What to Cook This Weekend from Shan Vermicelli Salad to Salmon Fillet with Colcannon

What to Cook this Weekend is a weekly series that we launched late last year with suggestions for often easy, occasionally challenging, but always memorable weekend meals from our recipe archives. Meal ideas might include dishes we’re making at home that we think you’ll like, as well as recipes that we’re testing which you might like to try.

Our What to Cook this Weekend series came about because our other recipe series What to Cook this Week, launched late last year, was so well-received by our readers. We decided to try a weekend edition, hence What to Cook this Weekend, and as this series also proved series popular, we’re continuing both in 2022 – with one change.

When we started What to Cook this Weekend, we kicked off each edition with an idea for dinner on Friday, as it marks the start of the weekend for many. Then we offered meal suggestions for Saturday and Sunday breakfast, lunch and dinner. As that overlapped with What to Cook this Week, which proposes dinner ideas from Monday to Friday (neither of these series were planned), starting today What to Cook this Weekend will only cover Saturday and Sunday.

Each week, What to Cook this Weekend will offer a round-up of meal suggestions for the weekend from the Grantourismo recipe archives – which are heaving with hundreds of recipes for dishes from around the world, beginning with decade-plus-old recipes from our first recipes series called The Dish.

We launched The Dish, on recipes for the quintessential dishes of places we settled into, when we launched Grantourismo and our 12 month global grand tour back on New Year’s Day 2010. Many of our most popular recipes on the site come from that series, from our Moroccan Moroccan lamb tajine with prunes and almonds to this classic Toulouse cassoulet. 

Before I share our suggestions for what to cook this weekend, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo and what we do here by buying us a coffee (we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing) or making a donation to our epic, original Cambodian cookbook and culinary history on Patreon.

You could also buy something from our Grantourismo store for gifts for foodies, including fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s photography. Another way to support the site is by using our links to book accommodation, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, buy travel insurance, book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide.

Or you could 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 might earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra.

Now let’s share our suggestions as to what to cook this weekend.

What to Cook This Weekend from Shan Vermicelli Salad to Salmon Fillet with Colcannon

Here are our ideas as to what to cook this weekend.

Saturday Breakfast – Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge

I know I’ve shared this recipe before, but it’s so good and there are few more comforting things in life than a bowl of congee or rice porridge. This chicken rice porridge or borbor sach moan is one of my favourite Cambodian recipes.

Terence makes this chicken rice porridge with a homemade chicken stock with Southeast Asian leanings – lemongrass, star anise, a cinnamon stick, slices of ginger and galangal, and a kaffir lime leaf or two – but you can certainly use a store-bought stock.

We love shredded just-cooked chicken breasts with this particular rice porridge, but you can really use any protein – or go without. It’s delicious just with fresh fragrant herbs, condiments such as fish sauce and chilli oil, and a sprinkle of crunchy fried shallots and fried garlic.

This is a filling breakfast, so while you might be very happy to tuck into a big bowl if you’re in the chilly northern hemisphere, a small bowl is very satisfying, and leftovers can be refrigerated for up to a few days and reheated. Just add water to thin the porridge out.

Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan, Cambodia’s Congee

Saturday Lunch – Egg Foo Young with Gravy

I like the idea of egg foo young with gravy for lunch on Saturday and this is another I’ve shared before, but it’s so delicious. To be clear, this is not the original Cantonese-style egg foo young – or in Cantonese fu yong dan or fuyong dan – a delightfully crispy omelette filled with pork, spring onions and bean sprouts, with provenance in Southern China’s 18th century Ching Dynasty.

This is the egg foo young with gravy of the Chinese diaspora and specifically the Chinese American restaurant version. Crispy omelettes are doused in gravy and sprinkled with scallions, sesame seeds and bean sprouts. So good.

While we published it as part of our Weekend Eggs recipe series, served with rice, this fantastic, filling omelette can be eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or supper, and is just as delish as the Cantonese original.

We recommend using a round flat-bottomed seasoned carbon steel wok and a decent thermometer, because if the oil temperature is lower than 190°C (375°F), you’ll be making a soggy mess. The egg mixture should puff up like it does with this Thai omelette.

Also make sure to have a sheet pan with rack covered in kitchen towels (kitchen wipes) ready for the finished omelettes. We use a fish slice to shape and flip the egg because tongs can break up your omelette when you’re flipping it over.

Egg Foo Young with Gravy Recipe for the Chinese American Crispy Omelette That’s a Takeout Favourite

Saturday Dinner – Russian Cabbage Rolls

It’s only been a week since Russian Christmas yet I’m already craving Russian food again, so I’m thinking of cooking a few dishes from my Russian family recipes, starting with Russian cabbage rolls.

Cabbage rolls are so easy to make, so there’s no need to bake a big batch. Although note that they also refrigerate well and can easily be reheated.

And as the weather has cooled down significantly here in Cambodia in recent days, I’m thinking of putting a Russian beef stew on the stove or maybe I’ll make my beef Stroganoff recipe.

If you’re not a meat-eater, we also have a chicken Stroganoff and creamy mushroom Stroganoff recipes for you. 

I’ll make a classic garden salad as a side and pop some dill pickles in a dish. Maybe we’ll eat on the balcony and enjoy the cool winter weather while we can.

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

Sunday Breakfast – Savoury French Toast

I like the idea of this savoury French toast recipe for Sunday breakfast. It makes a classic French toast – fried bread that’s been soaked in a beaten egg and milk mixture – seasoned with garlic, onion, sea salt, pepper, and a little chilli, and piled with pan-fried cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and fragrant dill.

My dad used to make savoury French toast on camping trips with fried eggs and sausages done on an open fire. You could also top the toast with Terence’s sauteed mushrooms.

If you prefer your French toast to be sweet rather than savoury, take a look at my Russian French toast recipe for grenki which my baboushka used to make me for school holiday breakfasts as a child.

Savoury French Toast Recipe With Pan-Fried Cherry Tomatoes, Feta Cheese and Fresh Herbs

 

Sunday Lunch – Shan Vermicelli Salad Recipe

This Shan vermicelli salad recipe with sesame, coriander and peanuts makes a deliciously light vegetarian noodle salad from Shan State in northeastern Myanmar, but if you’ve been to Myanmar you would have spotted various renditions of this dry noodle dish in markets and on menus around the country.

Typically eaten as a contrasting accompaniment to rich oily curries, such as this Burmese Indian-style chicken curry, it can also be eaten as a satisfying single-bowl meal and that’s what I plan to do on Sunday for lunch.

I adore this dish for its texture as much as flavour. Most dishes from Myanmar in my experience only use white sesame seeds, but I love the crunch of black sesame seeds so have added those.

For additional crunch and texture, make sure to chop up the coriander (cilantro) stalks as well as the leaves. They should be chopped fairly finely.

Before I add the peanuts, crispy fried shallots and crispy fried garlic to this Shan vermicelli salad, I keep some aside to use as garnish, along with some fresh coriander leaves and lime quarters. An additional squeeze of lime just before eating adds some zing.

Shan Vermicelli Salad Recipe with Sesame, Coriander and Peanuts from Shan State, Myanmar

Sunday Dinner – Salmon Fillet with Colcannon

In the mood for salmon? Sustainable, of course. This salmon fillet with colcannon recipe has been a favourite since we first tasted the dish at restaurant Banc in Sydney many years ago.

The crispy skinned salmon fillet was cooked to perfection, the colcannon (an Irish mash potato) was creamy and rich, and while the red wine sauce seemed an unusual choice, its acidity worked well with a mouthful of the other ingredients.

One of the things we love about this salmon fillet with colcannon is that you can prep everything beforehand and disappear into the kitchen for only 10 minutes to finish it if you’ve done your mis-en-place. Reheat the mash and add some butter to the sauce while you cook the salmon. So simple.

Another point in this recipe’s favour is that it can be adapted for non-pescatarians without deeply affecting the flavour profile of the dish. At a dinner party where two guests didn’t eat fish and one wanted red meat, I mated the colcannon and red wine sauce with a couple of cuts of decent sirloin. It’s brilliant.

Salmon Fillet with Colcannon Recipe and How to Get a Perfect Crispy Salmon Skin

 

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