Madhu Knits and Cooks

Large-ish Neutral Newborn Hospital Hat

I've had pretty bad luck knitting newborn and infant hats.  They are often way too large, but sometimes they can almost fit correctly, giving me hope that maybe I can master newborn hat sizes.  

Unfortunately my latest project fits into the former category instead of the latter.  This simple newborn hat, which I whipped up in a few days, was too big despite facially meeting several newborn fit guides online. 

Granted, I delivered a small baby but I was pretty sad that I had to put him in the standard hospital-issue hat instead of a homemade one. 

C'est la vie.  I will likely use this hat in winter instead, unless he outgrows it by then.  I can also see myself making more in the future with leftover yarn scraps given how fast this knits up and how cute the pattern is.

Neutral Newborn Hospital Hat

Pattern: Baby Business Set Hat, Size <0

Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK, approx. 0.2 skein in color 131 cream

Needles: US size 5, 22 inches = 4 inch gauge swatch in stockinette stitch

Measurements: post-blocking measurements of 5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide at the bottom / widest part of hat

Excellent Vegan Red Beans and Rice

While this NYT Cooking recipe no doubt counts as sacrilege in my current city of residence, it does produce an excellent vegan red beans and rice.  Full of umami flavor, I've made this recipe 2-3 times already and plan on making it again this week.  I don't know if there could be a bigger endorsement of a recipe than this frequency of production - especially after what appears to be a decade-long hiatus from making vegetarian red beans and rice.

I've halved the recipe each time I've made it, and omitted the dried sage as I don't have it my kitchen.  I've used dried thyme instead of fresh, and halved the recommended smoked paprika per some of the reader comments. Also per the reader comments, I've added some shakes of gumbo filé at the end of the cooking process (one can't live in Louisiana without some filé in your cupboard!).

I've found that 55 minutes is the optimal pressure cook time for my Instant Pot and Camellia red beans.  I do find that cooking the red beans for a few more minutes on saute is great to get the creamy bean texture that is a hallmark of red beans and rice.  

The recipe uses soy sauce and miso (I know, I know New Orleanians), but the complexity those ingredients add to the final flavors can't be understated.  Salty and savory, this is a great recipe!

"Healthy" Banana Bread - probably not a recipe repeat but good in a pinch!

Another post where the title says it all!  I tried this "Healthy Banana Bread" recipe after searching for ways to use up the two blackened bananas on my countertop, without having to buy more ingredients.

The result was "fine" - pretty moist but with a relatively bland flavor. I will stick to more banana-rich/heavy preparations moving forward.

My recipe modifications:

• Slightly more almond milk (7-10 extra grams)
• Added chocolate chips
• Had to bake for additional time (approx. 63 min in total)
• Forget to pre-mash the 2 bananas before adding them to the other ingredients, so had to do in in the bowl (did not measure the amount of banana that resulted from the 2 ripe bananas)
• all-purpose flour and honey for the flour and sweetener, respectively

Spinach and Ricotta Gnudi - Something New for a Small Dinner Party

I'm not sure how I stumbled on this spinach and ricotta gnudi recipe - the internet, TV, or perhaps a newsletter?  I certainly wasn't looking for a gnudi recipe, or anything in its general food family.  But once I saw a picture of the finished meal, I was captivated with making it.  

It took a few months for me to finally make the recipe, but thankfully it was pretty easy to follow and resulted in a tasty gnudi.  Creamy from the ricotta, slightly bitter from the spinach, and tart from the tomato / vinegar sauce.  

I think this could be a pretty impressive smaller main course for a dinner party.  I would serve with multiple other courses or accompaniments though because after several bites, the gnudi flavors do feel a bit one note and the boiled ball consistency gets a bit old (we ate the leftovers over a few meals). 

An alternative approach I may try is to roll the balls in panko and quickly pan fry them to give a bit more texture to the dish?  Also, making the balls smaller than one inch may help, and allow the chunky fresh tomato sauce to better coat them.  I think adding another herb besides basil to the final dish might also help make this more of an interesting main course.  

So a very good, but not outstanding new recipe attempt!

A Chia Pudding I Like! Overnight Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

With a largely unconsumed bag of chia seeds taunting me with each opening of the pantry doors, I decided to give chia seed pudding another go after a disappointing experience a few years ago.

I chose a Minimalist Baker recipe that fit the critical (only) requirement of adapting to ingredients I had at home.  The recipe included unsweetened cocoa, the bitterness of which I found particularly suited to the chia pudding texture.  No sure why, but it worked!

I made a few modifications to their recipe:

• Increased amount milk by 1/4 cup to 1.75 cups of unsweetened almond milk for 1/2 cup of chia seeds
• No vanilla or cinnamon because I used vanilla maple syrup as the sweetener
• I reduced the maple syrup to 2 tbsp
• I stirred the mixture after 15 minutes before putting it in the fridge

My husband found the bitter flavor to be akin to Mexican hot chocolate, so we are thinking about adding cinnamon or chile powder in the future to complete that flavor profile.

Bag of chia seeds - you will be consumed!  

Shockingly Good Bean, Cilantro + Dill Soup

I'm not sure I have much to add to the title of this post.  The Milk Street version of Iranian Ash Reshteh is shockingly good.  In fact, I'd say this lighter version may be more suited to my tastes than the more authentic variations I've had from excellent Persian restaurants.  

What I also love about this recipe is that it's seemingly flexible to prepare with what you have on hand, as long as there are some beans, noodles, cilantro, and dill involved. 

My modifications included no chickpeas, unsalted butter, a handful of filetti noodles instead of linguini, ~4 tbsp. of a vegetarian Better than Bouillon instead of chicken broth, and adding some leftover julienned baby spinach.  I also used pre-cooked Camellia kidney beans (approx. 1/3 cup dry) that I made in the Instant Pot the day before (17 minutes high pressure, natural release).  

The soup feels lighter than what you'd expect from a bean soup because of the copious amounts of fresh herbs and masoor dal, which is a thinner lentil.  The dill adds wonderful flavor complexity to the otherwise stodgier kidney beans and lentils.  The soup also features great textural complexity from the thin noodles, thicker beans, and thin lentil broth. 

And with precooked or canned beans, this is a weeknight, quick preparation soup that can be served within an hour of starting prep!

Loaf Cakes Continue - Moist and Sweet Banana Bread with Crispy Topping

Once the baking dam had been broken, it was fully broken!  The day after my loaf cake, I threw myself back into the oven with a new banana bread recipe, courtesy of the New York Times.  

I decided to try this recipe instead of some of my old favorites for the simple reason that it called for exactly the same number of bananas that I had in my freezer.  

The result was fantastic - moist, yet not studgy, and great textural contrasts from the sugar / cinnamon topping that crisped up the crust of the bread (which let's be honest, is more like a cake).  

I made a few modifications to the recipe - I added maybe 1/2 tsp. of Vietnamese cinnamon, a few shakes of nutmeg, and a splash of vanilla to the dough.  I omitted the nuts because of my allergy.  For me, a baking time of 60 minutes was perfect to get an evenly baked loaf.  I will make this recipe again!

Easy Yogurt Loaf Cake - Breaking Out of a Long Baking Hiatus

I hadn't baked in more than 2 full seasons, if not almost a year, when I finally was spurred out of this inadvertent baking hiatus by a simple yogurt loaf cake from Milk Street.  

 

I had been eyeing the recipe for months, but needed the excuse of visiting some friends to finally bring out the mixing bowls and loaf pan.  Classically, I made some modifications to fit the ingredients I had on hand, but the result was still outstanding. 

Mildly sweet and tart from the citrus, moist on inside with a pleasing light exterior crust, and no need for the citrus glaze, though a fresh fruit and/or whipped cream accompaniment would make it a proper post-meal dessert for guests.

The modifications I made were:

• Using a Siggi's 4 oz. / 113 gram lemon skyr cup instead of plain yogurt, with 3 tbsp. of water mixed in
• 1 tsp. of ground ginger
• Zest of maybe 3/4 of a lemon
• Baked for an additional 7-8 minutes, which still resulted in a slightly underbaked center and slightly overbaked exterior.  However, this may have been an oven issue
• No glaze

First (Failed) Attempt to Recreate a Restaurant Favorite - Little Beet's Quinoa Oatmeal

Many years ago, I loved treating myself to the Little Beet's breakfast quinoa oatmeal.  A location (maybe their first?) opened in the midtown Manhattan building I worked in, and I quickly discovered that not only were their vegetable lunch options a delight, but also their breakfast contained a lot of surprises.  

The breakfast quinoa in particular was outstanding - vegan, creamy, full of spices like cardamon, and filling.  One portion could often be two breakfasts or serve as both breakfast and lunch on a busy day.  

Unfortunately though, with the passage of time, I both no longer live near any Little Beet locations, nor does the Little Beet appear to offer a breakfast menu anymore.  After many attempts to find a recipe or clues on the ingredients used, I recently decided to improvise my own breakfast quinoa oatmeal.  I drew some inspiration from other online recipes for breakfast quinoa, though none seemed to be based on, or that close to, the Little Beet version.

Here is what I did:

• Combined 1/2 cup rinsed quinoa with 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/16 tsp. each of ground cloves and nutmeg, 1/8 tsp. each of ground Vietnamese cinnamon and ground ginger, and 2 pods of cardamon
• Cooked above mixture in the Instant Pot for 1 minute under high pressure, and then did a natural release
• Added 1/2 tsp. of vanilla maple syrup to the finished quinoa

Here is what I found about this approach:

• There was far too much clove in the recipe, and I should have rinsed the quinoa for longer to get rid of more of its bitterness.
• In addition, I probably should have cooked the quinoa for longer - maybe 2 or 3 minutes to get more of a creamy oatmeal type texture versus just cooked quinoa.  Also, it might make sense to do a longer cook time on the stovetop instead of a pressure cook.
• I think more sweetness would have helped - which also could have come from some fresh fruit (maybe bananas) and more agave or maple syrup on top, a la a photo I could find of the Little Beet version.  

I'll report back if I get closer to my memory of this fantastic breakfast!

Pasta Alla Norma - I Can (Almost) Prepare Pasta without a Tomato Sauce

Desiring a weeknight pasta that didn't require a tomato sauce (homemade or a jar), I turned to the NYTimes Cooking Pasta Alla Norma recipe to complement some leftover dried spaghetti.

While the recipe was weeknight appropriate - especially by following the first recipe comment to roast the eggplant instead of saute it in copious amounts of oil - the result was good, not great.  The very light sauce was spicy and flavorful, but eggplant proved to continue to confound me with its consistency.  

I roasted 1/2-inch cubed eggplant at 400 degrees for 15 minutes with salt and pepper, but realized in hindsight that I should have tossed it in olive oil OR used parchment paper because the dried eggplant initially stuck to the tin foil I used to cover the pan.  I continued to roast the eggplant for 30 minutes, which resulted in largely, but not completely, softened eggplant.  Darn you, eggplant!

I then added the eggplant to a sauce of olive oil, one roma tomato diced, some oregano, red chili flake, and garlic powder.  I then added the pasta, which was approx. ~5-6 oz. of dried spaghetti, cooked al dente. 

Threw some grated parmesan on top, and an ok dinner was served!  I don't know if I'll make this recipe again, but I am glad I tried it for something new!