A Month of Meals

Here are the meals that we made in May, 2011.

We had fish/seafood 7 times, poultry 5 times, beef 5 times (counting chili once), lamb twice, pork twice (counting split pea soup), and sausage once.

We had a lot of asparagus, but it was spring. I think we need to eat more quinoa.

Moors & Christians

I make a lot of these one-pot rice dishes. The recipe is basically the same for all of them and they are endlessly variable. I don't always add a legume, but it is a nice addition. I like lentils in particular. The black beans in this one makes it "Moors & Christians."

Start to finish is half an hour.

• Chop a bell pepper, a couple celery sticks, and an onion. A red or orange pepper provides nice color contrast, but green works just as well. this is the "Cajun Trinity" and is a variation on the classic mirepoix, which uses carrots instead of peppers. The volume ratio should be 1:1:2 - twice the onions since they wilt.
• Saute in butter and/or olive oil in a sauce pan. Or, fry up a little bacon d saute in that. Or maybe some sausage.
  
• Add a cup of rice and saute a couple more minutes until the rice browns a little.
• Drain a can of black beans, reserving the liquid. Add to pot and mix. Maybe mix in some chilies or garlic.
  
• Add two cups of stock (or water), including the reserved bean juice, to pot. Bring to boil and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Or you could stick it in a 350F oven for thirty minutes.
  
• Turn off heat and let rest for about 10 minutes.

At various stages you can add meat products. Smoked sausage, browned chicken thighs at the beginning, leftovers - whatever you happen to have.

Scotch Eggs

We made Scotch Eggs for the first time. I adapted a recipe from the New York Times, and they turned out great.

1. Crush some garlic, mix with salt and prepared horseradish
2. Mix with bulk sausage (we use Italian), 1/4 lb per egg
3. Dredge hard boiled eggs in flour
4. Wrap sausage around eggs
5. dredge in flour
6. Dredge in a beaten egg
7. Roll in Panko bread crumbs
8. Fry in 350F oil for 4 minutes per side
9. Cool, slice in half, and eat