Nutella sandwiched between two homemade pizzelle cookies. The Dinner Society test kitchen is back in business!
Just a couple of offerings this week:
1) Summertime Pork + Beans Dinner ($15)
- Spicy-Sweet Ribs and Beans - Country-style pork ribs over BBQ pinto beans. (I can’t get antibiotic-free pork ribs, but I can substitute BBQ tempeh if anybody wants it. Either way, the beans will be cooked with the pork.)
- Buttermilk Biscuits - a reader-approved Epicurious recipe from Dot’s Diner in Boulder, Colorado
- Green Beans - with garlic, butter, and bread crumbs
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - a favorite snack at our house
2) Soup of the Week ($5)
- Cucumber, Mint, and Green Grape Gazpacho - This light, cooling soup is flecked with crushed almonds and black pepper, and non-fat yogurt makes it creamy. The recipe (which I look forward to making every summer) comes from The Passionate Vegetarian and I’ll use local mint from Satur Farms on the North Fork of Long Island.
Please send me your orders by tomorrow (Friday) night — pick-up is after work on Monday, June 28th. And if you’re planning ahead, I’m taking 4th of July weekend off, so there won’t be a menu for Monday, July 5th!
For this Monday, I’m planning a meal that Pete’s been craving:
1) Pete’s Picks!
Filipino-Style London Broil - Top round (raised without antibiotics) marinated overnight in lemons, soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, coriander, garlic, onion, and black pepper. Grilled and sliced real thin.
Jean-George’s Rice Noodle Salad with Grapefruit and Peanuts - Spicy chiles, sweet grape tomatoes, lemongrass, and fresh mint and cilantro brighten up this cold noodle salad from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.
Steamed Broccoli - with a little lemon juice, garlic and red pepper flakes
Banoffee Pie/Trifle - A banoffee pie (pictured above) is made with a graham cracker or cookie crust (I’m planning to use Ginger Snaps), a layer of toffee-flavored pudding, a layer of bananas, and a layer of whipped cream dusted with espresso powder. Not sure if I’ll be layering the ingredients as a trifle or serving this as a pie. I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while, so I’m happy to have some tasters.
Full meal: $15
2) Soup-of-the-Week: Slow-Cooked Black Bean Soup - I’ve been craving a bowl of this tried-and-true soup. I’ll send it out with a little scoop of corn-cilantro-shallot salsa to put on top — you can add your own fresh avocado and tortilla chips, if you like. $5 per serving
3) Bake Sale: Oat Bran Muffins - Made with carrots, apples, raisins, oranges, and flaxseeds. (So healthy! 3 grams of fiber per muffin, girlfriend!) Feel free to order a bunch for breakfasts and snacks. $1 each
Please email your orders by Saturday if you can, and I’ll see you on Monday!
1) Brisket dinner - $15
- BBQ beef brisket (Hardwick Beef, grass-fed and raised without antibiotics)
- Jalapeno cornbread
- Cucumber salad
- Pecan pie
2) Soup of the Week: Summer Minestrone - $5
Classic, fresh, delicious: beefsteak tomatoes, fresh-cut corn kernels, zucchini, summer squash, green beans, Swiss chard, cannellini beans, parsley, basil, and rice.
3) Extra cornbread - $5
By popular demand, I’ll be offering a quarter of a skillet-sized cornbread
4) Peanut noodles - $5
A great snack in a 12-oz container, or serve it with grilled chicken or seared steak to make a meal
5) Bake sale - Price TBD, no orders necessary
Probably making some banana bread, from the new Cooks Illustrated. The recipe involves banana juice reduction for intense flavor. It looks insane!
I spent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago and picked up this rad old cookbook at Myopic , a labyrinth of a used book store in Wicker Park. This week’s main menu comes from the book — except for the dessert, which come from London’s Books for Cooks. I’m somewhat intrigued by the traditional “cornmeal pone” dessert in the Jamaican cookbook, but I wasn’t sure if I could sell you guys on a cococnut-cornmeal pudding with rum and raisins… Anyway, here’s what I’ve got:
Jamaican Jerk Chicken - 1 leg, 1 thigh, 1 breast, 1 wing (antibiotic free)
Rice and Peas - coconut rice with garlic, bacon, and kidney beans
Jamaican Cole Slaw - shredded cabbage and carrots with jerk seasoning
Orange Meringue Cake - airy meringue atop a sweet and citrusy cake
Full Jamaican meal: 15 bucks
And starting this week, I’m eliminating the vegetarian meal because I was only getting one or two orders, and I was spending so much time planning and prepping that single meal. (Nobody is more bummed about this than me. Vegetarian cooking is what I’m best at and what I like to eat most!)
Instead, I’m going to keep doing my $5 veggie-friendly soup-of-the-week, and I’m going to add a $5 salad or vegetarian small plate. A soup-and-side combo could make a good take-to-work lunch or light summer dinner for $10. (And you could add your own salad greens and/or grilled chicken to liven it up.) So, here’s this week’s vegetarian menu:
Soup-of-the-Week: Tomato, Lentil, and Orange Soup - “An inspired ingredient combination that makes a prettily orange-looking, delicious orange-tasting and gorgeously orange-scented soup,” from the always-reliable Books for Cooks. $5
Side-of-the-Week: Roast Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing - “With its combination of sweet, slightly caramelized squash, gutsy sweet-sour dressing and nutty chickpeas, this is, in our view, salad perfection color, flavor, and texture-wise. The dressing alone is to die for,” from Books for Cooks. $5
Also, I’m going to start a Monday night bake sale. Once I finish with all the orders, I’ll be whipping up some surprise baked goods, like muffins or cookies or focaccia that will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. No pre-ordering necessary. Not sure if it’ll start up this week. But it couldn’t hurt to bring some extra dollar bills, y’all.
Email me your orders by Friday night, and I’ll see you on Monday!
Pasta Dinner:
Grilled Chicken and Fettucine with Peas, Asparagus, and Pancetta - This looks like a great way to make use of all the fresh asparagus at the greenmarket.
Upside-Down Fudge-Almond Tart - I’ve been skimping on the chocolate desserts for the past few weeks. Hope this will make it up to you!
($15)
Vegetarian Dinner:
Malaysian Greens and Tofu over Brown Rice: Stir-fried broccoli, bok choy, and tofu dressed in hoisin, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and Thai chili paste. FromThe Art of Tofu.
Almond Rochers - Light and airy piped meringue cookies from the Tartine cookbook.
($15)
Soup of the Week:
Butternut Squash, Corn, and Coconut Soup - Creamy, Latin, vegan goodness!
($5)
So, I’m back from the West Coast, hoping to figure out the recipes for some of the best things I ate on the road — the gruyere gougeres in San Francisco (that one of the guys in the band described as “the croissants of my dreams”), the crazy-good gingered edamame and jicama salad in LA, the oatmeal brulee in Portland — but for now, I’ve got a week of simple, straightforward fare in store:
Brisket Dinner:
Texas Beef Brisket Chili with Butternut Squash - Everybody liked this before, so I’m making it again
Jalapeño Cornbread - Rich, buttery, and cooked in a cast-iron skillet
Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp with Pistachio Crust - Hoping I can find some rhubarb at the greenmarket because this is my favorite springtime dessert!
($15)
Vegan Dinner:
Polenta Pie with Wild Mushroom Filling - Inspired by Donna Klein’s The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, this dish is traditionally dairy-free. No fake meats or cheeses here!
Greenmarket salad - Nothing better than local greens and a homemade vinaigrette to offset the hearty polenta and mushroom ragout.
Macedonia of Strawberries in Red Wine Syrup - In case anybody is laying off the booze this week, keep in mind that the alcohol is boiled off when the wine is simmered with sugar, cinnamon, and orange zest. Topped with fresh mint, this is a happy, healthy dessert that won’t leave you buzzed.
($15)
Soup of the Week:
Spicy Southwestern Garbanzo Bean and Sausage Soup - I’m making a vegetarian version of this recipe with Field Roast sausages and vegetable stock. Hit the deli after you pick this up, grab an avocado and a Mexican beer, and you’ve got a really cheap, delicious dinner. I’ll throw in some cornbread if I’ve got extra!
($5)
Please place your orders by tomorrow night (Friday, May 14) for pick-up on Monday, May 17. Thanks!
Just booked a plane ticket to San Diego (and another one to fly me home from Seattle) because I’ll be spending the first week of May on the road with Title Tracks, doing research for my new book proposal. That means no Dinner Society next week, and maybe a simplified menu on May 10. So get it while you can, kids! This week’s recipes honor some of my favorite people and places on the West Coast.
Half-Korean Dinner:
Korean Marinated Beef with Rice and Kimchi - Thinly sliced flank steak soaks up the flavors of garlic, ginger, and soy sauce, then gets quickly cooked and sprinkled with scallions and sesame seeds. It’ll be served with the homemade kimchi sold at the produce store on Court Street — good stuff. I was introduced to kimchi many years ago by my friend Joanie Mendenhall, whom I’ll be seeing in San Diego, and who is half-Korean, like this dinner.
Crunchy Granola - I’m preparing for a week in a van on West Coast highways. I gotta get in the zone. Making cardamom-coconut-cashew-flaxseed granola from Chef Akasha Richmond’s Hollywood Dish, a truly rad California cookbook, seems like the best way to do so. (Real talk: No amount of granola will ever make me crunchy enough for this mission. I miss my hair dryer already.)
($15)
Vegetarian Dinner:
Malaysian Greens and Tofu over Rice: Stir-fried broccoli, bok choy, and tofu dressed in hoisin, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and Thai chili paste. From Chef Akasha’s other cookbook, The Art of Tofu. I’d love to eat this kind of stuff every day when I’m in California, but I will settle for a steady diet of In-N-Out.
Almond Rochers - These piped meringue cookies (pictured below) are one of the many ridiculously delicious treats served at Tartine, a bakery in San Francisco — possibly one of the best bakeries in the world. I’m not sure if I can pull this off, though. I’m not the best baker in the world. So, if my rochers fail, you’ll be getting a simpler dessert (like cookies or a tea cake) from the Tartine cookbook. Cool?
($15)
Soup of the Week:
Minestrone with (or without?) Pancetta: Usually my soups are vegetarian, and usually only a couple of you order them. So, let me know if a little cured meat is okay with you when you place your order, and I’ll cook accordingly. This hearty soup is packed with carrots, zucchini, green beans, kale, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and white beans. I might throw some ditalini in, too.
($5)
Please email me your orders by tomorrow — Friday, April 23!
