I've recently rediscovered Budget Bytes. I'd perused a few vegetarian recipes on the blog before, but I hadn't really given it a thorough examination. After going through it in some detail, I now have dozens of recipes bookmarked! I'm pretty excited to try them.

If I'm being completely honest, this recipe didn't excite me all that much. But I had coconut milk that needed to be used up and I had a bunch of bananas in the fridge, so it was something that I knew I could throw together quickly and easily. The resulting oatmeal is tasty. The coconut comes through well and the banana gives it a mellow sweetness without being cloying. The main problem TF and I both had with it is that it's not actually very filling. I'd be tempted to add an extra egg and a scoop of protein powder next time to see if bumping up the protein helps a bit. Serving it topped with yogurt, skyr, Nutella, and/or nut butter would probably also help.

Banana-Coconut Baked Oatmeal

Adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/3 c. unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 c. protein powder (chocolate, vanilla, or unflavoured)
• 1 (400mL) can lite coconut milk
• 3 c. rolled oats

Directions

1. Whisk eggs into bananas.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, and sea salt and mix well.
3. Whisk in coconut, protein powder, and coconut milk.
4. Stir in oats with a spatula.
5. Pour mixture into a greased 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.

I made a pork and egg pie the other day. It was delicious, but it did end up leaving me with ~200g of ground pork to use up. A day or two later Alex chose NZ-style "pancakes" (aka crêpes) as her cooking/baking project for the day. So, when I was looking online for ideas of what to do with my leftover pork and came across this quick mu shu pork recipe, I figured it was perfect. NZ pancakes/crêpes are not quite the same as the pancakes traditionally served with mu shu pork, but they make a reasonably approximation. And they're a lot lower effort.

Since I didn't has as much pork as the recipe called for and I also didn't want to go out and buy more, I decided to make up the difference with crumbled tofu. This worked really well! I also made up a batch of braised mushrooms to go with it. The strong flavours of the mushrooms complemented the pork extremely well.

Quick Mu Shu Pork

Slightly adapted from Woman's Day

Ingredients

• 500g ground pork¹
• 1 Tbsp. shaoxing wine or dry sherry
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/8 tsp. white pepper
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
• 1 c. diced jicama²
• 1 bag coleslaw mix
• 2-4 Tbsp. water³
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 8-10 pancakes/crêpes/soft tortillas, to serve
• hoisin sauce, to serve

Directions

1. Combine pork, wine, dark soy, and white pepper and mix well.
2. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
3. Add pork and cook for 1 minute without stirring.
4. Cook for 1 more minute, stirring.
5. Remove pork from pan and set aside.
6. Add garlic and chili flakes to now empty pan and cook for ~10 seconds.
7. Add jicama, coleslaw, and water and cook for 2-4 minutes.
8. Return pork to pan with veggies.
9. Add green onions, sugar, and light soy and cook for another minute or so.
10. Gently warm the tortillas/pancakes if they're not already warm.
11. To serve, spread a teaspoon or two of hoisin sauce on each pancake, top with pork mixture, fold, and eat!

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¹ I used ~200g ground pork + ~300g crumbled extra delicious tofu. ^Back
3 I didn't end up using any jicama in my mu shu pork. I'd intended to swap it out for some parsnips from the garden, but we left them too long and they'd gone all tough and fibrous. It was still good with just the coleslaw mix though! ^Back
3 Since I was making braised mushrooms along side this, I saved some of the mushroom soaking water and used that as the water for the mu shu pork. ^Back

This tasty vegetarian stroganoff calls for rice; we made it over rice rotini and it worked pretty well there, too. It would likely also go nicely with egg noodles (as with a classic stroganoff) or standard durum-wheat pasta.

Compared to the original, the recipe has been tweaked slightly; cream, mushrooms, and onions have been bumped up, as has the parsley, and the garlic paste has been replaced with roasted garlic purée (and doubled).

Mushroom Stroganoff

BBC Food

Ingredients

• 25g butter
• 15mL oil
• 180g onions, sliced
• 680g mushrooms, sliced
• 5mL roasted garlic purée
• 5mL paprika
• a pinch chili powder
• 50mL white wine
• 30g tomato purée
• 100mL vegetable stock
• 120mL cream
• 60mL fresh chopped parsley, or half that lightly dried

Directions

1. Melt the butter with the oil in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Add the onions, mushrooms, garlic, paprika, chili, and wine, and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomato and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until thickened. The sauce can, if necessary, be removed from the heat and held at this point until the rest of dinner is ready.
4. Return to the heat. Stir in the cream and simmer a bit more until desired thickness is reached.
5. Stir in parsley and serve over noodles with parmesan.

This is a bit of an unusual bread recipe. It's technically a "quick bread" as it's leavened with baking powder rather than yeast, but rather than spending a quick 30-60 minutes in the oven as most quick breads do, it gets steamed for several hours. Apparently the traditional way to bake this bread is by place in a pot and burying it near a geothermal spring to slowly steam its way to perfection. Given that geothermal springs aren't exactly commonplace here, I decided to steam mine in the InstantPot. This seems to have worked very well except for the part where I assumed that just having a lid on the casserole dish inside the pot would be enough and didn't bother trying to seal it. This resulted in a rather large amount of water finding its way into the baking dish so that the bread became quite wet around the edges. A quick blast in the dry heat of the oven seems to have dried it out without any ill effects though, so no major harm done!

There are a wide variety of recipes for Icelandic thunder bread floating around the internet. They all involve rye flour and baking powder. Interestingly, baking powder isn't always the only leavener; I came across one recipe that called for baking powder and yeast. Most just stick with a chemical leavener (like baking powder and/or baking soda) though. All the ones that I looked at also involved at least some amount of refined wheat flour. They also all call for a relatively high proportion of sweetener, but what that sweetener is varies from recipe to recipe. Some recipes call for granulated sugar, some use brown sugar; some add molasses, some don't. There's also usually some sort of dairy involved: usually milk, but sometimes buttermilk. There doesn't generally appear to be any fat added -- no oil or butter. So, quite a bit of variation overall, but the recipes still have enough in common that they're recognizable as thunder bread. They're a relatively sweet, steamed, chemically leavened, rye bread.

After browsing a few different recipes, I decided to go with the one I found on Spruce Eats as I liked the sound of all the brown sugar and molasses in their version. The smell and flavour is wonderful. It had a certain familiarity to it that I couldn't put my finger on at first. Then I realized... bran muffins! The flavour is very similar to bran muffins. The crust is chewier and the crumb is a little drier and less tender, but the flavour it definitely there. There is, of course, no wheat bran in this bread, but the whole rye flour means there's a fair bit of rye bran. That combined with the molasses is enough to tick the "bran muffin" box in my brain. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- I quite like it honestly -- but it is a bit different than I was expecting. The molasses completely drown out any rye flavour. I think it'd be interesting to try one of the recipes that uses granulated sugar and no molasses next time to see how it compares. I'm hoping the rye will have more presence in those versions. As a side-note though, this does make a really nice low-fat alternative to bran muffins. Most bran muffins are just chock-full of oil! Often as much as half a cup of oil for a small batch of a dozen muffins. This bread hits a lot of the same notes for me without any of the added fat. (It's not fat-free; there's still some fat in the flours and the milk, but it's definitely much leaner than your typical bran muffin.) Neat!

Icelandic Thunder Bread

Slightly adapted from The Spruce Eats

Ingredients

• 330g whole rye flour
• 220g all-purpose flour
• 15g (~1 rounded Tbsp.) baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. milk, scalded and cooled
• 1 Tbsp. molasses

Directions

1. Find a baking dish that will fit inside your InstantPot or slow cooker and grease it well.
2. Combine flours and sift in baking soda.
3. Add salt and brown sugar and mix well.
4. Dissolve molasses in cooled milk and add this mixture to the dry ingredients.
5. Stir to combine. Dough should be fairly wet, if it's not add a little water to loosen it up (1/4-1/2 c.)
6. Turn the dough out and knead it for a few minutes. It should become a little less sticky as you work it. If it reaches a point where it starts getting stickier or seems to be developing a slimy texture, stop working the dough immediately.
7. Place the dough into the prepared baking dish and cover. If you don't have a lid to fit the dish, cover it with foil. Make sure the edges are well-sealed in either case.
8. Put a trivet in the bottom of the InstantPot/slow cooker and add a few cups of hot water. (How much you need will depend on the size of your InstantPot/slow cooker and the size of your baking dish. The water should come about halfway up the side of the baking dish once it's lowered into the InstantPot/slow cooker.
9. Place the lid on the InstantPot/slow cooker and set to slow cook on "high" for four hours.
10. Remove the baking dish from the InstantPot/slow cooker at the end of the four hour cooking period and check on your bread. If any water has gotten into the baking dish, you may need to dry it out in the oven for a few minutes.
11. Once the bread is fully baked and dry, turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.
12. Once cool, slice thin and enjoy with smoked fish, paté, and/or cream cheese for a savoury option or nut butters, jams, and/or butter for a less traditional but equally delicious sweet option.

I'm always on the look-out for quick, tasty breakfasts. This one looked like it packed in a decent amount of protein, some good flavour, and didn't dirty too many dishes. I'm pretty happy with how it came out!

British Breakfast Skillet

Slightly adapted from BBC Food

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 8-9 breakfast sausages, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 250g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 3-6 scallions (green onions), sliced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 (400mL) can of baked beans (in tomato sauce)
• 4 large eggs
• pepper and paprika, to taste
• 50-60g feta, crumbled
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add sausage and cook for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms and green onions and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
4. Add garlic and cook for another minute or two.
5. Add tomato and beans and cook until heated through.
6. Make 4 wells in the mixture and break and egg into each well.
7. Sprinkle each egg with pepper and paprika to taste.
8. Cover and cook until whites are just set (6-8 minutes).
9. Sprinkle with feta and parsley and serve with buttered toast.

Sticky toffee pudding is one of my all-time favourite desserts, so when I stumbled across this twist on the classic, I was intrigued. I'm generally a fan of Deb's baking exploits, I like banana bread, I like sticky toffee pudding, and I had a bunch of bananas that needed to be used up ASAP... Perfect!

I tossed in an extra banana because I had three that all needed to be used and an extra egg because our eggs are a little on the small side and we have a tonne of them right now. Oh, and I halved the salt as usual. Other than that, I made the recipe as written. I didn't bother with the whipped cream to serve. It would've been lovely, but it was still plenty tasty without and I didn't feel like dirtying another bowl.

Banana Toffee Pudding

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp. molasses
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2-3 mashed bananas
• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 230g all-purpose flour

Sauce

• 1/4 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 20cm (8") square cake pan.
2. Whisk together butter, salt, brown sugar, granulated sugar, molasses, and vanilla extract.
3. Whisk in eggs followed by mashed bananas and buttermilk.
4. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix well. After the powders are mixed in, give the batter another 10-20 stirs.
5. Add the flour and stir until just combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25-35 minutes.
7. While cake is baking, make sauce.
8. Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto wire rack.
9. Cut into 5cm (2") cubes.
10. Spoon a bit of sauce over each cake portion.
11. Serve with whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream.

Sauce

1. Combine butter, cream, and sugar in a pot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
2. Simmer, whisking constantly, for ~5 minutes. Sauce will thicken, but it may be hard to tell while it's simmering.
3. Remove from heat and stir in salt and vanilla.

The barbacoa was tasty, but on its own it got old, especially for symbol, after a little while. So she came up with an improvement: combine it with a bunch of other stuff. Quantities here are all approximate, since each bowl was made in a kind of ad hoc manner and how much you need depends on how much barbacoa you have left!

Barbacoa Everything Bowl

Original

Ingredients

• leftovers from 1 recipe barbacoa
• 1 recipe miso honey butter corn
• 1-2 recipes sauteed kale (without the pepperoni or cherry peppers
• 1 batch brown rice
• sour cream
• tomato, diced

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in individual bowls
2. Eat!

Having never worked with hot water crust before, I found this recipe a bit less intimidating than some of the more traditional ones that called for shaping the pies with a dolly and baking them without any supports. With this one, you bake it in a loaf tin. The only trick is unmolding it at the end. Often when recipes advise making a sling to help lift your baked goods out of the tin, I ignore it. I definitely don't recommend doing that here. You will need the sling!

I didn't get the eggs quite centred in the pie this time, but I'm pretty happy with it as a first attempt! And it tasted lovely. I was worried that all the ground pork/sausage would make it too fatty, but it was quite nice! And I appreciate that this pie didn't require adding gelatin. It's one less thing to worry about, plus I don't enjoy the texture of gelatin in pies anyway.

Pork and Egg Pie

Slightly adapted from BBC Food

Ingredients

Filling

• 300g ground pork
• 300g sausages, casings removed
• 150g cooked ham hock¹, chopped
• 2-3 shallots, chopped
• 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 4 hard-boiled eggs², shelled
• salt and white pepper, to taste

Crust

• 450g soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour
• 100g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 75g unsalted butter, softened
• 200mL water
• 100g lard
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

Filling

1. Combine ground pork, sausage meat, ham, shallots, and parsley and mix well.
2. Season with salt and white pepper.
3. If desired, pinch off a small amount of filling and cook it in a pan, taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
4. Set filling aside.

Crust

1. Grease a 20x10cm (8x4") loaf pan with lard.
2. Make a sling out of parchment paper and place it in the pan. Make sure that the sling overhangs the sides of the pan. It will work best if the overhang is on on the long sides. This way the bottom and long sides are covered and only the two short ends will be in direct contact with the pan.
3. Combine soft and hard flours and mix well.
4. Cut in butter until crumbly.
5. Heat water with lard and salt until just boiling.
6. Pour hot lard mixture into flour mixture and mix to form a soft dough.
7. Working quickly, divide the dough into two unequal portions with about 1/3 of the dough in the smaller portion.
8. Quickly roll out the larger portion of dough and use it to line the prepared loaf pan. Be careful not to tear it as any leaks will cause it to stick to the pan. Do not trim the overhang.
9. Place about half the filling into the pie.
10. Line the eggs up down the middle of the pie. Lay them end-to-end. (Trimming off the tops and bottoms may make them fit better if your eggs are particularly large.
11. Pack in the rest of the filling around the eggs.
12. Brush the top edge of the crust/overhanging dough with the beaten egg.
13. Roll out the remaining portion of dough and place it on top.
14. Press and pinch to seal the top and bottom crusts together. Now any excessive overhang may be trimmed.
15. Cut three holes in the top crust to allow steam to escape.
16. Brush top crust with beaten egg.
17. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 minutes (to put some colour on it).
18. Reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for another 60-90 minutes.
19. To remove the pie from the pan, turn it on its side and use the sling to slide it out.
20. Serve in thick slices. Honey mustard and Branston pickle both go very well with it.

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¹ I couldn't get any ham hocks, so I substituted 150g of chopped ham steak. I'm reasonably happy with the results this produced. ^Back
2 I recommend going for "medium-boiled" eggs for this. They'll be getting cooked more when the pie bakes anyway. I boiled mine for ~7 minutes. ^Back

This was fantastic! It takes a bit of time to cook but, as it's a slow cooker recipe, there's no attention or active effort needed after the initial assembly. It only takes about five minutes to toss everything in the pot and after that the biggest problem is being tormented by the delicious smells while it cooks.

The original recipe calls for beef chuck roast. I ended up using a brisket. It worked beautifully, although I did feel a bit guilty using a nice brisket for this. That said, I wasn't likely to be doing anything else with it any time soon and I figured it was better to use it for this than to have it sit in the freezer for another year and get freezer burned.

Barbacoa

Slightly adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients

• 1.5kg beef chuck roast cut into large (6-7cm) chunks
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 chipotles in adobo, minced
• 1 (120mL) can diced green chilies
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 c. lime juice (from 1-2 limes)
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 Tbsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 c. beef or vegetable stock

Directions

1. Pile everything into the slow cooker.
2. Stir to evenly mix and coat the meat.
3. Cook on low for 10-12 hours (or a bit longer if you prefer).
4. Shred meat and let it soak in the sauce/juices for 10-15 minutes.
5. Serve in tortillas or over rice with toppings of choice.

I had some squash filling left over after making the ravioli the other day, so the Kidlet and I decided to turn it into a quiche. I seasoned the custard with salt, pepper, and lemon thyme and then added some extra kale and a layer of balsamic caramelized onions on top of the squash. I finished it off with a little grated Cheddar. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, but I do regret not adding a few sautéed onions. I think it would've been nice to have the mushrooms in there to give a distinct textural element in addition to a bit of extra umami. Next time...

Squash & Caramelized Onion Quiche

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

Crust

• ~200g shortcrust pastry
• 4 large egg whites

Custard

• 3 large eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon thyme
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground

Filling

• 227g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 c. Squash ravioli filling
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 c. chopped kale
• 1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

Crust

1. Roll out the pastry and place it in a 23cm (9") pie plate.
2. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights, beans, rice, or sugar.
3. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15-20 minutes.
4. Remove parchment paper and pie weights, prick crust with fork and brush with some of the egg whites. Reserve the remaining egg whites for the custard.
5. Return to oven and bake for another 5-8 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and set aside.

Custard

1. Whisk eggs with egg whites and milk.
2. Mix in thyme, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Filling

1. Cook mushrooms with water over medium heat. Cover and continue cooking until mushrooms soften.
2. Uncover, add 1 Tbsp. of oil, and season with salt and pepper if desired. Continue cooking until desired done-ness. Set aside.
3. Heat remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil over medium-low heat.
4. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes.
5. Add balsamic vinegar and cook for another minute or two.

Assembly

1. Place squash mixture in bottom of pie shell. Do not press or pack it in, there should be room for custard to flow between the pieces of filling.
2. Layer mushrooms over squash.
3. Layer the kale over the mushrooms.
4. Layer the onion over the kale.
5. Pour the custard into the pie shell. You may not need it all. Do not overfill!
6. Sprinkle cheese on top.
7. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 35-45 minutes.

I've had a buttercup squash lying around for a couple months now. The Kidlet and I were going to turn it into soup, but with the hot temperatures we're expecting this week, I decided that I really didn't want soup. It probably would've been easier to make some other sort of squash dish, but I really wanted ravioli. I took a look at Hazan's pasta book for recipes, but the only thing he had for squash-stuffed pasta used an obscure variety of Italian squash for which he recommended substituting sweet potato. After poking around online a bit, I found a recipe for squash and ricotta stuffed shells and figured I'd adapt that to my purposes.

Uncooked ravioli ready to go in the pot.

The original recipe called for two cups of butternut squash. I just used the whole buttercup, it was probably a bit more than two cups, but close enough that I wasn't too worried about it. I made some faux ricotta from powdered milk. I used garlic paste in place of the crushed garlic. And I swapped out the spinach for kale. Then, instead of stuffing shells and baking them, I just stuffed my ravioli and boiled it as normal, tossing it with the simple sage-butter sauce after draining.

Squash Ravioli with Sage-Butter Sauce

Adapted from Key Ingredient

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 c. pasta flour
• 3 large eggs
• 3-4 large egg yolks
• 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

Filling

• 1 buttercup squash
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 c. ricotta
• 1/3 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/4 c. chopped kale
• zest of 1 lemon

Sauce

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 10-12 sage leaves
• juice of 1 lemon
• grated Parmesan, to serve

Directions

Dough

1. Combine pasta flour, eggs, 3 egg yolks, and 1 Tbsp. olive oil and mix well. If dough seems to stiff, knead in another egg yolk and/or another Tbsp. of oil.
2. Knead the dough for a few minutes, then cover and set aside to rest while you prepare the filling.

Filling

1. Halve and seed the squash.
2. Brush it with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Roast at 190°C (375°F) for ~1 hour.
4. Once the squash has cooled enough to handle, scoop the flesh from the skin.
5. Mash the squash and combine it with the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, garlic, kale, and lemon zest.

Assembly

1. Knead the dough until smooth and supple.
2. Divide into two or three portions.
3. Working with one portion at a time, roll it out very thin. Try to apply pressure outward and not down. The dough should be stretched rather than compressed.
4. Cut circles out of the dough, 5-7cm is generally a good size. Keep them covered so they don't dry out.
5. Place a small amount of filling on each circle.
6. Wet the edge with a bit of egg white.
7. Fold in half and press to seal.
8. Place on a flour-dusted plate while you assemble the rest of the ravioli. If you need to pile more ravioli on top, dust the underlying ones lightly with flour to stop them from sticking together.
9. Once all the ravioli have been assembled, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook for 1-3 minutes, then drain.
10. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.

Sauce

1. Melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the sage leaves and cook, swirling occasionally, until butter has browned.
3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Serving

1. Toss cooked ravioli with sauce.
2. Served topped with grated Parmesan.

Normally this would be done with flank or flap steak. We didn't have any, but we did have some other steaks kicking around in the freezer, so I just used those instead. The marinade is absolutely delicious! I want to put it on everything.

Carne Asada

Slightly adapted from Damn Delicious

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/3 c. olive oil
• 1/4 c. light soy sauce
• juice of 1 orange (~1/3 c.)
• juice of 1 lime (~1/4 c.)
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 650g steak (preferably flank steak)

Directions

1. Combine cilantro, oil, soy sauce, orange juice, lime juice, garlic, jalapeño, cumin, and pepper and mix well.
2. Scoop out 1/2 c. of marinade and set it aside.
3. Add steak to remaining marinade and marinate for at least four hours, turning occasionally.
4. Preheat grill and cook steak to desired done-ness. (I like medium for this.)
5. Slice thin and pour over reserved marinade.
6. Serve with sliced radishes, crumbled feta, sour cream, avocado, salsa, or other toppings of your choice. Or just have it with the marinade. It's delicious!

This is going to be a very brief post because I am very, very tired today. I just want to get this written up because it's been staring at me for days and I keep not quite getting to it.

These crackers were quick and easy to make. I think I would've preferred a thicker cracker with a hint of sweetness to it though. Still savoury, just a pinch of sugar to complement the wheat.

Sourdough Crackers

From Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 150g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt + extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. olive oil + extra for brushing

Directions

1. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar (if using).
2. Add the starter and oil and mix well.
3. Knead for ~5 minutes.
4. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes¹.
5. Divide dough into two or three equal portions. Two portions for thicker crackers, three portions for thinner.
6. Working with one portion at a time, knead it for a few strokes. (Leave any remaining dough in a covered bowl until ready to use.)
7. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper or cut to fit your baking sheet. Try to get it to fill the sheet.
8. Score dough based on the size and shape you'd like your crackers to be.
9. Brush lightly with olive oil.
10. Sprinkle with salt.
11. Transfer parchment paper and dough to baking sheet.
12. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-20 minutes. (15 minutes for thinner crackers, closer to 20 for thicker.)
13. Repeat with remaining dough portions.

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Variations

Any number of variations are possible. Here are two that I've tried so far. Feel free to add whatever seasonings you want either to the dough or on top. Seasonings that include larger seeds or pieces benefit from either being worked into the dough or held on with an egg wash.

Za'atar Sourdough Crackers

Ingredients

• 150g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt + extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1-2 tsp. za'atar

Directions

1. Prepare crackers as above up to scoring.
2. Instead of brushing with olive oil, beat the egg white with the water and brush with egg mixture.
3. Sprinkle with salt and za'atar.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-20 minute as directed above.

Garlic-Poppy Seed Sourdough Crackers

Ingredients

• 150g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. zesty garlic seasoning blend² + extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp. sugar (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. olive oil + extra for brushing

Directions

1. Combine flour, garlic seasoning, sugar (if using), and poppy seeds.
2. Proceed with mixing and rolling as above.
3. Brush scored dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic seasoning.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-20 minutes as above.

Ideas for Next Time

• Cinnamon and sugar
• Chili and garlic
• Fennel, garlic, and Italian seasoning
• Balti masala - replace some of the wheat flour with chickpea flour, replace oil with ghee?
• Cheddar and onion - reduce oil

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¹ The original recipe didn't include a resting step, but I found the dough much easier to work with after resting for a few minutes. ^Back
2 I have a "zesty garlic" blend that I picked up at the grocery store a few weeks ago. It includes garlic, onion, salt, bell pepper, and a few other odds and ends. Feel free to roll your own or pick up a similar commercial blend. ^Back

This was a huge hit. I liked it a lot; the Kidlet seemed to mostly lose interest after the first two bowls, but the first two went pretty fast; and symbol loved it. It's also pretty easy to make; it takes a while, but a lot of that is just cooking down the onions, stirring it every five minutes or so and ignoring it otherwise. It's also a great emergency backup dish, since it has a short ingredient list and all of them are shelf-stable.

As with other recipes we've made from this cookbook, we bumped up the sauce proportions a bit; this recipe is for the increased version.

Tonnarelli al Sugo di Cipolle (Tonnarelli with Onions, Anchovies, and Capers)

Guiliano Hazan, The Classic Pasta Cookbook p.106

Ingredients

• ½ C olive oil
• 12 anchovy fillets, minced
• 5-6 C onions, finely chopped
• ⅓ C white wine
• 5 tbsp capers
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• parmesan for serving

Directions

1. Put the olive oil and the anchovies in a large skillet over medium-low heat and cook until the flavour of the anchovies has infused the oil, ~5 minutes.
2. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften and become very tender, ~30 minutes.
3. Bring the pasta water to a boil and begin cooking the pasta.
4. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring, until the onions become a rich, golden colour.
5. Pour in the wine and continue cooking until most of it has evaporated.
6. Add the capers and parsley and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
7. When the pasta is cooked al dente, toss with the sauce and serve.

I was going through my bookmarks the other day and found this orange-sage bread recipe that I'd bookmarked. I don't normally go in for white breads, but this one sounded intriguing. Given that I had some oranges on hand that needed to be used up, I figured I'd try converting it to a sourdough recipe and giving it a whirl.

Orange-Sage Sourdough Bread

Adapted from The Spruce Eats

Ingredients

• 2 c. hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. finely ground dried sage
• 250g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. orange juice
• 1/2 Tbsp. oil
• zest of 1 orange (~2 tsp.)

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and sage and mix thoroughly.
2. Mix the water, orange juice, oil, and orange zest.
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the starter followed by the orange juice mixture.
4. Mix the flour into the wet ingredients, working from the centre outward.
5. Once the flour is mostly incorporated, turn the dough out onto a work surface and begin kneading.
6. Knead for 10-20 minutes. Add a little more water if it needs it. Only add flour if absolutely necessary. It will be a bit sticky at first. Just keep kneading and the stickiness should subside. The dough should be very soft and supple.
7. Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise. The first rise may take quite a while; 2-4 hours isn't unreasonable.
8. Once the dough no longer returns a wet fingerprint, knock it back, knead it for a few strokes, shape it back into a ball, and return it to its covered bowl to rise.
9. The second rise should be much faster; probably only an hour or two.
10. Knock the dough back again, knead it for a few strokes, shape it into a ball, and pull the gluten film taut across the top. Cover and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.
11. Shape the loaf as you choose. For a pan loaf: press flat, fold into thirds, roll up jelly roll-style and place in a greased 23x13cm (9x5") loaf pan.
12. Cover and allow to rise for ~45 minutes (+/- 15 minutes depending on the temperature of the room).
13. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 40-50 minutes.
14. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

I've been continuing to experiment with sourdough recipes to keep my starter going between bread baking endeavors. I had ricotta an limes that needed to be used up, so this seemed like a natural choice.

The cookies aren't overly sweet, so the intensely sweet lime glaze complements them well. That said, I probably wouldn't bother making these again. They're okay, but they're not great. I'd rather put the ingredients into something I like better. Still, it was an interesting experiment and gave me another non-bread thing to do with my starter.

Ricotta-Lime Sourdough Cookies

Slightly adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

Dough

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 large egg
• 120g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1 c. ricotta
• zest of 1 lime
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground

Glaze

• 1 1/4 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• juice of 1 lime

Directions

Dough

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).
2. Beat in the egg.
3. Mix in the sourdough starter, ricotta, lime zest, and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Mix dry ingredients into wet until combined.
6. Cover and chill for ~1 hour.
7. Portion scoops of ~1 Tbsp. each onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 15-17 minutes.
9. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Glaze

1. Sift sugar into a bowl.
2. Stir in lime juice to made a smooth glaze.
3. Spoon glaze over the cookies once they've cooled completely.