Over the past week I've tried out a handful of recipes. I only follow a few food blogs, but The Kitchn often links to recipes elsewhere in the blogosphere. The problem with food blogs (such as my own, I admit) is that the recipes seem to often go untested. Your cooking style may be very different from mine, and without even repeat trials of the same recipe, there can be problems. Nonetheless, I have been very happy with this latest batch of recipes.
1) Red lentil soup with garam masala AKA daal
Simmering on the stove as we speak. This is a classic South Asian dish that absolutely brings back memories of food in Bangladesh. Daal varies by region and even within a city like Dhaka, it depends on who taught your cook to cook. I followed the recipe almost exactly, only adding 1.5 chopped carrots with the onions in the beginning. This adds a bit of variety for flavor and texture. Another favorite variation is adding a can of diced tomatoes and coconut milk. I'm not going to puree this when it's done, but rather will just eat it with some leftover pita bread. Add salt to the desired level, it often takes more than you think to really bring out the flavors. I realized I should make this dish more, as its cheap, nutritious, and a ONE-POT-MEAL!
2) Kale and goat cheese frittata cups
Made these last night with the intention of eating one plus a whole wheat English Muffin for breakfast. The taste was fantastic, but my complaint is that even with a layer of butter on a non-stick muffin pan, the cups still stuck at the bottom. I might have cooked them for too long, causing them to burn at the bottom. Also, they overflowed slightly. It was hard to tell what 2 cups of kale was, so I just cooked a whole bunch, which was maybe too much. And finally, I used feta cheese instead of goat cheese, but either way would be good. Next time, I would divide the batter into 9 cups, watch them better, and use cooking spray. But overall this was a good change to my breakfast routine, and didn't require too much work.
[UPDATE] I made the frittata cups again, this time using plenty of cooking spray on the pan, and cooking them for only 25 minutes, and they came out much nicer. If you make these, you still need to cut/loosen them out of the cups with a knife, just like you would cupcakes. I also used goat cheese, though I think I prefer the feta here. And finally, I'd recommend n – 1 eggs for the number of cups you want (11 eggs for a dozen cups, etc.).
3) Fennel, orange, and shallot salad
Except I totally spaced on the shallot. Oh well, it was good. I added red wine vinegar and used 1.5 oranges instead of just one. I paired this with the Sicilian style pasta mentioned at the end of this post. [update] I re-made this salad and added dried cranberries and chopped pistachios; it made it a bit fancier and varied the color/texture/taste in a good way.
4) Bourbon rice crispies
Used bourbon instead of Maker's Mark. No further comments necessary.
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