Why I'm Eating this week, III


This is a bumper edition of WIETW, since I've been travelling the last few days, and have had a guest up here for a bit as well. That means I've decided to combine two weeks worth of cooking into one post. The transient nature of the last week or so for me is also reflected in the kinds of things I've been cooking - not as many slow cooking dishes, and more pasta and sandwiches. They're all fine, though.

Breakfast - of course, my usual oatmeal was on offer this week, but I also had rough semolina (not the fine semonlina you get in grocery stores - for this, the local middle east grocery is your destination) briefly fried in butter and then simmered in honey, milk, and cinammon. The Greeks do a version of this with less milk and more butter, which eventually gets molded and cut into brownie sized desserts, but our version at home is like a cereal, and not very sweet.

Lunch:
Avocado Sandwich x 1 - Yes, I'm quite serious. Slices of avocado tucked inside thick cuts of good brown bread, with or without mayo and bacon.
Salmon and Avocado sandwich x 1 - Uncolored salmon thrown naked on my parents' brand new and sadly neglected grill, and then stuffed in a sandwich with crisp bacon, mayo, and the second of the avocados I got for a dollar at the supermarket. If you're feeling ambitious, marinate the salmon in a mix of pure maple syrup and soy sauce for three days before heavily peppering and putting on the grill. I'm not kidding this time either.

Dinner:

Mushroom Burger x 2 - the largest Portabello mushroom in the supermarket stuffed with copious amounts of butter and finely diced garlic. Roast for about ten minutes, and then put in a crusty bun layered with dijon mustard. Rub the top half of the bun in the garlicky, buttery, pan juices before closing up the sandwich.

Shells with Cream and Garlic x 2 - Combines a roast head of garlic with half a cup of heavy cream and thyme to make a rich, extraordinarily flavorful pasta sauce. I (and Nigel Slater, whose book "appetite" reminded me of this recipe) find that shells hold the cream best.

Eggplant parmigiana x 2 - yeah, yeah, it's cliched. It's also good, and can be made almost as well by baking instead of frying the eggplant at the beginning. Tomatoes are pretty much off the market now, so I wouldn't bother making my sauce from scratch - tinned Italian imports will do just as well until spring comes again. Personally, I'm eating mine with chunks of bread, but a traditional side of penne will do as well.

Chicken burgers, "Cordon Blue" (gack) x 2 - I hate the phrase "Cordon Bleu". I'm not sure why, but I think it's because of some really bad French restaurants I went to when I was a kid. In any case, this is just a chicken burger (I'll grind my own meat in the food processor. Who knows what's in the pre-ground stuff, right?) topped with a little canadian bacon and swiss cheese, in a bun with a sauce of fresh tarragon, a little mayo, and dijon mustard (again!).