I’ve seen beets with oranges plenty of times on the menu, so it’s not much of a stretch to throw beets and oranges into the juicer together. The additions of zippy anise, earthy spinach and sweet carrots make this the most vegetal juice on our menu–kind of like V8 but better … more like V12.
Keep reading for the recipe. Continue reading Week 33, Juice 2: Beet-fennel-O.J.
I’m a Bay Area boy, so you know I love my seafood. Some of my earliest memories are spending time with family, shoveling clam chowder into my mouth from a mountainous bowl made of bread.
The second soup of our trio isn’t a creamy soup like my old favorite, but the smokey shrimp broth (which you make yourself) and sweet shreds of crab and fragrant slivers of fennel make this one unforgettable.
Here’s Week 31, Meal 2: Shellfish and tomato soup with grilled baguette. Continue reading Week 31, Meal 2: Sea soup
Even with half the amount of bread, this sandwich is doing double-time.
It’s crunchy, fatty, creamy, tart, sweet, salty, peppery, herbaceous … and … and I’ve run out of adjectives. Just look at the picture and eat with your eyes. I’m sure you get what I’m talking about.
Here’s Week 24, Meal 1: Prosciutto and goat cheese sandwich with fennel-apple slaw. Continue reading Week 24, Meal 1: This sandwich has it all
Chef Brian’s a good thinker-aheader.
He knew that I was ready to get back in the kitchen and thoughtfully put together an easy-to-make spread of one of my favorite foods: the noble sandwich.
Two of the meals are really quick to make and the finale to the menu isn’t bad either. Three cheers for an easy week in the kitchen. Here’s the menu:
Week 24, Meal 1: Prosciutto and goat cheese sandwich with fennel-apple slaw
Week 24, Meal 2: Roasted turkey with gruyere and cornichons
Week 24, Meal 3: Grilled vegetable panini with ricotta and roasted bell pepper puree
Each recipe makes two servings. Continue reading for the shopping list.
I’m always asking Chef Brian for simpler recipes.
Part of it is because I’m lazy, and part of it is because I’m not the quickest cook. So any recipe that allows me to come home, put in a little bit of work and enjoy the spoils of a better-than-drive-thru dinner is the kind of meal I’m really in to.
Week 22, Meal 2: Marinated and grilled lamb chops over green beans, fennel, and tomato fits that bill. The salad is fast and flavorful and the lamb chops, as simple as the marinade ingredients are, bursts with a sweet and salty succulence unlike any lamb we’ve cooked so far on the blog. Continue reading Week 22, Meal 2: Cop these lamb chops!
Grilled shrimp is a favorite meal at my house — Wifey Nadia is most fond of my “summer picnic” with grilled shrimp and asparagus, plus lemon wedges and French bread — but for too long my go-to marinade for shrimp has always been a simple one: parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Week 22, Meal 1: Marinated and grilled shrimp tossed in an Italian summer salsa over sliced heirloom tomatoes took me out of my parsley-and-garlic-smothered comfort zone and into some sideways seafood universe where the sauce is based in tomato.
Not my usual marinade, but one that proved to be a great departure from the same-ol’ scrimp(t). Continue reading Week 22, Meal 1: Italian summer salsa ‘n’ shrimp
Of the three meals on the menu for Week 20, I was most excited for Week 20, Meal 1: Bouillbaisse with crouton and garlicky yogurt rouille.
There’s something about making French food that makes me feel more distinguished as a home cook. Maybe because for many chefs, French cuisine is the starter to learning classic techniques and the fundamental lesson that simple really is better.
That we’ve never much cooked with seafood on the blog (save for fish and shrimp) or made much broth (except that awesome oxtail broth for the pho), this meal provided a new challenge that I knew would have a big payoff at the end.
Continue reading Week 20, Meal 1: French aromatherapy
Sure, it’s rewarding to make great-tasting food at home, but there’s always an extra level of satisfaction when I put together something that looks like it belongs on some fancy restaurant menu.
Now, Chef Brian might disagree, but I think he’s at his best when he’s working with ahi tuna. There’s just something about the way he is able to contrast that neon pink flesh against eggplant, cous cous, beets … whatever.
Week 18, Meal 1: Fennel, black pepper, and parsley crusted ahi tuna over eggplant and pomegranate caponata with pomegranate balsamic drizzle is yet another stunner from his repertoire of food that’s both beautiful to look at, and delicious to eat. Continue reading Week 18, Meal 1: Another gussied up fish dish
I love Fat Dude cooking nights where I come away from the kitchen feeling like I put together something that people would pay big bucks for at a fancy restaurant.
Week 16, Meal 2: Fennel Crusted salmon over braised fennel, onion, and carrot with roasted fingerlings is one of those dishes. Though it didn’t take much work to put it together, the sweet, light broth and assertive fennel/pepper mix make this a quick fish dish to keep on hand when you’re looking to impress with both flavor and presentation.
Follow the jump to see how the magic happened. Continue reading Week 16, Meal 2: Super salmon bowl
I never choose pasta when I’m out. Restaurants charge a ton of money for something that costs so little and the sauces are usually weighed down with oil or butter.
And as for those sauces, they’re the same everywhere, just variations on the usual suspects — marinara, Alfredo, pesto, etc.
For pasta week, Chef Brian pulled the proverbial rabbit out of his hat with sauces I would never have thought of, let alone thought I’d cook at home.
First was Italian salsa verde. Now, check out Week 11, Meal 1: Penne with arugula and pistachio pesto, grilled shrimp, cherry tomato and fennel. Continue reading Week 11, Meal 1: Penne with arugula and pistachio, grilled shrimp, cherry tomato and fennel
