Madhu Knits and Cooks

Ginger, Pea, and Egg Fried Rice - A Likely Pass in the Future

The days of Hetty McKinnon have turned into weeks of Hetty McKinnon.  The obsession continues, even with a misstep of late, namely the egg, pea, and ginger fried rice.  

The fried rice wasn't as much as a misstep, though I had some during the preparation, as it was just bland.  The ginger flavor didn't come through that much, and I very much overcooked the egg.  I think I should have added more flavorings - garlic, other herbs besides the fresh scallions - to jazz it up a bit.  I reduced the recipe by about 1/4 to fit the amount of leftover rice I had.

Another "Kitchen Sink" Lasagna - Weeknight Spinach / Tomato Lasagna

With some leftover crushed tomatoes in the fridge and some no-boil lasagna sheets in the pantry, I decided to try my hand at another "kitchen sink" lasagna this fall.  This time, I decided to also use up some languishing frozen spinach. 

Like my first attempt at an improvised lasagna, this lasagna was much better than I expected!  Savory and slightly bitter from the spinach, slightly sweet from the tomato sauce, and a velvety richness from the melted mozzarella.  

My ingredients were, roughly:

• 4 sheets no-boil lasagna
• 3/4 of a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
• Most of a 10oz package of frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave and squeezed dry
• Partial block of low-fat, low-moisture mozzarella
• Shaved parmesan on top 
• Crushed red pepper, salt, and black pepper to taste

I followed a Cook's Country approach to combine the tomatoes and spinach together to form the lasagna layers, with a bit of mozzarella added on top to each layer.  I was skeptical of combining the blended tomatoes with the spinach, as opposed to layering them, but it worked quite well as a substantive (and not dry) lasagna filling.

A Trio of Greek Restaurant Favorites - Gigantes, Lemon Potatoes, and Leek Rice

Inspired by some great restaurant Greek meals in nearby Astoria, Queens (NYC's Greektown), as well as an expected bounty of fresh dill from our friend Marisa, I decided to make some of my favorite Greek dishes at home this fall.

I settled on three recipes - Milk Street's version of gigantes (large white beans), a combination approach to lemon potatoes, and a leek-dill rice. 

My favorites of the three were the gigantes and the lemon potatoes.  The gigantes had a sublime tart tomato flavor that was offset by the fresh dill, onion, and crumbled feta.  I halved the recipe, which in hindsight was my only mistake - I should have made the full amount!  The recipe was extra simple by using canned butter beans, and I omitted the tomato paste to make it that much more simple.  

I similarly halved the lemon potatoes recipe (from the NYT portions), but I ended up following the Allrecipes preparation approach by baking the lemon potatoes in a small casserole pan.  The result was not as super roasted / crisp as I probably would have gotten from the NYT recipe, but much less clean up to not directly bake the acidic broth on a rimmed baking sheet. 

I used vegetable broth instead of chicken, and I wonder if that's what resulted in the slightly more tart potatoes than I generally get in restaurants?  So for some who may be particularly adverse to tart foods, slightly reducing the fresh lemon juice may be appropriate.

The dish I liked least, though may still make in the future, was the leek rice.  I ended up using basmati rice instead of arborio, and less leeks (approx. .65 pounds).  The modification to basmati rice meant I basically just cooked the leeks, added the rinsed rice, and boiled the dish together while covered.  The fresh tomato/dill topping was the star of the dish for the textural and flavor contrast.  Otherwise the rice itself was a little too oily, dense, and with one-note flavor of the oily leeks.

Hetty McKinnon Obsession Continues - NYT Silken Tofu with Spicy Soy Dressing

As recent posts have shown, I've been on a true Hetty McKinnon kick the past few months.  The latest?  Not from one of her wonderful cookbooks, but instead a NYT Cooking recipe.  

I slightly freestyled this recipe for Silken Tofu with Spicy Soy Dressing because I was using a partial block of leftover silken tofu, but the result was really wonderful. 

Salty from the soy sauce, savory from the sesame oil, slightly sweet from the sugar and rice wine vinegar, spicy from the chile oil, and crunchy from the scallions - yum. 

A benefit of using a partial leftover block of silken tofu is that it had naturally drained in the fridge, making prep that much more of a cinch. 

The tofu I used had been out of the fridge for an hour or two, so slightly more room temperature than cold, which I liked a lot.  

Another Great NYT Weeknight Tofu Preparation - with Corn, Green Beans, and Cilantro

With the success of a recent NYT Cooking tofu preparation on my mind, I turned to another of their suggested tofu recipes, the Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu with Corn, Green Beans, and Cilantro.  

I made some simple modifications to their otherwise very simple recipe. 

I cut the tofu into larger blocks (~1 inch by 2 inch blocks, about 1/2 inch thick).  I used less cilantro to fit what I had on hand, and similarly substituted canned baby corn for the two ears of corn.  I added the baby corn to the recipe at the same time as the green beans, of which I used the haricot vert type.  I also halved the sesame oil to fit personal preferences, and added a bit more salt at the end.  

Even with the larger tofu blocks and baby corn, this dish truly was fully completed within a short period of time (maybe 30 minutes?).  I look forward to making it again and again for a healthy weeknight dinner!

Dumpling...Salad? Great Way to Incorporate Greens and Create a Substantive Meal

Continuing my journey through Hetty McKinnon's excellent To Asia, With Love cookbook, I next turned to her dumpling salad approach to mix up my frozen dumpling game (and maybe justify eating more dumplings!).  

The result was pretty satisfying - particularly her simple salty dumpling sauce.  I think I'll probably use the approach as a base for future salads (or future dumplings?  Hard to classify this!). 

Basically throw some cooked dumplings on top of a simple bed of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, scallions, chiles - whatever you have on hand - and top with the simple sesame-laden dumpling sauce.  You get textural contrast btwn. the crisp lettuce, vegetables, and soft dumplings and a nice savory dressing. 

I think a miso-based dressing may be good to substitute in future attempts for slightly more nuanced flavors and a bit of sweetness as well.

Ken Forkish The Elements of Pizza - Great New Pizza Techniques

With my recent attempts to mix up my standard homemade pizza game, I checked out Ken Forkish's The Elements of Pizza cookbook from the library.  The first recipe I selected, the 48 to 72-Hour New York Pizza Dough, called for using a food processor to mix/knead the dough, which I was excited to try for a second time.

I reduced the recipe proportions by a third to end up with one dough ball v. three, and found the recipe + techniques really easy to follow.  I really appreciated Forkish's directions on how to shape the dough ball in particular, because it resulted in a beautifully shaped dough.

I baked the dough two days after preparing it, and ended up using Forkish's dough-stretching method which I found much easier to use as well as other dough shaping techniques I've used in the past.  It did as promised - preserved the rim while ensuring a pretty even dough.

I do think my general pre-baking-dough-before-adding-toppings-method is something I should continue to do because the crust seemed slightly less browned than I otherwise would like?  I can probably change this up if we get a baking steel to better conduct heat, but I think for my 15-year old Target-bought stone, a pre-bake will probably help me get the crust I want.

Two other notes - the flavor of this dough was great.  I do think though that I'll try adding the KAF pizza dough flavor powder in the future to taste the result.  Also, I used the KAF pizza dough blend instead of high-protein bread flour because it's what I had on hand at home.

Marinated Cauliflower / Red Bell Pepper Kati Roll Filling - Not a Recipe Repeat

With some cauliflower, bell pepper, and red onions at home, I decided to try the Milk Street Cauliflower Kati Roll recipe.  However, instead of putting the marinated vegetable mixture into a carb wrapping, I instead decided to serve the vegetables alongside some other Indian favorites. 

I don't know if that was the fatal mistake, or the recipe itself, but my sense is the latter. 

The garam masala flavor was overwhelming on the vegetables, and the yogurt marinade didn't do much for their textures.  The cauliflower and red peppers were slightly burnt in some places, and tough in other bites. 

Maybe this would have been better with a chutney in a carb wrapping, but can't imagine it would be more than "ok."

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.  

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.