Friday, May 11, 2012

Weekend Dinner Ideas

Having overcome (at least temporarily) my family's boycott of pea tendrils/shoots, I'm going to ignore today's cooler temperatures and celebrate spring tonight with a recipe that appeared Wednesday in the Daily Camera, grilled Cure Farm pea shoots with crispy polenta and cumin yogurt.  I picked up my pea shoots at Wednesday's Boulder Farmers' Market (yes, from the Cure Organic Farm booth), but you could always do the same at tomorrow's market, if this appeals.  Since this recipe comes from one of my favorite restaurants, The Kitchen, I'll adapt to simplify it, using ground cumin instead of toasting and grinding the seeds.  This undoubtedly will hinder some subtlety of the dish, but one can only do so much (that's what restaurants are for, after all).  Also, Whole Foods' bulk department sells grits/polenta that cooks quickly, done in a few minutes instead of the 45 called for in the recipe.  I find the use of the word "grilled" in the recipe curious; there's no way a delicate green like pea shoots would be going on a barbeque grill, so I'm assuming they mean done quickly in a hot pan.

I'm thinking about the California corn that Sunflower has at six ears for $1 for tomorrow, which will be sweet corn chowder with hot-smoked salmon from Cooking Light.  It's my enthusiasm for the arrival of domestic sweet corn that's driving this.  While the corn might be cheap, the hot-smoked salmon won't be.

Sunday is Mother's Day, and if my mother were in the area, I would be treating her to a lovely dinner out (with reservations made considerably in advance, since this is graduation weekend in addition to Mother's Day).  That not being the case, and with the weather expected to clear, we'll hit the grill outside, doing either steaks (boneless New York strips $5.99 a pound at Sprouts, several steak cuts 40% off at Sunflower), or the boneless beef short ribs that are $3.99 a pound at Sprouts).  More of that corn on the cob from Sunflower will undoubtedly go on the side.

Which gets us through to Sunday's planning.

No comments:

Post a Comment