Tomato Salad and Roasted Root Vegetables

We’ve got an odd assortment of things in the gastronomic kitchen right now, and so for dinner tonight we had two very good, though oddly paired, dishes: a tomato salad and roasted root vegetables.

Yesterday morning we disovered, to our dismay, that our tomato plants have the dreaded blight.  They grew so well (7 feet tall!!), but will not be yielding any edible fruit.  So when we  went to the farmers market with our friends Caly and Steve later in the day we were on the hunt for some non-blighted tomatoes.

 

Pan Seared Pork Loin with Coconut-Tomato-Chile Salad

When R. and I were on a road trip last month, we stayed at her aunt’s house and enjoyed some cable television (a rare luxury!).  We happened to catch “All Star Grillfest” on the Food Network, which caught my eye since it was at my old stomping grounds on South Beach.  Since I am a huge fan of pork tenderloin, this recipe stuck in the back of my mind.  We did a little adaptation, substituting this and that, and it was still tremendous.  I just had some leftovers and I repeatedly exclaimed to myself over how delicious it is.  We had a few snags making it, but expect it will go much smoother next time, and it should only take about 30-40 minutes! We’ll definitely make this again.

 

Zucchini/Summer Squash Curry

We’ve only made curries from scratch a few times, and I think this was the biggest success.  R absolutely loved it, I think I would add half cashews or maybe even raisins in the last 5-10 minutes when we make it again.  But make no mistake, that’s “when” and not “if.”  Recipe via Epicurious.

 

Pesto Pizza

Not exactly a tough recipe.  Just used the leftover asparagus puree along with some zucchini, kale and mizzuna for toppings.  Tasted great, though.

 

Garlicky Lentil Soup

This is one of our old reliable, go-to recipes for when we’re busy, lazy, or just really want some good red lentil soup.  All three of those reasons were in play tonight.  This soup cooks for a while, but requires very little effort to make.

 

Straw & Hay Pasta with Asparagus Puree

A while back R. picked up a vegetarian cookbook called Super Natural Cooking.  We picked this recipe out a while ago, and I think it could be a real go-to meal over the summer.  If you make the asparagus puree (which was very close to an asparagus pesto) ahead of time it would be something you could literally throw together in five minutes, and it’s really good.  I only wish we would have had the pine nuts that the recipe called for!  This could probably also be easily adapted productively.  You could add sausage, or capers,  or even sun dried tomatoes.

 

Grilled Chicken Salad

In the summertime when our farm share is in full swing, we eat a lot of dinner salads.  The CSA hasn’t started yet but we didn’t feel like waiting, so this was an easy and really satisfying dinner salad. I only wish we would have had some carrots, red pepper or tomatoes to add a little color.  Oh well…plenty to look forward to once the veggies start rolling in.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head lettuce (don’t use iceberg, it’s gross.)
• handful baby arugala (que sustantivo!)
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 small onion
• 1-2 green onions
• 3-4 stalks celery
• 1/3 lb chicken breast, dusted with black pepper  and grilled
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• sprinkle of parmesan

Procedure

• It’s a salad.

 

Cajun-Spice Catfish, Mixed Veggies and Rice

No recipe on this one, either.  Catfish was dusted with a cajun spice rub we had on hand (if you want to make your own it’s garlic powder, salt, paprika, onion powder, cayenne, and a little bit of cumin & black pepper) then baked at 375 for about 20 minutes.  Vegetables were potatoes, roasted red peppers and sugar snap peas steamed with a bit of oil and some oregano.  Rice was boring ol’ white rice.  Easy, but quite good.

You can tell we drastically cut back on the rub since the tilapia last time.  Far fewer tears were shed over this meal.

 

Tofu Pad Bai Gaprow!

People who know me well know of my restaurant eccentricities.  I really don’t like ordering something that somebody else at the table has already ordered.  So whenever I go out to a Thai restaurant, that essentially means that Pad Thai is right out (since inevitably someone else always orders it).  As a result, I’ve had quite a variety of Thai dishes I probably wouldn’t have tried anyway.  Gaprow is one of my favorites, and I’ve wanted to make it on my own for a while now.  This was a surprisingly easy dish, and came out fabulously.

 

Lazy Pork Pad Thai

Not a lot of preparation for this one, but it delivers.