Dinner at Home
This review was prepared by Lo of Burp! Where Food Happens.
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Published in 2009, Martha Stewart’s Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home: 52 Quick Meals to Cook for Family and Friends
Loaded with mouth-watering photos and featuring a diverse array of main dish recipes -- from Pancetta Cheeseburgers to Cheese Flautas with Cilantro Pesto to Chicken Paillards with Walnut Sauce -- Martha's book
Side dishes feature more adventurous options such as Wilted Dandelion Greens and Sesame Brown Rice and Cabbage, alongside family-friendly favorites like Oven-Baked Shoestring Fries and Creamed Corn.
Desserts include classic favorites like Tiramisu, but they also branch out into more interesting options like Torrijas, Cherry Ice, and Caramelized Persimmons – all of which are easy enough to whip up ahead of time, yet impressive enough to serve for week-night company.
Recipes for vegetarian readers are a bit more limited. However, the options that do exist are easy, yet creative. Cauliflower Gratin served with Radicchio and Chestnut salad could grace a winter plate. While spring and summer menus include entrees like Broiled Black Pepper Tofu and Pasta Shards with Fresh Herbs (and optional Poached Eggs with Brown Butter). Even some of the side-dish options would make reasonable vegetarian main dishes if served with a salad and a side of crusty bread.
When choosing the recipes we’d sample from this book, we decided to stick with the seasonal theme. We were also curious to try out Martha’s pairing abilities, so we settled one of her complete summer menus. Our dishes included Grilled Striped Bass, Corn and Clam Chowder Sauce, Oyster Biscuits, and for dessert, Watermelon-Raspberry Salad.
Although we couldn’t find striped bass at the fish market, we decided to substitute another firm-fleshed white fish, Wild Halibut, which worked splendidly. We followed Martha’s preparation schedule, which suggested we prepare the watermelon-raspberry salad first, followed by marinating the fish filets, baking the biscuits, and preparing the chowder sauce.
Martha’s instructions included concise, simple directions for cleaning and soaking fresh little-neck clams – an affordable, yet elegant addition to the classic corn and potato-based chowder which was easily prepared in about 45 minutes.
The biscuits, which were more like thick, flaky crackers, came together in a flash (thanks to an easy to work with dough that can be quickly prepared in a food processor). They could be baked while the fish was grilling, so they could be served warm from the oven as an accompaniment to the meal.
The chowder sauce, while slightly creamy, is meant to be brothier than your average chowder, so it made an excellent pairing for the halibut, which cooked up deliciously flaky. The succulent fish was perfect when broken apart and incorporated into the chowder, one spoonful at a time. And the crisp “oyster cracker-like” biscuits made an excellent vehicle to soak up all the leftover sauce remaining in the dish.
Although I was skeptical about adding sugar to the already sweet cubed watermelon and seasonal raspberries, fresh from the farmer’s market, I trusted Martha’s instructions , which tempered the sugar with a bit of fresh lemon juice, resulting in a light, fruity dessert that was perfect served over a bit of vanilla ice cream.
Prep wasn’t fussy, ingredients weren’t hard to find, and the resulting meal was deliciously impressive. However, the meal took about two hours to prepare from start to finish (for two relatively experienced cooks) – which doesn’t exactly make the recipes conducive to quick, weeknight fare.
Martha Steward has never been a die-hard favorite in the Burp! kitchen. However, we found Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home: 52 Quick Meals to Cook for Family and Friends
