On the bookshelves tomorrow, October 13th is the newest book from the Martha Stewart library, Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home. I received an advance copy and had a chance to cook a few meals from it and wanted to share it with everybody.
The book is split up into season, spring, summer, fall and winter. Each season is filled with 13 menus, and each with three or four recipes. To start with, the first section is Spring, complete with menus that include Lamb Chops, Asparagus-Parmesan Tart, Coconut Poached Chicken and Baked Flounder with Lemons and Onions. And those are just the entrees of the menus, there are also great sides that are fresh vegetables like Asparagus with Aioli, Green Cabbage with Leeks and Tangy Coleslaw. And to round out the menus the Quinoa, pea and mint salad, couscous with golden raisins and saffron-tomato rice are hard to pass up. But no need to worry, Martha also gives you a dessert for each menu, you can be as decadent as Tiramisu or maybe a little more simple and healthy with the Raspberries with honey and buttermilk. And that is just the section for Spring.
In the Spring section I just had to make Menu #3, Roasted Salmon and Potatoes with Mustard Herb Butter and Hericots Verts with Tapenade and to finish Lemon Mousse. I am sold on anything that has salmon on the list and roasting salmon is one of my favorite preparations. This was fantastic! Cooking the potatoes ahead of the salmon makes them very crispy on the outside and soft and lovely on the inside. The mustard herb butter takes seconds to put together and makes a great addition to the finished dish. The recipe for the Hericots Verts with Tapenade calls for store bought Tapenade, for shame Martha, I whipped some up from scratch because it uses everything in the pantry and takes only a few minutes. The tapenade added to the Hericots was a easy flavorful touch and I will use that trick again. And last but not least the lemon mousse was light, tart and tasty. I was even able to use my special lemon cups for it.
Also in the Spring section, menu #10; Pasta shards with Fresh Herbs, Poached eggs with Brown butter and Arugula and Avocado salad. The pasta is the perfect dish for the leftover lasagna noodles that you have that may be broken, break them into shards for a more interesting look and top with a poached egg and a little brown butter. The salad was also fantastic with pine nuts, avocado, carrots, red onions and shaved Parmigiana.
Summer is all about fresh wonderful produce but most of all it screams tomatoes. In the summer section you will find menus like, #1-Pancetta Cheeseburgers, Balsamic mushrooms and Tomato, basil and white bean salad and to finish how about a Coconut-topped cupcake. Or how about menu #7; Blender Gazpacho with Grilled steak with Blue cheese potatoes, spinach and grilled-corn salad and a Blackberry-red wine gelatin. Next on my list for sure is Menu #10, Avocado and Lemon with Toasted rustic bread, Seared Tuna in Tomato-basil sauce, Green beans with Lemon Butter and Peaches in Honey Syrup
I made menu #5 which was Tender Shredded pork with Mexican corn cakes and red beans with cheese. It only took about one hour from start to finish to complete all the recipes, since you are making the pork, the corn cakes and the beans they can all be worked on at the same time. The corn cakes with the masa harina and whole kernels of cook was AMAZING! The pulled pork to a little longer to cook but I was using a larger loin then it called for. This was a fantastic and fresh dinner and will make it again for sure. You can really wow the family with the corn cakes alone.
Just because it isn't summer or spring for that matter you can make any of these menus.
In the Fall the weather slowly changes and then overnight it seems like we are into the winter. Gone are the long sunny days and the fresh herbs off the back porch but actually I love it when it starts to get a little cooler. Everything seems to change orange and red and the light is amazing. And nothing says Fall like apples, squash, pasta and slow roasting chicken. Its time for some comfort food and there are some great menus in this section. Try Menu #6; Skillet Rib-Eye steaks with Broiled Peppers with melted cheese, broccoli with garlic and anchovies and Molten chocolate-Espresso cakes.
Winter, oh the dark gloomy days of winter. And depending where you are there could be a lot of snow and ice. I can do without the ice but a day or two of snow is fun, that is if the house is fully stocked with food that you can make. How about some of these menus. Menu #3, Broiled red snapper, Citrus-soy sweet potatoes, sesame spinach rolls and rice pudding with candied kumquats, or Menu #4 Cheese fondue, crisp pork cutlets, egg noodles with sauteed Brussels-sprout leaves and Cherry compote over ice cream. I made menu #8, Roast Chicken breasts in creamy tarragon sauce with warm lentils with spinach and Caramelized endive. It was great and the tarragon sauce and butter made for a very moist chicken and the caramelized endive was great. I was actually a little worried that John wouldn't like the endive but he was a big fan.
The new cookbook is out on October 13th and I advise you to pick it up. Compared to the Everyday Food line of cookbooks it is a little more grown up but I think still approachable. It is more of the Martha Stewart Living recipes then the Everyday Food and I for one liked the little bit more of a challenge. You can use this book just for the individual recipes, there are no rules that you need to make the whole menu. But it really is a great book and i loved each of the menus I made out of it... so pick it up, you won't be sorry
