ROASTED MUSHROOMS WITH CRISPY POLENTA AND PARMESAN, PG 165
I made this for dinner last night and my family enjoyed it. They prefer soft polenta so I served the mushrooms over that. I think it’s a repeat.
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Do you think this is a recipe that suffered from the one-pan conceit? Like, would the tuna have been better just seared and served on top, and everything done stovetop?
Interestingly enough, I don’t think it suffered. I almost didn’t make it because I worried about that. But the next day I was on EYB looking for other roasted tuna recipes.
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I made the roasted chicken tagine last night, and was grateful for Stef’s tip about the dates. I held them back until the last 5 minutes and they didn’t burn. I also started the sweet potatoes and carrots about 10 minutes before adding the chicken, since they always seem to take longer than the 40 minutes total given here (I also cut them smaller than she has them). This really is easy and delicious. Family was very happy with this, and I will make it again. Served over couscous.
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Looks great
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CRISPY LEMON CHICKEN page 20
No sure i should review this recipe because it calls for chicken with skin on and i only had boneless skinless chicken thighs. the potatoes or chicken didnt crisp up but the oregano, garlic and lemon made it a very flavorable dish. Chicken was very tender and potatoes cooked thru. A sauce is made of with the cooking juices, lemon and capers and we loved it. A big plus i only had to wash the sheet pan and a bowl. We liked this dish very much but next time i will get skin on chicken.
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SAUSAGE BAKE with Crunchy Potatoes, Red Cabbage, and Caraway - p. 36
This one appealed to me as a way to use up some of the cabbage I’ve been getting in the CSA box. The recipe calls for red. I had green, so that’s what I used. This is a sheet pan dinner. You start by putting cabbage wedges and cubed potatoes on a sheet pan and sprinkling with caraway and coriander seeds that have been crushed in a mortar. Onion slices are scattered over. The vegetables get a drizzle of oil, thyme sprigs are tucked in, and they are roasted for 30 min. Sausages are rubbed with mustard and get added to the sheet pan, then everything is roasted for another 15-20 minutes. I used Beyond Brats here. Before serving, the thyme is removed, and lemon is zested over the dish. There is also supposed to be a sprinkle of dill, which I did not have. More mustard is served on the side, as are lemon wedges for squeezing over.
This was super easy and we liked it. Sausages were a bit overcooked, so I would reduce the time on them a bit in the future. I would make this again. The recipe says it serves 4, but it served the 2 of us with no leftovers. Just sayin’.
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SMOKY LENTIL STEW with Kielbasa and Potatoes - p. 214
This is one for the Instant Pot. You are supposed to start by sautéing leeks and the kielbasa. I decided to follow the suggestion to “veg it up” by sautéing celery and carrot along with the onion that stood in for the leeks I did not have. Garlic, smoked paprika, and cayenne are added to the sauté, followed by canned tomatoes, bay leaf, a rosemary sprig, salt & pepper. You then add lentils, cubed potatoes, and water. I used black beluga lentils for this dish (green or brown lentils are called for). The amount of water called for (1 1/2 cups) did not cover the lentils, so I added enough to just barely cover them, a little over 2 cups total. I strongly recommend making that adjustment, because even with the extra water, it was all absorbed. This cooks for 11 minutes, followed by a natural release.
Everything was nicely cooked, and the stew, while very simple, was tasty. I liked it enough that I gave the recipe to my sister who doesn’t really like to cook and is always looking for easy meals. She also enjoyed it. I did increase the smoked paprika the second time around.
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MISO-GLAZED SALMON with Roasted Snap Peas page 40
I have used this sweet and savory glaze for both salmon and cod.
For the glaze kosher salt, maple syrup or honey,white or red miso, lime juice,soya sauce,fish sauce and garlic are combined and poured over salmon. Salmon was baked at 400f for 10 minutes and was exactly how we liked it, still a little red inside. I roasted broccoli separately in my breville.
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CRISPY SAUSAGE-STUFFED MUSHROOMS with Broccolini and Cherry Tomatoes - p. 42
Back to the sheet pan section for another really ugly but tasty meal. I once again used Beyond Sausage (hot Itialian this time) to keep it vegan. The world of vegan, gluten-free panko has been destroyed by the disappearance of Ian’s, so I just made breadcrumbs from some GF sourdough I had on hand. It was a whole grain bread and kind of dark in color, which didn’t help the appearance of my dish. Anyway, for yet another super-easy meal, what you do is mix your sausage with bread crumbs, parm (vegan parm for me), parsley, fresh thyme and marjoram, and garlic. Fill some portobello caps and put them on a sheet pan. Alongside the mushroom caps, you spread some broccolini (I used regular broccoli from my CSA box) and cherry tomatoes which have been tossed with oil and seasoned. Roast it all for 30-40 minutes at 375.
Once again we liked this. The vegetables were nothing to write home about, but the mushrooms caps were good. I would make this again, but maybe swap out the veg for cabbage or Brussels sprouts.
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PASTA WITH GARLICKY BROCCOLI RABE, Lemon Zest, and Mozzarella - p. 122
There is a very similar recipe in the Nigella book we cooked from last year. For that recipe, I concocted a vegan “anchovy” paste, and made use of that here. I used broccoli from my CSA box instead of going to a store to buy broccoli rabe. Sorry, but the CSA box drives the cooking until the end of the season. To keep this a one-pot dish, the pasta is cooked with the skillet method. You heat EVOO in a large skillet, and sauté garlic, anchovies (my paste), and red pepper flakes. You then stir in the broccoli rabe, then add the pasta to the skillet, and water. You cook this, stirring occasionally, until the water is mostly absorbed and the pasta is cooked. Stir in some fresh basil at the end, and add pieces of fresh mozzarella. I didn’t have a vegan version of the latter, so used a handful of vegan mozz shreds, which didn’t add much, tbh. Season with salt, lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice, and more rpf, if desired.
I used a high-protein lentil-based pasta to make this a more complete meal. This dish was fine, and the skillet method for cooking the pasta worked very well. There are so many recipes like this one, and it just wasn’t special enough that I would seek to make it again. I know I would have liked it better with broccoli rabe. I have to say I think it would adapt very well to the Instant Pot, though (cooking the pasta for about 1 minute). So while I probably wouldn’t make it again at home, when traveling with my IP and in need of something easy to make, I would do something similar to this.
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GLAZED TOFU with Sweet Potatoes and Silky Red Peppers - p. 56
Another one from the sheet pan section. Clark has you cut two blocks of tofu into three slabs per block. These are really thick slabs! There is glaze for the tofu made of olive oil, soy sauce, cider vinegar, honey (I used a vegan “honey” here), garlic, ground coriander, and pepper. She has you toss the tofu in this right before roasting, but I did this first and let the tofu marinate while I made the rest of the dish. Sweet potato wedges and bell pepper slices are tossed with fresh sage, paprika, salt, allspice, cayenne, and olive oil, and spread out on a sheet pan. They are roasted for 15 minutes, then you add the tofu in its glaze, and scatter wedges of shallots over the veg. This is all roasted another 35-40 minutes. Extra marinade is spooned on top and cilantro is sprinkled over.
I am pretty sure I have never made a decent tofu recipe from Melissa Clark, and this is no exception. It isn’t BAD, but she seems clueless about how to get the best taste and texture from tofu. She treats it like a hunk of meat. A big problem here is the size of the tofu pieces. They are huge. It looks nice, but it means lots of mild, unflavored tofu, as the glaze does NOT soak in. Tofu doesn’t really absorb marinades (nor does meat). It WILL absorb a brine, so if you want to get flavor into tofu, brine it. But if the pieces are small, you don’t need to do that, because the flavor all around on the exterior is enough. Anyway, please don’t make this as your intro to cooking tofu. Trust me when I tell you tofu can be soooo much better.
In general, the total roasting time was too long, so the sweet potatoes and peppers were overdone. I would shorten the time, and also cut the tofu into smaller pieces. I think an air fryer could be used to good effect in this recipe. But I’m not enough of a fan of the whole combo to spend time trying to fix it.
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I remember with Dinner that there were some very odd and not believable serving sizes. I haven’t really noticed it as much with this book, but that could be luck on my part.
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I didn’t mention it on the other recipes, but it was pretty consistent that I got far fewer servings than advertised. Granted, I do have a hearty appetite!
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With Dinner, serving estimates were wildly inconsistent, with some recipes calling for 8 ounces of protein and not a lot else allegedly serving 4, while others used two or two-and-half times that for the same number of servings. It was just not very well considered.
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I remember things like there being 4 chicken thighs serving 6 people. HOW???
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Really interesting about brining tofu. Are there any recipes you can link to with this method? I’d love to try it.
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No. It’s something I came up with on my own, so I just wing it when I do it. I’m sure I’m not the only one to have the idea, so there must be recipes out there. A dry-brining also works (toss tofu with salt and other seasonings and let sit). I use the latter when I want to fry or air-fry the tofu.
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SKILLET SHRIMP SCAMPI w/ ORZO AND TOMATOES (p. 125)
Just finished cleaning up from this dinner, which was a big hit. Didn’t realize until I was about to make this that the serving size is 2 or 3. We have good appetites and like leftover for LLD’s lunches, so I quickly decided to double it except for the shrimp - I didn’t have any more shrimp, and Lulu isn’t a big shrimp fan. And honestly, I’d keep it just this way next time because it was enough shrimp. Saute garlic in butter and olive oil, then add wine, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (i went heavy on the last of these and probably on the garlic too). Add the shrimp and saute until just pink, then remove from the pan and keep warm. Add water to the pan and bring to a simmer, then add the orzo and more salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally. Then add back the shrimp and the halved cherry tomatoes (I added the tomatoes a little earlier because I wanted them to have a bit more time to cook). Let warm up for about 2 minutes, squeeze a lemon over and serve. I was a little iffy about adding tomatoes, but in the end I liked it, and loved that it had the vegetable element incorporated. Really delicious. No picture this time.
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Do you have a brand recommendation for this pasta? I’ve been looking for something like this. (The one I’ve tried is Banza, made from chickpeas.)
