OMG…Finally…An Amazing Meal!
Rei and I have been feeling a little underwhelmed by our cooking lately, and a little discouraged. But last night, we hit it out of the park thanks to some old standards (braised spinach and roasted carrots) and two new favorites from Alison Roman’s Nothing Fancy cookbook. Oh, and Rei’s homemade sourdough bread. It was pretty rad.
Rei started by peeling and chopping the carrots. This is such an easy and tasty dish and can be done during the week when you don’t have much time. Just prep the carrots in advance and then toss in olive oil with some kosher salt, chopped garlic and an herb. We used thyme from the garden. We put it into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Easy squeezy lemon breezy.
While Rei was working on the carrots, I sliced up a yellow onion and grated some garlic for the Grilled Shrimp with Crushed Fresh Tomatoes and Lots of Lime (Nothing Fancy p 232). Grated garlic has become my new best friend in the kitchen thanks to Alison (yes, we are on a first name basis with our cookbook authors, both alive and dead regardless of whether they know of our existence). Julia is pretty much an old friend by now.
I then smashed some garlic cloves for the garbanzo bean recipe (nothing fancy p168). We now have one cutting board (the old one) that is used for garlic and onions. I also chopped up the garlic for the carrots. We were going to grate the garlic onto the carrots but it would have burned because of how finely cut up it would have become and how long it would have to spend in the oven, so we opted for the more traditional mincing in that scenario.
Rei juiced some limes for the prawns and made sure that all of the veggie scraps were on a tray (we ran out of room in the bowl) so they could add to their new compost pile in the side yard. Rei can add some more info about the status of our compost system. The compost is coming along nicely. We have a two bin system: the first is a tumbler where the main composting happens, but when that gets full, we store scraps in a secondary bin until we empty out the first bin and refill with the stockpile. We have a bit of a while to go until the compost is done since it’s so cold out, but it’s making progress!
I’d already picked and washed the thyme and rinsed the garbanzo beans for the Frizzled Chickpeas and Onions recipe. (Note: the recipe called for feta and oregano but I don’t like oregano so we used thyme and I didn’t want any cheese in the dish so we left out the feta) Look at us, doing what we do best: changing like 14 aspects of a recipe to suit our needs/tastes and ending up not really following the directions anyways. It still turned out just fine, though, so we can call that a success!
I brought a pot of water to boil and then added 2 large packages of spinach. I brought it back to a boil and then strained out the water. I cooled off the spinach with some cold water and then left it to sit in the sink while I worked on a few other things. Later, I squeezed out the water and chopped the cooked spinach. Classic braised spinach. Thanks, Julia!
Rei added some olive oil to the pan (the last of it as we learned and then had to dig through the pantry to find some other olive oil which ended up oaky flavored). They sautéed the onions for 7–8 minutes before adding the chickpeas, smashed garlic, some red pepper flakes (Rei is trying to step up their spice game) and maybe some thyme. I wasn’t paying attention. Yeah that’s where the thyme came into play. Next time I think we’ll cut the onions into quarters rather than halves before cooking because I didn’t really like how long and stringy they became. Personal preference, though, because I think Mom liked them stringy.
As the onions were cooking, Rei got started with the spinach by adding some butter to the pan and then the spinach. Later they added some more butter and then covered to turn into buttery goodness. And then I added more butter. That was a butter heavy dish (always has been because it’s from Julia, duh). Yum.
Rei is quite the multi-tasker! The spinach took minimal amounts of my time and attention because it was on pretty low heat and thus not at much of a risk of burning as long as I didn’t leave it for too long. The garbanzo beans were on a higher heat but still didn’t need to be constantly stirred — actually, it was best if they weren’t because they needed to crisp up a bit and that would take forever if I stirred all the time.
Meanwhile, I got the prawns ready. The recipe called for head-on prawns but our local market only had these beauties. They worked out fine and were easier to eat than if they had the heads on.
I tossed them in some of the oaky olive oil, salt, and pepper and set aside. I didn’t pay much attention to this part.
Rei removed the chickpeas from the pan and put them into the oven with the cooked carrots just to keep warn until we were ready to plate.
Once the chickpeas (garbanzos) were done cooking, I added some olive oil to the pan and added the shrimp. After they turned this beautiful color, I turned them over and let them finish cooking. We had to cook them in two batches. Look at these beauties! They smelled delicious too, especially cooking in the pan with the oaky olive oil and the sticky bits from the garbanzos. Magnifique!
Earlier, I’d smushed (very technical term here) up 4 small, fairly ripe tomatoes and ripped apart the bigger chunks into smaller bits. I added some garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and let it sit until the shrimp was cooked.
Once cooked, I tossed the shrimp into the tomato mixture (one at a time as I removed from the pan), and Rei added some butter and mixed it all up. They then added some more crushed red pepper flakes (I am so proud of Rei!) and the lime juice as the rest of the prawns cooked. Once cooked, they were added and it was time to plate. The sauce was really good, if a bit spicy, but I’m working on it. You can’t grow if you don’t step outside your comfort zone, right?
But not before Rei cut up some of the sourdough bread they’d made on Thursday and put small slices into the chickpea/prawn pan. We didn’t want Zeke to have to clean yet another pan despite the fact that we had been cleaning up as we’d gone along. This was my brilliant idea (the toasting, not the bread; it was Rei’s idea to use the bread to sop up the tomato sauce). Wait, was it your idea or mine to toast it in the same pan? Eh, it doesn’t really matter. It was delicious.
We added just a little bit more olive oil and quickly grilled/toasted on each side.
And then it was time to plate. We added a slice of lime because Alison said so but it wasn’t necessary unless you like the color balance.
And it was all delicious. And the bread in the sauce? Oh my goodness! Super delish!
I’d struggled with what to serve with the prawns because the flavor profile was a little bit different from what we’ve cooked before. I decided on the garbanzos because it sounded like a neutral enough dish and a decent carb. They were sooooo good with the tomato sauce on them. The flavor wasn’t super obnoxious and paired nicely with the rest of the dish. Plus, the sauce was lovely with them.
As Rei and I talked through the menu, we decided on the braised spinach because it’s versatile and tasty. When we got home from the store, I realized we had two packages of carrots in the fridge and they were taking up too much space in the produce drawer so we added carrots to the menu. It was a good decision. Plus carrots are yummy. Don’t eat too many, though, or you’ll turn orange!
And that was dinner. With the exception of the spinach which takes a few steps, this is a great midweek meal and can be prepared and on the table within an hour, even with only one person cooking.
Rei? Any chance you can step away from your driver’s ed online program long enough to comment?
Ha! I was reading one of my new books at that point and still didn’t feel like getting up (I was wrapped up in my favorite fluffy blanket, can you blame me?) so I’m writing this from the future (the next morning). Don’t you love time travel?
Dinner was absolutely scrumptious, and it was super easy, too. We could have easily done this alone (with either only me or my mom in the kitchen), but it was fun to hang out and kinda-sorta follow directions and improvise as we go.
That toast idea was a stroke of genius, and I ate like three pieces before we ran out and I got sad. Then I became happy again when I realized I still had some shrimp to eat. It was well cooked and the flavors were delicious. Mom said she thought it was overcooked but it seemed fine to me; plus, Mom has always liked raw/undercooked things better anyways. See: pancakes, cookies, bell peppers — need I go on?
Anyways, here’s a blooper from one of the Avengers movies because it’s funny and I have the power to do things like that. Thanks, Google. (actually I think my Mom’s computer uses Bing and I’ve never been more ashamed in my life. Seriously, Mom?) (Bing? What’s Bing?~Terri)
Alrighty! I have a super sad looking dog to pet (she has the worst fucking puppy dog eyes ever) and an asshole of a cat to annoy! Until next time, ciao, and have a congulantruynard day! (Wow, Rei! Kind of a harsh way to end this post!~Terri)
Rei and Terri :P
