Day 129 - Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Seed Rice Paper Rolls and MangoPear Pandowdy

Today I'm so happy to be entertaining Celia, who is one of the most fun and sparkly people I know. And she is so game in the food department! No restrictions - bring it on!

Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Seed Rice Paper Rolls

Here's one of those recipes that requires some intense early action, but once you have all the components prepared, it goes pretty quickly. But one of the components is a mother. One pound of butternut squash diced into 1/4 inch cubes. Think about it. You have to peel that thing, then slice it, then dice it into teeny tiny little cubes. We're talking roughly aspirin sized cubes. Endless. Oh, and then you have to roast them. Not easy, right?

The rest of the components are a breeze though: rice vermicelli, which cooks in minutes. Fresh cilantro. Roasted pepitas. And a sauce that is easily assembled, although beware the hot chile oil measurement. One tablespoon, as listed in the recipe, will set your hair on fire. I used a third of that, and it was plenty! (NB: I may be a wimp, but Celia also agreed.)

One tricky part of this recipe is the 'juicing' of the rice paper wrappers. First off, I recommend doing the rice paper rolling on a lint-free kitchen towel. Next, you want to figure out the perfect amount of time for the wrapper to be in the water so that it's malleable but not tearing at your touch. For me, that magical time is 30 seconds. It still seems like it's going to be too stiff to roll, but by the time you fill it, the residual water has softened it to a perfect consistency. 

Meanwhile, getting these stuffed and wrapped tightly is another challenge. Mine were a little loose and saggy. Workable, but not the snazzy, tight, tight rolls you see in Vietnamese restaurants.

Flavor-wise, these are really nice. A little sweet, a little crunchy, a little herby, with a perfect sauce accompaniment. We made a meal out of them, and it was yummy and filling.

SFO: 9
One point off for "Where's the beef?" concerns.

Mango Pear Pandowdy

Here's another dice-a-palooza. Two mangoes, and two pounds of pears, all cut into 1/2 inch dice. Not as bad as the squash above, but time-consuming.

A piece of advice: mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl. It's too crowded in the pie plate to properly toss everything to get it mixed well.

Now it's time to put yesterday's busted crust to the test!

I have to confess, I didn't know what a pandowdy was until reading this recipe. Midway through the baking process, you cut the crust into squares and mash it into the filling. The idea is to have some browned crust pieces and some mushy, soggy crust pieces. The cutting and mashing feels so strange and violent and sacrilegious, but it was kind of fun! Here are before and after shots.



Now, I don't know if it's because I overworked my dough so horribly, but this crust wouldn't brown/cook! I left the thing in the oven for about 20 minutes longer than it was meant to be in there, and the crust was barely brown in spots. Even though it seemed that I could/should cook it longer, the filling was bubbling over badly by that point, and I thought, enough already!

Unfortunately, my crust was pretty much a bust. I mean, it was edible, but it was so dense, not flaky at all, and there was NO magic to it. The filling, though, was fantastic. Mango and pear is not a combo I would have thought of, but this is a terrific pairing! 

Side note: When I ate this as leftovers, I reheated it in the toaster oven and let it go until the crust got good and brown, and it was delicious. I think with a better crust and longer cooking time, this could be a home run.

SFO: 10
Just needs a better crust.

Day 128 - Basic Single Pastry Crust

Basic Single Pastry Crust

Boy, did I botch this!

And I should know better. I've made a few pie crusts in my day. But this was the first time not doing it in the food processor. I wanted to go by the book, and I+T wanted me to use a pastry cutter to blend the flour and shortening, and I own one, so I tried it.

Oy.

I don't know what I was thinking. I cut it way too fine. And then, the part where you gather the dough into a ball, I kept on thinking that my dough was wet enough to hold, but it wasn't, and I ended up kneading it, and then adding some water, and then kneading it some more, and then adding more water, etc. By the end, I'm sure I had melted all the shortening and started causing some major gluten development, exactly what you DON'T want in a pie crust.

But I thought, maybe somehow it'll magically be OK for tomorrow's Mango and Pear Pandowdy....

FYI, a tip for rolling it out: you can keep the plastic wrap you wrapped your dough in and use it on top of the dough as you're rolling it out. With the plastic on top and the parchment on the bottom, it makes rolling a no-brainer.

SFO: 10

Day 125 - Caraway-Parsley-Carrot Dip, Broc Mac Daddy, and Tea-Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce

The "kids" are over again! (i.e. Alysha, David, and Trey)

Caraway-Parsley-Carrot Dip

Thank god I made this, because I was running so late with my Broc Mac Daddy and the kids were starving, so this went fast! David thought it was hummusy, which it is vaguely in texture and appearance, but flavor-wise, not at all. In fact, flavor-wise, it's somewhat blank. Carroty, yes, but the caraway and parsley don't do much to bring it alive.

Before starting this project, I tried the curried version of this recipe, and it was a lot more flavorful. I look forward to making that again....

SFO: 10


Broc Mac Daddy

This is my second Mac Daddy, the first one being the "original recipe." Now I'm moving on to the variations. 

I have to say, this one was a lot better than the first, which is not to say the first was bad, but the big difference is the vegetable broth! The first time, I used Trader Joe's Low Sodium Veggie Broth, which has a strong flavor with a big tomato presence, and it really affected the color and flavor of the dish. This time, I used Whole Foods Vegetable Broth, which has a much lighter flavor and color, and the results were one million times improved.

The broccoli was a nice addition, didn't make or break, but it did give us the illusion we weren't being super naughty. 

But wait, we weren't being super naughty. The naughtiest thing about this dish is that it's mostly pasta. And it's salty. Otherwise, it's a lot of nutritional yeast, and some tofu. Comfort food that won't harden your arteries! Yay!!

SFO: 7
We all really liked this, but I can see how this might be upsetting for a closed-minded omnivore.


Tea-Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce

I+T are really funny. They make exactly the right joke about this dish, i.e. it feels like you should have a butler to serve it. It is more lah-di-dah than most of the recipes in here. Plus it involves tea, which is so British, i.e. butlery.

I think there's a mistake here in the ingredients: "8 ounces chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup or so)"

These two numbers, 8 ounces, and 1/2 cup, are so far off that one has to be wrong. I sided with the 8 ounces, and I ended up with a chocolate sauce that had a proper consistency, however it did obliterate any tea flavor.

In fact, we were hard-pressed to find any tea flavor at all, even in the pears.

That said, it's a very pretty dessert, and it's delicious. Some of us licked our plates clean. (see picture)

Others of us licked our plates and then ate all the leftover sauce out of the saucepan with a spoon. (no picture to protect the binge eater who may or may not also be the writer of this blog)

SFO: 10

Day 109 - Maple-Mustard Dressing, Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Rotelle, and Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies

Seth is back, braving the vegan wilds. And coincidentally, the main event is tempeh again.

Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Rotelle

By and large, this is a great recipe. Great interplay of flavors, textures, a little on the dry side, but if that doesn't bother you, you should be happy here. I just have a couple of quibbles.

First of all, typo alert. In the instructions for the tempeh steaming liquid, the vinegar is omitted, so don't forget to add that 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar to the tempeh liquid.

Secondly, I+T seem to think that broccoli rabe is the same thing as broccolini, and I disagree. The vegetable I've seen sold as broccolini has a broccoli rabe appearance but unlike broccoli rabe, it is very mild tasting, like American broccoli. 

Seth commented that this dish was very familiar-tasting to him, reminding him of the sausagey version. That bodes well for the SFO score....

SFO: 7
Even though this rang a happy sausage bell for Seth, I'm still downgrading a bit, because I think dyed-in-the-wool meat eaters will still balk at the tempeh substitution.


Maple-Mustard Dressing

In my opinion, this dressing carries an overly heavy maple wallop (not unlike that crazy pesto), but at least this is edible. And paired with the right salad fixin's, it satisfies. But don't kid yourself. This dressing is sa-weeeeet. Not something I see myself repeating, FYI.

SFO: 10
 

Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies

This is a dense little cookie! As I+T say in the recipe, there's no spreading when baking, so whatever shape you create when you put them in the oven, that's what you'll be taking out of the oven.

The flavor is good. Good. Not great, but good. And strangely, the raspberry participation is all but obliterated by that loudmouth, chocolate. We had to fight hard to find any berry presence. 

SFO: 10

Day 108 - Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry

Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry

This is a really terrific recipe! I love the layering of flavors, typical of an Indian-style stew like this. The happy surprise for me was the parsnip presence, which gives a subtle, sweet undertaste to the dish, and I loved the interplay between the mushy lentil background and the cauliflower foreground. Also, any dish that has lime juice, cilantro, and curry is going to be a winner in my book.


Michael liked it too! Here it is, served as suggested, with basmati rice and steamed chard. 

SFO: 9

(As much as we both loved this dish, we agreed that for a hardcore omnivore, it would probably occur as a side dish and not a main event.)

Day 104 - Almond-Anise Biscotti

Almond-Anise Biscotti 

I was going to a party and I thought, what can I bring from the book? And since this group was celebrating a trip we had taken to Italy, this was an easy pick!

As with every recipe in this book where there's an option to substitute whole wheat pastry flour for white, I opted for a half and half mix. My guess is that using all whole wheat flour would really skew the results, but could I get away with a recognizable biscotti with a 50/50 blend?

Survey says: yes! 

The one factor that is really off in the recipe is the baking time for part II. (And maybe part I could have been extended too.)

I did the first bake for the suggested 28 minutes, and the dough was still somewhat soft, even after the cooling period. Hence, my slices were not easy and/or perfect. But workable.

Then, for the second bake, after 12-15 minutes, they were nowhere near ready. Some pieces went for almost twice that long. I definitely recommend turning them for even crispness and keeping an eye on them, since as they near doneness, they can tip over into overdone relatively quickly.

The whole wheat flour makes these a little drier and crumblier than an all-white batch, but these are qualities you'd expect in a biscotti, so they're not unwelcome. The flavor is great, and as long as you cook them long enough, so is the texture.

SFO: 10