Aaaaaand we’re back.

I thought we’d get things swinging with one of my favorite weeknight dinners: lettuce wraps!  This is a hugely versatile recipe which offers you a ton of options with varying proteins, marinades and toppings while remaining low carb and healthy.  Tonight’s version features a korean-inspired marinade and our favorite hot sauce, sriracha!  So let’s get to it already.

Sriracha Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Serves 2 hungry, weary workers

For the Marinade:

3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp agave nectar (or sugar)
1 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp sriracha (adjust to taste)
1 big spoonful of gochujang (fermented sweet korean pepper paste. I’d sub with tomato paste)
1 big spoonful of white miso
1 tsp korean red pepper flakes (or any ol red pepper flakes, again to your heat level of choice)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro

For the Lettuce Wraps:

1.25 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 head butter lettuce (we love the hydroponically grown live lettuces on the top shelf of the produce case)
1 small handful whole cilantro
1 package of scallions, root ends trimmed
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
More and more sriracha

For the marinade, combine all ingredients except for the oils and cilantro and whisk together (or blend with your immersion blender to speed things up).  Slowly drizzle in the oils and blend until nicely emulsified.  Toss in the cilantro (whole if you’re using the blender) and give it one more go to evenly combine.  Pour over the chicken thighs in a large ziplock bag and stow it in your fridge until nicely marinated, at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

Crank that grill up super hot.  Oil down your grill grates using your method of choice.  When the grill is ready, throw those chicken thighs on there, keeping an even layer of marinade if possible which will give you lots of caramelization.  Grill about 2 minutes, then turn 45 degrees to get those sexy grill marks.  Give that another 2 min before flipping, then repeat on the other side.  Should take about 8 minutes total to be nicely charred and perfectly cooked through on the inside.  Oh yeah and throw those scallions on there as well (tossed with a little oil and some salt and pepper for good measure of course).  Those should only take 3 minutes.

As soon as they’re off the grill, top with sesame seeds, then stand back and admire those beautiful chicken thighs.  This serves the added bonus of allowing the chicken to rest as long as you can stand it (up to 10 min) before slicing across the grain and serving.

To build a wrap, grab a lettuce leaf.  Toss in a bit of chicken, some fresh cilantro, grilled scallions and top it off with a generous amount of srirachaaaa!

TASTY FIRESTORM!

Okay, so I know this marinade contains a lot of ingredients that probably aren’t hanging around your pantry.  But remember when I talked about the versatility of this dish?  You can marinate this chicken with ANYTHING.  Grab a pre-made marinade in a bottle, or if you’re in a super hurry, buy some nice teriyaki marinated chicken from the butcher counter at your super market.  We also love our lettuce wraps with marinated korean beef (bulgogi style).  Or to really mix it up, throw some taco spices on that chicken or a lime cilantro marinade on a firm white fish.  Grill it along with sweet onions and peppers for a low carb fajita!  The flavor options are truly endless!

As I’m sure you’ve seen, we’ve been eating a lot of decadent food over the holiday break.  Yeah, common, I know you were too.  In fact, we were actually starting to, dare I say it, long for our lighter, healthier pre-holiday diet.  On the whole we’ve been cutting out a lot of processed foods and starchy carbs and looking for more ways to get the most nutrition into our diet, which can be a tricky thing on a busy schedule.  A few months ago I spotted a bag of broccoli slaw at Trader Joes, which consists of raw julienned broccoli stems and carrots, and I thought it would pair nicely with an asian-flavored vinaigrette.  Yet despite all the good ingredients I was putting into the dressing, I always felt like something was lacking.  The breakthrough for this recipe came when I realized what bugged me most about the dressing was that it wasn’t thick enough to cling to the broccoli, leaving a flavorful, neglected puddle on your plate.  So looking for a healthful solution I tossed in a handful of cashews and voila, problem solved!  This makes a super speedy weeknight side, which goes great with some grilled teriyaki chicken, salmon, or shrimp.  It’s light, crunchy and full of yum.

Raw Broccoli Slaw with Cashew Lime Vinaigrette
Serves 4 as a Side

1/8 cup lime juice (1/2 a big lime)
1/8 cup brown rice wine vinegar (i find this has a deeper, richer flavor than the regular kind)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar or honey
1 clove garlic, minced (or grated on a microplane)
2 tbsp mirin
1/2 tsp sriracha sauce (or a pinch of red chili flakes)
1/4 cup canola oil (substitute any mellow flavored oil)
1/4 cup toasted cashew pieces plus 3 tbsps for the dressing
Handful of cilantro, torn into pieces
2 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
1 12-oz bag of broccoli slaw (or 1 1/2 cups grated broccoli stem and 1/2 cup grated carrot)
Handful of sesame sticks (optional)

In a food processor, or in a tall-sided bowl with an immersion blender, combine the lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, mirin, and sriracha.  Blend briefly to combine.  With the blender running, slowly stream in the oil so the dressing emulsifies.  Then toss in the 3 tbsps of toasted cashew pieces and blend until smooth.  The dressing should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  It’ll still be a liiittle gritty from the nuts, which I didn’t mind at all, but feel free to strain it through a fine mesh sieve if you’re looking for a silkier texture.

In a large bowl, combine the raw broccoli slaw, cilantro, scallions, and cashew pieces.  Gently toss with the dressing and top with crunchy sesame sticks and additional scallions and cilantro leaves for color.

Yet another post on my crusade to rid the world of bottled salad dressings.  Mixing up a fresh dressing barely takes 3 minutes out of your day and maximizes the flavor of your salad.  Plus, dressings can be made from the most basic items of your pantry – vinegars, oils, garlic, spices, and are further heightened by whatever fresh produce you have on hand — like citrus and fresh herbs.    The best thing about a simple weeknight salad with a homemade dressing is you really only require two tools: a medium-sized, comfortable whisk and a large mixing bowl that’s big enough to mix your entire salad.  This keeps dishes to a minimum which is more often than not how I measure the success of a weeknight dinner.

Creamy Southwestern Dressing
makes enough dressing for 5oz of salad or about 2 dinner portions

Juice of half a large lime (about 2-3 tbsps)
1 clove garlic, grated into a paste
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp cumin
Pinch of chili powder
Pinch of cayenne to taste
2 tbsp grapeseed oil, or any plain vegetable oil
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the lime juice, garlic, sugar, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  Continue whisking vigorously and slowly drizzle in the grapeseed oil.    Now whisk in the sour cream (I prefer to counter the acidity of the lime juice with some oil before adding the sour cream to help prevent the dairy from breaking).  Finally, whisk in the olive oil and season with salt/pepper to taste.  Drop in your salad ingredients and toss to coat.

Tonight we used the dressing on a simple salad of 1 cup halved grape tomatoes, 1/2 cup defrosted frozen corn, and a sliced avocado served next to some grilled fajita-style chicken and onions.  Feel free to elaborate on the salad by adding black beans, jicama, cilantro, tortilla strips, scallions, crumbled queso fresco, or whatever you fancy.  Truly a perfect weeknight dinner.  Enjoy!

Once again!  HORRIBLE picture!  I apologize internet food blogging posh world.

Nonetheless!   This is a quick and easy dinner option.   I personally love the taste of pork.  It has it’s own complex flavors that I enjoy more than chicken but is definitely not as intense as beef.  I’ve made versions of this recipe a few times and no matter what, it has always tasted amazing.  You can add more sugar to the sauce to make it a little more sweet, add red wine, slice up some crunchy Asian/Korean pears or a crisp apple in with the onions.  I love this recipe and so does Sean.  Whenever we are feeling like an Americanski-riceless-not-so-Asian dinner, grilled pork with a balsamic sauce is the awesome.

Grilled Pork with an Onion Balsamic Reduction Sauce
Serves 4

4 Pork Chops
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
1/4th cup of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of sherry
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
salt and pepper

Heat up a hot griddle/grill or skillet on medium.  While the grill is getting hot, lightly coat the pork chops with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Throw those chops on the grill for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side.  These chops are a medium thickness.

In a small pan, add a little olive oil to coat the bottom and add the sliced onions. Lower the intensity of the fore to low.  Once they start to get soft and brown, add the balsamic, sugar, honey, and sherry.   I let it cook/reduce for about 8 minutes.

Plop the grilled pork on a plate and spoon the onion and balsamic ontop.  Eat!

Ok, ok, so this recipe is almost straight out of this month’s bon appetit.  Like, cover image, straight out.  And the only reason it’s “almost” rather than “exactly”, is that I lacked some of the ingredients in my pantry and there were no sugar snap peas at the farmer’s market on saturday  (maybe next week, i was told).  The big difference is that bon appetit’s version is made with snap peas and pea tendrils.  I swapped in pea sprouts since I had some in my fridge, along with some nice bloomsdale spinach from this week’s CSA veggie box.  The salmon is marinated and then broiled on the same pan, which makes prep and cleanup a snap, and I’m pleased to say the finished dish truly looks glamorous enough to be on a newsstand.

Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon
Adapted from Bon Appetit’s much longer titled recipe, which you can find here.
Serves 2

1/4 cup Asian Sweet Chili Sauce, such as mae ploy
2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, divided
1 tablespoon mirin
2  8-oz center cut salmon filets with skin
1 tsp grapeseed oil, or any plain vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4  bunches bloomsdale spinach leaves, substitute with 2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 cup pea sprouts

Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil, or lightly oiled regular foil.  Place salmon fillets skin side down on the prepared sheet pan and season with salt and pepper.  In a small bowl, stir together the sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar and the mirin.  Spoon marinade over the salmon and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Preheat broiler.  Spoon any marinade remaining on the baking sheet over the salmon fillets.  Broil salmon without turning until browned at corners and the fish is almost opaque in the center, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the grapeseed and sesame oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Toss in the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds until aromatic.  Add spinach leaves and cook, stirring regularly for 2 minutes.  Add the pea sprouts and stir til just wilted, about 1 minute.  Add the remaining soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and fresh black pepper, then turn off heat and set aside.

Voila!

I rounded out our meal with a sort of deconstructed salad.  The greens are a beautiful head of red-tipped romaine, tossed with a light asian-flavored dressing and sesame seeds along with some avocado slices and some simple sunomono cucumbers.  It was the perfect crisp and bright companion to the buttery-textured, sweet and salty salmon.  Enjoy!

If you’ve never heard of Columbia Restaurant, it means you haven’t spent much time in Florida.  It’s a chain of about a dozen restaurants that to my knowledge is restricted to the Sunshine State.  To be perfectly honest, it’s not a very spectacular restaurant overall.  It definitely caters to the tourists and the snow birds, and as a college student, I found it severely overpriced.

So why is it worth mentioning?  Because they have a spectacular salad on their menu, called the 1905 salad, named for the year their flagship restaurant opened in Ybor City, a district in Tampa.  The 1905 salad is Columbia’s big ta-dah, because all the servers know the recipe by heart and whip it up table-side.  This should clue you in to how simple and fast you can prepare this for a weeknight dinner.  The classic is with ham, which you can swap out for turkey or shrimp.  I like the combo of ham and turkey, but rock it out to your tastes.  Oh and did I mention it was really delicious?

Columbia Restaurant’s 1905 Salad
Makes 2 giant entree portions, or 4 appetizer/side dish portions

For the Salad:
1 small head of iceberg lettuce, chopped
2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1/4 lb swiss cheese, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 lb deli ham, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 lb deli turkey, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 cup green spanish olives, sliced
2 tbsp fresh grated romano or parmesan cheese

For the Dressing:
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably Spanish

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients except the olive oil, along with salt and a fair bit of fresh ground black pepper.  Pour in the olive oil in a slow stream, whisking vigorously until fully incorporated.  (Alternatively, you can also drop all the ingredients into the blender, or mix them quickly with an immersion blender as I did here.  The bowl-whisked dressing is traditional.)

You know the drill.  Drop all of the salad ingredients into the large bowl, coating everything in the dressing.  Portion out into serving bowls, and top with more ground pepper and romano cheese as desired.

Pre-dressing…

And yum…

This really makes for a filling, yet light dinner.  The flavors are very balanced and the dressing is super yum.  And I seriously cannot stress enough how quickly you can whip this up on a weeknight.  Enjoy everybody!  Oh, and thanks to that magazine that published this recipe which I found in that snobby coffee shop in Sarasota that I never patronized again.

Oh lordy, this was delicious. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Melissa was kind enough to bring me a half loaf of Cream Pan bread from a bakery in Marukai, a Japanese supermarket in Torrance. This bread was magic. Giant, inch thick slices of perfectly square, sweet and slightly eggy white bread. She had told me it makes an amazing French toast, but since I rarely get the chance to cook breakfast except for on the weekends and this being a Monday and all, I opted for a monte cristo sandwich. Not familiar? Perhaps you’ve seen it on the crusty, plastic pages of the Bennigan’s menu, where they offer it up as a deep-fried, thick-battered, powdered-sugar encrusted pile on a plate. This takes the same idea but makes it much, much more healthful, and, I personally say, more delicious.

Monte Cristo Sandwich
Makes 2 tasty sandwiches

4 slices challah or Japanese white bread, medium thickness (1/2″ – 3/4″ is ideal)
2 tbsp light mayonaise
4 tsp dijon mustard
4 slices swiss cheese
1/4 lb thin sliced deli ham
1/3 lb thin sliced turkey
3 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp raspberry jam or preserves to serve with the sandwiches

Start by building your sammies. Spread a thin layer of mayonaise on all 4 slices. This is important to create a moisture barrier between the eggy outside of the sandwich and the delicious filling. Top the mayo with a shmear of dijon. Next add the cheese. It’s important to have this close to the outside so that it can melt like a grilled cheese. Next, layer on the turkey and the ham. Toss a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper and then fold into a sandwich. If you’re using a thinner slice of bread, you can go for a more classic double-decker club style sandwich with turkey on one half and ham on the other.

At this point you have the option to wrap the sandwich tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 or so minutes, but this is optional. It just helps the sandwich hold together better in the pan, especially if you’re going double-decker style. I was hungry and my bread slices were ginormous, so this didn’t happen.

Place a large skillet, or two medium skillets over medium-low heat and melt the butter in them. While its heating up, you’ve got time to whip up the egg bath. Crack the eggs into a wide low bowl and whisk it together with the milk until its very well incorporated. One at a time, place the sandwiches into the bowl, soaking both sides in the eggwash for atleast 10 seconds. Wipe off the excess and into the pan it goes!

The idea is to cook these friends low and slow, which allows the eggs to cook and the cheese to melt without the sandwich getting too dark on the outside. You’ll want to see some bubbles like this around the sandwich, otherwise the pan’s not hot enough. You might need to flip it over a few times to ensure even browning.  Oh and while you’re at it, check out my sweet new range…

When both sides are golden brown and the cheese has melted, pull your friend out of the pan, and cut into sexy triangles! If you feel so inclined, you can dust the top with powdered sugar, but I think the jam on the side offers the perfect amount of sweetness to compliment the salty cheese/lunchmeats, the spicy bite of the mustard and pepper, and tender eggy bread. Its a seriously well balanced bite, and makes for a delightful weeknight dinner. Enjoy!

One of the best looking pieces of produce in our first CSA box was a gorgeous head of bok choy. Usually bok choy ends up playing second fiddle in my cooking, but I knew I really wanted to showcase this great ingredient. I came up with an easy stir fry using items I had on hand, including frozen shrimp and some tasty mushrooms. I was really impressed with the simplicity of the dish. In fact, I would barely change a thing next time around, and I can’t wait to make it again.

Shrimp and Bok Choy Stir Fry
Makes 2-3 entree portions

3/4 lb shrimp (25 count), deveined and shells removed
2 tbsp dry sherry or sake
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp plus 1 tbsp soy sauce
1 large head of bok choy
6 oz sliced white or shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp mirin
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sherry, 1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tsp soy sauce. Add the shrimp and toss to coat evenly. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine the chicken broth, mirin, sugar, the additional 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 2 tsp cornstarch and set aside.

The most important step of stir-frying is the prep work. Since the cooking happens so quickly, everything must be ready to hit the pan before you begin. Wash and prep your bok choy. I like to slice the thick white stems on the bias, and then roll up and do a large, rough chiffonade of the green leaves. Be sure to keep these separate, as they’ll hit the pan at a different time.

When everything is ready, heat your wok over the highest heat your stove top can get. When the pan is screaming hot, add 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil. Start by adding the aromatics, in this case the ginger and the garlic. Stir for only 15 seconds, as the garlic can burn quickly, then add the shrimp. Keep the shrimp moving around the pan, and when they’re still slightly translucent, about 1-2 minutes, pull them out of the pan and set aside. They’re not fully cooked through, but that’s what you’re looking for, just like in the pic below.

Allow your pan to come back to heat, then add the remaining tbsp of vegetable oil. Toss in the white bok choy stems and the mushrooms. Stir fry for about 3 minutes until the edges of the bok choy become translucent and the mushrooms soften, then add the green leaves of the bok choy and cook an additional 2 minutes.

When the greens have slightly wilted, return the shrimp to the pan. Add the broth mixture. Continue to move the ingredients around the pan until the shrimp is fully cooked and the sauce begins to thicken slightly, about 2 minutes.

Serve alongside steamed white rice and dig in!! Enjoy, my fellow foodies!