woo wee, what a weekend

It wasn't particularly fabulous or interesting (or, at least, according to people whose lives aren't so mundane as mine), but it was full of good things: a dinner date and mall trip with Mom, my return to running after three days of nursing a very painfully strained/pulled glute, a hailstorm (!) last night, and watching "Vicky Christina Barcelona" with a friend last night. Best of all, I had enough time, energy and inspiration to cook at home on both Saturday and Sunday. Both were new recipes, so both get a shout-out here.

[saturday]
Fish is what I was craving, and so fish is what we had. Lately, I've had swordfish on the brain; when I was younger, it was a summertime supper staple, but it fell off our family's map for reasons not totally clear. (I think, and my dad agrees, that we made it too much and just got sick of it.) I hadn't had it in forever, but given that I enjoy so many kinds of seafood, I suspected that I would still enjoy it. With Mark as our guide, we marinated a 1 lb. swordfish steak (hello, huge hunka fish!) in 2 Tbsp. soy sauce and the juice of 1 lime for 30 minutes, then grilled it and served it with lemon slices. Our veg was asparagus--drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, grilled until charred and delicious looking--and we had some of that huge batch of couscous salad I made earlier in the week.

The verdict on swordfish: My, it is meaty! I was really surprised by the meatiness. I don't know how else to explain it, except that it was good.

[sunday]
After Saturday's dinner, my dad announced that he would like to eat something spicier for dinner on Sunday. At first I thought he meant literally something more spicy, and so did he, but after a bit of brainstorming together, he explained that he meant anything more interesting (metaphorically spicy, then) than Saturday night's relatively easy, tasty but unadventurous meal. Much cookbook browsing yielded the following pork recipe, paired with barley pilaf (barley, sauteed red onion, salt, pepper and dried thyme) and grilled radicchio (extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper). We'd planned on baby bok choy, but when we couldn't find any at Whole Foods, Dad suggested we pick up some of the beautiful little heads of radicchio displayed before us. Grilling it added a lot of smokiness to the expected bitterness, which was awesome.

above: beautiful and tasty grilled radicchio
(pork not pictured because meat is ugly)

Note: This breaks the pork rule! I do like pork tenderloin, because it's so lean and, well, tastes like chicken if you ask me.

Grilled pork tenderloin with mustard curry
Adapted from Mark Bittman
Time: about 30 minutes, plus time to preheat grill
Serves 3-4

2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. curry powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/4 lb. pork tenderloin, in 1 piece
Fruit chutney (Mark suggests recipes for a stone fruit chutney and a corn and tomato relish contained elsewhere in the book, but because stone fruits, corn and tomatoes aren't yet in season, I used storebought Major Grey's chutney, which has mango and ginger and a nice kick of heat)

1. Preheat grill.

2. Combine mustard, curry powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and rub all over meat to coat. Grill, turning to brown all sides, abput 10-15 minutes, until meat is nearly cooked through but still pink in the very center. (The internal temperature of the center should not exceed 145 degrees Fahrenheit.)

3. Remove from heat and let rest 10 minutes before slicing into 1/2-inch thick pieces. Serve with chutney.

Warning: If you choose to grill the meat indoors, as we did, it might get smoky! We had to open the kitchen windows, then the back door . . .

. . . and then the front door, too.

The leftover radicchio and pork made their way into my lunchtime salad yesterday along with the rest of the asparagus from Saturday (blanched this time) and the dregs of the couscous salad, plus romaine, thawed frozen corn kernels and alfalfa sprouts. One of the best parts of cooking on the weekend is having lots of wonderful leftovers during the week!