Food, places & style.
Life is busy enough without having to plan and shop for healthy easy meals each week. Let us help you with that.
Week 4 Sunday: Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday:
Asparagus and Goat’s Cheese Quiche and salad Vietnamese chicken noodle soup (Pho Ga) Balsamic Steak Salad Linguine with lemon, garlic and thyme mushrooms Crumbed snapper and salad
We shop at the Kitchener Farmers’ Market and the supermarket – so we’ve split our list up that way (but if you don’t, just combine it into one list). This plan is for dinner for 2 adults, and you’ll usually get one or two extra servings for lunch the next day. If there is just one of you, we’d just recommend choosing two or three of the meals and just doubling up on your dinners.
Food, places & style.
Store List
Market List −
Snow peas
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Apple juice (1/2 cup)
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2x steaks
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Heavy cream (1 cup)
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Salad mix (enough for 3 large salads)
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Parmesan cheese (grated)*
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2x snapper fillets
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2x spring onions
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Puff pastry (frozen)
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1-2 x red chilies
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½ cup gruyere cheese
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2x carrots
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Fish sauce*
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1 large asparagus bunch
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½ cup goat’s cheese
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4x avocados
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1x kaffir leaf (at Vincenzo’s) - optional
Linguine (dry)
Grape or cherry tomatoes (2 punnets)
Breadcrumbs*
Cilantro, parsley, thyme and mint
Rice noodles (dry)
2x cucumbers
Olive oil*
1x white onion / 2x red onions
Brown sugar*
Garlic
Chicken Stock (Low Sodium – 1L)
2x limes and 2x lemon Ginger ½ dozen eggs Button or chestnut mushrooms (about 200g)
Balsamic vinegar* 1tsp coriander seeds, ¼ tsp. Chinese five spice, ¼ tsp. black peppercorns Flour (approx. 2 cups.)* 3x Star anise, 1 cinnamon stick
1 pound chicken thighs Lemongrass stalks (ok if you can’t find) −
A handful of mung beans
− You may already have these ingredients from last week or in your pantry
Food, places & style.
List of recipes to use Sunday: Martha Stewart’s Asparagus and Goat’s Cheese Quiche and salad − Link: http://www.marthastewart.com/967821/asparagus-custard-tart − Tips: Puff pastry can be found in the frozen section of the store – usually with the dessert stuff. Make sure you don’t get the sweet kind – it has to be buttery savory puff pastry. It’s best to blind bake the pastry first, so that the bottom of the quiche gets cooked through. If you don’t have baking beans, you can easily use rice. Just line your pastry with parchment paper and evenly spread the rice out to stop air bubbles coming up through the pastry. Blind bake for around 10 -15 minutes in a 350F oven. As a quick side, we use salad mix, tomatoes, avocados, red onion, cucumber and feta. We also mix up a balsamic dressing – using ¼ C balsamic vinegar, 1/3 C olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice. If it’s too oily, add more of the others – if it’s too vinegary, add some more oil. Monday: Nadia Lim’s Vietnamese chicken noodle soup (Pho Ga) − Link: ga/
http://nadialim.com/recipe/vietnamese-chicken-noodle-soup-pho-
− Tips: The recipe is pretty straightforward but we do have a few tips to share: o We didn’t poach the chicken in the broth. So if that makes you nervous too – just do what we did: Grab some chicken thighs and season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Heat a frying pan and sear the chicken on both sides (about 3-4 mins per side). Place in a 350F oven for approximately 15 minutes, or until cooked. Slice the chicken into ½” pieces ready to add to the soup.
Food, places & style. o Make sure you cut up all your ingredients before starting. Once you’ve caramelized your onions and garlic you need to have everything ready to go. o At the final stage, make sure to taste. You’ll need to add salt to taste. We also added about 1 Tbsp more of fish sauce. o Red chilies can be found at the farmer’s market and usually come in large packs. Freeze the left over chilies to use at another time. Same with any left over broth. o Make sure to squeeze the lime before eating – it really brings out all those lovely flavors you spent so hard working into the broth. o All of these lovely spices can be easily found at Eating Organically in Uptown Waterloo – plus much cheaper than the supermarket! Tuesday: Annabel Langbein’s Balsamic Steak Salad − Recipe: See below. − Tips: The glaze is pretty easy to make but you do need to do two things: o Put on the extractor fan OR open all windows. The fumes from the vinegar reducing can be intense! o Watch the balsamic reduction. You want to get it to a good syrupy texture but it can turn pretty quick so don’t leave it unattended once it’s been on for 10 minutes or so. We also like to finely chop up some garlic with rosemary and add to a hot pan with a generous amount of olive oil and fry off until the garlic turns brown an da little crispy. This little mixture is lovely drizzled over the steak too.
Food, places & style. Wednesday: Nigella Lawson’s Linguine with lemon, garlic and thyme mushrooms − Link: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/linguine-with-lemon-garlicand-thyme-mushrooms-24 − Tips: The recipe calls for chestnut mushrooms but we couldn’t find those so we used a mix of button and shitake mushrooms instead. You can marinade the mushrooms overnight or for a few hours to really lock in the flavor. Make sure to not overcook your pasta; it should be al dente – firm to the bite. If you need something extra to fill your tummy, we’d recommend adding some chicken to this dish. (See cooking directions for chicken thighs above.) Thursday: Al Brown’s crumbed snapper with salad − Link: We use Al Brown’s way of crumbing and cooking fish from his cookbook ‘Go Fish’. It’s not online so we’ve included it below: Season the snapper with sea salt and pepper. Take 3 bowls or places and set up the crumbing station: 1C flour, 1C breadcrumbs and 2 eggs (lightly beaten). Dip each piece of fish in the flour, then the egg, and finally the breadcrumbs. Place each piece of crumbed fish on a dry plate and try and refrigerate while you make the salad (see above). Place a skillet or sauté pan on medium heat. Add a liberal amount of oil and then fry the fillets until golden on each side and just cooked through. Add a lemon wedge to the plate and the salad and you are ready to eat!
Food, places & style. Annabel Langbein’s Balsamic Steak Salad Balsamic glaze Combine 1 cup balsamic vinegar with 1/2 cup apple juice and bring to the boil in a small saucepan. Simmer until thickened and reduced to 1/3 cup (about 10-15 minutes although it took about 1/2 hour for mine to reduce to 1/3 cup). Pour into a bottle and cool to room temperature. Reheat gently to bring to a spoonable consistency. Makes 1/3 cup. Steak and Salad While you are waiting for your glaze to cool, start prepping your salad ingredients. Combine the following salad ingredients in a large bowl: • • • • • • • • •
Spring onions Arugla or lettuce Avocados Tomatoes Snow peas Cucumber Goat’s cheese Pan-fried asparagus (as well as anything else you want to throw in!)
With salad prepared and the glaze cooled (and it doesn’t have to be a room temperature if you are rushed for time), it’s time to get the steaks ready. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and put in a pan on high heat to sear both sides (about 3 minutes on side). Then pop into a 350F oven for 10-15 minutes (that should get you a medium rare steak). Allow the steak to rest, then slice into ½” slices and place on top of the salad and drizzle the balsamic glaze over the steak and salad.