Madhu Knits and Cooks

Modifications Gone Awry - Underwhelming Root Vegetable and Bean Soup

Years ago, I had an absolutely amazing pureed vegan parsnip soup.  Simple, velvety, and luscious.  A beautiful winter soup.

Inspired by that memory, I ordered some parsnips in our December grocery order, figuring that a recipe would be easy enough to find.  However, once those parsnips arrived, I couldn't find a pure parsnip soup recipe on any of my favorite sites.  Instead, the experts seemed to have ever better soups with parsnips, and as such, I decided to make Cook's Country Hearty Vegetable Soup.

Unfortunately, due to what I can only assume is significant user error, my heavily modified version of this soup was a disaster.  I substituted cranberry beans for the cannellini beans, which didn't work at all (the cranberry beans were too large and I think overcooked), and the lack of peas, spinach, and rosemary presumably had an effect too.  Oh, and I also modified the ratio of parsnips, potatoes, carrots, and onions based on what I had on hand.  And used a toasted English muffin in place of "hearty white sandwich bread."  So lots of modifications.

The only good thing about this soup was how good balsamic vinegar tasted in it.  It definitely imparted a nice, sweet tangy flavor to this otherwise thick, depressingly boring, and poorly textured soup.  So I am glad I learned about balsamic's potential role in soup, otherwise this was a soup I was happy to throw away.

Miznon's Whole Cauliflower - Easier than Expected Cauliflower Treat!

A few months ago, my friends Jenny and Dave made the famed Miznon whole roasted cauliflower at home and raved about the results.  One of my biggest pandemic regrets is that I kept pushing off our trip to the NYC Miznon location (last reservation I made and cancelled was for March 13, 2020), so I have yet to try this cauliflower sensation (let alone their other delish vegetarian options!).

Hearing that I could try this dish at home - and that it wasn't difficult - inspired me to look for smaller cauliflower heads that may work with their recipe.  Unfortunately though, our grocery store generally seems to have gigantic cauliflower heads so months passed before I found what seemed to be a sufficiently manageable cauliflower size.

While it took me awhile to figure out the logistics of how to boil the cauliflower (watching the Food & Wine video would have helped!), I ended up using a colander instead of a ceramic plate to keep the cauliflower submerged.  I also substituted kosher salt for the sel gris to fit what I had on hand.

After draining and baking the cauliflower, it wasn't as browned as I liked so I turned on the broiler for 2 minutes which some other websites recommended.  That worked great to get the dark browning throughout the cauliflower head and also made up for my not-quite-even cauliflower base, which meant the cauliflower fell over during baking instead of remaining head up.

While I served the cauliflower with tahini, we didn't quite like the combination (might have also been that our tahini isn't the highest quality) so I may make another sauce for this in the future.  I otherwise though loved this well-salted, soft, and lightly oiled cauliflower.  I look forward to making it again as a great side or meal centerpiece.

My First Couscous - A Bland Disappointment

Last year, I had a perfectly spiced Moroccan vegetable and couscous dish at a restaurant in Minnesota.  Tangy, sweet, and rich with multiple flavors from herbs and the individual vegetables.  And the couscous - what a great grain complement.  

I have never made couscous at home, but inspired by this meal memory, I decided to try my hand at it.  And as I do, I turned to Cook's Illustrated first for recipe ideas and settled on their Moroccan Chickpea and Vegetable Couscous recipe.

Unfortunately, as the post title suggests, I was underwhelmed by this couscous as it tasted quite bland.  Chickpeas, peas, carrots and couscous.  Nothing more, nothing less.  The fresh and dried herbs didn't really come through, and while extra lime juice helped, it still didn't do much.  Oh well, at least I tried couscous! 

And most important, I learned that you don't need to cook couscous on the stovetop, rather just pour boiling water / broth over the dried couscous (toasted in this case), cover, and let the hot liquid "cook" the couscous for several minutes.  Hopefully, I find a better recipe for my next couscous attempt!

Milk Street Black-Eyed Pea Fritters - An Easy Party Snack

I've been eating a lot of black-eyed peas this past year, mostly in tacos.  I really like these flavorful, versatile beans which are also a cinch to prepare with their short cooking time.  When I recently saw Milk Street's West African Black-Eyed Pea Fritters, I thought these would be a logical extension of my new black-eyed pea love.  

These fritters couldn't have been easier to make - no bean cooking required - and the final result was good, though not great.  The fritters tasted like what you'd expect a fried black eyed-pea snack to taste like, nothing more, nothing less.    

While I am not sure if I will make these treats again, I did enjoy the crunchy exterior coupled with the moist and soft interior and the subtle black-eyed pea flavor.  

The fritter batter starts by soaking the beans before throwing them in a food processor.

Then stir in the other herbs to make the final batter.  Finish by dropping spoonfuls into the 350 degree oil. 

Three modifications I made to the Milk Street recipe:  I inadvertently soaked the peas for 27 hours, I halved the recipe, and I subbed jalapenos or serranos for the fresnos, which generally aren't available in our store.  The final fritters also required a fair amount of extra salt for the bean and chile flavors really come out.

America's Test Kitchen French Onion Dip - "Just OK"

Although I previously created a "completely amazing" Sour Cream Onion Dip, several Cook's Illustrated / America's Test Kitchen online onion dip recipes enticed me to try something new. 

The resulting Cook's Country French Onion Dip was good, but not nearly as good as I remember my original dip.  The Cook's Country dip featured not only caramelized onions, but also balsamic vinegar and mayonnaise, which made the dip super tangy despite my reductions of all three (1.5 onions, only 2 tbsp. balsamic, and 2 tbsp. of mayonnaise).  The dip was also sweeter than I expected from both the onions and balsamic, which I didn't quite enjoy.

A strike in favor of sticking to what works, instead of constantly trying new things!

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.

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.

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!

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!