Recipe Recaps, Jan 19-25

Saturday 1/19: Tofu Stroganoff (recipe below)

I've made this recipe at least three times now. The recipe that started it all was Skinny Taste's Skinny Mushroom Stroganoff. The pictures look delicious and the idea is certainly appealing (stroganoff, but without the heaviness? yes please!), but when I sat down to that first plate of food it turns out that the recipe is, well... so skinny that you don't even know it's there. The dish was bland as bland can be.

So I had the brilliant idea to add tofu -- this was the first attempt at Tofu Stroganoff. But unfortunately I wasn't brilliant enough to change anything else about the recipe, except add a little more sour cream. Guess what you get when you add tofu to a bland dish? A bland dish.

Attempt number two at tofu stroganoff, I tried to dramatically switch up the recipe. I used beef broth and extra Worcestershire sauce, and lots more sour cream. It was a little bit better. Kinda. Maybe.

So for my third attempt, I threw out the Skinny Taste recipe. You just can't cheat stroganoff twice (no beef and slimmed-down sauce) and still hope to get something vaguely resembling stroganoff. I studied several regular stroganoff recipes to get a sense of the common ingredients in the sauce. (Key points: Plenty of sour cream and a can of cream of mushroom soup.) Then I cubed a pound of tofu and let it soak in beef broth for a couple of days.

The result? Something much, much closer to real stroganoff. I think the recipe still needs another attempt before I can call it done, but here's what I got, including some things I'm going to try next time:

Ingredients
Egg noodles
Tofu, about 1lb
Beef broth, about 2 cups
Worcestershire sauce, 2 Tb
Beef bullion, 1 tsp
Flour, 2 Tb
Olive oil
An onion, chopped
Mushrooms, about 12oz, sliced
Cream of mushroom soup (condensed), 1 can
Sour cream, 1 cup

Other ingredients: In looking through several recipes online, I saw additional ingredients ideas including mustard (ground, prepared, or dijon), garlic, tarragon, nutmeg, and vodka. I'll experiment with some of these in the future. Let me know if you do, and how it goes.

Directions
1. Cut the tofu into long, thin slices (like strips of beef). Put in a bowl and cover with beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. Allow to soak for awhile, at least a couple of hours, up to a few days.
2. Remove the tofu from its "marinade" using a slotted spoon and place the tofu on a towel-lined plate. Save the marinade. Allow the tofu to dry for awhile (at least 20 minutes, up to an hour).
3. Mix the bullion and flour. Toss the tofu slices in this dry mix, then cook it in a pan of hot oil until crispy.
4. Remove the tofu from the pan. Add the onion and mushrooms and some of the reserved beef marinade. Cook until softened. Add the tofu back to the pan along with the rest of the marinade. Allow them to simmer for awhile.
5. Start cooking the noodles.
6. When the marinade is nearly all cooked away, add the cream of mushroom and sour cream to the pan. Allow them to heat through, but don't boil.
7. Serve over the noodles. Goes well with a side of veggies, such as a carrots/peas/corn mix.

Note: When I made this recipe last time, I used cubed slices of tofu. They took longer to cook and generally will behave differently than the tofu "strips" I am suggesting. So I haven't tested this recipe with tofu strips -- keep that in mind as you're cooking!

Also, keep in mind that this still isn't quite going to be the same as true beef stroganoff. It's just a valiant attempt to create the dish without the actual... beef.


Sunday 1/20: Lasagna Casserole

Remember two weeks ago, when I made lasagna soup and was disappointed with the result? I took my own suggested changes to the recipe for a test drive this week. The result was almost great. I fumbled it at the end, though: While I was tossing the ingredients together in the casserole dish, just before it goes under the broiler to brown the cheese, my toddler was screaming her head off about... I don't even remember what. But it was very distracting. So I didn't measure the amount of cheese going into the dish, I just threw in several handfuls.

It was at least one handful too many. The resulting dish was something like half cheese, half everything else. I don't mind a good cheese dish and you know the toddler was pleased, but this was just too much cheese for me and Nate. Next time, I will monitor the cheese inputs more closely. Otherwise, though, I think my adaptations make for a nice dish.


Monday 1/21: Slow Cooker Curried Chicken

This recipe comes from my Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook by America's Test Kitchen. I found the recipe online and linked to it above; scroll down the article to the first recipe, Curried Chicken Breasts. I do half of this recipe and have plenty of room in my 4-qt cooker.

The first direction has you microwave some ingredients before throwing them in the slow cooker. This annoys me quite a bit, as I've always felt the best use of a slow cooker is to throw everything in the pot and let it work. But on this recipe, depending on how you feel about onions, you might want to quickly pre-cook the onion. It gets only mildly softer if you just throw it in uncooked, and if you're like my husband and you're not fond of onions, you'll be unhappy.

Also, because I just use regular chicken breasts, I never have any fat floating to the surface of the braising liquid. So when my chicken is all cooked, and I've tossed the raisins in to let them plump, I just mix the yogurt right into the cooker and serve the dish on some rice. Much less fuss.


Tuesday 1/22: Broccoli Cheese Soup (with Quinoa)

This dish is definitely comfort food to me. It comes out of my Quinoa 365 cookbook -- another book that I love/hate -- and it was an instant favorite the first time we made it. I think Nate groans slightly when it crops up on the menu, but just ignore him. I've already adapted the recipe to his taste so that it's more like a chowder. (Nate doesn't like simple soups. He'll eat a diverse, complex soup like beef stew or minestrone, but if there's only a couple of ingredients, I have to thicken it into a chowder or else he gets whiney.)

I always make a double batch of this soup. The ingredient list is short so it's a fast dish, it freezes well, and hey, comfort food! You always need a little extra around. I use more quinoa than it calls for -- 1/3 cup in a single batch, 3/4 cup in a double batch. I do use half and half as it recommends, although I think I use a little less than the suggested amount (1 cup for a single batch, 2 cups for a double). And I definitely also use more shredded cheddar, probably 3 cups for a double batch.

Here's my other cheat on this recipe, which is less easy to copy: When I shop at Costco, I buy their 3lb bag of chopped broccoli. If you've ever purchased this bag, you know that it comes with a lot of giant broccoli pieces. So after the kid goes to bed, I open the bag of broccoli and start chopping. I hack off a lot of the stems and cut the pieces down. I make one small bag of small, toddler-sized broccoli bits; one bag of stems; and one bag of normal-adult-mouth-sized pieces. All three of these bags go in the freezer.

The broccoli stems I save just for this recipe, so I usually have to chop up two of the 3lb bags before I have enough stems (about 5 cups worth). When it calls for broccoli in this recipe, I use the stems. I cook them down until they are very tender, then use my super-awesome Cuisinart hand blender to blend the whole batch of soup into a smooth consistency. Meanwhile I steam 2-3 cups of broccoli florets in a saucepan. After the soup is blended, I add the florets. Viola -- extra broccoli flavor, a great use of broccoli stems, and still some delicious florets to chomp on.


Wednesday 1/23: Tuna Casserole (recipe below)

I must be in some kind of comfort-food mood. This dish is probably my all time most favorite food ever. Ever.

That might disgust you. Trust me, I get it. My first college roommate (and her boyfriend) made a point of letting me know that they really, really didn't like this dish. And if you didn't grow up eating it, if it's not a meal that reminds you of your family and your childhood, if you didn't request it on your birthday for ten years straight, if it's not exactly the same meal that you and your mom and your grandma make... I could you might not love it.

But I do. I really, really do.

I've tried a couple of other variations on this dish over the years. To my taste, nothing quite beats my family's simple recipe. I tried it with celery once. I tried making my own sauce for it once. It just wasn't as good.

To be totally honest, though, I make three very small adaptations from my mother and grandmother: I use whole wheat noodles, and they are rotini. Growing up, it was always egg noodles. I'll still happily eat five servings of it with egg noodles, but I feel like the rotini gives it a fuller feeling, and I prefer the texture of the rotini. My third change is that I include the water from the can of tuna. I feel like this gives it a bit more tuna-y flavor. So, without further delay:

Ingredients
Noodles, 6-8 oz
Tuna, 1 can
Cream of (mushroom or chicken, you choose), 1 can
Milk
Frozen green peas, 1/2 cup (or more or less, to your preference)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350'F.
2. Cook the noodles according to the package directions.
3. While the noodles are cooking, pour the cream of (mushroom), milk, frozen peas, and tuna (including its water) in a casserole dish. Fill the cream of (mushroom) can halfway with milk and add to the casserole dish. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I don't add salt and I do add a hefty 1/2 tsp of black pepper; I like it peppery.) Mix the ingredients, then put the casserole dish in the oven so they can start heating while the noodles cook.
4. When the noodles are done, drain them and add to the casserole dish. Mix. Put the dish back in the oven. I prefer to cover it with a lid; my grandma leaves the lid off so the noodles on top get brown and crispy. Lid or not, your choice.
5. Cook about 20 minutes, until the dish is heated through.

Note: Because I love this dish, I always make a double batch. I like to put in a heaping 1 cup of peas and use a pound (16oz) of noodles.


Thursday 1/24: Leftovers


Friday 1/25: Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup Minestrone Soup

On Thursday night as I was planning dinners for the week ahead, I realized that my menu would be better balanced if I moved the chicken and butternut squash soup to the week ahead. So don't worry, if it sounds delicious and you're just dying to hear about it, tune in next week.

As for the minestrone soup, what can I say? It was a classic vegetable soup. This recipe is another one from my Quiona 365 cookbook. The ingredients in the link above generically suggest using "a cheese" and "greens." The original recipe calls for Parmesan cheese and spinach. I probably used 1 onion, 3 carrots, 3 medium yukon potatoes, 1 large zucchini, and 3 cups chicken stock. I also threw all of the cheese in at one, rather than reserving some to dole out over individual portions.


BONUS: Chocolate Macaroons

Have you ever made French macaroons? Have you ever eaten one? I know squat about these finicky cookies, except that Kimmy's Bakshop has some beautiful pictures of them and Kimmy curses the heavens (or whatever) whenever she tries to make them.

So just for fun, and maybe because I'm crazy, and maybe because I had some extra eggs in the house, I thought I'd try them out. The ingredients list is super short and the directions sound pretty easy. How bad could they be? (And what are they anyway?)

The cookies that came out of the oven were, well... I don't know. They are mostly made of powdered sugar and egg whites, so they were a real hit with Nate. Neither of us have a clue what they are supposed to taste like, so that helps. But I do know what they are supposed to look like, and I didn't even come close.

Ironically, Kimmy made a batch of macaroons just a couple of days after my disaster. Her cookies look beautiful and sound delicious (orange-flavored sugar, om nom nom). Apparently they were hollow, and thus not successful...?

Since my experience, I came across an excellent series of blogs about macaroons written by someone who makes them three times a day for her job. There is an article all about the do's of macronage, and an article on the don'ts, and her recipe. So once I get familiar with her dos and don'ts, I'm going to try again!

But probably not for a couple of weeks.


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Whew! That's a wrap for the week. I'll see you next week for recaps of pesto, QBC, pupusas, veggie broth, brioche rolls, and more!