To report on a recipe, put the name of the recipe in ALL CAPS and include a link, or if working from a cookbook, include which book and the page number, if it’s available to you. If you are the first to post about a recipe, please reply to this post. If someone has already posted about the recipe, reply to their post so all the posts about each recipe are linked for easy reference.
To respect the author’s copyright, please don’t post photos or verbatim copies of recipes. Links to recipes online are welcome, and you may post ingredients and summarize instructions in your own words.
The first two books were COTMs in Chowhound days, and while I did not expect much to appeal, I ended up adding three recipes to my regular rotation (with minor tweaks along the way).
CARROT AND COCONUT SOUP
Flexible and fast using a pressure cooker and prepared chilli oil and crispy shallots or onions
CAESAR SALAD
She has several tweaks for caesar salad – the easiest one uses mayo and fish sauce, another spices it up with sriracha and anchovy paste. The fish sauce and anchovy paste tweaks are clever time and ingredient savers.
PARMESAN WAFFLE
A savory waffle, crisps up nicely in the oven or toaster afterwards. (Iirc I ate them with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.)
Not about food: taking an idle look through the ebook edition of Cravings: All Together, I ran into this headnote:
Remember that TV show Zoom? It was sort of the kids’ show for the 'N Sync gener-tion. Anyway, in it, they had this short cooking segment when kids would teach kids (me, at the time)
And was reminded that there was a Zoom reboot. Because I remember the original series from the early-mid '70s, when I was a young kid limited to PBS. Chrissy Teigen was born in 1985, according to the internets.
SUPER TUNA MELTS P. 228 CRAVINGS
This was a good tuna melt with the usual suspects of tuna, mayo, sweet pickle relish and onion with the addition of Dijon mustard (whole-grain was on hand). I don’t think I’ve ever added mustard to my tuna salad before. I did not have any tomato since I don’t obtain them from the grocery store. I sliced some medium sharp cheddar for the sandwiches. Chrissy says this makes 2 sandwiches but will probably make at least five since I use good old American white (Rainbow if they still made it) bread. You use 2 cans of tuna and they’re a bit goopy so you would need larger and much more substantial bread to hold that much filling. Will not mind eating more of these. I always use the broiler to make my toasties rather than the skillet.
This recipe uses the standard mayo, mustard and relish to the yolks with the addition of bacon. She has you put a drop of Sriracha on the egg white before adding the yolk mixture. This is crowned with a pickled nacho slice.
![7EA5C094-57B8-4510-A3C2-EBAF8EF6D82E|525x700]
(upload://ceTpAcUY6WwNM74MWnzFamSWlGu.jpeg)
You can use the amount of Sriracha that you like. I used a small drop since I wasn’t too sure about it. The bacon and jalapeño are good additions.
ROASTED JALAPENO AND CHORIZO QUESO P. 153 Cravings
This is another familiar recipe with Chrissy twists. She has you buy fresh jalapeños and roast them. By the time I got around to making this my peppers were rotten so I used frozen roasted and peeled Hatch chilies. No fresh tomatoes so I used Rotel. Onion and chorizo are cooked and Velveeta is combined with all ingredients and heated until melted and hot.
I have not used Mexican chorizo much but I would try another brand in the future. I wish I had some lime juice to add as I thought a hit of acid was needed. Pickled jalapeños would be good in it. My stomach is trying to succede from the union so I have to be cautious.I would like to try roasting some jalapeños as they would probably be good i a lot of things.
This was one of a few Caesar salad dressing shortcuts that blew my mind a little when I first came across it – because I always have fish sauce, but I don’t always have anchovies, or even anchovy paste!
Her new book has a sriracha version.
Today I used both fish sauce and anchovy paste, along with garlic, which is missing in the older recipe.
Croutons instead of panko, to use the crust end of a homemade loaf. And some crispy jalapenos for more crunch and quite a kick.
This is her Mac and Cheese. It is probably the recipe of hers that I make the most and I was delighted when BF wanted it this past weekend for one of our cheat nights. I make the garlic and parmesan panko breadcrumbs in a big batch and keep them in the freezer, which cuts the time to make this down a bunch. They are good on all kinds of things, like fish or gratins. I measure the panko by the fistful and saute with about 1 garlic clove per fistful of crumbs in olive oil. Then mix in grated parmesan until it looks “right”. Or you could follow the recipe:
Anyway, after that, it’s pretty straightforward - par cook your pasta and set aside. Make a blonde roux with flour and butter. Add milk and turn that into a white sauce. Flavor it with some cayenne. Then add American cheese, Swiss, and Cheddar. Check for seasonings (salt and pepper). Add your pasta and mix throughly. Pour this into a buttered baking pan and top with the toasted panko. Bake for about 8 minutes until bubbly.
I tried the Sriracha Caesar variation yesterday – it was good, but the sriracha really didn’t give me a big hit of flavor.
Today I had the idea to use Harissa paste instead – THIS was the best tweak so far for me!
I like the combination of fish sauce and anchovy paste, but if just one, I think I prefer anchovy paste. I also like cutting the mayo with a bit of thick Greek yogurt. Helps to chill the dressing for a bit to firm up and for the flavors to meld.
I riffed on this today and replaced the lemongrass and ginger with red curry paste, skipping the chilli oil at the end because there was already chilli in the paste.
Pressure cooked the onions and carrots, which sped it all up.
Topped with (purchased) fried shallots, which add a little texture and extra flavor when mixed through.
– because I always have fish sauce, but I don’t always have anchovies, or even anchovy paste!
