Friday Food Finds

Edition 1

Before I get into my first “Friday Food Finds” (FFF), thanks for joining me! Here is where I’ll capture what I’ve been cooking, baking, and eating throughout the week. In each edition you’ll find:

• Written reviews of the recipes I test (they’ll be honest!).

• Mention of how I’ve tweaked the recipes to make them accessible to me, my family, and my kitchen (e.g. ingredient swaps or omissions, shortcuts, etc…).

• Links to the source and developer of the recipe, as well as any articles that pointed me to it.

For the most part, I intend to keep FFF recipe focused. If there are weeks when I’m not cooking or baking as much, I’ll supplement the content somehow. And some weeks I might just change this to a discussion thread so that you all can tell me about what you’re making! I’d love to know either way so please do share in the comments!

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I ended last week and started this week with a good deal of baking. Last weekend I finally made these Cranberry-Lime Swirled Meringues, which my friend, Molly Marzalek-Kelly, developed for King Arthur. I was baking for a local church’s dessert box fundraiser and thought that the red and white swirls would add some nice color to the assortment. My 5-year-old and I had a lot of fun with the swirling step. And when the meringues came out of the oven, I noticed our fun had led to some (he)artistic results. Needless to say we were pretty proud.

Testing notes: I only made one change to this recipe, which was to go light on the lime. I was down to a couple of lime wedges in the fridge, so I skipped the zest and added what juice I could. Because cranberries are tart on their own, the little lime I did add was not all that impactful. I found that I missed it, and highly recommend you use that zest (and the full amount of juice). My meringues were still soft after the 4-hour bake, but they were perfectly dry and crispy coming out of the cold oven the next morning.

Benjamina Ebuehi’s Peanut Butter Cookies

Branching out of my King Arthur comfort bubble, I learned that Benjamina Ebuehi (of The Great British Bake Off) has a cookbook coming out next month. The title, A Good Day to Bake, made me want to try one of her recipes right away. Thankfully, she shared a few of them in the Taste article as a sneak peek.

I went for her Peanut Butter Cookies, which certainly did not disappoint. I did forget to add the oats, so I think my dough was somewhat oilier than it should have been. Regardless, the cookies baked up so deliciously soft and chewy and were not greasy at all. Their peanut butteriness, while forward, is really well balanced, allowing the caramelized sugar notes to shine through. And the bursts of chocolate and salt only enhance that balance in each bite. If you like peanut butter cookies, but sometimes wish they behaved more like chocolate chip cookies, this recipe is absolutely for you.

Testing notes: I didn’t see dimensions for the size of the cookies, so I used a #40 portion scoop (for dough balls that are about 1 1/2” in diameter). I ended up with about 2 dozen cookies (as opposed to 12 - 14), so next time I’ll try going bigger. My bake time was right around 10 minutes, at which point the cookies had just started to color on top.

Speaking of color, I’ve been eager to try this Red Red Vegan Bean Stew from Zoe Adjonyoh — the founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen and author of the namesake cookbook — and I finally got it into my lunch rotation.

This dish is not shy on flavors and the spices do add some heat. For me, its boldness translated to several thoroughly satisfying meals and made me a little more mindful of what I was eating. I found myself noting how the tomatoes and chili interacted and what a flavorful backdrop the ginger, curry, and (in my case) coconut oil provided. See what you think!

Testing notes: I had to make a couple of substitutions (coconut and canola oil in place of the palm or carotene oil, and a 28-ounce can of diced plum tomatoes instead of the 14-ounce can plus 7 ounces of fresh tomatoes), and I omitted the gari since I couldn’t find it locally. While I’m sure the recipe would have been better as originally written, I enjoyed the version I made. It’s not a complicated recipe, and all the visual cues and cook times are spot on.

Also on my lunch rotation was a dish I searched for in an effort to use up some cauliflower and the last of a bottle of pumpkin seed oil I had brought home from a trip to Austria. I decided to roast the cauliflower in the oil and conducted the search mid-roast. At the top of Google’s list was a recipe by Chris Morocco at Bon Appétit for Cauliflower with Pumpkin Seeds, Brown Butter, and Lime.

Testing notes: I was genuinely pleased with this recipe too, though I went about the first step a little differently. I started with whole florets rather than slicing the cauliflower and roasted those for significantly less time (25 minutes total) at 425°F. I definitely didn’t get the same crispy effect, but I was okay with that.

I also found that the pumpkin seeds browned too much when adding them to the pan just after the butter had melted. They were more bitter than I would have liked. Next time, I would let the butter get a little closer to browning before adding the seeds to toast. I used parsley in place of cilantro because that’s what I had. I can see how the the cilantro would have worked well.

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So that’s it the first edition of “Friday Food Finds”. Please share what you liked or didn’t like about it; I’m always happy to incorporate feedback into future editions. In the meantime, I hope you’ve found a recipe that will get you into the kitchen this weekend. Enjoy!