Russian Eggplant Caviar Recipe for Ikra or Poor Man’s Caviar. What to cook this week. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

What to Cook This Week from Easy Breakfast for Dinner Ideas to Comforting Chicken Curries

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What to Cook this Week is a newish weekly recipe series we publish every Monday with weeknight meal ideas from the Grantourismo recipe archives. Suggestions include easy midweek dishes, ideas for upcoming holidays, and recipes that we’re developing and testing that we’d love you to try.

We’re all about comfort food this week with Omicron cases surging and continuing to cause chaos around the world, from overwhelmed hospitals to strangled supply chains, and so many of you staying at home in a self-imposed lockdown of sorts.

If you’re visiting our site for the first time or haven’t dropped by in a while, What to Cook this Week is a regular recipe series, where every Monday I dig into our recipe archive – which is bursting with hundreds of recipes from around the world, many dating back to 2010 when we launched Grantourismo – for easy midweek dinner recipe ideas for you.

In What to Cook this Week, I share meal suggestions for those nights when you’re feeling like you don’t want to spend a whole of time in the kitchen, as well as ideas for meals requiring a bit more effort for Friday night, when you’re happy to while away the evening in the kitchen with loved-ones, a bottle of wine, and good music in the background.

We’ll also share recipes that we’re planning to cook here in our Cambodian kitchen in the week ahead. And if you’re interested, we’d also love to offer the occasional recipe that we’re developing for our cookbooks and invite you to test it out and let us know how the dish turned out for you.

Now, before you scroll down to our ideas for what to cook this week, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work by buying us a coffee. We’ll put that coffee money toward cooking ingredients for recipe testing.

Another way to support the site is by making a small donation to our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or purchase something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, travel books to inspire wanderlust, gifts for Asian food lovers, picnic lovers and travellers who love photography. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.

And lastly, you could use our links to book accommodation, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Again, we may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra. Lastly, you could also shop our Grantourismo store at Society 6 for plenty of great gifts designed with Terence’s photography. Now let’s give you some ideas as to what to cook this week.

What to Cook This Week from Breakfast for Dinner Ideas to Comforting Chicken Curries

Monday Night – Eggs Potatoes and Chorizo Breakfast Skillet Recipe

Eggs, everyone has eggs to hand, right? So if you don’t mind the occasional breakfast for dinner, then I recommend making this eggs potatoes and chorizo skillet recipe for our favourite take on the classic American country skillet breakfast made in a cast iron skillet. It was our first Weekend Eggs recipe for 2022.

Also called a cowboy skillet breakfast or farmer’s skillet breakfast, there’s an infinite array of variations on the traditional breakfast skillet – additions include anything from bell peppers to kidney beans – but the essential ingredients of the classic skillet breakfast are eggs, potatoes, onions, cheese, and bacon or ham.

We prefer to make this hearty American breakfast with spicy chorizo sausage instead of bacon and ham, and specifically the soft Mexican chorizo, which has to be cooked before eating, rather than the firm Spanish-style chorizo.

We love chorizo – who doesn’t? – and we especially love the combination of chorizo, eggs and potatoes, hence this Spanish potato omelette recipe with chorizo, this Basque-style ‘messy eggs’ recipe for fried eggs with chorizo and potatoes, and our breakfast taco recipe with fried eggs, chorizo and crunchy potatoes.

If you can’t source Monterey Jack cheese, a young cheddar cheese will do. For the hot sauce, our current favourites are Tapatio Salsa Picante and Cholula Original Hot Sauce.

If you like this and don’t mind the idea of breakfast for dinner, you should also enjoy this Calabrian rendition of the old Southern Italian eggs dish called eggs in purgatory or uova al purgatorio, a dish of soft poached eggs in a rich tomato sauce with ’nduja, the spicy spreadable sausage from Spilinga in Italy’s southernmost province of Calabria.

Eggs Potatoes and Chorizo Breakfast Skillet Recipe for a Twist on a Classic American Breakfast

 

Tuesday Night – Classic Thai Omelette Recipe for Kai Jiew

Another breakfast for dinner idea, you’re asking? Not necessarily. While we filed this Thai omelette recipe for kai jiew, a crispy, puffy golden-brown Thai omelette cooked in plenty of vegetable oil in a very hot wok, under Weekend Eggs, Thais eat this at any time of day – for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack in between.

Kai jiew is a spectacular Thai dish to make. When poured into the hot oil, the whisked eggs with fish sauce form bubbles that grow and the omelette puffs right up like a crazy magic trick, before settling down as it cooks into a thick, soft, fluffy golden-brown omelette.

A heads-up: it takes real confidence in your kitchen skills to stay calm while flipping this puffy omelette over. To that point, please wear closed footwear and a kitchen apron. Another tip: a round bottomed wok is best for making this dish as you need to get under the omelette with a wide mesh skimmer.

The eggs are fortified by a good dash of fish sauce – we recommend the Thai fish sauce, Megachef for its reliability and availability as much as its quality – and the omelette is served on steamed jasmine rice with some Sriracha sauce to spice things up.

If you like this, you should also like this kai yat say recipe for Thai ‘stuffed’ eggs, an egg parcel of stir-fried pork mince and diced vegetables and this decadent Vietnamese-inspired crab omelette recipe. If you’re in the southern hemisphere right now, you will love this Thai fried egg salad recipe.

Classic Thai Omelette Recipe for Kai Jeow, a Crispy Puffy Golden-Brown Omelette

Wednesday Night – Easy Russian Eggplant Caviar Recipe for Ikra

This easy Russian eggplant caviar recipe for ikra – known as the ‘poor man’s caviar’ in the USSR – makes a deliciously-rich version of the traditional Russian dip, spread or side dish of roasted diced eggplant, red capsicum, carrot, onion, and tomato paste is incredibly addictive and easy to make. It’s one of my Russian family’s recipes.

It’s so versatile that you could just serve it as a dip or spread and graze on it for days, however, I’ve also been known to tuck into a bowl as a main course, with a light Russian garden salad on the side.

Rich and hearty, it’s a perfect main course for vegans and vegetarians, who could tuck into a bowl with a salad in summer or eat their ikra warm with a side of creamy mashed potatoes in winter.

A plate of ikra is also well-paired with a soup, and, likewise, I’d recommend a big warming bowl of steaming borscht in winter, or a chilled beetroot soup if you’re currently sweating it out in the sizzling southern hemisphere summer.

Ikra also pairs well with the savoury minced meat hand pies, pirozhki, and makes a great side dish to classic Russian main courses such as stuffed cabbage rolls, beef Stroganoff, chicken Stroganoff, mushroom Stroganoff, chicken Kiev, or kotleti, chicken meat patties.

Easy Russian Eggplant Caviar Recipe for Ikra, the Soviet Union’s Poor Man’s Caviar

 

Thursday Night – Green Papaya Salad Recipe

Because people cannot live on fried eggs and Russian food alone, I like the idea of this green papaya salad recipe for Thursday, as it’s so filling for a salad, and has so much flavour and texture.

This recipe makes Cambodia’s Bok Lahong or Nhoam Lahong, a fresh, fragrant, crunchy salad that’s a little funky, spicy, sour, salty, and a tad sweet. Typically eaten as a late afternoon snack, this bespoke salad is usually made to order, and has cousins in Laos (Tum Som), Thailand (Som Tum), and Vietnam (Gỏi Đủ Đủ).

The Lao, Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian recipes for the green papaya salad are what Southeast Asians call ‘same same but different’.

While they share many ingredients (papaya, cherry tomatoes, peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice, etc) there are flavours, ingredients and measurements of ingredients that set each salad apart. I have to confess: I love them all, as well as green mango salads.

You’ll need a wooden mortar and pestle to make pounded salads such as these, as you want to soften or bruise the ingredients. But you could use a stone or granite mortar and pestle if you had to, just don’t pound too hard or you’ll end up with mush.

If you need more than a salad for dinner, browse our Cambodian barbecue recipes (these juicy grilled pork ribs are a perfect match) or consider this spicy Burmese fried chicken.

Cambodian Green Papaya Salad Recipe – How to Make Cambodia’s Bok Lahong

 

Friday Night – Cambodian Chicken Curry

There are few things more comforting – after chicken noodle soup – than a spicy chicken curry and steamed rice, so we make sure that we always have some frozen chicken in the freezer.

This Cambodian chicken curry recipe makes one of Southeast Asia’s most comforting chicken curries. While it has a depth of flavour that comes from dried spices and fresh aromatic ingredients, it has a richness thanks to a liberal use of coconut cream and milk, and a gentleness due to the mild red chillies.

It was actually a Cambodian chicken curry, sampled on our first trip to Siem Reap many years ago, that made me fall in love with Cambodian food and led to my obsession with Cambodian cuisine and digging into Cambodia’s long rich culinary history.

I’ve recommended this curry before, as it’s just so good, so if you’ve recently made it, you could browse our collection of 30 curry recipes. We also adore this Burmese chicken curry, and this Cape Malay chicken curry, both of which we make regularly.

Cambodian Chicken Curry Recipe for a Gentle Comforting Southeast Asian Curry

Please do let us know if you’ve made any of our What to Cook this Week recipes in the comments below as we’d love to get your feedback and hear how our recipes turned out for you.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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