I like this recipe a lot because you can substitute with abandon. No fish stock? Use chicken or vegetable! No lime leaves? Use some zest. It continues on like that…I’ve made this once with all the right ingredients and once with a lot of substitutions and both turned out delicious. They didn’t taste exactly the same but this is a recipe that lends itself (imho) to experimentation and variation. Also, jwa, who generally dislikes fish soups/stews loved this. That’s high praise right there, people.

This last time I didn’t have any lime leaves, green onions or lemongrass. My substitutions: strips of lime zest, a little lime juice, chopped white onion and two herbal lemongrass tea bags. Stash Lemon Blossom, to be exact.

Oh and also this is a great use of frozen scallops. Scallops are very expensive and you need the fresh, dry-packed ones to sear. This recipe is nice in that the scallops are cooked in the soup, no searing involved. So, if you find good frozen ones that you like (the Trader Joe’s Wild Japanese Scallops have always been sweet and tender for me), this is a great budget scallop recipe!

Asian Scallop Soup
Adapted from a recipe for Scallop Soup by Capiral Pence!
5 cups fish, chicken or vegetable stock (I like using half vegetable/half chicken stock)
2-3 kaffir lime leaves (or zest and juice of 1 lime)
1 stalk lemongrass
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small carrots, julienned
1 zucchini, julienned
1 bunch green onions
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ginger, grated finely
fish sauce to taste (1-3 tbsp)
1/2 can coconut milk (can be lowfat, if so, use the full can)
12 large scallops
1 tsp roasted chili paste (you can also use a little cayenne pepper)
8 oz udon or soba noodles, cooked
Garnishes: Any or all of the following — mint leaves, cilantro leaves, bail leaves, chili oil, peanuts

In a large saucepan over high heat, bring the stock, lime leaves or zest, and lemongrass (or tea bags) to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer and cook the broth for 5-10 minutes until the stock is infused with flavor.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrots, zucchini,l green onions, garlic and ginger. Cook until tender, about 3 minutes. If you are using chili paste, add it now.

Strain the stock through a sieve into the stockpot with the vegetables. Discard any solids in the sieve.

Add the coconut milk to the broth and bring to a light boil.

Add the scallops and simmer until just opaque and cooked through.

If you are using frozen scallops, don’t bother defrosting. Mine took about 6 minutes. You can always pull one out and cut it in half to see if it’s opaque.

Testing a scallop for doneness

Season with the fish sauce (I used about 3 tablespoons, but start with one and increase from there) and cayenne pepper, if using.

Place the cooked noodles in 4 bowls and top the noodles with 3-4 scallops and some of the broth. Garnish with the garnishes.

I know I said there would be salad rolls next. I lied. Those will be soon Wednesday(!) because oh my, this meal was delicious and it bumped the salad rolls. You’ll notice the title image even has a bite taken out of it. Yeah. And I’m not sorry about it either.

The rack of lamb is from Trader Joe’s and is probably one of my most favorite products that they carry — the seasoned, Frenched, frozen rack of lamb from New Zealand. This was about $14 and some change for 1.3 pounds. Score. It has a garlic, sesame seed, rosemary marinade already but it’s not so strong that you can’t add more things to it. Like this pesto, for instance. All together, there’s only six ingredients here, which is also nice.

I was able to find one happy sprig of rosemary on one of plants outside, so that made me quite relieved! Our rosemary did not like all the snow, that’s for sure. Walking around town I see some rosemary bushes that seem perfectly fine. I hope all of ours comes back okay this Spring, because after 7 years, I am just not used to buying rosemary anymore…

Now the directions on the package say to defrost and cook on 350 for 25 minutes. I never do this. I think I always cook it higher than that…but do defrost the day before you’re roasting it. Also, if you don’t live by a Trader Joe’s just use a plain rack of lamb — that kind is not important, just a great deal.

On the side: goat cheese polenta with artichokes and green olives and some roasted broccoli.

Rosemary Pesto Rack of Lamb
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit
1/2 cup (packed) parsley leaves and stems
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary plus rosemary sprigs
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1 1/2-pound rack of lamb

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Place parsley, chopped rosemary, grated Parmesan cheese and garlic in processor. Process to coarse paste. With machine running, gradually add olive oil. Season pesto to taste with salt and pepper.

Place lamb on small rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread all pesto over rounded side of lamb.

Roast 25-30+ minutes. The internal temperature should be around 135 for medium rare. I pull it then and let it sit, covered with foil for about 5 minutes.

Cut lamb between bones into chops. Divide chops between 2 plates; garnish with rosemary sprigs.

I saved all the bones and threw them into a pot with maybe 6-7 cups of water, some onion, carrot, and garlic. Simmered (I don’t think it was ever actually boiling) for about 3 hours. Strained.

Lamb stock. Tasty, tasty liquid gold.

I’m going to use it Thursday to make some lentil soup!

PS: I like this wine quite a bit. Around $10 at Fred Meyer. Not with the lamb, but I had a glass of this while making the lamb.

Lemongrass Chicken

Thai Basil
Corner of SW Oak & 2nd Ave
Portland, OR
503-330-1010

Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I have a new job downtown and one of the nice benefits of that is the lunch choices. My last position was up on Skyline and my lunch option was…Pizzicato. I mean, that was good, but that was it. That was the only choice nearby.

But now…the possibilities are endless! So, I thought I would start a little review of lunch carts in downtown Portland. The first is Thai Basil, which is right across the street from my office building. How convenient!

Thai Basil Menu
Chicken or Tofu Curry — a red curry, green curry and a yellow curry
Chicken or Tofu Stir Fries — ginger, garlic, veggie lovers, spicy basil and cashew versions
Chicken or Tofu Noodle Dishes — pad thai and two other varieties
Chicken or Tofu Fried Rices — comes in pineapple, spicy basil and with extra chilis

They also have specials. These include Lemongrass Chicken, Pumpkin Curry with Chicken or Tofu, Spicy Mango Curry and Stir Fried Asparagus with Chicken or Tofu.

All of these menu items come with a salad roll and dipping sauce, and a drink (Thai ice tea or water) for $5.00. Oh and a weird little wrapped candy that I’m not crazy about (tastes like lemony caramel).

Yeah, all of this for $5.00!

I have had the pumpkin curry with chicken (excellent and spicy) and I just recently tried the lemongrass chicken, which is my favorite so far. The lemon grass gives it a subtle, Thai-ish flavor and it comes with a spicy peanut sauce, chili sauce and a heavy, molassesy soy sauce. So, so good. I was in dipping heaven. The vegetables with this dish include carrots, broccoli and bok choy (I think or maye some kind of cabbage).

Another nice thing about Thai Basil is that the portions are huge! I spend $5.00 and I have lunch that day, take my leftovers home add some coconut milk (in the case of my leftover pumpkin curry — that one I even had enough to split it with jwa and we both had some) and have a lunch to bring back to work a day or two later.

Chicken Pumpkin Curry

Thai Basil gets 3.3 bowls of rice out of 4.

Coming soon in the “What’s For Lunch?” series: a selection of lunch carts on SW 5th Avenue. Also, here’s a neat little lunch cart map of downtown Portland by Audrey.

***

Je Mange la Ville is going on vacation next week. I’ll get my SHF post up next Friday but that’s probably about it, as we’ll be in Montana most of the week, celebrating my mom’s birthday.

Yes, I realize that this is kind of a lame post. It’s short, it’s a packaged item and salad dressing hardly counts as a recipe! I know, you-know-who-you-are (jwa). Too bad, for I am sleepy! Ha!

There was a new kind of flat Italian pizza at Trader Joe’s the last time we went and I couldn’t resist as I am quite fond of these tasty, frozen pies. Pizza Mascarpone with artichokes, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. I just threw a few pine nuts on top and popped it in the oven last night.

While it cooked, I threw together an awesome spinach salad with just baby spinach and a peppery oil and vinegar dressing that both jwa and I really liked with the hearty spinach leaves.

Peppery-Dijon Dressing
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Penzey’s creamy peppercorn

Whisk together mustard, vinegar and creamy peppercorn. Drizzle in olive oil and whisk until it thickens. Let sit for at least 5 minutes. Whisk again before dressing the salad.

I think the goat cheese and kalamata olive is still my favorite Trader Joe’s frozen pizza but this one was not too bad at all. I’d buy it again (in fact, I just might this weekend). Ugh, speaking of which, Trader Joe’s on the weekend…I need to start rethinking that plan, as I am getting sick of having to park on the street. The one at 39th & Holgate is a zoo on Saturday. A zoo, I tell you.

But, shopping woes aside, all in all, this was a pretty good, quick meal.

Flank Steak Rolled Up with Feta & Spinach:
This post is a little different. It’s half quick recipe and half product review of sorts. Whenever I buy chicken at Trader Joe’s I always see these rolled up steak things that look intriguing. They are, in fact, flank steak stuffed with feta, spinach and red pepper — but usually, I just see them and think, “huh, those look interesting.” This week, however, I actually bought a package. For you see, I am easily lured by the promise of feta stuffing. In addition to the persuasive power of the feta, they were very cute — they looked like little meat wheels. At $4.99 a pound, the price wasn’t bad either (the package I bought was $6.99).

Typically, I (and subsequently jwa) am still mostly in the chicken, fish and turkey cooking/eating cycle at home. See this post for more on my history of meat. I’m not looking to eat a lot more beef but every so often it would be nice to cook up some red meat when the mood strikes. As it is, I think I buy beef tenderloin once a year for Mini-Beef Wellingtons at Christmas but that’s about it. So, I am expanding my non-poultry and non-fish repertoire!

The package said to cook the steaks 10-15 minutes per side and not knowing all that much about flank steak I figured I’d just do what it said. If we didn’t like it, well more brussel sprouts and pine nut rice pilaf for dinner.

So, here you go — my Trader Joe’s meat experiment.

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1 package Trader Joe’s Flank steaks, rolled up and stuffed with spinach, feta, and red pepper
8-10 button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1/2 cup of red wine (Cabernet works well)
1/4 cup beef stock
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt

I heated up a heavy pan and added a little olive oil, salted the steaks and set them down to sear. I also added a bunch of sliced mushrooms and three sliced garlic cloves to the pan, thinking they would get all golden while the meat cooked. Then, I realized that the mushrooms would give off some liquid and probably keep the meat from browning, but you know what? They didn’t. Sure they gave off a little bit but between the olive oil, medium-high heat and tantalizing meat fat everything got all brown. It went perfectly to plan! Ha! I love it when that happens.

I gave the steaks ten minutes on each side then removed them to a plate and covered with foil, while I made a quick pan gravy. This entailed adding about 1/2 cup of red wine, dried thyme and 1/4 cup of beef stock to the mushrooms and scraping down all the brown bits in the pan. I let cook down just a bit — 3-4 minutes, then plated the steaks, removed the string (as the meat was secured in its circular shape), and drizzled some of the mushroom & wine gravy on top of each steak. Served with the pilaf (from a box — lazy!), sprouts and the rest of the Cabernet.

Braised Brussel Sprouts:
The brussel sprouts were cleaned, halved and sautéed with 2 cloves of garlic (minced) in a little butter until browned. Then I added beef stock (typically, I use chicken stock but I figured beef would work better here) and let them braise for about 20 minutes. Delicious!

All in all, this was a pretty good experimental dinner! If you’ve seen these spinach and feta stuffed flank steaks at Trader Joe’s and like me, have wondered if they were any good, you should give them a try — they were pretty tasty!