Valentine's Day Menu: Main Course

Man, am I excited about this steak. I start to salivate every time I think about it. Which ought to make this post pretty rough...

Post Dinner Update: 
Dear God. So good. The steak was perfect. On the rare side of medium rare (pink all through but not blue-purple anywhere). Chris and I have been broiling steaks recently, more I think to keep the house warm and because it's easy. After last night that is out the window. Pan-fry every time. It's much easier to get a nice sear on the outside and control the degree of done-ness. I am usually really impatient and don't let my steak rest. This is a mistake. It means a lot of the time it ends up over-cooked and not as tender and juicy as it should be. I think my New Years Resolution will be to let my steak rest!

The sauce was really good. I let it cook down a little bit more than this recipe recommend. I think next time for that amount of steak I might use 1/2-3/4 cup of wine rather than the full cup since there was a lot of liquid and took a lot more time than the recipe said to get it to halve. The flavor was great though and even though Chris is usually not fond of super wine-y sauces he really liked this one.

Pan-Seared Strip Steak with Red Wine Pan Sauce and Pink Peppercorn Butter
Recipe via Bon Appetit (February 2011)

Pink-peppercorn butter:
Can be made up to 3 days ahead
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon whole pink peppercorns
Coarse kosher salt

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in small bowl; mix with fork until peppercorns are slightly crushed.
2. Season with coarse salt and black pepper. 

3. Place small sheet of plastic wrap on work surface; place butter mixture atop plastic. Using plastic 4. wrap as aid, form butter mixture into 1 1⁄2-inch-diameter cylinder; wrap tightly and chill. 

5. Keep chilled. Bring to room temperature before using.

Steak and Pan Sauce:
1 10-ounce New York strip steak (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches thick)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
Coarse kosher salt
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup low-salt beef broth or low-salt chicken broth

1. Rub steak with 1 teaspoon oil; sprinkle both sides with thyme, then coarse salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Let steak stand at room temperature 30 minutes.
2. Heat medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add steak; cook to desired doneness, 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. 

3. Transfer steak to plate; tent with foil. 

4. Add 1 teaspoon oil to skillet; add shallot and sauté until slightly softened, scraping up browned bits.

5. Add wine; boil until liquid is reduced by half, stirring often, about 1 minute. 

6. Add broth; boil until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. 

7. Whisk in 3 tablespoons pink-peppercorn butter. 

8. Season sauce with coarse salt and pepper.
9. Cut steak against grain into 1/3-inch- thick slices. Divide between plates. Top with sauce

Master Post
Side Dishes

Dessert

Roast Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice, Sausage, Cranberries and Hazelnuts,

This one is really yummy. Chris says it's one of his new favorites. I made it with brown rice, because that's what I had, but I think wild rice would make it waaaay better. I added sausage and Parmesan for a little more substance, but this would be a great side dish to roasted or grilled meat if you didn't want to just make this. I used a mild sausage, but again, I really think this would be better if you used spicy Italian. I'm going to make this for my Grandma on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, since she tends to be overwhelmed with cooking afterward... It's such a perfect fall recipe.

Ingredients
2.5 Cups Cooked Wild or Brown Rice
3 small acorn squash (each about 10 to 12 ounces), cut in half, seeded, or 1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 finely chopped onions
2 teaspoons crumbled dried sage leaves

1 lb spicy Italian sausage (remove casings)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons dried cranberries (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons chopped toasted hazelnuts (about 3 ounces)
1/4-1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Directions
Cook Rice. Transfer rice to large bowl.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Oil baking sheet. Place squash, cut side down, on sheet. Bake until tender, about 40 minutes. Cool. Using spoon, scoop out pulp from squash, leaving 1/4-inch-thick shell; reserve shells. Transfer pulp to medium bowl. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

I did the first part of this while the squash was cooking to save time....
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until very tender, about 15 minutes. Add sage; stir 2 minutes. Add rice, squash pulp and lemon juice; stir until mixed, breaking up squash pulp into smaller pieces. Mix in 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 cup hazelnuts and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide rice mixture among reserved squash shells. Place in roasting pan. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.

Bake squash until filling is heated through, about 25 minutes.

Salmon with Lentils and Herb-Mustard Butter

This was sooooo yummy, and fairly easy to make. If you feel like making your guests a slightly unusual dish without a ton of effort. DO THIS. I served it with sauteed Starburst Squash. You might want to try a more colorful vegetable though just in terms of presentation.

I don't really have much else to say about the recipe other than French Green Lentils are awesome, a better alternative to more common starches, and taste great when everything on your plate is smothered in delicious herb butter. Yay for fat.

Bottom Line: 4.6 Stars

Roast Salmon with Green Beans and Black Bean Cakes

The unanaimous decision on these was: Good but not great, but they could be great.

They need cilantro in the cake, and a little more heat. I used the bell/jalapeno combo rather than the poblano because there weren't any when I went grocery shopping and I didn't want to make a special trip. Maybe next time I will...

I was a little unsure about what creamy beans look like, but other than that this recipe is not super difficult but it is time consuming. Make sure you start these EARLY. Chris and I ended up giving up on night one and saving the pureed beans for the next day.

The only tricky thing about these is actually cooking them. If you've ever made fried mashed potato pancakes you know how tricky it is. It requires a lot of patience, needless to say Chris got a little frustrated. :p Make sure when you're cooking these you cook them on true medium and ROTATE them before you flip them to ensure they are cooked evenly. The only thing that holds this guys together is the crust that forms from frying so unless you want just a gooshy mess, take your time, rotate, flip, rotate and then finish them in the oven.

What I am really excited about for this recipe is making Huevos Rancheros without a tortilla. I think some eggs, shrimp cheese and salmon would be FANTASTIC on these with or without heat. If you try it let me know how it goes, I might do it this weekend. If you have any questions about roasting salmon or cooking green beans leave a comment.

Bottom line: 3.7 Stars with Potential for a solid 4.5

Slow-cooked Beef Stew/Pot Roast

Okay, something you should know about me: I have a huge crush on my slow cooker. That's right. I admit it. If you have one, and use it, you probably do too.

There's nothing I love more than putting everything together the night before, flipping a switch as I (often quite literally) run out the door and then coming home... Specifically coming home to a wonderful smelling house, a meal that is already cooked and only 1 pot to clean. That my friends is pure joy.

This beef stew is awesome, simply and extra tasty. You can also substitute beef shoulder, boneless chuck roast or some other fatty well marbled piece of beef and turn this same recipe into pot roast if you prefer. If you are going to do this get more poundage of beef, since it will have more fat and cook down to less meat.

Bottom Line: 4.5 Solid recipe

Chicken Provencal w/ Sauteed Spinach

This is pretty yummy and quite easy. 

I doubled the garlic (I'm a garlic fiend in case you hadn't noticed!). I added 1 tbs of tomato paste, since the tomatoes I had were a little unripe still. Make sure you salt and pepper the sauce well. Other than that the one thing I would encourage is NOT skimping on the kalmata olives! Normally I feel like they can easily overpower a dish, but I think they make this one. 

I sauteed the spinach in oil with onion, garlic, salt and pepper. I then laid the chicken quarter on a bed of the spinach and spooned the sauce over the top. 

One other thing. This sauce was NOTABLY better the next day. I think letting the flavors have some time to mix was a good thing for the sauce. I don't know if I would ever make the sauce the day before or not though, just seems like a hassle.

Bottom Line 4.3 Stars

Galumpkis: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This has been one of my favorite meals since I was tiny. So I decided to make it for my boyfriend who had never had it. The recipe I followed was good, but I made a near fatal mistake: I forgot to season the filling. This is a SUPER bummer, because the meat-rice mixture this gets filled with requires a pretty large amount of salt and pepper otherwise the natural flavors just don't come out.

There are three things I'm going to do with this recipe in the future:
1. Add 1.5 tsps of paprika to the filling
2. Double the garlic in both the tomato sauce and the filling.
3. Increase by half the amount of the sweet and sour tomato sauce that is added to the filling

The only change I made to the recipe this time (aside from my spectacular blunder) is that I made a full 1 cup (uncooked) batch of rice and added that to the filling, which I thought was balanced pretty well aside from needing a little more of the tomato flavor.

EDIT: I just remade this and like an idiot a forgot ANOTHER ingredient, this time the egg, so I'm not going to adjust my rating. Still the filling was soooo much better with the changes I made. the only thing I would for sure say is salt and pepper the hell out of that filling I probably added around 2 tsps of salt to the filling and I would say another wouldn't go amiss.

Bottom line: 4.6 (with the above changes this would be a 5)

Broiled Salmon and Sauteed Squash and Spinach

So I thought that although I'm not doing anything really special with the vegetables that doesn't mean that I shouldn't include the recipes for the rest of the stuff.

This is a pretty easy, standard meal, Chris and I made it with Steelhead tail. This is how we almost always make veggies unless we are roasting them. The salmon recipe calls for "Fines Herbs" we just left this out, thinking that the dill would be sufficient. We were pretty happy with it! We didn't make any tartar sauce, but it would have been a great addition.

Bottom Line: 3.6 Stars (Solid, but not great)

Linguine with Prawns, Zucchini Sundried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts

I love this recipe. It's a go to recipe and probably one of my top 10 (I think I'll do one of those posts later). Chris and I make it all the time. It was taken from a Food and Wine cookbook that my Grandmother gifted me some time ago. It's fast and delicious, and we think that the addition of zucchini makes it even better than the original recipe. When we're flush we make it with scallops, when were middling with prawns and when we're skint...we don't make it (pine nuts and shell-fish are just too pricey). :(

In addition to the zucchini I have made two additions. Once I've added the garlic and zucchini I add some white wine, it goes well with the shell fish and makes the sauce a little more saucy. Then at the end I add Pecorino Romano or Parmesan, because who doesn't love cheese on pasta?!

If you're making this with scallops follow the directions, make the scallops and set them aside, they are too delicate to cook in the sauce. With the prawns just add them at the end (before the last of the parsley and pine nuts get stirred in) and let them finish in the pan with the sauce. No matter what do not overcook shell fish. It's a crime. If I had my way it would be punishable by death.

Bottom Line (with scallops): 5 stars

Cod with Mango Salsa and Black Bean & Corn Tortilla Cakes

I love fish with fruit salsa. When I was little I didn't like mangos, I think they just got lumped in with Papaya as some disgusting tropical fruit. I still think papaya is gross and smells like vomit and butt, however I have very seriously changed my mind about mangoes. 

I thought the mango salsa could have been more mango-y, maybe next time I'll chop it a little finer so that it distributes more evenly. In addition I added 1 tbs of minced jalapeno to the salsa. My biggest issue was that I really wanted a firmer fish, like halibut rather than cod, but cod is so much cheaper it was hard to justify to myself, or Chris, spending 4x as much money on the Halibut. Swordfish or Mahi Mahi would make this dish AMAZING.

The corn cakes were awesome, and really easy to make. I shortened them down to 2 layers (3 tortillas) rather than 3 layers because that seemed ridiculous given the height of the things as it was, and I also didn't have quite enough tortillas to make it that way. There was a TON of cheese in these, so if you are dieting I would suggest cutting the amount of cheese down to 1 cup of each, it would probably still be plenty.This would be an awesome meal to cook for a gluten free family member or friend!

UPDATE: I made this with prawns and thought it was better than cod, but I still think a good firm fish would be preferable.

Bottom Line: 4.6 Stars (I'll probably up it to a 5 when I figure out the right fish!)

Roast Chicken with Parmesan Garlic Rapini

I figure you can't really go wrong with parmesan and garlic. I'm not terribly comfortable with cooking rapini (broccoli raab), I've only done it once or twice in my life, but this looked simple enough. It was and it was suuuuuper tasty. The cheesey garlicky flavor mixed with that slightly spicy quality that rapini has was really good. Chris always looks a little nervous when there are veggies that he's never seen before but he really liked this. Although sometimes I think I could sautee a paper bag and as long as it had garlic on it he probably wouldn't complain too much. :P

My roast chicken is my Mom's recipe and it turns out pretty awesome every time. I'll include the recipe just in case anybody wants it.

Bottom Line: Rapini gets a solid 4 stars, good but not life changing.

Pork is a very misunderstood meat.

Chris was under the impression that he didn't like pork chops. Which I knew had to be crazy. Understandable though, considering what a mess most people make of pork chops, especially overcooking them. Overcooked pork is just... sad. Dry and sad.

Needless to say the situation needed to be remedied. Pork and Seafood fight for first place in my heart. So Friday night I made breaded pork chops, skillet greens and applesauce.

I didn't have bread so I used pre-made bread crumbs so I didn't add any salt like you would in this recipe. I think there was way too many or my chops were just much smaller. Either way I'm cutting back on them next time and increasing the garlic a little.

For the greens I made them according to the recipe using chard and kale, this time we didn't use the bacon fat, and despite what the recipe says I have concluded it is absolutely NOT optional. The pork fat plus the applecider vinegar is what makes that taste so good. However, they were remarkably good cold the next day, and I'm inclined to think the pork fat wouldn't have made it as good for leftovers. So if you are planning on eating them all in one night, definitely go with the bacon, if not it's up to you.

The applesauce was just out of the jar. I'm remaking this recipe (minus the greens) tonight and I'm going to warm the applesauce and doctor it a little.

Bottom Line: Porkchops 4.6 stars and this version of Greens 4.1 stars
No pictures for this one, didn't think about it till it was already consumed!

Prawns w/ Avocado and Blood Orange Salsa

Ooooh man. This was GOOD. Like top 5 home-cooked meals ever good. I think all the stuff I made would be great made into tacos with a little rice added. That being said it was really good just on it's own. I've had blood oranges before, but these were so sweet and so tangy they practically sizzled on your tongue! The salsa was such a nice counterpoint to the buttery-ness of the prawns.

I served it with black beans, which don't look so pretty in the pictures, but really they aren't the focus anyway! I really need to learn something to do to doctor canned black beans besides simply warming them up. I like them better than most other beans, but they are still sort of ho-hum unless you take the time to really make them from scratch.

I added about half a cup of cilantro to the mix, and I think it was a good thing I did. Who ever heard of fresh salsa without cilantro. That's just crazy talk. In the future I will also add a little cumin and maybe a touch or oregano. Also, my blood oranges were teeny-weeny so I used four of them. Chris thinks that they need to be chopped rather than segmented so their distribution is more even throughout the salsa. I sort of liked pairing a wedge with each prawn, but I see his point. I'll try it next time and update. I'll also add photos to this post and the previous one this weekend.

Chicken, Grated Beets, Beet Greens and Orange Butter

I really love beets, and Chris doesn't. However, he hasn't eaten them that much, so I'm always on the lookout for new ways to cook beets. This was pretty okay... Chris liked it, but he was also a bit drunk. The chicken was good, needed a little bit longer on the stove than the recipe called for. The Orange butter was pretty nummy, I put it on the grated beets since they didn't end up having a ton of flavor. The beet greens were the best part of this hands down.

I followed this to the letter including the crazy foil tenting, which seemed kind of dumb. Next time I'm going to switch the order... I don't think the beet greens gained THAT much from the chicken fat, besides, I can always use bacon!

Bottom Line: 3.7 Stars