Madhu Knits and Cooks

Lisa Fain's Austin Diner-Style Queso - Not My Favorite Queso, But Sometimes You've Got to Vary Your Melted Cheese Routine

Slowly, but surely, I am making my way through Lisa Fain's fantastic Queso! cookbook.  My latest attempt was Lisa Fain's Austin diner-style queso, which was also my first time cooking with American cheese.

This queso was great with the fresh pico stirred in.  The bright acidic chunks of tomato and onion balanced out the thick American cheese flavored dip quite well.  Some bites actually felt...healthy?  Such are the warped thoughts of a queso addict!

While I prefer the flavor of cheddar to American cheese, my husband - an apparent American cheese lover - loved this dip.  And a major bonus is how easy this queso is to construct.

I halved the recipe, substituted 2% milk for whole, and used 0.63 pounds of American cheese instead of 0.5 pounds.  Apart from those minor changes, I followed the recipe as is.

Like many of Fain's recipes, this recipe involved a roux, which came together pretty easily.

Super easy - cut some vegetables, make a simple roux, and melt in the cheese.  Yum!

No-Knead High-Gluten Flour Sesame Bread - Saving This Flour for Bagels

During the great (but brief) flour shortage of 2020, I ordered any flour that was available from King Arthur Flour's website.  Some of the new flour types I purchased were fantastic - the Pizza Flour Blend in particular - but others, I've struggled with.  The High-Gluten Flour falls into that category.  The pizza dough I made with it was just ok, and King Arthur's No-Knead Everything Bread, which seems adapted to this flour in particular, also was just ok.  

I initially thought the issue may be my continued use of a large Dutch oven to bake high-hydration no-knead doughs instead of a smaller bread pot which would allow the bread to rise more than spread.  This problem plagued me with Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread recipe. The fridge-rise, less-hydration Jeff Hertzberg approach and its variants generally produce must better loafs.  However, I tried this flour with the King Arthur-version of Hertzberg's approach and also ended up with a slightly (but not that much) lower rise bread.

So the issue seems to be the flour or more likely, my unfamiliarity with it.  In any case, this recipe, which I halved and used just sesame seeds instead of an everything spice blend, will probably not be a repeat. 

While the bread dough was easy to prepare, as all no-kneads are, I really don't like handling gooey, non-fridge rise doughs like this.   

These doughs are just far messier to shape and transfer to a baking pot.

The upside of this bread is that it tasted wonderful - yeasty, slightly crusty on the outside, and soft in the middle.  It was gone within the day!

Parsley, Arugula and Scallion Salad - Interesting Way to Liven Up a Salad Side Dish

Lots of arugula in the fridge with no idea what to do?  Surprisingly, my first stop wasn't CooksIllustrated.com, but instead Chris Kimball's post-CI venture, Milk Street.  I am not sure what drew me to the recipe I chose - Parsley and Arugula Salad with Lemon and Sesame - but the result was interesting enough to replicate again.

That being said, I didn't exactly follow the recipe.  I omitted the lemon zest entirely, reduced the juice to that which comes from ~2/3 of a medium lemon, and substituted cebolla for the scallions.  Finally, I didn't want a salad that was mostly parsley, so I reduced the parsley to about 1 cup from the 3 called for in the recipe.

This recipe proved itself to be a great guide though in that my improvised result was quite tasty.  A sharpness of flavors from the lemon juice; a nutty crunch from the toasted sesame seeds; and an unexpected freshness from the parsley.  The pepper flavor of the arugula was also muted nicely by the lemon juice and olive oil.  This salad would be a great, healthy summer side for a party so I can see myself improvising it again!

Improvised (Simplified) Curtido - A Salvadoran Coleslaw

Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian continues to be my go-to cookbook for leftover vegetable and beans, so I immediately knew where to turn for some leftover green cabbage from an Indian stir fry.  

I settled on the book's curtido recipe, a Salvadoran-style coleslaw that I thought could work despite my lack of iceberg lettuce and carrots, which were included in Jaffrey's version.  A good approximation of Jaffrey's recipe can be found on Serious Eats.

Given that the cabbage I had on hand didn't fit Jaffrey's proportions, I didn't bother to measure the remaining ingredients.  I just added them to taste - red wine vinegar, oregano, cayenne, and olive oil.  

I then immediately started eating the curtido before letting the remainder rest in the fridge for another hour or so. 

While the freshness of the cabbage, combined with the sharpness of the vinegar, made it a tasty, crunchy snack, the oregano and other flavors weren't that compelling to have us keep returning to it.  Instead, we quickly lost interest in the curtido after the first day and ended up throwing away the leftovers :-(  So this might be a good vegan side to a larger summertime meal, but not a dish to stand on it's own.

Savory Baked Brie en Croute - Quick Crowd Pleaser

In December we decided to thrown an impromptu holiday drinks gathering, and I wanted to incorporate some new offerings beyond my standard party dips.  Seemingly the hunger induced from my increased running the past few months led my thoughts toward the fattiest  options, with one - brie en croute - occupying my mind nonstop once I thought of it.  

The only question I then had to answer (besides how to make a brie en croute) was sweet or savory?  I sought some opinions and decided to go savory, with the most compelling internet approaches involving sundried tomatoes and capers.  I ultimately improvised a "recipe" that included chopped sundried tomatoes, capers, and parsley, stuffed between a horizontally cut 8 oz. brie wheel like a sandwich filling.

The first time I made this brie (yes, I made it twice), I cut out some decorative puff pastry pieces and simply folded up one sheet of thawed frozen puff pastry on top of the brie wheel, pushing the edges into each other to hold them together.  I did not use egg wash.  This did NOT work, and the baked puff pastry slowly unraveled itself so it was a mess out of the oven.  A very, very tasty mess, but an unattractive one.

The second time I made brie en croute, I used egg wash to bind the pastry edges to each other AND flipped the pastry over, so that the edges were on the bottom of the wheel.  That meant no spillage or opening, which was great, but the doubled up pastry on the bottom of the baking sheet meant that the pastry didn't completely evenly cook and was slightly raw on the underside. 

So in the future, I may follow another approach I read online to cut the pastry sheet to cover just the top and sides of the brie wheel and not have any pastry on the bottom, where it won't cook evenly.  

But regardless of approach, stuffing fillings into a brie wheel and covering with puff pastry is delicious, incredibly fast (5 minutes of work, 25 minutes of baking in 375 degree oven, 15 minutes of cooling).  I will definitely be making this again and again for future winter parties!

A More Substantive and Comforting Vegetable Noodle Soup

I recently blanched and froze a lot of celery to use in soups, red beans and rice, and other stew-type dishes.  My first use of this frozen celery was in an updated version of the homemade vegan noodle soup that I've been perfecting over the years.  The key updates I made were adding in some Instant Pot-cooked chickpeas and a bit of turmeric, inspired by a Cookies and Kate recipe.  

This revised recipe was really fantastic - the light carrot, celery, and parsley flavors that one expects in a vegetable or chicken noodle soup, with a lot more substance from the added chickpeas.  This really was a great, comforting one-pot meal, though I couldn't help but serve it with some homemade bread as well :-)  Recipe follows the pictures of the final products.

Homemade Vegan Noodle Soup, v3

Approximately 3 - 4 main course servings

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 carrots, chopped into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup chopped (frozen) celery
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/4 tsp salt, more to taste
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, cooked (or 1 can of cooked chickpeas)
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 6 cups water
• 4 tbsp. Better than Bouillon, any flavor you prefer
• 3 tbsp. parsley, minced
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup tiny pasta
• Fresh lemon juice, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• Parmesan, grated to taste

Directions:

• Heat oil in a soup pot on medium-high heat, and when hot, add the vegetables and salt.  Cook down for approximately 10 minutes or until the vegetables just start to brown
• Add chickpeas, bay leaf, turmeric, water, and Better than Bouillon, and raise heat to high to bring contents to a boil
• When the soup is boiling, add in the pasta and cook according to package directions
• Finish by seasoning with parsley, salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste.  Add grated parmesan cheese if desired
• Serve immediately

Corn Mini-Muffins - A Great Thanksgiving Side

For a number of years, I've been charged with made corn bread for our Thanksgiving dinner.  I've experimented with traditional versions to those studded with cheddar and jalapeno.  And for this year's corn bread, not fully content with my past efforts, I decided to try a smoother muffin variant from Cook's Illustrated.

The recipe was pretty unusual in you microwaved some of the cornmeal with milk to make a porridge prior to adding in the rest of the batter.  Per Cook's Illustrated, this approach adds more moisture to the muffins.  And it was kind of fun to see the cornmeal and milk form into a cohesive batter as the mixture continued to microwave.

I reduced the baking time to around 9 minutes to adjust to the smaller muffin size, and checked them periodically after 7 minutes with a small wood toothpick.  I really enjoyed the muffins - they were texturally smooth, not sweet, and had a great corn flavor.  And they were the perfect size for an otherwise overflowing Thanksgiving meal.  I look forward to making them again!

My First Deviled Eggs - Not a Bad Inaugural Attempt

As dedicated Madhuknitsandcooks.com readers know, I've had a slow introduction to the world of eggs.  I only just started making frittatas and hardboiled eggs a year ago, and I made my first scrambled eggs a few months ago.  But now the dam has broke, and I find myself increasing turning to eggs for more than just baking.  

My latest egg recipe was definitely the most complex - deviled eggs.  I decided to go with the pros at Cook's Illustrated for this recipe because even though their approach was the most complicated, I thought it would probably not only yield the best results, but also help inform my egg-cooking techniques moving forward.

Thankfully, I was right on the second point - their approach of boiling eggs and then letting them cool in a ice bath produced a great hard-boiled egg.  Unfortunately though, that didn't make peeling the shells off the eggs easier than the traditional, non-ice bath approach, but that's fine.

I ended up doing that under running water in the sink, and I covered the eggs by approx. 1 inch of water while bringing them to a boil.

After the eggs cooled, I sliced them in half.  As instructed, I discarded (into my mouth) the two egg white halves that didn't look the best so that the remaining 12 half-whites would be overflowing with filling.

I then mixed together the egg yolks with the remaining ingredients - cider vinegar, (vegan) Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise and mustard.  Instead of using a grainy mustard though, I used dijon mustard which I had in my fridge.

When I tasted the mixture, I thought it has too much mayonnaise flavor so moving forward I will probably reduce the mayonnaise amount by 1 tablespoon.  For this attempt though, I tried to offset that flavor by adding in more Worcestershire. 

That seemed to do the trick as the result was very good - tangy, slightly sweet, smooth, and a bit of umami flavor from the Worcestershire.  I look forward to make these eggs again!

Sautéed Squash Ribbons - a Unique and Wonderful Summer Treat

I don't remember how I found this recipe, but I am glad I did in the waning days of summer.  This Cook's Illustrated Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic recipe was the most unique preparation of summer squash I have seen. 

The squash is peeled into ~1 inch wide ribbons (beautiful!), flash sautéed, and then dressed with a lemon-olive oil dressing.  That's it!

At first, the squash tasted almost too lemony and tart, but as it cooled, the flavors mellowed out and were fantastic.  I omitted the parsley, which I didn't have on hand, and I think that any sort of herb would be great to add to this dish.  In the future, I can see myself doubling the recipe and serving it as a summer dinner or lunch party side dish.

Milk Street Cauliflower Dengaku - Using Up That Miso for a Sweet-Savory Dish

It's really hard to use a tub of miso.  At least for me.  And the best / worst part is that miso can stay in the fridge for a year without spoiling, so in addition to being difficult to use up, the tub constantly taunts me because there is no reason to throw it away after a few weeks (or months).  

My latest miso-based recipe was Milk Street's Cauliflower Dengaku, a sweet-savory roasted cauliflower dish that also features a nice crunch and sharpness from loads of fresh, chopped scallions and cilantro.

As I was looking at my recipe notes, one of my first entries was "probably won't make again" followed a few lines later, "actually will probably remake."  The difference was that when the cauliflower cooled, more of the flavors came out - from the grated ginger, the rice vinegar, and the honey.  The cauliflower consumed immediately post-ingredient-tossing was a bit more one-note, with the white miso and the scallions being the dominant flavors. 

I also found the recipe a bit mild, so I added some of the Japanese 7-spice chili pepper for more spice and flavor, which I think will be a must add for me moving forward.  I also slightly reduced the amount of scallions to what I perceived to be an appropriate amount, and omitted the pistachios and sake, which I didn't have on hand (instead increased the rice vinegar to make up for the sake exclusion).  I may potentially reduce the amount of sauce moving forward, because some of the sauce pooled at the bottom of the dish post-tossing as well.

The recipe felt more complicated than I would have liked while I initially made it, though in hindsight it really wasn't that bad.  I think the key moving forward is to make sure I am not hungry will preparing the dish :-)

Basically you cut and roast cauliflower in the oven, and then prepare the sauce while the cauliflower is roasting.

Also chop the scallions, cilantros and pistachios while the cauliflower is still in the oven.

Finally toss everything together, cool a bit to get the most nuanced flavors, and serve.