Quick Cooking and Sick Babies-4/30/09

It hasn't happened often but Eyrleigh got sick today. I'm hoping it just a product of her emerging eye teeth but either way, she was not feeling good this evening. She had that bleary eyed look through dinner but did manage to eat quite a bit of rice and end her meal with her favorite dessert, an ice cream cone. I didn't even start dinner until Richard got home from work after 4:00 so it was wonderful to have a dinner and appetizer that could be made quickly. I've mentioned in earlier posts that Gourmet has a section geared toward quick weekday meals. I looked back in some of my old Gourmets, going back to 2003, to see if this section had been as large. I didn't remember it being a focus but then again, I wasn't making every recipe and getting to know the magazine as well. Sure enough, there was a section with the same name with only one fewer recipe. Quick cooking has been a focus of Gourmet for a long time, they just don't emphasize it like some cooking magazines do.

Tonight I made 3 recipes from May's Gourmet, all in under an hour. The main course recipe, the Sake Sea Bass in Parchment on page 74, was a fancy looking recipe with very simple execution. The sea bass was simply soaked with a sake-based sauce and wrapped up in parchment. I used steaks instead of fillets and though the cook time was a little more, everything else was identical and tasted great. Richard is not a huge fan of fish and found sea bass a bit "fishy" but I thought it was moist, flavorful, and very good.

I made the Stir-fried Bok Choy and Cabbage on page 75 to go with the fish as recommended. I wish I had taken a few extra minutes to wash the cabbage. I forgot and the dish was pretty gritty. The grit and the bitterness of the greens made this a dish neither of us liked. The sesame oil wasn't enough to compliment the very strong flavor of the greens.
Our favorite recipe of the night was the second dumpling recipe I've made from May's Gourmet. The Shrimp Scallion Dumplings were excellent and I was surprised how much they looked and tasted like dumplings at a restaurant. I'm amazed at how easy they were when I used the premade dumpling wrappers. I made them even easier by simply putting all the ingredients in the food processor to chop. It sure didn't look pretty but who was going to see it inside the dumpling?
Shrimp Scallion Dumplings- A
Cost-$13.07
Calories per serving- 49 a dumpling
Stir-Fried Bok Choy and Cabbage-D
Cost-$3.89
Calories per serving- 133
Sake Sea Bass in Parchment-B
Cost-$61.72 (I did NOT buy 6 fillets! Whew!)
Calories per serving- 286

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