Good & Bad: Pumpkin Cheddar Mac & Cheese vs. Pasta Presto's Red & Yellow Cherry Tomato Saute

I know I've mentioned this before, but I am a huge pastaholic. I attribute it partially to growing up in a very Italian part of Connecticut, which to most parts of the country probably sounds a bit strange (aren't we more known for our Puritan rudeness?). Waterbury, CT is the place I refer to; I grew up in one of its suburbs, and thus grew up in a place where even chain restuarants like Olive Garden and Bertucci's have to step up their game if they want to survive. Let me tell you: the SF Bay Area is woefully lacking in real, GOOD Italian food. The two places I've found are a walk-in-and-order place, and a super-expensive place. No middle ground.

So today's post shall deal with that most wondrous of comfort foods: pasta.

Pumpkin Cheddar Mac & Cheese

Hari, of course, was the one to find this recipe; really, this blog probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for Hari. I am not the biggest fan of pumpkin OR mac & cheese, but this still intrigued me. After all, there's a truly odd list of ingredients in there. Whole wheat pasta! Honey! Pumpkin puree! Allspice! It's like someone tried to turn pumpkin pie into mac & cheese.

Pasta Presto's Red & Yellow Cherry Tomato Saute

I stumbled upon this cute little recipe book when exploring Ithaca, NY's used bookstore on the Commons. It had been marked down from $10 to a mere dollar, so of course, as a pasta lover, I had to snatch it up. It is a series of sauces that you can quickly make and serve over pasta. I've made quite a few of them, including converting some of the meat ones to vegetarian. This one recipe, though, I make often when the summer bumpercrop of cherry tomatoes shows up.

Since this is an older recipe book when the internet was barely a thing, I'll give a quick list of the contents, but not the full recipe for copyright reasons:

Olive Oil
Garlic Cloves, chopped
Red & Yellow cherry tomatoes
Fresh Parsley (I use dried and it's fine)
Fresh Chives (I don't use and it's fine

Pumpkin Cheddar Mac & Cheese vs. Pasta Presto's Red & Yellow Cherry Tomato Saute: GO!


(Fun Fact: I made this a year ago.)


(Fun Fact: This may not be the recipe I think it is, but it looks close enough.)

So as I mentioned, I'm not a big fan of pumpkin or mac & cheese. Furthermore, as I recall, I had to use mozarrella or something like that since I didn't have cheddar. Also pretty sure I had to sub the ground mustard for something else. Basically, the test could very well be my fault. But? It tasted like pumpkin to me. Overwhelmingly so; I didn't taste any of the spice or the cheese, just the faint sweetness of pureed pumpkin. Now, if you love pumpkin, that means this recipe will probably work out fantastically for you! But if I were to make it again, I'd half the amount of pumpkin. Also probably use cheddar instead of mozarrella but that's a whole different story.

As for the tomato saute? I recently discovered that I love cooked cherry tomatoes, especially if they are cooked whole. Then you bite into them and they release hot delicious juice into your mouth... I don't get why I didn't discover the wonders of these guys until... This year, maybe last? So this recipe, which depends entirely on the quality of your tomatoes, gives them a chance to shine. The spices don't matter much here; I've substituted basil, I've not used them at all, etc. What matters is that you use top-quality, fresh cherry tomatoes, or this will be a failure. Use the best olive oil you have as well. A recipe with this few ingredients relies on all of them being top-notch.

So for those of you who live in places with legitimate growth seasons (or really just real seasons), you're going to want to make this during the height of summer. For those of us in places with tomatoes year-round, so long as the crop is good, you can make it.

For what it's worth, I think the pumpkin mac & cheese would pair easily with gluten-free pasta, since most of the flavour is in the sauce. By contrast, you need to either really love the taste of gluten-free pasta or just have some godly stuff for the tomato saute, since that sauce is much lighter.

Pumpkin Cheddar Mac & Cheese: 7/10 (again: everything went fine, just not my cup of tea*)
Pasta Presto's Red & Yellow Cherry Tomato Saute: 10/10

Tschuess!

* This is my cup of tea:

Coconut Farro Porridge with Mango

So thanks to the New Wholes Grains cookbook, I discovered farro. It's this chewy grain thing that cooks pretty quickly and has a texture between pasta and rice. While trying to find recipes for it, I discovered this one.

Coconut Farro Porridge with Mango Strawberries

So I don't have mango, or coconut extract, which the original recipe here calls for. And I had to do some very funky math since I only had half a can of coconut milk, but I kept the proportions of everything the same, just that the coconut extract was replaced with vanilla, and the mangos with strawberries.



I love how my food never looks like their food.

So, how is it? It depends on how sweet you like your foods. I have a great love for things that are sugary -- one of my favourite cereals is Fruity Pebbles, so basically the more horrifyingly diabetes-inducing bad it is, the tastier I find it. That being said, the flavour and sweetness of this porridge is quite mild. The strawberries were a nice touch to keep it from just being bland. If you don't like your food to be incredibly sweet, and also like hot porridge, this meal will likely work out for you. But if you prefer loading up on sugar, you may want to stick with instant oatmeal.

My rating is 7/10, since everything went fine and it wasn't awful, just not my preference.

Tonight I'm making another recipe from my list, so stay tuned for that. Until then...

Tschuess.

Arabic Lentil Soup with Mushroom Schnitzel

So to kick off going through the recipes I have saved, I decided to make TWO of them last night using ingredients I had available: Mushroom schnitzel with some arabic lentil soup. I've actually made both of these recipes before, but things didn't work out as I wanted, so I tried them again.



Tada.

Mushroom Schnitzel

So when I was in Germany, I fell in love with schnitzel. The problem is it is a meat dish, and while Germany had some great vegetarian options for it, The US does not. I found this recipe to my delight and was like "OMG FINALLY."

I didn't have scallions so I just subbed pearl onions that I managed to haphazardly chop up, while the matzo meal is actually matzo ball mix. Also, no lemon, and egg whites instead of whole egg.



I'd love to sing this recipe's praises. But honestly? It really didn't do much for me. First, do not cook mushrooms for 10 minutes! They will become gross! I cooked them for only a few minutes and got them to be tender but still able to hold form, same with the onions. But I had to use twice the amount of matzo ball mix recommended to make the patty stick in any way decent, and so in the end the flavour was sort of odd -- kind of salty, a bit dry. Most of the flavour seemed to come from the butter.

I imagine some more spices may be able to help it out, but I'm not sure which, and honestly, I'm willing to just let the recipe go and search out another vegetarian schnitzel. All the same? It wasn't horrible, just rather meh. Thus, 5/10.

Arabic Lentil Soup



This recipe is from here, and it was followed exactly except pepper instead of carrot, and also I forgot to add the cumin in until half-way through cooking (whoops).

I'd like to sing the praises for this recipe too, as I love lentils, and soup, and lentil soup. But unfortunately? It's very watery and the only real flavour is the earthy lentils. I did not find that mashing the lentils up added any sort of thickness, and I did not add any water from the initial 3 cups, and it STILL doesn't have good body to it.

However, I think this could be easily fixed if a) some additional cumin, along with a bit of pepper and salt, was added and b) if less liquid is used. The option of chili flakes that she recommends sounds like a good idea, and I'd try halving the amount of water, and just doing what she recommends and adding some as needed. Also, instead of water, using a high-quality broth should add some great flavour.

So basically, I think this soup recipe is a good starting point, but needs some changes to make it truly slurpable. These changes are pretty easy, though, so I'll still give it a 6.5 or a 7/10. I may keep a hold on the recipe and try fiddling with it again later, and report if it helps.

There should be another post from me later today or tomorrow, as I am currently making some Coconut Farro Porridge, another recipe I needed to use. Stay tuned!

Tschuess.

Indonesian Red Rice Salad. Sort of.

This is a new idea I have: when I'm near my best mentally, or just feeling antsy and wanting to get it out, I cook. Antsy!me cooks less extravagent foods. Well!me pulls out one of my many cookbooks and makes an impressive meal. Dinner Time posts will be of those meals. With a review of them, and where I can, a recipe. The posts will be pretty short and picture and garbage-talk free. Seriously I hate blogs that talk on and on; just show me the food and the recipe dammit!

So to begin:

Indonesian Red Rice Salad with Boiled Eggs and Macadamias The original recipe is from the fantastic cookbook The New Whole Grains Cookbook", which introduced me to a world of weird whole grains that taste good. The original recipe is also here. But I don't have red rice, macadamias, molasses, or fresh basil. And I HATE green beans and carrots. Soooo.... Bam. Follow the same instructions as the recipe above, but I used this instead:

1/4 cup long-grained brown rice, cooked as desired
~1/2-1 tablespoon peanut oil
~1/2-1 cup frozen chopped onions (but 1 fresh onion would be better)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon Chinese Five-Spice powder
1/4 teaspoon coriander
~1/2 of a large, fresh green bell pepper
~1/2 package of fresh white mushrooms (but baby bella or any type will do)
~1/8-1/4 cup coconut milk
~1 tablespoon of this weird soy sauce substitute I made (just use soy sauce, seriously)
~2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar (I used 3 but it was much too sweet)
1 boiled egg
Lime Juice (I don't know how much, maybe about 1/2-1 tablespoon)

Basically you stirfry the vegetables and spices until they are starting to get tender, or if you've cooked for ages like I have, until they just SEEM ready. You then add the coconut milk, soy sauce, and dark brown sugar, swirl it a bit to mix, and then slice the egg lengthwise and put it in the pan in a space reserved for it. Simmer for a few minutes (I recommend until the liquid level has dropped somewhat, otherwise you'll have liquid sitting in your bowl like I do!), then mix it with the rice and bam. Dinner.

Flavour-wise? Pretty complex! Unfortunately I put in too much brown sugar so I mostly taste that, but upon swallowing there's a very good kick from the cayenne pepper. So I imagine if the sweet was toned down a bit, you could get the rich coconut flavour with a nice kick.

The vegetables still have a good bite to them, and the egg is pretty solid despite all it had to go through. However, I'm not sure the egg adds much to the flavour, so if you're a vegan and want to try this out, go ahead; you won't be missing anything by keeping out the animal products.

Since it does have quite a bit of flavour I'd recommend something cleansing after for a drink or dessert, but if you're crazy you can always have a sorbet with it:  

But I won't be because that cherry sorbet? Freakin' STRONG. I don't know why it needed sugar with it. OR water. or ANYTHING other than sauteed and pureed cherries.

So overall rating for this recipe? 7/10 for now, I need to fiddle with it more, but feel free to check it out.

Tschuess