Spicy Sesame Chicken & Couscous

Recipe: Spicy Sesame Chicken // What's Cooking Chicken
Side Recipe: Couscous // Seth's Grandma

Rating:

This was nice! The chicken recipe called for curry paste, which we did not have. We substituted some Dinosaur BBQ dry rub seasoning. The dish was pretty mild overall, not really spicy. I might have liked the flavor of the curry. We added parsley to the couscous, which I enjoyed.

Chicken with Pan Sauce

Recipe: Chicken with Pan Sauce // Mark Bittman via Serious Eats
Side Recipe: Roasted Potatoes // Serious Eats

Rating:

A delicious dinner. Tasty leftovers, too!

Valentine Salmon

Recipe: Valentine Salmon // How to Cook Everything

Rating: 

Seth first made this for me on Valentine's day two years ago. I have been making it ever since. It's a tasty mix of carrots, onions & garlic in a red wine sauce. It's really wonderful. We had it with roasted broccoli. 

Stuffed Peppers with Goat Cheese and Couscous

Recipe: Stuffed Peppers with Couscous and Goat Cheese // How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (pg 399)
Side Recipe: Blumenthal's Roast Potatoes // Serious Eats

Rating: 

This was a tasty vegetarian entree. The peppers, goat cheese, and couscous blend well together. We roasted the peppers over our gas stovetop before stuffing them; we set them over a low flame and let the skin soften and blacken. The original recipe calls for quinoa, but we had couscous on hand, so that's what we used.

My favorite was the roasted potatoes. We liked them better than our homemade fries. The recipe called for peeled potatoes, but I like potato skins, so I left them on. They were great.

Chicken Kiev & Roasted Broccoli

Recipe: Chicken Kiev // Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
Side Recipe: Roasted Broccoli // Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
Kiev Rating:  
Broccoli Rating: 

I didn't have faith that the Kiev was going to hold together, but it did! It was pretty simple to put together overall, although I would have liked more filling in the piece I ate. Perhaps I didn't put enough of the butter mixture in each chicken piece. The mustard added to the dipping egg added a nice, subtle flavor. We used store-bought breadcrumbs; they turned out just fine. I gave this an rating of 3 because it's a solid chicken recipe, but nothing that blew me away.

The broccoli was awesome, though! Four kitties! Cooks Illustrated has a variation in their cookbook that calls for shallots rather than garlic--I copied it down before returning the book to the library. It's basically the same recipe linked above; just omit the garlic and when the broccoli finishes roasting, add shallots cooked in oil and parmesan cheese.

Blackened Salmon with Crunchy Coconut Couscous

Recipe: Blackened Salmon with Crunchy Coconut Couscous // Serious Eats
Rating: 

This was fine, but there are other salmon recipes I enjoy more. The coconut milk added a mild coconut undertone that wasn't overwhelming, and I liked the combination of scallions and parsley. I wouldn't use the pumpkin seeds in the couscous if I were to make this again.

Maybe the overall flavor combinations were just too wild for me. Here's a plus, though: it came together quickly! Really--five minutes, and then we just waited for it to cook.