In less than two hours I’m meeting up with a girl for our sixth date and I’ve agreed to woo her with my culinary skills. This really shouldn’t be any problem as I am a very mean chef in the kitchen, but somehow I just can’t think of what to make. The fact that she doesn’t eat beef or pork limits my options somewhat too…
So here’s what I’m looking for. A dish that:
[ul]
[li]Contains no beef or pork. Fish, poultry, and gator are the only meats she eats.[/li][li]Has a short preperation time. No dishes where I have to let something soak or simmer for a night in the fridge.[/li][li]Isn’t too expensive to make.[/li][li]Has a reasonable preperation time. I’d don’t want to spend any longer than two hours in the kitchen.[/li][/ul]
I’m thinking…turkey burgers and french fried sweet potatoes. It’s nothing fancy, but there’s nothing disagreeable about a good burger and french fried sweet potatoes are always wonderful…though I don’t have any good turkey burger recipes either. This is really a default option.
The date starts in 1.5 hours!
(On a side note, my brother just came home and told me he broke every sales record at the Orlando Sentinel. I got a good feeling about tonight.)
One of my sure-fire recipes is Dijon-Tarragon Chicken:
Poach chicken breasts in broth; set aside and keep warm. Reserve the broth, and make a roux out of 1 or 2 Tbsp butter and about the same amount of flour in the pot. Stir in enough broth to get to the consistency you like, and add Dijon mustard to taste and fresh or dried tarragon (I use up to 1 Tbsp dried). Mix well, and toss the breasts in the sauce to coat. Total time is about half an hour, start to finish.
I like to serve that with oven-roasted veggies (carrots, squash, eggplant – whatever looks good at the market) and a Caesar salad.
It depends on why she doesn’t eat beef or pork. If it’s for health/diet reasons, I don’t think she’d appreciate a burger-and-fries meal, even if it’s made of turkey and sweet potatoes. How about succotash or couscous instead of fries? Maybe pan-fried or grilled fish instead of burgers? A salad is an easy addition too.
Pasta puttanesca: Boil 1 lb. linguine. In the meantime, saute some minced fresh garlic (you can use the “cheater” stuff in the jar if you want) in a little olive oil. Add some anchovies, capers, chopped black olives, and a can of diced tomatoes with juice. Add a little basil and/or oregano (dried or fresh). Simmer the sauce while the pasta cooks. Drain the pasta and top with the sauce.
Serve with a crisp green salad, crusty bread, and some shaved Parmesan (not the nasty stuff in the green can) sprinkled on top. You’ll also want a nice sweet dessert on hand to refresh the palate afterward. A good-quality ice cream is nice.
Grilled Chicken and Tri-Color Peppers With Chimichurri Sauce could NOT be easier, and it’s very impressive looking. It’s just exotic enough to be terribly exciting, but not weird. Plus it can, if you choose, involve a grill - or you can pan sear or broil it instead. Heck, I use my George Foreman grill.
Well, I see you’re in warmer climes, but on a day like today in Chicago, nothing says fall or winter to me as much as a simple dinner of roast chicken. Make some roast vegetables alongside the chicken (potatoes, onion, carrots, parsnips, whole cloves of garlic, a sprig or two of rosemary or thyme and generous amount of olive oil) and you really can’t go wrong. Very easy and always elegant. Very homey and romantic.
Chicken Cordon Blu. Could NOT be easier, and it sounds fancy 'cuz it’s French.
Whack a couple of boneless chicken breasts thin, throw a slice of ham and a slice of swiss cheese onto them, Roll them up (chicken side out) Dip them in egg or butter and coat them with bread crumbs. Bake them for 20 minutes at 400 and viola! Dinner is served.
Oh, just reread. Well, if no pork means that ham is verboden, make Chicken Marsala instead.
Whack the same chicken breasts thin, coat them in flour and fry them in 2 tbl melted butter. Season them with salt, pepper and oregano. After about 3-4 minutes on one side, flip them, season the other side, add 1/2 cup marsala wine to the pan along with a tbl lemon juice and about 6-8 mushrooms, sliced. Cook for 3-4 more minutes, cover each breast with Parmesan cheese, cover the pan until the cheese melts. Serve over pasta, drizzling the remaining sauce from the pan over top of the whole dish.
Thanks for the suggestions folks, but I went ahead and made the turkey burgers. Which turned out to be real good. And she made a pecan pie! We managed to eat about half of what we cooked. Hah!
It was very nice night for both us for reasons that procede the good cooking .
Well she seems to have this aversion to meat…but not all meat. I think she makes exceptions for seafood and poultry because she doesn’t hold them as being as smart as the edible mammals and as such aren’t as sympathetic. Oh, and there’s the nutritous factor.
Or something like that.
When asked about why gators were ok she just laughed and said something along the lines of “Oh come on, they’re not like, real animals. I mean, they’re almost seafood.”
So to answer your question, a kooky sarcastic one who appreciates the occasional fine cut of meat.
Lemon pepper shrimp and spaghetti, with a garden salad.
very simple, very light, some fucking to do tonite.
Lemon Pepper Shrimp and Spaghetti
Cayenned flour to dust.
1/2 pound of shelled and deveined shrimp
6 Tablespoons of sweet butter
2 tablespoons of Olive oil.
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoon of fresh cracked pepper
2 large meier lemons
1/4 cup of a nice white wine
Salt to taste.
1 pound of spaghetti boiled al dente.
Dust the shrimp with the flour cayenne mixture, sautee on high heat with the butter and oil, garlic, and pepper.
Get a red on the shrimp., deglace with the lemon juice and white wine. Add in the spaghetti and toss in the pan with a small amount of pasta water. Serve with a Garden salad.
Well, I might not explain the meaning of the name until later. Depending on the date. Personally, anyone I would prefer to date would not be offended.
(In About a Boy, when Will responds to Suzie’s question about carolers having to pay him 10% on the Christmas song his father wrote (he lives off the royalties) with “Well, ideally, yeah, but you can’t always catch the little bastards,” and she gives him a dirty look rather than laughing, I always think to myself that if I were Will, at that point the date would be over. No sense of humor!!)
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