The introduction to “Dinner’s Ready” by Andrew Schloss (William Morrow, $22), talks about structure, interlocking parts and essential building blocks. It discusses leveraging and dividends. And then dinner.
Cookbook, science book or economics text?
Bits of each lurk within the pages. Schloss, a Philadelphia food writer, has created 52 carefully structured meal plans that start with a great big, multicourse Sunday dinner, then use parts of it over the next couple of nights.
Sounds like a rehash of leftovers, but it isn’t really. Instead, Schloss parlays the fixed assets from the Sunday meal into solutions for four weekday entrees.
Take the first menu: On Sunday, a feast of roast chicken with lemon and coriander comes to the table along with Italian eggplant relish and angel-hair pasta tossed with arugula pesto.
Now, follow closely because that dinner gets a lot more mileage. Some of the chicken parts are set aside to make lemon chicken couscous on Monday night. A portion of the eggplant gets reincarnated for Nicoise-style cod, while another helping ends up in a sturdy soup several days hence. Arugula pesto is swirled into the same soup and some of it also tops chevre cheeseburgers.
It’s a fascinating premise, a model of regimented efficiency sure to appeal to those who like everything carefully mapped out. The book does, however, operate on several assumptions, including a high level of commitment to cooking, a big chunk of time to do it on Sunday and a fairly large budget.
Testing the recipes, we were pleased to discover enough variety in any given week so that subsequent meals were not merely clones of Sunday’s. Certainly there are familiar flavor chords that crop up throughout the week, but Schloss has created a diverse group of offerings. His recipes, with many cultural influences, are stylish and have a nice flair for seasonings.
The biggest drawback to using the book is its lack of organization, which is exasperating and particularly odd since the book is predicated on that very thing. There’s no table of contents to peruse, looking for the type of menu you may be in the mood for, and no list of recipes with page numbers.
If you’re committed to cooking most meals at home and want a simple plan to help you sail through the task, this may be the perfect book to get started. On the other hand, if you can’t resist nibbling on leftovers, “Dinner’s Ready” may not be the book for you since just about every morsel will be needed through the week.
The accompanying recipes, a selection from one week’s offerings, are adapted from Schloss’ book.
GRILLED CHILIED SWORDFISH WITH RED PEPPER AND AVOCADO SALSAS
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Two of the swordfish steaks and half of the red pepper salsa are set aside, to be re-engineered later in the week into fish cakes. If you will not be making the fish cakes, purchase only 4 pieces of fish and make only half of the salsa.
Rub and swordfish:
3 dried ancho chilies, stemmed, seeded, crumbled
2 dried cayenne chilies, stemmed, seeded, crumbled
1/4 cup each: whole cumin seeds, coriander seeds
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon each: onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper
Pinch dried oregano
6 swordfish steaks, about 8 ounces each
2 tablespoons olive oil
Red pepper salsa:
2 medium red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped jalapeno
Salt and pepper to taste
Avocado salsa:
1/2 tomato, cored and chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped jalapeno
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ripe California avocado, peeled, diced
1. Combine the chilies, cumin and coriander in a small, heavy skillet. Place over high heat just until mixture is aromatic, 30 to 60 seconds. Grind to a powder in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Strain to remove the coriander hulls and stir in salt, onion, garlic, pepper and oregano.
2. Rub 4 tablespoons into the swordfish. Coat a shallow glass baking pan with half of the oil and add the fish in a single layer. Drizzle with the remaining oil. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. To make the red pepper salsa, combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate. To make the avocado salsa, combine all ingredients, cover and refrigerate.
4. Arrange the swordfish on an oiled rack. Grill or broil 4 inches from the heat source, turning once, until cooked, 8 to 10 minutes total. Reserve 2 fish steaks and 1 cup of the red pepper salsa for fish cake recipe, if desired. Serve the remaining 4 fish steaks with 1/4 cup of each salsa.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories……….345 Fat…………….21 g Cholesterol……..15 mg
Sodium………305 mg Carbohydrates…….9 g Protein…………33 g
UNBELIEVABLE FISH CAKES
Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 6 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
1 cup hot sweet dressing, recipe follows
1 cup red pepper salsa, reserved from swordfish recipe
1 large egg
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 swordfish steaks, reserved from swordfish recipe
2 slices white bread, torn into pieces
Salt, pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
1. Combine half of the dressing, the salsa, egg and Worcestershire sauce in a large mixing bowl. Discard the skin from the fish and crumble fish into the bowl. Add bread, salt and pepper and mix well.
2. Spread bread crumbs on a plate. Shape fish mixture into 8 patties and coat them with crumbs.
3. Heat the oil, butter and cumin in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fish patties, in batches as necessary. Cook, turning once, until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. To serve, stir horseradish into remaining hot sweet dressing and use as a sauce for the fish cakes.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories…….545 Fat………………30 g Cholesterol…….100 mg
Sodium……700 mg Carbohydrates……..46 g Protein…………24 g
HOT SWEET DRESSING
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 cup
In the book, Schloss makes a double recipe of this and adds some vinegar, shredded apples and cabbage for a tangy coleslaw.
1/3 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons each: orange marmalade, ketchup, hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon honey
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
Calories…….30 Fat……………..2.4 Cholesterol………2 mg
Sodium………30 mg Carbohydrates…….2 g Protein………….0 g
