Dinner at a Friend's House

A night out is always a treat and it is wonderful to share a meal at a friend's house. We had an impromptu dinner party midweek. Danielle invited Luis and I over for dinner and suddenly found herself hosting Luis' godfather, Jose Luis - unexpectedly in from Mexico - and Luis' mother, Trini. She was a great sport about the whole thing and it was a wonderful meal and evening.

Danielle found a recipe for Chicken Tenders with Cilantro Pesto online recently and decided to make this for our group. It was a very tasty meal and very easy to make. First she set up the marinade; 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of canola oil and 1 teaspoon of chili powder was placed in a large bowl and whisked briefly. She reserved 2 tablespoons of the marinade and placed it in the bowl of her food processor (for the pesto). She added the chicken tenders to the remaining marinade and tossed it a bit to coat each piece. She set this aside to marinate (should give it 20 minutes to 1 hour).

While the chicken is marinating, Danielle started making the pesto. She toasted 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds in a small dry skillet over low heat and stirred them constantly until they were golden and fragrant (about 2 minutes). As she was keeping an eye on the sesame seeds she placed the other ingredients in the food processor with her reserved marinade; 1 bunch of cilantro (stems removed by twisting about mid-bunch) and 2 shallots roughly chopped. When the sesame seeds were toasted she added them to the food processor and processed the mixture until it was fairly smooth. (The recipe calls for scallions but the shallots add that hint of garlic which I think it more important for a pesto.)

To round out the meal, Danielle served the Quick Vegetable Soup (another recipe I got from her), some steamed quinoa and steamed asparagus. Everything was delicious and Jose Luis - Luis' godfather had a lot of fun as did all of us.

Cornmeal Crusted Pork and Quinoa

My mother showed me an Asian market on Irving Street between 25th and 26th Avenues - Sunset Super - that has a butcher and seafood counter. I am excited because it is a few blocks down from my favorite produce market - 22nd & Irving - so that means I can now park once (if I happen to drive over) and get more ingredients within walking distance.

They have some very nice looking meat and seafood including sukiyaki cuts of meat. (Sukiyaki is a japanese one pot meal. Since all the ingredients are typically cooked and assembled at the table, the meat is sliced paper thin for quick cooking.) I purchased several items; one of which was a package of sukiyaki pork.

We had some friends over for dinner on last week so I decided to use the pork and serve it with oven-roasted cauliflower and quinoa. I also decided to serve the quick vegetable soup as a starter since I had frozen some of my most recent batch. Since the cauliflower will take almost 40 minutes, I set that up and start pre-heating the oven. Additionally, I drop my frozen soup into a pot with about an inch of water on the bottom and set it on my burner with the lowest BTU at low. This will defrost the soup and allow me to ignore it while I am cooking.

Next, using I decide to dip the pork in egg and coat with a cornmeal mixture. Since the pork is so thin it will be almost the last thing I cook, however I want to coat it now and give it some time to dry so that the crust will be crisper. (Another method is to do a three part process; coat in flour, dip in egg and then coat in breadcrumbs or corn meal. This method is very effective but I always mess myself up by rinsing my meat and putting it right into my egg wash. At the same time, you save a step which isn't bad either.)

For my egg coating, I use the two egg yolks left over from my souffle and one whole egg all whisked together with a bit of water (otherwise I would use two whole eggs and some milk). For the cornmeal coating, I put 1 cup of cornmeal in a pie plate and add approximately a teaspoon each of salt, pepper and thyme as well as 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese. I set up a couple of cutting boards to place the coated pork to dry; carefully remove a piece of pork from the egg coating; and lie it on top of the cornmeal coating and gently cover the meat. I flip the pork piece around, pressing into the coating to make sure it is fully covered and set the coated piece onto the waiting cutting board. I continue this process until all the meat it set aside and ready to cook. (If you start to run out of the cornmeal coating, it should be sufficient to simply add a bit more cornmeal - if you gauge it right you shouldn't have to add more seasoning.)

The cauliflower has been cooking and it is time for me to turn it for the final 10 minutes. I start the quinoa; I put 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of chicken broth in a medium saucepan. As it begins to boil, I add 1/2 cup of frozen peas, cover the pot and let cook for 10 minutes. When done, the grain appears soft and fluffy; the germ ring will be visible around the outside of the grain.

Finally, I take a bit of butter and lemon-infused olive oil and heat it in a large skillet over medium-high heat. I gently brown each peice of cornmeal coated pork for about 2 minutes per side. I remove the cooked pieces to a warm plate and continue cooking until they are all done. This recipe made a lot of leftovers - even serving to four people we will have enough for dinner another night this week. Just by making different side dishes it will be like a whole new meal...

20 Minute Meal

The weekends are at times a toss up as to whether we will eat at home or go out. I try to have something in the freezer or fridge that we can cook at the last minute if we decide to just stay home. Sunday night was the perfect example of this; we had spent our morning on our bicycle rides, followed by brunch and some errands. By the time we got home we were getting hungry but were not feeling up to going out for dinner so a quick meal was in order. However considering we both burned over 2,000 calories during our workout we also needed to eat something that packed enough nutrients to help us recover.

Thanks to a visit last Fall with another Trader Joe's junkie we discovered their marinated fish in the freezer section. Trader Joe's has Ahi Tuna or Mahi Mahi marinated in oil, garlic, lemon, cilantro, red chili flake and black pepper. The marinade is very flavorful and to highlight it the best thing to do it serve it with a boiled grain and steamed vegetable. The beauty is that you can broil or pan-fry the fish and even frozen is doesn't take more than about 15 minutes.

I had defrosted the marinated Ahi Tuna steaks in the fridge for whatever night we decided to eat in. I decided to pan-fry them since the day is still warm and the oven being on will only heat up the house. I look around the cupboards for some quinoa grain, which is one of my new favorites; it is quick cooking (about 10 minutes) and high in protein, plus its mild, nutty flavor goes well with the marinade of this fish. Unfortunately, I seem to have run out and that is a bummer because I just went to buy all my bulks goods about a week ago so I am going to have to make an extra trip or go without for a while.

My next option is another Trader Joe's product - Harvest Grain Blend; this is a blend of couscous, orzo pasta, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa that will also fit the bill of being quick and not a distraction to the marinade. My next option would have been plain pasta or even rice but my goal is to find the quickest option that has more of a nutrient kick. Following the instructions on the package, I boil some chicken broth (I happen to have a container open in the fridge and would rather use it before it goes bad). When it boils, I add a pat of butter and the Harvest Grain Blend, lower the heat, cover and set the timer for 10 minutes.

I have broccoli that I will steam so I set that up in the pan with water and turn the burner heat to medium. I have a tendency to forget to turn on my vegetables until everything else is about to be ready. This causes delay in eating and cold food that I hate so I find it is better to turn the vegetables on earlier, cook them at a lower temperature, and monitor them closely. If they happen to be ready a few minutes beforehand it is easy enough to drain and set them aside while you finish everything else.

Finally, I turn on the burner under my skillet and wait for the pan to heat up. Since I am cooking Ahi Tuna - which is typically served seared and raw in the middle - I have decided to not follow the instructions on time; it indicates 5-6 minutes of cooking time per side. I feel that the fish would be overcooked with so much cooking time so I decide to reduce it to a total of six minutes or three minutes per side.

When the pan is smoking a bit, I add the tuna steaks and pour on the marinade as well. Not the best idea really as the oil sputters and spatters all over my stovetop but I like the flavor of it and putting a lid over everything would ruin the browning I am striving for. I stir the Harvest Grain Blend because it has a tendency to stick and burn; the timer shows that I have a bet less than six minutes for it to cook. My broccoli is just starting to steam so everything should come together at the right time.

At about three minutes, I flip each steak - making sure I get the side in a bit of marinade for flavor. I stir the grain blend again and there is very little liquid left so I turn it off (it is a bit early but by to letting it sit there while the fish cooks and the broccoli steams it will finish cooking and not get overdone). With a bit over a minute left, the broccoli is done so I turn off the heat under the skillet with the fish and drain the water from the broccoli steamer. I then serve up our dinner that may only take 20 minutes to cook but we are so hungry it probably won't take more than five minutes to eat...