QUICK DINNERS: Cous Cous with Sausage, Greens, and White Beans; Baked Shells with Tomato and Mozzarella; Chicken Sausage and Ravioli Soup
I go through phases: sometimes I’ll plan a week’s worth of dinners, do the shopping, and make meals according to my schedule. And sometimes (really, more often), we eat by the seat of our pants. With just two un-picky mouths to feed, seat-of-the-pants works out okay, usually.
But truth be told, I love meal planning almost as much as I love cooking, and I’ve been thinking about sharing with you some of the ways I go about making sure that we’ve got home-cooked breakfasts, lunches, and dinners ’round here almost every day of the week. Meal planning for the quarter-life set. Would you be interested??
I love making fish for dinner, but it does involve more carefully planning, than, say a quesadilla. Fish goes bad after a day or so, and while I’ve been known, occasionally, to let a bundle of greens wilt or a mango rot, I’m not going to leave my $10.50 per pound cod to the same fate. Which means when I buy fish, I’m basically devoting myself to it. (And look-this dish uses up that mango!)
A healthful, quick, and satisfying way to cook fish is to poach it in some kind of flavorful liquid-green curry, say, or spicy tomato sauce. Here, that liquid is a delightful sweet-and-sour broth punctuated with strips of sweet onions, mango, and yellow peppers. I love the fish and veggies over soba noodles, but you could also opt for rice-a pantry staple if there ever was one.
From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,
Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK
**Recipe**
Mango Cod with Soba
Serves 2 with leftovers
If you’d like to add some kick, throw a dried chile pepper or a pinch of cayenne into the broth.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons safflower, canola, or other neutral oil
1 onion, halved and sliced
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1 mango, julienned
About 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ketchup or tomato paste
1 teaspoon sriracha
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon white wine or mirin
1/4 cup water
3/4 pound cod, rinsed, dried, and cut into 6 pieces
1 scallion, just the green parts, chopped
12 ounces soba noodles
Bring a pot of water to boil for the soba noodles.
In a large saucepan witha cover, cook the onions and pepper in the oil until soft. Add the mango and cook for just a minute. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Combine another 1/2 teaspoon salt with the ketchup, sriracha, soy sauce, worcestershire, sugar, mirin, and water to make a sauce. Stir to combine, then pour this over the onions, peppers, and mango. Turn the heat up just to get it to a boil.
Meanwhile, make the soba noodles according to package directions. If possible, cook and drain them just before the cod is ready.
Sprinkle the cod with a pinch of salt, then place it, skin side down, on the bed of vegetables/mango. Spoon some liquid over it, then cover the pan and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the cod is no longer translucent when you cut and peek inside the thickest piece.
Gently lift the cod and set it on top of the soba. Scoop some of the vegetables and sauce around and on top of the cod and noodles.
Garnish with chopped scallion and eat!
