Beef and Potato One-Pot Rice

It's been a while since I've watched any Aaron & Claire videos or tried any of their recipes. This one-pot rice is from one of their more recent posts, and looked quite appealing. Plus, we already had all of the ingredients on hand!

I did mess it up slightly by trying to scale the recipe up. We had 450g of beef rather than the 300g the recipe called for, so I just bumped it up to a 1.5x batch. It still came out tasty. But it took much longer to cook than stated in the recipe. Next time I think I'd just stick with the standard recipe and go slightly heavy on the beef if I had a larger amount available.

Photo goes here.

Beef & Potato One-Pot Rice

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

Rice

• 2 c. uncooked white rice (pref. short-grain)
• 2 c. water
• 3 Tbsp. soy sauce¹
• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 tsp. dasida (or other bouillon powder)
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 300-450g ground beef
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 green onions², chopped (whites and greens kept separate)
• 225g white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• pat of butter³

Sauce

• 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 Tbsp. gochugaru (Korean chile flakes)
• 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 green onion, green parts only
• 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Rinse the rice, then add enough water to cover by at least a cm or two and set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the water, soy sauce, mirin, and dasida and set aside.
3. Heat the oil over medium heat.
4. Add the beef and cook for ~2 minutes, break up, and cook for another minute or so.
5. Add the garlic, white parts of the green onions, mushrooms, and potatoes and stir to combine.
6. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Cook for 5-6 minutes.
8. Drain the rice and add it to the pot.
9. Stir to combine and cook for a minute or so.
10. Pour in the seasoned water, scrape the bottom of the pot, stir well, and bring to a boil.
11. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes.
12. Meanwhile, mix up the sauce by combining the soy sauce, mirin, gochugaru, sesame oil, green onion, and sesame seeds and mixing well. Set aside.
13. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. Do not uncover!
14. Remove lid and fluff rice.
15. Sprinkle with green parts of green onions, top with a generous pat of butter, and stir them in.
16. Spoon into bowls and top with sauce as desired.

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¹ I used a mix of 2 parts light soy to 1 part dark soy. ^Back
2 We were short on green onions, so I just used 1 yellow onion in place of the white parts of the green onion and then added the green parts of some green onions at serving. ^Back
3 I only just realized that I completely forgot to add the butter. Whoops! ^Back

I adjusted the ratios somewhat for this one. We had twice as much chicken as the recipe called for, so I doubled the marinade and bumped up the rice slightly¹. However, we were a bit light on mushrooms, so they were scaled back a bit. And we'd just harvested a bunch of silverbeet (chard) out of the garden a couple of days ago, so I didn't want to try to take any more yet. This left me trying to swap in frozen chopped spinach. Which was fine, but I didn't want to overdo it, so I just put in a relatively small amount.

The final result was tasty, but I do think that it would have been better with more mushrooms and greens (and a bit more salt). All of these changes are reflected in the write-up below.

Ginger Rice with Chicken and Mushrooms

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce²
• 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 Tbsp. oil (optional)
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
• 2 c. jasmine rice
• 4 c. water
• 400-500g Swiss chard (silverbeet) and/or kale, chopped
• 250g mushrooms (preferably a mix of shiitake and cremini), sliced
• 2-3 green onions, sliced

Directions

1. Combine chicken, ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, and five-spice powder and mix well. Set aside for 10-20 minutes.
2. If using onion and garlic, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté until softened (3-5 minutes).³
3. Add the rice, water, greens, mushrooms, and chicken (along with all of its marinade) to the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until rice is tender (15-20 minutes).
5. Remove from heat, fluff rice, and allow to stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

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¹ Not double. I just nudged the rice up by 1/3. But, honestly, for the amount of everything else that I had in the pot, it might've been better not to scale the rice up after all. It was tasty this way, but definitely could've used more mushrooms and greens. Which the recipe write-up reflects. ^Back
2 I used light soy here because the recipe didn't specify and it was what I had easily to hand but, having tasted it, I think that dark soy (or a blend of dark and light) would work better than light alone. ^Back
3 The original recipe didn't call for any onion or garlic and I didn't use any this time. But, having tasted it, I think some more aromatics would go nicely, so I've added them to the recipe as an optional extra. ^Back

The Kidlet came home from her cooking class with half of a fairly hefty head of cabbage a couple weeks ago. I wasn't really feeling the cabbage roll casserole or coleslaw, so I've been casting about for another recipe that would use it up. I liked the look of this boiled dinner as a simple, one-pot meal, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Sadly we didn't have any brisket left in the freezer, so I didn't end up making my own corned beef for this. (Maybe next time.)

I actually couldn't find any corned beef (that wasn't out of a can), so I ended up getting a piece of "pastrami-style" brisket instead. They're similar. The pastrami is just more highly seasoned and made from a fattier piece of brisket (and is normally smoked and steamed rather than boiled).

It would have been nice to have had the leaner corned beef for this dinner, but the pastrami still worked very nicely. And TF definitely appreciated how tender it was!

This is a great, simple dinner. Just be aware that you will need a fairly large pot to accommodate all the ingredients. I only had half as much meat and ~75% as many potatoes as I was supposed to and my Dutch oven was still on the verge of overflowing! So, if you don't have a very large pot available, you may want to halve the recipe and make a smaller batch.

Boiled Dinner

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 (1.5-1.8kg/3.5-4 lb.) corned beef brisket¹
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 5-6 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns
• 6 large or 12 small carrots, peeled
• 2 cloves garlic (optional)
• 3-4 onions, cut into wedges
• 900g (2 lbs.) new potatoes
• 1 small green cabbage, cut into wedges
• 1/2 c. sour cream²
• 1-2 Tbsp. prepared horseradish
• black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives (optional)

Directions

1. Place the corned beef in a large pot and add enough water to cover it by 2-3cm.
2. Bring to a boil and skim any foam off the surface.
3. Reduce heat; add bay leaves, thyme, parsley, and peppercorns; cover; and simmer until meat is somewhat tender and has reached an internal temperature of at least 70°C/160°F (2-3 hours³).
4. If your carrots are large, cut them into smaller chunks. (If they're small, they can just be peeled and left whole.)
5. Add the carrots, garlic (if using), onions, potatoes, and cabbage to the pot.
6. Increase heat to quickly bring the mixture back to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and continue to simmer until potatoes are fork tender (~30 minutes).
7. Meanwhile, stir the horseradish into the sour cream and season to taste with pepper.
8. Stir in the chives (if using).
9. Once the vegetables are done, remove them with a slotted spoon.
10. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and slice.
11. Serve the meat and veggies together, passing the horseradish sour cream at the table.

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¹ If you'd like to make your own corned beef, here are the instructions:

Combine 8 cups water, 1 1/2 cups kosher salt, 1/2 c. sugar, 3 Tbsp pickling spices, and 3 cloves garlic, crushed.
Stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved.
Submerge the brisket in the brine, cover, and refrigerate for 5-8 days.
Remove the brisket, rinse, and proceed with recipe.

I didn't end up trying this approach this time (hence why it's down here in a footnote). If I ever do, I'll give it its own write-up in a separate post. I just wanted to have it recorded somewhere in the meantime. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 1 c. of heavy cream here. You were meant to whip the cream and then fold in 3 Tbsp. of horseradish. TF didn't like the sound of that, so I swapped in some sour cream instead. It was delicious on the beef and went great with the potatoes too! ^Back
3 I was working with a much smaller piece of meat, so mine had already cooked through before it'd even reached the 1-hour mark. Adjust your cooking time as needed based on the size and shape of your brisket. ^Back

One-Pot Miso Ramen

We got these "revo bento" boxes recently and have been getting a lot of use out of them. Not as bento boxes, but they're great for storing stuff in the fridge, and a good intermediate size between the small containers in the 100-500mL range we already had lots of and the larger 1.5-2L containers that are often overkill. And unlike the glass or plastic containers¹, they're stove- and flame-safe, so I suspect they'll see a lot of use in the camping season as combined cookware, servingware, and storage containers.

In the meantime, they came with a little recipe booklet filled with dishes meant to be prepared mostly or entirely in the bento boxes themselves, so you can just cook them, eat out of the box, and put a lid over any leftovers. In this case I didn't actually do that; the bentos don't work with induction, so I just cooked it in a separate pot and served in the bento rather than heating up the tawa. Symbol and I shared it, and while it's considerably less soupy than I'm used to miso ramen being, neither of us had any complaints about the taste.

The recipe calls for a head of bok choi; we didn't have any on hand, so I instead used about a cup and a half of (already cooked) broccoli and cauliflower leftovers from a previous meal. I think it would be really tasty with bok choi, though, and I've written it up as such.

One-Pot Miso Ramn

Swanz/Morph Recipe Book for Revo Bento (p. 9)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 ~200g packet of smoked firm tofu, diced (or other protein of your choice)
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp chili oil
• 150mL stock or broth
• 150mL vegetable milk (I used oat milk)
• 1 packet instant ramen noodles (discard the seasoning packet, or save it for a different recipe)
• 1-2 heads bok choi, coarsely chopped
• 2 eggs, soft-boiled or fried

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium-high heat.
2. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, ~1 minute.
3. Add protein and stir-fry until browned and cooked through.
4. Add miso paste, soy sauce, and chili oil and stir until paste is melted and protein is evenly coated.
5. Pour in the stock and vegetable milk and let simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add the ramen noodles and cook, stirring into the broth as they soften, for ~2 minutes.
7. Stir in the bok choi or other veggies.
8. Remove from heat, top with eggs, and serve.

This was phenomenal! I mean, it was really, incredibly, unreasonably good. The chicken was delicious, but the veggies and the pan drippings really stole the show. And it used up a bunch of ingredients that really needed to be used. So... bonus!

I don't cook whole chickens very often. (Usually only when my parents have given us one.) And I've only cooked a spatchcocked chicken once. And I've never done the spatchcocking myself before today. It went pretty smoothly in the end. Although this has convinced me that I need some proper kitchen shears and not just the scissors that came with this knife set. I also couldn't get the wing tips to stay tucked under the breasts like I was supposed to. In the end, I decided to just cut them off and toss them in the InstantPot along with the spine and all the vegetable scraps. I figured if they weren't going to cooperate, they might as well enrich the stock.

I didn't have any fresh thyme, so I ended up tinkering with the spice rub a little bit. It's still pretty much the same. The main issue is that swapping out the fresh thyme for dried changes the proportions a bit since you only need ~1/3 as much dried thyme as fresh. It still worked out amazingly well though, so I'm okay with the altered proportions. (I also decided to use a mix of sweet and hot paprika since I didn't have any smoked. Follow your heart as to which paprika is best for you!)

Cast Iron Chicken and Vegetables

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

Spice Rub

• 4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 tsp. granulated garlic
• 2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. paprika (smoked, hot, sweet, or a mix)

Chicken and Vegetables

• 450g potatoes¹
• 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs², trimmed and cut into wedges
• 1 red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
• 225g carrots, peeled and halved crosswise³
• 1 (1.4-1.8kg) chicken
• 2 Tbsp. oil, divided

Sauce

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. spice rub

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Combine all the ingredients for the spice rub and set aside.
3. Prep all your veggies. Keep the potatoes separate and submerge them in cold water to stop them from oxidizing.
4. Place the chicken breast-side-down and cut along both sides of the spine with kitchen shears. (You can use the spine for making soup/stock.)
5. Flip the chicken over and press it flat.
6. Tuck the wing tips under the breast. Cut them off if they won't stay put.
7. Make a cut ~1cm deep between the leg and the thigh.
8. Flip the chicken breast-side-down, and sprikle with ~1 Tbsp. of the spice mixture.
9. Filp it back over and drizzle the skin side with 1 Tbsp. of the oil. Then sprinkle with ~5 tsp. of the spice mixture.
10. Heat a large (30cm/12") cast iron pan over medium heat for 5 minutes. (Less if using induction.)
11. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil to the pan.
12. Place the potatoes in the pan, cut-side-down.
13. Add the carrots, fennel, and onion to the pan, trying to get as much pan contact as possible.
14. Sprinkle ~1 tsp. of the spice rub over the veggies.
15. Place the chicken on top of the veggies.
16. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast at 220°C (425°F) until chicken is done (~1 hour).
17. Meanwhile, make the sauce by whisking all the sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
18. Remove the chicken from the pan and return the veggies to the oven for another 15 minutes.
19. Either carve the chicken, top with sauce, and serve with veggies or return the chicken to the pan and drizzle the sauce over it, then carve and serve.

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¹ The recipe calls for small Yukon Gold potatoes no more than 3 or 4cm in diameter which are then cut in half. I already had a bunch of potatoes that needed to be used up, so I wasn't about to go out and buy more. I used the large potatoes and just cut them into eighths instead of halves. This seemed to work out just fine. The potatoes were beyond delicious! ^Back
2 The recipe calls for a 450g bulb of fennel and mentions that you should be adding 250g of fennel wedges to the pan after trimming. ^2
3 If your carrots are very large, you will likely want to halve them lengthwise as well. ^Back

I ended up with a surprise pomegranate in one of my recent produce baskets, so I picked out this meal to use it up since I also had some pork chops in the freezer that I was hoping to find a use for. The pork chops and brussels sprouts were both quite good, and a few accordion potatoes rounded out the meal.

I appreciate how quickly and easily this meal came together and that it only requires the use of a single pan. I ended up having to substitute pine nuts for the pistachios. I normally keep a bag of pistachios on hand in the freezer, but I must've used them all up at some point and forgot to get more. I think the pine nuts worked well, but pistachios would've been even better.

Sadly, the Kidlet wasn't a big fan of the brussels sprouts -- which actually ended up being a combination of brussels sprouts and cabbage for us because I didn't have as many sprouts as the recipe called for -- but she was a fan of the pork.

The original recipe calls for cooking the pork chops in oil, but I had a jar of bacon grease in the fridge, so I ended up using that instead. I highly recommend this approach if you have any bacon fat kicking around. And I bet lard would also work great. If you don't have either of those, then I'm sure any neutral oil will do just fine.

One-Pan Pork Chops and Brussels Sprouts

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2019

Ingredients

• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, divided
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. ground cayenne or Kashmiri chilies
• 4 bone-in pork chops (~250g each)
• 2 Tbsp. bacon fat
• 680g brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
• 1/4 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar¹
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. fresh pomegranate arils/seeds
• 2 Tbsp. pistachios, toasted and chopped

directions

1. Grind 3/8 tsp. of the salt with 1/4 tsp. of the peppercorns and mix in the ground chilies.²
2. Pat the pork chops dry and sprinkle them with the salt mixture on both sides.
3. Melt the bacon fat in a large pan over medium-high heat.
4. Add the pork chops (cook in batches if necessary) and cook until nicely browned on both sides and cooked all the way through (10-12 minutes), flipping every 2 minutes. Internal temperature should register 60°C (140°F).
5. Remove chops from pan and set aside. (Optionally tent with aluminum foil to help hold the heat.)
6. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp. of fat from the pan.³
7. Place the brussels sprouts in the pan cut side down.
8. Add the water and remaining 3/8 tsp. of salt.
9. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for 4 minutes.
10. Uncover and cook for another 5 minutes.
11. Give sprouts a good stir and cook for 1-2 minutes longer.
12. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar, remaining 1/4 tsp. of pepper, pomegranate, and pistachios.
13. Serve sprouts and chops together along with your favourite starch (rice, potatoes, etc.).

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¹ Whoops! I just realized that I totally misread this line of the recipe and only put 2 teaspoons of vinegar rather than 2 tablespoons! Oh well... it was still tasty. ^Back
2 The pork chops were great with just the little bit of salt, pepper, and cayenne called for in the recipe, but it occurred to me while doing this write-up that it might be fun to experiemnt with a more complex spice rub like the one I used for my barbecued chicken a while back. I believe that rub was concoted with pork in mind, in fact. I'm not sure how it'd do in a pan on quick-cooking chops as opposed to on the grill on slow-cooked ribs, but I'd be interested to find out! I think my main concern would be burning the sugar. But I'm sure that the right pan at the right temperature could help avoid that. ^Back
3 If you're not confident eyeballing the amount of fat left in the pan, you can always pour off all the fat and then measure out 2 Tbsp. to add back in. ^Back

I had originally been hoping to do a nian gao stir-fry for dinner tonight, but the Kidlet got sick last Wednesday, so we've all been trying to isolate just in case it's the COVIDs. (Her RAT came up negative but... given everything we know about Omicron, I figure there's still a good chance that's what she has.) She's double vaxxed and TF and I are triple vaxxed and she's bounced back really fast, so I figure we should probably be alright to start going out again by tomorrow. But that left me with nothing for dinner for tonight. So it was off to the Woks of Life blog with me to search for more dinner inspiration.

This clay pot rice dish sounded tasty and easy. We don't have a clay pot to cook it in, but I reasoned that the tagine would work well as a stand-in for a Chinese-style clay pot (it did). And it would allow me to use up the rest of the chicken thighs that I got in the last grocery order. Plus it would be an opportunity to try cooking with dried lily buds. (Which I have in the pantry, but hadn't gotten around to using yet.)

This recipe needs a little bit of advanced planning due to the soaking involved. But other than that, it's very easy and simple to put together. I like the one-pot nature of the dish, but I'd be curious to try the rice-less steamed version sometime too. I also realized (only after I actually began cooking everything -- that it's basically devoid of vegetables. So I would recommend having some vegetable sides on hand to serve with it. (In my case, I went for a quick cabbage stir-fry.)

Chicken and Mushroom Clay Pot Rice

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 6 dried shiitake (black) mushrooms
• 10g dried lily buds
• 5g dried wood ear mushrooms¹
• 200g skinless boneless chicken thighs, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 2 tsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. uncooked rice²
• 1 c. chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1/4 tsp. salt³
• 1 slice fresh ginger, julienned
• 1 scallion, chopped, greens and whites separated

Directions

1. Place the shiitake, wood ears, and lily buds each in a separate bowl and enough boiling water into each to cover them. Set aside to soak for 2 hours.
2. Drain the shiitake, trim the stems off, and slice them.
3. Drain the lilies, trim the bottom 5mm of the stems, and place them in a bowl with the sliced shiitake.
4. Drain the wood ears, rinse them off, roughly chop them, and place them in the bowl with the shiitake and lilies.
5. Add the chicken to the bowl.
6. Add the cornstarch, soy sauce, oyster sauce, wine, sugar, sesame oil, and white pepper and mix to combine.
7. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
8. Add the rice to the clay pot along with enough water to cover it by a few cm. Set aside to soak for ~30 minutes.
9. Drain the rice and add the stock, oil, and salt (if using).
10. Get out the chicken mixture and stir it up.
11. Layer the chicken mixture over the rice.
12. Sprinkle the ginger and the green parts of the scallions over the chicken mixture.
13. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat⁴ and cook for 2-3 minutes.
14. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 25 minutes.
15. Remove from heat, sprinkle with scallion greens, and serve.

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¹ I didn't have any wood ear mushrooms on hand, so I substituted an equal amount of Chinese black fungus. My understanding is that they're a bit smaller and taste a bit different than wood ear mushrooms, but I had to roll with what I had available. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for jasmine rice. I opted to use long-grain brown rice. I have given the instructions for (white) jasmine rice here. You will need to increase both the liquid and the cooking time for brown rice. ^Back
3 If you're using commercial chicken stock, omit the salt. If you're using a homemade stock without too much salt, you will probably want to add the salt. ^Back
4 I'm always nervous about putting clay cookware directly on the cooking elements, so I use a flame tamer (or in this case a cast iron pan) under it to avoid hot spots. This however, did cause my tagine to take a little longer to heat up. Possibly this is why I found I didn't really need to extend the cooking time for my rice today. (Although I did use ~1/2 c. extra liquid.) ^Back

Tasty, easy, one-pan meal. A little light on veggies, maybe, but nothing that an extra vegetable-heavy side dish wouldn't fix.

White Bean and Sausage Skillet

Slightly adapted from The Modern Proper

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 large sausages¹ (~350g total)
• 4 c. cooked cannellini beans²
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock, divided
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 4-6 c. chopped fresh or frozen kale
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan
• red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-low heat.
2. Cook sausages until nicely browned on the outside and fully cooked.
3. Remove sausages from pan, slice, and set aside.
4. Add beans, 1 c. of stock, garlic, thyme, pepper, and salt.
5. Cover and simmer for ~5 minutes.
6. Mash a few of the beans. (You can do this right in the pan if you're using cast iron.)
7. Add the sliced sausages and kale, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add more stock as necessary to achieve/maintain desired consistency.
8. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and Parmesan.
9. Top with additional Parmesan and pepper flakes (if desired) and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for smoked sausage. I swapped it out for what I had on hand and changed the cooking procedure accordingly. ^Back
2 I cooked mine in the InstantPot with some garlic, olive oil, white pepper, sage, onion, and a bay leaf. I didn't add any salt to the beans during cooking. If you salt your beans or use tinned beans (which usually have salt added), I would recommend omitting the salt called for later in this recipe. ^Back

I was hit by a sudden craving for Chinese food last night. The problem with getting such cravings these days is that I've been spoiled by good home cooking. Ordering Chinese take-away always sounds great in my head. And I know it always used to taste great. But these days I tend to find it a little lacklustre. I mean, all the Americanized deep-fried sugary things are still... well, deep-fried and sugary and that does hold a certain appeal. But anything that doesn't come with a crunchy coating and/or a sticky sauce tends to be a little disappointing to me these days.

So, instead of ordering take-out, I turned to the Woks of Life blog in search of inspiration. I settled on their vegetable lo mein recipe as it looked like it'd be fairly quick and easy to prepare and also had enough veggies that I figured I could turn it into a one-wok meal. I ultimately ended up using dried thin white noodles for this dish. I think that probably technically makes it chow mein rather than lo mein, but I'm not sure.

I was about to say that I'd be tempted to bump up the veggies next time, but I just realized that the reason we had so many noodles for the amount of veg is that I forgot to account for the weight of fresh vs. dried noodles. No wonder it seemed like so many noodles! I guess I should seek out the fresh noodles next time. Whoops!

Vegetable Chow Mein

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 scallion, sliced, green and white parts separated
• 125g mushrooms², sliced
• 150g five-spice dry tofu (五香豆腐干), sliced thin
• 1 bell pepper, julienned
• 1 carrot, julienned
• At least 2 c. of other vegetables: snow peas, bean sprouts, napa cabbage, bok choy, choy sum, mustard greens, etc.
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. boiling water
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp. five-spice powder
• 450g fresh white or lo mein noodles¹
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. shaoxing wine

Directions

1. Chop all the veggies and tofu and set them aside. The garlic, white parts of the scallion, and mushrooms can all go in the same bowl/buffer. The bell pepper, carrots, and tofu can go together. And any remaining veggies (minus the green parts of the scallion) can go into a third bowl to wait. The green parts of the scallion should be kept separate and used as a garnish at the end.
2. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water.
3. Combine the sugar-water with the soy sauces, sesame oil, and five-spice powder and set aside.
4. Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, set aside.
5. Heat wok over high heat.
6. Add oil and swirl to coat wok.
7. Toss in mushroom mixture and stir-fry for a minute or so. Nudge the heat down a little if needed, but the veggies should be cut very thin and the wok should be very hot and everything should cook fast. This is why you prepped everything in advance!
8. Add the carrot-pepper combo, give it a quick toss and then drizzle in the wine and cook for another minute or so. If the wok seems too dry, toss in some water (or a bit of mushroom soaking liquid if you're using dried mushrooms).
9. Add the remaining veggies and stir-fry for 30-60 seconds.
10. Quickly loosen the noodles by running them under some warm water and then toss them into the wok.
11. Give the sauce mixture a quick stir and pour it in.
12. Mix and toss the noodles to combine everything and coat them in the sauce.
13. Top with the green parts of the scallion and serve with hot sauce and/or chili oil.

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¹ Remember to reduce the quantity of noodles accordingly if starting with dried noodles! ^Back
2 Cremini, shiitake, oyster, or king oyster. If you don't have any fresh mushrooms, feel free to rehydrate a few dried ones and use them instead. ^Back

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.

Kaleja Aloo Karhi (Liver and Potato Curry)

I'm always on the lookout for more good liver recipes. I love liver, but I like to have a few different ways of preparing it. Liver and onions is a classic, but I get bored of it pretty quickly. Liver fried rice is nice, but it's also very much a "once-in-a-while" thing for me, especially since I find it a bit fussy to prepare. And the tomato-y Burmese liver curry is alright, but it just doesn't sing to me most days.

This recipe looked interesting, but I have to admit, I was expecting that it would be on the same level as the Burmese liver curry for me: okay, but not great. Just another way to use up liver, without actually being a stand-out dish or something that I'd go out of my way for if I didn't have liver to use up.

I was pleasantly surprised. It was really good! I made a few tiny tweaks, but nothing major. And it produced a lovely, flavourful, harmonious curry that went great with a vegetable stuffed paratha and a bit of spinach-y rice (palak pulao).

Kaleja Aloo Karhi

Slightly adapted from One-Dish Meals of Asia by Jennifer Brennan

Ingredients

• 2 onions, coarsely chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2-4 Tbsp. water
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp. aniseed
• 1 Tbsp. coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 c. ghee, divided
• 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 450g calf/beef liver¹
• 3 fresh green Thai, finger, or serrano chilies, minced
• 2-3 boiled potatoes, sliced into 1cm (1/2") thick discs
• 1 tsp. tamarind concentrate
• 1/2 c. hot water (or reserved potato cooking water)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. fresh or frozen peas
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine onions, garlic, coconut, water, cinnamon, cumin, aniseed, coriander, and cloves in a blender or food processor and process into a paste. You will likely only need 2 Tbsp. of water if using a food processor. The full 1/4 c. of water is likely to be required if using a blender. Set the paste aside.
2. Heat 3 Tbsp. of ghee over medium-high heat.
3. Add the mustard seeds and cook, covered, until seeds have stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
4. Add liver and cook until seared on both/all sides. Remove from pan with tongs or a slotted spoon and set aside.
5. Add potatoes and chilies to pan and cook until browned. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon.
6. Add remaining 1 Tbsp. of ghee to the pan and pour in the onion-coconut paste.
7. Cook, stirring occastionally, until water has evaporated and mixture begins to fry.
8. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
9. Return liver, potatoes, and chilies to the pan.
10. Add the tamarind paste, water, salt, and peas to the pan and bring to a boil.
11. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
12. Stir in cilantro and cook for another minute or two.
13. Serve with rice, flatbread, and/or vegetable side(s) of your choice.

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¹ The recipe calls for cubing the liver, but I missed that instruction and ended up leaving it as two large slices. I'm sure it would be good chopped into smaller pieces. This would likely make it easier to get a uniform mix of potatoes, liver, and sauce. That said, I quite liked the approach I ended up taking. I found it easier to flip and manage the cooking of two big pieces vs. lots of little pieces. ^Back

This calls for 15oz (440mL) tins of beans. We mostly had 500-600mL tins and just scaled it up. This resulted in almost too much to fit in the pot, but it did turn out tasty and the Kidlet has been eating it with enthusiasm. For the purposes of this writeup, I went with the original proportions, but it appears to be a very forgiving recipe.

symbol and I both found that topping it with sriracha and a small amount of cider vinegar gives it some much-needed presence.

One Pot Vegetarian Chili Mac

Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 15oz tinned pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 15oz tinned diced tomatoes
• 15oz tomato sauce (if you have a surplus of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce, dial back the other one accordingly)
• 1 C frozen corn kernels
• 2 C vegetable broth
• 2 C uncooked short pasta (macaroni, rotini, etc)
• 2 C shredded sharp cheddar

Directions

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and onion and sautee until the onion softens and turns translucent.
3. Add the flour and chili powder. Continue to cook, stirring, until the onion is well coated, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the beans, tomatoes, corn, and vegetable broth. Deglaze.
5. Stir in the pasta, raise heat to medium high, cover, and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10-20 minutes (depending on pasta shape), until pasta is cooked to desired tenderness.
7. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar. Serve.

I love one-pot pasta recipes. This one comes together exceptionally easy even for a one-pot recipe, and since the pasta is cooked in the same pot as everything else, nothing is needed to thicken the sauce -- the starch released from the pasta in cooking and in the final mixing is sufficient. Keep a close eye on the pasta, though. It's very easy to overcook it.

As written, the recipe calls for shells, which is what we used. That said, I think it would be even better with orechiette, since peas sit so perfectly in them.

If using beef sausage, add a bit of olive oil or butter to the pot when cooking the sausages and mushrooms; they won't release nearly as much grease as the pork sausages this recipe is written for.

Pasta with Sausage, Mushrooms, and Peas

Cook's Country

Ingredients

• 450g cremini mushrooms, sliced thin
• 450g hot italian sausage, casings removed
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 3mL table salt
• 5mL black pepper
• 1mL red pepper flakes
• 120mL dry white wine
• 450g dry pasta (shells or orechiette recommended)
• 1.25L water
• 500mL frozen peas
• 240mL fresh basil, chopped
• 120mL freshly grated Parmesan
• 10mL lemon zest

Directions

1. Combine mushrooms, sausage, shallots, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a dutch oven over high heat. Cook, stirring often and breaking up sausages, until mushrooms have released their liquid and liquid has evaporated.
2. Add white wine, deglaze, and continue cooking until wine has cooked off.
3. Stir in pasta and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until pasta is cooked al dente. Some liquid will remain in the pot.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in peas, basil, parmesan, and lemon zest. Stir vigorously for 1 minute to thicken sauce further.
5. Serve with additional parmesan.

This recipe started life as a Cook's Country quick recipe card, but we ended up changing a lot of it around to match the ingredients we had on hand. Gemelli instead of linguine, parmesan instead of romano cheese, some proportion changes...

It stayed true to the spirit of the recipe, though, and came together very quickly and with minimal effort. It's also a one-pot meal, although you'll need a bowl or something to buffer the broccoli in.

Gemelli with broccoli and tomatoes

Book's Country

Ingredients

• ~300g broccoli florets
• 15mL salt
• 450g gemelli
• 30mL olive oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 1mL red pepper flakes
• 1 ~530mL tin of diced tomatoes
• 60mL dry white wine
• freshly ground red pepper
• ~250mL freshly grated parmesan

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot.
2. Add salt and broccoli, and cook until just starting to become tender, ~2 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon.
3. In the same water, cook the pasta al dente. Reserve 125mL of water and drain the pasta.
4. Empty any remaining water from the pot. Add the oil and heat to medium high.
5. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, ~30-60 seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes, wine, and black pepper to taste. Cook until the tomatoes thicken, ~10 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and toss with pasta, broccoli, and parmesan. Serve with more parmesan.

This is a great quick and easy one-pot meal. I find it works particularly well with whole wheat spaghetti and black kale. I'll definitely be making this one again. I wouldn't mind adding a bit more protein to it, but it's perfectly acceptable the way it is.

Spaghetti with Kale and Fontina

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2016

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 450g cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 4 c. broth (vegetable, chicken, mushroom, or a mix)
• 1 (400mL) can crushed tomatoes
• 375g whole wheat spaghetti, broken in half
• 350g black kale, stemmed and chopped
• 1 1/2 c. shredded fontina¹ (+ extra for serving)
• pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Add mushrooms and salt and cook, covered, for ~5 minutes.
3. Uncover and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute or so.
5. Add broth and tomatoes and increase heat to medium-high.
6. Stir in spaghetti and cover. Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low.
7. Cook, covered, for ~5 minutes.
8. Toss kale into pot on top of pasta, cover, and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
9. Stir to mix kale into pasta.
10. Remove from heat and stir in fontina.
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
12. Serve with extra fontina.

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¹ If you can't find fontina, provolone or a mix of provolone and Parmesan would probably work well. Edam might also work as a lower fat option, although I haven't tried it. ^Back

Cabbage Roll Casserole

All the deliciousness of cabbage rolls with only a fraction of the effort! My kind of recipe.

I found a cabbage roll casserole recipe floating around online somewhere several years ago. I've long since lost the original link. Although if you look around you can find dozens of different variants on the theme these days. The original had you prepare this most of the way on the stove and then assemble in a casserole dish and bake for an hour or so. I simplified it further and just did the whole thing on the stove top. I also added a few extra spices. And today I ended up making it with a combination of sauerkraut and kale since the last of our cabbage had gone off. It's really quite a forgiving and flexible recipe.

Cabbage Roll Casserole (or maybe it's more of a stew?)

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 450g lean ground beef
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1/4 tsp. hot paprika
• 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 800mL whole tinned tomatoes (with juice)¹
• 1/2 c. long-grain white rice²
• 2 c. vegetable stock
• 1/4 of a large head of cabbage, chopped³

Directions

1. In large pot, cook onion in oil over medium heat.
2. When onion has softened and begun to brown, add garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Break up beef and add to pot.
4. Season with salt and pepper and add Italian seasoning, bay leaf, both types of paprika, and ground coriander. Continue cooking until beef is brown and cooked through.
5. If using whole tomatoes, break them up and add them to the pot.
6. Stir in rice and vegetable stock.
7. Add cabbage (or vegetables of choice) on top of this.
8. Cover and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes (or until rice is cooked).
10. Stir and check consistency. If it seems too thin, simmer uncovered for a few minutes.

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¹ I used whole tomatoes because that's what I had on hand. I've also made this with crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. I think diced tomatoes would also work just fine. ^Back
2 Brown rice also works here, you'll just need to add a bit more liquid to compensate for the longer cooking time. ^Back
3 I'd been hanging on to a cabbage quarter for a while and apparently it had been languishing in the fridge a bit too long. It wasn't looking so hot when I went to get it out, so I ended up composting it and using a bunch of kale and a little sauerkraut in my casserole instead. It's less cabbage roll-esque than the standard recipe, but still plenty tasty! ^Back

Rice with Chinese Sausage and Greens

This dish has been our go to on many nights when we didn't have the energy to cook anything remotely complicated. It's a true one-pot dish, and takes barely more time to make than a pot of plain rice.

It is very easy to experiment with; the "basic" version just uses the rice, sausages, greens, and soy sauce, and you can add different greens or other seasonings or the like as you see fit. The version recorded here is the most recent one we made.

Ingredients

• 350mL long grain white or brown rice
• 1 package chinese sausages
• 1 package bok choi or head of broccolli (or other greens as you see fit; spinach, mustard greens, or black kale would probably work alright too)
• 1 large onion
• dark soy sauce
• roasted garlic paste
• black pepper

Procedure

1. Put the rice and an appropriate amount of water in your rice cooker or pressure cooker.
2. Slice the sausages into rounds and toss those in.
3. Add the greens.
4. Chop the onion and add that, too.
5. Add a generous splash of soy sauce, a tablespoon or so of roasted garlic paste and some black pepper.
6. Cook using the same settings you'd use to cook plain rice.

Hearty Vegetable Soup

Ended up deciding to make this soup after contemplating potential applications of celery. The celery certainly doesn't take centre stage here, but it uses a few ribs and makes a really tasty, hearty soup, so I'm pretty happy with that.

I based the soup off of a recipe I found here, but I ended up improvising a bit on some of the ingredients. In theory it was supposed to have carrots, celery, onion, green and yellow split peas, green lentils, butternut squash, celery root, potato, olive oil, and kale. In practice... I didn't have any green split peas, so I just used all yellow split peas. I had green lentils, but I've really been enjoying my French lentils lately, so I swapped some of them in. I thought I had some cubed butternut squash in the fridge, but I guess I'd had it in the fridge for a little longer than I'd realized because it had gone kind of sad and mushy. But I ended up uncovering some forgotten sweet potato fries in the freezer, so I ended up chopping them into little cubes and tossing those in in place of the missing squash. And I knew I didn't have any celery root or potato but, rather than trying to run out and grab some at the last minute, I decided to just toss in a bit of brown rice, some extra celery, and a bit of celery seed to make up for the missing components. Seeing as the sweet potato fries had a bit of oil added to them, I ended up deciding to skip on the extra olive oil added at the end. And, since we'd already used up all our kale in the kale extravaganza, I tossed a bunch of frozen spinach into the pot instead. And then, because we still had a serving or so of the lovely spicy kale and beans, I figured I might as well throw those in too. So... yeah, definitely not "recipe as written", but it's still following the same general idea. And it was really flavourful and tasty!

Hearty Vegetable Soup

Adapted from Life Made Simple

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced

3 ribs celery, diced

1 large carrot, grated

~1/3 c. garlic paste (I didn't really measure it)

10 c. chicken (or vegetable) stock

herbs de provence¹

40 grinds black pepper

1/4 tsp. hot paprika (might up this to 1/2 tsp. next time)

1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. celery seed

2 tsp. red wine vinegar

1 c. yellow split peas

1 c. French lentils

2 c. diced sweet potato fries (or squash or just regular sweet potatoes)

1 c. long-grain brown rice (although I think I'd reduce this to 1/2 c. next time)

8 frozen spinach discs² (~2 Tbsp. each)
leftover kale and beans (optional)

1/4 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 grated Parmesan

1. Heat oil over medium heat.

2. Add onion and let cook for a minute or two.

3. Add celery and allow to cook for another two minutes.

4. Toss in grated carrot and garlic paste and allow to cook and sizzle for a minute.

5. Pour in chicken stock.

6. Season with herbs de provence, black pepper, paprika, rosemary, celery seed, and vinegar.

7. Bring to a boil and add split peas and lentils.

8. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

9. Add sweet potato, rice³, and frozen spinach and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.

10. Stir in parsley and Parmesan and (if using) the leftover kale and beans (or whatever other miscellaneous leftover veggies you might have).

11. Serve with garlic toast and extra cheese.

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¹ Original recipe calls for 1 Tbsp. herbs de provence. I don't have pre-mixed herbs de provence, so I just eyeballed it. I think I put in 1 bay leaf, ~1 tsp. fresh parsley, maybe 1/2 tsp. each of {marjoram, basil, rosemary, and savory}, and ~1/4 tsp. {thyme, fennel seeds, and oregano}. And I would've put in ~1/4 tsp. tarragon if I'd had any. I guess that works out to a bit more than a Tbsp. Oh well, it was delicious and I certainly didn't mind a bit of extra seasoning. It smelled amazing while it was cooking!
² If using fresh spinach, I recommend using a full, lightly packed, 2 c. The frozen spinach is packed very densely, so 8 discs (1 c. equivalent) seemed like enough. Fresh spinach, even lightly packed, will not be nearly so dense. Also, if you plan on using fresh spinach, I would add it at the same time as the parsley and Parmesan since it just needs to be warmed rather than thawed.
³ If you put in the full cup of rice, you may need to add more water part-way through cooking. I found I needed to add ~3 c. This is why I said I'd go with only 1/2 c. of rice next time.

Eggplant and Lentil Tagine

This was tasty but didn't blow me away. The eggplant and the lentils were both good, but I think my brain wanted those chunks of eggplant to turn out to be sausage or something similar.

Eggplant and Lentil Tagine
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
2 onions, quartered
1 Tbsp. berbere
3 Asian eggplants, cubed
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 c. chicken broth
500mL cooked lentils (I used French lentils, but brown lentils would probably also work well)
1/2 c. raisins or dates, chopped

1. Heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion and berbere and cook for 10 minutes.
2. Add eggplant and garlic, reduce heat to medium low, and cook for 7 minutes.
3. Add broth, lentils, and raisins.
4. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for another 7-12 minutes.

One-Pot Baked Ziti

Easy, tasty, true one-pot, and doesn't take too long to prepare. What's not to love? It even has some veg in it so you can pretend like it's a balanced meal!

One-Pot Baked Ziti
Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2016
450g Italian sausage meat
3 Tbsp. garlic paste (or minced garlic)
1 (680mL) can tomato sauce + 1 (200mL) can pizza sauce
1 (small) can diced tomatoes (I think it was 300-ish mL)
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (I'd double this next time)
2 c. water
450g penne/ziti
6 Tbsp. fresh basil (or basil paste)
300g baby spinach
1 1/2 c. cubed mozzarella (1/4" cubes)
1 c. Parmesan cheese
1 c. ricotta

1. Brown the sausage over medium-high heat.
2. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or so.
3. Add the tomato sauce(s), diced tomatoes, salt, oregano, sugar, and pepper flakes.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for ~10 minutes.
5. Add water, pasta, and 1/4 c. of basil. (I goofed and added all the basil here instead of saving some for the end, but it was still plenty tasty.)
6. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered, stirring often until pasta is slightly softened, but not done.
7. While pasta is cooking, preheat broiler.
8. Once pasta is nearly done, remove from heat and stir in 3/4 c. mozzarella and 1/2 c. Parmesan.
9. Dot the top with ricotta and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
10. Broil until cheese starts to brown.
11. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 10-ish minutes.
12. Sprinkle with remaining basil and serve!