Maple Glazed Salmon

Another AllRecipes recipe. This one needs a bit of lead time because of the marination but is delicious and very, very easy and simple to put together. We served it over lemon rice with peas.

The grocery store didn't have salmon, but did have rainbow trout on sale, so we made it with that and it was delicious.

Ingredients

• 4 large (~150g) filets of salmon or trout
• 100mL maple syrup
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1.25mL salt
• 1.25mL garlic powder
• 1.25mL freshly ground black pepper

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients except salmon in a small bowl.
2. Place salmon in a glass baking dish. Pour marinade over salmon. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes, turning halfway through.
3. Bake at 400°F for ~20 minutes or until fish is delicate and can be flaked with a fork.

Balsalmic braised chicken

From AllRecipes. We modified the recipe slightly in adding mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved
• peanut oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 540mL tin of diced tomatoes
• 125mL balsamic vinegar
• 5mL dried basil
• 5mL dried oregano
• 5mL dried rosemary
• 2.5mL dried thyme

Procedure

1. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil over medium high heat; brown the chicken, ~4 minutes/side
3. Add onion and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have released their juices and the juices have cooked off and the onion is starting to brown.
4. Add the garlic. Cook until fragrant, ~30 seconds.
5. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes.

Serve over brown rice.

Deconstructed stuffed pepper casserole

Via Everyday Dishes, this is basically a stuffed bell pepper turned into a one-pot casserole. It comes together quite easily and is really, really tasty. Expect it to go fast.

Ingredients

• 500g extra lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 red or yellow bell peppers, coarsely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 450mL of diced tomatoes, in their juice
• 450mL of beef broth
• 225mL of tomato sauce
• 10mL beef bouillon
• 15mL worchestershire sauce
• 5mL italian seasoning
• 250mL long grain white rice, uncooked
• 500mL freshly grated cheddar cheese

Procedure

1. In a deep skillet or nonstick pot over medium high heat, brown the ground beef in a bit of olive oil.
2. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Stir together with the beef and cook until the onions are starting to turn translucent and the bell peppers are starting to soften.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in diced tomatoes, broth, tomato sauce, bouillon, worchestershire sauce and italian seasoning.
4. Bring to a boil, then stir in the rice.
5. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for ~25 minutes, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid and cooked through.
6. Remove from the heat. Stir lightly to fluff the rice, then sprinkle with the cheddar cheese and re-cover until the cheese has melted, ~5 minutes.

Chicken bacon pumpkin gnocchi

Based on a recipe from Nutmeg Nanny, this produces an extremely heavy and filling dish of gnocchi in a rich, creamy pumpkin sauce. The chicken didn't detract from it but didn't contribute much either; we'd probably leave it out (or replace it with something else) next time.

The original recipe calls for bacon; we did it with spicy pancetta.

Ingredients

• 1 pie pumpkin
• 1kg vacuum-packed gnocchi (2 packets)
• 400g pancetta, chopped into small chunks
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
• 250g cream cheese
• 250mL freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 10mL smoked paprika
• 2.5mL cayenne
• 2.5mL garlic powder
• 250mL half and half cream
• a bunch of green onions, finely sliced

Procedure

1. Bisect the pumpkin, extract the guts, brush the exposed face with olive oil, place face down on a baking sheet, and bake at 350°F for 1 hour or until fork tender.
2. Peel the pumpkin and mash the flesh to produce 300-400mL of pumpkin purée.
3. Set a pot of water to boil (for the gnocchi) in the background.
4. Set a large, deep skillet or nonstick pot over medium heat. Cook the pancetta in a bit of olive oil, until well browned but not quite crisp. Remove to a plate of paper towels with a slotted spoon.
5. Add the chicken to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook until cooked through. Remove to the same plate as the pancetta.
6. Add the cream cheese, and stir gently until it starts to melt.
7. Meanwhile, cook the gnocchi according to package directions.
8. Add the pumpkin puree, parmesan, paprika, cayenne, and garlic powder. Stir to combine.
9. Stir in the cream.
10. Stir in the gnocchi, chicken, and pancetta. Cook for ~5 minutes to warm the chicken and gnocchi through.
11. Stir in the green onions.
12. Eat!

Smothered Pork Chops

This recipe from Cook's Country is easier than it looks. It takes a while to make -- figure at least 30 minutes prep time, then an hour and a half in the oven ­-- but the short ingredient list means that it's easy, just time-consuming. And the result is tender pork chops soaking in a thick and delicious onion gravy.

Make sure to have a backup plan for once you've eaten all the meat, because you'll probably still have gravy left afterwards. Serve it over brown rice.

Ingredients

• Spice mix:
• Note: if using the spice mix we have on the counter, that has no salt in it; you will need to salt the chops and sauce.
• 30mL Lowry's Seasoned Salt
• 15mL onion powder
• 5mL garlic powder
• 5mL sweet paprika
• 5mL freshly ground black pepper
• 4 bone in blade or rib end pork chops, ~225g each
• 250mL all-purpose flour
• 125mL peanut oil
• 2 onions, quartered through the root and then sliced thinly
• 750mL water
• 15mL cider vinegar

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Combine the spice mix components.
3. Put the pork chops on a drying rack over a rimmed baking sheet (to catch drips). Rub 2.5mL of spice mix on each side of each pork chop.
4. Combine 20mL of spice mix with half the flour (125mL). Dredge each pork chop in it.
5. Heat the oil in a deep-sided skillet over medium high heat. Pan-fry each pork chop until golden brown on both sides, ~3-4 minutes per side. Return the chops to the rack.
6. Pour off the oil/pork fat/flour/spice mix from the skillet into a liquid measure. Return 64mL to the skillet over medium heat.
7. Mix in the remaining flour and stir until it becomes a thick, peanut-butter-coloured roux, ~3 minutes.
8. Add the onions and remaining spice mix and cook, stirring constantly, until the onions begin to soften, ~2 minutes.
9. Slowly stir in the water to form a smooth gravy.
10. Simmer for ~2 minutes, until it starts to thicken.
11. Pour half the gravy into a baking dish. Put the pork chops on top, overlapping them if necessary. Cover with the rest of the gravy.
12. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 1.5 hours.

Maccarony Cheese

Two Ounces of best Glocester Cheese, 4 Ounces Cheshire Do. grated – put it into a Stone Mortar with two Eggs, two or three Spoonfulls of Sack or Mountain Wine, beat it ’till it’s well mixt and Light – Boil the Maccarony in Water very tender, then drain it well, put it on a Dish or Plate and lay the prepared Cheese all over it and brown it with a Salamander.

This late 18th century recipe for macaroni and cheese comes courtesy of Cooking in the Archives. We adjusted the cheeses somewhat and doubled it; the recipe as we cooked it is presented here.

It's very tasty and comes together extremely quickly and easily. It also, unlike most macaroni and cheese recipes, calls for no dairy apart from the cheeses themselves, which are both aged and cultured -- no milk or cream. This makes it good for lactose intolerant folks such as myself.

Ingredients, for 1 lb short pasta:

• 120g double gloucester cheese
• 240g medium (1 yr or so?) cheddar
• 4 eggs
• 60mL sweet or dessert wine

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Cook pasta al dente. 
3. While pasta is cooking, grate cheeses into a bowl. Add eggs and wine and beat together. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Drain pasta and put in a baking dish. Spread the cheese-egg mixture evenly over the top of the pasta. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until cheese is lightly browned.

Lemony Pesto Pasta with Peas

From The Lemon Bowl, this recipe scales well and comes together incredibly quickly. As written it's for ½ lb of pasta; I've doubled it for consistency with the recipes from The Classic Pasta Cookbook, but as cooked we actually scaled it up by a factor of 3, ensuring that it would feed all of us and leave us with copious leftovers.

Symbol suspects that it would be even better with bacon (or pancetta?) crumbled into it.

Ingredients

• 500g small pasta (we used mostly orecchiette with some shells mixed in)
• 500mL frozen green peas
• 150mL prepared pesto
• 150mL fresh basil, thinly sliced
• 60mL freshly grated parmesan
• 10mL lemon zest
• 5mL chili flakes

Procedure

1. Bring the water to a boil and cook the pasta in it.
2. When the pasta is ~2 minutes away from al dente, add the peas.
3. Drain the pasta and transfer it to a bowl (or back to the pot). Toss with all remaining ingredients (piecemeal or after combining them first, whichever is more convenient).

I did say it came together really fast. :)