Steak...As Promised!

I was happy for a meal that didn't take a lot of work last night! This was certainly one of the easiest meals I've made in awhile. When I walked in the door last night, I immediately began marinating my steaks in the Tequila-Ginger-Lime marinade that I had in the fridge. It was a bottle of marinade I'd purchased at a gourmet shop awhile back, and wanted to use it up. I poked some holes in the steaks with a fork, allowing the marinade to seep into the meat a little bit quicker, and then left it to sit in the fridge for the next 45 minutes while I did a little bit of relaxing.

While my husband heated the grill on our back patio, I cut a head of cabbage into wedges. Because there were only two of us, I only used half the head, but the plan was to grill these cabbage wedges. Grill...leafy things...do these two things go together, you ask? Well, yes, they do, and they sure are delicious. I had a recipe, from that blog I like, called The Kitchn: Grilled Cabbage Wedges with Spicy Lime Dressing. It looked easy, it looked delicious, and best of all, the flavors sounded like they would pair quite nicely with the marinade I had chosen.

I brushed my cabbage wedges with canola oil, and set them to char on the grill, for about 5 minutes on each side. When I checked on them, they were blackening around the edges nicely, and so I went back upstairs to prep the dressing...which is SO easy to make. All you have to do is throw everything in a food processor, and voila, spicy dressing, to be drizzled over deliciously-blackened cabbage wedges. We've got ourselves a side dish, people!

Not only were the steaks delicious, and the cabbage a perfect accompaniment, but I think I'll add cabbage to my shopping list for our summer camping trip. It made for a great, easy vegetable to add to any meal, and all you need is a grill, and some dressing, any dressing will do!

Monday's Marvelous Meal

I've recently revealed my blogginess to a few friends I've made on my commute to work. They are very funny, and one of them unknowingly asked me a cooking question, which spurned quite the conversation! Well, since that discussion, she's taken to reading the blog (thank you so much!) and met me at the train stop this morning, asking "How was the steak!?" I laughed, because that meant she'd found the Current Menu, and then hung my head, because I'm a little behind on this week's menu. I know! It's only TUESDAY, you say, but as I said in my weekend post, I didn't get to all the recipes from last week's menu, so on Sunday night, I tackled one of them. This means that Sunday's dinner on the Current Menu became Monday's dinner! There'll be steak tonight, I promise!

So, I got home last night, preheated the oven to 400 degrees, and set to preparing the Spatchcocked Ricotta Chicken recipe that I recently printed from one of the blogs that I read on a regular basis : The Kitchn. I know I've told you all to read your whole recipe before planning to make it, so that you know how much time is needed, and whether there's any prep that should be done hours, or days, before you actually make the dish. I did not take my own advice this time around, so when I pulled out the recipe, the first order of business was to "spatchcock" the chicken. Um...what? Okay, I read further. It's another word for butterfly...but, butterfly a WHOLE chicken? Yes, I had to cut the back bone out of the chicken and flatten the remaining body. All you need is a pair of kitchen shears, or a very sharp chef's knife.

Once the deed had been done, I was ready to prep the chicken for the oven! The "stuffing" consists of ricotta, grated parmesan, panko bread crumbs, a beaten egg, chopped basil, minced garlic, lemon zest and some salt and pepper. Once it was all incorporated, I used my fingers to loosen the skin from the body of the chicken and spread the ricotta mixture under the skin, pushing it around until it was spread evenly and covered the majority of the chicken, under the skin. I put it in a roasting pan, on a layer of onion slices for flavor, and left it to cook for the next hour.

Meanwhile, I set a pot of water to boil for our artichokes. Yes folks! It's ARTICHOKE TIME! All the long-time readers will remember my love of artichokes and it is again the beginning of artichoke season. While the two I received in my Peapod order were not of the BEST quality, they were still delicious! I think I'll probably go to the store to pick out my own artichokes from now on, but I digress. I set a pot of water to boil, adding some bay leaves and lemon slices to the water, even though the recipe didn't mention it. That's just how I roll!

Once the artichokes were in the steaming basket, it was time to make the Smoked Herb Mayonnaise. This was totally simple and really only took about 5 minutes to prep. Mayonnaise, chopped dill, chopped capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, paprika, black pepper, hot sauce and some salt were just mixed together...that's it! Now, the recipe called for Smoked Sea Salt, but...I didn't have that. I think that's the ONLY kind of salt I don't have sitting in my pantry, so I decided to use some Saffron and Sea Salt instead. It gave the dip a nice, bright flavor so I'd say it was a success!

After about 35 minutes, the artichokes were done, so we enjoyed those while the chicken finished cooking. But, let me tell you...the CHICKEN! It was so moist and delicious! The skin was nice and crispy, the "stuffing" stayed in place and really infused the meat with so much flavor. I'm definitely adding this to my repertoire for guests! It was easy to serve, I just quartered it with a sharp chef's knife, and we've got leftovers for another day! Seriously yummy stuff, here!