Greetings, friends!
Over the holidays, I went on a recipe-creation hiatus and turned my stove into a test kitchen. I want to share with you some of the recipes I made and loved—as well as some of the dishes I created to accompany them. Yes, I’m including both meat and plant-based recipes, and, yes, each dish comes with a link that will take you straight to the recipe so you can try it, too. Enjoy!
Shrimp Scampi
Check out this quick, easy recipe for shrimp scampi! I couldn’t believe how good the sauce was. It was practically drinkable, but instead of drinking it, I soaked it up with some whole grain baguette. One of my favorite parts of the New York Times cooking website is the comment section: it does NOT disappoint! I might have heeded commenters’ advice on adding extra wine, but I didn’t bother to add shrimp shells to enhance the broth. Thankfully, I didn’t suffer from the lack of extra flavor. ;)
Dad’s Frozen Baguette Recipe:
For baguettes whenever you want them, and not whenever you happen to go to the grocery store.
When you get home from the grocery store, cut your baguettes in half, put them in plastic bags or wrap them in plastic wrap, and then put them in the freezer.
When you’re ready to use one, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and remove the baguette from its wrapping.
When your oven is preheated (or even when it’s not), place the frozen baguette in the oven. No tray necessary.
Cook for 7-10 minutes or until the top is crusty and a little brown. Squeeze it to see if the crust cracks. If it does, it’s ready!
Dry Rub Air Fryer Chicken
I never thought I could reproduce restaurant wings at home, but I’m starting to think again… This incredible spice rub came from the Cosori cookbook—yep, the little booklet that came with the Cosori air fryer! The recipe had perfect amounts of garlic and spice, but was much better with half the salt or even no salt, in my opinion. Once we got it right, this rub led to night after night of delicious air frier chicken. I just tossed chicken wings or drums into a bag with some of the spice mix and a little olive oil, put it into the air fryer on “chicken” mode, turned the meat 10 minutes before it finished cooking, and sprinkled some spice mix back on the chicken after it fried. Serve with crudités and homemade ranch or blue cheese dressing—but you didn’t need me to tell you that!
Enchiladas Suizas
These enchiladas suizas from Isabel Eats are such a delicious one-dish meal! I loved this recipe, made with shredded rottisserie chicken. To adjust the recipe to what I had on hand, I added freshly grated Swiss cheese instead of Chihuahua cheese and creme fraishe mixed with buttermilk instead of crema or sour cream. Also, I 10/10 recommend making the green salsa instead of using store bought salsa. It took 10 minutes and made the enchiladas taste super fresh.
Digaag Qumbe (Yogurt-Coconut Chicken)
Digaag Qumbe is a Somalian dish made by simmering chicken thigh pieces in yogurt, tomatoes, peppers, coconut milk, and curry spices. It could not be any tastier. I used the recipe from Hawa Hassan’s cookbook, In Bibi’s Kitchen, but the link above is from a version she made for Bon Appétit. There are notable differences. For starters, the one I made was half as big! That said, both recipes promise was a rich meal with a refreshing sourness from the yogurt. I added some extra veggies (half a purple sweet potato), halved the salt, and added half a chicken bouillon cube. I had no bananas to go with it, so I served this meal the other way Hassan recommended: with rice and greens. Here’s a quick recipe below:
Whole Grain Rice with Greens:
This combination of whole grains and bitter greens was perfect with this dish. Besides, talk about healthy fiber! (If you haven’t read up on bioactives in fiber yet, this linked article is your chance! Tl;dr: Whole, plant-based foods are good for you.)
Cook 1 cup of dry brown rice, wild rice, or a mixture of both in the pressure cooker or rice cooker as directed.
In a pan, heat 1 teaspoon of oil over medium heat and spread it to coat the pan. Spray oil also can work.
Add 2-3 cups of finely chopped or shredded greens (kale, chard, cabbage, or turnip greens) and stir fry until the leaves start to brown slightly on the edges. I used half kale and half green cabbage.
Add 1/2 cup of water and cover, cooking until any stems are soft, and the cabbage, if using, starts to turn translucent.
Uncover and keep cooking, stirring constantly, until the water just disappears.
Add the cooked rice and mix.
Keep warm until ready to serve.
Baked BBQ Beans
This dish, from Toni Tipton-Martin’s cookbook Jubilee, was incredible. I used frozen black eyed peas (in retrospect, I should have boiled them before adding them to the dish, since they were a little freezer-burned.) Instead of the sugar, molasses, and ketchup, I used a bottle of “sweet heat” barbecue sauce. I also subbed the bacon on top for turkey bacon. It made for great leftovers the next day and the day after that. I even ate them for breakfast! You could easily make this recipe vegetarian by frying the onions in oil instead of bacon fat and adding vegan sausage.
Raspberry Almond Muffins
These are little nuggets of joy, if you ask me. These almond muffins (made with almond flour only) convinced me why almond flour rocks. Unlike regular flour, it already tastes good with nothing added—which was why the recipe required minimal sweetener—just 1/4 cup of honey. I didn’t have any raspberries on hand, so instead I added a grated sweet potato—one of the many our garden produced this fall. It was a perfect addition. (To find the recipe, scroll through the Amazon free sample of the book.)
Kitchen Pepper
This black pepper replacement was good on almost everything—roasted mushrooms, roasted carrots, meats, and grains. It had a tiny kick from the red pepper, but also a balanced flavor that could bring out warm, savory notes. It was particularly good in this cheesy mashed cauliflower recipe improvised by yours truly.
Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower:
Steam florets from half a head of cauliflower until they’re just fork-tender (5-7 minutes).
Without cooling, add the cauliflower to a blender with 1 tablespoon butter, a dollop of creme fraishe, 1/4 block of freshly grated cheddar cheese (2 ounces), and salt and kitchen pepper, to taste. (I added between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon).
Blend until the cauliflower is smooth like mashed potatoes and the cheese is melted. (A hand masher could also work here.)
Serve as a bed for lean protein, like chickpeas or blackened fish.
Saffron Honey
Vegetarian cookbook author Heidi Swanson has a lot of ways to enhance regular ingredients. I didn’t think honey could be any better than it already was, but this recipe changed my mind! I infused 20 saffron strands with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla before mixing in 1/4 cup of honey. The recipe linked above adds blackberries, but in the recipe I followed, the end result without blackberries was quite alright—well, more than alright. Here’s how I used it recently.
Sweeter Sweet Potatoes:
Cut a sweet potato in half and steam it just until fork-tender. Roasting whole sweet potatoes works, too, but I prefer steaming since it’s faster.
Top the sweet potato with butter or cold-pressed coconut oil, crushed pecans, cinnamon, and saffron honey, to taste.
Mash the the sweet potato with a fork until everything is combined.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
I love a good birthday, and who can resist a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting? Not me. Try the recipe above, doubling the amount for a two layer cake, and adding no more than 2 cups of powdered sugar. That is, cut the powdered sugar in half. Why have something sweet when you could have something sweet AND tangy!
If you try one of these recipes, let me know what you think!