Meal Planning - The Father-in-law Edition
Wherein well-laid plans are cast aside
Apologies for the late meal planning newsletter. As indicated by the title, we have a guest this week, which has been lovely but has also thrown us off a bit.
Before I started this newsletter I had a planning session to outline what the first month’s content would look like. I am big on planning, preferring roadmaps to vague “left at the tree stump” directions, reservations to walk-in attempts. And yet, I haven’t stuck with my original plan once. This is often the way things go and the older I get the more ok I am with changing plans. I don’t know whether this is widely true–that as you age you become more flexible–or if it only applies to people who were really uptight in their youth (ahem). While I still find comfort in the act of planning, it has taken on more of a meditative quality than a 10 Commandments-style edict. It’s easier this way. When I have to go off-road, I let go of the map and of my original expectations and improvise as best I can.
I had originally intended for this week to be the vegetarian edition of the meal planning newsletter, but I had forgotten that my father-in-law planned to visit. He is not really one for vegetarianism, so I’ll save that for next time.
Cooking for other people doesn’t have to be so different from how you cook for yourself, and ideally it shouldn’t be too different. What’s the phrase? Writers write best about what they know? This isn’t always true, but I would argue that cooks cook best when they stick to dishes they already feel comfortable making. Not only because you can cook on autopilot, making more space for graciousness when you are disrupted, but also because dishes you love and have honed feel loved and honed. They feel comfortable, lived-in, and you feel more like yourself making them. They have a palpable authenticity that will put you and your guests at ease.
This week is all about those easygoing, lived-in Dad meals. Happy cooking!
Monday:
Pork chops with salsa verde (page 567), lemony white beans, house salad
John’s dad Ethan adores pork loin. I’ll admit to being lukewarm on it. I prefer more flavorful, fatty cuts like shoulder. But we’ll spring for some quality chops, grill them over hardwood charcoal, and serve them a little rosy on the inside with a flavorful green sauce. This may sound funny, but I never thought twice about parsley until I met John. It just wasn’t something I grew up with. Parsley came in a jar and was there for color, not flavor or texture. But Ethan apparently always had it around, and now we do too. Parsley is more than a green garnish! It’s the main ingredient in some of our favorite quick sauces, including chimichurri, gremolata, and salsa verde (the Italian kind).
The lemony white beans are wildly simple: Canned cannellini beans simmered briefly with a load of garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. I take my inspiration from ful medames, an Egyptian fava bean dish. Our house salad is butter lettuce, sliced radishes, chives, and my lemon-Dijon dressing (page 575). If you don’t have a house salad, I recommend creating one. It can be a fun exercise to imagine your kitchen as a private restaurant for your family. What would your menu look like?
Tuesday:
Barbecued shrimp (page 364), French bread, more salad
This is John’s dad’s recipe for New Orleans-style barbecued shrimp. If you’ve never had this dish before, be aware that it has absolutely nothing to do with barbecuing, whether you think of barbecuing as grilling or slow smoking large pieces of meat. It’s just shrimp (preferably head-on) cooked in a buttery sauce with ample garlic and spices.
Head-on shrimp are difficult to find though we have had success at some local Chinese seafood markets. If you find head-on shrimp (they will either be frozen or still alive - avoid thawed head-on shrimp), use them the day you buy them. Shrimp heads contain an enzyme that will turn them mushy very quickly once thawed or dead. But if you can get them very fresh and use them right away, there is no better way to make barbecued shrimp. The heads add flavor to the sauce while also soaking it up.
The proper way to eat this dish is to remove the heads and suck out the insides. Don’t be scared–it just tastes like shrimp and spicy butter sauce! IYKYK
Wednesday:
Adana-style lamb kebabs (page 504), tabbouleh, pita, labneh
These are ground lamb kebabs generously seasoned with sumac and Turkish chile flakes like Urfa or Marash, though Aleppo chile flakes work really well. Culinary sumac is a dried and ground reddish purple spice with a tangy, lemon-like flavor. It is widely used in Middle Eastern cuisine but it is also significant in some North American indigenous cuisines. If you live in a temperate region of North America you’ve probably seen this kind of sumac without realizing it. It has a distinctive look, especially once its fruit ripens.
I have tried foraging sumac, and while it is possible it is also, like many foraged foods, labor intensive enough that I prefer to buy it. We’re devoted to Burlap & Barrel’s cured sumac, which is especially bright and flavorful. Whenever I pop the top off the jar and give it a sniff, it reminds me for all the world of salt and vinegar potato chips, minus the potato.
Not all sumac is equivalent. Cured sumac contains salt, so if using this type of sumac, scale down any additional salt in the recipe. You can buy unsalted sumac which is a bit easier to use since you don’t have to worry about the salt, but the unsalted varieties we’ve found are not as flavorful.
Thursday:
Shoyu chicken (page 419), rice, crispy chicken skins (page 445), seaweed salad-style greens
Hawaiian-style shoyu chicken should be in every omnivore’s comfort food repertoire. We only use chicken thighs for this dish, as you want chicken with more fat, flavor, and surface area for all that sauce to stick to. We rarely stray from bone-in chicken thighs because we keep a stock bag in our freezer and need as many chicken bones as we can get. That said, we are not big fans of soggy braised chicken skin.
Some folks like to leave the skins on for braises because they add a fatty unctuousness to the braising liquid. We prefer to turn the skins into the chicken equivalent of bacon by baking them in a 350℉ oven for about 40 minutes or until they turn golden and shatteringly crisp. Soft braised foods benefit from a crunchy textural contrast, so we prefer this strategy to leaving the skins on in favor of a fattier broth.
The seaweed salad-style greens are going to be off the cuff. I’ll saute some greens, probably thinly shredded collards or lacinato kale, then toss them with sesame oil, rice vinegar, mirin, and toasted sesame seeds.
Friday:
Broccoli mac and cheese
I don’t have an explanation for this one beyond a personal craving and the presence of two heads of broccoli in our crisper. John’s dad will be gone by Friday, so we will probably recover from having a visitor by eating bowls of broccoli mac on the couch while watching the final season of Better Call Saul.
Featured dinner from last week:
Manicotti made with leftover pizza toppings. I intended to make stuffed shells, but there were no shells at the store. The ricotta filling was loaded with herbs (parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary), lemon zest, and pepper flakes. Since the leftover pizza sauce was raw, I sauteed some garlic in a generous quantity of olive oil, then added the sauce and simmered it for just a few minutes to knock off the raw edge. Baked pasta dishes just have a way of making you feel taken care of.
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