A Pinch Of The Big Three

Talk about summer being all over the place – yesterday’s sweaty heat turned to a chill in the air today. No complaints here, after falling asleep to a thunderstorm early last night. A grey day here in Philly at one point had me feeling like I should make a soup. And I’m no hater on soup at any point of the year, but I’ve praised summer produce far too much to let that feeling take over just yet. There wasn’t any grilling, but we did get a new favorite burger recipe.

At this point I think I can share that I’ve committed to running a marathon later this year. I’m not going to force running on anyone, nor will I turn this into a whole tell-all about my training plan and such. I’ve caught the running bug, and it’s a fun space to be. 🏃

A couple odd parts that I’ve been trying to navigate is keeping my body fueled. One part of that is probably something that all of us are dealing with in trying to stay hydrated in this heat. The other is eating consistently and smartly for the runs. I’ve noticed the more I run, the more hungry I am at all times of the day. And I’m no stranger to hanger, so we’re navigating our inner hunger demon. 👹

All that is to say that I’ve been able to get back in the kitchen a bit more this past week after quite a busy summer (no complaints). And I’m happy to be mixing new recipes in with some weeknight staples along with some classics.

Let’s dive into it. 🍴

What’s Cookin’

These three meals were the perfect mix of weeknight pantry meal, Sunday simmer dinner and some fun new recipes. I’d say that’s a great starting lineup of meals if this were some kind of sport.

Asian Ground Turkey with Rice and Smashed Cucumber Salad

This was the simple weeknight meal using what I had around, one that really was just me cooking and not really following a recipe. What does this look like? Let’s see if I can run it back from my mind…

Throw on some rice and cook as instructed, whatever that looks like for you. Then add lime juice, cilantro, salt and rice vinegar if you have it.

A few more steps for the turkey. First off, lightly frying the sliced garlic and ginger until golden brown before removing from the pan. Then adding the ground turkey to the same pan, letting it sit to get some nice browning before chopping up further to cook through. Then adding in the sauce, a mixture of soy sauce, mirin and hoisin sauce. Once basically cooked through and sauced up, add in almost all the garlic and ginger, leaving a few of each to top the bowls. Add over the rice, and top with the ginger, garlic, some scallions and some more cilantro if you want.

That’s just about it for the bowl. Like I said, rather simple.

As for the cucumber salad, that’s very similar as far as by taste using soy sauce, sesame oil, little bit of sugar, cilantro, chili oil or red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. I recently saw a video suggesting to use the smaller Persian cucumbers, which worked really well as I cut each on a diagonal after rotating a bit for even pieces. I smashed them just using the side of my knife, but you could use a plate or whatever flat object you have to smash on your cutting board. I then threw them in a bowl with a lid to shake to season. Very much throwing it back to the “here’s how I eat a whole cucumber” trend from years past.

If all of that sound a bit complicated to follow, here are some similar recipes I found that are related:

• Asian Ground Turkey and Rice by Sweet Phi

• Smashed Asian Cucumber Salad by The Woks of Life

Sunday Sauce

I love a good Sunday simmer recipe, whether that means something is actually simmering on the stove top—like the sauce— or just a recipe that takes longer since you have more time typically on the weekend.

The sauce hasn’t been made by myself or with family all summer, so I figured why not this weekend. And to be honest, I will likely be bringing leftovers home to my family later this week because even I can only eat so much pasta, meatballs, sausage and sauce in one week. Fresh pasta again this week too.

Smashed Scallion Burgers and Charred Pepper and Corn Salad

I’ve had this burger recipe from Carolina Gelen for NYT saved for weeks now. It was about.damn.time. that I made this perfect scallion feature. It’s an ode to the Oklahoma-style burger that is smashed with loads of thinly sliced onions.

If you know me, you know my favorite part about this recipe was thinly slicing 20 scallions. (And if you know me, you know that was sarcasm and I definitely did not no way did I cry at all. Who’s cutting onions?) That said, scallions are another pantry staple for me, though I did in fact have to buy more for this recipe.

We’re not strangers to smash burgers in my kitchen with the griddle action. And looking at a mound of scallion hiding a full burger was quite something, but the cooked down green onions were packed with that burger-juice flavor once flipped.

And like I said before, we’re not over the summer produce! So I had to pick up some corn to make a corn salad. This was mostly based on this recipe from Dishing Out Health. The dressing was awesome for this style salad. A few switch-ups: I couldn’t find shishito peppers, so a slight miss with produce there, but I just used some regular small peppers. And I didn’t have a ripe avocado, so that was omitted. Otherwise followed the recipe as written, using feta cheese and topped with some toasted pepitas for a little texture deal.

Highly recommend making this. It’s a perfect side to many different summer dishes. Plus, I’m sure it’ll only get better as it sits for a bit in the fridge.

Looking back at all these meals makes me feel like I hit the big three when it comes to weekly meals. And the best part: they will likely carry me through the rest of the week. A nice week and fun weekend ahead. Hope you enjoyed some regularly scheduled programming here. Also a big highlight of the past week has to be that the Premier League season is back, for better or worse for my mental health. Football next.

Treat yourself this week 🤘