Everyday Dorie: Lightening-Fast Tahini Chicken (or Pork)
November 10, 2019 at 11:02 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 4 CommentsTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
I’m such a dipstick– I totally thought the second Friday of November was next week and I missed the posting date for CBF. But this recipe is called Lightening-Fast Tahini Chicken, so once I realized, I was able to get it together in a flash!
As written in Dorie’s recipe, this dish is “Tahini Pork” and is made with pork tenderloin. I don’t eat pork, but have found that chicken can often make a fine swap for it, so I used boneless, skinless breasts in place of the tenderloin here. Cube the meat and toss it in a spice mix, brown it up a bit and make a quick sauce straight in the pan to finish cooking it through. I didn’t even bother to pre-mix the tahini and lemon juice– I just added them to the skillet at the same time. Lightening-fast, flavorful and delicious!
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. And P.S., she also has a honey-mustard variation here.
Everyday Dorie: Miso-Glazed Salmon
October 25, 2019 at 11:41 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 9 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, fish, savory
I love fish but I don’t cook it that often at home. I don’t feel like I’m great at it so I usually save it for a nice dinner out, where someone more competent can perfectly prepare it for me. When I do cook fish at home, I’ve found that baking it is the way to go…it’s easier, it’s cleaner, and the delicate (and often expensive!) fish doesn’t fall apart on me as readily as it does on the stovetop. This Miso-Glazed Salmon is a great make-at-home fish dinner, as there’s very little prep to do before it’s ready to be popped into the oven.
I covered my salmon fillets in the miso and soy glaze and let them hang out in a glass pie plate in the fridge for a few hours. When I took the dish out, the whole set up still looked pretty clean, so I just went straight into the oven with the pie plate, rather than transferring the salmon to a lined baking sheet. After the fish was baked, I was able to just lift the flesh right off the skin in one piece and leave it behind. The downside of the glass pie plate is that I was nervous to put it under the broiler once I saw that the marinade hadn’t really taken on any color in the oven. I’ve seen sushi chefs blowtorch raw fish to give it a quick sear, so I pulled out my little kitchen torch to brown things up a bit.
I do wonder if I had removed some of the excess marinade (which I didn’t want to waste since it was more a glaze than a liquid) or used red miso instead of white, would it have gotten more bronzed in the oven? I do think next time I’ll let the salmon marinate for the better part of a day for even more flavor. Well, no matter, it was delicious, and I served it with furikake rice and some cute baby bok choy.
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: Chicken and Salad Milanese Style
October 11, 2019 at 2:59 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, salads, savory things, veggies | 7 CommentsTags: chicken, everyday dorie, salad, savory
Chicken and Salad Milanese Style was my dinner last night and my lunch today. I can tell you it’s perfect for either meal. I’d probably also eat it for breakfast, not gonna lie. So good.
I have to say, though, that when I got home from work last night, pounding out and breading chicken breasts was not what I felt like doing at all. I felt like eating cereal in front of the TV. Hahaha. But I’m on my own for a couple of days and only needed to do two cutlets, so I sucked it up. I did the prep dirty work, and then let the breaded cutlets chill (Dorie says some chill time makes them cook up crispier) while I loaded up the dishwasher with my messy stuff, put on my PJs and washed my face. In the end it was a pretty simple and quick process.
The cutlets are sautéed in a combo of butter and oil, and you can taste the butteriness in the finished dish. My favorite dude at the neighborhood greenmarket sells a really interesting salad greens mix, with stuff like super peppery arugula, pea shoots, tatsoi, baby kale and purple mizuna. Dressed in a lemony vinaigrette, the salad gives a bit of fresh sharpness alongside the chicken. I’ll make this again for sure, like probably this weekend.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Parmesan Galettes
October 1, 2019 at 8:27 am | Posted in DC, groups, savory things, snacks, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, cheese, cookies, savory
Not that there’s anything wrong with Cheez-Its (no, nothing at all, really), but if you’re looking for a cheese cracker that’s a bit more elevated, maybe you should really be looking for a cheese cookie. Parmesan Galettes could be a better answer for your next wine and cheese party.
The dough is just butter, four, salt and parm, and it comes together in a snap in the food processor. Rather than hand-grate the cheese, I broke it down to bits in the Cuisinart before I made the dough–double duty! The dough is slice-and-bake and, although it can be baked freeform, baking it in a muffin tin will make perfect rounds. I sometimes find slice-and-bake cookies to be a bit annoying, tbh. I can almost never slice a cold log of dough nicely…I don’t cut it evenly, it always gets flat on one side and the first and last pieces are always wonky. It was easy enough with this dough to just roll it into a log, cut it while soft and press the pieces into the muffin tin. I flattened the tops down with a little juice glass and put the whole tin into the freezer for an hour before baking. I sprinkled on a bit of extra parmesan when I popped them into the oven.
Without an egg to bind the dough, these are very delicate cookies (although I had no problem getting them out of the tin unbroken). They are salty and cheesy and almost melt away when you bite into them. Delicious with a glass of crisp white wine.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Tomato and Peach Panzanella
September 13, 2019 at 10:58 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, salads, savory things, veggies | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, salad, savory
The days are getting shorter and cooler, but it’s still peak tomato season. This Tomato and Peach Panzanella is the perfect way to keep summer around just a wee bit longer. Use whatever bread you want, use peaches or other stone fruit or even melon, choose your favorite herb, make it as salty or as acidic as you like…it’s a use-what-you-like and taste-as-you-go type of thing.
There is a bit of oven time involved with this salad because you need to make croutons. But chunky homemade croutons are so worth it for any salad, and here they’ll soak up all the beautiful juice from the tomatoes and peaches without decomposing into mush. I used what I guess I’d call “French bread” rolls from the restaurant where I work. We always have a bag of day old rolls left over from the previous night’s dinner service and no one minds if I take a few home. I make croutons with them on the regular, in fact. At the greenmarket, I always get a mix of tomatoes– a variety of sizes, from medium to tiny, and all the colors I can find. I like nectarines more than I do peaches, but the peaches have been exceptional this year, I must say, and I used them here.
This was delicious, and I liked the sweetness from the peaches. I had a big batch of croutons, so I made it a couple of times. A little feta was a good add the second time around. I didn’t have any salad left over either time, but I have in the past made too much panzanella…I’ve found that next-day panzanella, when the croutons are a bit too soggy and the tomatoes have spent the night in the fridge, makes fabulous gazpacho whizzed up in the blender. Pro-tip for ya.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Fresh-Off-The Cob Corn Chowder
August 9, 2019 at 7:16 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, savory things, soups, veggies | 13 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, soup
We’re a soup lovin’ crowd here at Cook the Book Fridays. This is the third one we’ve made, and we’ve barely cracked the book open. August might not be my idea of hot soup weather, but corn has just come into season here in New York. There are mountains of beautiful ears at the Greenmarket, so I’m happy to oblige our liquid dinner cravings with this Fresh-Off-The-Cob Corn Chowder. Along with potatoes, fresh sweet corn forms the base of this chowder, which also has sautéed aromatics like onion, garlic, celery and fennel stalks. Dorie says the fennel is optional, but I really think it adds a wonderful flavor here (and is a good way to use a stalk of two after you’ve done something else with the main bulb). About half of the veggies are cooked and pureed with the soup stock to make a creamy base that, thanks to the starchy corn and potatoes, contains no dairy, and the other half is sautéed and added at the end for fresh texture. I did not use the bacon in the recipe, as I forgot to get it at the store, but I had some smoked turkey breast to give it a similar flavor (I would have used turkey bacon anyway).
One of the best parts about making a soup like this is getting to garnish it. I always enjoy planning out the finishing touches. Here I went with the extra sautéed corn and veggie bits, cubed potatoes, pulled smoked turkey, a little sour cream, some fennel fronds and a dustings of fennel pollen and black pepper. The soup is excellent, and I really enjoyed my leftovers the next day heated up just a bit warmer than room temperature.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Shrimp Tacos
July 12, 2019 at 10:40 am | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 2 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, tacos
If I don’t have tacos at least once a week, then my week is not going very well. If my week includes these Shrimp Tacos, then it’s going pretty swimmingly. In fact, they made me feel like I was at the beach in Mexico. Seasoned shrimp wrapped inside warm corn tortillas are improved only with a selection of toppings like you’d find at any good taquería. Chipotle cream, avocado mash and salsa are excellent options, and I’ll take all three, along with lime, cilantro and shredded lettuce.
I did take a cheater step and bought a container of pico de gallo from my local gourmet shop. They make it in-house each day and dice all the ingredients very fine, so they probably do it better than I would, even though I always add some extra salt, lime juice and spice. Here, I also supplemented it with some diced pineapple and bell pepper to make it more in line with the fruity salsa in Dorie’s recipe.
This is so fresh and flavorful and feels so healthy. It’s a great summer dinner, best with a cold beer, or if you’re still feeling ambitious after making all the bits and pieces, a zingy margarita.
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 DC: Triscuity Bites
July 2, 2019 at 5:15 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, savory things, snacks, sweet things | 3 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
Triscuity Bites aren’t cookies that resemble Triscuits, they’re savory “cocktail cookies” with Triscuits in them. They’re made from a cream cheese dough with bits of Triscuit crackers mixed in. Actually, they should be made from a cream cheese dough, but someone didn’t read the recipe before she went to the store…got the Triscuits, but no Philly. I took stock of what like items I had in the fridge, and decided that labneh would probably work as a substitute. I think it was fine.
These cookies held a perfect shape in the oven. I was pretty pleased that my squares stayed square. They are nicely salty and have that sort of airy crunch that Triscuits do. More rich than plain, out-of-the-box Triscuits, I ate these on their own. On their own, with wine, I mean.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Mushroom-Bacon Galette
June 14, 2019 at 5:31 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, veggies | 4 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, galette, savory
It’s fun to do a little savory baking now and again. And it’s rewarding, too…as a result of my baking efforts today, I’ll be spending my Friday night with a glass of rosé and a nice slice of Mushroom-Bacon Galette. That’s my idea of a good time.
People always say that galette is pie for beginners. I guess that’s true because it’s so easy to make and it’s supposed to look rustically imperfect, but it’s every bit as good as pie. Maybe this will be my “summer of the galette”…sweet and savory all season! You can use store-bought pie dough, but Dorie’s galette dough recipe is quickly made in the food processor, and it’s pretty foolproof. For the filling, bacon is crisped, walnuts are chopped and mushrooms are cooked down with some aromatics. This thing smells amazing in the oven! Out of the oven, it’s salty and earthy– umami in a pastry crust. It will be a perfect summer dinner with a salad and a glass of chilled vino.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie DC: Old Bay Pretzel-and-Cheese Cookies
May 21, 2019 at 12:01 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, savory things, snacks, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 4 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, savory
I grew up in Northern Virginia and when I was a kid, my dad and a friend from Maryland co-owned a boat together on the Chesapeake Bay. My mother would wrinkle her nose at this, but Old Bay is a flavor of my childhood, I guess, and one I still like lot today. Now I mostly sprinkle it on corn or oven fries, but here it’s used in savory Old Bay Pretzel-and-Cheese Cookies. With chunks of pretzel rods and bits of cheddar cheese, too, they’re just the thing to have with a beer or a Bloody Mary, or even a bowl of tomato soup.
The dough is like a shortbread and is made in the food processor. I actually had a hard time getting mine to come together, even before adding the pretzel bits, and wound up adding a blob of sour cream for a bit of extra moisture to make it less crumbly. It’s slice-and-bake, so I managed to finagle the dough into a rough log, but then it crumbled again when i sliced it. I wound up having to hand-form my cookie crumbles into little nuggets on the sheet tray. When baked, I’m happy to report that they finally held together! They’re salty and savory and crunchy, and if I find myself going boating again anytime soon, they’ll find their way into my snack bag.
For the recipe, see Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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