I kind of spliced together a few different recipes for this. It's still basically the one posted on the Budget Byte$ blog, just with a few extra steps and a marinade thrown in. The extra steps and the idea of adding a liquid marinade as well as dry seasonings comes from the Easy Vegan. The marinade itself is my own concoction.

Barbecue Tofu Sandwiches

Adapted from The Easy Vegan and Budget Byte$

Ingredients

Tofu

• 350g extra firm tofu
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 tsp. mushroom ketchup
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp. ketchup
• 1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1 tsp. paprika (preferably smoked)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 20 grinds of black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch/cornflour
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil (optional)

Coleslaw

• 1/3 c. mayonnaise
• 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 10 grinds black pepper
• 250-350g coleslaw mix¹

Assembly

• 3-4 burger buns
• ~2 Tbsp. garlic butter
• 1/4-1/2 c. barbecue sauce²

Directions

Tofu

1. Freeze the tofu.
2. Thaw, drain, and cut into four thin slabs. (Cut the brick in half once vertically and once horizontally.)
3. Wrap the tofu slabs in a tea towel, place something heavy on top and press for at least half an hour. (Or just use a tofu press if you have one.)
4. Cut into bite-sized chunks and return to freezer.
5. Thaw the tofu chunks and press/pat dry with a tea towel.
6. In a small bowl combine light soy, mushroom ketchup, dark soy, tomato paste, ketchup, and liquid smoke and mix well.
7. Pour marinade over tofu and toss until all of the tofu has had a chance to absorb some.
8. Combine paprika, garlic powder, pepper, and salt and mix well.
9. Toss tofu with dry spice mix until evenly coated.
10. Toss with cornstarch, 1 tsp. at a time.
12. Heat oil over medium to medium-high heat (if using). Fry tofu in oil, turning only occasionally, until well browned and slightly crisp. Alternatively, bake in a 350°F (180°C) oven until outside is firm and lightly browned, flipping once.

Coleslaw

1. Combine mayo, honey, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper and mix well.
2. Add coleslaw mix and stir to coat.

Assembly

1. Cut the buns and spread them with garlic butter.
2. Toast.
3. Toss tofu with barbecue sauce.
4. Pile saucy tofu on toasted bun bottoms.
5. Spoon some coleslaw on top of the tofu.
6. Close the sandwich by placing the bun half on top.
7. Serve with extra coleslaw on the side.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

Tofu

• 350g extra firm tofu
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 tsp. mushroom ketchup
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp. ketchup
• 1/4 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1 tsp. paprika (preferably smoked)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 20 grinds of black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch/cornflour
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil (optional)

Coleslaw

• 1/3 c. vegan mayonnaise
• 1/2 Tbsp. agave syrup
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 10 grinds black pepper
• 250-350g coleslaw mix¹

Assembly

• 3-4 burger buns
• ~2 Tbsp. garlic margarine or olive oil and fresh minced garlic
• 1/4-1/2 c. barbecue sauce²

If using oil and garlic for your buns: Brush the sliced buns with olive oil and sprinkle with minced garlic. Toast. Optionally sprinkle with fresh or lightly dried parsley.

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¹ Or make your own mix of shredded cabbage and carrots. I actually used broccoli slaw for mine because it was on sale for 50% off. ^Back
2 We didn't really have much in the way of barbecue sauce: just the dregs of an ancient bottle of HP sauce. I ended up sort of rolling my own sauce. I didn't measure anything, so I can't really give a recipe. It ended up being a mix of HP sauce, buffalo sauce, ketchup, hoisin sauce, roasted garlic paste, black pepper, hot paprika, liquid smoke, and Chinese 5-spice powder. I think a "real" BBQ sauce would've been better, but it did pretty well in a pinch. ^Back

Saffron-(Blood) Orange Bundt Cake

This cake was the product of a late-night craving for sweets. As I said to my partners when I made it: I am an adult. In theory this means I am capable of making healthy and responsible choices. In practice this means I am capable of making saffron-blood orange Bundt cake at midnight. Oh, and I used blood oranges because I had a bunch on hand, not because that's what the recipe required. Plus, it sounds even fancier with blood oranges in the name!

Saffron-Orange Bundt Cake

From The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/2 tsp. saffron threads, crushed
• 1/8 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 Tbsp. boiling water
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 4 tsp. orange zest
• 2 Tbsp. orange juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 c. (425g) all-purpose flour¹
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 18 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 c. sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 egg yolk²

Glaze

• 2 c. icing/powdered/confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp. orange zest
• 2-4 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions

Cake

1. Grease and flour your Bundt pan and place it on a baking sheet.
2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
3. Combine saffron and turmeric and pour boiling water over them. Set aside for 15 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (~3 minutes).
6. Break in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
7. Beat in egg yolk.
8. Whisk buttermilk, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla into saffron mixture.
9. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in two additions.
10. Stir once or twice by hand to make sure everything is well mixed, then pour into prepared Bundt pan.
11. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 50-55 minutes.
12. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes.
13. Invert onto cooling rack and remove tin.
14. Allow to cool for two hours before glazing.

Glaze

1. Combine icing sugar, orange zest, and 2 Tbsp. of the orange juice.
2. Add additional orange juice 1 tsp. at a time until desired consistency is reached. Glaze should be thick but pourable.
3. Drizzle glaze over cooled cake and allow to set for at least 10 minutes before serving.

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¹ Soft/plain/cake/standard flour should be fine here. But if you are going to swap out the flour, it's probably best to do it by mass rather than volume. ^Back
2 My eggs were on the small side (~55g), so I just put in four whole eggs. ^Back

I needed something quick and easy for dinner and this fit the bill. I was able to toss everything in the InstantPot and set it to cook while I went out to pick up the Kidlet from school. Next time I think I'd add a bay leaf to the pot (and hopefully actually remember to serve it with lemon wedges), but other than that it was pretty good. I know it might be veering away from the "Spanish" theme a bit, but I also think a cinnamon stick would be nice in this.

The original recipe calls for artichoke hearts, but since I didn't have any on hand and TF finds them completely inedible anyway, I swapped them out for Brussels sprouts instead. I think the Brussels sprouts work decently well here, but they ended up overcooked and much softer than I would've liked. Next time I might steam them separately and then just toss them in at the end.

Spanish Rice with Chickpeas

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika¹
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried onion
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder²
• black pepper, ~20 grinds
• 1 bay leaf (optional)
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
• 2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 400mL diced tomatoes
• 1 c. vegetable broth
• 12 Brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered
• 1/4 c. fresh (flat-leaf) parsley
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions

1. Add rice, oil, paprika, cayenne, cumin, oregano, onion, garlic, pepper, and any optional spices to InstantPot or rice cooker and stir to coat.
2. Drain and rinse chickpeas if necessary and add them to the pot.
3. Add tomatoes, broth, and Brussels sprouts.
4. Cover and cook. Use normal cooking cycle for rice cooker and allow to steam for 5-10 minutes after cook cycle ends or 18 minutes on high pressure with a 10 minute natural release for the InstantPot.
5. Fluff rice and sprinkle with parsley.
6. Serve with lemon wedges.

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¹ I actually ended up using some hot paprika I had on hand instead of the smoked paprika. Instead of adding cayenne as well as hot paprika, I just tossed in a little sweet paprika. I think smoked paprika would've been good if I'd had any easily to hand. Next time (since I probably still won't have any smoked paprika) I'd use a mix of hot paprika and ground Kashmiri chilies instead of the sweet paprika. ^Back
2 Next time I think I'd add a clove or two of fresh garlic either instead of or as well as the powder. ^Back

Mongolian Beef Stir-Fry with Garlic Vegetables

A Hello Fresh recipe, this one didn't do much for me, but symbol absolutely loved it. And it does have the virtue of being easy to put together.

Ingredients

• Rice
• 375mL jasmine rice
• 4 green onions
• 15mL ginger paste
• Beef
• 570g beef strips
• 160g bell pepper, cut into 1cm pieces
• 450g brocolli florets, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 15mL ginger paste
• Sauce
• 15mL cornstarch
• 125mL hoisin sauce/soy sauce mix
• 10mL sugar

Procedure

1. Rice
1. Sauté green onions and ginger in a bit of oil until fragrant, ~1 minute.
2. Combine with rice and cook rice as usual.
2. Sauce
1. Whisk together all sauce ingredients in 250mL cold water.
3. Beef
1. Heat a bit of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.
2. Cook beef strips, then remove from pan.
3. In same pan, reduce heat to medium, add oil if needed, and cook peppers and broccoli, ~5 minutes.
4. Add ginger, beef, and any beef juices and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
5. Add sauce and cook until desired thickness is reached, ~5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

TF was craving something sweet on the weekend, so I baked a cake!

Tunnel of Fudge

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Pan Coating

• 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder (any kind is fine)
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Cake

• 1/2 c. boiling water
• 60g semi-sweet or dark chocolate, chopped
• 20 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. packed brown sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 c. (280g) all-purpose flour¹
• 2 c. walnut or pecan pieces
• 2 c. icing/confectioners'/powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. Dutched cocoa

Glaze

• 3/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 c. corn syrup
• 230g semi-sweet or dark chocolate, chopped²
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Pan Coating

1. Combine the melted butter and cocoa to make a paste and mix well.
2. Grease a Bundt pan by painting the butter-cocoa mixture onto the pan with a pastry brush.
3. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Cake

1. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Set aside and allow to cool to room temp.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.³
4. Beat in the vanilla.
5. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, icing sugar, salt, and cocoa powder and then add the nuts and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Or, if you're lazy like me and trying to avoid dirtying extra bowls, you can do what I did and just sift all the dry ingredients directly into the bowl with the wet and toss the nuts in on top. Then just take the electric mixer to it and mix for 30-60 seconds until everything is combined. (Make sure to get all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. There's a lot of batter here!)
6. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan.
7. Place a baking sheet under the Bundt pan and place it in the preheated oven.
8. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 45-55 minutes⁴.
9. Allow to cool in tin for 90 minutes.
10. Invert onto wire rack, remove from tin, and allow to cool for another 1-2 hours before adding glaze.

Glaze

1. Heat cream, corn syrup, and cocolate over medium-low, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth.
2. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
3. Allow to cool for 30-40 minutes so that glaze thickens slightly.
4. Drizzle glaze over cooled cake and allow to set for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

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¹ If you don't have AP flour, then swapping it out for soft/cake/standard/plain flour should probably be fine. I'm just not sure how the softer flour with affect the fudge-y centre. If you're worried about how the different flour will affect the crumb and fudge, then you could always mix hard and soft flours together to make an approximation of AP flour. I think 160g hard/bread/high grade/strong flour + 120g soft/cake/standard/plain four should be roughly equivalent to the 280g of AP flour called for in this recipe. ^Back
2 I actually used up the last of my dark and semi-sweet chocolate making the cake, so I had none left for the glaze. I ended up using a mix of unsweetened and milk chocolate to make the glaze and it seems to have worked out quite well. I used 120g unsweetend chocolate and 110g milk chocolate. ^Back
3 The original recipe has you whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a large measuring cup and then pour the egg mixture into the creamed butter-sugar mixture. Use whichever method you find most comfortable. I mostly just wanted to save dirtying the large measuring cup! ^Back
4 ATK say 45 minutes, but I ended up letting mine go for an extra 10. It's possible that it would've been ready to come out after only 45, but it still seemed quite underdone when I checked it. I know this cake is meant to be slightly under-baked by design. But I was worried that the centre would be runny rather than fudge-y without the extra 10 minutes. Use your judgement. I'm sure either way would produce tasty results. ^Back

I originally added this meal to the menu for the week because I had some green beans that needed using. I kept putting off actually making it though and, sadly, by the time I finally got to it, the beans had gone a bit fuzzy. I went ahead with the curry as planned, minus the beans and it was delicious! The beans would've been a welcome addition, but it was still really lovely without them.

My plan was to make this with dried mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, green beans, and bell pepper as the inclusions. That said, it's a very flexible recipe and you could use lots of different things. If you're not worried about keeping it vegetarian, you can use fish sauce in place of some or all of the soy sauce and use meat or seafood in place of the mushrooms and/or tofu. If do want to stick with the vegetarian route, I don't recommend swapping out the dried mushrooms -- they add great flavour and texture! Do feel free to add other veggies as you please though. Depending on what's in season or what you have on hand, I could see lots of different things working well: carrots, onion, baby corn, bok choy, broccoli, sugar snap peas/mangetouts, spinach, eggplant, even pineapple if you'd like a sweet twist to your curry. Play around with it and see which combos you like.

Thai Red Curry

Adapted from Hot Thai Kitchen

Ingredients

• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 2 c. boiling water
• 200-250mL tinned bamboo shoots (slices or matchsticks)
• 400-500mL full-fat coconut milk
• ~1/4 c. red curry paste¹
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. jaggery, palm sugar, or brown sugar
• 6-7 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
• 1 recipe Extra Delicious Tofu
• 450g green beans, cut into bite-sized pieces (optional)
• 1 red bell pepper (optional)
• 1/2 c. Thai basil, bruised

Directions

1. Pour the boiling water over the mushrooms and allow to soak for at least 30 minutes.
2. Drain the bamboo shoots, rinse in cold water, then transfer to a small pot and add just enough water to cover.
3. Place pot over high heat and boil for 3-5 minutes.
4. Drain and rinse again. Set aside.
5. Once mushrooms are done soaking, squeeze to remove excess liquid (reserve the soaking liquid), remove the stems, and cut into slices ~4-5mm thick. Set aside.
6. Heat 3/4 c. of the coconut milk over medium heat until somewhat reduced. Ideally the oil will begin to separate, but apparently this doesn't always happen with tinned coconut milk.
7. Add the curry paste and the tomato paste to the thickened coconut milk, stir to break up and combine well, and fry for a minute or two.
8. Add remaining coconut milk and the mushroom soaking water and bring to a boil.
9. Stir in both types of soy sauce and the sugar.
10. Mix in mushrooms, lime leaves, and tofu. If you're using carrots or other long-cooking/firm vegetables, add them now as well. Simmer for 10 minutes.
11. Add any remaining (more delicate) vegetables and cook for another 2-5 minutes depending on what you've added and how firm/soft you like it.
12. Remove from heat and sprinkle with Thai basil.
13. Serve over rice.

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¹ If you need to make this vegetarian (or vegan) be sure to check the ingredients to make sure your curry paste doesn't include shrimp paste. Also, be sure you're getting curry paste and not "curry sauce" or similar that already has coconut milk and fish sauce added to it. ^Back

I got this recipe from an Easy Vegan video. I definitely want to play around with different seasonings and marinades, but it already represents a huge improvement over my standard tofu game. It does take a bit of prep work ahead of time but, honestly, I think it's worth it.

I'd heard before that draining/pressing tofu would improve the texture, but I never really found it made enough difference to bother with. I'd also heard that freezeing it prior to cooking improved the texture. Conveniently, because of this, I actually already had a package of tofu in the freezer as I was planning on trying out a tofu sandwich recipe soon. Apparently the secret to getting a really good texture is to both freeze and press it. The full preparation actually involves freezing it twice, pressing it once, and drying it off thoroughly at multiple points throughout the process. I know this sounds like a lot but, trust me, it's so worth it!

Extra Delicious Tofu

From the Easy Vegan

Ingredients

• 1 package extra firm tofu¹
• 2-3 tsp. light soy sauce²
• ~1/4 tsp. salt
• ~1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil³
• 2-3 tsp. cornstarch/corn flour

Directions

1. Place the tofu (still in its package) in the freezer and allow to freeze solid⁴.
2. Thaw the tofu, open the package and drain it.
3. Place the block with the long side facing you and cut vertically down the middle. Now cut each of these pieces in half horizontally. You should now have four (roughly) equally sized, flat, relatively thin pieces of tofu.
4. Wrap the tofu in a tea towel (or several layers of paper towel) and place a weight on top. Or use a tofu press if you have one. Set aside for 30 minutes to drain.
5. Cut the tofu into bite-sized chunks (or whatever size and shape you prefer) and return to freezer.
6. Once tofu pieces have frozen solid (preferably the next day) remove from freezer, separate, wrap in a tea towel (or more paper towels) and thaw. You can allow them to thaw at room temperature or you can thaw them in the microwave.
7. Pat dry, then toss with soy sauce (or seasoning of choice). You don't want to completely saturate the tofu. You're just looking to add a little flavour.
8. Sprinkle a little salt on as well.
9. Toss with canola oil (or whatever oil you prefer).
10. Toss with cornstarch. The tofu pieces should be thoroughly coated, but shouldn't have any white patches of dry cornstarch visible.
11. Place tofu pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet.
12. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 20-30 minutes turning halfway through.
13. Add to your favourite saucy dishes in place of regular tofu or meat.

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¹ Mine was 350g. ^Back
2 I'm really pleased with how the tofu came out, but it definitely did have a distinctive soy sauce flavour. Not that I minded it. I like soy sauce and it worked well in the Thai curry I ended up using it in. But it would be interesting to experiment with other sauces and marinades. Especially for applications that might not marry so well with soy sauce. I think vegetable stock or mushroom ketchup would both make for interesting flavours. The soaking water from dried mushrooms might also be nice although it would lack the obvious salt component of the other choices. You could also get into building more complex flavours by combining various savoury and salty components w/ spices. Tomato paste thinned with some mushroom soaking water⁵ would add a nice hit of umami as well as colour. You could then try adding just a dash of light and/or dark soy sauce to this mixture for even more umami plus a bit of salt, but doing it this way you wouldn't end up (I hope) with an overwhelming soy sauce flavour.
³ Feel free to try more flavourful and/or seasoned oils if the occasion calls for it. ^Back
4 You can buy several packages of tofu at once and keep them in the freezer until you're ready to use them. Thaw out as needed. ^Back
5 Tomatoes and mushrooms are both high in glutamates. ^Back

I've been very much in the mood for baking lately, but I'm also fighting a cold which means I don't really have the energy to do much. In lieu of baking, I decided to peruse the Cooking in the Archives blog to see what they've been up to. I don't always agree with their interpretations of the recipes they post, but I do very much appreciate the work they do in posting them. I especially appreciate the manuscript transcriptions as I find trying to read 400-year-old handwriting quite difficult most of the time. And even if I would prepare the dish a different way, it's great that they're interested and enthusiastic and putting this stuff out there.

It looks like they most recently posted a seed cake recipe, which I plan on taking a crack at and posting additional commentary on in the near future. I wasn't up for doing anything too involved today though. But... just a little further down the page, they have a hot chocolate recipe. This one really got the creative juices flowing for me. After sitting down a putting together a few different flavour combinations on paper, I decided to give one a try. I went with dark chocolate and orange because TF is a big fan of that particular pairing.

So far it has been a rousing success. TF absolutely loves it! It's dark and rich and not too sweet with a distinct orange kick. I was going for something along the lines of the dark chocolate version of a Terry's Chocolate Orange in drinkable form and TF says I nailed it.

I've used quite a few different ways to add orange flavour to this recipe. I'm sure you could probably achieve the same or very close to the same effect with slightly larger quantities of just one or two of these. It's worth experimenting with before you go out and buy a load of ingredients just for this recipe. I mostly used all these things because I already had them on hand and this seemed like a fun use for them.

Dark Chocolate-Orange Hot Cocoa

Adapted from Cooking in the Archives

Ingredients

Mix

• 100g dark (70%) chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. Dutched cocoa powder
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 4 tsp. orange zest
• 1 Tbsp. Cointreau
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. orange flower water
• 1/2 tsp. orange extract
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. orange oil
• 1/16-1/8 tsp. ground cloves¹

To Prepare

• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 4-5 Tbsp. of cocoa mix

Directions

Mix

1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well, paying particular attention to make sure the liquid ingredients don't cause clumps.

To Prepare

1. Warm milk over medium heat until steaming, but not quite boiling.
2. Add cocoa mix and stir until all chocolate has melted and the mixture looks smooth and even.
3. Pour into mug and enjoy.

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¹ I only used a very tiny amount (1/16 tsp.) of cloves. I didn't want the finished mix to noticeably taste of cloves. I just wanted a tiny hint to round out the orange flavour. If you want more of a "spiced orange" flavour, go with 1/8 tsp. of cloves and consider adding 1/4 tsp. of ground cinnamon as well. ^Back

I did end up getting a couple of beautiful braided loaves out of this recipe in the end. But it was touch-and-go for a while. I had to add so much extra flour that I started to wonder if I'd misread the scale when I was measuring it out. I'm not sure exactly how much extra flour I added, but I'd guess it was close to 300g!

This is a fairly mild and unassuming bread flavour-wise, but it looks very pretty with its plaits and its egg washed crust. And the lack of strong flavours means that it works beautifully in sandwiches as well as toasted with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. It might be interesting to try incorporating different flavours in the dough at some point, but I think it makes a great bread as is.

Whole Wheat Egg Bread

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 900-1200g hard/strong/high grade/bread whole wheat flour¹
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. warm water
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 4 large eggs + water to make 2 3/4 c.
• 1/4 c. oil
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• 1 large egg + 2 tsp. water (for egg wash)
• Sesame seeds or poppy seeds (optional)

Directions

1. Add the yeast to the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine flour and salt, mix well, and set aside.
3. Place the eggs in a large measuring cup and add water to bring the total volume up to 2 3/4 c.
4. Add the oil and the honey to the egg mixture and whisk well.
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the yeast mixture and the egg mixture.
6. Stir to combine, working from the centre out.
7. The dough should be fairly soft, but if it it's very runny, then it'll need extra flour. Possibly quite a lot of extra flour. I normally wait until at least 10 minutes into kneading to make any amendments, but this one was so runny, that I made an exception. Use your judgement.
8. Knead very well. Especially if you end up adding more flour during kneading. If you have very efficient kneading technique, you might be able to get away with only 20 minutes. I went with 40 minutes of not terribly vigorous kneading.
9. Set the dough in a covered bowl to rise. It'll probably need a good couple of hours.
10. Knock the dough back and set to rise again. One to one-and-a-half hours should be sufficient this time.
11. Knock back again and divide into six equal portions.
12. Round each portion into a smooth ball, cover, and set to rest for 10 minutes.
13. Take three of the balls and roll each one into a rope about 14-16" (35-40cm) long for pan bread, a bit longer for free-form loaves.
14. Lay the three ropes side-by-side and plait, working from the middle out to each end.
15. If making pan bread, place the plaited loaf into a greased loaf pan, cover, and set to rise. Otherwise, place on a baking sheet to rise (covered so it doesn't dry out).
16. Repeat with remaining three balls of cough.
17. Allow to rise for ~45 mintues. (The proof might take more or less time depending on how warm the room is.)
18. Whisk the remaining egg with water and very gently brush the mixture onto the risen loaves. The brush used should be very soft as stiff bristles will damage the dough. Put on just enough egg to fully cover the surface without letting it pool in any crevices or valleys.
19. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds if desired.
20. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 35-45 minutes.

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¹ The recipe calls for 900g of flour, but with this amount I didn't have a dough so much as a thick batter. I could pour it. Even after adding quite a bit of extra flour (I'd guess ~300g), the dough was still quite sticky. The proportions seemed so off that I do wonder if my scales were malfunctioning or if I misread the numbers. If you're making this, proceed with caution and be prepared to add quite a bit of extra flour. ^Back

Last week kind of got away from me. I realized on Thursday evening that I'd forgotten to cancel my HelloFresh box for this week. I'm sort of cringing at the extra expense, but I suppose it's not that bad and it does save me from having to worry too much about meal planning this week.

Monday night was teriyaki chicken with bok choy and coconut rice. The chicken and bok choy were excellent. I'm not 100% sold on the coconut rice as the substrate though. The rice was nice, but it just felt somewhat flat and... a bit of a let-down next to the tasty teriyaki. I think it would've been improved by the addition of peas. And using a nice long-grain brown rice would've been my preference over the white basmati in this case. If I were going to do this again, I think I'd try adding some kaffir lime leaves and a couple handfulls of frozen peas to the rice during cooking. And maybe a few whole peppercorns as well. Either that, or switch it up completely and do a fried rice with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, Szechuan peppercorns, scallions, sesame oil, and maybe a few eggs. (I might toss a few peas into the fried rice as well. I really like peas with rice.)

Teriyaki Chicken

Slightly adapted from HelloFresh

Ingredients

Stir-Fry

• 450g Shanghai bok choy^{1, 2}
• 680g chicken tenders (or skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut in half horizontally then cut vertically into short strips)
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 c. soy sauce³
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. grated ginger (or 1 Tbsp. ginger paste)
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (corn flour)
• 1/4 c. honey⁴
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 50-60g roasted cashews, chopped

Rice

• 1 (160mL) can coconut milk
• 2 c. water
• 1 1/2 c. Basmati rice
• 4-5 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
• 6-8 whole black peppercorns (optional)
• 1 c. fresh or frozen peas (optional)

Directions

Stir-Fry

1. Wash the bok choy and separate the leafy bits from the stems.
2. Cut into 2-3cm chunks, keeping the celery-like stems separate from the spinach-y leaves. Set aside.
3. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Combine the soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, honey, and water to make the sauce. Set aside.
5. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat.
6. Add oil to pan followed by chicken. Cook to internal temp of 165°F (74°C). Cook time will vary depending on thickness of pieces. For tenders, it should take 4-5 minutes.
7. Add bok choy stems to pan and cook for 1-2 minutes⁵
8. Add sauce and bok choy leaves and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Rice

1. Combine coconut milk with water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and add rice.
3. If using, stir in lime leaves and black peppercorns along with rice.
4. Cover and simmer for 12-14 minutes.
5. If peas are frozen, allow them to thaw while rice cooks.
6. When rice is done, fluff with fork and toss in peas.
7. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside for 5-10 minutes.

Assembly

1. Put some rice in a bowl and top with stir-fry.
2. Garnish with cashews.

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¹ I honestly felt like this recipe could've used a lot more greens. Personally, I wouldn't be afraid to double the vegetable quantity. If you do this, you might want to scale up the sauce slightly. ^Back
2 There are lots of different vegetables that will work here: bok choy, Shanghai bok choy, broccoli rabe, gai lan... Kale would probably work decently well too. If you're not looking to incorporate the veggies into the stir-fry itself, steamed broccoli makes a lovely side. ^Back
3 The soy sauce that came with the meal kit seemed a bit darker and more viscous than your typical light soy, but it wasn't anywhere near dark soy levels. If I were making this again, I think I'd try mixing 3 Tbsp. light soy with 1 Tbsp. dark soy. In a pinch, I think using all light soy would work fine though. ^Back
4 The recipe card says "3 Tbsp." for the honey, but we got two 30mL jars and I just put all of it in when making the sauce. I was happy with the results -- and the Kidlet loved it! -- so I'd probably just do it the same way again next time. That said, if you prefer a less sweet sauce, cut the honey back to 2 or 3 Tbsp. and see how it tastes. ^Back
5 HelloFresh has you cook the chicken in two batches and then remove it from the pan before cooking the bok choy. I don't like having to remove things from the pan once they go in and I have a very large pan, so I just did the chicken all at once and left it in the pan. It's probably technically overcooked, but it was tasty and didn't seem dry or anything, so I'm not too worried about it. ^Back

I've been slacking on the bread baking lately. We haven't actually had bread in a couple of weeks because I just haven't quite gotten around to baking it. It just seems like all my time keeps disappearing on me! The Kidlet has been asking for bread though and I really didn't want to resort to store-bought, if for no other reason than the fact that it'd break my streak. So, after a busy day on Saturday, I turned to the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book Sunday morning to see what sang to me.

The Golden Date bread won my pick by virtue of hitting the trifecta of being a recipe I haven't tried yet, have all the ingredients for, and not being overly complicated or onerous. It is very similar to the Basic Whole Wheat Bread, but uses dates, rather than honey as the sweetener. The sort of melt into the dough to produce a relatively sweet, moist loaf. They certainly have a very noticeable effect, but not much... presence? You definitely wouldn't bite into a slice and go, "Yum! Dates!" It's more of a subtle, "Oh, this bread is just slightly denser and sweeter than a plain whole wheat loaf."

Golden Date Bread

Slightly adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 1 c. pitted dates, cut into large pieces
• 1 c. water, plus extra (see recipe)
• 1/2 c. warm water
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 900g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Simmer the dates in 1 c. of water until very soft. Remove from heat and pour into large measuring cup. Add cold water to bring the total volume up to 3 c. Set aside.
2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Combine the flour and salt and mix well.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture (after its 10-minute rest).
5. Check to make sure the date mixture isn't too hot for the yeast (it should be about body temperature) and pour that into the well also.
6. Mix everything together working from the centre outward.
7. Once most of the flour has been incorporated, turn the dough out onto your work surface along with the remaining flour and begin to knead it. It will be quite wet and soft and sticky at this point, but will become less so as the gluten is developed.
8. After 5-10 minutes of kneading, check the consistency and see if more flour or water needs to be added. Resist the temptation to add a lot of flour and make the dough too tight. It will probably still be a little sticky at this point and that's okay.
9. Knead for another 10 minutes, then smear the butter on the work surface and place the dough on top of it. Continue to knead for another 5-10 minutes until butter is well-incorporated and dough is silky and elastic.
10. Form into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise. Check after an hour, but it will probably need at least 90 minutes for the first rise. To check, press a wet finger ~1cm into the dough and see if the hole fills in. If it does, give it some more time to rise. If the hole doesn't fill or if the dough sighs and/or sinks back around your finger/the hole, then it's ready to be knocked back.
11. Knock back the dough, pressing out any gas pockets and large bubbles. Knead it a little bit if you feel like it (just a minute or two). Form it into a ball again and place it back in the bowl, covered, for its second rise. Check after 45 minutes, but it may take an hour or more.
12. Knock the dough back again, then divide it into two equal portions and shape each one into a ball. Stretch the gluten taught to form a smooth surface across the top. Cover the balls and rest for 10 minutes.
13. Working with one dough ball at a time, turn over so the smooth side is down and press into a large, flat round. Fold the round into thirds to form a long (roughly) rectangular shape. Grab a short side and roll the dough up to form a cylinder. Place seam-side-down into a greased loaf pan.
14. Cover filled loaf pans and set aside to rise for at least 30 minutes and up to 60 minutes. This rise is finished when a 1cm hole very slowly fills in. If you wait 'til it no longer fills in at all, then the loaves will be over-proofed by the time they get up to temperature in the oven.
15. If the loaves have risen very well, you may wish to slash the tops to give them room to spring in the oven.
16. Bake at 325°F (160°C) for ~1 hour.

This recipe comes courtesy of The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen. It did indeed make a lovely pound cake (that was quickly devoured). I did find myself wishing that the sour cream came through a little more though. I wonder if it would be possible to cut back the butter slightly and up the sour cream a bit. Even if that doesn't work though, this still makes for a great cranberry pound cake. And it's a nice way to use up that last bit of sour cream languishing in the fridge.

Cranberry-Sour Cream Pound Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 5 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour¹
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 c. sour cream
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 14 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 c. frozen cranberries, chopped coarse
• 1 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, preheat oven to 300°F (150°C), and grease and flour a loaf tin (preferably 8.5"/22cm by 4.5"/11cm).
2. Whisk eggs and vanilla together in a large measuring cup.
3. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a medium-sized bowl.
4. Whisk sour cream and milk together in a small bowl.
5. In a large bowl, beat butter on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy (2-3 minutes).
6. Reduce speed to medium and gradually add sugar.
7. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until pale and fluffy (3-5 minutes).
8. Reduce speedto medium and gradually add egg mixture.
9. Scrape down bowl and continue to mix on medium speed for ~1 minute.
10. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream mixture in two additions.
11. Toss cranberries with icing sugar until evenly coated.
12. Gently fold cranberries into batter.
13. Pour batter into prepared tin and tap/drop a few times to release air bubbles.
14. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour 45 minutes to 1 hour 55 minutes. (Toothpick inserted in centre should come out clean.)
15. Let cook in tin for 15 minutes.
16. Remove from tin and transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

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¹ In the preamble to the recipe, ATK notes that they didn't want this cake to have as tight a crumb as a classic pound cake, so they switched the cake (soft/plain/standard) flour out for all-purpose flour. If you're not in a region that has all-purpose flour, I think whatever hard/strong/high grade/bread flour you can get locally would probably be fine. If you don't mind the tighter crumb, you could also simply go with a soft/plain/standard/cake flour. If you want to get really precise about it, you could always try mixing hard and soft flours to get something approximating all-purpose flour. All-purpose flour is still relatively hard, so I'd probably only use 1/4-1/2 c. of soft flour for this recipe and make the balance hard. ^Back

Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding (Cake)

Pineapple upside-down cake is a well-known classic here that I have somehow never made nor even tasted. Edmonds has a recipe for it though and I've been craving sweets lately, so I decided it was time to take a crack at it. There's also a recipe for it in The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen. It uses fresh pineapple cut into small pieces though. And I'm sure it's absolutely lovely. That said, I really wanted that classic look with the pineapple rings and cherry centres for my first time through, so I went with the Edmonds recipe. Maybe I'll try the ATK one next time.

I'm very pleased with how this came out overall. It tastes lovely. It looks great. The mixed spice works really well in the topping! I was worried that the cake part would be too bland, since it doesn't have any flavouring in it, not even vanilla, but it's actually fine. The fruit and spices in the topping are enough. That said, I don't think you'd go wrong with a little vanilla in the batter. If I were to make the pear version at some point I'd be tempted to add a little crystallized ginger to the batter as well. It'll be interesting to see how the flavours in the American version compare if I end up making that one at some point.

One thing I should point out: Don't try to be clever like me and bake it in a springform pan. I thought it would make it easier to unmold since I could just take the sides off and then invert it onto a plate without having to worry about getting it out of the tin or having it stick to the sides. Once it was upside down, I could then just lift the flat metal disc off to reveal the pineapple-y goodness. To be fair, this did, in fact, work. The issue was all the brown sugar topping leaking out the bottom and burning on the bottom of the oven. That part was less good. Next time I'll just bake it in a regular cake tin and trust that it won't stick.

Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Topping

• 25g (~2 Tbsp.) salted butter, melted
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. mixed spice
• 1 tsp. corn syrup or golden syrup (optional)¹
• 6-8 tinned pineapple rings, drained²
• 6-7 glacé cherries³

Pudding (Cake)

• 125g (~9 Tbsp.) salted butter, softened
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 large eggs⁴
• 1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
• 1 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

Topping

1. Combine the butter, brown sugar, mixed spice, and syrup (if using).
2. Spread the mixture over the bottom of a greased 20cm (8") round cake tin⁵.
3. Arrange 6 or 7 pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar mixture. If you're using a 20cm tin, you'll probably only fit 6 rings. If you've got a 23cm pan, you can probably get 7. I also chopped up an 8th ring and used the pieces to fill in any gaps.
4. Place a cherry in the centre of each pineapple ring.

Pudding (Cake)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Vanilla (if using) may also be added at this point.
4. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold⁶ into the creamed mixture.
5. Stir in the milk.
6. Pour the batter over the pineapples and cherries in the tin and spread to form an even layer.
7. Drop the tin a couple times to knock out any air bubbles.
8. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 40 minutes. (Less if you're using a 23cm/9" tin.)
9. Invert onto serving plate so the pineapple and cherries are on top.
10. Serve warm with cream and/or custard.

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¹ I ended up using a 23cm (9") round tin rather than a 20cm (8"). I added just a touch of corn syrup to the topping just to give it a little more volume and make it a bit easier to spread. ^Back
2 You can make it a pear upside-down cake/pudding by substituting tinned pear halves for the pineapple rings. Edmonds suggests a 425g can of pear halves. ^Back
3 Edmonds calls for glacé cherries. I prefer maraschino, so that's what I used for mine. Feel free to use either. ^Back
4 Our eggs were on the small side, so I tossed in an extra one. ^Back
5 You can also use a 23cm (9") round tin, just don't bake it for quite as long. I ended up taking mine out of the oven after only 20 or 30 minutes. (I lost track of time slightly, so I'm not sure exactly how long it was in.) ^Back
6 Edmonds says to fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, which is what I did. Next time I think I'd probably just use the electric mixer on low to mix them in. Possibly there's some reason why I shouldn't do this. Maybe they're trying to prevent air from being knocked out of the butter so they want the dry stuff mixed in extra gently. But I haven't had any problems with using the beaters to mix flour into batters using the creaming method in the past, so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue. ^Back

Almond Crusted Pork with Couscous and Peas

Another Hello Fresh recipe, this one turned out great and I would make it again without modification.

Ingredients

• 2 pork tenderloins, ~350g each
• ~50g sliced almonds, crushed or coarsely chopped
• 16mL fresh thyme leaves
• 64mL panko
• 32mL dijon mustard
• 1L chicken broth
• 1 shallot, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 384mL dry israeli couscous
• 250g green peas
• 32mL unsalted butter
• salt and pepper
• canola oil
• fresh parmesan

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine the almonds, thyme, panko, ~1mL salt and an equal amount of freshly ground black pepper on a plate.
3. Arrange the tenderloins on the parchment paper. If they are particularly large, butterfly them. Brush the top and sides with mustard.
4. Press them, mustard side down, into the almond mix to get a nice thick crust, then return to the baking sheet, crust side up.
5. Drizzle each one with ~5mL oil and then bake, on the middle rack, until cooked through to 165°F, ~20-25 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a gentle boil over medium heat (if making it with chicken cubes or chicken glop, do so now).
7. Sautee the shallot in a large, deep pan over medium-high heat, until just starting to soften, 1-2 minutes.
8. Add the garlic and couscous and cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant and the couscous toasted, another 1-2 minutes.
9. Add 250mL of the broth and cook, stirring frequently, until the broth has been absorbed by the couscous.
10. Repeat, 250mL at a time, until all the broth has been absorbed and the couscous is tender.
11. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, peas, a generous amount of grated parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste.
12. Slice pork thinly and serve over couscous with additional parmesan.

The mushrooms for this were great. My only complaint was that there weren't nearly enough of them! And, although the potatoes smelled delicious, they weren't quite as flavourful as their aroma implied. I mean, they were still tasty, they just didn't quite live up to expectations. Next time I think I'd double the garlic and onion and add a touch more salt. (I'll make these changes to the recipe below.) And, if you happen to have any roasted garlic paste on hand, I wouldn't hesitate to add a generous teaspoon of that either instead of or as well as the garlic powder.

After tasting the potatoes and mushrooms (and seeing all the delicious, delicious mushroom residue in the bottom of the roasting pan) I decided that a pan sauce/gravy would go a long way toward giving this meal a little more oomph. A bit of water, flour, butter, and heat produced a lovely dark and aromatic gravy. I'm excited to try it with the leftovers tonight!

Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms with Kale Mashed Potatoes

Adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

Mushrooms

If you like mushrooms as much as I do, I recommend doubling all these quantities.

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 450-500g cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 small red onion, sliced (optional)

Mashed Potatoes

• ~1kg russet (or other starchy) potatoes
• 150-175g black kale¹, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 Tbsp. fresh (or lightly dried) flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. fresh (or lightly dried) basil, chopped²
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder (or 1 tsp. dried chopped onion)
• 1/4 c. Parmesan (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• pepper, to taste

Gravy

• 1 1/2 c. water, divided
• 2 Tbsp. salted butter
• 2 Tbsp. flour (any type)

Directions

Mushrooms

1. Combine olive oil, balsamic, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and thyme and mix well.
2. Place mushrooms and onion (if using) in roasting pan and toss with balsamic mixture to coat.
3. Roast at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes, stirring and turning halfway through.

Potatoes

1. Cut potatoes into 1" cubes, place in pot and cover with cold water.
2. Bring to a boil and boil until tender. (~7-10 minutes)
3. Drain potatoes, reserving 2 Tbsp. of the water.
4. Add kale to (now empty) pot with the reserved water and olive oil.
5. Cover and cook on medium-high for 3-5 minutes.
6. Remove from pot and set aside.
7. Return potatoes to empty pot and add sour cream, milk, parsley, oregano, basil (if using), garlic powder, onion powder, Parmesan (if using), salt, pepper, and any other desired seasonings.
8. Mash potatoes to desired consistency, making sure to mix everything well.
9. Stir in kale.

Gravy

1. Remove mushrooms (and onions) from roasting pan and set aside.
2. Place roasting pan over medium heat and add 1/2 c. of water and scrape to deglaze the pan and release any stuck on bits.
3. Add butter, continuing to scrape and stir to lift as much as possible from the pan.
4. Sift in 2 Tbsp. of flour.
5. Allow to cook for a minute or so.
6. Stir in remaining cup of water. Keep stirring and mixing to help break up the lumps and clumps that will have likely formed.
7. Continue to cook (and stir) until gravy reaches desired consistency.

Assembly

1. Scoop 1/4 of the potatoes into a bowl.
2. Top with 1/4 of the mushrooms.
3. Pour a little gravy over and enjoy!

I've already noted my doubt about the basil in the footnotes. In thinking about it though, I think I'd like to experiment with adding more herbs and seasonings to these potatoes in general. I think the parsley, oregano, onion, and garlic work well, but there's room for improvement. I think next time I'd like to try adding 1/4 tsp. each of dried rosemary and thyme. And maybe a tsp. or so of fresh tarragon. I think the tarragon would go particularly well if you were including carrots in the mash. If you're having the potatoes on their own, without the mushrooms, I think fresh chives and parsley would be very nice in them. There are lots of different options here. Just a few tweaks could give you something that tastes completely different!

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¹ I only had one small bunch of kale left. I didn't bother weighing it, but I doubt it was anywhere near 150g. I decided to stretch it by mixing it with some chopped cabbage. I ended up using one small bunch of kale + 1/4 of a small head of cabbage. I'm pretty happy with the results. The cabbage works well with the potato. It definitely has a little less presence than the kale, but I actually like the mix of textures and flavours. I think it would be interesting to experiment with mixing other veggies in either instead or as well. I think carrots, sweet potatoes, and rutabagas/swedes would all work pretty well. I could also see creamed corn being a nice inclusion. Maybe even a bit of cauliflower. There are all sorts of options! Use what you have on hand and experiment. ^Back
2 I'm not entirely sold on the inclusion of basil here. It just doesn't feel like it jives with the rest of the dish and basil + potatoes is not a combo I'm used to seeing/tasting. I think maybe next time I'd experiment with adding a little dried rosemary (maybe 1/4-1/2 tsp.) to the potatoes instead. ^Back