A couple almost-recipes...
It's Hannukah again, which means time to fry up some delicious dinners! First night was dinner and party at shul, second night was at home, third night was Christmas Eve dinner at Carmen's, and tonight is the fourth night.
First night: almost total bust. Shul advertised latkes, salmon, and sufganiyot. I admit, I wanted neither the potato nor the doughnut, but I figured Rick and Benito would be okay with both of those, and I'd love some salmon. Alas for me, it was lox, which is salmon but not in a form I want to eat. Potato latke with lox, and a salad that was just mixed greens, so my dinner was a big plate of greens with some dressing and a handful or two of sweet potato chips. Benito just had the applesauce, Rick had a small plate of everything, and Benito did have a jelly donut. The event was from 5-7, and we left around 7:25 (Israeli dancing didn't start until just after 7 PM, poor planning/advertising), and we swung by McDonalds on the way home so Rick could pick up a meal. (I got a fish sandwich.)
Monday night, I had a great time! I made mahi mahi crispy bites and arepas! Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything - Vegetarian gave me the arepas recipe - I'm not sure I got it right but it was a good try and tasted okay. I'll have to think about how to make it taste better next time: more cheese? more corn kernels? more salt? *shrug* The mahi-mahi I cubed, tossed in rice flour with a little salt to coat, then egg, then panko with salt, dill, dried minced onion, and roasted granulated garlic. They came out AWESOME. Benito wanted some fish without the crunchy stuff so I did that too, just gave them the rice flour coat and that was fine. I really like this fish: it's firm and stayed moist and was flavorful even w/o the coating.
Christmas dinner with my MIL... Her cooking is not staying on its par. Rick commented that the octopus with potato she made for them was not cooked enough; the salmon she made for me and Benito was quite dry - overdone but well seasoned. The cauliflower with bechamel sauce was delicious, and her mushrooms were great as always, but honestly, her proteins have really rarely been cooked well in my estimation. It's a darn shame. Last year there was turkey, and the white meat was definitely in need of her gravy, which was quite good. (Kosher turkey - she's awesome.) I made almost-fantastic latkes made of sweet potato, carrot and parsnip, with salt, curry, that dried minced onion, and coriander - I didn't want it to just taste salty, I wanted to spice it in a way to compliment the sweet potato. I added two eggs and some matzah meal, and my test latke tasted great but almost fell apart. I didn't change anything, because the flavor was so good, but I really should've added more matzah meal. They were tasty during the meal, but they were not really crispy (not even fresh out of the pan) and the flavor wouldn't have diluted that much. This concept is definitely repeatable.
Tonight, I had boneless chicken thighs and decided to schnitzel them. The crunchy coat was a mix of matzah meal and corn meal, with salt, rosemary, garlic, tarragon all crushed together with my mortar and pestle (which Benito loves to use on his own little container of fancy salt!); rice flour again for the initial coat (with a tiny bit of the remaining spice mix) then egg, then coating. I cooked them just right and meanwhile heated up quinoa and steamed green beans. The chicken was super moist and the coating slightly crunchy - maybe could've used another 30-60 seconds in the frying pan but why take that chance? *grin* I thought adding the corn meal made a good difference; Rick said he wanted more corn taste, and more coating taste, but the chicken was cooked perfectly. I guess ... the whole thing tasted good to me, and I don't usually like dark meat, so ... win! Not only win for the adults, but Benito chose the biggest piece for his starting piece, then took 3 of the small ones, and then ANOTHER medium piece! That's basically more food than he's eaten for dinner in days, so I was ecstatic.
I haven't made potato latkes yet; I have more of the sweet potato mix of veggies so I can make that latke again - better mixed for crispness/cohesion. I intend to make cream of mushroom soup tomorrow... oh crap, tomorrow is our Boxing Day party with friends so no soup, nor latkes! Tomorrow, ... no clue. That means Friday is latkes and soup, and possibly company. Saturday night might also be company, and I have no idea what dinner will be. Oh, I could make zucchini schnitzel and make it into little zucchini parmesans! Wow, that's aspirational. *grin* We'll see. This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/728206.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
First night: almost total bust. Shul advertised latkes, salmon, and sufganiyot. I admit, I wanted neither the potato nor the doughnut, but I figured Rick and Benito would be okay with both of those, and I'd love some salmon. Alas for me, it was lox, which is salmon but not in a form I want to eat. Potato latke with lox, and a salad that was just mixed greens, so my dinner was a big plate of greens with some dressing and a handful or two of sweet potato chips. Benito just had the applesauce, Rick had a small plate of everything, and Benito did have a jelly donut. The event was from 5-7, and we left around 7:25 (Israeli dancing didn't start until just after 7 PM, poor planning/advertising), and we swung by McDonalds on the way home so Rick could pick up a meal. (I got a fish sandwich.)
Monday night, I had a great time! I made mahi mahi crispy bites and arepas! Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything - Vegetarian gave me the arepas recipe - I'm not sure I got it right but it was a good try and tasted okay. I'll have to think about how to make it taste better next time: more cheese? more corn kernels? more salt? *shrug* The mahi-mahi I cubed, tossed in rice flour with a little salt to coat, then egg, then panko with salt, dill, dried minced onion, and roasted granulated garlic. They came out AWESOME. Benito wanted some fish without the crunchy stuff so I did that too, just gave them the rice flour coat and that was fine. I really like this fish: it's firm and stayed moist and was flavorful even w/o the coating.
Christmas dinner with my MIL... Her cooking is not staying on its par. Rick commented that the octopus with potato she made for them was not cooked enough; the salmon she made for me and Benito was quite dry - overdone but well seasoned. The cauliflower with bechamel sauce was delicious, and her mushrooms were great as always, but honestly, her proteins have really rarely been cooked well in my estimation. It's a darn shame. Last year there was turkey, and the white meat was definitely in need of her gravy, which was quite good. (Kosher turkey - she's awesome.) I made almost-fantastic latkes made of sweet potato, carrot and parsnip, with salt, curry, that dried minced onion, and coriander - I didn't want it to just taste salty, I wanted to spice it in a way to compliment the sweet potato. I added two eggs and some matzah meal, and my test latke tasted great but almost fell apart. I didn't change anything, because the flavor was so good, but I really should've added more matzah meal. They were tasty during the meal, but they were not really crispy (not even fresh out of the pan) and the flavor wouldn't have diluted that much. This concept is definitely repeatable.
Tonight, I had boneless chicken thighs and decided to schnitzel them. The crunchy coat was a mix of matzah meal and corn meal, with salt, rosemary, garlic, tarragon all crushed together with my mortar and pestle (which Benito loves to use on his own little container of fancy salt!); rice flour again for the initial coat (with a tiny bit of the remaining spice mix) then egg, then coating. I cooked them just right and meanwhile heated up quinoa and steamed green beans. The chicken was super moist and the coating slightly crunchy - maybe could've used another 30-60 seconds in the frying pan but why take that chance? *grin* I thought adding the corn meal made a good difference; Rick said he wanted more corn taste, and more coating taste, but the chicken was cooked perfectly. I guess ... the whole thing tasted good to me, and I don't usually like dark meat, so ... win! Not only win for the adults, but Benito chose the biggest piece for his starting piece, then took 3 of the small ones, and then ANOTHER medium piece! That's basically more food than he's eaten for dinner in days, so I was ecstatic.
I haven't made potato latkes yet; I have more of the sweet potato mix of veggies so I can make that latke again - better mixed for crispness/cohesion. I intend to make cream of mushroom soup tomorrow... oh crap, tomorrow is our Boxing Day party with friends so no soup, nor latkes! Tomorrow, ... no clue. That means Friday is latkes and soup, and possibly company. Saturday night might also be company, and I have no idea what dinner will be. Oh, I could make zucchini schnitzel and make it into little zucchini parmesans! Wow, that's aspirational. *grin* We'll see. This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/728206.html. Please comment there using OpenID.