spring forward
mustard potatoes and using things from the freezer
I’m neutral about daylight saving time as a concept and usually manage to adjust my sleep schedule enough that I don’t feel tired, but I can’t deny that those first couple workdays of waking up in the dark again are a struggle. It’s worth it though for the later sunsets (I know people are torn on this, but I’m happy that daylight time seems to be the accepted choice for if/when we make the switch permanent). The only unfortunate thing is that there are a few months a year where I can recognize the gradual onset of darkness as a signal that it’s time to make dinner, but now that the 6pm light is the 7pm light, it no longer works. I keep leaping up from where I’m sitting watching tv or knitting or reading, because I’ve noticed that it’s almost 6:30 and I haven’t started rice or preheated the oven or anything.
I’m also trying to get in my restaurant time while the vaccine card is still required— I feel like I can handle the lower half of people’s faces more readily if I know that everyone within that space has at least two shots. So on Saturday, an afternoon with surprisingly nice weather, Liang and I met up at Beere. This was the first time I’d ever seen them have such a full list of taps: usually when I come they have at least one out of ten sold out, but this time they’d actually added extras to the bottom of the list! We also went to House of Funk for one more round; by that time Crack On’s brunch had ended, but they still had some donuts leftover, so we shared a cruller alongside our beers.
Noteworthy this week: since I am allergic to using relevant titles, and Substack’s search function isn’t perfect, I’ve created a post to collect direct links to all my published recipes from past newsletters! I’ll continue to update it whenever I write a new one, so if you want to find my squash mac & cheese or miso tahini sauce, instead of searching you can use the link to this post in my about page. Thanks to Alicia Kennedy and her much larger recipe index for inspiring this idea.
Last week, I fed one of my sourdough starters without discarding so that I could make two pizza doughs on the weekend without using up all of the starter. I guess I miscalculated how much that would be, because I still had lots of starter left even after making the dough. I threw it back in the fridge and consulted the sacred text (the King Arthur sourdough discard section) for ideas. I kind of wanted cinnamon buns, which I’ve made before and completely loved, but it seemed like a lot of work and I didn’t feel too committed to the icing. Instead I opted for cinnamon raisin bread, where the process is a bit more straightforward and you can decide whether you want the bread to be a breakfast or a dessert.
I followed the recipe, aside from using oat milk in place of half the water for a fluffier texture (more like a cinnamon bun). It came out really lovely, lightly brown on top and super soft and light inside, and the sugar in the filling isn’t overwhelming. We’ve been eating a slice with hazelnut spread on top after dinner, and I’ve been enjoying the occasional toasted piece at breakfast with either butter or peanut butter. I’m even excited that the last bits of it are starting to get stale, because now I can use it to make French toast.
I’ve been trying to make some room in my freezer— I have three bags of veggie scraps I need to make into stock, so it’s time to clear some things out in order to fit the 6-10 litres I’ll end up with. I pulled a big container of my roasted tomato & mushroom sauce which I made with fresh tomatoes last summer, and used it for a quick pasta, a pizza base, and eggplant parmigiana. I used Jamie Oliver’s method (paywall-free adaptation here) which roasts the eggplant instead of frying. The perk cited by many is the lesser amount of oil used, but for me the draw is having all the eggplant done at once instead of frying it in batches until you die of old age.
I used a mix of parmesan and pecorino, and panko crumbs on top— I was worried the finer type of breadcrumbs would soak up too much of the sauce. The roasted sauce is already fairly thick so I didn’t want to risk it turning out dry after baking, but I don’t think this would be as much of a concern with a regular marinara. Jeff was on his way back from Costco and I got him to pick up a loaf of Calabrese bread so I could make the best kind of garlic bread to go with it. This was the first loaf we’ve bought from a store in months, and while I am proud of my commitment to the sourdough life, there are some times when a squishy loaf of bakery-fresh white bread with a crispy crust is 100% worth it.
I had just over a pound of eggplant and about a cup and a half of sauce, which made enough for the both of us for dinner alongside the garlic bread and a green salad. We chose a vinaigrette dressing since the roasted sauce is so robust, but for a more acidic marinara, a Caesar might be nice. This Olive Garden-ass dinner was delicious and I am not ashamed to say it!
In search of something new to make potatoes the focus of a meal rather than a side, I happened upon this mustard roast potatoes recipe and knew I had to make it as soon as possible. I adore mustard— I will dip a grilled cheese in it, throw it into almost any marinade or dressing, put it on a fried egg sandwich— and the idea of having the little mustard seeds in a grainy dijon roasted until crackly was almost too appealing. The roasting in combination with the butter and lemon zest in the recipe mellows out the bite of the dijon, so even if you’re not a big mustard fan I think you could still enjoy these.
I made a half batch, so I was able to fit them all on my largest baking sheet lined with a silpat instead of futzing around with aluminum foil. I also just rotated the pan without flipping the potatoes, because it’s less work and maximizes the crispy bits (since they’re in the oven for 40-45 minutes, the tops will still get browned). Using the remainder of the mustard coating left in the bowl, I mixed it with a bit of vinegar and a little more oil to dress some leftover lentils to fill out the plate. I liked the suggestion of serving the potatoes with an egg on top, so I fried one up in the last few minutes of roasting, and added a pea shoot garnish just for colour. This was a basically perfect meal, especially in this rainy weather— if you’ve got potatoes at home right now, do not wait to try it!
Also this week, continuing my “take it out of the freezer and use it” goals, I heated up some French onion soup I made in the instant pot last year, and made Gruyère croutons for the top using the last of the Calabrese bread. The soup recipe is in the book Half Baked Harvest: Super Simple, and I love it because you can enjoy the flavour of French onion soup without spending 8 hours making it.
I found some bone-in chicken thighs in the freezer while digging around for the soup, so I pulled those too along with some stock, and made them into a pretty good curry based on this recipe (adding some carrot and ginger). I left the skins on the chicken because why wouldn’t I, and to brown them at the end and thicken the sauce more, I threw the whole pot in the oven for 15 minutes at 350°F. I thought this could have used more curry flavour, but otherwise it was satisfying and tasty.
Media:
I’ve been following along with Trent Pheifer’s “Store-Bought is Fine” project, where he chronicled cooking his way through all of Ina Garten’s books, and it was so sweet and exciting to see the chef herself join him for the making of his final recipe (a Boston cream pie). I really liked his remarks in this piece about the accessible and encouraging nature of her books setting him on the right track while learning to cook, something he’d been failing at:
“Many of the recipes I was trying hadn’t been thoroughly tested, and I lacked the skills and instincts to trust myself to make changes”.
The issue of trying to cook as a newcomer to the kitchen using random online recipes is exactly that: you can’t always be sure that what you’re making makes sense methodically and will taste good at the end. So if you follow the recipe and it doesn’t turn out, you can easily convince yourself that cooking just isn’t your strength. Giving people the knowledge and direction they need to make excellent food is the core function served by cookbooks in general, and many of the Barefoot Contessa books also guide and encourage those who aren’t yet super confident in the kitchen. Recipes have to be tested and edited before they can be published in a book, so that the home cook will be able to trust that the instructions make sense and will lead them to a great dish. And eventually, you’ll gain the instinct to know what to change in order to make the recipe you googled turn out the way you want.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please smash that like button below, or share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Speaking of treats, I will simply waste away if I don’t get to try the melon and cream flavour of these, so feel free to send me one.