weeknight cooking

No better way to ring it in than Beef ‘Chow haw fun’.  This is a winner winner among any crowd, trust me.  They will shovel it back like you wouldn’t believe.  It may be take a few tries to get it perfect but it is well worth it.  Something I ate on weekends growing up!

Beef &#39;Chow Fun&#39; (Beef stir fried rice noodle)

beef flank, sliced

Kikoman Light soy sauce

Sugar

Cornstarch

Sesame oil

Fresh flat rice noodle

Onion,

Bean Sprouts

2-3 Flat slices of ginger 1/8\" wide

Light Kikkoman Soy Sauce

Dark Kikkoman Soy Sauce

sugar

salt,

grapeseed oil

Combine ingredients to coat the slices of beef. 

For the beef marinate

Prepare the seasoning 'slurry' of soy sauces, and sugar in a bowl and set aside. 

Heat up wok on medium, once hot add 1 Tbs of Oil, then fry beef with marinate until pieces are just under done.  Set aside.

Heat more oil in the pan and sauté onions until soft and transclucent. 

Add ginger and bean sprouts and cook until semi soft.  Push them to the side of the wok.  

Secret Step: heat the fresh noodles in the microwave for 1-2 minutes just to get them warm and separated before adding them to the wok. 

Turn the heat to High.  Toss the separated noodles into the wok with the vegetables.  Stir with an upward motion to properly mix all the ingredients.  

Add Seasoning and mix well to distribute colour and taste throughout. 

Taste as you go, if it requires more salty soy flavour add light soy.  Colour can be added by adding more dark soy.  

Re-add the beef that was previously set aside.  Garnish with sliced onion &amp; Serve! 

For the dish

Roasted fish is the key to zen fish tacos. By roasting, you can control the speed of cooking and keep the fish moist. Lost crunch from the frying can be made up for with pickled red onion (I usually make a huge batch and then use the leftovers for lunches and any other excuse I can find). The onions get a bowl, as does the avocado, which turns out to be conveniently soft and sliceable by 7-year-olds. Cilantro sprigs and lime -- I put them in a pile right on the countertop for serving -- and Cholula hot sauce on the table make up the rest of it. If I make the onions ahead of time, I can have fish tacos ready in 15 minutes. While the fish, rubbed with cumin and ground ancho chile powder, roasts, I clean the cilantro and toast the corn tortillas in a dry pan. My kids slice the avocado and my husband pours lemonade and opens beers. You can guess who gets what. 

Low-Maintenance Fish Tacos

red onion

salt

water

cider vinegar

Kosher salt

cumin

ancho chile

olive oil

onions

avocado,

cilantro,

corn tortillas

Hot sauce of your choice (we like Cholula)

Slice the onions very thinly and put them in a microwaveable container. Add the salt and sugar. Cover everything with 1 part water to 2 parts vinegar.

Microwave for 1 minute, stir, and microwave for another minute. Cool, then refrigerate overnight (if you have time).

For the pickled onions

Heat the oven to 350° F. Season the fish with salt, then the cumin and chile. Lay the fish in a baking dish, and sprinkle with the olive oil.

Meanwhile, set out the pickled onions. Slice the avocado and put it in a bowl (I like to squeeze a little lime juice over it so it doesn’t brown). Wash and dry the cilantro and pile it on your counter. Do the same with the lime wedges.

When the oven is hot, bake the fish until just cooked through, about 10 minutes. While the fish roasts, place a large skillet over medium high heat. Add as many tortillas as you can – probably just 2 – and toast for a minute or two on each side, just enough to warm through and leave a light toasting mark; be careful not to let them dry out. Keep the warm tortillas piled under a clean tea towel. 

When the fish is ready, serve it with the warm tortillas and all the fixins, and let everyone have at it, making their own dream fish tacos.

For the fish tacos 

A sour cream &amp;amp; vanilla cake that is easy, adaptable &amp;amp; about as fast as you can get. Make butterscotch whipped cream &amp;amp; strawberry compote while the cake bakes!

Strawberry &amp;amp; Butterscotch Whipped Cream Cake From Jami Curl

(400 grams) all-purpose flour

(400 grams) granulated sugar

(20 grams) baking powder

(5 grams) kosher salt

eggs

(227 grams) sour cream

(105 grams) canola oil

(18 grams) pure vanilla extract

(75 grams) boiling water

strawberries

(30 grams) apple cider vinegar

(800 grams) granulated sugar

(480 grams) heavy cream

(72 grams) brown sugar

(12 grams) pure vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Use a sturdy spoon to stir them all together.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs and sour cream with a fork, mixing until smooth. Add the oil and vanilla and use the fork to mix until they’re incorporated. The mixture will be smooth and creamy.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and continue to stir until the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated. The batter will turn very thick.

Add the boiling water and stir until the batter is smooth and uniform with no traces of unmixed ingredients remaining.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth it evenly into the corners. Bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes, until it’s golden, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely (editor’s note: or steal slices warm from the oven).

While the cake is cooling, make the Strawberry Compote and Butterscotch Whipped Cream. (See the steps below.)

When you’re ready to serve the cake, there are two ways you can serve it: 1) Spoon the Strawberry Compote over the cake. Top the compote with the Butterscotch Whipped Cream, using the back of a spoon to give it some pretty swirls. Or 2) Use the parchment paper to lift the cooled cake out of the pan. Cut the cake into 12 equal pieces. Spoon some Strawberry Compote over each piece. Top with a generous dollop of Butterscotch Whipped Cream. 

The Vanilla–Sour Cream Cake will keep, tightly covered at room temperature, for several days. Once assembled with the Strawberry Compote and Butterscotch Whipped Cream, plan to enjoy this cake the day you assemble it. That said, if you cover and refrigerate it, it will not disappoint the next day or the day after that. Especially for breakfast.

Vanilla–Sour Cream Cake

Make the Strawberry Compote: Combine the strawberries and vinegar in a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until the fruit is soft and has released some juice. Add the granulated sugar 1 cup (200 grams) at a time, stirring between additions until the sugar disappears. Increase the heat to medium and bring the fruit and sugar to a boil. Boil for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and let the compote cool before using. The compote can be spooned into a jar and refrigerated for up to 1 month.

Make the Butterscotch Whipped Cream: Chill a bowl and a whisk. Pour the cream into the bowl and add the brown sugar and vanilla. Whisk the cream until stiff-ish peaks form. Take care that you don’t turn it into butter by overwhipping. Use immediately. (Yes, you can use a mixer with the whisk attachment to whip the cream!)

Strawberry Compote & Butterscotch Whipped Cream

Every time I’ve visited my family in Japan, I’m left wondering: Why can’t I eat like this every day? Whether it’s at a small street stand in a local market, a convenience store, or even a vending machine, it seems that everything I try is worth shedding a happy tear over. Most notably, I remember trying a Japanese-style corn soup that I got in a vending machine one cold winter day as we walked down the streets of Shibuya. Besides the typical beverages and snacks, I was surprised to see hot chocolate and warm soup among the selection (this was only 2006). After pressing a few buttons and navigating the selections with the help of my uncle’s translations, I got to enjoy a warm cup of a delicate yet oh-so-satisfying corn soup that quickly warmed my soul and my body. To recreate this memory at home, I’ve discovered that all I needed were a few pantry ingredients, like canned corn and vegetable stock. Comforting, simple, and ready in no time, this recipe suits the palates of picky eaters and soup-lovers alike. While the soup simmers on the stovetop, make homemade sesame-crusted croutons to garnish your dish (or munch on throughout the day). 

Japanese-Style Corn Soup With Sesame-Crusted Croutons

unsalted butter

yellow onion, thinly sliced

sweet corn, drained and divided

kosher salt,

black pepper,

smoked paprika

vegetable stock

milk

heavy cream

chives,

sesame-crusted croutons (see below)

bread,

garlic powder

black sesame seeds

In a large pot, combine olive oil and unsalted butter. Melt over medium heat, stirring frequently. Once the mixture begins to bubble, add the onions and cook until translucent and slightly caramelized. 

Next, add 2 cans of the drained corn, salt, pepper, and paprika. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Once the stock begins to bubble, cover the pot, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes. 

Remove the pot from the heat, and cool for 10 minutes.

Once cool enough to handle, use an immersion blender or a blender to puree the mixture until smooth and creamy. 

Strain the mixture into a clean pot to remove the excess pulp. Over low-medium heat, add the milk, heavy cream, and remaining 1/2 can of corn. Simmer until warm and thoroughly combined, stirring frequently. Season with salt and additional pepper, to taste. Garnish with chives and croutons, and serve warm.

For the soup:

Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the cubed bread, olive oil, garlic powder, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper until thoroughly mixed. Lightly press the cubes against the bowl’s walls to collect as much of the seasoning mix on the surface as possible. 

Spread the cubes on the lined baking sheet in an even, uniform layer. Bake for 15 minutes, turning the cubes every 5 minutes to ensure all the sides evenly cook. The cubes should be golden-brown and crunchy.

For the croutons: 

This baked honey mustard chicken recipe is an easy weeknight dinner. Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake your honey mustard chicken for 25 minutes.

Honey-Mustard Chicken With Raw Corn Panzanella

olive oil,

red wine vinegar

Dijon mustard

honey

thyme,

mustard powder

red pepper flakes,

boneless, skinless chicken breast

sourdough bread

garlic clove, grated

kosher salt and black pepper,

corn kernels,

thyme

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk together all of the marinade ingredients (olive oil to red pepper flakes) and smother the chicken breast in it. Set aside to marinate, covered, for 10 minutes or overnight.

Heat a cast-iron or oven-safe nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add some olive oil to the pan, then sear the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes on the first side. Flip and transfer to the oven and cook 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the breast, or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F. Let rest for 5 minutes before carving against the grain (which means perpendicularly to the direction that the meat's fibers run). Meanwhile, make the corn panzanella.

Honey-mustard chicken breast

Pop bread into the toaster. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar, mustard, oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Toss dressing with the raw corn kernels. Once the bread pops out of the toaster, cut or tear it into small pieces and toss with the salad. Garnish with thyme leaves, if desired, and serve alongside the chicken.

Raw corn panzanella

Breakfast burritos are serious business in our household. Growing up in Arizona, these eggy, spicy, bacon-y roll-ups recipes were a staple of perfection.

A Perfect California Breakfast Burrito

(1.8

paprika

garlic salt

black pepper

white onion, finely diced (about ¾ cup 95 g)

jalapeño

(20 g) finely chopped cilantro leaves

lime juice

bacon (or cooked chorizo or sausage)

flour tortillas

(115 g) grated cheddar cheese

(165 g) Pico de Gallo

(280 g) Perfect Roasted Potatoes

pitted,

splash Chipotle salsa

To make the pico de gallo, In a large bowl combine the tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and lime juice. Gently toss to combine. Season with salt to taste.

To make the potatoes, preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the potatoes onto the prepared baking sheet. Toss the potatoes with the oil, paprika, garlic salt, kosher salt, and pepper until the seasonings are evenly combined.

Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss the potatoes with tongs. Put the baking sheet back in the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet, give the potatoes a final toss, place them back in the oven, and roast until they are golden and crispy, 10 to 15 minutes more. Remove from the oven, adjust the salt if needed, and serve.


Perfect Roasted Potatoes + Pico de Gallo

Cook the bacon in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high to a plate to cool, then crumble into small pieces.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the eggs and softly scramble them. Season with salt and pepper. 

Warm each tortilla over an open flame to make them as pliable as possible. Alternatively, if you have an electric stove, warm the tortillas in a microwave in 30-second bursts until warmed through. To assemble, lay the tortillas on a clean, flat surface. Divide the cooked eggs equally over each tortilla in a line, followed by the bacon, cheese, pico de gallo, roasted potatoes, and sliced avocado (it’s important that everything is evenly distributed so when you roll them up you get all the flavors in each bite).

Fold the ends of the tortillas in and roll the burritos up. Serve immediately with the salsa alongside.

The Burrito 

This spaghetti soup recipe with meatballs is a classic Sunday supper staple, and a great way to use up leftover tomato sauce and turn it into a comforting soup.

Spaghetti Soup

broken-up spaghetti pieces (if using thicker-cut noodles

Sauce, recipe below (plus more as needed; see Note)

Pecorino Romano,

Kosher salt,

country-style spareribs

sausage,

yellow onion, peeled

parsley

Meatballs

beef (90/10)

bread crumbs

Pecorino Romano

In a large pot, bring water to a boil (note: this will serve as part of the soup base, not to be drained at the end!). Once boiling, season generously with kosher salt and add the spaghetti. Cook 2 to 3 minutes short of al dente (the pasta will sit in the hot water for a bit and continue to cook in its own heat). Remove from the heat but DO NOT drain.

To the pot, add the Sauce, Pecorino Romano, salt, and lots of pepper. Serve immediately (or freeze some for later; it's a cozy treat).

Note: If you want a more robust, saucy flavor, feel free to add more, well, Sauce! I like it when it’s a creamy pink—the more sauce you add, the darker it’ll be.

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil. Once it’s just shimmering, cook the ribs and sausage in batches, until they’re golden on the outside. It’s okay if they’re not totally cooked all the way through—they’ll simmer for an hour later.

Remove the meat from the pot and set aside to cool, then add the onion to the pot, whole. Let it brown on one side for a couple of minutes (you can do this on multiple sides if you'd like; this is just to get a little color on the onion before it floats in the sauce for the rest of the time). Once the onion’s light-medium brown on one side, add the crushed tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Leave on medium heat until it starts to bubble, then lower it to a simmer and let it go. The sauce will simmer like this for 1 hour.

While you wait for that to simmer, make the meatballs: In a bowl, mix together the ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, 1/3 cup dried parsley, Pecorino Romano, salt, and pepper with your hands until it makes a homogenous mixture. Using your hands, or a 1-inch ice-cream scoop, form the meatballs (if using your hands, about the size of a golf ball) and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes. Set aside until the sauce has finished simmering for an hour (if the sauce goes over an hour while waiting for meatballs, that’s okay! It just needs a minimum of 1 hour).

Once the sauce has simmered for an hour, add the meatballs, sausage, spareribs, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Add the remaining 1/4 cup dried parsley and simmer 30 minutes more.

Serve with pasta or turn into Spaghetti Soup.

Sauce

Von Diaz is sitting on the secret to not-at-all boring or dry pork tenderloin. In an ode to her mother, a working parent who always preferred her meats light and lean, Diaz seasons and marinates tenderloin like pernil, a Puerto Rican dish that&#39;s traditionally made with pork shoulder and roasted low and slow for several hours. Bonus: Because tenderloin can cook much faster and hotter and stay tender, you get to pernil in under 30 minutes. Adapted slightly from Coconuts &amp;amp; Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South (University Press of Florida, 2018).

Von Diaz’s Pork Tenderloin Pernil Style

pork tenderloin (around 2 to 3 small tenderloins)

Adobo for Pork (below)

lemon juice (or to taste)

garlic cloves, finely minced

oregano

fresh lime, lemon,

Cut a series of deep holes throughout the tenderloins with a paring knife and rub it down with the adobo, pushing the seasoning into the holes. Let marinate for 30 minutes on the counter or up to overnight in the refrigerator. (The longer you can wait, the more delicious it will be!)

When you’re ready to roast, heat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil for easiest cleanup. 

Place the tenderloins in the center of the pan, leaving space for air to circulate between each piece, and put the pan on the center rack of the oven. Roast until the internal temperature is 145°F in the thickest part, about 30 minutes, flipping every 10 minutes to evenly brown the outside. (If your pork hasn’t browned by the time it hits 145°F inside, you can give it a quick blast under the broiler for more browning.)

Remove the pan from the oven and set the tenderloin on a carving board to rest for about 10 minutes. 

Pour the lemon juice into the baking pan and carefully mix it into the pork juices, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour the pan juices into a small bowl and adjust the seasonings to taste.

Cut the pork into 1-inch slices and transfer to a serving dish. (It will taste best and won’t dry out if it’s still slightly pink inside, so if you see that, it’s a good thing!) Serve with the reserved pan juices. 

Pork Tenderloin Pernil Style

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of a small food processor and blend into a smooth puree, scraping the sides halfway through to incorporate fully. Alternatively, you can use a mortar and pestle or mash the mixture to a paste on a cutting board with the side of a knife.

Adobo for Pork (for 3 pounds pork tenderloin, scale up or down as needed)

Kris Yenbamroong of Night + Market restaurant has a quick, easy pad Thai recipe with ingredients you can find at any grocery store, and cook on a weeknight. 

Top 12 weeknight cooking recipes from across the web

The most viewed weeknight cooking recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

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Spaghetti Soup

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Top 12 weeknight cooking recipes from across the web

The most viewed weeknight cooking recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Beef &#39;Chow Fun&#39; (Beef stir ...

Low-Maintenance Fish Tacos

Strawberry &amp;amp; Butterscotch W...

Japanese-Style Corn Soup With Sesam...

Honey-Mustard Chicken With Raw Corn...

A Perfect California Breakfast Burr...

Spaghetti Soup

Von Diaz’s Pork Tenderloin Pernil S...

Pad Thai From Kris Yenbamroong

Canal House&#39;s Chicken Thighs Wi...

Souped-Up Tomato Soup

Meera Sodha’s Cardamom &amp;amp; Ro...

The most viewed weeknight cooking recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Beef 'Chow Fun' (Beef stir ...

Strawberry & Butterscotch W...

Canal House's Chicken Thighs Wi...

Meera Sodha’s Cardamom & Ro...