Madhu Knits and Cooks

Blue Cheese Buttermilk Dressing - Heaven is a Place in My Kitchen

I've consistently only made one type of salad dressing - vinaigrette.  I've made balsamic, dijon, and various vinegar-based vinaigrettes (red wine, champagne, apple cider, etc.), usually via eyeballed ingredients, but they are generally the same.  Oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sometimes herbs or garlic.  

Feeling a bit bored by this routine, and also maybe extra hungry, I decided to try making a creamy dressing at home instead.  I mean how hard could it be?

Turns out even easier than I expected.  I very loosely followed a Cook's Illustrated recipe, modifying it so much that it became my own simple and delicious dressing.  The dressing had tang from sour cream, saltiness and creaminess from gorgonzola crumbles, and a sharp tart flavor from champagne vinegar.  Coupled with a buttermilk base, this dressing really made my otherwise simple lettuce meal incredibly satisfying and comforting.

I don't even know if I can provide a proper recipe for this dressing.  I basically used equal parts sour cream and buttermilk, added in maybe a tsp. of champagne vinegar to taste, a pinch of garlic powder and sugar, and enough gorgonzola until it looked "right."

I look forward to making this 3-minute dressing again and again!

Collard Chips are the New Kale Chips (Maybe I'm a Few Years Late to the Trend)

A few years ago, collard greens replaced kale as the hot green superfood.  This declaration may not have been from a particularly reliable source of information, but instead from places like the Food Network.  Well, whatever collards are and however popular or trendy they may be, I learned that they make an equally delicious, if not more delicious, baked chip as kale.  

I simply ripped up some heavily wilting collards from the fridge, eyeballed some olive oil and kosher salt to rub onto the leaves, and baked them.

Eighteen minutes in a preheated 300-degree oven was all it took, with a simple toss of the chips at the 12 minute mark.  

I think I liked these chips better than kale chips because the slightly bitter flavor of the collards came out more in these chips, which made them feel more hearty and interesting than kale chips, which are blander in flavor.  So I can certainly see myself making these again!

Poolish Batard - My First Bread with a Dough Starter!

For several months, if not more than a year, I have had the lovely Breaking Bread book on my shelf.  The book by King Arthur Flour Head Baker Martin Philip contains a wonderful set of recipes, stories, and illustrations on how one can master several different types of bread.  

I have often taken the book off the shelf, admired the pictures, even read a story or two, only to days later replace the book on the shelf.  I'll admit that I have been intimidated by the complexity of Philip's yeast bread recipes as they require actual kneading, several rises, temperature checks, etc. - unlike my go-to no-knead bread approaches.

And then a few weeks ago, I finally resolved that I would finally attempt one of the feared recipes on a slow weekend, when I would have the time for multiple rises.  I settled on the Poolish Baguette recipe, but lacking baguette shapers, I decided to use the recipe to form a batard, a more rounded, rectangular shape than the skinny and long baguettes.

The result was declared by my husband as the best bread I've ever made, and I have to admit it wasn't THAT onerous as long as you have a full morning free to do all of the requisite shaping, rises and baking.

The bread was super crusty, and the inclusion of an overnight starter (poolish) definitely added more depth of flavor, a slight sourness and saltiness that made this feel like almost it's own main course instead of a bland and boring instrument to sop up other flavors and food.

The dough didn't have as many air holes as I expected, so it was fairly substantive.  This isn't a negative attribute of the bread, just a flag that like some no-knead breads, this will serve multiple people instead of airier baguettes.

I largely followed the recipe as is, though I halved the ingredients (using the metric grams to measure them out) to make just one loaf, and I used instant dry yeast, which I proofed before creating the poolish (apparently comes from Poland).

For the dough itself, I didn't pre-proof the yeast, just added the instant yeast as is.  One interesting feature of this book mentioned above is that you do have to measure temperatures of the water, flour, poolish, dough, etc. to get the "desired dough temperature" for the type of bread you are making.  So my instant read thermometer got a lot of unexpected use, which was relatively easy to pick up after reading through the directions.

So day 1, you may the poolish, or the starter for the bread, which is a shaggy dough mixture of flour, water, yeast, and salt.

Twelve to sixteen hours later, check your poolish and its temperature, before adding in additional temperature-appropriate water, bread, yeast, and salt.

Then begins the rises.  First, a two-hour covered rise.

Then a series of 15-minute folds and rises, which at each progressive fold, the dough became more flexible and smooth.

Finally, the gradual shaping, which also requires a number of interim rests and rises for the dough.

Finally, the baking, which I did on the parchment that I had shaped the bread on and did the final rises.  I baked the loaf for 32 minutes before it got a very dark brown crust.  I did back the loaf won a pre-heated baking stone, and did use steam.  

I look forward to making this bread again and again on calm Sunday (or Saturday) mornings.  It is a real winner, with more much sour, salty and rich flavors than no-knead breads!

Roasted Green Beans - Great Weeknight Vegetable Preparation

I'm not sure what inspired me to make this simple roasted vegetable recipe, but whatever it was, I was incredibly pleased with the result.  Salted and crisp green beans and red bell peppers that required almost no work.  Yum!

I didn't really follow any measurements for this 22-minute oven roasting approach, just tossed a bit of olive oil and kosher salt with the green beans and bell pepper slices before putting them in a 450-degree oven.  

I tossed them once halfway through cooking, and then served immediately.  I was surprised by how crisp the vegetables ended up via this method, and how much the natural flavor of the green beans and bell peppers came through.  I wasn't just eating overcooked vegetables, rather felt like a better version of both vegetables.  Heat really worked wonders!  I look forward to making this simple side again and again!

Damn Good Queso - Torchy's Queso Comes Home

Torchy's, an Austin, TX-based regional taco chain, makes a damn good queso - or so the restaurant self-proclaims.  Before I tried Torchy's, I was skeptical that their queso could be that good.  I mean, a good queso is a good queso right?  And while you can definitely tell a bad queso from a good queso, I have to admit that I didn't really believe one could find nuance among good quesos.

Of course, how this story ends is that I finally tried Torchy's queso and realized that it really is quite good.  Lots of different spice flavors from multiple types of chiles, and the toppings they put on - "diablo" sauce, cotija, and guacamole - really add to the cheese dip instead of distracting from it.  Now whenever I visit Texas, at least one Torchy's visit is required.  Both so I can eat queso for a full meal, and then have the leftovers for breakfast the next morning (can't let it go to waste!).  

Well now, I can produce a fairly close approximation to Torchy's queso from the Homesick Texan's QUESO book. 

I made some modifications to the recipe, which probably accounts for why it didn't fully turn out like Torchy's.  Well, let me be more specific, I made the modifications to the most critical component of the queso - the fiery red salsa which approximates the Torchy's diablo sauce.  Instead of using actual red chiles, habaneros, I substituted 2 jalapenos instead.  So far less spicier and a much different flavor profile as well.

It was still a really good queso though, so much so that I ate the full portion that I made in a few days.  While my better judgment says that I should halve the recipe moving forward, it's complicated enough that making a full portion makes more sense - but so does inviting friends over to share it with me.

You start by preparing the two salsas - the red salsa is from roasting vegetables and the green salsa is from boiling vegetables.  Each are then blended separately.

To get to the queso component of the recipe, pour all of the blended green salsa into a saucepan, add Velveeta to it, and stir occasionally until the mixture completely melts.

Then the final serving of the queso includes a healthy drizzle of the fiery red salsa, and if you have it, cilantro, cotija and guacamole.  Yum!

Semi-Improvised Greek Salad - Easy and Flavorful Light Main Course or Side Dish

Toward the end of our brief Misfits Market run, we found ourselves with a lot of lettuce.  A ton of it.  Well, maybe not a literal ton, but certainly a lot - and of many different varieties.  We started to dream of getting creative with this lettuce bounty (stir-fried lettuce, grilled lettuce, etc), but instead ended up making a lot of raw lettuce salads.  

Perhaps the best salad that I attempted was a modified version of Cook's Illustrated Greek Salad.  The modifications were numerous, but it was a very forgiving recipe base and I was very happy with the results.

To fit the ingredients that we had on hand, I approximately halved the ingredients; used dried oregano instead of fresh; substituted green bell pepper for red; substituted yellow onion for red; and omitted the mint, olives, and tomatoes.  The result still tasted like a restaurant-style Greek salad, thanks to the tangy and flavorful vinaigrette.

This was my first time of marinating the onions and cucumber in the dressing before tossing with the rest of the salad, and this technique did decrease the sharpness of the fresh onion.  I will use this approach with other salads involving raw onion in the future.

The Queso Book Has Arrived - Southern New Mexico Chile Con Queso

I love chile con queso, the amazing Tex-Mex melted cheese concoction.  While I also like a good queso fundido, nothing beats the more dip-like chile con queso.  

I'll be honest - I'll eat any kind of queso, from the Velveeta / Rotel combination to a fancier roux-based queso.  That's why I couldn't wait to buy Lisa Fain's new Queso! book, which features a variety of queso recipes from around the Southwest as well as a few new globally-inspired queso recipes. 

Unlike most cookbooks I purchase, I didn't feel the need to pre-test this book by checking it out of the library first.  This book was destined to be a MadhuKnitsandCooks go-to, especially because Lisa Fain's natural queso recipe on her blog has already been a favorite.

My first queso recipe from the book didn't disappoint, the Southern New Mexico Chile Con Queso.  I've made this recipe approx. 4 times over the past few months because it requires incredibly little prep and uses ingredients that I generally have at home.

Unlike most queso recipes, this recipe just involves melting the cheese on top of the chile mixture on the stove-top - no milk or sour cream needed at all.

My secret ingredient for this queso is some defrosted, home-roasted Hatch chile, which I still have in ample supply in my freezer.

While this queso doesn't have the super smooth texture of a more sauce-based queso, it is delicious - spicy, bold and cheesy.  Will report back as I make more quesos from this book!

Zahav's Dense Hummus - A Restaurant Sensation that Wasn't to My Liking

Although I have a go-to hummus recipe that I will go to battle for, my wandering eye was intrigued by the version published by the Zahav owner.  Zahav is the Philadelphia Israeli hot spot, which I have yet to get into (granted, I tried only once, and on a summer Saturday night at that).  

The recipe was not only intriguing because of its creator, but also because it was more stripped down that most hummus recipes I have tried. No chickpea cooking water or olive oil included, just chickpeas, tahini and lemon. And with my Instant Pot revolutionizing my bean cooking at home, I had no hesitation in trying out this new approach.

As the pre-soaked chickpeas cooked in the Instant Pot (12 minutes on high pressure), I quickly put together the seasoning ingredients.  I quartered the recipe, but probably include a bit more lemon juice.

The resulting hummus was thick, and had a very strong and rich tahini flavor.  I think it would be a good side to either a bland or perhaps tart main course, but on its own, I found the flavor too overwhelming with my standard dip accompaniments. 

I will probably catalogue this recipe in the "at least I tried it category" and stick to my standard recipe moving forward.

Improved Pearl Barley Risotto - Fantastic Spring or Winter Meal

Having some leftover pearl barley from two recent Ottelenghi recipes, I wanted to use up the remainder before an upcoming move.  It seems like the most popular approach these days, per the internet, is pearl barley risotto, but unfortunately the recipes I found all were a bit more complicated than what I wanted to invest in - particularly with a move coming up.

I ultimately decided to improve a recipe, and I could not have been happier with the result.  The risotto had a bright herb flavor, and the consistency was substantive and creamy.  I also really liked the pearl barley as the main ingredient as it resulted in a vegetarian risotto that felt like a true main course, instead of the arborio rice versions which always strike me as side dishes.

Needless to say, this will be a recipe repeat.  Current recipe below - I will post any updates or modifications as I make them!

Pearl Barley Risotto

Ingredients

• 1.5 tbsp. olive oil 
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup pearl barley, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup frozen green peas, defrosted
• 1/3 cup parsley, minced
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• parmesan shavings (optional), salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• In a medium pot, heat olive oil on medium-high heat.  When hot, add onion and celery and saute for 5 - 6 minutes or until soft.

• Add garlic and stir for another 30 seconds.  Stir in the pearl barley and saute fairly continuously for 3 - 4 minutes to toast.

• Add the vegetable broth, and bring mixture to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, and cook until liquid is almost completely absorbed by the barley.  When that happens, add the remaining one cup of water and cook until partly absorbed.

• Stir in the peas, parsley, and lemon juice and cook until liquid is almost completely absorbed and barley dish appears creamy. 

• Add parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and serve while warm.

A Winning Rye Bread - Modifying Another Favorite Recipe

After a few attempts of trying to perfect a rye version of the famed Jim Lahey No Knead Bread recipe, I ended up switching to an entirely new recipe (albeit another favorite).  That recipe - Simple Crusty Bread by Jeff Hertzberg - has been a perfect compliment to rye flour, and I've made the recipe several times over the summer.

To make this bread, I've halved the recipe and included approx. 1/2 cup of rye flour to 2 3/4 cup of AP flour (I may increase the rye moving forward, but the rye flavor still comes through at this ratio).  Baking the bread for the full baking time (30 - 31 minutes) seems key as I initially was baking it for 27 - 28 minutes, which led to a slightly softer crust as the bread cooled.  

Another important tip is to try to let this bread cool as much as possible to "sweat out" the internal moisture and not make the crust / interior too soggy while cutting into it while warm. 

This can be hard to do when the bread smells so wonderfully delicious out of the oven, but letting it cool for a few hours definitely seems key to get that nice firm crust coupled with a soft interior.  This is definitely a new MadhuKnitsandCooks favorite that will take me through the seasons!