The week leading up to Thanksgiving we ended up eating a lot of random vegetarian meals. It just seemed like the proper (and healthy) thing to do since we knew we would be stuffing ourselves silly on Thanksgiving. And logically, some of those vegetarian meals were based on recipes that I had considered making as a side dish for Thanksgiving, but didn't quite make the cut. Before I go any further I should state that this dish was only in the running because Serious Eats raved about it. It didn't actually go with anything else we were serving (more on that later) but it sounded interesting enough that I bookmarked it as an option if we changed up the menu (we didn't). Once I knew our menu was set and this dish wasn't going to make it onto the Thanksgiving table, I decided to try it out on just Alex and I. Our end verdict was that while the cauliflower was pretty good, it wasn't as good as other cauliflower dishes we have made in the past - in terms of texture and flavor. The bread crumbs did provide a promised hit of "salty-funky" flavor, but I felt like you didn't taste the sage or the lemon. I also thought the bread crumbs weren't quite as delicious as I had hoped. As I mentioned below, they were a little oily and gummy, rather than crispy and flavorful. If I were to make this dish again I would substitute the bread crumbs and the almonds from Mario Batali's St. John's Eve Pasta for the bread crumbs here. And then I would probably roast the cauliflower much longer - like we did with the Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Cumin a few weeks ago. Roasting it longer would provide the wonderful sweet, nutty flavor and crispy texture that I really enjoyed with that dish. To be perfectly honest, with all of the changes I would have to make to this dish before I would make it again I'm not sure there will be a re-do, but such is life. It wasn't a bad dish. It just wasn't anything to write home about, nor was it a dish that I would be dying to serve to my family for future Thanksgivings...
Recipe after the jump!
I feel like this is one of those dishes that we tried where we spent the first few bites trying to figure it all out, the next few bites growing to really enjoy it and then I promptly got bored with it. But let's be honest, who really enjoys every bite of an entire bowl full of turnips? Even split between the two of us that is a LOT of turnips (particularly when you're not even sure that you really like turnips). I have no complaints about the recipe itself - this post is more of a commentary on my poor
planning in basically designing a meal around a vegetable that Alex and I
are firmly on the fence about. I have had some good turnips in my life
(my school in China served a really nice soup with turnips in it and I
love the little dim sum cakes with turnip), but generally they strike me
as being a little lackluster. The honey glaze really helped to tame the aggressive peppery flavor of the turnips and the cayenne pepper provided some lovely heat, but after awhile it all just got a little blah. And the honey mixture really only coated the outermost layer of the turnip and didn't flavor the turnips as a whole. I think I would have preferred pan-roasting (or oven-roasting) the turnips a little longer until they got a little crisp and developed a little of their own natural sweetness. But I was afraid to burn them (or overcook them until they were soggy, although I have no idea if that is even possible with turnips) and once I added in the honey mixture I was afraid that the honey would burn if I left the turnips in the pan too much longer. So I think the end verdict is that this dish is lovely as a side - it really does have a nice and interesting flavor to it, but unless you are a real turnip lover, you shouldn't make it the focus of your entire meal. If you are a turnip connoisseur, then go to town and ignore everything I said.
Recipe after the jump!
Look - another seafood dish! Go us! And this will officially be your last seafood post from us (and potentially your last post) until after Thanksgiving. Turkey here I come! I found this recipe during one of my various recipe hunting jaunts. One day I pulled open my iPad and there it was. I have no idea when I first found it, but it has been staring at me every time I opened up Safari on my iPad for the past few weeks. So we finally gave it a go. I don't have any idea who Nigel Slater is, but given how much we liked this recipe I might have to track down some more of his recipes. I had this impression that he is the UK equivalent of Mark Bittman (lord only knows where I came up with that idea, but a brief Wiki session seems to substantiate it). The recipe was simple and came together relatively quickly (once you finished prepping). And it was more than the sum of its parts - the flavor of the basil and the aromatics (particularly the lemongrass and the ginger) came through really well and it had a lovely balance of sour, sweet, spicy and salty. I was worried that the fish sauce and lime juice combo would lead to it being kind of one note, but it really worked. And it was surprisingly spicy given that we only used one serrano chili for 3/4 pound each of baby bok choy and shrimp. I loved serving it with brown rice because I thought the nuttier flavor and chewier texture of the brown rice was a nice complement to the dish. I know we made a good dish when Alex pours the rest of his shrimp juju over his rice and then cleans his rice bowl. And he did it this time. Even though he doesn't really like brown rice. If my word that the dish was good isn't enough for you, I'm sure that you will find the Alex rice bowl test totally persuasive. Now if only I had taken a picture of the empty rice bowl...
Recipe after the jump!
We really need to make more swordfish in our apartment. Every time we make swordfish at home (and don't screw it up because we have done that before) I am reminded that I really do like swordfish. We probably make it about twice a year, but I really think we should bump it up to every few months. If all of our swordfish recipes turned out this well I think we would definitely make it more. The swordfish itself was juicy and perfectly cooked. And the chile pesto was very interesting - it had a ton of chile flavor. I would use it again with pork and maybe beef. I would also consider using it with duck. My one complaint with the pesto was that the texture was a little gritty and in some bites you ended up with a big chunk of dried chili. But it had a lot of good flavor. We added a little honey to the pesto because it was initially a little bitter for us, but a tsp or two of honey nicely counteracted the bitterness of the dried chilis. I would definitely recommend serving with some avocado salad because the creaminess of the avocado works really nicely with the meatiness of the swordfish and the spice of the pesto. If you were to make the recipe as written and serve the swordish as a topping for tacos, don't forgo the avocado slices. I wished we had topped the swordfish with a few pepitas for crunch and texture (or perhaps thinly sliced some corn tortillas and fried them until crispy), but even without that additional textural element it was pretty tasty.
Recipes after the jump!
I woke up from a nap last weekend and decided that I was in the mood for seafood. We have been really vegetable and meat-oriented in our kitchen recently and there hasn't been much seafood in the apartment. Actually, even our dinners out at restaurants have been very meat and vegetable-oriented. I am going to try to remedy that for the rest of the year, but I'm not going to make any promises because we all know how well I live up to my blog promises... I have a shrimp recipe that I want to try (maybe we will get around to that one tonight) and I really want to cook some more fish. We also cooked some swordfish earlier this week that I have yet to post so stay tuned for that recipe. Actually, if we make the shrimp this weekend I will consider my blog promise to have been fulfilled - three seafood recipes in one blog week is pretty huge around here. And given that next week is Thanksgiving I'm not sure how much seafood I am going to be able to squeeze into my diet amidst all of that turkey and stuffing. I do want to go out and have some nice sushi, but that is going to have to wait until after Thanksgiving.
This fish was really easy to make and pretty interesting. It wasn't my favorite whole fish recipe ever because I didn't think that it had as much flavor as I had hoped for. The spicy rub was surprisingly spicy from the black pepper, but I wish it had more lemongrass and cilantro flavor. If I were to make it again I would cut back on the amount of black pepper and up the amount of the other aromatics. I might also stuff some lime slices in the belly of the fish with the lemongrass. Another problem with the dish was how many little bones the fish had - which isn't really a problem with the recipe but is a problem inherent with eating whole fish.
P.S. I couldn't decide which picture was the least creepy of the bunch (and they were all pretty creepy) so I posted what I considered to be the two un-creepiest and most appetizing looking. Because really, who doesn't love having fish eyeballs staring you in the eye while you eat?
Recipe after the jump!
I think it is time for me to stop buying so much squash at the farmers' market. Every week I see a new variety and pick up more squash. So we have been battling our ever expanding squash selection little by little. Right now I have a stripetti squash at home (which is apparently a cross between a delicata squash and a spaghetti squash). Once I read the little blurb claiming that it was a cross between a delicata and a spaghetti squash I couldn't resist buying a stripetti squash because those are my two favorite squash varities. But I think we are about to hit Alex's squash tolerance soon and I am running out of new and inventive ways to cook squash. So I might take a week or two off and then go back to buying more squash. I am still determined to buy some more new squash varieties, but we just need a break until we use up all of the squash we have and until I come up with some new recipes. I definitely want to make some soup and to also make some baked goods. This Pumpkin Pecan-Praline Pie from Martha Stewart sounds particularly tempting and it might just be tempting enough for me to break my no pie rule... Probably not though.
This recipe by Yottam Ottolenghi was one of two of his recipes that I had set aside for future squash experimentation this fall. We had to make a number of modifications to the recipe becase we had acorn squash instead of butternut squash, we were out of pine nuts and we only had half of a red onion left, but we had a Vidalia onion in the pantry. But we tried to stay true to the rest of the recipe as much as possible. As with all Yottam Ottolenghi recipes my first thought upon tasting the dish was "this is interesting." He combines ingredients in ways that I would never contemplate on my own (although the combinations might be totally commonplace to someone of Middle Eastern descent) and I find myself having to re-evaluate flavor combinations every time we make one of his recipes. This was neither our most successful, nor our least successful Yottam Ottolenghi dish. I liked it, but I would like to try it again as written and see how that changes things. Acorn squash has always seemed a little starchier and less sweet than butternut squash to me and I think that this recipe would benefit from a slightly sweeter, moister squash. We also incinerated our onions a bit because we lost track of time. The onions that were salvagable were really delicious with the squash and the seasonings. This is one of the few times that perhaps sticking to the recipe as written might have been the way to go...
Recipe after the jump!
I got a little crazy at the farmers' market last weekend and picked up 3 pounds of green tomatoes. Alex shook his head at me, but I love green tomatoes. I have only recently discovered all of the wonderful things that you can do with green tomatoes instead of just making more fried green tomatoes. Who knew you could pickle green tomatoes, or make baked goods with green tomatoes? I am really tempted to make a green tomato pie as well (like this one from honey & jam), but that would involve making pie and we all know my feelings on doing that at home. Given the number of green tomatoes we found ourselves with I started fishing around for more green tomato recipes and ideas. Once I saw a green tomato frittata on the NY Times I knew I was going to give that a try. But the NY Times recipe was a little more labor intensive than I was really aiming for - it involved frying half of the green tomatoes and peel and dicing the others - so I decided to ignore that recipe and just make a really basic frittata. I have to say that this recipe highlighted the tart flavor of the tomatoes themselves far more than any other green tomato recipe we have made. I thought the little bursts of tart green tomato were fabulous with the rich egg-y frittata. If you served this frittata with a nice little green salad, croissants and some fruit, this could be the unique centerpoint of a lovely brunch.
P.S. I am a little behind on posts again due to work, but I have a number that should be coming in the next few days... So stay tuned.
Recipe after the jump!
