Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

  • Simple Lightly Spiced Red Lentil and Coconut Soup

    In this increasingly cold winter of ours, I have been turning more and more to lentil and bean-based soups to get us through these dark days.  Thankfully, with my love of Rancho Gordo and Indian grocery stores, I have no shortage of legumes in our cupboards.

    Red Lentil and Spinach Soup

    Today's recipe featured red lentils, which unlike many of my other staples, requires a very short cooking time.  This Goan-inspired Milk Street recipe was further dressed up by coconut milk, spinach, and a variety of spices.  

    I made a few modifications based on personal preferences or what I had on hand.  Notably, I used slightly less ginger and lime juice which was a mistake as both added complementary sweet and tart flavors to the soup. 

    I used whole coriander and fennel seeds, grinding them with a mortar and pestle before adding them to the soup.  I will do this again for more pungent flavors than pre-ground spices.  I will also again substitute low fat coconut milk for whole fat because I think whole fat coconut milk would have diluted the soup flavors too much.  The spinach also diluted the soup flavors, so I think it's truly an optional addition.

    The soup also benefited from cooling to have all of the spices become perceptible.  I did not find the soup spicy, as some commentators stated, but I will make this easy weeknight soup again.

  • Savory, Creamy, Sweet, and Tart White Bean, Apple, and Celery Salad – A New Lunchtime Staple

    Rancho Gordo continues to deliver not only amazing heirloom beans, but also equally impressive recipes.  My latest attempt was their innocuously named Celery and White Bean Salad.  

    White Bean and Celery Salad

    This room temperature / chilled bean salad is a tour de force.  It has crunchy, bright diced celery and carrots; apple; blue cheese; lemon juice; and parsley.  The original recipe also calls for pecans which I omitted because of my nut allergy.  Combined with a base of creamy alubia beans, each bite is delightful.

    I made some additional recipe edits beyond the pecan omission.  I used approx. 1 – 1.5 cups of cooked alubia beans (8 minutes high pressure in the Instant Pot, natural release).  I substituted gorgonzola for the Stilton, and a honeycrisp for the green apple.  I also added more salt and pepper to amp up the flavors. 

    I will be making this salad again and again, including later this week!

  • Caramelized Onion Topped Urad Dal – A Step Toward a Culinary Delight

    I've never thought about cooking split ural dal like other dals.  I generally use it as a part of my tempering spice mix to flavor dishes, and I have yet to make homemade idli or dosas.  So I was certainly surprised to see a cooked split urad (white) dal recipe in Indian-ish.  The caramelized onion dal recipe promised a risotto-like consistency offset by smooth and rich flavored onions.  

    Caramelized Onion Dal

    While the dal itself did cook up as promised in fluffy individually distinct grains, I found the overall flavor of the dish to be lacking a bit.  The dish seemed to just be component parts, and the flavors of the cumin, onions, and chile didn't quite meld with or truly deeper flavor the blander dal.  Most of the leftovers sadly sat uneaten in our fridge the days after I prepared it.

    However, this introduction to cooked urad dal led me to learn more about Mash Ki Dal, which we recently had at the house of a friend's parents.  My friend's mother made an excellent cooked urad dal with a wonderful tadka topping that really penetrated and flavored the grains.  I look forward to experimenting more to recreate that wonderful dish!

  • Priya Krishna’s Cauliflower Steaks over Pea Chutney – Simple Addition to Almost Any Meal

    Priya Krishna's Indian-ish delivered another recent win.  The Whole Cauliflower with Green Pea Chutney was super simple to make and required very little hands on time.  The flavors weren't as compelling as her unique feta saag paneer, but the simplicity and versatility of this dish make it a definite recipe repeat.

    Cauliflower Steaks over Pea Puree

    A whole cauliflower is roasted in the oven (50 minutes in my initial attempt), while you make the Indian-spiced frozen green pea and cilantro puree.  With frozen green peas, cilantro, onions, chiles, and Indian spices always in my home, this is a great last minute side option.  The spicy and tart fenugreek, chile, and lime flavors come out subtly in the final puree. 

    I wouldn't skimp on the oil, salt, and pepper on the cauliflower (as I did in my initial attempt) because otherwise the cauliflower itself can also be a little bland. 

    Because of my nut allergy, I omitted the walnuts from the original recipe.  

  • Ginger, Pea, and Egg Fried Rice – A Likely Pass in the Future

    The days of Hetty McKinnon have turned into weeks of Hetty McKinnon.  The obsession continues, even with a misstep of late, namely the egg, pea, and ginger fried rice.  

    Ginger Pea Egg Fried Rice

    The fried rice wasn't as much as a misstep, though I had some during the preparation, as it was just bland.  The ginger flavor didn't come through that much, and I very much overcooked the egg.  I think I should have added more flavorings – garlic, other herbs besides the fresh scallions – to jazz it up a bit.  I reduced the recipe by about 1/4 to fit the amount of leftover rice I had.

  • Another “Kitchen Sink” Lasagna – Weeknight Spinach / Tomato Lasagna

    With some leftover crushed tomatoes in the fridge and some no-boil lasagna sheets in the pantry, I decided to try my hand at another "kitchen sink" lasagna this fall.  This time, I decided to also use up some languishing frozen spinach. 

    Like my first attempt at an improvised lasagna, this lasagna was much better than I expected!  Savory and slightly bitter from the spinach, slightly sweet from the tomato sauce, and a velvety richness from the melted mozzarella.  

    Improvised Spinach Lasagna - Full Baked

    My ingredients were, roughly:

    • 4 sheets no-boil lasagna
    • 3/4 of a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
    • Most of a 10oz package of frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave and squeezed dry
    • Partial block of low-fat, low-moisture mozzarella
    • Shaved parmesan on top 
    • Crushed red pepper, salt, and black pepper to taste

    I followed a Cook's Country approach to combine the tomatoes and spinach together to form the lasagna layers, with a bit of mozzarella added on top to each layer.  I was skeptical of combining the blended tomatoes with the spinach, as opposed to layering them, but it worked quite well as a substantive (and not dry) lasagna filling.

    Improvised Spinach Lasagna - Cut Close Up

  • A Trio of Greek Restaurant Favorites – Gigantes, Lemon Potatoes, and Leek Rice

    Inspired by some great restaurant Greek meals in nearby Astoria, Queens (NYC's Greektown), as well as an expected bounty of fresh dill from our friend Marisa, I decided to make some of my favorite Greek dishes at home this fall.

    I settled on three recipes – Milk Street's version of gigantes (large white beans), a combination approach to lemon potatoes, and a leek-dill rice. 

    Fall 2022 Greek Meal - Gigantes Leek Dill Rice and Lemon Potatoes

    My favorites of the three were the gigantes and the lemon potatoes.  The gigantes had a sublime tart tomato flavor that was offset by the fresh dill, onion, and crumbled feta.  I halved the recipe, which in hindsight was my only mistake – I should have made the full amount!  The recipe was extra simple by using canned butter beans, and I omitted the tomato paste to make it that much more simple.  

    I similarly halved the lemon potatoes recipe (from the NYT portions), but I ended up following the Allrecipes preparation approach by baking the lemon potatoes in a small casserole pan.  The result was not as super roasted / crisp as I probably would have gotten from the NYT recipe, but much less clean up to not directly bake the acidic broth on a rimmed baking sheet. 

    I used vegetable broth instead of chicken, and I wonder if that's what resulted in the slightly more tart potatoes than I generally get in restaurants?  So for some who may be particularly adverse to tart foods, slightly reducing the fresh lemon juice may be appropriate.

    The dish I liked least, though may still make in the future, was the leek rice.  I ended up using basmati rice instead of arborio, and less leeks (approx. .65 pounds).  The modification to basmati rice meant I basically just cooked the leeks, added the rinsed rice, and boiled the dish together while covered.  The fresh tomato/dill topping was the star of the dish for the textural and flavor contrast.  Otherwise the rice itself was a little too oily, dense, and with one-note flavor of the oily leeks.

  • Hetty McKinnon Obsession Continues – NYT Silken Tofu with Spicy Soy Dressing

    As recent posts have shown, I've been on a true Hetty McKinnon kick the past few months.  The latest?  Not from one of her wonderful cookbooks, but instead a NYT Cooking recipe.  

    I slightly freestyled this recipe for Silken Tofu with Spicy Soy Dressing because I was using a partial block of leftover silken tofu, but the result was really wonderful. 

    McKinnon NYT Cold Tofu Salad

    Salty from the soy sauce, savory from the sesame oil, slightly sweet from the sugar and rice wine vinegar, spicy from the chile oil, and crunchy from the scallions – yum. 

    A benefit of using a partial leftover block of silken tofu is that it had naturally drained in the fridge, making prep that much more of a cinch. 

    The tofu I used had been out of the fridge for an hour or two, so slightly more room temperature than cold, which I liked a lot.  

  • Another Great NYT Weeknight Tofu Preparation – with Corn, Green Beans, and Cilantro

    With the success of a recent NYT Cooking tofu preparation on my mind, I turned to another of their suggested tofu recipes, the Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu with Corn, Green Beans, and Cilantro.  

    NYT Tofu with Green Beans and Baby Corn

    I made some simple modifications to their otherwise very simple recipe. 

    I cut the tofu into larger blocks (~1 inch by 2 inch blocks, about 1/2 inch thick).  I used less cilantro to fit what I had on hand, and similarly substituted canned baby corn for the two ears of corn.  I added the baby corn to the recipe at the same time as the green beans, of which I used the haricot vert type.  I also halved the sesame oil to fit personal preferences, and added a bit more salt at the end.  

    Even with the larger tofu blocks and baby corn, this dish truly was fully completed within a short period of time (maybe 30 minutes?).  I look forward to making it again and again for a healthy weeknight dinner!

  • Dumpling…Salad? Great Way to Incorporate Greens and Create a Substantive Meal

    Continuing my journey through Hetty McKinnon's excellent To Asia, With Love cookbook, I next turned to her dumpling salad approach to mix up my frozen dumpling game (and maybe justify eating more dumplings!).  

    The result was pretty satisfying – particularly her simple salty dumpling sauce.  I think I'll probably use the approach as a base for future salads (or future dumplings?  Hard to classify this!). 

    Basically throw some cooked dumplings on top of a simple bed of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, scallions, chiles – whatever you have on hand – and top with the simple sesame-laden dumpling sauce.  You get textural contrast btwn. the crisp lettuce, vegetables, and soft dumplings and a nice savory dressing. 

    I think a miso-based dressing may be good to substitute in future attempts for slightly more nuanced flavors and a bit of sweetness as well.

    Dumpling Salad - Served

    Dumpling Salad - Dumpling Sauce