Welcome to part two of my two-week coronavirus menu. Late in the previous week, we heard our favorite Chinese store, the Hong Kong Supermarket in Sioux City, was temporarily closing due to the evolving pandemic. We decided to make a quick trip to stock up on supplies there and at Sam's Club. This definitely augmented our options, but didn't change our plans too much. With new cases mounting in Sioux City, we probably won't be back in a while. We had great variety in the week's meals, including some old favorites dating back to the "classic" (2012) era of No Free Lunch and some new ones, as well.
Sunday: I made my version of pollo a la plancha, which I featured in a post. It's always a great thing to discover another easy, versatile chicken dish to have in the repertoire. This can easily be done with either breast or thigh.
Monday: Of all dishes in need of a post, crab pasta is perhaps the most overdue. This is a dish completely of my own invention, loosely based on the aglio e olio concept. I saute onions and garlic, add chopped imitation crab (as I've written before, a very underrated ingredient), and then add pasta with some pasta water. Some chopped herbs finish it off. It's one of those things best not overthought, and I usually don't measure. That being said, a recipe is forthcoming.
Tuesday: The original plan of defrosting some walleye from the freezer was replaced with some fresh salmon from Sam's Club. I've been getting skin-on salmon more often these days, and working on my technique to get it crispy on cast iron. This time, though, I went for skinless and the tried-and-true panko crust. We had the roasted mushrooms I wrote about earlier as a side.
Wednesday: While I am a fan of mapo doufu, Ariel is not, mostly due to her dislike of Sichuan peppercorn. As such, I hadn't made it in a long timed. In my original post, I used extra-firm tofu because anything softer wouldn't hold up well to frying. I now view the frying step as superfluous, and I think it's more of a Peimei quirk. As such, I think a softer tofu works better, but you can only get firm and extra firm in this town. Such is life. In any case, I omitted the Sichuan peppercorn and just added a bit to my own portion and toned down the heat by mixing regular bean sauce with the hot bean paste. Pea tips, which we picked up at the Chinese store, are always a welcome side dish. Relative to my previous post, I now use a lot more garlic, thinly sliced instead of minced.
Thursday: Chicken and mushroom pasta returned, better than ever with the addition of the mushroom juice I saved from Tuesday. As one typically doesn't have that on hand, I would now recommend adding a little soy sauce (mix of light and dark, if available) to the braising liquid to add some extra depth.
Friday: I handed the reins over to Ariel here, and she made waffles from Stella Parks' recipe on Serious Eats. We had never made yeast-based waffles before. Like pretty much all of Stella's creations, they turned out great. I added a side of roasted potatoes, seasoned with the spice blend I put together as a gift for our wedding guests. A post on that is definitely coming soon. We had just enough leftover potatoes to make a pseudo-tortilla for lunch the following Monday.
Saturday: When we initially planned out the fortnight's meals, we left one day as "freezer figure it out," meaning we would throw something together based on what we had in the freezer. This often means cooking some frozen dim sum (potstickers, har gao, and buns) or heating up a frozen container of soup. This time, though, I pulled out a ribeye steak, which we shared as a steak au poivre. I used my own recipe from 8 years ago, which I'm pleased to report is pretty good! I had some green peppercorns on hand this time, which have a milder flavor and are definitely the way to go for this dish. Since I had the cognac out, I made myself a sidecar, which was quite delightful. I think grandpa would be pleased to know his cocktail shaker and glasses are being put to good use. As I experiment more, and the coronavirus situation drags on, you might see drinks pop up more often on the blog!
Monday: Of all dishes in need of a post, crab pasta is perhaps the most overdue. This is a dish completely of my own invention, loosely based on the aglio e olio concept. I saute onions and garlic, add chopped imitation crab (as I've written before, a very underrated ingredient), and then add pasta with some pasta water. Some chopped herbs finish it off. It's one of those things best not overthought, and I usually don't measure. That being said, a recipe is forthcoming.
Tuesday: The original plan of defrosting some walleye from the freezer was replaced with some fresh salmon from Sam's Club. I've been getting skin-on salmon more often these days, and working on my technique to get it crispy on cast iron. This time, though, I went for skinless and the tried-and-true panko crust. We had the roasted mushrooms I wrote about earlier as a side.
Wednesday: While I am a fan of mapo doufu, Ariel is not, mostly due to her dislike of Sichuan peppercorn. As such, I hadn't made it in a long timed. In my original post, I used extra-firm tofu because anything softer wouldn't hold up well to frying. I now view the frying step as superfluous, and I think it's more of a Peimei quirk. As such, I think a softer tofu works better, but you can only get firm and extra firm in this town. Such is life. In any case, I omitted the Sichuan peppercorn and just added a bit to my own portion and toned down the heat by mixing regular bean sauce with the hot bean paste. Pea tips, which we picked up at the Chinese store, are always a welcome side dish. Relative to my previous post, I now use a lot more garlic, thinly sliced instead of minced.
Thursday: Chicken and mushroom pasta returned, better than ever with the addition of the mushroom juice I saved from Tuesday. As one typically doesn't have that on hand, I would now recommend adding a little soy sauce (mix of light and dark, if available) to the braising liquid to add some extra depth.
Friday: I handed the reins over to Ariel here, and she made waffles from Stella Parks' recipe on Serious Eats. We had never made yeast-based waffles before. Like pretty much all of Stella's creations, they turned out great. I added a side of roasted potatoes, seasoned with the spice blend I put together as a gift for our wedding guests. A post on that is definitely coming soon. We had just enough leftover potatoes to make a pseudo-tortilla for lunch the following Monday.
Saturday: When we initially planned out the fortnight's meals, we left one day as "freezer figure it out," meaning we would throw something together based on what we had in the freezer. This often means cooking some frozen dim sum (potstickers, har gao, and buns) or heating up a frozen container of soup. This time, though, I pulled out a ribeye steak, which we shared as a steak au poivre. I used my own recipe from 8 years ago, which I'm pleased to report is pretty good! I had some green peppercorns on hand this time, which have a milder flavor and are definitely the way to go for this dish. Since I had the cognac out, I made myself a sidecar, which was quite delightful. I think grandpa would be pleased to know his cocktail shaker and glasses are being put to good use. As I experiment more, and the coronavirus situation drags on, you might see drinks pop up more often on the blog!
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