Madhu Knits and Cooks

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.

Weeknight Tofu Makes Its Return - NYT Black Pepper Tofu and Asparagus

I've gotten bored with most at-home, sautéed versions of tofu, so rarely make this weeknight-appropriate preparation.  Instead, I'll hold panko-crusted tofu or other more complicated tofu preparations for the weekends.

Some aging tofu and asparagus though brought me to the NY Times Cooking Black Pepper and Asparagus Tofu dish, a truly delicious sautéed tofu preparation.

I made a few modifications to the recipe, including halving the sauce and using only the top thirds of thicker asparagus. 

The result was still excellent though - spicy from the black pepper, tangy from the Worcestershire sauce, and a nice lightness from the fresh cilantro.  

I was really surprised at how much great texture and flavor contrast the asparagus provided, and this easy and flavorful sauce will put tofu back into my regular food rotation.  Thank you NYT Cooking!

Pizza Dough with a Food Processor? If Chris Kimball Says So...I Will Try!

I have one tried-and-true pizza dough recipe that has yet to be displaced, despite many attempts at new dough preparations.  Could I be narrowing in on an alteration that could take this recipe standard to the next level?  Cautiously, yes. 

The recipe innovation?  Kneading the dough in the food processor instead of by hand, a tip we picked up listening to Christopher Kimball's Milk Street podcast.  Kimball made a passing reference to using a food processor for pizza dough, sparking our minds that this could be the accelerant to extra delicious dough.

Fueled by this tip, I found a Williams Sonoma food processor dough recipe online.  I added 3 teaspoons of the King Arthur Flour pizza dough flavor to this fairly standard recipe.  With a regular metal food processor attachment - not a special dough attachment - I developed very smooth and glossy dough in just under a minute of processing.  I then halved the dough into two balls, covered them in olive oil, and put them in the fridge for a 24 hour cold rise.  The dough balls rose significantly in the fridge, perhaps even more than doubling?

When I prepared the pizzas themselves, I found the dough less easy to roll than my standard dough, even at room temperature.  I used my fists to drape the dough over as I found gravity more helpful than anything else I was trying.  

I then did my standard pre-baking of the dough on a heated pizza stone before adding the toppings to place ~4 inches away from the broiler.  The result was a chewier dough than we are used to, but not one that was unpleasant.  The crust held up to the toppings, and had a nice yeasted flavor.  

I think my next step is to try my standard pizza dough recipe (with King Arthur pizza flour) using the food processor and going from there.  Excited to see what this innovation, that is so much easier on my arms, results in!

Milk Street's Sichaun Cauliflower - A Little Salty but Pretty Good Stovetop Cauliflower Preparation!

I generally roast or steam cauliflower - almost never prepare it on the stovetop.  That is partly why I was attracted to the Milk Street Sichuan Dry-Fried Cauliflower recipe - could I achieve a tender, well-browned cauliflower on the stovetop? Coupled with one of my favorite spice flavorings, this recipe quickly went from intriguing to a must-try.

The recipe was relatively easy to prepare, though I definitely crowded too much cauliflower into the pan, requiring a longer cooking time throughout. 

While I kept the spice and sauce ingredients as-is, the recipe's 2 tablespoons of soy sauce sadly overwhelmed the other flavorings - ginger, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, and even the Shaoxing vinegar that I substituted for the dry sherry.  So while we ate all of the cauliflower, we did so with a lot of rice to offset the saltiness of the prepared dish.

The cauliflower itself though was tender and well-browned, so I will repeat this preparation, and likely this recipe, with less soy sauce.   

Kenji's Lighter Fettucine Alfredo from the Food Lab - Simple Recipe, Great Flavor

As Serious Eats fans, we checked out J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab from the library recently.  Our first recipe was his Lighter Fettuccine Alfredo - a hit despite a few modifications.

My modifications included:

• Substituting parmesan for the pecorino
• No chives or parsley (none on hand)
• A little bit of lemon zest and Penzey's Italian spice blend
• 10 oz. of pasta
• Only 1 cup of pasta water
• Cooked the sauce and pasta for 4-5 minutes more than called for

While the finished result was definitely lighter (less gloppy, sauce held to the noodles better) than my standard Fettucine Alfredo, I did miss the lightness that fresh herbs would have added.

While the book version is different than the Serious Eats website version (no egg, less cheese), I look forward to trying that lighter version as well in the months ahead!

Palak Makai (Corn with Spinach) - A Winning Recipe By Adapting a "New Classic"

In years past, I have struggled to make a restaurant-quality palak makai, a north Indian corn and spinach dish.  One recipe attempt was too spiced, the other too bland.  Well, I think I have finally nailed a great palak makai, thanks to Priya Krishna's "new classic" feta saag paneer recipe.  

I didn't take many notes for this recipe attempt, but I remember following my previous modifications to Krishna's recipe (less butter, significantly less coriander), adding some thawed frozen corn, and voila - a well spiced, tangy, and creamy palak makai.  A perfect vegetable accompaniment to my meal of paneer makhani, chana masala, and rice.

Excellent Braised White Beans, Kale and Parmesan - Thanks NYT Cooking!

In my latest effort to ignore my overstuffed shelf of cookbooks, I subscribed to New York Times Cooking when they recently had a half-off sale.  While the site has an overwhelming number of options, I decided to start with the basics and try the Braised White Beans and Greens with Parmesan recipe to use up some Rancho Gordo alubia blanco beans at home.  

The recipe turned out really well - super creamy, nice lemony, and slightly bitter from the greens.  This is a great winter side dish or main course.  My only wish is that I followed the recipe recommendation to serve the beans with a crusty bread to sop up the liquid and add a nice textural contrast.

My modifications included:

• 1.5 cups of dried alubia blanco beans, soaked overnight, and cooked in the Instant Pot for 10 minutes of high pressure and natural release.  In the future, I will start by cooking them for 8 minutes, but this recipe called for mashing beans into the broth so it worked out well that they were slightly mushy post-Instant Pot
• 10oz bag of chopped kale (with stems) from Trader Joes
• Better than Bouillon with 2 cups of water
• No mozzarella
• No fennel, instead used some frozen chopped celery instead

New Go-To Instant Pot Chana Masala Recipe - Thanks "Ministry of Curry"!

With the local libraries now open for browsing, I've returned to picking up cookbooks on a whim.  One of my latest is The Essential Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Archana Mundhe, who runs the Ministry of Curry blog.  The first recipe I tried was her Chickpea Curry or Chana Masala.  One benefit of this recipe is that you don't need to soak the chickpeas overnight, approx. 4 - 5 hours in hot water is sufficient to result in creamy, evenly cooked chickpeas.

I've made this recipe twice, and I suggest making a few modifications:

• I've halved the dried chickpeas to 1/2 cup each time, and this amount of chickpeas probably can be cooked in less than 35 minutes.  I recommend starting at 32 minutes on high pressure the next time.
• Omit the coriander - it's just not to my personal preference.
• Try substituting a chana masala spice blend for the garam masala, per the online recipe (I've only used the garam masala before, but want to try mixing it up because I do like the chana masala spice blend I have).
• Note:  The online recipe calls for 1 tsp. of minced ginger and 1 tbsp. of minced garlic, but the cookbook calls for 1 tsp. each so not sure how much garlic would end up tasting if I follow the online recipe next time.

Dishoom's Rajma - good, not great, with an unexpected twist

With the Dishoom cookbook now mine, all mine, I've been trying more of their recipes, including their version of rajma.  I made some modifications to Dishoom's recipe though, including estimating ingredients to make ~100g of the onion masala, using the Instant Pot to pre-cook 2/3 cup of dried red beans, and omitting tomato paste because I didn't have any at home.  

The resulting flavor was very good, with an unexpected added richness from butter, which I don't think I have ever seen in a rajma recipe.  

Ultimately, I would say this recipe was very good but not excellent - nice ginger, garlic, and tomato flavors coupled with well-cooked red beans - but nothing really wowed me.  I think the tomato paste would have added a deeper sweet and tart flavor to the beans though, so that will be a feature of my next attempt which I imagine is more months and years ahead instead of in days or weeks.