Mediterranean and Middle Eastern proteins around a coffee crusted filet and a gingered sweet potato peanut stew

Shawerma is traditionally shaved off a vertical spit, which nobody has at home, so I bake the thighs skin side up on a rack until the edges catch and the fat renders down into the onion underneath. Lemon wheels roast on top until they are soft enough to eat whole. The shrimp saganaki went into the same oven straight after, tomatoes already stewed down, shrimp in only long enough to turn opaque. Two very different dishes, one hot oven, twenty minutes apart.

Grape and celery is an odd looking salad until you eat it, and this is the season to make it, so the mixed greens got both rather than a heavier dressing. The kale for the wild rice came off the same market trip, shredded fine and stirred through while the rice was still warm so it wilted without going khaki. Dried cranberry went in last.

Reheating splits three ways. The honey garlic salmon and the shawerma thighs want 10 minutes at 375°F uncovered so the glaze and the skin stay tight. The gingered sweet potato stew and the kale cranberry wild rice do better covered with a spoon of water stirred through, 8 minutes at 350°F.