Madhu Knits and Cooks

Rancho Gordo White Beans, Cauliflower, and Capers - Outstanding Main Course or Fancy Side

My (embarrassingly large) supply of Rancho Gordo beans continues to pay dividends...when I actually cook them, which is more rare than I'd like to admit.  I recently opened up their cookbook for inspiration, and settled on their Cauliflower with Cassoulet Beans and Capers recipe because I wanted to eat some of their great alubia white beans.  

I soaked 1/2 cup of alubia white beans overnight, and then cooked them in the Instant Pot for 8 minutes high pressure with a natural release.  Because the beans weren't uniformly cooked through, I used a tip from the Rancho Gordo cookbook to finish the beans.  I salted the beans in the Instant Pot, turned on the high saute setting, and cooked for maybe 5 - 10 minutes longer until the beans were uniformly creamy.  I will use this technique a lot moving forward because I do think it was the perfect way to ensure great finished beans.  The 1/2 cup of dried beans resulted in slightly less than 1.5 cups of cooked beans.

For the Jerez sherry vinegar, which I didn't have on hand and I couldn't find in our local store, I substituted slightly more than half rice vinegar and champagne vinegar.  This resulted in a wonderful tanginess, complimented with the briny capers, which was quite sharp when the dish was warm and softened as the dish cooled.  

This was a creamy, tangy, slightly sweet dish with lots of different textures from the cooked cauliflower, squishy white beans, and tighter capers.  It was a great main course for 2 hungry people, and easily could be a side dish for 4 - 8, depending on the number of other sides served.  It also is a great dish to make early on in dinner prep because you can serve it at room temperature.  I will be making it again.

Weeknight Tofu Makes Its Return - NYT Black Pepper Tofu and Asparagus

I've gotten bored with most at-home, sautéed versions of tofu, so rarely make this weeknight-appropriate preparation.  Instead, I'll hold panko-crusted tofu or other more complicated tofu preparations for the weekends.

Some aging tofu and asparagus though brought me to the NY Times Cooking Black Pepper and Asparagus Tofu dish, a truly delicious sautéed tofu preparation.

I made a few modifications to the recipe, including halving the sauce and using only the top thirds of thicker asparagus. 

The result was still excellent though - spicy from the black pepper, tangy from the Worcestershire sauce, and a nice lightness from the fresh cilantro.  

I was really surprised at how much great texture and flavor contrast the asparagus provided, and this easy and flavorful sauce will put tofu back into my regular food rotation.  Thank you NYT Cooking!

Eggs, Cheese, and Leftover Asparagus or Broccoli - Frittatas Made in Heaven!

The title says it all - I made another great two frittatas using another Cook's Illustrated recipe.  My modifications included using oat milk instead of whole milk, no mint, no lemon zest, and slightly less lemon juice.  I also used a larger pan, resulting in a thinner frittata.  I also substituted broccoli for asparagus in the last frittata (pictured below). 

The result was still excellent - creamy and tangy from the goat cheese, fresh and crisp textures from the vegetable pieces, and a smoothness from the buoyant egg base.  Yum!

Pizza Dough with a Food Processor? If Chris Kimball Says So...I Will Try!

I have one tried-and-true pizza dough recipe that has yet to be displaced, despite many attempts at new dough preparations.  Could I be narrowing in on an alteration that could take this recipe standard to the next level?  Cautiously, yes. 

The recipe innovation?  Kneading the dough in the food processor instead of by hand, a tip we picked up listening to Christopher Kimball's Milk Street podcast.  Kimball made a passing reference to using a food processor for pizza dough, sparking our minds that this could be the accelerant to extra delicious dough.

Fueled by this tip, I found a Williams Sonoma food processor dough recipe online.  I added 3 teaspoons of the King Arthur Flour pizza dough flavor to this fairly standard recipe.  With a regular metal food processor attachment - not a special dough attachment - I developed very smooth and glossy dough in just under a minute of processing.  I then halved the dough into two balls, covered them in olive oil, and put them in the fridge for a 24 hour cold rise.  The dough balls rose significantly in the fridge, perhaps even more than doubling?

When I prepared the pizzas themselves, I found the dough less easy to roll than my standard dough, even at room temperature.  I used my fists to drape the dough over as I found gravity more helpful than anything else I was trying.  

I then did my standard pre-baking of the dough on a heated pizza stone before adding the toppings to place ~4 inches away from the broiler.  The result was a chewier dough than we are used to, but not one that was unpleasant.  The crust held up to the toppings, and had a nice yeasted flavor.  

I think my next step is to try my standard pizza dough recipe (with King Arthur pizza flour) using the food processor and going from there.  Excited to see what this innovation, that is so much easier on my arms, results in!

Milk Street's Sichaun Cauliflower - A Little Salty but Pretty Good Stovetop Cauliflower Preparation!

I generally roast or steam cauliflower - almost never prepare it on the stovetop.  That is partly why I was attracted to the Milk Street Sichuan Dry-Fried Cauliflower recipe - could I achieve a tender, well-browned cauliflower on the stovetop? Coupled with one of my favorite spice flavorings, this recipe quickly went from intriguing to a must-try.

The recipe was relatively easy to prepare, though I definitely crowded too much cauliflower into the pan, requiring a longer cooking time throughout. 

While I kept the spice and sauce ingredients as-is, the recipe's 2 tablespoons of soy sauce sadly overwhelmed the other flavorings - ginger, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, and even the Shaoxing vinegar that I substituted for the dry sherry.  So while we ate all of the cauliflower, we did so with a lot of rice to offset the saltiness of the prepared dish.

The cauliflower itself though was tender and well-browned, so I will repeat this preparation, and likely this recipe, with less soy sauce.   

My First Crumb Coffeecake - A Brunch or Tea Time Must Bake!

I checked out the King Arthur Flour All-Purpose Baker's Companion bake book from the library on a whim, and to be honest, I am not sure what my logic was.  When I saw the book, I thought that it was likely was just a compendium of KAF's online recipes. When I took it off the shelf, it was also relatively heavy, so not sure why I thought lugging the print version home would make more sense than their easy-to-navigate website.

Well, despite that mystery of my intentions, at least one of my assumptions was proven wrong in that the bake book does contain recipes that are not found on the website.  How did I find this?  Through making their Crumb Coffeecake, which does not appear on the KAF website (though the cake base itself is within this recipe).  

This recipe resulted in what may be the perfect first crumb cake attempt in history - deliciously moist, slightly savory, and pleasantly multi-textured.  And super easy to prepare at that (I halved the recipe for one 8-9 inch round cake), with the texture and flavors remaining intact in the days that followed.  A bit of almond extract in the crumb mixture added a nice, unexpected almost-floral element as well.  

I look forward to making this simple and delicious cake over and over again in the years ahead!

Kenji's Lighter Fettucine Alfredo from the Food Lab - Simple Recipe, Great Flavor

As Serious Eats fans, we checked out J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab from the library recently.  Our first recipe was his Lighter Fettuccine Alfredo - a hit despite a few modifications.

My modifications included:

• Substituting parmesan for the pecorino
• No chives or parsley (none on hand)
• A little bit of lemon zest and Penzey's Italian spice blend
• 10 oz. of pasta
• Only 1 cup of pasta water
• Cooked the sauce and pasta for 4-5 minutes more than called for

While the finished result was definitely lighter (less gloppy, sauce held to the noodles better) than my standard Fettucine Alfredo, I did miss the lightness that fresh herbs would have added.

While the book version is different than the Serious Eats website version (no egg, less cheese), I look forward to trying that lighter version as well in the months ahead!

Palak Makai (Corn with Spinach) - A Winning Recipe By Adapting a "New Classic"

In years past, I have struggled to make a restaurant-quality palak makai, a north Indian corn and spinach dish.  One recipe attempt was too spiced, the other too bland.  Well, I think I have finally nailed a great palak makai, thanks to Priya Krishna's "new classic" feta saag paneer recipe.  

I didn't take many notes for this recipe attempt, but I remember following my previous modifications to Krishna's recipe (less butter, significantly less coriander), adding some thawed frozen corn, and voila - a well spiced, tangy, and creamy palak makai.  A perfect vegetable accompaniment to my meal of paneer makhani, chana masala, and rice.

Modern Baby Blanket - Contrasting Neutral Shades with a Main Color

This winter, I had the opportunity to create modern baby blanket featuring a color block wedge pattern.  I crowdsourced color recommendations from not only a few friends, but also the very helpful team at Wildfiber Studio in Santa Monica, CA.  I ended up with some grey, cream, and light brown neutral shades with a teal-like color as the contrast.  

I modified the original pattern in two ways.  First, I was inspired by a Ravelry user who flipped the orientation of the wedges so that the main color contrasts mirrored each other every two rows instead of showing the same orientation (right-to-left, right-to-left) repetition after repetition.  Second, a number of other Ravelry users also consolidated down the colors to four from the original pattern's six which I also liked to make the blanket feel more mature than a full rainbow of contrasting colors.  

The pattern itself was relatively easy to knit up (short rows of garter stitch) but figuring out how to flip the wedge orientation took some considerable thinking and practice (spatial orientation is not my strong suit).  I am very happy with how the blanket turned out though - the colors worked really well, and I'm very happy I flipped the wedge orientations for a more interesting visual output.  Additional details below.

Color Wedges Baby Blanket

Pattern:  Colorful Wedges Baby Blanket by Purl Soho, modified as noted above.  The flipped wedge orientation was achieved by:

Pattern wedges 1 and 2 as is, then wedge 3 (modified wedge 1) was 2 knit rows, then row 2 to start pattern. Ended on row 2 (no k150 row).  Wedge 4 (modified wedge 2) was starting with a 1 k150 row, then row 1 of that wedge.  

Pattern continued by wedge 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2.

Yarn:  HiKoo by skacel Sueno - 1.7 skeins in silver sage, 0.5 skein in cream, 0.7 skeins in shifting sands, 0.7 skeins in grey heather

Needles:  US 4 circular

Measurements:  Post-blocking measurements of 29.5 inches side by 31 inches tall.  Pre-blocking measurements of 29 inches wide by 29.5 inches tall.

A Delicious New Spin on a Cauliflower Side - NY Times Cauliflower Piccata

What is new is new again in my kitchen, so again I turned to NY Times Cooking for my latest cooking project, Cauliflower Piccata. 

I was attracted to this recipe for 1) the simple desire to try something new with cauliflower and 2) the excuse to buy some new capers.  Thankfully my low expectations were stampeded by the great result - only slightly tangy from the brined capers and lemon, a great texture from the well-cooked but firm cauliflower, and sweet undertones from the melted butter.

As you can tell, my mouth is still salivating over this diverse set of flavors, weeks after I actually consumed the dish!  I made a few modifications to the NY Times recipe:

• No chickpeas or parsley, and I did not serve the dish with lemon slices as directed
• I made the cauliflower in advance of preparing the final dish, so the cooked cauliflower sat for an hour
• 3 tbsp butter instead of 4
• Less zest (from 1/2 lemon) and I didn't measure the lemon juice