Two great meals made recently with a friend:
-> swiss chard and tilapia. Said friend had a bevy of swiss chard, so we set out to use as much as possible. Despite filling a pyrex baking dish with chard, we were unable to slay the chard beast. However, we did get good dinner.
We first cooked the chard stems and some onions up in some balsamic vinegar. Meanwhile, we parboiled a sweet potato. After the stems and onion were half cooked, we pulled out the baking dish and added the chard leaves, sliced mushrooms, sweet potato chunks, and more balsamic. On top of it all, we laid some tilapia that had been seasoned with lemon zest and pepper. We baked it -- mostly covered -- until the fish was flaky.
It was my first time having chard, and the experience was good. Quite a colorful dish, too, between the green chard and the orange sweet potato. And who doesn't love tilapia?
-> vaguely mid-eastern chicken with chard mashed potatoes.
Our mission for that night was "use tahini." Sadly, I didn't end up using much tahini (we had copious amounts to use), but I did end up making a mid-eastern inspired dish. I didn't have time to marinate (poor planning on my part, I suppose). We mixed up some vinegar, plain yogurt, tahini, sage, garlic, and a touch of vegetable oil with some well-cleaned chicken thighs.
We then mashed potatoes and put in steamed chard. Yum. And thus ended the life of the chard beast. At least it was put to good use.
I'm into concept cooking these days. I pick a random thing and run with it (random, like "no garlic" or "use tahini"). And, to be fair in attribution, my friend imposes many of these random rules. Anyone out there want to give me some new concept/recipe ideas?