Plated Weeks 3 & 4
Originally published at Soapturtle.net. Please leave any comments there.
So…shmoocon means that things in our schedule got off-kilter and thus, you get 2 weeks combined this go round. There will also be a bonus plated dessert post after this one.
Week 3 dishes were Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps with Basil Rice, and Peanut Chicken Curry over sticky Rice.
Week 4 was Seared Steak with Swiss Chard and Crispy Pamesan Potatoes, and Bok Choy Fried Rice with Butternut Squash and Srircha.
So for week 3, both dishes were REALLY GOOD despite an issue or two, but if I were to make them again, I’d change a lot of things.
Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps
We both loved these, so very much. They were simple and fast and tasty! The only real issue with these is that the butter lettuce was gritty as hell even after a thorough cleaning and run through the salad spinner to dry off. So that sucked, but they did give you plenty of butter lettuce to use, and there was enough filling to use more than the 3 leaves each the recipe advised. The ground beef they sent was 80/20, but since we generally buy 92/8 I found it super greasy even after draining, but otherwise this was great.
I’d like to try making this on my own with the following changes:
-Skirt steak instead of ground beef or 92/8 ground beef, and if it’s the skirt steak, marinate it first in a teriyaki sauce or some Dale’s.
-Thai Basil instead of plain Basil, as I think that’s a better flavor for the dish, and I’d use more of it.
-I’d defintely add more hoisin and sriracha, but we like things pretty spicy. We are possibly of the camp that it’s not spicy enough until it hurts us.
-Add spring onions, and up the amount of cilantro a bit.
Peanut Chicken Curry over Sticky Rice
Again, we both loved this, and again we both agreed we’d change some things. I really don’t care for most of the types of rice Plated sends us. I am not a huge rice person, and generally the only rice I find acceptable is basmati, and it should be cooked with the Toast and Season method. (Rinsed well, cooked with a bit of oil/fat til it slightly changes color and smells nutty, then add the water and cook as normal, preferably with a chicken cube for some extra flavor. I don’t always do this I admit, sometimes we just use a rice cooker.) So I didn’t like the sticky rice. It was ok, but texture wise it was off for me, and I would have loved basmati in the dish so much more. And the instructions for cooking the chicken had you cooking it for 6 minuutes in a pan on it’s own, which did not make sense to me at all, because you were only cooking it through and not browning it. So I put it in the broth to cook instead, so that broth flavor would be in the chicken and chicken flavor would be in the broth. Also, 1 less pan. I thought the broth was a bit on the thin side, but shmoo was fine with it. It was a super tasty dish even with all my complaining.
I very much plan to make this on my own with the following changes:
-Use normal coconut milk instead of lite
-Use more red curry paste, more gochujang, more peanutbutter, and a smidge more ginger.
-Use Basmati instead of Sticky Rice
Week 4 was tasty as hell. Both dishes were good and I plan to do my own versions of both of them in the future.
Seared Steak with Swiss Chard and Crispy Parmesan Potatoes
Neither of us can remember having ever eaten Chard before, and the way the potatoes were done is totally happening in my house again, but this time just cooked on a Silpat instead of parchment, so they don’t stick.
Changes for when I make it:
-Instead of demi-glace in the sauce, I want to use Worchester sauce or maybe a little Dale’s, and up the wine content by about half of what was sent.
-No sugar in the Chard, it was a small amount but I just didn’t think it was needed at all
-More red pepper flake
These are pretty small changes over all, and we really enjoyed the the whole dish. Other than the very first recipe we did (cheesy black bean burritos) this is probably the 2nd on the list for really liking it as is without changing things.
Bok Choy Fried Rice with Butternut Squash and Sriracha
This was good and very filling. We both liked it, and while there were things we’d change, neither of us would be mad if someone made us eat it again as is. They sent basmati rice for this one, so I was a lot happier with life. I followed their instructions on the rice instead of doing it my way, but it was still the best rice we’ve had from Plated. The butternut squash came pre-cut sort of but you still had to cube it up, which was hard because the pieces sent to you were inconsistent. One large section of squash would have been better because then I could have cut it more uniformly. The carrot came shredded, so that was pretty handy. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked bok choy before, so that was both new and educational. I definately feel more confident about the idea of making fried rice on my own now. If you want a vegetarian fried rice dish, this is solid. Shmoo says he did not miss the meat, and he is generally the one who wants meat in all the foods, so that’s pretty high praise.
What I’d change:
-Add some meat. Diced chicken or pork, or shrimp perhaps. Barring that, I’d add some stock or meat flavor to the rice.
-Possibly remove the butternut squash. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it was a little sweet, and we both thought it was there to be the “meat” of the dish.
-More onion, garlic, soy, and Srircha. Maybe add a little hoisin, or some rice-wine pickled cucumber at the end for flavor/texture/temperature contrast. Possibly some mushrooms would be a good addition as well if you like that sort of thing.
-Maybe instead of the fried egg on top, scrambling it and frying it into the rice in the more traditional style.
So yeah, we really liked all 4 of these recipes quite a bit and we’d eat all of them again, even if it were as is. I do think the minor tweaks and changes would make them amazing dishes however, so I’ll be trying that out at some point in the future.