to eat, this is what they'll always want. if you make them roast chicken without the sauce, they won't be happy. It will be like the world stopped spinning or something. They'll ask you to go back in the kitchen and make them some sauce.
It isn't roast chicken without the sauce, without the fingers, without the mess. We have this dinner at least once a week, twice if we require a little more comfort.
Hope that illuminates, Michael. 🙂
Kim
My go to meal is chicken adobo on white rice. Marinated overnight in garlic, soy sauce and white vinegar, stewed in the marinade and water with some garlic and potato.
1. Staple meal for myself, assuming the husband and roommate aren't home: caprese salad with fresh mozz, chopped Romas, and chiffonaded basil, with lots of roasted-garlic olive oil, flaked salt, black pepper...and shrimp simply boiled with tons of garlic and Old Bay. Serve with crusty bread.
2. Staple meal for all of us: Chipotle-katsu chicken breasts. Chicken breasts pounded to even thickness, salt/pepper/cumin, painted with an even layer of chipotle mustard, rolled in panko crumbs, and sauteed in vegetable oil until nicely browned and crispy. Served with cilantro rice (add leftover cilantro stems to water before cooking rice) and a green salad with sesame-soy dressing. Twenty minutes, start to finish, and beating the chicken breasts flat is a GREAT way to work out some aggression after a bad day at work.
Geez, that's unbleevaible. Kudos and such.
My go-to staple is Adobong Manok, or in English, Philippine Chicken Adobo. I have yet to meet the person who does not rave about the simple combination of chicken, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, and bay laurel. To my surprise, in his later years, my father began telling all his friends whenever the opportunity arose that I made the best Adobo ever. My father being Filipino, you can imagine this was something of a source of embarrassment to me, as every Filipino household has its own version of Adobo, or so it would seem.
My basic recipe is 1 c. vinegar, 1 c. Kikkoman shoyu (imported from Japan, the kind that uses alcohol as the preservative, rather than the sodium benozate preserved US-brewed version), 1 head of garlic, peeled and smashed, 1 tsp. black peppercorns, cracked coarsely, 4 bay leaves, and just a touch of Filipino patis (fish sauce, Rufina brand, from Malabon, the neighborhood where my father's family lived and still lives, as my family has always used).
Throw that all in a pot with a cut-up chicken or 2-4 lbs. or so of chicken parts, cover, bring it to a boil, reduce heat, and let it simmer until the chicken is done, usually about 45 minutes to an hour, checking periodically to make sure the liquid hasn't all boiled off, adding water as necessary to keep the sauce from getting too salty, and turning the chicken parts if they're not fully submerged. If I am feeling particularly indulgent, I may add a can of coconut milk at the end to make it Adobong Manok sa Gata (chicken adobo with coconut milk), although I seem to be the only one in my family that isn't afraid of coconut milk.
This results in a soupy sort of Adobo that I am told is representative of the style common in the Manila region, although having been born in New York City and not having had extensive contact with other Filipino families, I'm sure I wouldn't know about that. What I do know is that my father loved it, I love it, and everyone I've ever served it to has loved it.
My favorite way to serve it is with steamed long grain white rice on the side, and broiled pineapple with palm sugar or brown sugar, and fresh cut mango and bananas drizzled with a bit of calamansi juice, or lime if I haven't got that, since calamansi isn't exactly common in the US.
If you like, you may peruse my cheeky version of the recipe at my blog at http://gemmaseymour.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/my-adobo-is-totes-better-than-your-moms/
This is a simple dish, but a delicious one, that I would not hesitate to serve at even the most elegant banquet, as it is considered to be the national dish of the Philippines, and representative of Filipino cuisine. Yet, it is the quintessence of Filipino home cooking, and as evocative of home to a Filipino as the Ratatouille served by Rémy, Linguini, and Colette was to Anton Ego in the famous movie of the same name.
Gumbo!
There's nothing like the smell of a roux simmering on the stove to whip up your appetite! Throw in chopped onions, bell peppers, and garlic and that smell is amped way up, perfect for enticing the senses for the upcoming bounty. Gumbo is marvelous in its versatility: it can be made with any on-hand frozen stock (seafood, beef, chicken) and can include a single meat or many, each adding its own flavor to the mix. Served with rice, it is a meal unto itself. With crusty, fresh-baked bread -- heaven!
Being the single med student type, I don't always have a lot of time to anything that takes more than a half hour. I'm sleepy a lot of times when I get home, ok? I do however, throw together something I grew up with regularly - rice, sardines and tomatoes. I'll throw rice in a pot with water and salt and let that cook. Cut up some tomatoes and toss together with salt, vinegar (varies by what I feel like pulling out), olive oil and shredded basil. Once the rice is cooked, I'll throw it on a plate with the tomato salad and open up a tin or jar of sardines. Sometimes I'll also dice up a bell pepper.
Sausage and onions.
I get some sausage (haven't made my own but its on the list of this year's experiments) carmelize some onions nice and slow and toss them together, while the sausage finishes.
I work at a bakery and get home around 3am so time is a big hurdle. Most nights I even carmelize the onions before I go to work and reheat them in pan with a table spoon of butter.
The onions perfume the air and the promise of a cold beer, sausage and onions (with mushrooms when I can afford them) feeds the soul.
we often have pasta because the kids love it. Either with a quick sauce bolognese or with some shrimps. Fry ground meat (or shrimps cut into small pieces) with garlic and onions, then add 2 cans of tomatoes. Let simmer for 10-20 minutes, add some herbs and spices (i usually add frozen parsley - always available and a big time saver). while the sauce is simmering you can cook the spaghetti and you're done.
Gotta be an easy pureed soup.
Leek & potato is our favorite (simmered in water, salt, pepper), butternut squash is a close #2 (microwave any hearty squash, then sautee with onion; add stock or water, season), & winter greens with caramelized onions and garlic is moving up the list (grown year-round in Ohio right up against the house in a cheap make-shift cold frame).
All are super cheap, adaptable, vegan, and can be made with stuff in the cellar or picked from the garden. They're also impressive enough to use for entertaining.
Best staple weekday meal? In my house, it’s know as -- LOTs! (Left Over Tacos)
Weekends are when I do most of my cooking. Busy jobs, kids’ homework – all require a bit of preplanning for weekday meals. When the weather cooperates (another challenge here in north east Ohio), I use my smoker on the weekend, and stockpile low and slow cooked meats for the week. Which brings me to “LOTs” – one of my families favorites. Here’s a recent version:
• Left over pulled pork
• Flour tortillas
• Salsa (quick, homemade when tomatoes are in season)
• Guacamole – really just some quickly chunked/mashed avocado with a few other ingredients
• Shredded cheddar
• Cilantro (fresh!)
• Black beans (another dish cooked in advance in large quantities, and stored for later use
Easy to prep and heat everything on a weekday evening. Family time spent assembling soft tacos from dishes of “fixens” spread out on the table. Versatile – we’ve done this with the left over pulled pork, smoked and pulled chuck roast (or leftover pot roast), smoked brisket, and smoked or roasted chicken.
So that’s our families favorite weekday stable meal – preplanned leftover tacos – “LOTs!”
Since I'm usually just cooking for one...gotta go with chicken breasts (salt, fresh cracked pepper, garlic, and thyme--quick saute in a pan with some olive oil) and roasted baby Yukon potatoes (roasted at 425 with lots of fresh cracked pepper, several cloves of garlic, and some rosemary and olive oil)--hit the suds with salt when they leave the oven and a good time is had by all. It's a twenty-five minute meal from start to finish!
Pasta! I love to take grape tomatoes with some garlic and olive oil, broil it all and toss with whatever pasta I have around (spaghetti most of the time). It's super easy, packs a bunch of flavour and is almost unbelievably satisfying.
I salt and pepper chicken thighs (bone in and skin on) and rub them with a little olive oil. I put them in the oven at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour. When they come out, the skin is like chicken bacon it's so crisp. While they're in the oven, I make a pot of rice pilaf and either a salad or whatever vegetable is in the fridge.
I do this too, in big batches, and carefully deglaze the pan and save the juices, which turn into chicken jelly when refrigerated; that half cup or so of wonderfulness is just right for giving added flavor to rice, pasta, or whatever...
Wraps filled with leftover meat/chicken/bacon and lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream.
Or I will make rice in the ricemaker and you put on it what you can find in the fridge. Last week we had royal blend rice with leftover chicken, corn, black beans. Grated some cheese on top, served with salsa, sour cream, olives.
I always have the wherewithal to rustle up Spagetti Carbonara for my husband and I, usually on a Monday night since here in Paris most fresh markets are closed that day: some dried pasta, a bit of pancetta (or bacon, in a pinch), a slug of white wine or Marsala, a good grating parmesan, an egg or two and some freshly ground pepper.
Otherwise, if I have a ripe avocado handy, it’s an avocado, cut in half, pit removed, a bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar dribbled into each cavity, then seasoned with salt and pepper, followed by some kind of omelet and a green salad.
Cut a couple of potatoes into wedges, cut an onion or two into wedges, if you have a red or green pepper cut it into large pieces. Toss them all with olive oil and a clove or two of garlic, and whatever herbs you like/have. Put them on a roasting pan and into the oven at 350 for 30 minutes. Then add a couple of Italian sausages (we use a locally made "Sicilian" sausage that comes in a coil), and roast for another half hour.
Pop open a couple of beers while it's cooking and a couple more when it's done.
Right now, it's soup. Usually pureed soups of sweet potatoes, carrots, or soup from leftover chicken is a weekly appearance for us, usually paired with some garlic toast.
During warmer months, we grill almost nightly, which means using various meat cuts from our CSA, paired with grilled green beans or asparagus. My summer lunch staple, usually daily is tomato and mayo sandwiches. So good.
Love this thread! Something like three weeks of meal ideas lifted!
Mine is pot roast, usually done in the slow cooker. With Scouts, sports, church and everything else, meals that can be ready when people pass though is great. It hits the big three rules of busy night dinners:
1: Prep is limited and can be done night before.
2: Kids can do steps when they get home from school.
3: Can be left alone and people can eat when they pass through.
Prep:
>Thaw (if necessary) and brown up chuck roasts.(Usually takes two to feed everyone and have leftovers.)
>Add the slow cooker with liquid (wine, Guinness, coffee)
>Add onions, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and what ever else strikes your fancy.
Make it a Meal:
Add veggies and/or potatoes when kids get home.
Or make noodles, rice, couscous or whatever.
Make a salad
If time, use the bread machine to make rolls. (Though last time we did this, my 15year old hauled out the KitchenAid and was going old school).
Leftovers end up as lunches and soup.
David Chang's ginger-scallion sauce, noodles, roasted cauliflower with quick pickles.
Spanish tortilla - cook a couple diced potatoes slowly in a lot of olive oil in a small skillet. Drain and stir in to 3 beaten eggs in a bowl. Saute some onions, spanish chorizo if I've got it, frozen peas or whatever is in the fridge. Stir this in with the eggs and potatoes and let sit for a few minutes so the heat from the veggies and potatoes sets the eggs slightly. Heat a little of the left over olive oil almost to smoking in the same skillet. Throw the whole mixture in the skillet and cook til golden on both sides flipping a couple of times. Perfect quick dinner for two.
Shakshuka!
It's so versatile--as long as you have some onions, garlic, a can of tomatoes and some eggs, you can really throw anything at it. The most standard version, and the one I make the most, has diced jalapeno peppers in it.
It's simple--saute the onions and jalapenos, then season however you like and add in the garlic. Then, pour the entire can of tomatoes into the skillet (crushing the tomatoes if they aren't yet) and after it's simmered for a while, crack as many eggs as you'd like into the tomato, essentially poaching them in the sauce. If you want, top with some cheese, and then grab some pita and have at it. Cheap and easy. And delicious.
Hoisin Porkchops with Rice.
First, two cups of rice in cooker, followed by searing two boneless porkchops over high heat. Then we take the porkchops off, let them rest for a bit, then slice them and let them sit in a bowl with hoisin, sherry vinegar, honey, and sriracha. When the rice is done, everything goes back into the pan to reduce a bit, then the pork and sauce is served over the rice in a bowl. It's a great meal to do on autopilot, and it's sooo good.
It's porkchops for me, they are cheap and easy and tasty. I rub thin boneless chops with a crushed clove of garlic clove and season with salt and pepper. Then I dredge them in flour and pan fry over high heat in olive oil and butter. I usually have them with a baked potato or maybe a quick salad.
Pasta and roasted vegetables with salad is our staple these days. when my kids were young, we had pasta almost every night - often with a steamed vegetable on the side, sometimes with sauce, other times with plain grated cheese, always with a salad or cut up raw veggies. When we no longer had kids at home, I began messing around with roasted vegetables. One day, I paired cut up roasted vegetables with fusilli, added a salad and our new favorite staple meal was born. No need for sauce - just the oil from roasting, salt, pepper, and a bit of good grated cheese. I use all kinds of vegetables. Cut into medium sized pieces, they take less than 1/2 hour at 450 degrees or so. Roasted onions and whole cloves of garlic are amazing when mashed up. The meal is easy to throw together and there are infinite variations, depending on the vegetables available. After experimenting with your fantastic roasted cauliflower, I started adding cauliflower to my roasted vegetable repertoire. It's a great weeknight dinner because you can cut the vegetables and prepare the salad the night before. Arriving home in the evening, the vegetables roast and the pasta boils while you change clothes and set the table. Sit down to this meal with a good glass of wine and some nice music or good conversation - you'll hardly remember the rough spots in your day!
When the weather turns cold, as it finally did this week in NYC, I think of split pea soup. I can make it while my 2-year old colors at the kitchen table--simply chopping an onion, a couple of carrots and celery stalks and a few garlic cloves, and after a nice saute in olive oil (with a generous shake of smoked paprika and curry powder), I toss my dried peas, ham hock and broth/water into the pot with a handful of fresh herbs. Dinner on the stove in under 20 minutes, and an hour to play with the kiddo as it bubbles away.
(and the leftovers are better the following day)
- Marcella Hazen's San marzano tomatoe sauce w/pasta
- Mapo tofu
- Omelet w/whatever's in the fridge
- Chicken thighs (or legs) w/cut up potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions (veggies can vary) olives tossed in olive oil and baked on high heat in a cast iron pan
When I first started cooking, I picked up this recipe from the new Joy of Cooking book and I still use it as one of my go-to's: take chicken breasts, pounds them out to an even consistency, season them with salt/pepper, lightly dredge them in flour, saute them in 4 tablespoons butter and 4 tablespoons olive oil for approximately 4 minutes each side. Easy, quick and tasty.
I always have corn tortillas, so my quick go-to meal is tacos. Sometimes I use beans, but more often it's with whatever vegetables are hanging around. It's a great vegetarian/vegan meal (although I am neither). I'll either prepare the veggies fajita style (sautee with sliced onion, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika) or in the manner of refried beans (sautee with diced red onion and jalapeno, mash with a little bit of water, and stir in some cheese). A scoop of veggie mixture goes into each warm tortilla and is topped with any of the following, depending on what I have on hand: cilantro, sliced radish, cabbage, lettuce, tomato, avocado, salsa. I recently made some delicious butternut squash tacos using the refried bean method.
Our usual go-to weeknight meal, and one we eat almost once a week is just a plain chicken soup. We are both dark meat eaters, but prefer buying whole chickens (for the stock of course!), so there are almost always chicken breasts in the freezer. Diced chicken simmered in stock with whatever veggies we happen to have on hand. We add dried noodles, rice, or if we are feeling slightly more ambitious, we whip up a batch of korean hand torn noodles (from maangchi's sujebi recipe), which are quick and easy to throw together, and make for a particularly hearty soup.
Salmon filets, gently poached in a bit of olive oil seasoned with a garlic clove and peppercorns, in a low 200ish oven. Sauteed veg on the side... brussles sprouts have been the veg-du-jour recently.
I'd have to go with some grilled chicken breasts. They are my go-to staple. Season them up with a little bit of salt and pepper and maybe some olive oil and go to town with a topping. Usually, I can clean out my crisper by making a fresh salsa, with some tomatoes, peppers, onion and cilantro (which are always in the house). Other times when I'm feeling the need for some comfort food throw some goat cheese, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes on there and you're in heaven.
Since my husband's heart by-pass surgery, I try to serve fish twice a week. He loves spicy things,so I make up big batches of artichoke caponata and puttanesca and divide them up into small freezer containers. Depending on the fish purchased at the fish store, one of these sauces will be served with it ( usually halibut, grouper or swordfish) which has been grilled or pan sauteed. First, we always have a mixed green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, red onion and beans (usually black) tossed with my home-made shallot/garlic vinaigrette. Veggies (whatever looked good at the store) cooked in the microwave are served on the side. The second fish we always have is salmon. My favorite way to prepare that is to coat it with a mixture of equal parts Dijon and maple syrup and then roll it in finely chopped pecans and pan saute. Michael, we love Cleveland; we used to live in Chagrin Falls.
Our staple meals at home are either pasta tossed with olive oil and whatever vegetables or leftovers we have on hand - tomatoes, bell peppers, chicken, shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, etc. - or roasted chicken with lemon and roasted potatoes with whole cloves of garlic. To me, there is nothing better than that soft, buttery, sweet roasted garlic.
At least once a week we braise garlic, chickpeas, and kale and mix it with pasta and a squeeze of lemon. This is one of my easiest winter meals.
pasta with garlic, olive oil, parsley and anchovies!
I'm italian, I live in milan. for us (two adults and a kid) spaghetti tomato, basil and ricotta and then catalogna with oil and garlic.
Linguini or Spaghetti Carbonara
I started making this regularly during my pediatric residency. I would get home after being on call all night and would want something breafasty but also closer to lunchtime. It may have orignally been a Mario Batali recipe and also from research online. Later, when I made it for my wife, I added peas and mushrooms, which makes it more substantial. I ususually have bacon in portions in the freezer for this purpose and ocassionally find good pancetta which makes it even better.
I just boil the pasta in well salted water and while I am waiting, chop the bacon or pancetta finely, saute with a few cloves of crushed garlic and pepper.add mushrooms after the bacon is crisp. I usually do the peas in the microwave since I always have frozen peas on hand. I toss the peas in the pan at the end. The add the bacon mix to the hot pasta and toss with beaten eggs and good parmagiano-regianno in a bowl or off heat. , add salt if needed and lots of fresh ground pepper. very authentic and quick. I hate when restaurants make carbonara with a cream sauce, more like an alfredo. Itis all about the bacon and the cheese. cant use cheese from the green can.
Pretty much every Friday (we do our shopping on Saturday) is Clean-Out-the-Fridge Stirfry ("COFS"?). A quick chop of any leftover veggies and examination of cooked leftovers to see if they make the cut (usually this is how I use up the leftover chicken I roasted earlier in the week). Then putting my nonstick wok on high heat with a little coconut oil. Dumping in ingredients in order of cooking time (longest to shortest). As they cook, I stir up a sauce of fish sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and a spoon of sugar and separately beat an egg (or up to 4 depending on whether there is other protein). After all my veggies are in (and have had time to sit idly so as to develop a mild char), I make a well in the center and toss in the egg(s), letting them sizzle for a few seconds before folding the veggies over them (so the egg doesn't coat the veggies but instead there are discernable eggy bits). Then as soon as the egg is mostly cooked (no more shiny liquid), I make a well again and put in the sauce. The sugar bubbles and caramelizes (making the nonstick part of the wok especially useful) and I again fold my other ingredients from the sides of the wok through the sauce (pouring the sauce over top the ingredients waters it down and inhibits the caramelization), moving quickly to prevent a burning situation on the bottom. As soon as the sauce is well dispersed, it's time to eat!
Tempeh tacos--we're not vegetarians, but generally eat meat-free most of the week.
I like to start with half of a big onion, sliced, caramelized (the other half is for raw onion taco stuffings), then add a bunch more oil (tempeh really seems to absorb it) and break up the tempeh into the same pan and put some minced garlic in at the same time and season with salt (kosher/ing). Once it’s where you want it to be (warmed and a little browned), add the taco seasoning: usually I do a LOT of cumin, some cayenne, oregano, turmeric, coriander, smoked paprika, and salt. So add the seasoning and some water and mix it up and let it all come together. Sometimes we mix it with rice, sometimes not. Use the shells of your choice, and have the regular fixins ready—lately I’ve been salting the chopped tomatoes and microplaning (that’s a verb, right?) a clove of garlic into them a good 10 mins before serving. It’s amazing. Black beans are good mixed into the “meat” too. The secret to tempeh is the oil I mentioned.
Teriyaki grilled chicken breasts, brown rice and stir fried broccoli. Brine chicken breasts for 30 minutes. Get rice going in rice cooker (I soak it for 15 minutes before turning it on - 2 to 1 ratio water to rice). Turn on grill to preheat. Cut up broccoli florets and stems. Rinse and dry chicken. Throw on grill. Turn in 5 minutes and douse with good teriyaki sauce (I sometimes make my own, but often just go with Soy Vay). Chicken is done in 10 minutes. Tent with foil. Stir fry broccoli in hot skillet with canola (or olive) and a touch of toasted sesame oil. Add onions and red bell peppers if I'm in the mood and/or they need to be used up. Sprinkle with mix of salt/pepper/garlic. Throw on a few sesame seeds at the end. Somehow, this is just the best comfort meal in our house. Healthy. Filling. And done in less than an hour, with 1/2 of that time unattended brining.
We eat pork shoulder almost every week. It's inexpensive, easy to cook, and normally makes for two nights worth of meals.
My method of preparation for the shoulder is pretty simple. I season the meat, and roast it. I like to roast it in a large pot or dutch oven (lid on) with a steamer basket inserted and an inch of water or so in the bottom. 250-300 degrees is fine and time varies depending on the size of the meat.
Our most common use of the pork is for tacos or burritos. The key to awesome tacos is the tortillas; you have to make them yourself. There's no real secret to making great tortillas. The ingredients are flour, lard, salt, a pinch of baking powder and water. Consult the internet or local Mexican friend for further advice.
For the meat, I pull apart some of the pork shoulder, season it with some expected spices (coriander, cumin, dried chilies etc) and crisp it up in a little pork fat. Then slam it on a tortilla with some lettuce or cabbage, avocado, and chipotle mayo (canned chipotles, mayo, sour cream, lime juice, cilantro).
The second night I like to make a rendition on a sichuan double cooked pork recipe. The leftover pork is sliced thick and pan fried in oil until it's crispy, then tossed in a sauce of fermented black bean paste, chili paste, garlic, ginger, and soy. I like it with stir fried cabbage and white rice (and maybe some fried egg on top).
Frittata. Always my go-to when time and energy are lacking. Potatoes, onions, cooked in my cast iron skillet with whatever vegetables and/or meat are in the fridge (I love chard and bacon). Add 4-5 eggs, cook until set on the bottom, top with cheese and finish under the broiler. With a salad, it's what's for dinner about once a week.
Our go-to meal is spaghetti with Patricia Wells' Light Basil Sauce which is a pesto made without the nuts or the cheese. This dish takes about 10 minutes to make, provided the sauce has been prepared ahead of time and frozen in small portions. I start with a pot of water on the stove. Take out the basil sauce/pesto and put it on the stovetop, next to the heating water so that it thaws by the time the pasta is cooked. While the pasta cooks, I take a large bowl and whisk together 2 egg yolks, ~1 cup of fresh Parm Reg (grated on a microplane) and ~1/4 cup of thawed basil sauce. Save some pasta water. Drain the cooked pasta briefly, add to the mixing bowl, and toss gently and thoroughly. Add more salt or pasta water, if needed. Serve immediately with a side of steamed veggies and some bread.
It's a delicious quick meal that is almost decadent as it is simple.
Spaghetti a la Lessa
A staple dish in 3 generations of my family. Over time, each of us put our stamp on it. Mom took out the canned mushrooms, I took out the jar of ragu....
Butter and grapeseed oil in a sauce pan over medium heat
Saute 1-3 onions sliced
Add 4 stalks of fine chopped celery and cook until you have amber color edges
Add minced fresh garlic ( I use two pods per person if I am sharing, half a large head if not)
When garlic smell dominates, add red wine and stir (about a 1/2 cup)
Scrape the bottom of pan and stir until all the crispy bits come up.
Pour in your favourite brand of canned 1/4'd tomatoes x2
Add 2 cans of tomato sauce. I use 16 oz cans of each.
Add dried or fresh herbs here
I use oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder if needed.
Cook over low heat while water boils.
Cook noodles in salted water ( about a tbs)
Pour sauce over noodles. Top with your favourite cheese. ( I looooove
asiago)
Should take appr. 30 mins.
Go! Cook!
We are a small family (2 adults and a 13 yo). My kitchen is gluten-free and fairly "paleo-ish with grass-fed dairy". My husband and I also eat fairly low carb. I avoid using many packaged factory foods, though I do use create my own conveniences - like storing partially cooked chopped bacon, chopped onions, peeled whole garlic cloves, diced celery, etc., in the freezer in zip bags. I find this strategy very useful & economical when I'm pressed for time, when I just need a small amount, and when I have more of something than I can use before it spoils.
Most weeks I make a large "clean-out-the-fridge" frittata, usually on Monday night, because a) Mondays are often hectic days and I sometimes don't have pre-dinner prep time earlier in the day, b) Monday is the day I pick up the local "backyard" eggs, and c) using up meat & veg leftovers creates fridge space for our CSA produce box, which arrives on Tuesday. Because the CSA contents change with the seasons, the frittata changes, too, never becoming boring. Additionally, a frittata is an economical way to provide the family with a nourishing off-the-cuff meal everyone likes (or at least tolerates) and once the basic concept is learned, is nearly as fast to get on the table as a roundtrip for take-out. I also like to make frittata on nights when I know that we aren't all eating at the same time, as it's as delicious hot out of the oven as it is just slightly warm or even cold. Slices reheat easily for latecomers, too.
Preheat the oven to 350°F, then start cooking chopped onions & garlic in ghee or bacon fat in an oven-safe fry pan (cast iron or carbon steel). Whatever veggies I'm using are quickly chopped into small pcs and either added to the onions while they cook (such as cooked veggies or potatoes, leftover meat), steamed al dente if necessary, or just washed, trimmed & cut (greens) - it depends on if they are really dense, already cooked leftovers, etc.). While the pan ingredients continue to cook or heat up, I break 8-12 eggs into a bowl or blender pitcher, add half & half or heavy cream, whatever spices & dried herbs I'm using, then whisk or blend to mix. If using grated cheese, that is stirred into the egg mixture (reserving 1/2 cup) after blending, as well as chopped parsley if I have it. When the filling ingredients are cooked enough and hot I pour them into the egg mixture (scraping the pan well to remove any stuck bits) and gently stir everything together. If the pan is not full of stuck bits I use that again or start with a clean pan, but I make sure the pan is hot enough for just a little sizzle sound (medium-ish heat setting) and there is ample hot fat (ghee, butter, or bacon drippings) in it. Pour in the egg mixture and let it cook undisturbed a minute. Using a silicone scraper spatula, start out cooking like for scrambled eggs, lifting & pushing cooked egg up and to the center to let the liquid flow to the pan bottom & edges, but not trying to break the eggs too much into little curds. When it's about half cooked and partially solid but still very wet, I turn the heat off, pat the eggs into a single uniform pie shape, top with the reserved grated cheese, and put into the pre-heated oven. I set the timer for 10 minutes. Often that's just the right amount of baking time, but sometimes it needs 5-10 minutes more (but partially cooking on the stovetop greatly reduces the baking time overall). I check every 5 minutes. The frittata is ready when it puffs up all the way to the the center of the pan (not just the perimeter) and the top is starting to turn golden (it quickly deflates when removed from the oven). If the cheese on the op isn't quite melted and bubbly enough, a minute or two with the broiler setting takes care of that. After removing the pan from the oven (be sure to wrap a thick towel or place a handle cover over the hot handle - ask me how I know), let the frittata sit while rinsing & spinning the salad or tending to other things (a glass of wine & checking email?). Resting a few minutes allows the frittata to steam in the pan a little, making the crustless egg mixture less likely to stick to the pan bottom when cutting slices, though the first slice sometimes isn't as cleanly cut as the rest ;-). Use a sharp knife to cut and a thin spatula to remove the slices.
Usually there is a serving or two of frittata left over, taking care of breakfast or lunch for one of us the next day. Typically I put out creme fraiche to top the frittata (a dab of fish roe is really nice if I have any). I serve the frittata with a tossed leaf lettuce salad and sometimes a pot of quick pureed cream-of-vegetable soup or a simple steamed and buttered vegetable or chopped greens side dish.
My basic "clean-out-the-fridge" soup pattern is similar to the frittata (sometimesI start with one pan and then divide for soup and frittata); saute onions & garlic in ghee, whatever CSA greens or other veggies need consuming are prepped and added with homemade chicken bone broth (dry white wine & water if I'm out of broth); puree in the pot with the stick blender when veggies are soft enough (or in a Vitamix blender if I want it really smooth); add anywhere from 1/4 cup to a pint or so of heavy cream, SS & BP to taste; bring back up to temperature, garnish with some creme fraiche or grated cheese & chopped parsley).
againstthegrain at me dot com
I make a
Greek Roast Chicken from a receipe I found in Savour Magazine. Oven preheat to 425, salt and pepper leg quarters, dredge in flour. Brown in oven safe skillet add alittle wine some rosemary, sage or thyme, boild down and throw in over covered for 45 min. Add some couscous and a salad, tada, dinner. Good enough to have once a week with a good spice rotation..
In an effort to keep a lean food budget I only cook full meals twice a week on Thursday and Sunday. Mondays are reserved for left overs, Tuesdays we have breakfast for dinner, Wednesday is either soup or soba noodles.
But my go to dinner which my son adores are breakfast burritos that can be whipped up in a matter of minutes while I'm make his lunch for the next day. A simple mix of sausage, cubed potatoes (sprinkled with Tony's seasoning is a must), scrambled eggs, onion, roasted green chile (which I carry tons back to Chicago everytime I go home to New Mexico) topped with salsa and cheese. Very filling and cheap and a definite taste of home that can be enjoyed every week forever.
Chickpeas, garlic olive oil salt in their own cooking broth. Serve with a nice loaf of bread and a salad. The kids love it. Even had it for lunch today.
In my efforts to expand my repertoire of whole grains, I usually make some version of a grain salad utilizing whatever leftovers I may have. One week may be wheatberries with leftover roast chicken, some roasted cauliflower, rosemary, dried cranberries, and a mustardy vinaigrettte. Another week may be quinoa with shrimp, scallion, pepper, cilantro, etc.
Depending on the day, we either forage in the freezer for something (currently, I've got homemade burritos, lasagna, ratatouille, roast pork and a variety of soups in single-serving sizes plus several quarts of soup), make clear-out-the-fridge soup (most recently: leftover cooked sausage, a bit of marinara, the rest of a quart of chicken stock, red beans and some almost-past-its-prime baby spinach), or some sort of quick pasta - usually with lots of fresh herbs in the summer, or with lemon and garlic in the winter.
Shrimp and Grits - and depending what I have in the refrigerator depends on style - Andouille Sausage and a fried Egg on top for Cajun, Diced Jalapeno and Chorizo for Mexican, Bacon and Cheese for Low Country style. Grits are always cooked with chicken stock. Its the ulimate comfort food...winter or summer!
Usually something Vietnamese - shaking beef if there's beef to work work, over rice or greens, or clay pot caramelized catfish or shrimp if there's seafood in the fridge. They all come together in like 20 minutes but have nice, complex flavors from the oyster sauce, lime juice, and fish sauce, and taste like they take a lot longer. Especially with the rice maker to handle the rice portion of the meal, it's all very convenient.
Roast chicken would be another staple, followed up by enchiladas with the leftover chicken the next night.
Fusilli with tuna, tomato and capers. It's built on a foundation of pantry staples we always have on hand - good quality canned tuna (we like Wild Planet or American Line Caught), gently crushed canned plum tomatoes (our own or good store-bought ones) and dry pasta - and I like to add nonpareil capers, a hit of red chile flakes, and fresh lemon juice and zest to perk things up a bit. The sauce is ready in the time it takes the pasta to cook, and it's hearty without being heavy.
I broil some frozen scallops with salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil, and copious amounts of fresh spinach. Toss with pasta. Delicious!
Every Monday is soup night. I have a long day on Monday and mustering up more energy to cook after already having cooked all day (I am a personal chef) is nearly impossible. So every Sunday, I pull some bones out of the freezer. I just use whatever happens to be left over from a roast we had some other night during the previous week...sometimes the bones are chicken, sometimes turkey or pheasant, sometimes beef, and even ham every once in a while, it matters little to me. I just throw the bones into a stock pot with water and turn on the gas. When that has simmered a while, I add vegetables, sometimes sauteed, sometimes not. I often like to put wild rice into my soups. For my at-home soups, I never have follow a recipe so every soup is a little different, but they are all healthful and flavorful and they ensure that not much goes to waste in my kitchen. Even my non-foodie husband now turns his nose up at canned soup. Canned goods can't even come close to the weakest from-scratch improvisation! It is so nice to come home from a long Monday and know that my dinner is already prepared...and it really takes minimal effort the day before. I just re-warm the soup and serve with a salad or some crusty bread and it's a totally satisfying meal for those nights I would have otherwise been tempted to make bad, or unnecessarily expensive, food choices.
Oh, and the holiday go-to?? Anytime there is an opportunity for me to make a lamb shank osso buco, I am all over that!!
I would say my best staple meal is pretty simple.. Spaghetti Carbonara. I always have a supply of my homemade pancetta or guanciale around ( wonder what book i used to learn those) and have farm eggs from my friend. So if its been a long day or I forget to stop by the store.. Its carbonara time. A tiny bit of diced onion or shallot sweated with the pancetta. Then a splash of wine, a bit of stock. Cook the pasta toss then add the yolks and some Parm. Boom dinner is on. So easy, but with the good ingredients it makes it sublime
The other day I found myself in need of throwing together something quick and easy. I almost always have arugula and some sort of other fresh veggies in the fridge which can quickly be thrown together into a salad. This week's included arugula, breakfast radishes, yellow carrots, peat sprouts, feta, and some cherry tomatoes. Dressed it with a simple vinaigrette made from olive oil, sherry vinegar, dijon, maple syrup, and some olive tapenade.
I then boiled some whole wheat penne, and whilst hot tossed it with some more of the feta, a drizzle of olive oil, olive tapenade, and some minced sun-dried tomatoes. Super quick and easy, and vegetarian too.
Good Spaghetti and high quality tomato sauce is my "I don't feel like cooking" staple.
Chana masala, or atleast a bastardized version. Saute an onion with some garlic and when soft add a myriad of "Indian-like" spices. (Whatever is on hand...smoked paprika, garam masala, cardamom, tumeric, cumim, ginger and cinnamon). Add a can of roasted tomato, bring to simmer then puree with stick blender. Add a can of drained and rinsed chick peas and a diced potato if you like. Add about a can of water and simmer for about an hour adding more water periodically if the mixture gets too thick. The finished product will be a thick curry. Serve over jasmine rice and garnish with chopped chili and cilantro.
Much to my Korean parents' delight, my Hoosier husband hailing from southern Indiana asks for kimchi every week.
First thing I do is start some brown rice (or whatever variety I have on hand) in the Zojirushi. The refrigerator always has several containers of kimchi fermenting at various degrees of pungency. I take the ripest batch, and start on one of the following:
- Kimchi jjigae (stew)
- Kimchi pancakes
- Kimchi fried rice + bacon
- Kimchi soup with soybean sprouts
- Fresh tofu with stirfried kimchi and pork belly
- Kimchi dumplings
- Soybean stew with kimchi and pork neck
- Kimchi and soba noodles
I could go on and on. Kimchi dish is done by the time the rice is done. Oh yes, and serve with (not as stanky) kimchi!
Crepes- because anything can go in them, and yet they still seem fancy!
We start with the crepe recipe from the NY Times cookbook, although lately, we're using half buckwheat flour instead of just white. I will also blend in whatever herbs look good in the garden, so the crepes are green and aromatic.
For filling, we just mix up something from the fridge- it's a great use for leftover roast chicken, or even rotisserie chicken from the store, all shredded up. We also usually include shallots, spinach, and sundried tomatoes, and perhaps a bit of cream or soft cheese. The filling can stay warm in a pan while I cook the crepes, and dinner's ready in 20 minutes or so. We do this probably three times a month!
Aside from providing me with you and Bourdain doing Hunter Thompson schtick, No Reservations gave me something eminently useful; the proper way to roast a chicken. It's now become my go-to weeknight meal along with some roast vegetables and garlic.
-1 roasting chicken 4-6lb usually
-1lb small red potatoes
-3 sweet onions
-2 bulbs garlic
-1 bunch rosemary
-1 bunch thyme
-1/4 stick of butter
-salt
-pepper
I use an oversized roasting pan intended for a turkey so dinner is a one-pan wonder and the vegetables get to soak in all the goodness that renders out of the chicken while it cooks.
Potatoes get washed/scrubbed, halved, and placed cut-side down around the sides/edges of the pan. Onions get cut into 1/6th wedges and spread around. Garlic gets peeled (Or I just buy pre-peeled at the asian market if I don't want to fuck with peeling 2 whole bulbs) and cloves scattered around on top of the rest of the vegetables.
Bird basically gets the treatment TK showed on the No Reservations special. Wishbone & giblets removed, salt, pepper, and a few sprigs of both rosemary and thyme go into the body cavity (Exercise for the reader: Make your favorite anal fisting joke here) I generally do not truss the bird, just stuff it, toss it in the pan. I'll pluck another 1-2 sprigs each of the aromats, and scatter that along with a generous dusting of salt and pepper over the entire contents of the pan. Divide the butter into about 6 pats and spread them evenly over the vegetables, then throw the whole thing into a 400 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and a quarter cooking time.
Once it's done cooking I quarter the carcass, load up a plate with some bird, some vegetables, and a hunk of crusty bread to mop the plate with. For extra bonus points, grab some bay leaves, carrots, more salt, and celery, chuck them into a stock pot along with the remains of the carcass. Let it simmer for a few hours, and you'll have yourself a good gallon or so of what my friends have described as "fucking gangster" chicken stock that you can chuck into a tupperware and freeze till you need it.
In our home, pasta carbonara is the typical staple. If we're both tired after a long day at work, have no dinner planned, and don't want to go out, you can guarantee within five seconds of wondering "what's for dinner?" I'll be dicing thick pancetta and setting up a pot of water to boil. It's not as hands-off as roasting a chicken with veggies (which I always mean to do more often!) but after about fifteen minutes, dinner is served. I love the process of sauteeing garlic in the pork fat, then tossing in the pasta, eggs, and cheese. I just might have to do it when I get home...
I make a Ligurian-style seafood stew. I use Swai filets, which are incredibly clean tasting and hold up well in a stew. The sauce is tomato based and I add cauliflower, zucchini and either chickpeas or Israeli couscous to make it a complete meal.
My most basic staple meal is curry... most often, it's Thai-style curry with white rice (takes much less time to cook in my rice cooker than brown), or if we need food within 15 minutes, with rice noodles. I usually have a bag of frozen shrimp or other seafood in the freezer, and tons of coconut milk in the pantry. There are always a few kinds of curry paste in the fridge (typically Mae Ploy brand -- green, yellow, 3 kinds of red, whatever else sounds lovely), and all I have to do is simmer the coconut milk with the curry and add whatever veggies I have on hand, then add the seafood just before the veggies are done. It's simple, tasty, can be vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, or whatever we need for the night. I like making it with seafood as it tends to cook a lot faster than chicken or other meat. When I make it for friends, they're always amazed, but I'm even more amazed that they don't know about the simplicity of making food with a bit of simmer sauce. ^.^
It's winter, so I do pressure cooked roast beef with steamed veggies (whatever is in the refrigerator). 45minutes and it's dinner time.
Then that meal always leads to the next day's staple meal of SoS. Cut up the rest of the roast beef, leftover veggies, instant rice or toast and make a quick poor man's gravy and have it ready to eat in 15minutes.
My staple meal isn't exactly for me to save time cooking that day, but for other days with the left overs. I make my pasta sauce that is a combination of my italian Dad's and my italian Step Dad's as well as any changes that I've made (including cooking it in my Le Creuset pot for 6 hours). The benefit of it is that it ends up making a whole lot of pasta sauce that only takes 20 minutes to heat up and always tastes better as left overs.
Our staple meal is enchiladas, made from whatever happens to be in the refrigerator. It might be two chicken thighs diced up, or a random sausage cut into cubes, or leftover meatloaf or even shepherd's pie. Make rice. Then add a healthy scoop of the rice to a healthy scoop of the whatever-meat-you've-got, and perhaps some diced chilies. Roll in a tortilla and set in a baking dish. Repeat seven more times. Pour spicy, smokey enchilada sauce over the whole thing, and then top with grated asiago, jack, and/or cheddar cheese. Pop in the oven until the cheese melts and the sauce bubbles. Quick, yummy, and it helps clean out the refrigerator!
At least one day in week I love to enjoy meatless , tasty food , packed with lot of good carbohydrates .
Rolled oat cakes with sweet sour eggplant salad
Oat cakes:
625 ml whole milk
375 gr rolled oats
1 tsp currypaste
150 gr creme fraiche
2 whole eggs , large
salt to taste
1 tbsp dijon mustard
panko crumbs for coating
Bring milk to a boil , add some salt and currypaste , stir in rolled oats , reduce heat , stirring constantly for 2 minutes . Remove from heat .
Let the oats rest for 5 minutes , work in the creme fraîche , eggs and mustard , adjust seasoning .
Mold cakes , coat with crumbs and pan fry on both sides in clarified butter .
Eggplant salad , sweet sour:
2 - 3 medium sized eggplants , cut into 0.5 inch cubes
2 tbsp brown sugar
white balsamico vinegar
scallions , minced
garlic , finely chopped
celery , cut into slices
capers
peeled and deseeded tomatos , cut into 0.5 inch cubes
black olives
pine nuts , unroasted
lemon juice
salt
fry eggplant cubes , pat dry on paper towel . Caramelize sugar , add scallions , celery and garlic and deglaze with vinegar immediately . Add all other ingredients , adjust seasoning and enjoy .
Asian Crispy Puffed Fried Eggs with Asparagus and Steamed Rice
Heat your Sunflower oil in a pan to 190-200 degrees C (Australian Degrees) probably 3cm deep once again they are Aussie Depths)
Crack your eggs into a cup usually 2 per person
Oh yes Make your rice for everybody. at the same time.
Prepare a Dripping sauce. Lime Juice preferable maybe Lemon, Fish Sauce, Palm sugar dissolved, Hoi Sin Sauce salt and pepper all to taste. Finely sliced Chili. All in a bowl
Fry up your asparagus in another fry pan. Drop your eggs into the oil for about 45 seconds to a minute. It'll puff up Spit out and be wonderfully crispy. Dig it out onto paper towel.
To serve In a bowl, Place your steamed rice. Asparagus Standing Up ready to be dipped into Yolks along side of bowl. Eggs on rice Pour over Dripping sauce and sprinle on some Spring Onion ( I think you Americans call them scallions just use the green stemmy part) For some crunch. Season to taste. Easy peasy and tasty homely food, for 1 or the family.
Or we have Pasta, Chicken pot stuff, Steak and Veg and my Favourite Lamb chops with Onion Marmalade.
Regards Volition
I have a few go-to meals as a single dad with two boys as I always have some kind of intricate meatball and meat pie in the freezer.
My family's favorite go-to dish has no recipe, however. A simple ploughman's board of sausage, fruit, cheese and bread can be adapted for all seasons.
For example, right now in WNY, a locally made marjoram polish sausage is in every supermarket. Slice some apples from our fall picking, add some smoked cheddar and sourdough I bake twice a week and we are set. The kids appreciate the veg-free quick dinner that I can proudly serve while still making all the after-school activities we parents have to endure.
Thanks for Ratio, Twenty and the Bread app. Have fun.
Shepherd's Pie! Oddly enough, I always forget how easy it is to whip up, how filling and delicious it is, and that we typically have all ingredients necessary in the house at all times. I use Elise's (Simply Recipes) version which is so simple but unbelievable in taste.
Tilapia sauteed in equal amounts of soy sauce, mirin, vegetable oil, sesame oil, and one teaspoon of sugar. Bring liquids to boil, add tilapia, cover and simmer 5-7 min until fish is done. Serve fish over cooked rice, and top with sauce and chopped scallions. Serve with a nice salad and perhaps some crusty bread. Easy, fast, delicious.
Risotto is my favorite weeknight meal. Dice an onion, start the rice, and then prep any other ingredients while the rice is cooking. The rice itself only takes 20 minutes or so, so even allowing a little time to heat the stock and slice some vegetables, it's 30 minutes to the table. My default is crimini mushroom and Italian sausage, but whatever protein I can find in the fridge usually ends up in the pan.
I use my slow cooker and prep ahead for busy weekday meals. My favorite is brisket and buttermilk mashed potatoes. I buy a small piece of grass-fed brisket from the coop. The night before, I put together a rub for the brisket, apply it, and leave it the frig all night. I saute an onion on the stovetop with garlic, herbs, and a bit of tomato paste, then deglaze everything with stock (usually homemade that I keep in the freezer). This goes in the crock, which goes in the refrigerator. In the morning, I put the brisket in the onion/chicken broth mixture and put the crock in the crockpot; cook on low for 9 - 11 hours. I also prep my potatoes the night before. I boil yukon gold potatoes until soft then rice them into a glass bowl. The bowl goes into the refrigerator. Before dinner, I heat the potatoes in the microwave and then mix with buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper. I remove the brisket from the crockpot, skim some of the fat off the top, then add a slurry of flour and liquid to slightly thicken the gravy. I serve sliced brisket on top of the potatoes and top with the gravy. This meal does take some prep the night before, but it couldn't be easier and tastier the following day, and the leftovers are delicious. Admittedly, this meal could use a green vegetable, but usually I have a big salad or other vegetables at lunch, so it all balances out.
Fish or Seafood.
Although I grew up on the prairies I come from a family of fishermen. The 'up North' type of fishermen. We always had a stash of pickerel or Northern pike. I just thought everyone loved fish. Now I have also included seafood. To me it is fast food.
I'm in my 60s and single, so I often do things that will serve me many meals, and freeze or refrigerate as necessary. I get variety this way.
A pot roast is easy; chuck roast dredged in flour then browned in oil in a dutch oven. Once browned, add water (or beer or red wine) and braise for 2 hours. Then add 2-3 large onions (get the paper off), 5-7 peeled russet potatoes, and a pound bag of carrots (peel'em). Salt & pepper. When the 'taters' are soft, you can eat, about an hour. You can refrigerate and reheat for many days, and at the end, with 1 portion left, add a little flour and it's stew. BTW, It'll be better the second day.
Spaghetti sauce--I know, don't call it by the pasta--so this is what I serve over spaghetti, or penne, or linguini: a pound or so of mild Italian sausage, you can get it at most supermarkets just ground, not in casing; a large onion diced, a green pepper and one of those containers of white mushrooms, both cut into fairly large chunks, a lot of diced garlic (I use a whole head), 2 little cans of tomato paste, a regular can of tomato sauce, and a big can of diced tomatoes. Brown the sausage, adding the onion, pepper, garlic, and mushrooms as things brown. Then add the tomato stuff, and simmer. Spices---basil, oregano, and I like a lot of thyme.
Meatloaf is really versatile. Makes great sandwiches. This makes two, put one in the loaf pan, freeze the rest. In a big bowl or pot. 2 lbs ground beef, 1lb ground pork. 2 large diced onions. 2 sleeves saltine crackers, 2 large eggs, 3 tsps yellow mustard, 4 tble spns ketchup, 2 tble spns warchestershire. And whatever additional you want. Mix thoroughly by hand. (It feels good!) Bake 75 minutes at 350.
Last, is of course, roast chicken. I just put a little butter under the skin over the breasts, salt and pepper everything, and put a lemon and onion in the cavity. If you get gizzards, etc., put'em in a small sauce pan and start simmering in water. With this you'll get some broth and some fat. I don't bother to truss the guy. I buy "fryers" so I get protein for three meals--1 breast, 2 thigh and leg (the best!). Preparing the third meal I also cut the other breast off the carcass, and save it in the fridge.
Add everything from the roasting dish to the broth from the gizzards, and refrigerate. The fat will come to the top. That's great stuff to fry and saute in, so keep it.
So I've got a chicken carcass, which goes into a dutch oven, with any aromatics (onion, celery, carrots, parsnips,etc) I might have, and cover with water. I also add a cube of chicken bullion. Bring to a boil, and then let cool. When it's cool enough for your hands, go through it, and get rid of bones and skin. Be thorough to get all the meat. You've now got the best chicken soup ever. Add noodles or rice, as you please.
In the summer when garden veggies are coming out our... ears we do a lot of stir fry. No special technique really. The veggies are whatever is around. Meat is added only if it is leftover and already cooked. The sauce always has corn starch, soy and fish sauce. Other things are added like chicken stock, peppers flakes, ginger, ground mustard, fresh oregano, really whatever feels right at the time. If we have it, a little sesame oil is added at the end. Served over rice. The dish is different every time and impossible to screw up. That is why we like it.
Pasta:
A little olive oil in a frying pan, crushed garlic, thin sliced red onion, artichoke hearts (I use frozen), black olives (sliced/chopped), baby spinach, split grape tomatoes. (pinches of pepper, thyme, oregano). Add Fettucine (or pasta of choice) and finish with crumbled feta cheese (this covers the salt) and olive oil taste.
Sometimes I add some mushrooms and/or cut up chicken breast.
Spinach "cream" sauce over polenta.
I already posted about tempeh tacos, but I thought of another one this morning—it also happens to be mostly vegetarian: Polenta with spinach “cream” sauce.
For mid week, no one in our house, with a newborn and a 3 year-old have time for fresh spinach, so I tend to just use some frozen from TJ’s. But we always have a bag of polenta in the cupboard and some stock in the freezer, so I make a little batch of polenta with (hopefully) chicken stock—but any stock will do—even just water with some salt and butter. Then the sauce starts usually with onion, caramelized, then add garlic and some butter to start a roux…right in with the onions and garlic. I like pepper in there too. Once it’s browned a little start adding milk until it thickens and is a little thinner than you might want to serve it, then add the spinach, a big scoop of nutritional yeast (bulk at whole foods—delicious), a bunch of grated parmesan-ish cheese and season with salt. If you can mortar/pestle some saffron and sprinkle it in, that’s pretty darn good too if you happen to have it. Let it hang for a bit and serve it over the polenta and maybe put some Sriracha on it. It’s awesome if you have time to make polenta cakes and get a crust on them. But I never do that…again…trying to get kids in bed! Oh and you'll notice there's no cream in it--it's great with cream, but eh...cutting cholesterol corners.
This is a great thread, by the way. So many great meal ideas!
Pizza and calzones is our favorite mid-week meal.
In the freezer, we always have homemade dough (often made using a 'no-knead' recipe). For toppings/fillings, we clean out the refrigerator and use leftover meat (chicken or pork), some 'less-than-perfect' vegetables, and open bars of cheese. In the winter, we make a quick pizza sauce...and in the summer we look to the garden to see whats ready to pick, which includes fresh herbs, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables.
In the winter, we cook the in the oven either on a pizza stone or using a cast-iron pan (which is great for deep-dish pizza). In the summer, we cook outside on the grill. These pizza/calzones are quick, easy and never taste the same!
this post is great, cos i've gained so many ideas reading others' comments on quick go-to meals. i have a couple of regular go-to meal ideas.
one involves slicing and sauteing lots of garlic, add good quality anchovies (preferably Ortiz), add in cooked linguine, squeeze of lime juice. serve with salad. done!
the other involves leftover rice and meat from fridge: fried rice (there's always leftover cooked rice in the fridge, day-old rice is best for fried rice). first heat up oil in wok and fry to make a softly cooked omelette. put aside. then fry chopped garlic and shallots till fragrant. add chopped up leftover meat from fridge. add rice, making sure to separate grains with fingers before adding so that the mixture doesn't clump up in the wok. season with salt and white pepper. toss in omelette, breaking up into pieces similar in size to meat. add in frozen peas / corn (which has already been microwaved to warm). serve piping hot.
My go-to dish is a bastardized version of an Indian curry (probably Keema Matar), that I found in a cookbook while in high school. The cookbook had been penned by then NYTimes food guys Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey. I don't believe I had ever had curry before but I was somehow drawn to this recipe and I've been making it ever since.
The recipe itself is rather simple. Sauté a diced onion in oil (peanut, canola, coconut – it doesn't much matter). The spice mixture is about a tbsp of coriander seed, 2 tsp of your favorite curry powder and about a tsp of salt or more to taste. Add crushed red pepper to taste. Over time, I learned to bloom the spices with the onions. To that, I add a pound of hamburger although one could easily use turkey, lamb or chicken. Once the hamburger has browned, I add a small (drained) can of tomatoes, cover and cook over a low heat until the tomatoes have broken down and the onions are melting into the sauce (usually about 40 minutes). Finally, I had about a cup of frozen peas in the last five minutes of cooking.
Not only was this recipe my gateway into cooking, it got me through college. I served it at parties, I made it for friends, lovers and frenemies. After college, I made it through good times and bad. It got me through boom years; it got me through unemployment. It got me through cancer; it gets me through good health. I've served it with rice, potatoes, and as a filling in omelets. It pairs nicely with cauliflower, carrots, cabbage and most other vegetables. It's great with wine or hard cider. It fits my palate like a glove.
While my repertoire has since expanded beyond my wildest dreams, this is the one I will grow old with.
my go to meal is nachos. As easy as plain cheese or as fancy as meat, guac, homemade salsa,crema and candied hot peppers from my garden. for crunch you can add cabbage or lettuce. In the summer the salsa can have fruit like mango or pineapple. nachos the perfect fast food plus peeps can make it just they way they like
What the heck, I'll throw in.
Spaetzle.
Being a history dork and cook of the house, I got to looking for something to make from my German roots (intertwined with Hungarian, Lituanian, Polish...I think that's all of em) and for something that was easily made from basic ingredients that I usually have around and that wouldn't take so much time to make. And of course had to taste good. I dove into the internet to look for a recipe, there are many, but the basic is below.
OK, so I pulled together recipes, but it's so basic and traditional that to fool with it is to risk damaging something awesome. Go ahead and look for yourself.
1c AP flour
1/4 c milk - I like 2%
2 eggs
pinch salt
pinch cracked black (or white) pepper
Pot of boiling water or stock of choice (chicken or beef suggested).
2 tbsp butter, unslated or salted - to toss finished product in
Mix it all the ingredients up, you have your dough. It should be stiff.
OK, now to make the dumplings there are a few techniques and everyone has there own way. Youtube provided me with a video of a older German woman, weilding a Spaetzle board, stiff dough and a well used knife. Couldn't understand a word, but her technique, so great.
I've experimented with two: I have a very small bamboo cutting board and a dull knife that I use like a spaetzle board. Dipping the end of the baord in the water, a good wooden spoonful of dough near the center. Dip the kinfe int he water and scrape ribbons off the lump and into the water. Keep dipping the baord and knife to keep it all working smoohtly. It takes time, but I found it's very worth it. Sure, it's not quite as easy asthe real deal, but it works. Even easier, press the dough through a collinder and directly into the water.
People have tried amny different ways utilizing common kitchen wares with mixed success. There is a spaetzle press you can buy and the aforementioned board. In the end, in my humble opinion, I preferred honing an aged old technique as opposed to reinventing for hours, or going and spending more money and maybe getting frustated and having globs of dough all over to clean up. Pick a technique that works for you and stick with it = eventual quicker turn around time to actually eat the stuff!
Once you do get the dough into the water, when they float, take them out with a slotted spoon or something similar, putting htem in a warm bowl. Once all the dough are turned into fluffy little dumplings of goodness, throw butter into a hot pan, add speatzle and gently brown for even more tastey brown on the outside. Add chopped parsley if you want. Once palted I like to shred parm or some type of hard cheese over top.
I've made up a nice stock with veg, scraped the dough right into it and had a soup once. Added nutmeg to the recipe, had a different flavor. Used way less butter and added sour cream with spaetzle in a bowl (shoulda put some chive in too), awesome. Onion int he iwth butter is great to. Alright, I'm done, now I need spaetzle.
We love pork. Our goto meal is center-cut loin chops with grilled vegetables and toasted french bread. The whole meal from starting the charcoal to getting on the plate is 1 hr, with 5 minutes of prep and 25 minutes of cooking time. The chops get a quick marinade for 30 minutes in equal parts olive oil and fish sauce, with crushed garlic and fresh thyme. The vegetables are either a mix of red bell pepper, onion, zucchini and jalapeno in a grill wok. Or, potato wedges with lemon aioli. The bread is just drizzled with olive oil and black pepper, then grilled.
I default to *vegetarian or *vegan stir-fry. I am an avid farmers' market shopper, so I can rely on having odds and ends of veggies around. between the bottom drawer of my fridge and the frozen items like peas, corn, broccoli that I buy "just in case" I just pull everything out and start cooking. Chop onions, tofu usually, other hard veggies and then get the wok hot. While that is going on, I smash garlic, put it in a small bowl with some cornstarch, ginger, soy sauce and miso paste. Add a little acid, whatever I have, and some water and stir that up. Cilantro is a bonus, but I rarely have it on hand. Then it's just hot oil, stir stir stir the veggies. Any leafy greens thrown on at the end, with the sauce, cooked for a minute or so. Plus whatever carbs I have around (toast, rice cakes, leftover rice, etc.) and some pickles or kimchee. In no way authentic, in every way delicious and always a little different.
My staple quick meal is vegetarian, even though I am a devout carnivore. It's a bean and rice burrito 🙂
I just throw a cup of rice in the rice cooker with a can of rinsed beans and some sofrito and water, and a bit of salt and let it do it's thing. I set out the tortillas, the ubiquitous salsa and sour cream that are always on hand, and I take out a big chunk of cheddar and grate it quickly unless I have some crumbly queso fresco on hand. If I have leftover veggies like sautéed squash or zucchini or onions and peppers, they go on th pile. Add a bit of hot sauce and we're ready to eat in no time. The hubby and I inhale two of them and off we go, bellies filled. 🙂
A favorite go-to meal is brown rice, black beans, and roasted kale. It's nourishing, simple, and easy to put together. I'll usually put hot sauce on top of it all, too (I blame the Californian in me for that). Oh, and I like cooking the rice in chicken stock for extra nourishment.
Wild salmon is also very easy, as we just put the salmon on parchment, top it with sliced lemons, olive oil, sea salt, then wrap it up and put it into the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. That and a salad is a wonderful quick meal (about 20 minutes from start to finish).
My go-to meal is usually pasta of some sort. I always have it in my pantry and there is almost always homemade tomato sauce in the freezer that I can "doctor" up...or steak =D
My favorite staple meal actually derives from a "special birthday" dinner my mother used to make for my sister every year when we were children. That meal was Veal Cutlets, French green beans with lemon and garlic and salad with homemade Italian dressing. Over the years this meal has morphed into a family staple spanning all four of us sisters. It is the favorite meal in eah of our homes and is now prepared with a little twist by all of us. Since veal is no longer Politically Correct and quite expensive we all make the following meal with chicken and with great regularity. In fact, my husband of 7 years says it was the clincher in asking me to marry him!
Menu:
Chicken Cutlets: pounded boneless, skinless chicken breasts coated with Italian seasoned bread crumbs, parsley, salt/pepper and parmesan cheese. These are sauteed in a mixture of sweet butter and olive oil until crisp, tender and juicy.
French Style String Beans: Fresh or frozen beans cooked until crisp tender then tossed with salt/pepper, butter and fresh lemon juice.
Salad: Classic green salad dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt/pepper and parmesan cheese.
Rice Pilaf: Near East rice pilaf made with added fresh mushrooms or sometimes even dried cranberries.
My mother passed away this year and I know I will never, ever eat this meal again without thinking of her. Enjoy.
I throw shrimp and minced garlic in the saute pan with olive oil for a minute or two, then toss with spaghetti, capers, Italian parsley, and good olive oil. I finish it with lemon juice, black pepper and some grated parmesan. It's a nod to my Sicilian ancestors as well as a quick meal that suits my tastes perfectly. You'll always find these ingredients in my kitchen.
Burritos: I keep seasoned beans (pot beans from Heirloom Beans cookbook) around in freezer containers, shredded beef seasoned with green chili's (slow and low cooked) and just add cheese and sour cream.
For a really quick and easy meal, I throw rice in the cooker with chicken broth, add in some pot stickers, place the veggie basket above and put in green beans.
Close the lid, push the button, done.
7-6-5 Pork Tenderloin: just remove the silverskin, drizzle with olive oil, rub with kosher salt, ground pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Get grill to medium heat, oil grate, throw tenderloin on (lid down) for 7 minutes, turn over and time for 6 minutes (still lid down), then at the 6 minute mark turn the grill off and let the pork rest in the closed grill for five minutes. Then take it off the grill and let it rest about 10 min before slicing. Meanwhile steam baby carrots in orange juice (Tropicana is fine) and fresh ginger (the ginger in the tube works fine for this) in a wide, covered saute pan. Then the lid off the saute pan and add a knob of butter and some salt and pepper and let the sauce reduce. Nuke some Trader Joe's brown rice for three minutes and dinner is served.
These days the standard is a big roast chicken - either salt and pepper or salt/pepper/lemon zest/garlic oil are the standards. Roast @ 500 for 20 minutes, drop to 450 till it's done. Roast whatever root veggies or squash (salt/pepper/garlic oil are the standard seasonings) are hanging around once the temp is dropped to 450 until everything's done. Makes plenty of versetile leftovers, so the week can have tacos/soup/salads/stirfry as called for. Yum!
Roasted chicken--salt, pepper, olive oil. Roasted at 450 for about 45 minutes, til done. Served with some kind of seasonal greens and rice.
Easy, always delicious, and there's leftovers for lunch (and a carcass for the stock).
Orrechiette w/ rapini and sausage
While water boils (large pot for rapini/pasta), rinse/chop rapini, chop onion, bring large skillet up to temperature. Add sausage, preferably 1/2 hot 1/2 mild, brown, remove from skillet. Add rapini to now boiling water, cook for 2 minutes. While rapini cooks, add chopped onion to skillet (using fat rendered from sausage). Soften onion for few minutes. Remove rapini from boiling water, place in strainer and run cold water/ice over. Add orrechiette to water, cook til almost done (al dente). While pasta cooks, squeeze water from rapini, and combine rapini/sausage/onion to skillet. Add a splash of chicken or beef stock and simmer until pasta ready - remove pasta to the skillet, add a good cup or so of grated parmesan, a glug or 2 of olive oil and enough pasta water to have a sauce. Cook/toss for a minute or 2. Dump onto the plate(s) and eat up.
For us...fish tacos. Fresh, light, simple and delicious.
For the fi