Well, this week is a short one
and a bit of a wash already but we’re still doing our best to stick to this
meal planning effort. Our Toronto trip of last weekend went the way of Canadian
winter storms and had us barely sleeping above the beep of the weather alerts
coming off the iPad. We managed to keep a head of most of it, enjoyed a nice
tour of the Jackson Triggs winery and a pleasant drive the following morning,
but we got completely overrun by Sunday evening and Toronto. One late
checkout later and a white knuckle drive counting stalled and overturned cars
down the 401, we ended up overnighting in Kingston Monday and finally
made it home on Tuesday.
Dinner in the Kingston Delta
restaurant was great. A window seat overlooking the water and a nearly full
moon climbing a blessedly clear sky.
So it’ll be a short week,
starting with a very late dinner Tuesday since Rujira had to cover
her hours despite our late arrival and so was in the office till 8:00.
Tuesday
- Grilled cheese with pear, bacon and caramelized onions, and Boston lettuce salad with cucumbers, green onions and sesame seeds
Wednesday
- White bean soup with pancetta (starter and lunches)
- Mussels and shrimp with fettuccine
Thursday
- Sweet and spicy beef jerky (for snacking)
- Pork, ginger and cabbage stuffed dumplings with chicken curry
Tuesday
Talk about fails. After the drive
back from our weekend, I’d planned a simple dinner. Tasty ingredients, and
bacon, what could go wrong? Nothing much, you’d guess, but you’ll need to take
my word for it because I didn’t take any pictures.
At Niagara on the Lake we’d stuck
our heads into a small cheese shop to warm up and left with five nice little
selections, including an aged balsamic cheese. My dinner plan revolved around
this cheese. I thought it would pair nicely with pear and yield a savoury
sandwich that’d complement a crisp vinegary salad nicely.
The only trick here is to cook
the bacon first, caramilize a little onion in the fat, and then assemble a bacon,
pear, onion and cheese sandwich to be grilled in the same skillet. I start with
the heat low, flip quickly to be sure each side is coated in a bit of fat (we
keep the butter in the fridge, so I don’t bother buttering the outside of the
bread and risk tearing it apart) and then cook at a low heat with a lid on
until the cheese warm and mets and binds everything together. Once I’m sure the
sandwiches won’t start falling apart, the heat is increased to get a nice
colour on the bread and I flip and press the sandwiches flat with the
spatula.
The salad is Boston lettuce,
cucumber and sesame seeds. I’d usually add some citrus or something but we’ve
got that covered with the pear in the sandwiches. For a vinaigrette, I use an
immersion blender to roughly mix and chop a finely diced green onion, a small
handful of flat-leafed parsley, salt, pepper and a dash of dried tarragon with
some olive oil and a tablespoon-ish serving of white wine vinegar. It yields a
tasty green, herby sauce I coat the salad with myself before serving, tossing
with my hands to make sure the leaves are properly covered.
It’s a late dinner, and we eat in
front of some Netflix.
Before we go to sleep, I remember
to cover 2 1/2 cups of dried great white northern bean with water in a bowl I
set aside on the counter. We go to sleep dreaming about tomorrow’s soup.
Wednesday
Today’s a bit of a prep day,
where soup is made with an eye towards days of warming lunches and beef is
marinated for the guilty pleasure of jerky.
Supper itself takes very little
time, but we’ll start with the prep.
Beef jerky. Where has this been
all my life? Rujira and I have started gorging ourselves on it during long
drives between Montreal and Toronto. Salty, beefy goodness. I tried making it at
home once last year, and it was a success, maybe slightly over-salty, but that
didn’t stop us from eating our way through two pounds of the stuff.
For this outing, I got a 1 kilo
piece of rump steak. I froze it for about an hour to make slicing it easier.
Once ready, with a sharp knife, I trimmed off the fat as much as I could, and
cut against the grain to yield nice quarter-inch thick slices.
The recipe I’m using is basically
from “Food and Wine,” honestly, my go-to spot for ideas. Mix together 1 1/2
cups of strong coffee and Coke, 2 cups of soya sauce, pepper, two star anise
pods, a spoonful of sriracha sauce and a clove or two of garlic. I added extra
red pepper flakes. Because of the saltiness last time trying this, I have opted
for reduced sodium soya sauce and I’m not salting the marinade. I figure we can
salt after the fact, if really needed.
I’ve got this all mixed in a
corning ware dish. The beef is added, the dish is covered, and I do my best to
forget about it until tomorrow.
For the soup, I pat myself on the
back for remembering to soak the beens the evening before. I saute a thinly
sliced onion, add some pancetta (we got a nice 8-dollar piece at half price
from the same cheese place in Niagara on the Lake that yielded the backbone of Tuesday supper),
and cook it for a few minutes with plenty of garlic.
Now, my idea is to really just
showcase beens and pancetta, but I want a bit of veggie goodness in there in an
non-distracting way. I throw two celery stalks in nearly whole. Same thing for
two carrots. The idea is to fish them out after everything cooks down for an
hour or more. I fetch the dregs of some fresh herbs and throw them in the same
way, not bothering to chop. I will fish them out, too. I’ve saved the stalks
from some sage I’d bought the week before and have a few sprigs of oregano. I
add the beans, salt, and cover with chicken stock. I simmer with the lid on for
a good hour, maybe more. My final addition is some parmesan rind to add a punch
of flavor.
I’ve decided the consistency is a
bit soupier than I want, so I’m going to thicken. Using the food processor,
I’ve reduced a cauliflower head to the consistency of bread crumbs. Cauliflower
was on sale. I want to freeze some for a soup down the line, and I’ll add a
good cup or so to the pasta later, but I figure it won’t hurt to bolster the
soup with another cup. There’s enough to go around. After another 30 minutes,
the broth has cooked down and the beans are starting to loose their
consistency.
I fish out the veggie chunks, the
herb stalks, and the parmesan rind. More stock is added, and I take the soup
off the heat. When I warm it up for supper, I’ll add maybe more stock and about
a cup of cream (maybe more pepper).
With all that behind me, I bide
my time till dinner. Supper revolves around mussels, and I expect everything to
be ready in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta. In a large
skillet, I melt some butter and saute a handful of green onions, another
handful of pancetta, a thinly sliced medium-sized zucchini, and some garlic. I
add about a cup of white wine and then the mussels, and I reduce to medium and
cover for 7 minutes to steam the mussels.
I’ve got the salted water for
pasta going at medium so it doesn’t boil too quickly. At 7 minutes, the mussels
are removed and the wine and veggies are cooked at a higher temperature to let
the wine cook down a bit. The pasta is cooking. I add about a cup of
cauliflower to thicken the sauce. As I’m pouring out the cooked pasta in a
colander, I add more butter to the wine and some pre-cooked small shrimp and
chopped flat-leaf parsley. (I want to make sure the seafood flavour of the
pasta is front and centre.)
The cooked noodles are added into
the sauce and everything is tossed, with the addition of some parmesan, until
it’s nicely coated. I plate and top with some toasted breadcrumbs, mussels
along the side, and excess sauce drizzled over the top of everything. Rujira
goes back and polishes off the mussels I was silly enough not to find room for
on our plates.
Tomorrow’s leftover lunch
has been reduced to just shrimp and pasta in wine sauce.
Thursday
Utter fail. The jerky dried out
and a late night of work led us to a nearby restaurant. Afghan food: great
lentil soup, lots and lots of rise, and falling-of the bone lamb in a garlicky
tomato sauce.
Travel tomorrow. We’ll be
better next week, I promise.
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