It's been a bit over a month since I made this, so I'm hoping that I can remember all the changes I made. The base recipe was fine, but the flavour was a bit flat, so I did end up tweaking it a bit just to punch things up a notch.

Slow Cooker Bolognese

Adapted from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1-2 carrots, grated
• 1-2 onions, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 1/2 c. red wine
• 1kg lean ground beef
• 1 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1 large (800mL) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 Parmesan rind (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. dark soy
• 2 tsp. light soy
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add celery, carrots, and onions and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook until softened (~10 minutes).
3. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook until fragrant (3-4 minutes).
4. Add the red wine and cook until mostly evaporated.¹
5. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, cook the ground beef and season with salt and pepper.
6. Stir the milk into the beef and cook until mostly absorbed.
7. Add the beef to the slow cooker along with the tomatoes, oregano, basil, thyme, pepper flakes, and parmesan rind (if using).
8. Cover and cook on low for 6-12 hours.
9. Taste and add sugar, soy sauces, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar if needed.

¹ If you have an InstantPot, then these steps can be done on the sauté setting. Otherwise, transfer veggie mixture to slow cooker once this step is complete. ^Back

This is meant to be made with raw greens, but I decided that I'd prefer them lightly wilted. We also ended up forgetting to add the dressing to the salad... whoops! It was still delicious, but I definitely think it would've been better with the dressing.

The pork belly that I had was very fatty, so I actually used only ~450g of pork belly and filled in the rest with pieces of pork chops as I felt like this gave a better fat-to-lean ratio. I also swapped out the tamari that the original recipe called for for a mixture of dark and light soy sauce.

Salad of Asian Greens with Soy-Glazed Pork Belly

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Salad

• 3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 900g pork belly, skin removed
• 3 heads bok choy, thoroughly washed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 small head cabbage, shredded
• 2-4 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 1-2 green onion tops, sliced (optional)

Dressing

• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions

1. Combine the dark soy, light soy, honey, and sesame oil and mix well.
2. Add the pork belly, turn to coat, cover, and chill for 4-12 hours.
3. Meanwhile, combine the soy sauce, honey, sesame, and vinegar for the dressing and mix well.
4. Heat a pan over medium to medium-high heat.
5. Add the pork belly and sear on all sides, basting as it cooks.
6. Keep cooking, reducing heat if necessary, until meat is cooked through.
7. Transfer to a cutting board and slice.
8. Pour off any fat in the pan.
9. If the pork belly still seems excessively fatty, return the slices to the pan and cook until more of the fat has rendered off. Remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
10. Pour any residual marinade into the pan and cook for a few seconds.
11. Add the bok choy, cabbage, and celery and cook until slightly wilted.
12. Transfer the greens to a bowl and toss with the dressing.
13. Top with the pork belly and green onions (if using) and serve.

This soup is a bit different than my usual approach to pumpkin soup. Quite often my soups will involve generous quantities of curry powder and coconut milk and quite often a bit of tomato as well. This one leans into maple syrup with a little bit of cayenne as the main seasoning. (Although I used Kashmiri chilies in my rendition of it.) I think I still prefer my usual curried version overall, but this was an interesting twist on the pumpkin soup theme. Especially with the sour cream and seasoned pumpkin seeds.

Maple Pumpkin Soup

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika¹
• 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne (or Kashmiri chilies), divided
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 7 Tbsp. maple syrup, divided
• 1 tsp. water
• 1/2 c. pumpkin seeds, toasted
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. white wine
• 4-5 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1250g pumpkin purée²
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. sour cream

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, paprika, 1/4 tsp. of the cayenne, and ground sea salt and set aside.
2. Combine 1/2 Tbsp. of the butter, 1 Tbsp. of the maple syrup, and the water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Add the pumpkin seeds and cook until liquid has evaporated and seeds are well-coated.
4. Transfer to bowl with the paprika mixture and toss to coat.
5. Spread out on a sheet of parchment paper to cool.
6. Melt the remaining 2 Tbsp. of butter over medium heat.
7. Add the onion and celery and cook until softened (~10 minutes).
8. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.
9. Add the wine, increase heat to medium-high, and cook until reduced by half.
10. Add the stock and the pumpkin, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for ~10 minutes.
11. If soup is chunkier than you'd like, use an immersion blender to smooth it out.
12. Stir in the remaining 6 Tbsp. of maple syrup, sea salt, remaining 1/4 tsp. of cayenne, and pepper and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
13. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
14. Serve topped with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of the seasoned pumpkin seeds.

---

¹ I just used plain sweet paprika this time, but I think that smoked sweet paprika would actually be really nice in this. ^Back
2 I used a mix of fresh and canned pumpkin for this. One 796mL can + 1 pie pumpkin yieled about the right amount. I cut the pumpkin in half, scooped out the seeds, rubbed it with a little olive oil, and baked it at 180°C (350°F) for 50 minutes, then scooped the flesh out of the skin. ^Back

Here's another one out of my NZ backlog. It was pretty good, but it makes a lot. Possibly best when you have a bunch of other people to share it with.

Creamy Coleslaw with Green Apple and Parsley

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 900g cabbage, shredded
• 2-3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
• 1 Granny Smith apple, grated
• 1 onion, grated
• 2 small carrots, grated
• 2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. minced flat-leaf parsley
• ~1 c. mayonnaise
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Combine the cabbage, celery, apple, onion, and carrots.
2. Drizzle with vinegar and toss to coat.
3. Stir in the parsley and mayonnaise.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add an extra few Tbsp. if needed to achieve desired consistency.
5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
6. Taste again and adjust seasonings as needed.

We had some lovely home-smoked trout left over from Reiver's birthday and he suggested that it might go well in a soup.

I've made fish chowder plenty of times before, but never with smoked fish. So I went looking for something that was tailored to smoked fish specifically. I found this one on the Food & Wine website. I will admit that I tweaked it slightly, but only slightly. I omitted the water called for. Used a regular commercial chicken broth (rather than low-sodium), but then omitted the salt. Halved the thyme. And, after tasting it at the end of cooking, decided to add in some corn and grated carrot as it seemed like it needed some more veg to balance it out and I usually put those in my chowders anyway.

Photo goes here.

Smoked Trout Chowder

Slightly adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 3-6 green onions, greens and whites kept separate and chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 450g potatoes, cut into 1cm dice
• 1/4 c. dry white wine
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. frozen corn kernels
• 1-2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 1 c. half-and-half (10% MF)
• 2 fillets smoked trout, skin removed and flesh flaked

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium-low heat.
2. Add the celery, white parts of the green onions, and garlic and cook until softened (5-10 minutes).
3. Add the potatoes, wine, chicken stock, thyme, bay leaf, and pepper.
4. Increase heat to medium-high, bring to a boil, then reduce to medium and cook until potatoes are just tender (~15 minutes).
5. Stir in the corn and carrots.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir in the cream.
7. Cook for a few minutes, then stir in the trout.
8. Serve with crusty bread.

Pullum Parthicum (Parthian Chicken)

I quite enjoy a bit of historical cooking. Cooking in the Archives has been a lot of fun (even if I don't always agree with their interpretations). And I've quite liked some of the recipes from Shakespeare's Kitchen and Townsends as well.

Reiver was actually the one who originally put me onto Townsends. And now he's shared a few more of his favourite cooking channels. One of which is Max Miller's Tasting History. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of the videos I've watched on his channel, but Reiver has his cookbook and had pointed out that we had all the bits for this chicken recipe. And, unlike some of his other recipes, he actually seems to have a reasonable source for this one and hasn't been overly... "creative" in his interpretation of it.

This was quite a surprising recipe. It honestly didn't really grab me at first. It looked unusual, but not that exciting. But, I have to say, this turned out very nice in the end! I don't think it was quite a favourite for me, but it was nice.

I never would have thought of combining red wine and fish sauce, but the combination works surprisingly well! And the caraway, black pepper, celery, and asafetida is a somewhat bewildering -- but not unpleasant -- way to complete the flavours.

I think I might put somewhat less wine next time. I do feel like using a full cup was a bit heavy-handed and possibly excessive for a recipe that calls for "seasoning" with wine. But otherwise, I really can't complain or suggest any changes or alterations. This was actually quite lovely!

We served our Parthian chicken over a bit of saffron rice with a slice of buttered rye bread and some silverbeet gratin on the side. This turns out to have been an excellent (and fairly thematically appropriate) combination. Would definitely recommend!

Parthian Chicken: Open the chicken and quarter. Pound pepper, lovage, a little caraway, moisten with garum, season with wine. Arrange the chicken in an earthen dish and put the seasoning on top. Dissolve silpuium in warm water, and put it with the chicken and cook. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.
-- Apicus, De re coquinaria

Pullum Parthicum

Slightly adapted from Tasting History by Max Miller

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (~1.5kg)¹
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lovage or 1/4 c. celery leaves²
• 1/2 Tbsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. caraway seeds, ground
• 1/2-3/4 c. dry red wine
• 3/4 tsp. ground asafetida
• 1/4 c. warm water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
2. Quarter the chicken and place the pieces, skin-side-up, in a baking dish.
3. Combine the fish sauce, lovage (or celery), pepper, and caraway and mix well.
4. Stir in the wine.
5. Pour this mixture over the chicken. Try to distribute the spices as evenly as possible and press them into the chicken skin a little.
6. Stir the asafetia into the water and pour it over the chicken as well.
7. Roast at 230°C (450°F) until chicken is cooked through and meat registers ~74°C/165°F (~45 minutes).
8. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.
9. Serve drizzled with the sauce and extra black pepper.

---

¹ Honestly, any skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces should work reasonably well for this. I actually ended up using a bunch of thighs for my rendition. ^Back
2 I used both the leaves and the ribs of the celery for my rendition and liked that quite a lot. I only used one rib this time around, but Reiver and I agreed that a bit more would have been even better. Personally, I would recommend 1/4 c. of leaves + 2 ribs of celery if going that route. ^Back

This was meant to be done with lamb shanks, but I found some bone-in "lamb pieces" and shoulder chops on sale, so I opted to use those instead. The shanks would have been lovely (and probably resulted in everyone getting a bit more meat), but these were tasty too. And a lot cheaper!

Citrus-Braised Lamb Shanks

From Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan (p. 123)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 lamb shanks, about 1 lb (450 g) each
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 3 small sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 c. dry white wine
• 1 c. chicken broth
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lime
• Grated zest and juice of 1 orange

Directions

1. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil over medium-high heat (preferably in a Dutch oven).
2. Season the shanks with salt and pepper.
3. Working in batches, sear the shanks, turning as needed, until browned on all sides, 6–8 minutes. Set aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 120°C (250°F).
5. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp oil to the pot and place over medium-low heat.
6. Add the carrot, onion, and celery and sauté until softened (~5 minutes).
7. Add the thyme, bay leaf, garlic, and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add the wine, broth, and lemon and lime zests and juices.
9. Return the shanks to the pot and bring the liquid to a gentle simmer.
10. Cover and cook in the oven, turning the shanks every hour, until the meat is completely tender (2-3 hours).
11. Transfer the shanks to a platter and keep warm in the oven.
12. Pour the juices from the pot into a large, heatproof measuring pitcher and let stand for 1 minute. The fat will rise to the top. Use a bulb baster to transfer the juices underneath the fat to a small saucepan.
13. Simmer to reduce slightly. Stir in the orange zest and juice.
14. Drizzle the reduced juices over the lamb shanks and serve.

I have very fond memories of my mom's chicken stew with dumplings, but it's been a long time since I've had it. I don't really tend to make chicken stew. If I'm making stew, it's usually beef. And for chicken, I'm much more likely to do soup than stew these days.

This isn't my mom's recipe. But it still filled me with nostalgia. And I do really enjoy a good stew with dumplings.

Chicken Stew with Buttermilk-Chive Dumplings

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Stew

• 1 chicken (~1kg), skinned and broken down into parts
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 peppercorns
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter
• 2 leeks, halved and chopped (white parts only)
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 ribs celery, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 1 russet (or other floury) potato, cut into 1cm cubes
• 2 Tbsp. heavy (35%) cream

Dumplings

• 200g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 1/8 tsp. ground cayenne
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. buttermilk

Directions

1. Put chicken pieces in a pot with bay leaf, peppercorns, and 1/4 tsp. of salt and add enough water to cover by a couple of cm.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.
3. Simmer until chicken is cooked through (~20 minutes).
4. Remove chicken, shred meat. Reserve 2 c. of poaching liquid. Set aside.
5. Melt butter over medium-high heat.
6. Add leeks, carrots, and celery and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
7. Add the flour and cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add the chicken stock and reserved poaching liquid and bring to a boil.
9. Add potato, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until the potato begins to soften (~10 minutes).
10. Add the chicken and cream and cook until broth thickens and potatoes are tender (~5 minutes).
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
12. Meanwhile, sift together the flour and baking soda.
13. Add the salt, chives, and cayenne and cut in the butter.
14. Add the buttermilk and stir to combine.
15. Shape the dough into small dumplings and drop them into the soup.
16. Cover and steam for 20 minutes.

We've made this as-written at least twice, but it looks like neither time made it into the blog. This version, meanwhile, deviates somewhat from the recipe in Hazan; I wanted to increase the ratio of veggies to everything else somewhat, and I also needed to get it done fast because I was starting late and could not afford the usual 3-4 hour cooking time. To that end, I used a generous quantity of mirepoix mix for the veggies, added some spinach, and skipped the slow simmering and cooking down of the tomatoes in favour of using a smaller quantity of pre-diced tomatoes.

I would definitely make it this way again; symbol and I both liked it, and the Kidlet declared it to be "beyond favourite".

Modified Fettucini al Ragu

The Classic Pasta Cookbook by Guiliano Hazan (pp. 62-63)

Ingredients

• 400-450g fettucini or other pasta
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2+2 tbsp butter
• 360mL (1½ C) frozen mirepoix mix
• 5-6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 450g (1 lb) extra lean ground beef
• ½ tsp salt, ground
• ½ tsp pepper, ground
• 120mL (½ C) frozen chopped spinach
• 240mL (1 C) white wine
• 120mL (½ C) milk
• ⅛ tsp grated nutmeg
• 1×375mL tin diced tomatoes
• freshly grated parmesan

Directions

1. Heat the oil and half of the butter in a large, deep-sided skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the mirepoix mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until thawed and the onion has just started to brown.
3. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
4. Add the ground beef, salt, and pepper, and cook, breaking up and stirring as needed, until cooked through and just browned.
5. Stir in the spinach and cook until just thawed.
6. Add the wine and cook until it has completed evaporated.
7. Add the milk and nutmeg and cook, stirring frequently, until mostly evaporated.
8. Add the tomatoes and cook until they are bubbling and the sauce has just begun to thicken.
9. Reduce heat to low and set aside until the pasta is cooked al dente.
10. Combine pasta, sauce, and remaining butter and toss until the butter is melted and the pasta is evenly coated; serve.

This is a tasty stew, but I feel like it needed a bit more... something to perk it up a bit. You would think that with half a kilo of chorizo in the pot, it would have plenty of savoury umami and fat and spice and all that good stuff and it certainly smelled incredible, but -- for me at least -- the flavour didn't quite live up to what the aroma promised. Still... it was decent and very easy to throw together. Although it wasn't remotely ready in the time indicated in the recipe. I don't know if the InstantPot's low is just dramatically lower than whatever slow cooker they were using or what, but even after eight hours the beans were still fairly firm. And I even bumped the temperature up to "medium" for the last four hours of that cook time!

In the end it took a full 12 hours to cook! Four each on low, medium, and high. And it then got left on the highest "keep warm" temperature overnight as well. Next time I think I'd just start it on "slow cook - high" and aim for maybe a six-hour cook time. I'd probably also add a jalapeño or two as well. And maybe a bit of creole seasoning. Hopefully that would help round out the flavours a bit.

Red Bean and Chorizo Stew

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 450g dried red kidney beans
• 2 Tbsp. bacon fat
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 jalape&ntile;os, minced (optional)
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 c. beef or chicken stock, divided
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. red chile flakes
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 tsp. creole seasoning (optional)
• 3 bay leaves
• 500g cured Spanish-style chorizo, sliced

Directions

1. Place the beans in a bowl and add enough water to cover by at least 3-4cm. Cover and let soak overnight.
2. The next day, melt the bacon fat over medium heat ("sauté - medium" in the InstantPot).
3. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper cook until softened and beginning to brown (5-7 minutes).
4. Add the garlic and jalapeños (if using) and cook for another minute or two.
5. Pour in 1 c. of the stock and scrape the bottom to deglaze the pot.
6. Drain the beans and add them to the pot.
7. Add the remaining stock, vinegar, chile flakes, pepper, creole seasoning (if using), bay leaves, and chorizo.
8. Stir to combine, cover, and slow cook on high for 6-8 hours.
9. Serve with rice and/or crusty bread and season with Tabasco or similar hot sauce(s).

I had originally planned on trying out a celery salad recipe from "The Cookbook" this week, but I didn't quite get around to it and ended up giving this celery and herb salad a go instead. Sadly none of us really liked it. Now, to be fair, I did deviate from the recipe a bit. This was partly because I couldn't find all the ingredients and partially because I got mixed up about what we had on hand and a little bit because I was trying to make it a bit healthier and I know that I normally find most vinaigrettes too oily anyway. But perhaps if I'd been able to follow the recipe more closely it would have come out better.

I've chosen to relay the original reicpe below, not my franken-version. I've included notes detailing what changes I made so that you'll know what NOT to do. Good luck!

Celery and Herb Salad

From Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Vinaigrette

• 1 shallot¹, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard²
• juice of 1 lemon
• 4 olive-oil packed anchovy fillets³
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt⁴
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. olive oil⁵

Salad

• 1 head of celery⁶, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1 bunch of radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 c. coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh tarragon⁷
• 2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh dill⁸
• 4 large eggs, hard-boiled
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Combine the shallot, mustard, lemon juice, anchovies, salt, and pepper in a blender.
2. Blend until smooth and then, with the blender running, gradually add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Set aside.
3. Combine the celery, radishes, parsley, tarragon, and dill in a large bowl.
4. Add ~1/2 the dressing and toss to coat.
5. Peel and quarter the eggs and add them to the salad.
6. Drizzle with a little more dressing.
7. Serve, seasoning to taste with salt, pepper, and additional dressing.

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¹ I used 1/2 of a small red onion instead. I usually find this to be an acceptable substitute for shallots, but it now occurrs to me that I probably should've tossed a clove of garlic in as well. ^1
2 I used home-made Roman mustard as I generally use to two interchangeably and don't bother keeping store-bought mustard on hand anymore. (Unless I want a bit of yellow mustard for hotdogs or something.) ^Back
3 I used 4 whole anchovies packed in olive oil and chile flakes. Again, I've never had any issues with making this substitution and I find that the whole anchovies generally break down much better than the anchovy fillets. (Plus they're much cheaper!) ^Back
4 I think I may have forgotten to add the salt. I don't think the salad tasted particularly under-seasoned, but perhaps a bit of extra saltiness would have helped the overall flavour, I don't know. ^Back
5 I only used 1/4 c. of oil to make my dressing. That said, TF and I both tasted it after mixing and thought that it tasted fine and didn't need the rest of the oil. I know that this will have resulted in a smaller overall amount of vinaigrette, but there still seemed to be plenty enough to dress the salad. So, if neither the flavour nor quantity of dressing was an issue, then I don't really think reducing the quantity of oil was a problem. ^Back
6 I think the celery is actually probably the most likely culprit for the less-than-optimal results. I used an heirloom "leafy" celery variety. It was lovely, but the flavour was definitely a lot stronger than your bog standard celery. I'm used to celery tasting more-or-less like crunchy water. It has a lot of texture, but not much flavour of its own. That was definitely not the case for this celery! It actually tasted distinctly celery-y (like celery seed, but in the actual vegetable). This is great for things like soups and stir-fries, but maybe the flavour was a bit too much to blend harmoniously with the other salad components in this recipe. If I try it again, I'll make sure to use a blander variety of celery. ^Back
7 Sadly, I wasn't able to get any tarragon this week, so I just had to leave it out. I'm sure that won't have helped the final results. ^Back
8 Our old dill plant isn't doing so hot right now and the new one is still too small to harvest much from, so I could only get ~1 Tbsp. of fresh dill. I tried adding a little bit of ground dill seed (a scant tsp.) to compensate, but this doesn't work as well in salads as it does in soups and stews. That and the missing tarragon probably didn't do any favours for the success of this salad. ^Back

I was going to have soft-boiled eggs and toast for breakfast this morning, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I decided to just hard-boil a whole bunch of eggs and make a zesty egg salad out of them. I mostly followed the Cook's Country recipe for this, but I swapped in a mix of reduced-fat mayo and fat-free Greek yogurt for the regular mayo, swapped the Tabasco sauce for sriracha, used scallions instead of chives, and added a few capers.

I didn't have any celery on hand this time 'round, so I just left it out, but I'd highly recommend adding it in if available.

Deviled Egg Salad

Adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2020

Ingredients

• 8 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• 2 Tbsp. 1/2-fat mayo
• 2 Tbsp. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1-2 tsp. Roman mustard (or Dijon mustard)
• 1-2 tsp. sriracha
• 1/4 c. chopped dill pickle
• 1 rib of celery, chopped
• 1-2 green onions, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. capers, minced
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Chop the eggs with a potato masher or pastry cutter.
2. Add the mayo, yogurt, mustard, sriracha, pickle, celery, green onion, capers, and pepper and stir to combine.
3. Serve on bread or in lettuce wraps.

I've been eyeing the photo for this recipe for ages now. I just looks really, really appealing. I never used to be much for beans in my youth, but I've warmed up to them over the years and, especially in the last year or two, I've found cannellini beans particularly appealing. So, a rich, savoury thick soup built on a base of cannellini beans sounded like a pretty fantastic dinner to me!

The original recipe calls for a mix of chopped onions, carrots, and celery as the vegetable component. I was running low on veggies when I made this though, so I ended up swapping in some frozen "spaghetti" mix (onion, red bell pepper, carrot, green bell pepper, and celery). I used ~3 c. total. I also swapped in a few olives and an anchovy in place of the pancetta that I forgot to get. I think it would've been fine with just the olives, but I figured I'd toss the anchovy in since we had an open jar in the fridge.

Pasta e Fagioli

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2018

Ingredients

• 2 (450mL) cans cannellini beans
• 1 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• ~60g pancetta, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flake (optional)
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 115g ditalini or tubettini
• ~1 c. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Drain and rinse the beans from one can and add to blender.
2. Pour in water and purée. Set aside.
3. Heat oil over medium heat.
4. Add onion, carrot, celery, bell pepper (if using), pancetta, salt, and pepper and cook for ~10 minutes.
5. Add tomato paste, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if using) and cook for ~2 minutes.
6. Add broth and puréed bean mixture.
7. Drain and rinse second can of beans and add them as well.
8. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes.
9. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil.
10. add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta is al dente (10-12 minutes).
11. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan and basil.
12. Serve drizzled with extra olive oil and/or Parmesan cheese.

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Variants

Vegetarian Version

Ingredients

• 2 (450mL) cans cannellini beans
• 1 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
• ~60g green or kalamata olives, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper flake (optional)
• 4 c. vegetable stock
• 115g ditalini or tubettini
• ~1 c. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil

I have mixed feelings about this recipe. It was tasty and I enjoyed it, but I didn't really feel that it was optimally tasty. Also, the meatballs were very soft. I realize that they're probably supposed to be like that -- very tender and all -- but I didn't really care for the texture. I like my meatballs to have a bit more chew to them. And being so soft also made them very difficult to handle. I've reduced the amount of panade called for in the recipe below and added an egg. Hopefully that'll help make the meatballs a bit sturdier.

I've made some notes in the Creole seasoning post about what I'd do differently there next time. But a sub-optimal spice mix wasn't the only problem. TF and I both felt that there was somehting missing. I said that I thought it needed an acidic component. I actually tried stirring a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar into the leftovers after we'd all had our dinner tonight, and that did help some. But it still wasn't quite right.

Now that I'm looking at the recipe again, I see that we were meant to serve it with Louisiana-style hot sauce. That probably would have added that acidic component I was looking for! I am slightly annoyed that both white rice and hot sauce are called out as "important parts of the mix" in the preamble, but then only white rice is mentioned in the actual recipe. If it's so important, put it in the recipe! Oh well, now I know that, should I ever be making these meatballs again, they really need to be served with a highly acidic hot sauce to balance out all the flavours.

Cajun Meatball Fricassee

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2020

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 40g saltines, crushed
• 1/2 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 900g ground beef
• 1 large egg
• 1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp. Creole seasoning
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Stew

• 1/3 c. oil
• 1/3 c. flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 slices streaky bacon¹, cut into 1cm pieces
• 6 scallions (green onions), chopped, whites and greens separated
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. Creole seasoning
• 1L chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• cooked rice, to serve
• Louisiana-style hot sauce, to serve

Directions

Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F) and set a wire rack in a baking sheet lined with foil or a silicone baking mat.
2. Grease the rack.
3. Combine saltines, milk, and Worcestershire sauce, mix, and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Whisk saltine mixture until smooth.
5. Add beef, Parmesan, Creole seasoning, thyme, and pepper and mix with hands.
6. Make 24 meatballs (a scant 1/4 c. each) and place on prepared wire rack.
7. Roast at 220°C (425°F) for ~25 minutes.

Stew

1. In Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat until just smoking.
2. Stir in flour with rubber spatula and cook, stirring constantly, until roux is peanut butter coloured².
3. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the roux is the colour of milk chocolate.
4. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and bacon and cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Add scallion whites, garlic, and Creole seasoning and cook for a minute longer.
6. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
7. Add meatballs.
8. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
9. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened (10-12 minutes).
10. Serve over rice and top with scallion greens and hot sauce.

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¹ I didn't have any bacon, so I tossed in a bit of pancetta instead. ^Back
2 The recipe said that this should be done at medium-high heat and take 2-5 minutes. But my roux was already peanut butter coloured after barely a minute! The rest of the cooking was supposed to take a further 5-10 minutes, but mine only needed 2 to reach the milk chocolate stange. I've reduced the temperatures here to try to get the timing more in line with the recipe. (I wasn't even using induction for this, so I don't know why it went so much faster than the recip expected.) ^Back

I needed to use up some sourdough starter so I was perusing the Sourdough Companion website again. I saw one person talking about making a blue cheese and walnut loaf and another person talking about doing celery and romano and I figured I could take some elements of each of those and try a celery and blue cheese loaf.

I pretty much just built a basic sourdough based on bakers' percentages and worked some inclusions into it. I figured 800g of flour would be a pretty good starting point and rolled with 65% (520g) water, 20% (160g) starter, and 2% (16g) salt. I think I might try for a slightly higher hydration dough next time, but other than that it was great! Although I need to either find a better method of working the inclusions in or make them as pan loaves next time, because they ended up coming apart a bit during baking. Flavour was real good though!

Celery and Blue Cheese Sourdough

Ingredients

• 800g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 550g water
• 16g coarse sea salt
• 160g active/fed starter (100% hydration)
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. bacon grease or butter
• 100g blue cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Mix the water into the flour to form a dough. Cover and set aside for at least an hour and as long as overnight.
2. Add the salt and knead a few strokes to work it into the dough.
3. Add the starter and knead it into the dough. This will be a little messy at first!
4. Cover and ferment at room temperature, stretching and folding every hour or two until dough is light and active.
5. Meanwhile, melt the fat over medium heat and add the celery. Cook until softened.
6. Press the dough flat and sprinkle half the cheese and half the celery over the surface. Letter fold, press flat again, and sprinkle over the remaining cheese and celery before doing a second letter fold on the opposite axis.
7. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
8. Press flat and divide into two equal portions.
9. Round each portion, cover, and rest for 30 minutes.
10. Shape each portion into a loaf and place, seam-side-up in a floured banneton to rise.
11. Cover and proof at room temperature until well-risen.
12. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F), grease a baking sheet, and sprinkle it with cornmeal.
13. Turn the risen loaves out onto the prepared baking sheet and shalsh as desired.
14. Once the oven is preheated, pour some water into a pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
15. Bake the bread at 250°C (475°F) on the middle rack of the oven for ~15 minutes.
16. Reduce heat to 160°C (325°F), remove the pan of boiling water, and bake for another 20 minutes.
17. Turn off oven and allow bread to rest in oven for 10 minutes.
18. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

TM brought over some tomatoes and bell peppers when she came over for dinner the other night. I turned some of that into a bell pepper salad. But there was still a bit leftover (plus some tomatoes that I'd bought), so I decided to make this tomato and caper salad.

I love capers, so I was really looking forward to that element. Sadly, we seem to be all out of capers. We always have capers! It didn't even occur to me to check because we just always have them. But, since neither of us wanted to run out to the grocery store just for capers, we decided to go ahead with the salad and substitute chopped olives for the capers. It's not the same. But it's still a nice salad. Definitely make it with capers if you have them though!

Fresh Tomato and Caper Salad

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 900g very ripe tomatoes, diced¹
• 1/2 c. minced red onion
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced²
• 1/2 a preserved lemon, pulp removed, rinsed, and minced
• 2-3 Tbsp. capers, drained
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions

1. Combine the tomatoes, onion, celery, bell pepper, preserved lemon, and capers and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cobine the salt, pepper, oil, and lemon juice and mix well.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
4. Cover and chill for 30-60 minutes before serving.

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¹ As usual, Wolfert specifies that the tomatoes should be peeled and seeded before dicing them. I didn't want to do that, so I just diced my tomatoes -- skin, seeds, and all! Presumably that's why my salad looks so juicy/watery. ^Back
2 Once again here, she calls for peeling, coring, and seeding the bell pepper. Obviously I cored/seeded it. But I didn't bother trying to peel it before dicing. She also specifically calls for a green bell pepper, but I only had a yellow on hand (and I prefer them anyway), so I just used that. ^Back

This claims to be a chili recipe. While it does involve beans and tomatoes and chilies, it also involves a three-nut paste and the overall effect is much closer to a korma than any chili I've ever had. Thus, I am deciding that it's really a mislabeled korma after all. Either way, it's very good. I served it with some fried rice and a simple bottle gourd squash curry.

Three-Bean Korma

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-4 fresh green Thai, finger, or jalapeño chilies, chopped
• 1 (400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1-2 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies (or 1 part cayenne + 3 parts paprika)
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika (optional)
• 2 tsp. Dhania-Jeera Masala
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 3 c. water, divided
• 1/2 c. raw pine nuts
• 1/2 c. raw cashew nuts
• 1/2 c. raw pistachio nuts
• scant 2 c. cooked pinto beans
• scant 2 c. cooked kidney beans
• scant 2 c. cooked black beans
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion, celery, carrot, grlic, and fresh chilies and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, ground chilies, paprika (if using), masala, salt, and turmeric.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, pour 1/4 c. of the water into a blender followed by all of the nuts and purée.
6. Add the nut paste to the tomato mixture.
7. Pour the remaining water into the blender and whizz it round to wash out the blender. Add this nutty water to the pot as well.
8. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low, coer, and smmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
10. Reduce heat to low and cook for another 15 minutes.
11. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Just doing a super quick write-up to try to knock another recipe out of the backlog. This reminded me a lot of the Chinese sausage and rice one-pot dinner that we sometimes do. I put "casserole" in quotes because I opted to make this in the instant pot rather than baking it in a covered casserole dish as directed. I added some kale to make it more of a one-pot meal.

Rice and Sausage Casserole

Adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2016

Ingredients

• 450g pork or vegetarian sausage, casings removed
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 tsp. dried sage
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 c. chopped fresh or frozen kale
• 2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 c. dry white wine
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Cook sausage until no longer pink (~5 minutes on medium sauté for InstantPot).
2. Add onion, carrot, celery, salt, and pepper and cook for another 5-7 minutes.
3. Add sage and garlic and cook for another minute or so.
4. Add kale and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add rice and stir to combine.
6. Stir in stock, wine, and cream.
7. Pressure cook on high for 20 minutes, then allow for a 10 minute natural release.
8. Stir in parsley and serve.

I have a bunch of other recipes to write up, but I'm doing this one right away because I took a lot of liberties with the recipe and I don't want to forget what I did. I don't normally use a recipe for stock, I pretty much just put a bunch of things in a pot, add water and heat, and wait for it to become delicious. That method has always worked pretty well for me. And it's a great way to use up odd bits of stuff and vegetable peels. I actually made an amazing stock a few months ago that was pretty much just leftover chicken bones, onion, garlic, vegetable peels, and some spices. I honestly wish I'd done a write-up for that one. It ended up being one of the best stocks I've ever made. But I should stop reminiscing about that stock and start talking about this stock. This stock is (loosely) based on a recipe out of Offal Good. As I said, I made quite a few modifications to make it fit what I had avaialbe, but it's still inspired by their recipe.

The original recipe is for veal stock. It calls for veal knuckles, onion, carrot, celery, fennel, garlic, tomato paste, bay leaves, black pepper, coriander seeds, fresh parsley, and thyme. I didn't have veal knuckles, but I did have some beef soup bones that needed using, so I used them! I didn't have any fennel either, so I just tossed in some fennel seeds instead. I did have tomato paste, but I also had some fire-roasted diced tomatoes sitting in the fridge that needed to be used, so I swapped them in. The tomato paste is more concentrated and was meant to be added to the vegetables for roasting. Hopefully the larger volume and fire-roasting helps make up for the less concentrated flavour. I also tossed in a small amount of cilantro, mostly because I had it and I figured it would complement the coriander seeds.

The other big change with this recipe is that I was making it after grilling some short ribs. The ribs were braised for a couple hours first and then grilled and basted with a barbecue sauce made from some of the braising liquid. Afterward I filled a roasting pan with soup bones and vegetables and poured the leftover braising liquid over them. I roasted everything together until the veggies were tender and delicious and the liquid had cooked down to a delicious glaze. We ate most of the roasted veggies with dinner, but the soup bones and glaze went into the pot for stock. Then, instead of roasting more veggies for the stock, I just put raw ones into the pot. Maybe the broth won't be quite as flavourful that way, but I'm hoping that the glaze and roasted bones will make up for it. It certainly smells like it's going to be a delicious stock!

Veal/Beef Stock

Adapted from Offal Good by Chris Cosentino

Ingredients

• 2kg beef or veal bones¹
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 carrot, cut into large chunks
• 2 stalks celery, cut into large chunks
• 2-6 cloves garlic²
• 2L water
• 2 c. diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1/4 c. fresh parsley
• 1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Roast your soup bones. I roasted mine on the barbecue with a whole mess of veggies, garlic, scallion oil, and some leftover braising liquid from cooking short ribs. If you're not doing any of that, then just roast them in the oven at 180°C (350°F) for ~45 minutes.
2. Dump your roasted soup bones into a pot. (I like using the InstantPot for this, but a regular pot on the stove works too.)
3. Optional: You may also roast your veggies if desired. Half an hour at 180°C (350°F) should do the trick. If you're using tomato paste, rather than diced tomatoes, toss the veggies with it before roasting. Otherwise, leave the tomatoes out until you're adding everything to the pot.
4. Add (optionally roaste) veggies to the pot with the roasted bones.
5. Add water, tomatoes (if using), bay leaf, peppercorns, coriander, fennel, parsley, cilantro (if using), thyme, and salt.
6. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for at least 8 hours.
7. Cool, strain, and discard solids.
8. Stock may be frozen for future use. I like to freeze mine in ice cube trays to have easy portions available as needed.

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¹ I'm not sure exactly how many soup bones I had, but I think it was probably ~2kg give or take. ^Back
2 I only added two cloves of garlic to the stock because I'd already added six cloves to the braising liquid for the ribs and a further nine to the roasting pan when cooking the veggies. Now, some of that garlic ended up in the barbecue sauce and some ended up getting eaten with dinner, but there was still a lot of garlic-y goodness in the soup bones and the glaze that went into the pot with them, so I felt pretty comfortable going light on the garlic in the pot. If you're making this fresh, without the benefit of braising liquid/glaze/etc., then I'd recommend tossing at least five or six cloves of garlic in the pot. ^Back

Lovage, Tomato, and Cheese Tart

This tart is way tastier than it has any right to be! I don't understand it. There's nothing wrong with the ingredient list, but it didn't seem particularly inspiring either. No herbs, no spices (beyond black pepper), no Parmesan. There's some onion and garlic and Cheddar and things, but I wasn't confident that any of it would really shine. I put one or more kinds of cheese in almost every quiche I make -- onions and garlic are pretty common too -- but they don't all come out like this! They're usually tasty, sure, but not the addictive, rich, satisfying flavour-bomb that this one turned out to be. I am really impressed. I was already planning the modifications and improvements in my head while preparing it but, now that I've actually tried it, I don't think it needs any changes at all.

Loveage, Tomato, and Cheese Tart

Slightly adapted from the Book of Old Tarts by Elizabeth Hodder

Ingredients

• 175g Pastry
• 25g unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh lovage (young leaves only)¹
• 3 large eggs
• 300mL heavy (35%) cream
• black pepper, to taste
• 4 ripe tomatoes, skinned, chopped, and juices drained²
• 115g old/sharp/mature Cheddar, grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a shallow 23cm (9") tart tin³ with the pastry.
2. Line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Blind bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat.
4. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Add the lovage and cook, uncovered, for 1 more minute. If using celery instead, cook for 5 more minutes.
7. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. Lightly beat the eggs.
9. Remove the parchemnt paper and pie weights from the pie shell and brush the pastry with beaten egg.
10. Return the pie shell to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes.
11. Mix the cream with the beaten eggs and season to taste with pepper.
12. Once the pie shell is fully baked, remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 190°C (375°F).
13. Sprinkle ~1/2 of the cheese over the bottom of the pie shell.
14. Add the onion mixture in an even layer on top of the cheese.
15. Add an even layer of chopped tomatoes over the onion.
16. Pour in the custard, being careful not to overflow the pie shell.
17. Top with remaining cheese.
18. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.
19. Serve warm.

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¹ If you don't have access to fresh lovage, you may use celery instead. (This is, incidentally, what I did.) Celery has a much milder flavour than lovage, so you'll need a lot more of it. Use 3-4 stalks of minced celery to replace the lovage. ^Back
2 I didn't have any fresh tomatoes on hand, so I used fire-roasted tinned diced tomatoes with the juices drained. I didn't measure the amount. I think I probably used ~300mL of tomatoes. ^Back
3 I used a shallow 23cm tart tin as directed but found that there wasn't enough room for all the custard. I had a scant cup left over. I would recommend either using a deep dish 23cm pie plate or scaling back the custard slightly. Maybe just two eggs and 200mL of cream. ^Back