What to Cook Tonight #1

Our new weekly dispatch featuring a One-Pot Chicken with Orzo & Fennel, our best-ever Caesar with Egg & Anchovy, and some juicy Mushroom Burgers for your Friday night fakeaway.

Hello!

Welcome to What to Cook Tonight — a new weekly dispatch where we share three delicious seasonal recipes for home cooks. We will be sending these emails out to all our paid subscribers every Sunday, so be on the lookout for that.

Thank you so much for your support, we are both really excited about this project and have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make these newsletters as useful and flavourful as possible.

When designing these recipes and meal plans, we aim to be as mindful as we can of food costs and focus on seasonality — if something is in season, it is more likely to be locally sourced. Eating locally is one of the best ways you can reduce your food footprint and support local businesses.  

In each edition, we usually share one heartier comfort dish, a Friday “fakeaway”, and a fresh salad or lighter meal to ensure you satisfy all your cravings. We’ve also included substitutions and additions when possible — to help you squeeze in as many vegetables as you can and not be disheartened if you can’t find something at the supermarket. All recipes serve four — if you’re cooking for two or one, we will make our suggestions on how to accommodate for this too! If you have any feedback, thoughts, comments, or ideas, please let us know by commenting on this post.

The first recipe we’re sharing is for a One-Pot Chicken with Orzo & Fennel. This comforting meal is perfect for a Sunday dinner. We developed this recipe when we were together in Wānaka before Rose left for Lisbon this time last year, with the idea of creating the perfect one-pot wonder for cozy evenings. There’s something so satisfying about only using one dish and makes washing up a breeze. The orzo has such a satisfying bite and soaks up the flavours of the chicken and vegetables well — you’re left with an unctuous melt-in-your-mouth result that will earn you hours of accolades! As you’re making it in a covered stock pot, it’s also easily transportable for winter potlucks and neighbours’ houses when needed.

If you can’t get your hands on any fennel, you can use an additional leek or onion in its place. To sneak in extra greens, serve this with wilted spinach, blanched broccoli, sautéed cavolo nero or kale, or other seasonal greens. If you would like to keep this veggie, leave out the chicken, use vegetable stock, and add in a couple of cans of drained rinsed chickpeas or butter beans for added protein. You can add them in when you add the olives. This also freezes well (if you have any leftovers).

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The second recipe we are sharing is for this fab Caesar with Anchovy & Egg. You head it here first, Caesars are back. Don’t worry, we still love our Niçoise too…

A pain point we both share with Caesar salads is the croutons, which are often too crunchy and dry — enter: garlicky breadcrumbs! An excellent way to ensure every mouthful has a nice bit of texture but does not overwhelm the salad. We love keeping these breadcrumbs at hand to sprinkle over salads and pastas whenever you are feeling in need of some added crunch. It’s particularly good on this Harissa Vongole.

This salad is on the lighter side, so if you’re serving it for dinner, we recommend having it alongside grilled chicken, fried bacon, and/or boiled baby potatoes. If you’re wanting to keep things veggie, use capers in place of the anchovies in the mayo.

This recipe is easy to halve — the remaining mayo will keep in a covered container for at least a week and is great slathered into sandwiches, on toasted crostini with a little cucumber, drizzled over blanched vegetables, watered down slightly as a dressing for steak or chicken, and, of course, alongside home fries.

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