Madhu Knits and Cooks

Solid Classic Egg Salad

Egg salad, egg salad - how you have entered our lives!  Building on the success of my first homemade egg salad, I decided to try a more traditional, mayonnaise-based egg salad from the Cook's Illustrated team.   

This egg salad was pretty good - the eggs cooked better this time (less dry) and the inclusion of mayonnaise didn't result in too bland of a flavor.  Instead, the herb, red onion, and celery flavors came through pretty well.  I added some leftover tarragon to this recipe as well. 

And while the dijon mustard added a nice tang, I think a slash of champagne vinegar would have also helped add more diversity of flavors to this otherwise tasty egg salad.  I look forward to making this recipe again! 

Herby Irish Ale Bread - Full of Flavor, But Likely Not a Recipe Repeat

I'm not sure what drew me to this Milk Street Irish Ale Bread with Caraway and Herbs, but perhaps it was my recent bounty of dill? 

This recipe otherwise wouldn't be a draw unless perhaps I was preparing a brunch in which an entire flavored loaf would be likely to be consumed.  Generally our bread loaves get recycled into multiple uses - grilled cheese, toast, croutons - into which a highly flavored loaf won't easily convert.  

Unfortunately, this recipe didn't in turn convert me to a flavored bread enthusiast.  There were a lot of sweet, salty, and fresh flavors from the herbs, caraway seeds, honey, and beer, but I don't really know if they really came together into a compelling way.  Combined with a slightly stodgy texture,  this recipe will go into the "tried it" category. 

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs! Herbed Deviled Eggs - Likely Not a Recipe Repeat

Inspired by my deliciously herby egg salad, I decided to try some Herbed Deviled Eggs.  Unfortunately, as it turns out, chopped herbs aren't as wonderful in deviled eggs.

I found their texture to be displeasing in the otherwise smooth filling.  And unfortunately, I also found the mayonnaise in this recipe to be too overwhelming, and it also washed out the flavor of the herbs.  So not great texture and not great flavor. 

Granted, I didn't have sour cream on hand to cut the mayonnaise flavor, and I also didn't bring the eggs to a boil on high enough heat, so the yolks were also overcooked.  Combination of user error and a recipe that didn't match my tastes.  On to the next!

Chia Seed Smoothies - A More Personally Palatable Method for Chia Seed Consumption

With a big bag of chia seeds in our pantry, and a dislike for the textures of chia seed pudding, I decided to try blending chia seeds for consumption instead.  It worked!  

Upon consulting the internet, I decided the best approach would be a simple chia seed smoothie. 

I would made a 1-to-4 chia to oat/almond milk pudding, put in the fridge overnight or for a few days, and then blend the pudding with frozen fruit and more non-dairy milk for a breakfast smoothie. 

Even with my non-Vitamix blender, the chia chunks smoothed out and the result was a yogurt-like smoothie.  The fruit flavor remained the star attraction, and no additional sugars were needed. 

I am now separately on the fence about blending fruit for smoothies because eating whole fruit is much healthier, but at least I have temporarily solved what to do with our chia seeds!

My First Chia Pudding - Matcha Chia Pudding by Hetty McKinnon

I finally bought some chia seeds and made my first chia pudding, despite having rarely, if ever, eaten chia pudding before.

I think part of my hesitation of jumping on this health food favorite is my worry that the consistency may not be to my taste, similar to rice pudding.  I prefer smoother textures (e.g., smoothies or yogurts) to moist and dense grain-filled dishes. 

However, the pictures and description of Hetty McKinnon's matcha chia puddings in her To Asia, With Love cookbook were so delectable that I put my hesitations to the side and embarked on this (quite simple) journey.

I stirred together the ingredients, chilled the mixture, and as promised, the oat-milky mixture congealed and became a thicker pudding within a few hours.  The slightly bitter and herbal flavor of the matcha was quite pronounced in the pudding, but nicely offset by the sweet maple syrup. 

However, I ended up not eating the entire amount that I prepared because ultimately the textures were not to my taste.  I just don't enjoy  tiny, slightly mushy seeds working their way through my mouth sadly.    

I do have a whole package of chia seeds in my cupboards, so I'll need to try something with them again - any reader recommendations welcome!

King Arthur Flour's Classic Sandwich Bread - Overproofed, and Too Crumbly of a Result

We've developed a fascination with traditional sandwiches of late.  Why?  Our physical removal from business districts, and their plentiful sandwich options, coupled with some plain boredom.  On a more positive note, we've also had one or two excellent sandwiches over the past few months, including a particularly top-tier herbed egg salad at the Bread Gallery in Nova Scotia.  

What does one do when they become focused on sandwiches?  They make sandwich bread, naturally.

Unfortunately my first home-baked sandwich bread did not match my lofty expectations.  First, I overproofed the dough during the first rise.  My kitchen was a bit warm, and so 30 minutes was probably been enough for the rise instead of the 1-2 hours called for in the recipe.  I cut the second rise to 40 minutes, which seemed like it was enough.  

The resulting bread flavor was excellent, but the texture wasn't ideal.  It was too dense and crumbly for our tastes.  We used the leftover bread for grilled cheeses, which also had the same feature of great flavor but not great texture - too thick and crumbly again, even when toasted.  

So will I make this recipe again?  Maybe.  The result was probably human error, but I'd like to look around for other recipes before giving this one a go again.  

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!

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!

Yeasted Cinnamon Rolls - A Once-in-a-Decade Homemade Treat

It's been a decade since I've made yeasted cinnamon rolls.  Those soft, warm, gooey rolls are delicious - but incredibly time consuming.  The dough generally requires a few rises, making the final product a little too late for breakfast and a little too decadent for lunch.  So once-in-a-decade seems like the appropriate frequency for making these high-caloric, time-consuming treats. 

The inspiration for my 2020s attempt came from King Arthur Flour, which declared their Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls as the KAF 2021 Recipe of the Year.  I halved this recipe and also followed the KAF catalog printed recipe, which had some slight deviations from the online recipe (namely 1 tbsp. of Vietnamese cinnamon instead of regular ground cinnamon).  

The recipe was very easy to follow, and I wished I adhered to it more closely by using dental floss to more cleanly cut the rolls.  Otherwise though, the tangzhong-based recipe produced soft and light rolls with a very, very sweet (but tasty) icing. 

The baked rolls held up for two days post-baking, and their only downside was that they took a long time to prepare.  See you in the 2030s delicious yeasted cinnamon rolls!

Simple Same Day Bread - A Great Use for Bread Flour

I haven't used my bread flour in several months as I've fallen in love with the King Arthur Flour pizza flour blend.  Looking for an excuse to use up my remaining bread flour, I found King Arthur Flour's "The Easiest Loaf of Bread You'll Ever Bake" recipe and to the kitchen I went. 

Unlike most of my bread and pizza go-to recipes, this bread can be made the same day with just two short rises - 1-2 hours and then 45 minutes after shaping.

The recipe also seems to be pretty flexible as well - I halved the recipe, potentially messed up the amount of bread flour that I measured (oops), and baked the bread seam side up instead of down.  After 21 minutes of baking, I held the oven open with a wooden spatula for 5 minutes as directed.

The bread was very good - not as great as my longer fridge rise doughs, but definitely a bread that could be served to a crowd (or myself!) the same day.