Double Shallot Egg Salad

July 12, 2023June 22, 2023 by akc

I’m not typically a huge fan of egg salad (or chicken salad, for that matter) but I figured the Double Shallot Egg Salad from Smitten Kitchen Keepers was worth a try for lunches. It makes two servings, which is pretty perfect for me as most weeks there are leftovers I can enjoy at least a couple of days.

The name comes from the fact that Deb has you make two toppings for this: diced and lightly pickled shallots, and fried shallot rings. I’ve fried shallots before and it’s not hard, it’s just one of those things where you have to stand by the stove and keep a close eye out. (Usually I make them in a larger batch for this Summer Corn, Tomato, and Salmon Salad with Za’atar Dressing.) As they fry, I recommend trying to pull out the shallots that finish first, otherwise they may burn while you finish the rest. When I make a big batch I hang onto the oil and use it while cooking other veggies; it adds a nice savory note. Just know that your house will smell like fried onions when you make these. Could be worse!

Anyway, the only thing we don’t typically have on hand is shallots, and I figure it would be easy enough to sub regular pickled onions and just take a pass on the fried shallots. (Or get some store bought ones for the pantry.) So the base of this is a pantry meal for me.

I’d meant to prep this the day before I wanted to have it for lunch, but forgot. I ended up hard-boiling the eggs and making the pickled shallots on a break a couple of hours before lunch, and then making the fried shallots and the egg salad itself right before eating. That worked out well for me, but normally I’d prefer to have the fried shallots ready to go.

This is a light lunch, which works well for me as long as I have snacks available for the afternoon. It would also be a great addition to a brunch spread or as a filling for finger sandwiches.

A close up or light yellow egg salad on top of two large rectangular crackers. It's been liberally dusted with red smoked paprika, and topped with brown fried shallots. If you look closely you can spot pink bits, which are diced and pickled shallots. There's a tiny red tomato out of focus in the back. — The Double Shallot Egg Salad from *Smitten Kitchen Keepers*, shown here with a lot of smoked paprika.

Crispy Rice and Egg Bowl with Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette

July 7, 2023June 19, 2023 by akc

I made the Crispy Rice and Egg Bowl with Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette on a night when I only had to feed myself. It’s one of those dinners that comes together very easily, and is flexible in that you can just use whatever veggies you have or like. I used carrots and snap peas, as there were some at the farmer’s market that looked good.

Per Deb’s suggestion I made brown rice. I should have paid a little more attention because our brown rice is long grain, and she calls for short grain, which has more starch. This meant that when I crisped it up, it didn’t stick together. It just sort of all got a little dried out, which wasn’t the greatest texture. So make sure you use short grain rice, as that will stick together better and you’ll have rice that is crispy in some spots and soft in others.

I used sherry vinegar for the ginger-scallion vinaigrette, but next time I’ll try rice wine vinegar, as sometimes the sherry felt a little overpowering. I also made a note to scale back the oil in the vinaigrette by about a quarter, as it seemed a little oily to me.

I thought the crispy egg worked really well here. The creaminess from the yolk adds a nice contrast, and the ginger-scallion sauce is really good with the egg. I topped my bowl with a little bit of toasted sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, and some gochugaru. Despite the weird texture of the rice it was still a pretty good dinner.

I had this again the next day but didn’t crisp the rice, I just warmed it up in the microwave. That was good, so if you only have long-grain rice I’d skip the crisping.

Overall this was a good, if light meal. But that makes it a great entry into the lunch rotation since it leaves room for an afternoon snack break! Plus it would be really easy to do the prep on the weekend, and then lunch would come together in just a smidge more time than it takes to fry an egg.

A shallow white bowl fills the frame. At right there's a fried egg, with browned lacy edges. It's covered in red flakes of gochugaru and some toasted sesame seeds. At front left are some roughly chopped snap peas, with carrot coins behind. Some brown rice is peeking out between the eggs and veggies, and there's a trail of diced scallion coated in oil down the middle of the plate. — The Crispy Rice and Egg Bowl with Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette from the Smitten Kitchen Blog.

Foolproof Cacio e Pepe

July 2, 2023June 14, 2023 by akc

I think I’ve made this Foolproof Cacio e Pepe once before, but I only had Parmesan on hand so it doesn’t really count.

This recipe has you make a paste with the cheese and pepper, and then toss it with the hot pasta and a little bit of pasta water. I read some of the comments before diving in, and saw several folks who said it turned out gloppy and the cheese didn’t coat the spaghetti. Deb says that’s likely due to adding too much pasta water when tossing the pasta with the cheese paste, so I made a note to be careful at that step.

Pasta tends to cook fast on my stove, so rather than try to make the cheese paste while the pasta boiled, I did that first. I grated the cheese on my box grater and used my full-size food processor, but I think if I were to make this again I’d try it in the mini. I’d probably need to add the cheese in a couple of batches, but I think it would be easier to get it really smooth. I was worried about how much pepper to add, and had trouble telling how “sparkly” it was due to the intensity of the cheese. I ended up using about 35 grinds and I think that was about right. In general I’d err on the side of not enough, because you can always add more at the table.

When it came time to drain the pasta, I lifted it out of the water with tongs and deposited it into a colander. When tossing everything together, I ended up using all the cheese paste and 1/3 cup of pasta water, though I think that was maybe a tad too much. I’d start small with the pasta water, say 1/4 cup, and then add in splashes after that. I think how much you need will be very dependent on how smooth your cheese paste is, and how smooth or rough your pasta is. I used my biggest glass bowl, which gave me lots of room to toss and swish. Don’t shortchange yourself on how much room you give yourself to toss it all together, that tossing action is where your sauce will form.

This turned out well and my hubby really liked it, though I was a little less sold. Deb calls for aged Pecorino Romano, which was a little confusing to me. All Pecorino Romano (including the store brand I used) is aged 5 months, and I wonder if I’d like the flavor better if I used one aged a bit longer. Anyway, I made a full recipe and served it with small side salads, and we ate everything in one meal. If you served a protein with this, or a bigger salad, you could definitely stretch to three portions, possibly four.

A shallow white bowl holds a tangle of spaghetti. It's coated in a slightly lumpy white cheese sauce with flecks of black pepper throughout. — The Foolproof Cacio e Pepe from the Smitten Kitchen blog.

Shaved Asparagus Frittata

June 27, 2023May 30, 2023 by akc

I don’t make frittatas often at all, but this Shaved Asparagus Frittata just looked so pretty, and seemed like it would be a good for lunches on a week when I knew there wouldn’t be many leftovers.

This was pretty easy to pull together. Shaving the asparagus is a little finicky, so just look for a bundle with thick stalks. I didn’t really get the prosciutto crispy, but it didn’t seem to matter too much in the final dish. Make sure to use a big bowl to whisk your eggs, so you can do so vigorously but without making a mess. And go easy on the salt, especially if you do use the prosciutto or another salty cured meat.

Being me, I choose to use the full four ounces of goat cheese, which it turns out was a little bit too much. Three ounces is probably the sweet spot. (Use two if need to have enough leftover to snack on alongside your leftover prosciutto.)

I wasn’t seeing a lot of browning around the edges while this was on the stovetop, but of course it turned out that the bottom of mine was overcooked, and a little burnt in the middle. I also found I needed about 4 minutes under the broiler, but a lot of that will depend on how close you can get the pan to your heating element. The pan I used has a handle that arches up a bit, so it needs some extra clearance. If you don’t broil things often (I don’t) I’d start by checking it at a minute and see how it looks. From there you should be able to gauge how long to try it before you check it again.

This was very tasty. The first night I made it I had it with a side salad and found I was kind of wishing for some toast. I had the leftovers for lunches next to some leftover roasted potatoes. If I were to make this again I think I’d give it less time on the burner and more under the broiler, to try and avoid burning the bottom. I would also make sure I actually let it sit for 5 minutes after it came out, as I can tell it would have come out of the pan in a neater wedge. (That will also give you some time for any carryover cooking to occur and firm up any last oozy bits.)

A round, stainless steel skillet fills the frame. It holds a yellow fritatta with golden brown edges, and some light browning in the middle. There are many white goat cheese islands, with a few peeds of green asparagus and pink prosciutto. — The Asparagus and Goat Cheese Fritatta from the Smitten Kitchen Blog.

Easy Drop Berry Shortcakes

June 22, 2023June 19, 2023 by akc

Every year when strawberry season rolls around, the first thing I want to make with them is strawberry shortcake. For the last few years the Rich and Tender Shortcakes with Strawberries and Whipped Cream from Cook’s Illustrated has been my go-to recipe, but this year I wanted to try one of Deb’s. So, I made the Easy Drop Berry Shortcakes (also in Smitten Kitchen Keepers).

The shortcakes came together very quickly and without a lot of fuss. I substituted the cream for an (unsweetened, unflavored) coconut milk creamer that I’ve been using in my tea, and it seemed to work fine. They are a sticky mess to shape and cover in sugar though, so be prepared. I got six out of the batter, and had a hard time getting them roughly evenly sized. Next time I’ll portion them out before I start coating them in the turbinado sugar.

I checked them at 10 minutes and they weren’t done, at 13 they weren’t really browned at all. At 16 they looked just about right. I did find they stuck to the silicon baking mat I used, even once they’d cooled. Nothing a spatula couldn’t solve but I was a little surprised.

I used all strawberries for the filling, and I mixed them with the sugar the day before, right after bringing the berries home from the farmer’s market. They sat in the fridge overnight, and I took them out to add the lemon juice and let them come up to room temperature when I started making the shortcakes. This is a bit different than what Deb calls for in this recipe, where there’s less juice drawn out of the berries, and they’re mostly kept whole. But if you’re doing all strawberries I don’t see why you wouldn’t want that excess liquid, which your shortcake will sop right up.

We prefer our shortcakes, crumbles, pies, etc. with vanilla ice cream, so I skipped the whipped cream. The shortcakes are not very sweet, which made them a perfect companion to the sweet berries and ice cream. There were not quite enough berries for my taste — looking at the photos you can kind of tell Deb’s not using a ton of berries — so I chopped up some more for the second night, and put the remaining two shortcakes in the freezer for another day.