Turkey Tacos

Seasoning packets do help a lot when you don't have the cupboard space for spices. We made turkey tacos with the leftover toppings from the previous Mexican meals. Although a little on the dry side, the tacos were juiced up again with the fixings. I ended up having one in a taco and the rest sans corn tortilla. I also stir-fried two chopped red bell peppers seasoned with cumin and chili powder (the few spices I actually have) to top the tacos...yum! This meal is a keeper.

Costco Chicken

This chicken goes a long way with all the leftovers we can get out of it. The first night, we removed the extremities and ate those along with leftover brown rice and green beans. Tonight, I cut up one side of the body, shredded up the meat, and made chicken tacos. On the side were a can of Mexicorn, corn tortillas, salsa verde, chopped cilantro and onion, and guacamole. Again, that creme fraiche came in handy and tasted great in the tacos. We plan on using the last half of the chicken body, along with the side ingredients, to make chicken quesadillas. I'm going to have to make sure to get plenty of veggies into this last dinner. That leaves us with the carcass. Should I save it to make chicken stock?

Briased Beef Short Ribs

I couldn't help but pick up these beautiful short ribs and the only thing I knew to do with them was to braise them so I combined a few recipes from trusty-ol' Food Network. A few months ago, we had lunch with some friends at the Blue Bayou in Disneyland and I ordered this fantastically rich beef ribs. The particular recipe was not similar, especially since I didn't cook them long enough and probably didn't cook them correctly. Since I braised them in red wine, I used some of the leftover wine to make a sauce with creme fraiche. At first, I tried to make gravy with the drippings but it turned into this congealed blob...definitely not at all appetizing. Ken liked the sauce, although it was too salty for me. The healthy parts of this meal were the green beans and brown rice. Ken liked the brown rice so that's what we're having from now on!

Anniversary Dinner

Ken took us to Raymond Restaurant last night to celebrate our first year together. The meal was so fabulous that I had to write about it even though I didn't cook it. For starters, we had Crispy Maple Pork Belly and the best Froi Gras I've ever had, and had a total out-of-body experience which I call foodgasm. For our main course, Ken had Buttered Salmon and I had lamb two ways: a braise shank with couscous in a Moroccan sauce and roast lamb rack with this amazing potato emulsion. To finish this indulgence, Ken had a Brownie Sundae and I had the Creme Brulee, which usually is the best I've ever had but the brulee turned out too thick and overpowered the rest of the dish. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience and we had a fabulous time!

Indian-Spiced Lamb Loin Chops

I couldn't decide what to do with these loin chops that I found at Costco yesterday. At first, grilling them after sitting in an herb marinade was the plan but I didn't have a chance to get the herbs. My friend, Seema, gifted me some Indian spices for my birthday so I decided to put them to use as the marinade.

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 3 cloves garlic
  

It could've used less turmeric and more curry and cumin powders. Served with green beans, rice (w/ whole cumin seeds & olive oil) and prepackaged mahkni paneer (didn't have any fresh paneer on hand).

Katsudon

We bought some thinly sliced pork chops and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them until the last minute today while at the market. There were also some yaki soba and ready-to-cook shrimp tempura left in the fridge so I decided to do a Japanese meal. The tonkatsu was pretty easy to do, but the katsudon sauce needed some adjustment...a bit too salty and concentrated in flavor. I didn't have the exact ingredients (namely mirin and dashi soup) listed on the link to the katsudon and instead made adjustments to the dipping sauce that I bought today. Also forgot the onion and substituted it with the shallots I already had. Top it all off with green onions.

Update: Since we had two leftover tonkatsu, we had it again the next day with adjustments to the previous night's sauce. In the future, I'll probably use a 1/2 cup of the tempura dipping sauce (tastes like the same base as the dashi soup), dilute it with 1 cup of water, and leave out the soy sauce and sugar. As for the mirin, I'll leave that out as well unless I happen to have some on hand. The shallots were an okay substitute but the onion probably would've been better.

Creme Fraiche Sauce

While poking around Trader Joe's for dinner ideas, I discovered that I could use creme fraiche as a topping for the hazelnut-crusted salmon I planned to serve. A suggested idea as a seafood topping was to combine it with fresh herbs and lemon juice, but since I forgot the herbs after the fact, I had to improvise and made a white wine reduction instead. I added about 2 teaspoons of the creme to 1 cup of reduced white wine, seasoned it with some salt and a few drops of lemon juice, and a sliver of unsalted butter just to round out the flavor. Dad had given us some chayote (pictured above) the day before so I grated one up with some garlic. The tricky part about the chayote was to make sure to add plenty of water and let it cook until tender.