What I Made for Dinner :: Corned Beef and Colcannon

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For whatever reason, I grew up eating corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's day, even though my mother came to the United States from Japan in her early 30s and has no connection to Irish-American culture. So, to this day, I find myself buying corned beef in mid-March out of habit.

This year, I got the corned beef at Trader Joe's and I think I'm going to have to rethink that next year. It's expensive and the cut of beef doesn't have enough fat on it for my liking. I guess I could try curing my own corned beef someday but I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

I cooked the beef and vegetables in the slow cooker using a recipe (which I now can't find) that called for adding beer to the simmering liquid. Again, I'm going to have to rethink this one. The use of Guinness changed the flavor, and since I'm not a beer drinker, I didn't enjoy it that much. 

What I really enjoyed was the Colcannon I made as an accompaniment. It's a buttery, greeny Irish mashed potato. I cooked the potatoes in the slow cooker with the corned beef instead of boiling them as usual. I was hoping to impart additional flavor to the potatoes, which it did ... Guinness flavor. There was a slight bitterness to them that wasn't 100% awesome, but it was still quite good. In addition to the cabbage I added kale for extra green and vitamins.  

What I Made for Dinner :: Kotopoulo me Dendrolivano (Rosemary Chicken)

This Greek recipe for Kotopoulo me Dendrolivano (Rosemary Chicken) is so good and easy! All I have to say is, "You gotta make it!"

Trader Joe's didn't have reasonably priced leg quarters so I used just chicken legs. Between the four of us, we ate 12 legs! The pan sauce is really good, and thickens up just right because the chicken is floured before pan-frying and braising. The squirt of lemon juice at the end brightens up the sauce nicely.

I made Crispy Kale, Brussels Sprouts, and Potato Hash as a side dish, minus the eggs since we already had a protein. Not only is this dish tasty, but it smells so good when you're making it. The caramelizing Brussels sprouts have a wonderfully appetizing scent. Yummy, yummy!

What I Made for Dinner :: Lebanese Red Lentil Soup

 

 

This turned out to be a delightful meal, albeit a hodge-podge mix of food. The Husband's jaw was bothering him so he requested soup, and I wasn't in the mood for my usual chicken soup. Even though I was pretty sure the kids wouldn't like it, I opted to make Slow Cooker Lebanese Red Lentil Soup, accompanied by Crispy Sesame Green Bean Fries and the new Trader Joe's Shrimp Nuggets.

The soup was fantastic! The kids even liked it ... granted, they didn't ask for seconds but they didn't complain about it either. The recipe says not to cook this in the slow cooker on High, but I did (for three and a half hours) and it was fine (I did stir it every hour so it wouldn't stick/burn). I didn't use four cups of dried lentils; I used one package of Trader Joe's Red Split Lentils (two cups) and it totally filled my slow cooker when the soup was done. I did compensat for the lack of lentils by adding more chopped vegetables, but probably not an additional two cups' worth. I didn't have to add any additional liquid besides the 64 fl oz of vegetable broth I added at the beginning.

The green bean "fries" were OK but not as fantastic as the soup. There's a chance that has something to do with the fact that I used an egg instead of the coconut milk the recipe calls for for the binder. The breadcrumb (I used panko) and sesame crust wouldn't stick to the green beans after awhile, which might have something to do with the liquid binder being too thick, the breadcrumb mixture getting kind of moist, or a combination of the two. Also, it was a bit bland, so next time I would add some salt to either the liquid binder or the breadcrumbs.

The Shrimp Nuggets were actually pretty good, and they're a good alternative to the TJ's Fish Nuggets we get sometimes. There are only 14 to a package, which is either a good thing (we don't eat too many) or a bad thing (we each don't get enough).

What I Made for Dessert :: Pi Day Buttermilk Peach Pie

I like cake, but I LOVE pie, and I've been baking a bit more than usual lately. Pi Day is a wonderful excuse reason to bake a pie!

I was on a mission today to find a deep-dish pie plate and, after four stores, I finally found what I was looking for at Ross (for $7!). I was specifically looking for a deep-dish pie plate because I'm a fan of custardy/creamy pie fillings and I want to be able to pour in as much as possible. When I was making the Pear Pie the other day, I couldn't use all of the custard filling because my regular pie plate wouldn't hold it all. That won't be a problem with this new pie plate. :)

This recipe for Buttermilk Peach Pie is really simple and comes together quite quickly. I basically spent all of my time decorating the crust! Speaking of crust, I'm a lazy, cowardly baker and I'm afraid of making my own crust. So I usually buy the Trader Joe's frozen crust. For this pie I used both crusts that come in the package. The second crust was for the numbers and to add some crust up the side of the pie plate to avoid filling spillage/overflow. The rest of it I used to make the braid for the decorative edge. Having never done that before, I made the very rookie mistake of sticking the braid to the side of the crust without a binder.

As a result, the braid softened in the oven and fell into the filling:

It's still kinda pretty, so I don't mind the way it turned out, but next time I'll adhere any decorative edges properly. As for the top of the pie, pretty as it is with just the peaches, I was inspired by the decoration on this pie ... the large numbers are so cute:

[I can't seem to find the original photo source for this picture; I first came across it on Pinterest.]

I freehand cut my numbers using a paring knife and I didn't measure anything so the numbers aren't all the same size, but it came out OK. Maya cut the PIE "plaque" at the bottom. Because the filling is liquidy, I couldn't bake the raw dough numbers directly on top of the filling without them sinking. So I baked the extra pieces on a separate baking sheet for about 15 minutes and then placed them on the pie after I took the pie out of the oven. Maybe it was the deeper pie plate, but it took almost an hour for the pie to cook completely.

 

The verdict? Husband thought it was better than the professionally-baked blueberry pie he had at work for their Pi Day celebration!

What I Made for Dinner :: Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder Pasta

Nothing beats using the slow cooker when you're planning to be out of the house all day and you need to have dinner prepped for when you get home. I attended a Washington Tokyo Women's Club craft group out in Virginia today (I'm a prospective member) and I didn't want to stand in front of the stove after coming home, so I spent a few minutes prepping this Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder Pasta recipe early this morning after making the kids' lunches. Literally, it was a few minutes!

I couldn't find a whole bone-in pork shoulder, so I used bone-in pork shoulder steaks instead. I'm not a fan of fennel so I omitted the fennel seeds but I can imagine how it would change the flavor.

The sauce was pretty liquidy after almost ten hours. If I had the energy or inclination, it might be worth it to transfer the sauce to a pan and cook it down for a thicker saucer that clings better to the pasta. Instead of tube pasta I used pappardelle and it was good, but I know it would've tasted better if the sauce was thicker and coated the noodles more. I have tons leftover, so I think that's what I'll do. 

Oh, and don't skimp on the lemon zest! It really brightens up the dish. Parsley might also be a good garnish.

What I Made for Dessert :: Custard Pear Pie (and Baked Custard)

I hope my mother-in-law isn't reading this post because I have to admit that I used some very expensive pears she sent to make this pie. Since we moved to Maryland, she's been thoughtful enough to send us holiday treats from Harry and David. For Valentine's Day, the shipment included some of their famous Royal Riviera Pears, which I love. Unfortunately, I forgot to eat them and they got too squishy to eat on their own. So I decided to bake them in a Custard Pear Pie, and it was really, really delicious! Now, maybe the pie would turn out just as delicious with regular ol' supermarket pears, but I'm gonna go ahead and attribute the pie's yumminess to the pears. ;)

I used four (peeled) pears, which might've filled up the pie plate a bit too much. I had almost half of the custard filling leftover. As you can tell from the photo above, the filling didn't dribble down between the pear pieces, so the custard is really only a thin layer at the top. Next time I'll use fewer pears or a deeper pie dish ... because I like custard!

For the filling, instead of sprinkling the sugar mixture on top of the pears in the crust, I mixed it with the pears to macerate them (like you would for an apple pie filling). I wanted the sweetness to be evenly distributed.

Since I had custard filling left over, I made a baked custard as a little treat for myself. It's basically a crème brûlée filling, minus the hard caramel top. I added a tablespoon of sugar and few drops of vanilla extract, mixed it well, and then poured it into an oven-proof dish. I set that into a simple bain-marie (water bath) and baked it at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the custard set.

I was going to decorate it with fresh berries and get all fancy, but I ended up devouring it as-is after lunch!

What I Made for Dinner :: Chirashi-zushi

As a belated Girls' Day celebration, I made chirashi-zushi, a deconstructed sushi dish that's often served on this holiday. A fancy chirashi-zushi would be a seafood version, with sashimi and ikura, but I'm on a budget here so I added a bit of smoked salmon to give it an extra punch of brininess. As for the actual sushi flavor base, I cheat and use Sushi Taro, a seasoning mix you mix into freshly cooked rice. 

(I was astounded at how expensive the mix is at the Korean market ($8) compared to the price back in LA (or even online). I mentioned this to my mom and I think she'll bring some with her when she visits next month.)

I also added cucumbers, blanched snow peas, and egg (all thinly sliced). The egg is called kinshi tamago, "gold thread egg" since it's supposed to be very thin and narrow (mine, not so much). The recipe I linked to is way more complicated than what I do; I make a plain (i.e., unseasoned), thin omelet that I slice into threads. However, this time, I added half a tablespoon of the homemade shio koji I bought at the fundraiser I went to this morning. It adds a nice umami flavor to the egg without having to add dashi or salt. 

 

Then we finished off our meal with a dessert of wagashi: sakura mochi and uguisu mochi.