In a post a few months ago I mentioned a new column in the San Francisco Chronicle called “Weeknight Dinners.” I recommend checking it out. Amanda Gold is the mother of a six-month-old, a professional chef, and a writer for the Chronicle, and she gets it.
My husband and I always place a premium on fairly quick dinner preparation on weeknights; by the time we get Babyman to bed and the apartment back in order it’s often after 8pm, and we generally like to eat before midnight. Lately, though, ease has become ever more paramount as my due date approaches and we’re both just trying to conserve our strength a bit, while not becoming over-reliant on take-out (there’s plenty of time for that when the Bun comes out of the oven, so to speak). Over the past two weeks I have prepared not one but two meals from Gold’s column and both were exactly as promised: quick, easy, healthy, and — above all — creative and delicious. I would venture to say that either one would make a perfectly passable dinner for midweek guests, with the salmon bowl being particularly fancy-looking.
Last week’s CSA delivery yielded four enormous ears of corn and a pound of slicer tomatoes which (given the weird spring and summer weather we’ve had) stood to benefit from getting cooked or roasted rather than being eaten raw. So when I saw this recipe for Shrimp and Summer Corn saute on Sunday I thought it looked perfect. We made it last night in about 15 minutes with whole wheat cous cous and it was terrific.
The week prior I was inspired by the photo of Gold’s Tuna Rice Bowl. I’m steering clear of tuna these days but salmon made a perfectly delicious substitute with absolutely no changes to the recipe. I cheated on the brown rice by ordering a side of it with take-out Chinese earlier in the week, which is my new trick as Babyman loves brown rice but it takes nearly an hour to make from scratch. So basically, aside from ten minutes to cook the salmon we could throw the whole dinner together straight from the fridge.
This meal was a real departure for us — we never attempt Asian-inspired cuisine — but with the edamame and avocado and brown rice it felt so nutritious and the sauce couldn’t have been snappier to whip together. Plus it’s kind of a kick to do a meal with a bit of “presentation” on the average Wednesday.
Leave a Comment