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Thursday, June 28, 2012

A different week in the kitchen

It certainly has been a different week in my kitchen - not a chilli in sight! I wanted to write about this recent period as my cooking has felt entirely different to what is usually on the menu. The man had minor surgery last week (nothing serious) and has needed to eat blander food than usual during his recovery. I usually sway towards spicy meals and probably cook them about 50% of the time so I took this as a perfect opportunity to broaden my horizons a little.


Last weekend I made pierogis which was fun to do but very time consuming. I prepared the dough, a potato-fried onion-dill filling, a sauerkraut-mushroom filling and fried onions for topping ahead of time which was rather simple to do. When it came to putting these little dumplings together, it felt like it took forever and even that was with the aid of a pasta machine to roll out the dough.


I had a few issues with getting the thickness right and initially made the dough too thin which meant that it wasn't robust enough to contain the filling. Another issue I ran into was overstuffing the dumplings which is something I have been guilty of doing in the past with Asian dumplings and really should know better by now. Once those issues were ironed out it was still a lengthy process to manually seal the dumplings and in hindsight I should have used my handy little dumpling press for this task.

The good news was that the pierogis tasted fantastic, the bad news is that I can't share the recipe as it is from Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook that will be released in October. We all preferred the potato and dill filling out of the two and I was especially pleased to find a recipe that made me appreciate this herb as it hasn't been one of my favourites in the past.


With a surplus of dill leftover I investigated other ways to make use of it. Beef stroganoff was something we used to enjoy years ago when we ate meat and then a mushroom version when we were vegetarian. I've been meaning to try a vegan recipe for a while using slices of tempeh and a sour cream replacement so I gave it a shot. I looked up a few different recipes from my cookbooks to get some inspiration but nothing was exactly what I was looking for so I ended up creating my own version inspired from about 3 recipes. I was very happy with the flavour of this meal and the man adored this so I'll have to make it again. I'm going to hold off posting a recipe for now as the consistency of the sauce was too thick and the way I prepared the tempeh needs a little tweaking so stay tuned for this one.


Tonight was the man's birthday and I made him a vegan spanakopita which incorporated baked almond feta which was posted by Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe recently. Johanna mentioned in her post that the cheeze needed more oomph and even with a bit of extra salt, it still wasn't tasty enough. The texture was great as it was creamy and a bit crumbly so I'll be revisiting the feta in the future. The spanakopita was pretty good although a little lacking in salt so once again I'll be tweaking this recipe further before posting my version. 


I'm so used to writing up a post with the objective of sharing a recipe so it feels strange to leave you without one this time around. In recent times I've been cooking up way more than I have had time to write about so at least it feels good to share some of my photos and experiences of the previous week. And even though I'm beginning to crave a spicy meal, it has been anything but a bland week of eating.

10 comments:

  1. I am not such a spice fiend so I look for taste in other ways! These all look great - in fact quite remniscent of the gasometer menu! I wondered about making spanikopita - ironically I find filo pastry fiddly (though after making almond feta it really shouldn't seem that hard). I think I really need to try the almond feta again just for spanikopita - look forward to seeing how you develop your recipes

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    1. It did start reminding me of the Gasometer menu too, I think the main inspiration for this was the dill. I haven't had that much experience with filo either and have found it fiddly in the past. Recently I have been using the sheets you can buy from the refrigerated section, they seem to be easier to use than the frozen ones. I hope to try these recipes again soon but want to try out the cashew cheeze next.

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  2. The fact that a different week can involve such elaborate meals, with such detail and time required, is a very impressive reflection on your cooking and dedication to vegan creations! Those dumplings look and sound wonderful but I suspect I do not have the patience and so will stick to admiring yours.

    Also, I hope your partner is feeling better soon and that he had a great birthday despite being a week post surgery. I'm sure you'll both be glad to get back into your spicy dishes before too long!

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    1. I was being a carer that weekend and had plenty of time at home for playing around in the kitchen which was perfect for pierogi. The other meals didn't actually take that long.

      The man is back on track now but still not quite up to spicy food, thanks for you kind wishes.

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  3. I love dill so much, so these meals look right up my alley. I also love pierogi, but haven't had them in a few years. Thanks for reminding me that I should spend a bit of time on this long weekend (show day!) making some to have in the freezer! :)

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    1. I'm loving dill now too, not sure what made me dislike it in the past but I'm glad to have something new to play around with. Hope you had a great long weekend and some fun in the kitchen!

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  4. I'm a spicy fan like you & find it hard to tone it down. G is too but his diet is going to require a little less heat, so these recipes are great reminders of all the great blander food out there! Pierogies are a favorite of ours but it's been awhile since I made them. I'm definitely going to have to try a filling like your tester recipe's!

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    1. It can be difficult to cater for different tastes especially when one person is a real spicy fiend and the other isn't. There are so many wonderful recipes out there that aren't spicy so this was a really good reminder for me to branch out more often.

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  5. HI, hi, hi! I've missed checking out your blog, I'm so slack! Anyhoo, yay for Terry's book, I didn't know it was due out October, that's really not too far away!

    Your pierogis look lovely and I bet your man was very happy with all the food you made with him in mind :)

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    1. So glad to see you back in action Mandee! I'm counting down for Terry's book, even though I have made heaps of the recipes there are so many more that I can't wait to try.

      My man is usually pretty happy with what is on offer at home and he loved getting the extra TLC.

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