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how i spend my sundays

3/9/2024

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​Sunday’s, I spend planning my meals for the week based on what I have on hand and what needs to be purchased.  Lately, I have been purchasing family packs of pork tenderloin, boneless, skinless chicken breast and bone-in split chicken breasts then breaking them down into smaller packages.
 
I have approximately a dozen cook books, and lots of recipes either clipped from magazines, newspapers or found on the internet from other food bloggers or cooking shows. Last week’s recipes came from three different cookbooks. The first recipe, Sautéed Spice Beef Cutlets,  was from “Lidia’s Italy,” by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. For the recipe you’ll need a 2-1/2-pound slab of top round or other lean boneless beef, coarse sea salt or kosher salt, softened butter, fresh Italian parsley, all-purpose flour, eggs, fresh garlic, freshly ground black pepper, cinnamon, ground cloves and extra-virgin olive oil.
​In the recipe below, Lidia gives directions on how to cut a slab of beef into thin beef cutlets. Check the meat department of your local grocer to see if they carry this product as my local Wegmans did. The cutlets need to be tenderized by using both the toothed and flat side of a meat mallet. Can you use beef braciole? Perhaps,  but I think it may be too thin. 
 
The butter needs to be at room temperature so that chopped parsley can be creamed into it. Once the cutlets are tenderized, they are salted and one side is covered with the parsley butter. The beef is rolled up and a toothpick is inserted to hold the rolls closed. The beef rolls are then coated with flour. The recipe calls for stirring together both the cinnamon and ground cloves then later sifting the beef rolls as they cook in the sauté pan. I opted to add the spices to the flour so that all sides were evenly flavored. Chopped garlic is added to a lightly beaten egg to which the beef rolls are coated in. Next, the cutlets are lightly fried in a olive oil/butter combination. At this point, if you didn’t add the spices to the flour, now is the time to sift the spices over the rolls. Cooking takes approximately 10 minutes. You can either slice into one to check for doneness, but I used my instant read meat thermometer for temperature of approximately 140°.
 
I must say, the Spice Beef Cutlets flavor was delicious and the meat juicy. The center of the rolls, were slightly pink and you could taste the subtle flavor of the spices. Definitely a nice spin on beef roll ups. However, my husband felt the meat was a bit tough.
 
The next recipe is from the late Michael Chiarello’s cookbook “The Tra Vigne Cookbook - Seasons in the California Wine Country.” Chicken with Roasted Lemon and Rosemary is such a wonderful recipe, whether for a weeknight meal or for guests, it’s an easy to prepare dish, but does have a few steps. For the recipe you’ll need red bliss potatoes, large lemons, extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, boneless chicken breast halves (skin on), fresh garlic, double-strength chicken stock, freshly chopped rosemary, finely chopped flat-leaf parsley and unsalted butter (optional).
 
The potatoes are cooked whole in salted water until just tender. They’re drained, cooled and sliced in half.
 
The lemon will have a small piece cut off each end so they stand when placed in an ovenproof dish. They are brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted under the broiler until browned and soft. The juice is squeezed from the lemons and set aside.
 
The chicken is seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked with olive oil in an ovenproof skillet until browned on both sides. The chicken is removed to a platter and with the potatoes added, cooked until browned and have absorbed any of the juices in the pan. The chicken is added on top of the potatoes and placed in a preheated 450° oven until cooked through, from 10-15 minutes. The chicken is placed on a platter surrounded by the potatoes.
 
Next, the sauce is made by sautéing the garlic and rosemary until fragrant, chicken broth and lemon juice are added. While stirring, scrape any fond off the bottom of the pan. Adjust seasonings and if too lemony, add the butter to soften the acidity. Pour the sauce over the platter and serve.
 
What a flavorful dish! I can’t believe I haven’t told you about this before and secondly, it’s been a long time since I’ve made this dish. The combination of flavors added a level of complexity to the sauce. It had the right balance of tartness offset by the rosemary. The potatoes were delicious as they absorbed all the flavors. This was a  wonderful meal.
 
The last recipe is a real quicky, it’s from the cookbook “The Bounty of Biltmore Cookbook,” from the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. My husband was on a business trip many years ago and had the opportunity to visit the Biltmore; while there he picked up this book.
 
The recipe, Molasses Pork Tenderloin has just 3 ingredients besides the pork and they are molasses, stone-ground Dijon mustard and apple cider vinegar. These ingredients are whisked together to create a marinade for the pork, which needs to marinate for 8 hours. The pork can either be grilled or baked in the oven; I chose to grill. As pork is so lean, I cooked it on a sheet of foil and maintained a temperature of 350°F.
 
The pork tasted delicious, it was moist, tender and had a bit of smokiness and a subtle tang from the mustard. Although not called for, a think a bit of salt, and perhaps pepper, would further enhance the pork. Overall, quite tasty for minimal effort

Sautéed Spice Beef Cutlets
Braciole Armatiche
“Lidia’s Italy,” by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich
And Tanya Bastianich Manuali ©2008
 
Makes about one dozen rolled cutlets, serves 6
 
Ingredients
2-1/2-pound slab top round or other lean boneless beef, fully trimmed, 2 to 3 inches thick
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt or kosher salt
7 tablespoons soft butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 cup flour, or as needed
2 large eggs lightly beaten
2 plump garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
 
 
Directions
With a sharp long knife, slice the beef across the grain at a slight slant into 12 thin, roughly equal cutlets. Start cutting at one end of the slab, with the knife blade at a sharp angle, so the slices have a large cut surface.
 
Tenderize the cutlets on both sides with the toothed face of a meat mallet then pound with the flat face to spread them into long ovals, about 5 inches wide. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the oval braciole, using about 1 teaspoon salt in all.
 
Stir 4 tablespoons of the soft butter with all the chopped parsley together until creamy, and spread about a teaspoon on each braciole, covering the top surface. Roll up each oval from one of the narrow ends, enclosing the parsley butter, and weave a toothpick through the flap to secure the roll. Sprinkle salt on the outside of all the rolls, using about 1/2 teaspoon.
 
To prepare the coating and seasoning for the braciole: Spread the flour in a plate. Pour the eggs into a wide, shallow bowl and Bea in the chopped garlic, the remaining salt, and the freshly ground pepper. Stir together the ground cinnamon and cloves, and reserve the spice mix in the finer-mesh sieve.
 
Pour the olive oil into the big skillet, drop in the remaining 3 tablespoons butter , and set over low flame, melting and heating the butter until foaming (but don’t let it brown). As the skillet heats, dredge3 to 4 of the braciole in flour, shake off the excess, and drop them in the bowl of beaten eggs. Turn to coat well with egg and garlic, and sift a bit of the spice mixture over their tops.
 
When the butter is gently bubbling, lay the roll in the skillet, spiced side down, and sift spices on the top side. Working quickly dredge and coat the remaining rolls in batches, sprinkling the spices all over as they go into the skillet.
 
When all the braciole are in the pan, raise the heat a bit so the meat is sizzling gently. Slowly sauté the rolls, rotating them every few minutes, until nicely browned all over and cooked through, 10 minutes or longer. Slice into a roll to check for doneness; if it seems needed, give the thicker ones more time. As each roll is done, remove it to a platter and pull out the toothpick. Serve hot.
 
Tips from Donna
  • At my local food store, I was able to purchase top round beef cutlets.
  • Instead of sifting spices over the egg-coated beef rolls, I merely incorporated the spices into the flour so that the beef rolls had an even coating of spices. 
sautéed_spice_beef_cutlets.pdf
File Size: 54 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Chicken with Roasted Lemon and Rosemary Sauce
“The Tra Vigne Cookbook - Seasons in the California Wine Country”
By Michael Chiarello with Penelope Wisner ©1999
 
Serves 4
 
Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds small new potatoes such as Red Bliss
2 large lemons
Extra-virgin olive oil for brushing on lemons, plus 1/4 cup
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless chicken breast halves, skin on
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup double-strength chicken stock or 2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth boiled until reduced by half
1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leave parsley
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)
 
Directions
  • Put the potatoes in a pot of salted cold water and bring to a boil. Cook until just tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and let cool, but do not peel. Cut in half and set aside.
  • Preheat the broiler. Cut a small slice off both ends of each lemon, then cut in half crosswise. Arrange the lemons, flesh side up, in a flameproof nonreactive baking dish, brush with olive oil ,and season with salt and pepper. Broil 6 inches or more from the heat until browned and soft, about 10 minutes. Let cool. Squeeze the lemon halves over a sieve suspended over a bowl. Push and stir the pulp through the sieve with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to get as much juice out as possible. Discard the lemon shells.
  • Preheat the oven to 450°. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat remaining ¼ cup olive oil in a large ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add the chicken, lower the heat to medium, and cook, turning once, until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Remove to a platter.
  • Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring and tossing, until brown all over, about 5 minutes. Drain off the excess oil. Arrange the chicken breasts on top of the potatoes and place in the oven to reheat and cook through, about 10 minutes. When done, remove the chicken to a platter and put the pan with the potatoes over medium-high heat. Toss well so the pan juices are absorbed into the potatoes. Scrape the potatoes out of the pan onto the platter around the chicken.
  • Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the garlic. Sauté briefly until light brown. Immediately add the reserved roasted lemon juice (this final flash f heat will cook off any residual acid flavor, stock, rosemary, and parsley. Stir and scrape up all the browned bits that cling to the bottom and sides of the pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If  the sauce tastes too lemony, stir in the optional butter. Pour the sauce over the chicken and potatoes and serve immediately. 
chicken_with_roasted_lemon_and_rosemary_sauce.pdf
File Size: 54 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


​Molasses Pork Tenderloin
“The Bounty of Biltmore Cookbook,”
Compiled and edited by Whitney Wheeler Pickering
Oxmoor House, Inc. ©2000
 
If the weather is too chilly for grilling the tenderloin, bake it, uncovered, at 350° for 30 minutes
 
Yield: 4 to 6 Servings
 
Ingredients
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons stone-ground Dijon Mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 (3/4-pound) pork tenderloins, trimmed
 
Directions
STIR together first 3 ingredients, and brush over pork tenderloins. Cover and chill 8 hours
 
GRILL, covered with grill lid, over medium-hot coals (350° to 400°) about 10 minutes each side or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 160°.
 
Donna’s Notes: I would suggest seasoning the pork with salt and pepper. For two tenderloins, ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper per tenderloin. 
molasses_pork_tenderloin.pdf
File Size: 57 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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    ​meet donna

    A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

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