Cooking
Had an extra-long weekend this week so I’m getting caught up on a few things outside of work. Almost there with the new recipes, thanks for your patience!
Red Lentil Tomato Soup: ultimate comfort food for me is tomato soup + grilled cheese. This recipe from the archives of my site is a play on the classic soup with a little extra oomph to get you through the day, adding in some hearty red lentils. Made it this weekend with grilled cheese (mayo forever!).
Other things I cooked:
Half Baked Harvest Sheet Pan Slouvaki Chicken: technically my mom made this. It was delicious - I’m not a huge fan of sheet pan dinners because I find everything ends up tasting kind of the same, which is somewhat true of this recipe, but the garlicky yogurt and lemon to squeeze on top added enough variety for me. The potatoes were 10/10, and it takes a lot for me to like a potato.
Gnocchi with sausage ragu: used the leftover potato “insides” (yuck sorry, couldn’t think of another way to explain this) from Superbowl potato skin prep, and loosely followed Pasta Social Club’s gnocchi recipe. Delicious.
Hainanese chicken: from @cellymaemah’s Instagram stories. More on this below under “Thinking”
Chicken & cabbage dumplings: first time making dumpling dough, followed Salt and Pepper Here’s recipe. I will definitely make my own wrappers again, so much easier to work with! For the filling, I loosely followed this recipe (especially salting the cabbage, such a good tip!) but swapped ground chicken for pork.
Valentine’s Day brunch: sausage patties (recipe in my feed), eggs benny using this hollandaise recipe (adding 1 tsp of grainy mustard to the egg yolks, and probably 1 tbsp more lemon juice at the end) and did a combo of bacon and shaved Brussels sprouts with a maple syrup/apple cider vinegar glaze (recipe to come!) to put below my poached eggs.
Favourite white buns (halved the recipe to make 12), dilly potato salad (recipe to come!), and lobster for Valentine’s Day dinner with my parents
Brownie sundaes for dessert: HBH Crinkle Top Brownies, Maple Tahini Caramel (2 tbsp tahini, 3 tbsp maple syrup, good pinch of kosher or sea salt), vanilla ice cream
Drinking
Usually, I’m strictly California Cab Sauv in the winter, but I tried out this Argentinian Malbec (Finca Las Moras) thanks to a friend and I’ve been loving it lately. Very smooth.
Reading
A Field Guide to Heart-Shaped Foods, in honour of love day.
Following
@pastasocialclub - I mentioned them above for their gnocchi recipe, but their IG is wonderful for pasta inspiration, instruction, and mesmerization.
Listening
Still listening to the new Staves album and can now report that Next Year, Next Time, Failure, and Paralyzed are my (current) favourite songs.
Using
My fine-mesh sieve*. Used this multiple times this week: rinsing rice, straining out the extra egg white to poach multiple eggs at one time (like mentioned in this Basically recipe, step 7), and straining chicken broth. Super handy, one of my most used kitchen tools.
Thinking
About the Hainanese chicken recipe mentioned above. As I was preparing it on Saturday night there was something really soothing and wonderful about making a meal that has just a handful of ingredients, and every single part of them was being used. A few members of my family were skeptical of the preparation (every 10 mins there was another question like “is the chicken in the oven yet?”) but everyone was blown away when we sat down to eat. The dish is beautifully straightforward in its flavours, each being reinforced in every component (green onion & ginger being used multiple times), and each bite is so magical with texture and taste. I often think about cooking as a dance - when you’re really comfortable with a recipe, you will move easily, maybe even gracefully, through the steps and the kitchen. Following @cellymaemah's Instagram story guidance I felt at ease - like I was dancing through familiar footwork. Anyway, I have a lot of thoughts about this recipe. It’s so wonderful, I hope you try it sometime.
Laughing
Me in this newsletter:
Have a great week,
Kaleigh
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*affiliate link, but if you can, shop local!