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Pretty As A Present Pickled Red Onions

July 16, 2014 by Kristin

What. A. Day! This morning started well before bright and early, when it was dark and just plain early. The restaurant I’m working on in Dallas is in full swing, so I flew up for a day of meetings and flew right back. Exhaustion would have been justified. But I chose to yoga, grocery shop, and be unexplainably ambitious in the kitchen instead.

Pickled onions. Not just pickled onions for the heck of it. Pickled onions for achiote pork. Neither of which resulted in an immediate food reward. So today, on this busy bee Tuesday, I chose to make a feast of a meal that might just be ready by Thursday. It made no sense, but I rolled with it.

I whipped up this pickled red onion recipe – I was drawn to cinnamon, cloves, and fresh lime. And I sliced, toasted, stirred, and jarred, all the while bopping around to my fav new album by Damaged Bug. Perhaps the song below was the catalyst of tonight’s kitchen ambition.

Coconut Lemongrass Mussels

July 11, 2014 by Kristin

Most of us are in agreement that the best thing about eating mussels is really the crusty loaf of bread sopped in mussel broth. So what do you do when you still crave mussels but bread is no longer a thing in your kitchen? You get creative with veggies, of course.

I modified this NY Times recipe left and right until I came up with a soupy broth that could take on the addition of sliced shiitake mushrooms and baby bok choy. Afterward, I came to the conclusion that adding two-ish cups of veggie broth and additional seasoning {extra fish sauce in this instance} to a mussels recipe is the way to go.

But the critical part, the part that lets your mind forget about bread, is the shiitake shroom. Because they contain less water than other mushroom varieties, they soak up the broth and keep their chew, which gives the dish more sustenance. And let me tell ya, a spoonful of mussel, shiitake, shallot, coconut, and lemongrass is quite the bite!

Polenta Sliders

July 8, 2014 by Kristin

Do you ever have one of those days that you feel like you squished multiple days into a single day? And you look back on your very first thing you knocked off your list and it seems like ages ago? Today was one of those days. It started with waking up in Florida, returning a rental car, and heading to the airport and ended with cleaning out cabinets in Austin, a mini trip to Fresh Plus, a 4-mile Shoal Creek trek with Skylar, and a fancy little dinner. The stuff that happened in between went something like work, work, work, wondering how I could be so homesick after 5 days at home, work.

When I was cleaning out the cabinets {homesick therapy}, I found a tube of polenta that served as inspiration for dinner. And then the thought progression continued like so: burgers -> arugula & spinach -> mushrooms & onions.

I put my oven to work by simultaneously sautéing, grill-panning, and broiling. And when everything was cooked to perfection, I assembled the mini towers of goodness and served to Skylar and Max.

I liked changing up a plain old meat/veggie combo with the texture of polenta. And I totally dug the addition of greens and sautéed veggies, but a classic topping of lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion would be equally as delicious.

Array

White Sweet Potato Curly Fries

June 30, 2014 by Kristin

If you’re going to make homemade ketchup, then you must also make a homemade something to dip in said ketchup. Like curly fries. White sweet potato curly fries.

I was drawn to the palest sweet potatoes in the stack {labeled Japanese sweet potatoes}, assuming they’d be less sweet than the typical orange variety. A little Google research validated the less-sweet hunch, but left me confused on what variety of sweet potato I picked up from the stack. Although Japanese sweet potatoes have a white flesh, their skin is super purple. A Japanese sweet potato, my potato was not.

Another mission was to make a crispier fry than I had made in the past. I used this recipe {that called for eggs whites in lieu of corn starch} and a crispier fry is exactly what I got. And although the spiralized slightly sweet potato fry was delish, it was a bit too time consuming for me. I’ll likely stick to the traditionally shaped fry in the future.

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