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Around My French Table, crunchy ginger-pickled cucumbers, Dorie Greenspan, lemon barley pilaf, mango chatini, olive tapenade, olive-olive cornish hens, salmon with basil tapenade
This has been a rather busy and exciting month for us and I have been a bit remiss with French Fridays recipes…!
First we were counting down the days until our second daughter was due to grace us, then the day finally came when we got to meet her and in all the hub-bub we managed to miss out on the French Fridays postings! But check out our new cook! I think it’s a great reason to have missed out on a few of the recipes!
Miss Emily will be joining us in the kitchen just as soon as she can sit up on her own – which will happen sooner than we know, I’m sure. In the meantime, we took advantage of a short window we had yesterday to prepare dinner while Emily was sleeping off a milk coma and Mei was busy watching cartoons.
We made the crunchy ginger-pickled cucumbers, salmon with basil tapenade and lemon barley pilaf for dinner. It was a perfectly light and satisfying meal! We did choose to omit the olive tapenade because we didn’t care too much for it on the olive-olive cornish hens that we made last winter and just stuffed our salmon fillets with lemon soaked ribbons of basil and mint and prepared the mango chatini to serve with the salmon instead.
ginger-pickled cucumbers
I was a bit nervous about searing the flesh in a stainless steel pan, although not too much of it stuck like I thought it would have – which was good. It gets finished in the oven, and the last few minutes for the salmon were all that we needed for the barley pilaf to finish cooking as well. It was a perfectly timed meal! In the future, I would rather just pan sear the fillets in a non-stick skillet because it’s not worth the bits of flesh flaking off or sticking to the pan just for some color – I can use a broiler for a minute or two to achieve the same effect, but other than that I was very happy with the process of cooking both the salmon and the barley.
mango chatini
The brightness of the meal with it’s touch of lemon in the barley that paired nicely with the salmon and the fresh herbs in the mango chatini made for a lovely summer meal. This is certainly a meal we will have again! I would be happy to serve the barley pilaf with any number of seafood dishes in lieu of our typical rice sides or even potato sides that we often gravitate towards.
The ginger-pickled cucumbers were a hit for our house guest, who loves ginger – but for me, it was a miss. It wasn’t as terrible as I anticipated but the ginger was sharp and I didn’t care for it, although the “pickle” itself was very refreshing and crisp tasting. The husband unit didnt go for this dish because it wasn’t truly a “pickle” he said. *Shrugs* you can’t win them all!
July was certainly a great month for French Fridays! If you would like to join our group, please click here and get a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s “Around My French Table.” Likewise, if you would like to see what the other Doristas thought of these recipes, click here!
Looks like a great meal! I bet all those flavors went nicely together. Good for you cooking meals like this at all with a new baby!
I have a helper in Auntie Errin so its easier to prep the meals
it was very tasty!
Always nice to do a dinner and get through a few of the recipes! I used my post as a catch up of sorts too. Congrats on your new cook!
Thanks Trevor! I saw you had a nice catch-up post!
Thanks!
Well I think you have an excellent reason for missing a few weeks! I can’t wait til Emily’s old enough to join us Doristas! Nice work this week!
I know right??! maybe the girls and I can meet you in Paris one of these days! It sounds like you are having a really good time!
I’m impressed you caught up at all. It took me nine months before I was able to start cooking regularly after I had my son! (he had acid reflux,and cried slightly less per day than he would if he were considered colicky. All of the aggravation, none of the validation of being able to slap a name on what was wrong with him to explain his behavior to people). Your family is beautiful, and I love how you involve the kiddos in the kitchen.
Thanks Ei! Wow! that sounds tiring and frustrating! I can understand how that would keep you out of the kitchen for awhile!
I don’t think you have to apologize
I am impressed that you are keeping up as much as you are.
Lovely meal!
Thanks Cher!
Alice, I am impressed too that you are able to manage to keep up with the Dorie recipes! Great job on the salmon with barley pilaf, the pickles and the mango chatini (never tried that)!
Thanks! the mango chatini was really good! You should try it!
Congratulations on your new addition! Curious – did Mei like the barley pilaf? I thought it seemed like a lot of recipes in our cooking for babies and toddlers cookbooks at the store. I am impressed that you made all these recipes at once when you have so much going on! Your salmon looks delish too. Did you like the mango chatini? I’ve been eating the leftovers with tortilla chips and I love it!
Actually, YES! Mei did like the barley pilaf! She didnt eat too much of it but she is going through a phase right now where she really isnt eating much at all… I saw that on your blog! I have a couple toddler cookbooks and none of them mention barley so I thought that was interesting… The mango chatini was really good!
Way to catch up! Congratulations on the new addition to your family. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about her.
Thanks! Yes, you will certainly hear and see more of her! Especially when she starts to be able to sit up!
It all looks so good! And congrats on your new little girl!
Thanks so much!
Congrats on the newest addition to your family and congrats too on making it make into the kitchen so quickly. Your meal looks delicious and I’m impressed that you were able to catch back up so quickly.
LOL, no one can keep me out of the kitchen for long!
Excellent how you brought all of the Dorie recipes together into one meal. Congratulations on your daughter.
Thanks, it was easy since they all seemed to go together! I just have to make the blueberry roulade now
Super impressed by your Dorie feast!
Thanks! It was delish!
Nice catch up, made even more impressive when I think about how busy you must be with a new baby in the house.
LOL, its not too busy … just a bit tiring with all the not sleeping that we are doing,… lol!
Congratulations on the new addition to your family. Simply wonderful. To be
able to think about cooking at this time is fantastic. Me, I would call for take out.
Thanks so much! I love cooking and baking and can’t stay out of the kitchen for long!
The ginger pickles sound delicious to me—I love ginger!
I think you would love it actually
and probably add more ginger!
CONGRATULATIONS. Now, you are four. I salute you, as have others, for keeping up as well as you have with FFWD. Those two little girls are going to keep you hoppin’, I suspect. You plate looked delicious – lots of preparation. You’ll love making the roulade – not as difficult as it appears to be or looks but it is fabulous. Again, glad to have that baby here and healthy.
Thanks Mary!!
I’m looking forward to doing the roulade
especially since Mei loves blueberries but I have to find the time to do that one first! 
Emily let you cook ALL that???? I’m amazed!!! I’m glad you’re adjusting to baby #2…I’m so happy for you all!
Not exactly… LOL, there are three adults here to shuffle children between, so we managed to get it done
Thanks!
What a great dinner! I really liked the salmon recipe, and you’ve made me very curious to try the mango chatini. Sorry you didn’t like the pickled cucumbers – the ginger was strong.
The ginger was a bit too much for me, but thats ok – they were still appreciated
The mango chatini was really good! You should give it a try!