Later On

I’m now cooking Chicken Satay, using her recipe except I cut the amount of rice in half: I’m still on a reducing diet. It sounds good. I got a splat of freshly ground peanut butter at Whole Foods (recipe calls for 2 Tbsp), which is used in a sauce with minced scallions, minced garlic cloves, grates fresh ginger, soy sauce, and a little chicken stock. It suddenly occurs to me that I meant to add crushed red pepper flakes to that to avoid the curse of blandness that seems to afflict so many of these recipes. So it goes.

I still find the Texsport 2-quart cast-iron Dutch oven to be the best of the lot that I’ve tried, but I haven’t tried Le Creuset and I haven’t tried the Staub round 2.25-quart cocotte. The latter will arrive tomorrow, so soon I’ll try using that one.

UPDATE: Another “meh” recipe: flat, bland, and not very good. Snow peas, like shrimp and scallops, do not in my opinion work well in GOPM meals—they cook too long. (Green beans, OTOH, work great!)

Tomorrow I’ll do a fish version, but I’m definitely making up my own recipe. Those are ever so much better (to my taste, naturally).

UPDATE 2: I just couldn’t face the other half of this mess and so I threw it away. I hate to throw away food. Then I made up my own recipe, which was quite nice. And I made it in the Cajun Cookware Dutch oven, which actually is 2 quarts: I’m on a reducing diet, so the 2.5-qt Texsport is not what I want now. The layers:

1/2 sweet onion, chopped coarsely
1.5 cups whole wheat rotini (which is 1.5 servings: I go light on the starch)
1/3 cup light coconut milk
1/2 lb Dover sole fillets
salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes
4 domestic white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 bulb fennel, cored and sliced (fennel works quite well in this method)
1/4 head red cabbage, shredded
6 asparagus stalks cut into 1″ sections
1 Meyer lemon, cut into chunks

Whisk together:

2 Tbsp vinaigrette (I use Bragg’s)
1 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Pour over the top, cover, 45 minutes at 450ºF, two meals.