Keeping this very simple: broccoli & tofu cast iron stir fry (based on Isa Does It recipe) with brown rice and adding peanuts and avocado on the side. That’s plenty to work with for a lunch remix tomorrow…
… But also it’s a lovely dinner. So.
I mentioned in my Day 1 post that I’m inspired by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I’ve cooked out of her books a lot, and there are plenty of recipes I’ve committed to memory and made my own. So for today’s prompt, how could I not return to that well? But to make things interesting, I wanted to go back and try a recipe I hadn’t yet tried.
Paging through Isa Does It (my copy is signed <3 <3), I landed on the Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings. This is not the kind of thing I usually cook–stew with lots of delicious starches, mmm–so MoFo seemed like as good a time as any!
So first you make a roux. Then you make a stew (potato, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, dill, thyme). Then you mix up some simple dough and drop that stuff in your stew and let it cook on the stove top. No oven! Weird!
Before:
After:
Anyway, pretty satisfying all around, though if I were to make it again, I might add fresh dill in at the end and maybe microplaned a little garlic in with the beans for extra garlicky punch. And possibly include more salt? I should’ve tasted it as I went a little better. I have watched sooo fucking much Top Chef, you guys; underseasoning KILLS.
Somehow I think I’ve avoided making this particular Isa Does It recipe – even though it has a bunch of things I really like. Perhaps it was the lack of hoisin sauce of mirin in my pantry? I ended up subbing sherry for the mirin and mixing up a peanut butter-based substitute for the hoisin. The broccoli is crisp, the peanuts are salty and crunchy, and the basil adds a nice freshness.
Tonight’s dinner: baked tofu (sesame oil + hot sauce + soy sauce), sprouted red + brown rice, wilted pea shoots and asparagus, and curry peanut sauce. Not a great photo, but a pretty good meal.
Fuck Yeah Carrot Cake Pancakes!
A mighty fine selection from Isa Does It, which I have made before but wanted to revisit.
The process of making gnocchi is really fun, but time consuming. And I don’t think I’ve perfected it, by any means, but it is pretty good.
Nuked the sweet potatoes – a starchier Japanese variety with purple skin and yellow flesh – and scooped out the guts after they had time to cool.
Smash, smash, smash with miso and olive oil. It comes out the holes in my masher looking like play-doh.
I think you all know how I feel about dough by now: it feels goooood in your hands.
Rolled it out like a big, skinny, flour-coated snake…
…and chopped it into tiny pillows! Chop, chop, chop!
Boil it until it floats; that’s how you can tell it’s a witch! Erm, I mean, it’s cooked.
Carrot cake pancakes with walnuts, topped with Kite Hill cream cheese and maple syrup
Saturday breakfast: scrambled chickpeas, avocado toast, tomatoes, and coffee
Kale salad with kabocha squash and sprouted lentils (roughly based on the one from Isa Does It) and some shells and cheesy sauce on the side. Homemade sauce of roux, garlic, leftover cashew cheese, white wine, and nooch. So much whisking.