dinner – Page 7 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

7-51: Butterflied Pork Chops

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses October 30, 2018October 15, 2020black pepper, boneless, butter, butterflied, deglazed, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, half-and-half, milk, parsley, pork, pork chops, pork shoulder, reduced, salt, untested

Learning a new technique can be a lot of fun. This slicing technique demonstrated in 7-51: Butterflied Pork Chops is new to me, but the final product really speaks for itself. The larger surface area creates more crispy, golden brown crust.

I love the place settings in the background of the image below. The jar of mustard, the frothy beer and crusty bread really set the scene in which you’d want to eat this dish.

From previous posts, I’ve learned how to put together a pan sauce from fat drippings, milk, and garlic. The base sauce gets enhanced with some acid from the Dijon mustard, the green flavor of the parsley, and the classic standby combo, salt and pepper, fill out the rest of the flavors in the sauce.

11-30: Sea Bass with Peppers

Adam Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses September 4, 2018October 27, 2020almonds, basil, bass, black pepper, broiled, canola oil, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, green bell peppers, halibut, lemon juice, lime juice, limes, lunch, marinated, olive oil, red bell peppers, rockfish, salt, seafood, sliced, sole, tender-crisp, toasted, untested, vegetables, whitefish, yellow bell peppers

Here’s another seafood recipe: 11: 30: Sea Bass with Peppers. To me, fish and peppers are not the most logical combination, but these veggies are mostly a garnish to serve alongside a rockfish (instead of sea bass) fillet.

This is another dish where you can substitute the type of fish if you want–we split the rockfish filets between this recipe and the ones Jamie used for 11-21: Baked Whitefish with Shrimp.

12-25: Parmesan Rice with Shrimp

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses September 3, 2018July 28, 2020boiled, butter, canola oil, celery, cheese, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chili powder, chopped, cooked shrimp, creamy, diced, dinner, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, garlic, grated, green onions, herbs and spices, julienned, long-grain, lunch, melted, minced, Parmesan, parsley, party food, peeled, reduced, rice, sautéed, scallions, seafood, shellfish, shrimp, side dish, Tabasco sauce, untested, vegetables

12-25: Parmesan Rice with Shrimp is a great weeknight dinner option or even perhaps a side dish for a potluck or party. It has similarities to paella and risotto, but isn’t as time or skill-intensive as either of those. And as you can tell by the frequency of how much I’ve been posting lately (not much), anything quick is much appreciated.

I feel like they were trying to roughly capture the essence of Shrimp Etouffee with the flavors used in this recipe, but with much less work involved. Cajun/creole-inspired isn’t new for Simply Delicious, but it’s rarely executed faithfully.

9-21: Chili Beef Casserole

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses July 22, 2018October 18, 2020basil, black olives, butter, chili powder, chopped, corn, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, green bell peppers, ground beef, ground meat, guacamole, herbs and spices, lunch, Mexican, minced, parsley, peeled, red bell peppers, red kidney beans, salt, sautéed, sour cream, Southwestern, spice blends, taco shells, tacos, Tex-Mex, tortilla chips, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

9-21: Chili Beef Casserole is yet another case of calling something a casserole that is barely a casserole. There is no condensed soup in this recipe and this dish is cooked on a stove top, not baked. This dish is more of a tortilla filling than a main course as a casserole.

One might say this dish is a ground beef casserole with a cultural appropriation problem, not “with a Mexican accent”.

8-65: Sizzling Skirt Steaks

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses July 21, 2018July 2, 2020avocados, barbecue, beef, black pepper, broiled, canola oil, Cheddar, cheese, chili powder, chilled, chopped, cumin, diced, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fajitas, flank steak, garlic, grilled, guacamole, herbs and spices, lime juice, limes, lunch, marinated, Mexican, minced, onion salt, party food, pico de gallo, red onions, salsa, salt, shredded, skirt steak, sliced, sour cream, Southwestern, steak, tacos, Tex-Mex, tortillas, untested, vegetables, white onions, yellow onions

You may recognize 8-65: Sizzling Skirt Steaks as basically fajitas, one of the standard Mexican restaurant menu features. If you’re looking for something different on taco night, consider this dish. This can even be modified for different types of proteins, or even add in a few more veggies or a meat substitute and go meatless.

Flank or skirt steak is taken from the underside of the cow, and is tougher than most other cuts of meat. Therefore, marinating it (especially with some acid) breaks down some of those fibers and gives you a more tender piece when it’s cooked. Cooking fast/hot works well with this type of cut–low and slow will give you tough and rubbery.

11-8: Almond Trout

Adam Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses June 15, 2018October 27, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, black pepper, boiled, butter, candied, creamy, dinner, dredged, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fish, ginger, herbs and spices, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, milk, nuts, pan-fried, parsley, salt, sautéed, seafood, sliced, trout, untested, whipping cream, Worcestershire sauce

Almonds are grown in California in abundant numbers so luckily, the featured ingredient in 11-8: Almond Trout is fairly inexpensive for us. This is not the first recipe to include almonds in a main course. Jamie chopped some for the sauce of the 11-16: Indian Fried Fish and I added them whole to 9-27: West Indian Meat Casserole. Jamie also combined pork and almonds in 7-55: Sunday Pork Stew. Who could forget the chopped almonds in the sauce from the mauve chicken in 6-24: Mushroom-Almond Chicken? Once you go into desserts, Simply Delicious offers tons of recipes that contain this wondrous drupe, which is technically a seed, but commonly called a nut.

Pan-fried fish has to be my second favorite preparation of fish, second only to full frying in a deep fryer, of course.

8-4: T-Bone Steak

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses June 14, 2018June 19, 2020baked potatoes, beef, black pepper, bone-in, butter, compound butter, deboned, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, gluten-free, herb salt, herbs and spices, parsley, party food, porterhouse, potatoes, restaurant-style, rib eye, roasted, roasting pan, salt, seared, side dish, sliced, steak, T-bone, untested, vegetables

I don’t cook steaks often–in fact, these days I don’t really cook them at all. However, once in a while an exception can be made. 8-4: T-Bone Steak sounds exactly like what it is: simple and classic.

My dad is a steak man–in honor of Father’s Day “holiday” this weekend, let’s have a beefy adventure. 🥩

11-21: Baked Whitefish with Shrimp

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses June 10, 2018November 24, 2020basil, bass, boneless, broiled, butter, catfish, Cheddar, cheese, chopped, cod, cooked shrimp, creamy, deboned, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, fish, fish filets, flaked, flounder, gluten-free, grouper, haddock, herbs and spices, lemon juice, lemons, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, parsley, Provolone, rockfish, salad shrimp, salt, seafood, shellfish, shredded, shrimp, simmered, spice blends, trout, untested, whipping cream, whitefish

Here’s 11-21: Baked Whitefish with Shrimp—Simply Delicious is big on fish and cheese together. We’ve seen that combination already with 11-21: Best Ever Sole Au Gratin and 11-4: Calzone with Seafood.

You don’t see too many creamy, cheesy baked fish recipes these days, do you? 🤔

12-20: Fettuccini with Ham

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses June 8, 2018October 27, 2020black pepper, boiled, butter, cheese, chopped, creamy, diced, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, fettuccini, frozen, grated, half-and-half, ham, julienned, lunch, melted, mushrooms, Parmesan, parsley, pasta/noodles, peeled, piquant, pork, salt, sautéed, sliced, smoked ham, sweet peas, untested, vegetables, whipping cream, yellow onions

Fettuccini and ham are different foods I’ve heard of before. 12-20: Fettuccini with Ham is a dish I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams. It is both “piquant and tasty” as described below and I enjoyed the dish a lot.

Time for a confession: I have never cooked fettuccini nests before in my life before I prepared this dish. My parents weren’t adventurous with their pasta choices. We were strictly a spaghetti and angel hair household when it came to noodle pasta. Having a cream based sauce was rare also, they generally opted for a tomato-based sauce.

7-17: Piquant Pork Chops

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses May 20, 2018October 28, 2020apples, barbecue sauce, broiled, brushed, butter, cast-iron, chili sauce, chopped, cloves, creamy, currants, curry paste, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, fruit sauce, golden raisins, grated, Greek yogurt, grill pan, grilled, half-and-half, hot sauce, julienned, milk, Oriental, pan-fried, parsley, peeled, piquant, pork, pork chops, pork loin, pork shoulder, raisins, salt, sautéed, scored, slit, spicy, sriracha, steak sauce, untested, whipping cream, yellow onions, yogurt

Oh boy, yet another pork chops recipe. 7-11: Piquant Pork Chops tries to stand out by boasting a fruity, spicy take on the standard pork-chop-with-pan-sauce entries that have already been covered at length throughout this project.

I think it’s a bit hyperbolic to insist that just adding a “new” spice or sauce to pork chops radically changes it as a dish, but I suppose that for some people it can be a big deal to experience new things outside of the regular old tried-and-true.