This was another night that got sort of busy, so I forgot to take a picture of dinner, or prep, but the dish was so good I’m going to share anyway and next time I make these, I’ll make sure to document.
We had a birthday to celebrate, and we went the taco bar route with fish tacos and shrimp tacos. The fish tacos are a staple here, but the shrimp were new. I was inspired by the ones we eat at our favorite local joint, and they were incredibly simple and fast and delicious: tender shrimp marinated in citrus and cumin, then sauteed with onion and green pepper, loaded into a flour tortilla with your choice of salsa, baja cream, and shredded cabbage. It’s going to be a new staple around here.
If you make fish or shrimp tacos, we’d love to hear your variations!
Shrimp Tacos
1 lb shrimp, peeled, tails removed, deveined
1 cup fresh orange juice (or from a carton)
juice from 1 lime
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 green pepper, chopped into 1-inch squares
1 medium onion, sliced in half, then sliced thinly cross-wise
Marinate shrimp at least 30 minutes in orange and lime juices, salt, and cumin
Sautee onion and green pepper until tender crisp
Add shrimp and cook until pink.
Serve warm on flour tortillas, with shredded cabbage and cream sauce (1/2 mayo, 1/2 sour cream or plain yogurt, lime juice, and cumin or cayenne if desired)
It’s been a week of experimenting here in the kitchen and not all of it has been successful. The carrot mostarda was too sweet, the celery root carpaccio too salty–but the pork involtini were delicious–fast, easy and a huge hit with everyone.
I was inspired by my new issue of La Cucina Italiana, which is a favorite food magazine. The recipes are often too involved and time consuming for a weeknight, but a girl can dream…
Involtini is a technique which involves pounding a meat until it is very thin, then rolling it around some delicious filling, then securing the pretty little bundle with a toothpick. The rolls are browned, then quickly braised, then sliced into pinwheels for serving (or not). This recipe involves only 3 ingredients (+ olive oil and salt), and you can make the rolls ahead of time and refrigerate them until it’s time to cook. They cook in just a few minutes–enough time to steam some broccoli, sautee the rest of the chard, and warm some garlic bread in the oven.
They are adorable. The kids were charmed by them. Just this once, I let them eat with their fingers so the rolls stayed intact. They dipped the rolls in a country mustard, which isn’t necessary, but is pretty good.
Pork Involtini with Swiss Chard
1 lb pork tenderloin
4 large leaves Swiss chard
12 scallions, white and light green parts only
salt
olive oil
Special equipment: toothpicks
Cut white stems and ribs off the chard, so you have only the leafy green part.
Cut the tenderloin into 4 equal pieces.
Using a rolling pin or meat tenderizer, gently pound the cutlets into very thin cutlets, about 1/4-1/8 inch thin.
Lightly salt both sides of meat.
Lay a single layer of chard leaves over each cutlet.
Beginning with narrow end, roll up each piece of meat and secure with toothpick.
In a large pan over high heat, with a few tablespoons of olive oil, brown rolls on all sides.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of water, the scallion.
Lower heat. Cover and cook until pork is cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Slice the rolls to your liking, remove the toothpicks, and serve with pan drippings.
This is not really a post about okra (though I do have a simple recipe below) but a reminder that when kids are involved in your meals, they should be involved in your meal planning. My husband and I know this, of course, and we do involve them to a certain extent — we ask whether they want pasta or rice; we let them vote on cooked spinach vs spinach salad; we bring them to the farmer’s market and let them pick things out. But lately we don’t often go to the grocery store with them, and that was site of this weekend’s revelation.
Tony and Ben had snuck out secretly to get a Christmas tree while Eli and I were at a birthday party. Decorating a Christmas tree requires eggnog, of course, so the guys headed off to our local market, which you enter through the produce section. Ben spotted the okra and remembered he loves it. Years ago, a friend made an Indian-spiced fried okra dish that he devoured, and Ben still talks about it (I remember it simply as the first time I enjoyed okra). But okra doesn’t show up in our CSA box and I don’t seek it out at the farmer’s market. Frankly, I don’t love it, but that shouldn’t be the most important factor now that the kids are getting older, and especially not if we want them to try new things. Plus, it is incredibly easy to cook.
Tony gets the credit for this simple recipe, which was delicious and different and everybody enjoyed (except Eli, to whom I suggested he could learn to like it). It inspired an entire Indian feast, with a simple curry of potatoes and tofu, papadum, and lime-mango chutney. More than that, it inspired us all to think we might possibly be taking the first small steps away from the kids narrow food choices of the last couple years.
Simple Fried Okra
Wash and trim the okra, then slice it into 1/2″ rounds. Fry it in a bit of olive oil until it has started to brown and crisp around the edges, about 6-10 minutes. Sprinkle with a mixture of ground cumin, coriander, turmeric and a bit of salt.
I blame this dinner, in no particular order on: Catholic School; the American Girl Doll, Kirsten; St. Lucia; Ikea; the inventor of the “half birthday.”
Yesterday was St. Lucia Day, a fact my daughter knows about from I-don’t-know-how. It’s the only Saint’s day really celebrated in Sweden, and it’s celebrated with flair, with St. Lucia buns (don’ t go there, my husband has already made those jokes), and wreaths of lighted candles on young girls’ heads, and processions of girls dressed in white. Yesterday was also my daughter’s official half-birthday. And her one and most beloved AG doll is Kirsten, from Sweden. And both my kids love Ikea’s Swedish meatballs. So there was really no debate about what I had to cook for dinner. (Due to a soccer tournament we got out of making the buns.)
So, I pulled out the recipe from Kirsten’s cookbook, and in the 45 minutes between the end of the school day and carpool for gymnastics and soccer, I tried to pull it together. Surprisingly, I didn’t quite manage. The mixture came together quickly, but it was a little soft (not quite enough meat. I think), and I didn’t have time to fix it or to shape the meat balls. The solution? I dumped it all in a loaf pan and stuck it in my convection oven at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours (it shuts off automatically), left the house, and came home to Swedish meatloaf. It was actually good. It did actually taste like Swedish meatballs–mild and tender.
The downside: very few drippings for the gravy, so I had to improvise by adding chicken broth. The result was more than passable. The meatloaf was a big hit with the kids. The improvised gravy was big hit, the rye crackers with ligonberry jam was a big hit. I will leave you with a satisfied doll, who has brought hours of enjoyment to our girl, and now a new dish to our whole family.
The recipe follows, adapted from Kirsten’s cookbook. though you may need to improvise as well.
Swedish Meatballs
2 slices white bread
1/2 cup heavy cram
1/2 cup milk
small onion
1 T butter
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1 egg
1 tsp salt
dash nutmeg, cardamom, white pepper
2 T oil
1 T flour
1 cup cold water or broth
Cut bread into small cubes and soak in mixture of milk and cream.
Dice onion and sautee in 1 T butter until clear and tender. Let cool.
In a large bowl, mix meats together.
Add bread mixture, egg, salt, spices, and onions and mix well.
Shape mixture into small balls.
Fry meatballs in 2T oil until brown on all sides. Remove using a slotted spoon and set aside.
Turn down heat and whisk flour into pan drippings.
Add water or broth and stir until gravy is thick.
Return meatballs to gravy and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through.
Unknown to us, Caroline & I have the same advent wreath tradition. We light ours, made with greens from the Redwood tree in our backyard and 3 tealights (3 violet, one rose for Gaudete (orRejoice!) Sunday) every night during this season. So I will leave you with just this image and a poem by Wallace Stevens which has nothing to do with food, or Advent, but with the power of light in darkness. Which is something I think we all need, and something a candlelit table can sometimes help to provide.
Final Soliloquy Of The Interior Paramour By Wallace Stevens
Light the first light of evening, as in a room
In which we rest and, for small reason, think
The world imagined is the ultimate good.
This is, therefore, the intensest rendezvous.
It is in that thought that we collect ourselves,
Out of all the indifferences, into one thing:
Within a single thing, a single shawl
Wrapped tightly round us, since we are poor, a warmth,
A light, a power, the miraculous influence.
Here, now, we forget each other and ourselves.
We feel the obscurity of an order, a whole,
A knowledge, that which arranged the rendezvous.
Within its vital boundary, in the mind.
We say God and the imagination are one…
How high that highest candle lights the dark.
Out of this same light, out of the central mind,
We make a dwelling in the evening air,
In which being there together is enough.
