January 21, 2022 • 25 mins
In this episode, I will be talking about pork vindaloo, strawberry tart, crispy tacos, pasta bakes, mustard soy salmon, and beef flautas.
Here is where you can find the recipes mentioned in this episode:
- Vindaloo from Recipe Tin Eats
- Punked Strawberry Tart from Smitten Kitchen Everyday
- Classic Crispy Tacos from Homesick Texan
What I'm Cooking for Dinner is a food podcast focused on simple ingredients, family cooking, and cooking on a budget with limited ingredients. I casually discuss the challenges of cooking for a family and how I manage to put dinner on the table every night with as minimal drama as possible. I don't shy away from the mistakes I make in the kitchen, recipes that don't work for me and why, and how I adapt ready-made products into a healthy, well-balanced and tasty meal. I'm obsessed with trying new recipes and new products, especially Trader Joe's limited seasonal products.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hayley (00:00):
Hello, you are listening to the first episode of
what I'm cooking for dinner.
And this is a podcast where I'm goingto informally talk about what I've
been cooking for dinner and sort ofthe adaptation substitutions, and
generally how much my cooking goesoff the rails when I cook at home.
(00:21):
So this week we're going tobe talking about vindaloo
strawberry tart beef floutas
mustard, soy salmon, MediterraneanGratin and crispy tacos.
All right.
So let's start with talkingabout the pork vindaloo.
So I used a recipe from theblog recipe, 10 eats, and I
(00:45):
know that's a pretty big blog.
I just haven't reallyused it all that much.
And.
Just to start off with just reallyimpressed with the level of detail in
her recipe and her and her head notes.
And I would highly recommend thiswebsite for looking for recipes.
So, but let's talk about the vindaloo.
Vindaloo is a traditionalIndian Curry from Goa.
(01:08):
Goan food is influenced by Portuguesecolonization and vindaloo Curry is
an adaptation of a Portuguese dish.
It is very fiery andspicy and super flavorful.
I made it so that it wasn't so spicybecause my kids have very sensitive
(01:32):
palates and stomachs and would notappreciate that level of spice.
So I'm going to kind of go over.
What is in the recipe, the stepsfor it and the additions and
substitutions that I had to make.
Okay.
So there are pretty much threemain parts of this recipe.
There's the meat, the Curry pasteand the Curry sauce for the meat.
(01:54):
This recipe calls for a beef Chuck,but beef is prohibitively expensive
right now in Oregon and probably all.
The us.
So I actually used a porkloin roast, which was far more
affordable than a beef roast.
And then for the Curry paste, it callsfor Kashmiri chili powder, coriander
(02:15):
seeds cumin seeds, cloves cardamom,pods, green ones, black peppercorns,
fresh ginger, garlic, cloves, brown,sugar, fenugreek seeds, turmeric
powder, white vinegar and water.
So I was not able to find Kashmiri chilipowder at my grocery store and it was
(02:39):
not available at my local spice shop.
I can get it for online order and get itshipped to me through Oaktown spice shop.
But that is a little bitmore effort and cost.
And for thinking then I hadavailable to me this week.
So I followed the recommendationsand the recipe to substitute
(03:01):
the Kashmiri chili powder with.
Smoked paprika andchili powder or cayenne.
I didn't add any of the cayenne becauseI didn't really want it to be spicy.
And also I didn't have any cayenne.
So I just went with the Directsubstitution there of the smoked paprika,
as well as I added in some Ajika seasoningblend that I have from trader Joe's
(03:24):
Ajika seasoning is a traditional Georgianseasoning, and it's a little spicy, a
little smoky, kind of a little bit sour.
It's a really lovely spice blendand I kind of use it whenever
something calls for chili powder.
I was able to find corianderseeds and cumin seeds.
I didn't have clothes,so I just didn't do them.
For the cardamom pods, I had someground cardamom from Oaktown spice
(03:45):
shop, and I just replaced that.
I just think it did ended up doinglike a half teaspoon or something
instead of the cardamom pods.
I had cinnamon, I hadthe black peppercorns.
I had the ginger, I had thegarlic, I had the brown sugar.
I wasn't able to find fenugreekseeds at my grocery store and.
And they didn't have themat the spice shop either.
(04:06):
So I had some ground fenugreekand I used that instead.
I just replaced it.
One-to-one I did it calls forone teaspoon of fenugreek seeds.
I did one teaspoon of powdered turmericpowder I had for white vinegar.
I forgot that I had whitevinegar in my pantry.
I really need to be better about checkingmy pantry before I go grocery shopping.
So I ended up using apple cidervinegar and it was just fine.
(04:29):
All right.
And then for the Curry sauce, it callsfor ghee or unsalted butter, onion,
ginger garlic, black mustard seeds, tomatopaste, fresh Curry leaves and beef stock.
So I did have some ghee on hand.
(04:49):
I got it at trader Joe's.
You can get ghee at yourregular grocery store.
It's usually in the Asian food section.
And the reason why you want touse ghee instead of butter is
because ghee has a higher smokepoint when compared to butter.
So it doesn't burn as quickly.
This makes it perfect forsautéing or frying foods.
Next we had calls for an onion andit said brown, yellow, or white.
(05:11):
I think I ended up using.
I think, I think I had a regular,I think I had a yellow onion,
so I ended up using that.
And then the black mustard seeds,I can get these at my local spice
shop, but I already had someyellow mustard seeds on hand.
So I just subbed those infor the black mustard seed.
(05:32):
I didn't have any curry leaves.
Didn't know where I could getthem around, where I live.
They are not a common item around here, soI just skipped them and then beef stock.
I always use the better thanbullion base for my stocks.
And they have a huge range ofstocks these days that are both
you can get them in organic.
(05:53):
You can get them reduced sodium, andthey have all different sorts of flavors.
And I highly recommend those.
If you cannot make yourown homemade stocks.
So the method for this.
You're going to want tofirst make your Curry paste.
So you put everything into a foodprocessor and make it smooth.
(06:14):
Then you're going to pour it over yourmeat, which should be chopped up into
about half inch pieces and salted.
So you're going to pour that over yourmeat, and then you're going to marinate.
The refrigerator for at least two hours.
I think we did it for about four.
So it should be fairly thin at this point.
It's going to cook down in the oven.
(06:36):
So once you're ready to.
Cook your meat.
You're gonna want to preheat youroven and then make your Curry sauce.
And so there, you're going to be meltingyour ghee on stove top and adding in
all those aromatics and then addingin your seasonings and then pureeing
it and then putting it with your meat.
(06:56):
That's already kind of in your pot.
And then you're gonna go aheadand put that in the oven and cook
it for about two hours or so.
And two hours was definitelyenough time for us.
It was very tender when we took it out.
The sauce was very dark very thickand really, really delicious.
The kids loved this.
I loved it.
My husband wouldn't stop talking abouthow good it was and that it was a keeper.
(07:20):
And he must've said that likethree or four times, and he's not
normally into Indian food or intocurries or like spicy things.
So I was really happy that everybodyreally seemed to like this and we
served it with some store-bought garlic.
If you have time tomake your own go for it.
We didn't and with a rice and peas as oursides, then we also had a dessert with
(07:47):
it and I don't normally make dessert,especially Not during the holidays.
So, but one of my daughters specificallyasked that I make a strawberry pie.
And so I kind of use this as anopportunity to make a recipe from
smitten kitchen every day that I hadnever had the chance to make before.
And I wanted to, and that wasJulie's punked, strawberry tart.
(08:11):
And like I said, this is from the booksmitten kitchen everyday by Deb Perlman.
If you're not familiar with thesmitten kitchen blog, you should.
It's fantastic her writing is wonderful.
It's one of the few cookbooksand blogs where I really, really
like to read the head notes andnot just skip to the recipe.
I'm not sure if it was my lack ofknowledge or skill or the recipe.
(08:35):
I was not happy with how this turned out.
So instead of making my owncrust, I did use a store-bought
crust from trader Joe's.
Trader Joe's pre-made pie, frozen pie.
Crusts are not good.
The flavor is fine, but I have neverhad them not completely fall apart.
When unrolling other store-bought brands,I don't have this problem, but trader.
(08:59):
Pre-made pie crusts justcompletely fall apart.
I do like to use their products though,because they don't have preservatives.
But I don't think I'm going to buytheir pre-made pie crusts again.
Then so this has a crust.
It has a custard and it has strawberries.
It's a very simple recipe in that way.
Strawberries are absolutely not in season.
(09:20):
So I completely understand thatthis was not the best time to
make this pie or this tart, but.
Just went for it anyway, I had nevermade a custard on the stove top
before I've made baked custards,you know, like a pumpkin pie, but
I'd never made a stove top custard.
And I was really unsure of howthick it was supposed to be.
(09:42):
So in the recipe, shesays to make your custard.
So you whisk everything together, right?
And then you put it on the stove topand you bring it to a stimmer stirring
constantly until the custard thickensfour to seven minutes, and then remove
from the heat and whisk in kirsch.
I didn't use any kirsch because I didn'twant to put alcohol in something that was
going to be given to the kids and then letthe custard cool completely in the fridge.
(10:06):
Or you can hasten this along by placingthe bowl in a larger bowl of ice water.
What I was confused by was how thickis this custard supposed to be?
Because my custard hadthickened, it tasted delicious.
It tasted like the bestvanilla pudding ever.
But it was a sloppy mess in the pie crust.
(10:27):
Even after refrigeration, it was.
Custardy putting soup not quite soup,but it was very, very loose still.
And I think that I was supposed tomake it thicker, but I do feel like
the recipe here didn't provide mewith enough information as to how.
Thick this pastry creamwas supposed to be.
(10:48):
This is also a gap in my knowledge.
I'm not a big dessert person.
I'm not a big custard person.
So I just didn't have that knowledgeas to how thick it was supposed to be.
I also found the flavorsto be a little OneNote.
It's a very nice sweet vanilla flavor.
And then some strawberries.
This would have been.
When strawberries are in season,so I'm not going to completely
(11:09):
dismiss it, but I don't thinkI would make this recipe again.
All right.
So next on our list, we have the beeffloutas Supreme from hello, fresh, and
we use hello fresh for two meals a week.
We're going to actually bestopping that because it's
gotten a little bit expensive.
It's usually about 8 99 per serving.
So it runs us about $85 a week, whichis I think a little bit too expensive.
(11:34):
The meals though are usually really good.
These provide us with a lot of leftovers.
We generally don't eat all of it at once.
So it's it doesn't last,it's just one meal.
So the beef flautas these were groundbeef with some seasoning and spices,
onions, and cheese rolled up andflour, tortilla and baked, and they
were served with a salsa Fresca andlime crema, and we also had some baby
(11:58):
carrots on the side as our veggie,they were a bit greasy and a little
heavy, but they were super delicious.
I mean, we ate all of them, notthat night, but we pretty much
ate almost all of them that night.
And they were so good.
Kids asked for like thirds.
So we were really happy with thismeal and we really enjoyed it.
It's something that I can veryeasily recreate at home and not
(12:23):
have to get a recipe kit for next,we have the mustard, soy salmon,
which is also from hello fresh.
And this is a mustard soy glazepan fried salmon filet with a
roasted carrots and ginger rice.
We love Salmon.
It's pretty much the only fishthat we buy, because it's the
only fish that's available reallyat the regular grocery store.
(12:45):
And I know that the kids really like it.
I really like it.
The husband really likes it.
So it's my go-to fish.
I know how to cook it.
So I, my husband knows how to cook it.
So it's the fish that we eat and it'salways a hit and this was so, so good.
The sauce was sweet and salty and tangyand thick and rich, and it was delicious.
(13:12):
The salmon skin got really, really crispy.
And when it was glazed withthe sauce, it was so, so good.
My only quibble was that it said tocook the salmon for about five to
seven minutes on one side skin downand then flip it over for another two
minutes and then it would be done.
It was not anywhere close to being done.
(13:33):
And I was even cooking it onwhat I call my hell burner.
Which is my burner thatgets way, way too hot.
So I don't know what was going onthere if I just wasn't cooking it
correctly or the recipe was really off.
Or if my filets were a lot thickerthan what they were expecting,
the filets to be, and the, therice was really good and Awesome.
(13:56):
The girls actually asked for seconds onthe carrots, which they don't usually
ask for seconds on their veggiesand they just really loved them.
I personally couldn't stopseeking like sneaking any more
pieces of the crispy salmon skin.
So it was a hit next.
We have the crispy tacosfrom homesick Texan and.
(14:16):
I did not cook this.
My husband cooked this on Tuesdaywhen I take my, one of my daughters
to dance class and I printed out therecipe for him kind of, you know, made
some notes for like, you know, whatsubstitutions that you need to make.
And and it seemed likehe did a really good job.
It was really delicious and he was reallysuccessful and I really enjoyed it.
We did have to make some, somesubstitutions, so let me kind of go over.
(14:42):
What ingredients were in thisand what we had to substitute.
So this calls for vegetable oil, yellowonion, jalapeno, garlic, ground beef,
chili powder, ground cumin, driedoregano, salt, pepper, cayenne plum,
tomato, cilantro, and lime juice.
(15:04):
So of course we have vegetable oi.
We used a red onioninstead of a yellow onion.
Cause we had it leftover from something else.
Skip the jalapeno becausewe didn't have it.
I forgot to get it also just,you know, spice levels, garlic.
I thought I had bought garlicand enough garlic for this week.
I didn't.
So he just ended up using somepowdered garlic that we had on hand.
(15:27):
And then for the ground beef.
8 80 20 mixture becausetypically the fattier ground
beef is going to be cheaper.
It was running about five 50 a pound here.
And it's a little bit moreexpensive for those leaner ratios.
And it was a little greasy, but you know,it was fine for what we were using it for.
(15:48):
And then for the chili powder, wesubstituted the ajika seasoning for
the chili powder because it didn'thave any chili powder on hand.
And then for the cumin Alcouldn't find the cumin.
And so he ended up using ground.
He ended up using cumin seedsinstead, and it was fine.
And then the only other thing was wehad a, like a large beef steak, tomato
instead of a plum tomato that we usedskipped cilantro, because it's the
(16:11):
devil's her and it tastes like soap.
And we just kind of skipped the limejuice because I didn't have any lime.
I dehydrated all of my citrus theother day so that it wouldn't go bad.
And the one thing.
I kind of messed up on with preparinghim to make this recipe was I didn't
let him know that we already hadsome taco shells that I had bought
(16:31):
pre-made, you know, those kindof not great ones from the store.
And so he, we did have some freshcorn tortillas though, in the
refrigerator and he actually.
Fried all of them up into the tacoshells, which I was really impressed by.
I wouldn't have bothered doing it.
That's why I had bought the taco shells.
And, but they turned out fantastic andeverybody really loved dinner that night.
(16:55):
And we for the toppings, we didiceberg lettuce, tomato, and some
shredded yellow cheddar cheese.
And it's a pretty much, you just make thefilling and stir it add the seasoning.
And just simmer it until it isall brown and really delicious.
And then you serve it on, up on yourtaco shells, or you gotta make your taco
(17:18):
shells with your fresh corn tortillas.
All right.
So the last recipe that I'm goingto talk about is from dinner
for everyone by mark Bittman.
And I got this book from the libraryand it is kind of a really cool
cookbook because it is what he calls ahundred iconic dishes made three ways.
(17:39):
So he's got the easy version,the vegan version and the
perfect for company version.
And I did a pasta bake.
That was the vegan version and itwas called a Mediterranean gratin.
And let me go over.
What the ingredients for this are.
Okay.
So we have olive oil, raw almonds, twored onions, stale crusty bread, parsley,
(18:05):
broccoli rabe, black olives, garlic,tomato paste, white wine, or water cooked.
Cannellini beans or canned cannellinibeans and whole wheat pasta.
And you want like a smallshape, like a penny.
So I made so many substitutions.
To this recipe that I don'tnecessarily think that this is
(18:27):
a fair review of the recipe.
I think this recipe would actually bedelicious if it had, you know, I had
followed it exactly, but this is kind ofan opportunity to really talk about how
we make substitutions and work around.
Not.
Access to specific ingredientsor what do you do when you
forget something and you mess up?
(18:49):
So first is I had to substitutethe almonds because I forgot to buy
almonds and I don't particularlylike almonds all that much.
And they're really expensive and notreally all that environmentally friendly.
They're really water.
So I had peanuts onhand and I use peanuts.
That was a mistake I should havejust left the nuts out the peanut.
(19:13):
Every time I would taste, I would biteinto a piece of the peanut, that peanut
flavor just overwhelmed everything else.
I skipped the parsley because the bunchesthey sell at the grocery store are
just too large and I never use it up.
So I just sort of skipped it.
If I grew parsley, I would haveused it, but I just, the bunches
are so large and I'm never goingto get through that much parsley.
(19:35):
Then I had to substitute kale forthe broccoli rabe, which was really
disappointing because I reallyloved broccoli rabe but they just
don't have it at my grocery store.
And I thought that kale wouldbe a fine enough substitution.
It worked all right.
Any kind of like heavier, thicker, likea wintery green is going to work well
(20:00):
for substituting broccoli rabe and thenI didn't put black olives in it because I
messed up and thought I had black olives.
But no, I only had green olivesthat were stuffed jalapenos, and
I figured that that would be thewrong choice would to add them.
It really missed having that bittersalty brininess of the olives, it
(20:24):
really needed something like that.
If you can't.
If you don't have olives on hand Iwould recommend that you use something
like a caper instead or maybe add alittle bit like some vinegar or maybe
even some anchovies that would makeit not vegan, but it was still kind
of give that salty briny taste to it.
And then.
There was no garlic, because like Isaid, I messed up earlier in the week
(20:47):
and didn't buy enough garlic and soI ended up having to really add a
lot of things to give it some flavorbecause of the substitutions that I had
to make and the missing ingredients.
So I added onion, salt, blackgarlic crystals from trader Joe's.
(21:07):
And mommy mushroom seasoning fromtrader Joe's and south African smoke,
seasoning salt from trader Joe's.
See, I do a lot of buying of myspices from trader Joe's and this
really kind of helped the flavor.
I still wasn't that into the tasteof it, but I think that is more due
(21:31):
to the errors that I made as opposedto anything wrong with the recipe.
So some other things that I did were.
I didn't use a whole wheat pasta.
I think this actually would be a reallygood place to use a whole wheat pasta.
And I think it would have the sweetkind of nuttiness of whole wheat pasta
(21:52):
would have lended itself really wellto these flavors, especially up against
the kind of bitter ness of the kale.
And I could see it reallyworking with broccoli, Rob.
So used just regularmini little mini shells.
They work just fine.
The texture was all right, and thenI had some ricotta cheese hanging out
(22:13):
and my fridge that I needed to use up.
So I just made some little divotsand the top of the pasta bake and.
I just plopped on somespoonfuls of ricotta cheese.
Then I topped it with the breadcrumbsand the pasta is already mostly cooked.
It's parboiled and on all your greensand all your veggies are already cooked,
(22:34):
and then you add the breadcrumbs on top.
And then I also added.
Some, I had just a very small amount ofParmesan cheese hanging out in my fridge.
And so I added that to my breadcrumbsjust for a little bit more flavor.
And it is, you know, just your kind ofgeneral, like, Hey, this is a pasta bake.
(22:55):
I think that the idea is really good.
This possibly with thisnice crunchy topping.
But I don't think I would make it againanytime soon because I just, it was a
lot of work for me for a week night meal.
And I, I ate it.
(23:17):
The girls said they liked it,but they didn't ask for any more.
And they didn't actually finishthe serving on their plate,
which is rare because they'reactually pretty good eaters.
So we went over.
The Mediterranean Gratin fromdinner for everyone by mark Bittman.
And that is not a keeper.
The Julia's punked strawberry tartfrom smitten kitchen every day.
(23:41):
And again, that's alsonot a keeper for me.
The vindaloo from recipe10 eights, total keeper.
Definitely gonna use that one again.
And the classic crispy tacosfrom homesick Texan would
absolutely use that recipe again.
And then our two hello, fresh mealswhich we're not gonna be using HelloFresh
(24:02):
anymore, but I would totally makethings based off of those recipes again.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for listening.
What are some of the substitutions.
That you need to make.
What are some recipes that youreally like to cook that are
big and keepers in your house?
Go ahead and let me know.
Hello, you are listening to the first episode of
what I'm cooking for dinner.
And this is a podcast where I'm goingto informally talk about what I've
been cooking for dinner and sort ofthe adaptation substitutions, and
generally how much my cooking goesoff the rails when I cook at home.
(00:21):
So this week we're going tobe talking about vindaloo
strawberry tart beef floutas
mustard, soy salmon, MediterraneanGratin and crispy tacos.
All right.
So let's start with talkingabout the pork vindaloo.
So I used a recipe from theblog recipe, 10 eats, and I
(00:45):
know that's a pretty big blog.
I just haven't reallyused it all that much.
And.
Just to start off with just reallyimpressed with the level of detail in
her recipe and her and her head notes.
And I would highly recommend thiswebsite for looking for recipes.
So, but let's talk about the vindaloo.
Vindaloo is a traditionalIndian Curry from Goa.
(01:08):
Goan food is influenced by Portuguesecolonization and vindaloo Curry is
an adaptation of a Portuguese dish.
It is very fiery andspicy and super flavorful.
I made it so that it wasn't so spicybecause my kids have very sensitive
(01:32):
palates and stomachs and would notappreciate that level of spice.
So I'm going to kind of go over.
What is in the recipe, the stepsfor it and the additions and
substitutions that I had to make.
Okay.
So there are pretty much threemain parts of this recipe.
There's the meat, the Curry pasteand the Curry sauce for the meat.
(01:54):
This recipe calls for a beef Chuck,but beef is prohibitively expensive
right now in Oregon and probably all.
The us.
So I actually used a porkloin roast, which was far more
affordable than a beef roast.
And then for the Curry paste, it callsfor Kashmiri chili powder, coriander
(02:15):
seeds cumin seeds, cloves cardamom,pods, green ones, black peppercorns,
fresh ginger, garlic, cloves, brown,sugar, fenugreek seeds, turmeric
powder, white vinegar and water.
So I was not able to find Kashmiri chilipowder at my grocery store and it was
(02:39):
not available at my local spice shop.
I can get it for online order and get itshipped to me through Oaktown spice shop.
But that is a little bitmore effort and cost.
And for thinking then I hadavailable to me this week.
So I followed the recommendationsand the recipe to substitute
(03:01):
the Kashmiri chili powder with.
Smoked paprika andchili powder or cayenne.
I didn't add any of the cayenne becauseI didn't really want it to be spicy.
And also I didn't have any cayenne.
So I just went with the Directsubstitution there of the smoked paprika,
as well as I added in some Ajika seasoningblend that I have from trader Joe's
(03:24):
Ajika seasoning is a traditional Georgianseasoning, and it's a little spicy, a
little smoky, kind of a little bit sour.
It's a really lovely spice blendand I kind of use it whenever
something calls for chili powder.
I was able to find corianderseeds and cumin seeds.
I didn't have clothes,so I just didn't do them.
For the cardamom pods, I had someground cardamom from Oaktown spice
(03:45):
shop, and I just replaced that.
I just think it did ended up doinglike a half teaspoon or something
instead of the cardamom pods.
I had cinnamon, I hadthe black peppercorns.
I had the ginger, I had thegarlic, I had the brown sugar.
I wasn't able to find fenugreekseeds at my grocery store and.
And they didn't have themat the spice shop either.
(04:06):
So I had some ground fenugreekand I used that instead.
I just replaced it.
One-to-one I did it calls forone teaspoon of fenugreek seeds.
I did one teaspoon of powdered turmericpowder I had for white vinegar.
I forgot that I had whitevinegar in my pantry.
I really need to be better about checkingmy pantry before I go grocery shopping.
So I ended up using apple cidervinegar and it was just fine.
(04:29):
All right.
And then for the Curry sauce, it callsfor ghee or unsalted butter, onion,
ginger garlic, black mustard seeds, tomatopaste, fresh Curry leaves and beef stock.
So I did have some ghee on hand.
(04:49):
I got it at trader Joe's.
You can get ghee at yourregular grocery store.
It's usually in the Asian food section.
And the reason why you want touse ghee instead of butter is
because ghee has a higher smokepoint when compared to butter.
So it doesn't burn as quickly.
This makes it perfect forsautéing or frying foods.
Next we had calls for an onion andit said brown, yellow, or white.
(05:11):
I think I ended up using.
I think, I think I had a regular,I think I had a yellow onion,
so I ended up using that.
And then the black mustard seeds,I can get these at my local spice
shop, but I already had someyellow mustard seeds on hand.
So I just subbed those infor the black mustard seed.
(05:32):
I didn't have any curry leaves.
Didn't know where I could getthem around, where I live.
They are not a common item around here, soI just skipped them and then beef stock.
I always use the better thanbullion base for my stocks.
And they have a huge range ofstocks these days that are both
you can get them in organic.
(05:53):
You can get them reduced sodium, andthey have all different sorts of flavors.
And I highly recommend those.
If you cannot make yourown homemade stocks.
So the method for this.
You're going to want tofirst make your Curry paste.
So you put everything into a foodprocessor and make it smooth.
(06:14):
Then you're going to pour it over yourmeat, which should be chopped up into
about half inch pieces and salted.
So you're going to pour that over yourmeat, and then you're going to marinate.
The refrigerator for at least two hours.
I think we did it for about four.
So it should be fairly thin at this point.
It's going to cook down in the oven.
(06:36):
So once you're ready to.
Cook your meat.
You're gonna want to preheat youroven and then make your Curry sauce.
And so there, you're going to be meltingyour ghee on stove top and adding in
all those aromatics and then addingin your seasonings and then pureeing
it and then putting it with your meat.
(06:56):
That's already kind of in your pot.
And then you're gonna go aheadand put that in the oven and cook
it for about two hours or so.
And two hours was definitelyenough time for us.
It was very tender when we took it out.
The sauce was very dark very thickand really, really delicious.
The kids loved this.
I loved it.
My husband wouldn't stop talking abouthow good it was and that it was a keeper.
(07:20):
And he must've said that likethree or four times, and he's not
normally into Indian food or intocurries or like spicy things.
So I was really happy that everybodyreally seemed to like this and we
served it with some store-bought garlic.
If you have time tomake your own go for it.
We didn't and with a rice and peas as oursides, then we also had a dessert with
(07:47):
it and I don't normally make dessert,especially Not during the holidays.
So, but one of my daughters specificallyasked that I make a strawberry pie.
And so I kind of use this as anopportunity to make a recipe from
smitten kitchen every day that I hadnever had the chance to make before.
And I wanted to, and that wasJulie's punked, strawberry tart.
(08:11):
And like I said, this is from the booksmitten kitchen everyday by Deb Perlman.
If you're not familiar with thesmitten kitchen blog, you should.
It's fantastic her writing is wonderful.
It's one of the few cookbooksand blogs where I really, really
like to read the head notes andnot just skip to the recipe.
I'm not sure if it was my lack ofknowledge or skill or the recipe.
(08:35):
I was not happy with how this turned out.
So instead of making my owncrust, I did use a store-bought
crust from trader Joe's.
Trader Joe's pre-made pie, frozen pie.
Crusts are not good.
The flavor is fine, but I have neverhad them not completely fall apart.
When unrolling other store-bought brands,I don't have this problem, but trader.
(08:59):
Pre-made pie crusts justcompletely fall apart.
I do like to use their products though,because they don't have preservatives.
But I don't think I'm going to buytheir pre-made pie crusts again.
Then so this has a crust.
It has a custard and it has strawberries.
It's a very simple recipe in that way.
Strawberries are absolutely not in season.
(09:20):
So I completely understand thatthis was not the best time to
make this pie or this tart, but.
Just went for it anyway, I had nevermade a custard on the stove top
before I've made baked custards,you know, like a pumpkin pie, but
I'd never made a stove top custard.
And I was really unsure of howthick it was supposed to be.
(09:42):
So in the recipe, shesays to make your custard.
So you whisk everything together, right?
And then you put it on the stove topand you bring it to a stimmer stirring
constantly until the custard thickensfour to seven minutes, and then remove
from the heat and whisk in kirsch.
I didn't use any kirsch because I didn'twant to put alcohol in something that was
going to be given to the kids and then letthe custard cool completely in the fridge.
(10:06):
Or you can hasten this along by placingthe bowl in a larger bowl of ice water.
What I was confused by was how thickis this custard supposed to be?
Because my custard hadthickened, it tasted delicious.
It tasted like the bestvanilla pudding ever.
But it was a sloppy mess in the pie crust.
(10:27):
Even after refrigeration, it was.
Custardy putting soup not quite soup,but it was very, very loose still.
And I think that I was supposed tomake it thicker, but I do feel like
the recipe here didn't provide mewith enough information as to how.
Thick this pastry creamwas supposed to be.
(10:48):
This is also a gap in my knowledge.
I'm not a big dessert person.
I'm not a big custard person.
So I just didn't have that knowledgeas to how thick it was supposed to be.
I also found the flavorsto be a little OneNote.
It's a very nice sweet vanilla flavor.
And then some strawberries.
This would have been.
When strawberries are in season,so I'm not going to completely
(11:09):
dismiss it, but I don't thinkI would make this recipe again.
All right.
So next on our list, we have the beeffloutas Supreme from hello, fresh, and
we use hello fresh for two meals a week.
We're going to actually bestopping that because it's
gotten a little bit expensive.
It's usually about 8 99 per serving.
So it runs us about $85 a week, whichis I think a little bit too expensive.
(11:34):
The meals though are usually really good.
These provide us with a lot of leftovers.
We generally don't eat all of it at once.
So it's it doesn't last,it's just one meal.
So the beef flautas these were groundbeef with some seasoning and spices,
onions, and cheese rolled up andflour, tortilla and baked, and they
were served with a salsa Fresca andlime crema, and we also had some baby
(11:58):
carrots on the side as our veggie,they were a bit greasy and a little
heavy, but they were super delicious.
I mean, we ate all of them, notthat night, but we pretty much
ate almost all of them that night.
And they were so good.
Kids asked for like thirds.
So we were really happy with thismeal and we really enjoyed it.
It's something that I can veryeasily recreate at home and not
(12:23):
have to get a recipe kit for next,we have the mustard, soy salmon,
which is also from hello fresh.
And this is a mustard soy glazepan fried salmon filet with a
roasted carrots and ginger rice.
We love Salmon.
It's pretty much the only fishthat we buy, because it's the
only fish that's available reallyat the regular grocery store.
(12:45):
And I know that the kids really like it.
I really like it.
The husband really likes it.
So it's my go-to fish.
I know how to cook it.
So I, my husband knows how to cook it.
So it's the fish that we eat and it'salways a hit and this was so, so good.
The sauce was sweet and salty and tangyand thick and rich, and it was delicious.
(13:12):
The salmon skin got really, really crispy.
And when it was glazed withthe sauce, it was so, so good.
My only quibble was that it said tocook the salmon for about five to
seven minutes on one side skin downand then flip it over for another two
minutes and then it would be done.
It was not anywhere close to being done.
(13:33):
And I was even cooking it onwhat I call my hell burner.
Which is my burner thatgets way, way too hot.
So I don't know what was going onthere if I just wasn't cooking it
correctly or the recipe was really off.
Or if my filets were a lot thickerthan what they were expecting,
the filets to be, and the, therice was really good and Awesome.
(13:56):
The girls actually asked for seconds onthe carrots, which they don't usually
ask for seconds on their veggiesand they just really loved them.
I personally couldn't stopseeking like sneaking any more
pieces of the crispy salmon skin.
So it was a hit next.
We have the crispy tacosfrom homesick Texan and.
(14:16):
I did not cook this.
My husband cooked this on Tuesdaywhen I take my, one of my daughters
to dance class and I printed out therecipe for him kind of, you know, made
some notes for like, you know, whatsubstitutions that you need to make.
And and it seemed likehe did a really good job.
It was really delicious and he was reallysuccessful and I really enjoyed it.
We did have to make some, somesubstitutions, so let me kind of go over.
(14:42):
What ingredients were in thisand what we had to substitute.
So this calls for vegetable oil, yellowonion, jalapeno, garlic, ground beef,
chili powder, ground cumin, driedoregano, salt, pepper, cayenne plum,
tomato, cilantro, and lime juice.
(15:04):
So of course we have vegetable oi.
We used a red onioninstead of a yellow onion.
Cause we had it leftover from something else.
Skip the jalapeno becausewe didn't have it.
I forgot to get it also just,you know, spice levels, garlic.
I thought I had bought garlicand enough garlic for this week.
I didn't.
So he just ended up using somepowdered garlic that we had on hand.
(15:27):
And then for the ground beef.
8 80 20 mixture becausetypically the fattier ground
beef is going to be cheaper.
It was running about five 50 a pound here.
And it's a little bit moreexpensive for those leaner ratios.
And it was a little greasy, but you know,it was fine for what we were using it for.
(15:48):
And then for the chili powder, wesubstituted the ajika seasoning for
the chili powder because it didn'thave any chili powder on hand.
And then for the cumin Alcouldn't find the cumin.
And so he ended up using ground.
He ended up using cumin seedsinstead, and it was fine.
And then the only other thing was wehad a, like a large beef steak, tomato
instead of a plum tomato that we usedskipped cilantro, because it's the
(16:11):
devil's her and it tastes like soap.
And we just kind of skipped the limejuice because I didn't have any lime.
I dehydrated all of my citrus theother day so that it wouldn't go bad.
And the one thing.
I kind of messed up on with preparinghim to make this recipe was I didn't
let him know that we already hadsome taco shells that I had bought
(16:31):
pre-made, you know, those kindof not great ones from the store.
And so he, we did have some freshcorn tortillas though, in the
refrigerator and he actually.
Fried all of them up into the tacoshells, which I was really impressed by.
I wouldn't have bothered doing it.
That's why I had bought the taco shells.
And, but they turned out fantastic andeverybody really loved dinner that night.
(16:55):
And we for the toppings, we didiceberg lettuce, tomato, and some
shredded yellow cheddar cheese.
And it's a pretty much, you just make thefilling and stir it add the seasoning.
And just simmer it until it isall brown and really delicious.
And then you serve it on, up on yourtaco shells, or you gotta make your taco
(17:18):
shells with your fresh corn tortillas.
All right.
So the last recipe that I'm goingto talk about is from dinner
for everyone by mark Bittman.
And I got this book from the libraryand it is kind of a really cool
cookbook because it is what he calls ahundred iconic dishes made three ways.
(17:39):
So he's got the easy version,the vegan version and the
perfect for company version.
And I did a pasta bake.
That was the vegan version and itwas called a Mediterranean gratin.
And let me go over.
What the ingredients for this are.
Okay.
So we have olive oil, raw almonds, twored onions, stale crusty bread, parsley,
(18:05):
broccoli rabe, black olives, garlic,tomato paste, white wine, or water cooked.
Cannellini beans or canned cannellinibeans and whole wheat pasta.
And you want like a smallshape, like a penny.
So I made so many substitutions.
To this recipe that I don'tnecessarily think that this is
(18:27):
a fair review of the recipe.
I think this recipe would actually bedelicious if it had, you know, I had
followed it exactly, but this is kind ofan opportunity to really talk about how
we make substitutions and work around.
Not.
Access to specific ingredientsor what do you do when you
forget something and you mess up?
(18:49):
So first is I had to substitutethe almonds because I forgot to buy
almonds and I don't particularlylike almonds all that much.
And they're really expensive and notreally all that environmentally friendly.
They're really water.
So I had peanuts onhand and I use peanuts.
That was a mistake I should havejust left the nuts out the peanut.
(19:13):
Every time I would taste, I would biteinto a piece of the peanut, that peanut
flavor just overwhelmed everything else.
I skipped the parsley because the bunchesthey sell at the grocery store are
just too large and I never use it up.
So I just sort of skipped it.
If I grew parsley, I would haveused it, but I just, the bunches
are so large and I'm never goingto get through that much parsley.
(19:35):
Then I had to substitute kale forthe broccoli rabe, which was really
disappointing because I reallyloved broccoli rabe but they just
don't have it at my grocery store.
And I thought that kale wouldbe a fine enough substitution.
It worked all right.
Any kind of like heavier, thicker, likea wintery green is going to work well
(20:00):
for substituting broccoli rabe and thenI didn't put black olives in it because I
messed up and thought I had black olives.
But no, I only had green olivesthat were stuffed jalapenos, and
I figured that that would be thewrong choice would to add them.
It really missed having that bittersalty brininess of the olives, it
(20:24):
really needed something like that.
If you can't.
If you don't have olives on hand Iwould recommend that you use something
like a caper instead or maybe add alittle bit like some vinegar or maybe
even some anchovies that would makeit not vegan, but it was still kind
of give that salty briny taste to it.
And then.
There was no garlic, because like Isaid, I messed up earlier in the week
(20:47):
and didn't buy enough garlic and soI ended up having to really add a
lot of things to give it some flavorbecause of the substitutions that I had
to make and the missing ingredients.
So I added onion, salt, blackgarlic crystals from trader Joe's.
(21:07):
And mommy mushroom seasoning fromtrader Joe's and south African smoke,
seasoning salt from trader Joe's.
See, I do a lot of buying of myspices from trader Joe's and this
really kind of helped the flavor.
I still wasn't that into the tasteof it, but I think that is more due
(21:31):
to the errors that I made as opposedto anything wrong with the recipe.
So some other things that I did were.
I didn't use a whole wheat pasta.
I think this actually would be a reallygood place to use a whole wheat pasta.
And I think it would have the sweetkind of nuttiness of whole wheat pasta
(21:52):
would have lended itself really wellto these flavors, especially up against
the kind of bitter ness of the kale.
And I could see it reallyworking with broccoli, Rob.
So used just regularmini little mini shells.
They work just fine.
The texture was all right, and thenI had some ricotta cheese hanging out
(22:13):
and my fridge that I needed to use up.
So I just made some little divotsand the top of the pasta bake and.
I just plopped on somespoonfuls of ricotta cheese.
Then I topped it with the breadcrumbsand the pasta is already mostly cooked.
It's parboiled and on all your greensand all your veggies are already cooked,
(22:34):
and then you add the breadcrumbs on top.
And then I also added.
Some, I had just a very small amount ofParmesan cheese hanging out in my fridge.
And so I added that to my breadcrumbsjust for a little bit more flavor.
And it is, you know, just your kind ofgeneral, like, Hey, this is a pasta bake.
(22:55):
I think that the idea is really good.
This possibly with thisnice crunchy topping.
But I don't think I would make it againanytime soon because I just, it was a
lot of work for me for a week night meal.
And I, I ate it.
(23:17):
The girls said they liked it,but they didn't ask for any more.
And they didn't actually finishthe serving on their plate,
which is rare because they'reactually pretty good eaters.
So we went over.
The Mediterranean Gratin fromdinner for everyone by mark Bittman.
And that is not a keeper.
The Julia's punked strawberry tartfrom smitten kitchen every day.
(23:41):
And again, that's alsonot a keeper for me.
The vindaloo from recipe10 eights, total keeper.
Definitely gonna use that one again.
And the classic crispy tacosfrom homesick Texan would
absolutely use that recipe again.
And then our two hello, fresh mealswhich we're not gonna be using HelloFresh
(24:02):
anymore, but I would totally makethings based off of those recipes again.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for listening.
What are some of the substitutions.
That you need to make.
What are some recipes that youreally like to cook that are
big and keepers in your house?
Go ahead and let me know.
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