Recipe: Momofuku's Banana Cream Pie Recipe

Momofuku's Banana Cream Pie
4 stars

We had some bananas that were very very ripe (almost black) which made me remember Christina Tosi (on Chef's Table on Netflix) saying that the blacker the bananas, the better when making her Banana Cream Pie.  Note:  This is the first Christina Tosi recipe I've made.

I found the recipe (see link above) on a U.K. website and made it last weekend.

It was really good, but quite sweet as I think all of her desserts are.  Interestingly, her pie crust was bitter -- but perhaps that's to balance the sweetness of the pie filling.  The recipe took a while to make... a bit of effort and time primarily because of the pie crust.  I will definitely be taking some shortcuts if I make this again.

Tips/Notes:

• Next time, use a different chocolate crust recipe as this one took a bit of time and didn't wow me at all (plus, it was bitter as I mentioned above)
• Didn't use yellow food coloring (I never use food coloring!)
• Substituted cornflour for corn meal that we already had
• Potentially use less sugar in the banana cream next time

Recipe: Brothy Beans and Farro with Eggs and Mushrooms

Brothy Beans and Farro with Eggs and Mushrooms
Bon Appetit Magazine, Feb 2018, p 91
4.5 stars

Ok, so for this recipe, we changed a LOT of the steps.  Having cooked many recipes over the years, we could tell what changes would make the recipe better and make the cooking process go faster.  I'll try to outline all the tips below.  This was a delicious and hearty meal, but next time, we'll make this in the fall/winter/spring months instead of summer.  Not sure why I decided to make this during the hottest month of the year!

Ingredients:  onion, carrot, garlic, beans, farro, shiitake mushrooms, Fresno chiles, sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar, rosemary, olive oil, Kosher salt, ground pepper, egg yolks (optional)

Ingredient Changes:

• Diced 3 carrots instead of 1
• Added diced celery (since we had it on hand)
• Used canned Great Northern Beans
• Couldn't find Fresno chiles so used serranos
• Added Andouille sausage

Cooking Changes/Tips:

• Instead of doing the first part of the recipe where the vegetables were boiled with the beans for 70-90 minutes (no time for that!), we sauteed the onion, carrot, celery and MINCED garlic until all were caramelized and then splashed a little red wine vinegar at the end.
• Kept all of the vegetables instead of discarding them and simmered them with the canned Great Northern Beans, farro and added broth.
• To make the chile-garlic oil on top, make sure to add the rosemary that it calls for -- it's a nice touch.  Note:  We made 1/2 the recipe of the oil and still had too much.
• Sauteed the mushrooms separately and added red pepper since the serranos weren't hot.
• Seared the Andouille sausage separately in a pan and added it 10 min before the farro was ready.

Recipe: Mushroom, Leek and Fontina Frittata

Mushroom, Leek and Fontina Frittata
Bon Appetit Magazine, Feb 2013, p. 43
4.5 stars

We made this for dinner, but it also would be perfect for breakfast or brunch.  Only takes 9 ingredients and was very easy to make -- I can see us making this recipe again but using different ingredients (e.g. different cheese, adding meat).... it's a good base recipe.

Ingredients:  leeks, baby bella mushrooms, eggs, creme fraiche or sour cream, Fontina cheese, parsley, olive oil, Kosher salt, ground pepper

Tips:

• Used 10 eggs instead of 12
• Used regular curly leaf parsley instead of flat-leaf

Enjoy!

Recipe: Cold Sesame Noodles with Broccoli and Kale

Cold Sesame Noodles with Broccoli and Kale

Bon Appetit Magazine, Dec 2016

4 stars

This was a recipe in the "r.s.v.p." section of Bon Appetit Magazine where readers ask the magazine to request a recipe from a restaurant.  This recipe is from a restaurant called North in Providence, RI.

I especially loved the broccoli part of this dish which we'll definitely be making in the future as a side dish... and as you can see from the tips below, we made this into a warm (vs. cold) dish and made some adjustments.

Ingredients:  broccoli, garlic, sambal oelek, sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar, scallions, ginger, kale, ramen, torn mint, sesame seeds, vegetable oil, Kosher salt, black pepper

Tips:

• Make double the amount of broccoli next time -- it shrinks so much upon roasting
• Double the amount of kale
• Kale can be pretty rough texture-wise, so we blanched it and then sauteed it olive oil with the scallions, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper and splashed the sherry vinegar at the end
• The dish needed a little oomph, so I added a little bit of hot chili oil and soy sauce to my serving which gave it some heat and umami flavor

Recipe: Don Angie's Lasagna Pinwheels

Don Angie's Lasagna Pinwheels
5 stars

I saw this dish being made on the Today Show and immediately printed off the recipe.  Fresh pasta, bechamel sauce, bolognese -- how can you go wrong?  This dish was fabulos-o, but took lots of manpower.  I made the bolognese and tomato sauce, while our good friends made the fresh pasta and bechamel.

I can almost see why the restaurant Don Angie in New York City charges $64 for their Lasagna for Two.  It took lots of ingredients (too many to list), time and labor to make this dish.

The bolognese was so flavorful with its mix of sweet Italian sausage, pancetta and veal -- plus 2 star anise pods for an extra dimension of flavor.  This is now my go-to recipe for bolognese.

The photo above was taken when we took the dish out of the oven (we hadn't sprinkled parsley on it yet).  For sides, we made a simple broccolini dish (sauteed in garlic and olive oil) and bought a loaf of Parmesan bread.

Tips:

• Will use a different pasta recipe next time as this one created a very wet pasta.
• Make 1/2 the bolognese (unless you want leftovers to use for another pasta dish or to freeze).
• Make 1/4 of the bechamel sauce.
• Can use Italian ricotta cheese if robiola cheese isn't available at your local grocery store.
• Will add red pepper to the tomato sauce next time.