What to Cook this Week 6-10 December 2021

What to Cook this Week is a new weekly cooking series that we’ll publish every Monday with weeknight meal ideas from the Grantourismo recipe archives. Suggestions might include dishes to cook for upcoming holidays, meals we’re making in our kitchen, and perhaps recipes that we are testing that we’d love you to try.

For our new What to Cook this Week series, every Monday morning I dig into our recipe archives – which is heaving with hundreds of recipes from around the world, many dating back to 2010 when we launched Grantourismo – for easy midweek dinner ideas for you.

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

We’ll also suggest 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 share the occasional recipe that we’re developing for our cookbooks and invite you to test it and let us know how it turned out for you.

Before I share ideas as to what to cook this week, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.

Another option is to use links on our site to buy travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.

Lastly, you could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let’s give you some ideas as to what to cook this week.

What to Cook this Week from Moroccan Chickpea Soup and Mee Katang to Russian Cabbage Rolls and Rabo de Toro

Monday Night – Moroccan Chickpea Soup Recipe

Today, 6th December, is St Nicolas Day when Christmas stockings are hung on mantelpieces and shoes left out for Saint Nic to fill with chocolate coins. For those who celebrate it, it’s a time for family and friends to get together, crack open a bottle or two, and toast to the season of good cheer. Unless you’re in Austria, of course, where Krampus will be creating havoc and mayhem. We don’t have a mantelpiece so I’m putting up the Christmas tree, Terence will put on carols, and maybe mix some negronis with spices. After an exhausting weekend, we’re going to keep dinner simple. We still have plenty of pandemic cans of chickpeas in the cupboard and it’s getting cold in Cambodia, so I’ll make this authentic Moroccan chickpea soup. I know I’ve shared this before, which is silly when we have hundreds of recipes in the archives, but it’s one of my favourite warming winter soup recipes. Terence was taught to make it by Jamila, the cook at the riad Dar Rocmarra in Marrakech, Morocco, where we spent two weeks on the yearlong global grand tour that launched Grantourismo in 2010. It makes a comforting soup that is perfect for a cold winter’s night but also works in warmer weather. Serve it with flatbread or chunky slices of toasted sourdough. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, we have chilled summer soup recipes right here.

Authentic Moroccan Chickpea Soup Recipe Straight from a Marrakech Kitchen

Tuesday Night – Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe

We’ve got a busy week ahead, so we’re keeping things even simpler on Tuesday night. I’ve got this Cambodian mee katang recipe on the whiteboard. It makes a delicious Chinese-Cambodian dish of wok-fried wide rice noodles, browned by dark soy sauce, and stir-fried with marinated pork, crunchy carrots and Chinese broccoli, and scrambled eggs. Called ‘mee Kontang’ in Khmer, which means Cantonese noodles, but pronounced ‘mee Katang’, these charred noodles are a cinch to make and super versatile. A descendant of the Cantonese dish chow fun, mee Katang is made with the same fresh, flat, wide rice noodles called hor fun (you can also use dried noodles), which are stir-fried in Chinese dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oyster sauce to give the noodles colour as much as flavour. In Cambodia, mee katang recipes typically include Chinese broccoli (kai lan or gai lan), julienned carrot and scrambled eggs, and while we love mee Katang with marinated pork, these noodles can also be stir-fried with beef or chicken, shrimps or mixed seafood. We recommend using a carbon steel wok, however, you could use a skillet too.

Cambodian Mee Katang Recipe for Quick and Easy Cantonese Style Noodles

Wednesday Night – Burmese Fried Chicken Recipe

Making this Burmese fried chicken recipe for these gently spiced fried chicken drumsticks is on our plans for Wednesday dinner. A popular street food snack in Myanmar, this finger-licking fried chicken is sold at roadside stalls to take away or eat at plastic tables set up around the stall. We make these addictive fried chicken pieces at home and dip them into homemade sweet chilli sauce. We love our fried chicken. This Belles Hot Chicken Nashville-style Southern fried chicken is a favourite. But the spicy street food fried chicken you get in Southeast Asian cities, such as Bangkok and Yangon, has a special place in our hearts – and stomachs! We’ll keep things simple once again, as it’s a busy time of year, and serve this with this refreshing Burmese green mango salad. So good.

Best Burmese Fried Chicken Recipe for a Spicy Street Food Snack from Myanmar at Home

Thursday Night – Russian Cabbage Rolls Recipe

By the end of the week, I’m craving Russian food, so I’m planning on making my easy Russian cabbage rolls recipe for golubtsi (голубцы), which makes a more petite version of my baboushka’s bigger cabbage rolls – one cabbage roll was a meal in itself! I cook the savoury pork, beef, carrot, and rice filling before stuffing the cabbage rolls, as they bake much faster than the larger golubtsi filled with a raw meat mixture, yet they’re equally delicious. I’ll make a classic Russian garden salad as a side.

Easy Russian Cabbage Rolls Recipe for a Petite Version of Baboushka’s Golubtsi

Friday Night – Rabo de Toro Oxtail Stew Recipe

By Friday night we’re going to need something a bit special for dinner. This Rabo de Toro oxtail stew recipe from Jerez in Southern Spain is a classic slow braised dish that requires a long cooking time, but rewards with rich, robust flavours. This is inspired by the rabo de toro that we ate at Bar Juanito here in Jerez. This rabo de toro oxtail stew recipe is not a dish you start thinking about making at 6.30pm and expect to serve the same night. If you attempt this dish at 6.30pm, you had better have the number of a pizza place on speed dial. However, while this dish does take time, it doesn’t necessarily require effort, or the expertise of a Michelin-starred chef. Although you should whip up a Paris mash with that.