Menu ideas and recipes for striped mullet, monkfish, smoked salmon, summer squash, roast beef, and pork shoulder
Striped mullet and monkfish recipes
We don’t eat much salmon because we get a weekly fish share from the North Carolina coast, but when I saw this New York Times recipe for roasted dill salmon, I wanted to try it the next night with striped mullet. In keeping with the spirit of the original recipe, I used pomegranate molasses instead of maple syrup. Quick and excellent.
Monkfish, one of my favorite fish, was on our menu the following night. I sautéed bacon, red onion, garlic, and tomatoes, put the monkfish on top and kept cooking (covered), then stirred in basil and sprinkled it all with fennel pollen at the end. Pretty darn good! Fennel pollen is one of those magical ingredients that elevates any dish.
Summer squash medley
You know it’s summer when all the ingredients for this veggie side are at the farmers market: a medley of summer squash varieties, red bell pepper, jalapeno, corn, basil and garlic. Give them a sauté and add Aleppo pepper, lemon juice and parmesan. Yum.
Dip devotee
I call them covid-cravings, those cravings you give into now when you normally wouldn’t, like smoked salmon dip just because. Jim’s not a fan so guess who ate it all? Adding a heaping teaspoon of horseradish was the right move.
Highlight of the week: roast beef hash
The highlight of the week was Sunday breakfast because the roast beef hash I made from leftover roast beef was surprisingly delicious.
I tossed chunks of roast beef along with leftover roasted potatoes and root vegetables into the food processor along with some garlic scallions from the garden. I spread the finely chopped mix evenly over the bottom of the pan, fried it until it got a bit crunchy, then tossed it around and fried it again.
Oh my, so good with fried eggs. So good it convinced me to keep slabs of roast beef in the freezer so I can make this more often.
Instant Pot Italian
For Sunday dinner, the Instant Pot got a workout first with a hearty pork ragù (tasty) and then cacio-e-pepe-style polenta. The polenta didn’t thicken up enough so I had to keep cooking it on the sauté setting until it got to the right consistency.
Until next week, stay awkward, brave and kind.*
*I picked this up from Brené Brown whose podcast I’ve been enjoying lately.
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Grabbing the Gusto 
So wonderful when all the local vegetable can grace our tables!