Everyday Dorie: Rosa Jackson’s Bourride
February 23, 2024 at 12:01 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, snacks | 8 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
Here it is– our final Cook the Book Fridays posting! We started cooking from Everyday Dorie back in 2018, and at that time, I thought I’d just join in occasionally rather than cook my way through the whole thing. Having such a fun and dedicated group of buddies to cook and chat with really kept me motivated to show up (almost) every other week. I admit that I skipped six recipes, but I made over a hundred, so that’s not too shabby. I’ll miss it. Big thanks to Katie for tackling the admin duties.
Rosa Jackson’s Bourride is quite an elegant recipe to see us off. Bourride is a Provençal fish stew with aioli. This one has a mix of vegetables along with a nice chunk of fish (I used a thick piece of cod loin), and it’s really easy to cook since the veggie/fish combo basically steams in its own juices. I’m not the world’s best fish chef, so I appreciate a technique like this. A homemade aioli is added at the end of cooking to make a sauce. I put a pinch of turmeric into my aioli to boost the color for the photo, but maybe that boosted it too much?? It turned kind of neon…lesson learned. This was really so good, for everyday or for a special day.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays one last time to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Citrus-Marinated Fish with Mango Salsa
February 22, 2024 at 10:46 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, snacks | Leave a commentTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
I have one last catch-up before our final Cook the Book Fridays recipe– Citrus-Marinated Fish with Mango Salsa. Dorie makes hers with halibut, but I couldn’t find that on the day I went shopping and used swordfish instead. The lemon-orange dressing used to marinate the fish also becomes a sauce that’s used to glaze it once it’s cooked…love the dual-purpose. My fish looked more like a steak in the end, as I added an unmeasured quantity of paprika to my marinade to stand in for the pinch of cayenne, which I didn’t have. The marinade took on quite a reddish color, which then darkened in cooking. It tasted good so I didn’t worry about it. The fish gets served over a bright, sweet and tangy mango and cherry tomato salsa that is a delicious accompaniment. Glad to have made this recipe, albeit two and a half years late!
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Lemon-Fennel Chicken in a Pot
February 11, 2024 at 11:11 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 4 CommentsTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
Lemon-Fennel Chicken in a Pot is the third Dutch oven-roasted chicken dish we’ve made. Kind of strange since they were all similar (a whole chicken cooked in a pot with some aromatics and liquid), but this was my least favorite of the three, and it seems like the most of the group also thought so.
I added a couple of carrots and potatoes to the bottom of the pot along with the fennel, lemon and shallots. Once the chicken was set on top of all that I think maybe I just had too much stuff in the pot. My chicken was sitting so high it was touching the lid in spots (and I ripped the skin off those spots when I took the top off the Dutch oven at the end of cooking–oops.). I don’t think it needed to roast for 90 minutes either, which was my bad, as I knew from the pan-sauce vinaigrette version that a small chicken would be done earlier, but I wasn’t paying attention. Anyway, it was fine and we ate it all up, but if I were to make something similar again, I think I’d really just take the pan-sauce version I mentioned above (that sauce was so good!) and add fennel.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Warm Squid Salad
February 2, 2024 at 4:45 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, salads, savory things | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
I eat a big salad most days; usually that means a hastily hacked up heap of lettuce, cuckes, tomatoes, and whatever other veggies I find rummaging through the fridge. This Warm Squid Salad is a little more refined and prepared with a bit more intention than those…a “weekend salad,” perhaps I’d say. I enjoyed making a pretty plate of quick-cooked squid, boiled baby potatoes, slices of avocado, celery and red onion, cherry tomato and bell pepper in a citrus dressing. I enjoyed eating it, too. I don’t cook squid often, but it was super easy to just give it a quick simmer. Also, it required basically no preparation since my fish guy sells it already cleaned. I like the tentacles the best (is that gross?), so I asked for extras. With the light dressing, this felt very fresh and healthy.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays (this is a make-up recipe for me) to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives
January 26, 2024 at 7:28 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 1 CommentTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
This Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives isn’t the most photogenic dish I’ve made, but I guess not everything needs to wind up on my IG feed. Sometimes it’s nice to not sweat the photo and just enjoy what you’ve made, especially when it’s so tasty.
The “real” version of this dish is made with lamb shanks, but I modified it for my own dietary preferences (aka weirdnesses) by using bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. I first browned them off and then removed the skin for the braising portion of the cooking, which also included onions, carrots and oil-cured black olives, a head of garlic and a can of tomatoes. I flavored my braise with rosemary like the recipe said, but I can see lots of different herbs, spices or blends working well here, depending on what you have or what cuisine/culture you feel like “visiting.” I only oven-braised the chicken thighs for about 45 minutes, as I didn’t think they needed the full time the lamb shanks would have. Lifting the lid off the braiser, I had moist chicken, soft carrots and a nice stewy mix…a perfect winter dinner. I’m looking forward to giving the leftovers the treatment Dorie suggests– shredding the meat and serving it and the sauce over pasta. Or maybe over polenta?
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Spinach-Mozzarella Pie with Parm Crumble
January 23, 2024 at 5:31 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, pies & tarts, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 8 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
If you’re wondering how to get cheese and custard and green stuff and pastry all in one dish, the answer is a Spinach-Mozzarella Pie with Parm Crumble! What we have here is basically a spinach quiche dotted with cubes of mozzarella and topped off with a Parmesan-loaded crumble. It’s salty and cheesy and textured and great warm or room temp for any meal of the day.
Last year, I tested the recipes for an upcoming savory baking cookbook and I’ve had an empty par-baked pie shell sitting in the freezer ever since. I almost never bake a full-sized pie for the two of us, but I’ve been itching to reclaim that freezer space (and that pie plate), so when this recipe was nominated, I decided to use the crust here. It’s different than Dorie’s flaky crust, in that it’s a press-in situation with a shortcrust texture, and it’s also in a standard-sized plate instead of a deep dish, but it worked out well in this pie by slightly scaling back the custard amount. Another thing I had in the freezer from those testing days was an almost-full bag of frozen spinach, so I pulled that out, too. Rather than wilting down and squeezing fresh spinach, I thawed the frozen stuff and squeezed the heck out of it before adding it to my sautéed aromatics. Technically, my spinach-to-custard ratio was a bit higher than Dorie’s because I wanted to use up all the spinach that was in the bag. My filling was more like creamy greens and lacked a separate quiche-like layer, but more green stuff is always fine with me. Also, I like a bit of heat, so I added some pepper flake to the filling.
After the spinach mixture and the creamy custard are inside the par-baked shell, on went cubes of mozzarella and lots of parm crumble, and then it was into the oven. I only made 3/4 of the crumble and it still seemed plenty to cover the pie. We’ve had this with a salad the last couple of nights for dinner, and since I made a full-sizer, we can have it for a couple of lunches, too.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Honey-Mustard Salmon Rillettes
January 5, 2024 at 4:14 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, snacks | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
Up next in my Cook the Book Fridays catch-up series is a fairly recent recipe that I’m not sure why I skipped– Honey-Mustard Salmon Rillettes. Laziness is the likely answer. Rillettes are a spread, traditionally made with shedded pork confit. I don’t eat pork, but a salmon twist is right up my alley. This concoction uses both poached fresh and smoked salmon, mayo, mustard, honey and herbs, as well as a few other flavorings, smushed up till spreadable, but still with some texture. What to spread my rillettes on? Toasted bread or crackers would do, but bagel chips seemed to be a natural fit for this version. I made this recipe as part of our new year’s snackathon. Happy new year!
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Umami Burgers
December 29, 2023 at 4:08 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 1 CommentTags: burger, burgers, everyday dorie, savory
Cook the Book Fridays is closing the cover on Everyday Dorie at the end of February. I’d say I can’t believe there are only four recipes left, but really, I have another handful that I skipped along the way but would still like to make before I put the book on the shelf. I’m going to try and cover these on our group “off weeks.” One is the Umami Burger, which I actually made and photographed in time for the October 2021 posting, but then I just never wrote about it. Sometimes the hardest part about being a flood blogger is the actual blogging.
I don’t eat beef so I made this one with ground turkey instead. The meat is mixed up with sautéed chopped mushrooms and onions (plus breadcrumbs in my case, because I find turkey always needs a bit of binder) and seasoned with oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and gochujang. Giving ground turkey this flavor-packed treatment is actually perfect, since it can use an umami-boost to make it taste more burgery. I rarely have hamburger buns at home, and actually often just eat my burgers as dressed patties sans bread, but I put these between sourdough slathered with gochujang mayo. Yum- one to be repeated, especially now that I’ve been reminded of it.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to go back in time and see how the group liked these.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Free-Style Mushroom, Herb and Ricotta Tart
December 26, 2023 at 4:02 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
Having “free-style” in the name of this Free-Style Mushroom, Herb and Ricotta Tart, to me, implies a certain ease… something that can just be tossed together on a whim. Turns out “free-style” is more about the amorphous shape of the crust and the casual-looking fashion with which it is topped than it is about throwing together a tart from this or that in like five minutes. The base of this tart, which is called a Raggedy-Edged Almond-Herb Crust is actually a large format cracker that can be whatever shape it rolls out to be. Bake the crust and you can turn off the oven. After it cools, it’s topped with made in advance components: an herby ricotta spread, sautéed mushrooms with more herbs and a poof of seasoned micro greens. The crust has the delicate, buttery crumb of a shortbread, and, although it cut nicely for me with a sharp knife, I had to turn my “slice” into smaller pieces to eat as snacky finger food…it didn’t seem like a fork was right utensil for the job. All of these things were delicious and flavorful, so I enjoyed this, although I’d also be totally happy to free-style the ricotta and mushrooms on just a thick slice of toasted sourdough.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Seafood Pasta
December 22, 2023 at 5:17 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, pasta, savory things | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, pasta, savory
Our Christmas Eve dinner tradition is to go to the Feast of the Seven Fishes at my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, Romans. You’ll find me there this Sunday, but if I wanted to tackle the feast at home, I’d surely make this Seafood Pasta…it knocks out three of seven right off the bat (maybe four if clam juice counts, but I’m not sure it does). This pasta is dressed in a tomato sauce enriched with slow-braised squid, wine and the aforementioned clam juice, which actually I didn’t feel like buying. I added a couple of anchovies and a bit of their oil to the sautéed onion and garlic at the beginning stages of sauce-building for a bit of extra salty fishiness. Then I used a some water later in the game to make up for the missing liquid the clam juice would have provided. Chunks of a firm fish (I went with opah) and shrimp are added at the end of the braise, just to cook through, before tossing with the pasta. Another Italian place in my neighborhood has a retail counter up front where they sell various freshly-made pasta shapes, one of them being the long, curly noodles called mafaldine that Dorie used, so I picked up a packet to boil here. Wow- this was so flavorful and all the seafood was cooked perfectly. It’s a totally luxurious pasta dish for holiday season.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
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