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Let's Talk About Food, St. Louis, MO (2025)

03/11/2025

Lamb Chops with Parmesan Panko Artichoke Hearts and Hearts of Palm

Lamb was marinated in the zest of one lemon and the juice of two lemons, a couple tbs of red wine vinegar, about a tbs of olive oil, 2 garlic cloves I put through the garlic press (you could grate it if you prefer, or just finely mince it), oregano, Cavender's Greek seasoning, sumac, lemon pepper, mint, salt, and pepper. (I went by taste. Maybe a tsp of each and then adjusted.) Get your chops into that at least 2 hours prior to cooking. Let them come to room temp for at least 30 minutes prior to putting them in the pan.

I patted the chops dry and put them in a hot cast iron with a bit of olive oil. Sear for 4 minutes a side, and make sure to give the fat a little love. I also seared off the side with the bone. Pull to a plate, turn off your heat and toss a couple tbs of butter into the skillet. Once that melts, add about 3/4 of the left over marinade to the skillet and let that cook down. Spoon it over your chops. Yum!

For the artichokes and hearts of palm, I used a jar of quartered artichokes (packed in water, not oil) from ALDI, a can of hearts of palm that I cut into thirds. I dried them off a bit by laying them on a couple paper towels and then gently patting them dry. Then, into a lightly oiled baking dish which is when I squeezed the juice of half a lemon on them. (I know, I dried them off, then got them wet again ... lol. I just didn't want a bunch of juice to end up in the bottom of the pan.)

The topping was about 3/4 of a cup of panko bread crumbs, 1/2 cup of fresh grated Parmesan, 2 tsp of oregano, the zest of one lemon (really work that in there so the zest doesn't all clump together), salt, pepper, a little garlic powder, and enough olive oil to coat the breadcrumbs so they get crispy. Into a 375° oven for 20 minutes. I finished it under the broiler for a couple minutes just to make sure that topping was crispy. Once I got them on the plate, I used the other half of that lemon and squeezed that on top and then drizzled with some olive oil.

DELICIOUS! The veggies will definitely be a regular in the rotation. I can't think of anything I'd do to tweak them. Just yummy. I encourage you to give it a try. Didn't even bother with a starch on the plate because of the breadcrumbs.

As always, if you make this, let me know how it turns out!

10/27/2024

Highly recommend making the spaghetti squash with the fennel and leek (recipe called for onion, but I wanted to use the leek I had in there). Easy, delicious, and so good for you! (Recipe in comments.)

Pork tenderloin was perfect, even if I did forget to put the brown sugar in the coffee spiced rub that I totally made up because I didn't feel like looking for the recipe. Instant espresso, sumac, cumin, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and garlic powder mixed with olive oil. Rub that on the tenderloin, wrap in plastic wrap for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better. Into a 350° oven for 20 minutes for medium rare. Go 30 if you're a pill about pink pork ... lol.

10/10/2024

This was a first for me. I ALWAYS marinate my lamb for at least 24 hours. I was planning to take out some chicken thighs when I saw the lamb chops just waving at me. So, I decided to be brave and jut roll with it.

I seasoned them with salt, pepper, Greek seasoning, sumac, and oregano. I let them sit for a little over 2 hours in some lemon juice and red wine vinegar. (Yeah, some of your seasonings come off, but the flavor is in the liquid, so I wasn't too worried about it.) I flipped them once at the 1 hour mark.

Into a hot cast iron with a bit of olive oil after I dried them off (just kinda dab with a paper towel to get as much moisture off as you can. You don't want them to steam). They took about 4 minutes a side to get a nice crust and be cooked to a perfect medium rare (135° internal temp).

Pull those babies out to rest. Turn off the heat on your skillet and add 2 tbs of unsalted butter to the pan. Once it's melted, add 2 large, finely chopped cloves of garlic. Then I threw in a few sprigs of fresh thyme and some chopped fresh parsley.

Put your chops back in the pan and spoon that yummy, garlicky butter all over them. Absolutely delicious!

I got a great hard sear on the outside and the inside was perfectly pink. I will definitely be making these again.

Asparagus (boiled for 3 minutes in salted water) has balsamic glaze, and the pilaf is pilaf.

09/27/2024

This French onion short rib soup is so GOOOOOOOOD! Ron - you definitely want to make this. It's delicious! I told you the modifications I made. I think letting it sit a couple days added to the yum factor. It is VERY rich and I didn't even finish what I served myself. Neither did Mike. I knew when I was filling them it was gonna be too much, but I didn't realize how much too much ... lol.

Served with a nice, light salad. Would definitely make it again. Might add some Worcestershire or Maggi seasoning next time, just for a little more umami. It'd be good with mushrooms added to it too.

I will repost the link to the recipe in the comments and share what I changed.

09/12/2024

The meatballs turned out good. And were much quicker to make than the way I usually do them. I have no measurements as I just used my heart ... lol. Sumac, Cavender's, lemon pepper, salt, pepper, oregano, and about 1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro (you could use parsley), and 1/2 a cup of grated Parmesan. I let them sit for about 40 minutes to blend the flavors and then used the small ice cream scoop to form the balls. Into a non-stick skillet with some olive oil just to brown up each side. Then into a 350° oven for about 12-15 minutes.

Douse them in the avgolemono sauce ... yum! (If you want the recipe for that, just do a search on my page for it.)

Orzo was orzo and asparagus was asparagus.

Will definitely do the meatballs this way again.

09/10/2024

Tacos were yummy. Thanks for the help on when to chop the skrimps. It worked out nicely. A little pico, slaw, avocado crema, and cotija cheese to top them off.

That rice was really good. Will definitely make it again. Nice and refreshing flavors. (2 cloves garlic, finely minced, a tbs of avocado oil. Let that cook about 30 seconds until you can smell the garlic, then add your rice (1/2 cup for two people). Let that toast up a bit and then add your liquid (1 cup). I used chicken broth, but you could use water if you like. Once the water is cooked off, let it hang out with the lid on to steam for a few minutes then add the zest and juice of one lemon and about 1/3 of a cup of chopped cilantro and stir that through. Very easy and very tasty.

Went through half a bag of limes for this meal ... ROFL.

09/08/2024

Okay, for a fairly lazy meal, this was delicious.

Just to recap: chops were seasoned with salt, pepper, Cavender's Greek seasoning, and sumac. Then I squeezed the juice of a lemon on them and let them hang out for about an hour, flipping once. I did have to pull out my pastry brush to put the seasonings back on them after the lemon juice thing, but it worked out fine.

Dry those puppies off a bit (I just smoosh down with a paper towel ... the seasonings will stay put), and get them into a hot non-stick skillet with a little olive oil. I browned each side for about 3 minutes then reduced the heat and covered them so they could get cooked to temp. All in all, they were in the skillet about 10-12 minutes. I pulled them once they hit 132.

The gremolata is just the zest of one lemon, a couple of finely minced garlic cloves, about 1/3 of a cup of finely chopped fresh parsley, 2 tbs olive oil, and a 1/4 tsp of red wine vinegar to give it a little more oomph.

Taters courtesy of Bob Evans. The remaining gremolata was lovely on top.

Artichoke was steamed with some dried dill and a couple garlic cloves in the water as well as the half lemon I squeezed on there to stop it from browning. Those things perfume the steam and give the artichoke a little extra flavor.

My taste buds are pleased.

08/15/2024

Pork chops came out perfectly! I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and sumac and let them hang out for about 45 minutes. Into a non-stick with a touch of olive oil. I seared them off on each side, then reduced the heat to medium low and let them continue cooking. I flipped them once and spent some time holding them up on their sides to render some of that fat out. Total cooking time was about 10 minutes for medium. (I'd have preferred medium rare, but medium is fine.) They were nice and flavorful and tender.

Went with parsley potatoes and asparagus with balsamic glaze as the sides.

I am pleased.

08/14/2024

This was delicious! Better than any Mongolian beef I've had in a restaurant, if I'm being completely honest.

I had some thin sliced top sirloin steaks in there from ALDI. So I sliced them (against the grain) into bite sized pieces and tossed them in a marinade of soy sauce (about 3 tbs), rice vinegar (about 3 tbs), cornstarch (3 tbs) and 3/4 of a tsp of baking soda. (Mix that up in a bowl or measuring cup because it's gonna fizz on you.) I seasoned the meat with some garlic powder and black pepper. (If you're wondering about the baking soda, it tenderizes the meat. It was like butter.)

The sauce was 3 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs fish sauce, 1/4 cup water, a heaping tbs of chili garlic paste, and some grated garlic and ginger (about a tbs each).

I used six green onions and one whole yellow onion, and about 2 cups of broccoli florets.

Add a couple tbs of toasted sesame oil to your pan and it it nice and hot. Cook your meat first in batches so it doesn't steam. Remove to a bowl and then add a little more sesame oil and start cooking the broccoli and the white parts of the green onion. Once they start to soften up, add your yellow onion. After a couple minutes toss in half of the green onion tops and your meat. Mix well.

At this point I put my rice noodles in (which had been cooked, drained, and rinsed in cold water) and mixed that into the veg and meat. Then toss that sauce on there and get that well incorporated.

Serve with some of the green onion tops on top. Eat. Enjoy. SO freaking good.

08/07/2024

OMG ... I cannot believe I pulled it off. I've been cooking this in my head for over a month now.

The original dish is Chilean sea bass, but I got the branzino filets from TJ's since it's pretty much the same fish. I was a tad nervous about it being skin on, but ... it is what I had to work with. So I put on my big girl panties and got over myself.

For the almond crust, I put about 1 cup (too much, but it's what I did) of panko in the food processor and gave it a few spins to make it a bit finer. Into a bowl and then I added about 1/2 cup of slivered almonds and tossed that together. That's it. No need to fancy it up with anything else. I will reduce the amount of both next time. I had a bunch left over. If you were doing 4 pieces of fish, these quantities would be perfect.

Okay ... so ... dry off the fish and hit it with a little salt on both sides. I brushed the non-skin side of the fish with a mix of miso paste (about a tsp or so) and the white of one egg. Then I pressed it into the panko/almond mixture.

Into a hot pan, skin side down, with a touch of olive oil or butter. I used olive oil tonight. I'll try butter next time, but the olive oil worked fine. You could even use grapeseed or avocado oil if you want. Press down hard on the filets to keep the skin from curling on you. Let them cook for about 4 minutes on that side, then flip and finish for about a minute on the breaded side. The top should be nicely brown as shown here.

For the veggies, I did 6 baby bok choy (I needed more) that I sauteed (do the thick stem part first because the greens wilt quickly) in some sesame oil with about a tbs of fresh grated ginger and 2 cloves of garlic I put through the garlic press. The rock skrimps were already cooked, so I threw those in with the greens just to let them warm up.

Now ... the sauce ... this is the key. I used 2 tbs of miso paste, 2 tbs ponzu sauce, 1 tbs rice vinegar, 1 tsp fish sauce, 1 tbs low sodium soy sauce, and 3 tbs toasted sesame oil. (All measurements are approximate.) I put the sauce into the same skillet I cooked the veggies in after I had plated them. Medium heat. I added 1 tbs of unsalted butter and let that melt in. Once it was hot, it went on the plate.

To plate: put some mashed potatoes down in the middle of your plate (I used Bob Evans and it was fine). Place the veggies and shrimp around it. Place your fish on top of that and then ladle the sauce around the plate. Finish with some fresh chives and lemon slices.

You guys ... I haven't had the original in 20 years, but the flavor memories this brought back indicate that I got DAMNED close. I could not be any more pleased. I danced several times at the table after some bites ... lol. I DID IT!

Mike has requested that this be a regular in the food rotation and he hasn't eaten fish that isn't fried in ages. He was a little worried before he took that first bite. LOL. It's SO good!

07/30/2024

Those chanterelles were PHENOMENAL. I cooked them in a dry skillet for a couple minutes and then added 2 tbs of butter. Allowed them a couple minutes to brown up and soften a bit then tossed about a tbs of ponzu sauce on them and let that cook for another minute. Stunning. Wouldn't change a thing. Joel was generous and allowed me to take another portion out for myself for later this week.

I roasted the broccolini in a white miso "glaze". I used about a tbs of sweet white miso paste, about a tbs of coconut aminos, a splash of ponzu, red pepper flakes, everything bagel, and sesame oil ... about a tbs. (This is as much for me as for y'all ... lol. FB is my recipe file.) Reserve what's left of the glaze after tossing the broccolini in it so you can toss it again after it's done. I did these in a 425° oven for about 10 minutes. Joel said he thought it was the highlight of the meal.

The coolest thing is that the flavor in that glaze was almost identical to the sauce on that sea bass dish I'm planning to make. I think I know what to do to turn it into a butter sauce.

Flank was flank, tater was tater. I was much more excited about the other two items.

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