Madhu Knits and Cooks

Baked Buffalo Cauliflower - Wow, A Great Homemade Bar Snack

If you can't go to the bar or restaurant, try your favorites at home - volume 2.  This latest effort features a healthier version of one of my bar/restaurant favorites, buffalo cauliflower, which I found I couldn't order on any of our local restaurant delivery apps.  

I found a few recipes online and settled on the Frank's Red Hot version because of its glowing website reviews.  I also decided to use Food Network's blue cheese dip recipe instead of a store bought dip.

While the final result was pretty good - great Frank's spicy sauce flavor offset by the tangy dip - I learned some good lessons that will help make this good dish even better the next time.

First was that I should have used two baking sheets to allow the cauliflower to really crisp up instead of steaming from the pieces being too close to each other.  Second was that I should have used the full amount of Frank's called for in the recipe - 8 tbsp. instead of the 5 tbsp. that I used.

The third and fourth lessons are related - no need to add in panko bread crumbs, which didn't make a difference.  And I will likely retain my 50% substitute of besan or chickpea flour for the all-purpose flour as I thought it added a nice, subtle flavor to the batter.

Finally, for the dip, I will add a lot more blue cheese because that flavor was far more diluted than I would have liked from the Food Network recipe.

Stovetop Greek Garlic Lemon Potatoes - An Easier Version of the Baked Classic

Lemon potatoes are one of my favorite sides at Greek restaurants.  Velvety in texture, and brightly flavored from lemon and oregano, they can complement any dish - salad, vegetarian moussaka, gigantes, zucchini, or a dip platter.  

Craving this restaurant favorite, I found a recipe on CooksIllustrated.com, but their approach cooked the potatoes entirely on the stovetop instead of what I had understand is the traditional baked approach.  Confident in the Test Kitchen's mastery of home-cooked meals, I decided to give this approach a try versus other baked versions I found on the internet.

I made some modifications to the recipe, some of which worked and some of which didn't.  What worked - substituting California White Rose potatoes because I couldn't find Yukon Gold at the store.  No big deal, same with substituting less dried oregano for the fresh. 

What didn't work - using less lemon juice and zest than the recipe called for.  I should have gone for the full amount, even though it seemed like a LOT.  The potatoes can handle it!

The potatoes also cooked very quickly, as directed by the recipe - within 20 minutes of starting.  So this really is a great weeknight side to make for an otherwise lighter meal.  I look forward to making these potatoes again!

A Mostly Instant Pot Rasam - A MadhuKnitsandCooks.com Success!

Rasam is a simple spiced South Indian vegan soup or broth.  It's one of my favorite accompaniments to Indian meals, though I haven't made it in some time.  Emboldened by our first trip to the local Indian grocery store in 6 months, I decided to try a more substantive rasam than my previous efforts.  

I turned to Saranya Mandava's Indian Cuisine cookbook, and decided to go with her "Rasam No. 2" recipe with a few modifications from my mother and utilizing the Everest rasam powder I purchased.  

The final result was excellent - perfectly spiced from the mustard seeds and rasam powder; tangy from the tomatoes and lemon juice; and substantive from the mashed moong dal.  I will be making this rasam recipe again and again!

And the best part?  Using the Instant Pot for most of the dish, which freed up the rest of my stovetop for other dishes I was preparing at the same time. 

My main recipe modifications were to cook the moong dal for 10 minutes on low pressure in the Instant Pot before mashing; using 2 tsp. of rasam powder, which I added to the rasam with the tomatoes; and omitting the grinding of the spices that had been tempered on the stovetop.  I instead just added them directly to the pot after cooking them on the stovetop in a small pan.

I also added 5 curry leaves, which I ripped in half, to the tempering spices, and I omitted the fenugreek seeds to the tadka because I couldn't find them in my pantry (did I throw them away?).  Finally, I used approx. juice from 1/4 lemon, which seemed to be enough.

King Arthur Flour Hot Spinach Dip - An Adaptable Solo Treat or Party Snack

If you can't go to a dinner party or bar for a hot appetizer dip, try the homemade option!  While many homemade dips feature complicated  steps and/or result in too much dip for one person to eat, the King Arthur Flour Hot Spinach Dip recipe produces a great solo or a small group snack.

The recipe has three steps - pre-heat the oven, mix the ingredients together, and bake.  Couldn't be easier, and as I found through my two attempts at halved versions, very adaptable to shifting the ingredients.

Both times I made the dip I used low fat sour cream, low fat mayonnaise and fresh mozzarella.  The first time I made this recipe, I used slightly more mozzarella in the halved dip (measured ingredients with a scale), and second time, I dramatically reduced the mayonnaise and increased the sour cream a bit.  I didn't notice either time anything I disliked about the dip, which was thick, creamy and savory from the spinach and salted ingredients.

This dip will be a winter feature in my kitchen, and I hope in yours as well!  It tastes particularly good with carrots, but also works great with bread, chips, and crackers.

A Fantastic Upma (Thanks Mom) - A Hearty Spiced Semolina Breakfast

Upma is a savory and hearty Indian breakfast dish, usually made with roasted dry semolina though I have made variants with quinoa and steel cut oats.  As it turns out, sometimes sticking to the original can produce the best results as my recent effort with ground semolina or sooji found.

I purchased the sooji, roasted so I didn't need to roast it at home, at our local Patel Brothers.  I followed Saranya Mandava's cookbook recipe with a few critical modifications from my mother.  

First was that I added fresh curry leaves (maybe 7 -8), which I ripped in half, to the cooking vegetables.  Second, I slightly reduced the oil to 5 - 6 tablespoons.  Third, I added the ginger toward the end of the onion / tomato / chile cooking time so that it wouldn't burn as the others cooked.

I also increased the salt to 1.25 tsp. and the water to 3 cups instead of the 1.5 - 2 called for in the recipe (semolina stayed the same at 1 cup).

Finally, after the semolina fully cooked after 3 - 4 minutes, I took the pan off the heat, stirred in juice from 1/4 fresh lemon and some diced cilantro.  I then let the upma stay covered for approx. 5 minutes before serving.

This finished upma was quickly consumed in our home.  The mixture was well-spiced from the mustard seeds and dals; tart from the lemon, tomato, and cilantro; slightly sweet from the ginger and semolina; and featured the unique deep flavor of the curry leaves.  Yum!

Sew Everything Workshop Den of Pin Pincushion - Getting My Sewing Materials Together!

My sewing progress continues, confirming that my new sewing category was not too hasty of a move. 

This latest project is also from the Sew Everything Workshop book, my go-to sewing instruction book.  And perhaps most exciting, this project features materials that I ordered from the Sew Everything Workshop author herself, via Diana Rupp's Make Workshop online store.

And the exciting outcome from this project - it organizes a critical sewing accessory, helping to cement me as a true sewist.  

As one can tell from the above picture, this simple project (which turned into projects after I made the first one) is a simple pincushion, stuffed with polyfill.  

I used some leftover cotton for the top of the pincushion and felt for the bottom.  The pincushion was then accessorized with some embroidery floss for a polished look.

This project only requires one use of the sewing machine, to sew three edges of the top fabric to the back.  The remaining edge is then hand-sewn using a slipstitch, which took me a few tries to understand and complete a clean-ish edge.

I am really pleased with how these pincushions turned out, and I can see myself making more in the future!

Homemade Fettuccine in Homemade Alfredo Sauce - One of My Top Home-Cooked Meals

Fettuccine Alfredo was one of my favorite childhood dishes.  I loved the velvety rich sauce paired with long, silky noodles.  What a delight! 

As I have aged, I rarely eat fettuccine alfredo as its calorie count is far more than my metabolism can easily burn off.  However, when I had some leftover heavy cream and parmesan in the fridge, and a longstanding desire to use up my King Arthur Flour Italian Flour Blend so I can open their Pasta Flour Blend bag, I knew there was only one direction I could take.

The result was even better than I could have expected.  The fresh pasta had a great amount of bite, and the thicker fresh noodles clung to the smooth sauce perfectly.  The nutmeg and fresh ground pepper added a great depth of flavor to the parmesan and cream sauce.  I am a little scared of how good this was because now I foresee this being a quarterly treat in our home.

I followed the King Arthur Flour Fresh Pasta Recipe, which I have made before, and used my hand-crank pasta roller to make the fettuccine strips.

I started the sauce as I started to heat the water to boil the pasta.  I halved the Cook's Illustrated recipe, though ended up using 1 oz. of parmesan.

I did have to add a bit more salt to the final dish for the flavors to really come out, but otherwise it was fantastically comforting on a Sunday night.  Can't wait to make it again this fall!

Sichuan Pickled Cucumbers - Gourmet Cookbook, Who Knew?

A decade ago, I found a heavily discounted version of the Gourmet Cookbook on a bookstore shelf and immediately took it to the register, figuring that I had beat the store in realizing its mistake. 

In the years since, I have made a few recipes from the cookbook, which probably ensures the cookbook was worth what I paid for it, but it's rarely my first turn for any type of recipe.  On a whim, I changed that approach when I had a bounty of delicious summer cucumbers in my fridge.  

While I have made a few Chinese cucumber recipes in the past, this recipe intrigued me because it involved cooking the marinade before  pickling the cucumbers.  

The recipe seemed pretty easy to construct, so without much thought, I started the preparation process.  First, I cut, salted, rinsed and then drained the cucumber slices.

The pickles got a light coating of sugar and vinegar after they have drained, while I then cooked the marinade.  I used slightly less sesame oil than the recipe called for because I find sesame oil has such a strong flavor, and I also used 4 broken-in-half Indian dried red chiles.

Unfortunately, following the 3-hour pickling process, I found these pickles to be "ok."  None of the flavors were that strong, and while the hot spice flavor was there, it was more of an undertone than a main feature of each bite.  As the days went on, the pickles became spicier, but remained underwhelming.  I wish I added garlic or something else that would give these cucumbers sharper flavor. 

Oh well, at least I had an excuse to reacquaint myself with this otherwise great encyclopedia of cooking!

An Easier Way to Prepare a Great Eggplant Parmesan (for Two)

Now that I finally mastered eggplant, it seems that I can't go into a grocery store without buying more! My latest eggplant effort was Cook's Country's Eggplant Parmesan for Two, a relatively easy way to prepare this Italian favorite.  

The eggplant is cut into thicker steaks instead of sliced, and is lightly pan-fried before baking.  The result was fantastic - very crunchy exterior, soft interior, and a wonderful tangy flavor from the eggplant tomato sauce that is spooned on top of the baked eggplant.  The steaks are also significant enough to be a meal on their own.

I substituted two baby eggplants (approx. 1.2 pounds) for the 1 pound medium eggplant, and as such cut slightly smaller steaks than those envisioned by the recipe.

I made two other edits to the recipe - I substituted mozzarella for the provolone, and used approx. 1/2 the oil called for the pan-frying to reduce calories further.

While the steaks are baking in the oven, simply brown the remaining eggplant pieces, which are diced, with a can of diced tomatoes, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Serve right away - yum!

Brined Crispy Tofu - A Laborious But Delicious Tofu Preparation Method

For several months, I've wanted to try Cook's Illustrated "Better Fried Tofu" approach.  The method calls for brining raw tofu before tossing it in cornstarch for the lower fat pan-frying approach I enjoy.  CI reported that brining takes out more moisture from the tofu blocks, resulting in a crispier crust with a softer middle.

I paired this method with another CI recipe, published under their America's Test Kitchen brand.  The Crispy Tofu with Sweet Chili Sauce (Tianla Cuipi Doufu) recipe worked really well with the brining modification as it just added a bit more time to the recipe prep.  

I cut the tofu as instructed into large blocks to do the quick brining.

I then cut the pieces into smaller increments (approx. 3/4 inch cubes) before the coating in cornstarch, cornmeal, and some toasted sesame seeds that I happened to have on as well.  

I pan fried the tofu in two batches, using about 1/2 of the vegetable oil called for in the recipe.  That seemed to be enough - approx. 1/4 cup for the initial batch and then a few more tablespoons for the second batch.

And then before serving, I followed the instruction to put the tofu into a preheated, slightly warm oven on paper towels to get some of the oil out.

Finally, I made some modifications to the accompanying sauce based on personal preference and the comments section on the ATK site.  I used only 1 tbsp. of sugar and I slightly reduced the cornstarch as well.

The sauce had both a sharp vinegar flavor and a sweet undertone, making it slightly odd for dipping. 

The tofu by contrast was fantastic - crisp and slightly crunchy from the cornmeal coating, with a nice moist interior.  It was a great appetizer before our larger meal. 

I look forward to using this tofu approach again and again, and figuring out new ways to pair it with other meals!