Meals from the week of May 7th
Mmm, stir-fried pepper and pork, chicken and broccoli alfredo, strawberry corn flake cake, etc.
Here are a bunch of meals I made from a week that happened recently enough.
(Unless otherwise noted, weekday lunches are just for me, while all other meals are also for my husband, Kåre, and our three-year-old daughter, Tilda.)
Sunday, May 7
Lunch: For me, leftover pork bulgogi [NYT Cooking] with rice; for Tilda, leftover mac and cheese [Smitten Kitchen]; for Kåre, a BLT
Dinner: Leftover chicken korma [30 Minute Mowgli, recipe at itv.com] with rice and steamed veggies
If you read my last newsletter, all of the above will look familiar. But I failed to mention a few things I did differently from the original chicken korma recipe. I used sour cream instead of creme fraiche (not 100% interchangeable but uhh close enough?), I used less vegetable oil (maybe closer to a quarter cup, I just eyeballed it), more ground almond (I ground 25 grams of whole almonds in a mini food processor attachment for a stick mixer), and fresh garlic (six crushed cloves) and ginger (about two inches grated) instead of frozen. I might try this with cod instead of chicken next time because Tilda liked/tolerated the sauce but wasn't into the chicken.
Monday, May 8
Lunch: Leftover chicken korma with rice
Dinner: Stir-fried pepper and pork [Masa's Cooking ABC on YouTube] with rice
Masa is a Japanese chef based in Taiwan who makes cooking tutorial videos in Chinese. His videos are super approachable and easy to follow, even without any translation (most of the videos have English captions though, or English translations of the ingredients). His stir-fried pepper and pork recipe is one of my go-to dinners. I just double the ingredients (most of his recipes are for one serving). Sometimes I’ll add other vegetables besides pepper, like cabbage in the photo above. I prefer cutting the peppers into chunks instead of strips, but you do you.
My default way of prepping pork for pretty much any stir-fry goes like so: I debone a bunch of pork neck chops, then individually wrap each chop in plastic wrap and freeze ‘em. When I want to use pork in a stir-fry, I defrost however many chops I need in the fridge for four-ish hours (depends how thick they are—I want "mostly frozen" but not "pork popsicle"), making it easy to slice them thinly.
Tuesday, May 9
Morning baking: Strawberry corn flake cake [Taste]
Lunch: Leftover pork and pepper stir fry with rice
Dinner: Chicken and broccoli alfredo [Damn Delicious]
When I first tried the cake, I thought, “Mm, pretty good, not necessarily something I'd bake again.” And then I scarfed down two (out of 16) thick chonks. The next morning I shared a leftover cake chonk with Tilda before bringing her to barnehage. And then the next morning we, again, shared a cake chonk before going to barnehage. This is a very snack-able cake. I especially liked the hint-o-corn from the cornmeal in the batter. The main problem is that the corn flake topping, which is great the same day, gets increasingly soft and sad in leftover-form. So...I guess you just have to eat this cake as fast as you can.
The biggest change I've made to the chicken and broccoli alfredo recipe is being a lazy ass and skipping the roux part of the sauce (roux = thickener made of flour cooked in fat). Instead, I sub in pasta water for the chicken broth and hope the starchiness is enough to thicken the sauce. It may look a little too liquidy at first, but after mixing the pasta with the sauce and letting it sit in the pan for a while, the sauce does thicken enough to coat everything in a light layer. I'm guessing this would be better if you made the roux, but I think it's good enough with just pasta water. And isn't that what I should aim for? "Good enough"? YEAAAH, MOM OF THE YEAR [toots airhorn excessively].
Wednesday, May 10
Lunch: Tuna mayo, fried egg, and kimchi with rice [Eric Kim to the rescue]
Dinner: Stir-fried pepper and pork with rice (repeat of Monday's dinner)
Thursday, May 11
Lunch: Leftover stir-fried pepper and pork with rice
Dinner: Chicken and broccoli alfredo (repeat of Tuesday's dinner)
Friday, May 12
Lunch: Leftover chicken and broccoli alfredo
Dinner: Ginger-scallion steamed fish [NYT Cooking] and rice with steamed veggies
I love steamed fish (in this case I used salmon), but this ginger-scallion steamed fish recipe fell kind of flat. It was…fine? I don't want to complain too much about a recipe that was hella easy to make, but it tasted like it needed more…some…thing. I don't know what. Eating the leftovers as a late-night snack was satisfying, at least.
Saturday, May 13
Lunch: Blueberry pancakes [Woks of Life]
Dinner: Detroit-style pan pizza [Serious Eats] with make-ahead broccoli and quinoa salad [Bon Appétit, or this adapted version at The Natural Grocery Company]
The pancakes would've been great if I didn't mess them up. I overwhisked and overcooked. Two great tastes in one. But they were still good enough for us to eat all of them. Except for Tilda, who ate a few bites before calling it quits. :(
The Detroit pizza has returned! As I said in my last newsletter, it's my default dish when we have people over for dinner. May 13th marked one of the most important and holy Norwegian events of the year: EUROVISION. So we threw a little Eurovision watch party with some friends. To make the pizza stretch to feed six adults and two little kids, I made my go-to hearty-as-hell side dish, broccoli and quinoa salad, to fill all the gaps that the lack of pizza left behind. And it worked! We ate all the pizza and most of the salad. And then we continued filling the gaps with too many bags of chips.
The broccoli quinoa salad is very adaptable. I use feta or cheddar, but I think you could use pretty much any type of cheese. If you're like me and don't like chopping dates, use raisins (I use a heaping 1/3rd cup) or whatever dried fruit you prefer. If you don’t have almonds, use any other nut. You could probably change other ingredients to adjacent ingredients and it'd still be awesome.
Linky links
Eurovision: This year's winner was Sweden with "Tattoo" by Loreen. But I was really rooting for the second place winner, Finland with "Cha Cha Cha" by Käärijä.
Dammit, I miss Taiwan: Move Over, Night Markets—Why Rechao Restaurants Are the Place to Be in Taiwan
Substack: Every edition of Anne Kadet's NYC-centric newsletter Café Anne is a black hole of delight. Like the one where she attempts to order a scone at various eateries while pronouncing "scone" like "skwon" (skuh + one).
“Bone-in potatoes” YouTube: How To Make Slow-Cooked Russet Potatoes That Fall Right Off The Bone
“If you have 40 minutes to spare” YouTube: Defunctland: The Awful Wiggles Dark Ride
Music YouTube: Rufus Wainwright - Foolish Love (in honor of Rufus Wainwright's self-titled debut album turning 25 YEARS OLD this year, what the hell…)
Books, hobbies: How To Draw Almost Everything by Chika Miyata
I have the Chinese version of this Japanese artist's how-to book. According to Google Translate, the cover says something like, "The first drawing dictionary designed for parents", and "Don't get stumped when a kid asks, 'Can you draw this?'" The cover of the English version doesn't mention any of this. So I just want to point out that this book could be a nice gift for any artistically challenged parents in your life who want to draw cute things for their kids. (It’s also a nice gift for anyone who wants to draw easily recognizable things in Miyata’s charming style.) That's basically what I use this book for, to draw cute things for Tilda.