Madhu Knits and Cooks

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Quinoa, Feta, and Pistachios - A Comforting Winter Meal

Similar to my recent parsnips order, when I saw acorn squash was available for grocery delivery, I added that to my cart on a whim.  Why not try something new?

While I was initially planning on thinly slicing the squash for roasting, as I have seen others do, I became intrigued by the various "stuffed" versions on recipe websites.  However, none had the flavor combos that I was looking for - or called for only ingredients I had in my kitchen - so I decided to create a recipe based on three websites.  Ingredients and directions below!

Ingredients

For 2 main course servings

• 1.3 pound acorn squash
• Grapeseed oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 3 tbsp. chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp. roasted, unsalted pepitas (optional)
• Juice from 1/4 lemon
• 3 tbsp. minced red onion
• Red wine vinegar, to taste (I started with a splash, but probably could have used 2 - 3 quick splashes or 1-2 tbsp.)
• 1/4 cup feta in brine, cut into small pieces

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut acorn squash in half, through top and bottom ends of squash, and scoop out seeds.  Brush approx. 1 tbsp. grapeseed oil along cut edges of the acorn squash, sprinkle a light coating of salt and pepper, and place the squash face down on a lined baking sheet.  Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes, turning pan once halfway through baking.

2.  Meanwhile, cook the quinoa on the stovetop with 1/2 cup water until al dente to tender (bring quinoa and water to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cover pot until water mostly evaporated).  

3. While quinoa is cooking, chop the remaining herbs, vegetable, and cheese, and mix together.  When quinoa is cooled, combine the mixtures.

4. After removing the acorn squash from the oven, when it should be easily pierced by a knife, carefully flip over the squash pieces so that the cut sides are up.  Spoon and press down equal amounts of the filling into the squash.  

5. Place the baking sheet back into the oven, and bake for another 10 minutes.  Cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I really liked this comforting yet elegant squash dish, with its salty, sweet, and sour flavors, though I think more red vinegar would have helped to add a more pleasant contrasting sourness to the squash.  My husband did not like the pepitas inclusion for textural / flavor reasons (too salty, and would have preferred a smoother filling mixture) though I didn't have that same reaction.  Doubling this recipe would make for a wonderful healthy main course for a dinner party for 4.  

Modifications Gone Awry - Underwhelming Root Vegetable and Bean Soup

Years ago, I had an absolutely amazing pureed vegan parsnip soup.  Simple, velvety, and luscious.  A beautiful winter soup.

Inspired by that memory, I ordered some parsnips in our December grocery order, figuring that a recipe would be easy enough to find.  However, once those parsnips arrived, I couldn't find a pure parsnip soup recipe on any of my favorite sites.  Instead, the experts seemed to have ever better soups with parsnips, and as such, I decided to make Cook's Country Hearty Vegetable Soup.

Unfortunately, due to what I can only assume is significant user error, my heavily modified version of this soup was a disaster.  I substituted cranberry beans for the cannellini beans, which didn't work at all (the cranberry beans were too large and I think overcooked), and the lack of peas, spinach, and rosemary presumably had an effect too.  Oh, and I also modified the ratio of parsnips, potatoes, carrots, and onions based on what I had on hand.  And used a toasted English muffin in place of "hearty white sandwich bread."  So lots of modifications.

The only good thing about this soup was how good balsamic vinegar tasted in it.  It definitely imparted a nice, sweet tangy flavor to this otherwise thick, depressingly boring, and poorly textured soup.  So I am glad I learned about balsamic's potential role in soup, otherwise this was a soup I was happy to throw away.

Miznon's Whole Cauliflower - Easier than Expected Cauliflower Treat!

A few months ago, my friends Jenny and Dave made the famed Miznon whole roasted cauliflower at home and raved about the results.  One of my biggest pandemic regrets is that I kept pushing off our trip to the NYC Miznon location (last reservation I made and cancelled was for March 13, 2020), so I have yet to try this cauliflower sensation (let alone their other delish vegetarian options!).

Hearing that I could try this dish at home - and that it wasn't difficult - inspired me to look for smaller cauliflower heads that may work with their recipe.  Unfortunately though, our grocery store generally seems to have gigantic cauliflower heads so months passed before I found what seemed to be a sufficiently manageable cauliflower size.

While it took me awhile to figure out the logistics of how to boil the cauliflower (watching the Food & Wine video would have helped!), I ended up using a colander instead of a ceramic plate to keep the cauliflower submerged.  I also substituted kosher salt for the sel gris to fit what I had on hand.

After draining and baking the cauliflower, it wasn't as browned as I liked so I turned on the broiler for 2 minutes which some other websites recommended.  That worked great to get the dark browning throughout the cauliflower head and also made up for my not-quite-even cauliflower base, which meant the cauliflower fell over during baking instead of remaining head up.

While I served the cauliflower with tahini, we didn't quite like the combination (might have also been that our tahini isn't the highest quality) so I may make another sauce for this in the future.  I otherwise though loved this well-salted, soft, and lightly oiled cauliflower.  I look forward to making it again as a great side or meal centerpiece.

My First Couscous - A Bland Disappointment

Last year, I had a perfectly spiced Moroccan vegetable and couscous dish at a restaurant in Minnesota.  Tangy, sweet, and rich with multiple flavors from herbs and the individual vegetables.  And the couscous - what a great grain complement.  

I have never made couscous at home, but inspired by this meal memory, I decided to try my hand at it.  And as I do, I turned to Cook's Illustrated first for recipe ideas and settled on their Moroccan Chickpea and Vegetable Couscous recipe.

Unfortunately, as the post title suggests, I was underwhelmed by this couscous as it tasted quite bland.  Chickpeas, peas, carrots and couscous.  Nothing more, nothing less.  The fresh and dried herbs didn't really come through, and while extra lime juice helped, it still didn't do much.  Oh well, at least I tried couscous! 

And most important, I learned that you don't need to cook couscous on the stovetop, rather just pour boiling water / broth over the dried couscous (toasted in this case), cover, and let the hot liquid "cook" the couscous for several minutes.  Hopefully, I find a better recipe for my next couscous attempt!

Dishoom Paneer Achari - A Tangy, Multi-Textured Treat

The Dishoom cookbook's streak of success in my kitchen continues with the lovely Paneer Achari.

The paneer and bell pepper dish features smooth, creamy paneer chunks with crunchy and bright bell peppers for a great textural contrast.  And the two marinades provide tangy citrus and spicy flavors to each bite.  Yum, I really enjoyed this dish despite the 6 - 24 hour marination time.

You start by preparing a first marinade of spices for the paneer, followed by a more complicated yogurt, pickle, and chickpea-flour based second marinade for both the paneer and bell peppers.

Then put in the fridge for 6-24 hours before grilling, or in our case, searing on high heat in a cast-iron skillet.

Delicious!

Dishoom's Aloo Sabzi - A Wonderful Potato, Chickpea, and Paneer Spice Medley

Quarantining with the local library's Dishoom cookbook has been a true joy.  This is now a must-purchase cookbook as I can't imagine not having it in our kitchen, as confirmed by another recent new recipe attempt. 

The Dishoom Aloo Sabzi is deeply flavorful with earthy, spicy, and slight sour notes, and more substantive than most aloo sabzi preparations with chickpeas and paneer included.

I did make some modifications to the dish to conform to my tastes, including halving the dried coriander and only using enough lime juice to taste.  Next time, I may also reduce the water to 2 cups instead of 3 for a thicker broth but the extra liquid didn't detract from the flavors at all.

While this is a multi-step cooking process with boiling the potatoes first, it does come together fairly quickly and the "off time" while letting the potatoes boil and then simmering the final easily allows for preparing other dishes.

A Fantastic Upma (Thanks Mom) - A Hearty Spiced Semolina Breakfast

Upma is a savory and hearty Indian breakfast dish, usually made with roasted dry semolina though I have made variants with quinoa and steel cut oats.  As it turns out, sometimes sticking to the original can produce the best results as my recent effort with ground semolina or sooji found.

I purchased the sooji, roasted so I didn't need to roast it at home, at our local Patel Brothers.  I followed Saranya Mandava's cookbook recipe with a few critical modifications from my mother.  

First was that I added fresh curry leaves (maybe 7 -8), which I ripped in half, to the cooking vegetables.  Second, I slightly reduced the oil to 5 - 6 tablespoons.  Third, I added the ginger toward the end of the onion / tomato / chile cooking time so that it wouldn't burn as the others cooked.

I also increased the salt to 1.25 tsp. and the water to 3 cups instead of the 1.5 - 2 called for in the recipe (semolina stayed the same at 1 cup).

Finally, after the semolina fully cooked after 3 - 4 minutes, I took the pan off the heat, stirred in juice from 1/4 fresh lemon and some diced cilantro.  I then let the upma stay covered for approx. 5 minutes before serving.

This finished upma was quickly consumed in our home.  The mixture was well-spiced from the mustard seeds and dals; tart from the lemon, tomato, and cilantro; slightly sweet from the ginger and semolina; and featured the unique deep flavor of the curry leaves.  Yum!

Homemade Fettuccine in Homemade Alfredo Sauce - One of My Top Home-Cooked Meals

Fettuccine Alfredo was one of my favorite childhood dishes.  I loved the velvety rich sauce paired with long, silky noodles.  What a delight! 

As I have aged, I rarely eat fettuccine alfredo as its calorie count is far more than my metabolism can easily burn off.  However, when I had some leftover heavy cream and parmesan in the fridge, and a longstanding desire to use up my King Arthur Flour Italian Flour Blend so I can open their Pasta Flour Blend bag, I knew there was only one direction I could take.

The result was even better than I could have expected.  The fresh pasta had a great amount of bite, and the thicker fresh noodles clung to the smooth sauce perfectly.  The nutmeg and fresh ground pepper added a great depth of flavor to the parmesan and cream sauce.  I am a little scared of how good this was because now I foresee this being a quarterly treat in our home.

I followed the King Arthur Flour Fresh Pasta Recipe, which I have made before, and used my hand-crank pasta roller to make the fettuccine strips.

I started the sauce as I started to heat the water to boil the pasta.  I halved the Cook's Illustrated recipe, though ended up using 1 oz. of parmesan.

I did have to add a bit more salt to the final dish for the flavors to really come out, but otherwise it was fantastically comforting on a Sunday night.  Can't wait to make it again this fall!

An Easier Way to Prepare a Great Eggplant Parmesan (for Two)

Now that I finally mastered eggplant, it seems that I can't go into a grocery store without buying more! My latest eggplant effort was Cook's Country's Eggplant Parmesan for Two, a relatively easy way to prepare this Italian favorite.  

The eggplant is cut into thicker steaks instead of sliced, and is lightly pan-fried before baking.  The result was fantastic - very crunchy exterior, soft interior, and a wonderful tangy flavor from the eggplant tomato sauce that is spooned on top of the baked eggplant.  The steaks are also significant enough to be a meal on their own.

I substituted two baby eggplants (approx. 1.2 pounds) for the 1 pound medium eggplant, and as such cut slightly smaller steaks than those envisioned by the recipe.

I made two other edits to the recipe - I substituted mozzarella for the provolone, and used approx. 1/2 the oil called for the pan-frying to reduce calories further.

While the steaks are baking in the oven, simply brown the remaining eggplant pieces, which are diced, with a can of diced tomatoes, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Serve right away - yum!

Brined Crispy Tofu - A Laborious But Delicious Tofu Preparation Method

For several months, I've wanted to try Cook's Illustrated "Better Fried Tofu" approach.  The method calls for brining raw tofu before tossing it in cornstarch for the lower fat pan-frying approach I enjoy.  CI reported that brining takes out more moisture from the tofu blocks, resulting in a crispier crust with a softer middle.

I paired this method with another CI recipe, published under their America's Test Kitchen brand.  The Crispy Tofu with Sweet Chili Sauce (Tianla Cuipi Doufu) recipe worked really well with the brining modification as it just added a bit more time to the recipe prep.  

I cut the tofu as instructed into large blocks to do the quick brining.

I then cut the pieces into smaller increments (approx. 3/4 inch cubes) before the coating in cornstarch, cornmeal, and some toasted sesame seeds that I happened to have on as well.  

I pan fried the tofu in two batches, using about 1/2 of the vegetable oil called for in the recipe.  That seemed to be enough - approx. 1/4 cup for the initial batch and then a few more tablespoons for the second batch.

And then before serving, I followed the instruction to put the tofu into a preheated, slightly warm oven on paper towels to get some of the oil out.

Finally, I made some modifications to the accompanying sauce based on personal preference and the comments section on the ATK site.  I used only 1 tbsp. of sugar and I slightly reduced the cornstarch as well.

The sauce had both a sharp vinegar flavor and a sweet undertone, making it slightly odd for dipping. 

The tofu by contrast was fantastic - crisp and slightly crunchy from the cornmeal coating, with a nice moist interior.  It was a great appetizer before our larger meal. 

I look forward to using this tofu approach again and again, and figuring out new ways to pair it with other meals!