Again, as with so many events and holidays, for me, it’s all about the food, and so, even though for other people, the Superbowl might be about the actual game, or this year about Taylor Swift, I made some snack for this evening — here you go for your 2024 lineup; recipes after the jump:
Clockwise from top left…
St. Louis-style Toasted Ravioli
Bacony Poutine-ish Potato Skins
Nandos-inspired Peri Peri Wings
Baked BBQ Ranch Pulled Pork Taquitos
Happy Lunar New Year! It’s called Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia, and I this grandiose plan to make these dumplings called Buuz. Sometimes I can be overly ambitious, but somehow I sort of got these done.
These Buuz (Mongolian Dumplings) are traditionally made of yak or mutton meat. Enter my first dilemma: yak is impossible to find in greater Boston (no kidding, right?) and mutton too — or I had to buy a frozen 4 pound block and then what was I going to do with the rest of the mutton? Lamb would have been the obvious choice, but I don’t eat veal or lamb. Goat meat from the halal butcher right around the corner? I went with bison instead because I know what bison tastes like, I like it, and I could buy a 1/2 pound without having leftovers. Dilemma number 2 is that I actually am not great at making any dumplings, but I was bound-and-determined not to let the year of the dragon get me on the first day, so I managed to make a dozen, even if some of them are a little misshapen.
Final tidbit of trivia? Buuz are evidently served with ketchup. Yup, ketchup. Because ketchup is a delicacy in Mongolia. Or something. Although I guess that I could see if being a hard thing to get in Ulaanbaatar. Again, this seemed a bit strange to me, so I mixed together my usual dumpling dipping sauce. That wasn’t in the steamer basket when I steamed the buuz; I just put it there for presentation.
So, Happy New Year! May you have a prosperous, happy and healthy year.
Breakfast on a miserable, wet, depressing Friday morning: Puff Pastry Croque Madame! What is a Croque Madame? Well, a Croque Monsieur (literal translation from French: Mr. Crunchy) is a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. A Croque Madame (Mrs. Crunchy!) is a grilled cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top — so a double fancy grilled cheese. I decided to make these open-faced and with store bought puff pastry. And OMG are they good. Light, fluffy, flavorful, pretty in a messy kind of way. And this recipe feeds a crowd (makes 8 and one is really filling; note that the recipes can be halved). It might take a little longer than a grilled cheese, but definitely much much better. Not only breakfast food, this could be lunch with a light salad or part of a brunch spread.
Switching gears, it’s week two of my little “Ingredient game” to keep us motivated during the blah months and up this week as ingredient two is “Eggs”. Pretty broad topic and I promise not to just make breakfast food. Starting off, I made Bacon Ranch Deviled Eggs for lunch today. Just the right amount of ranch (though I’ve heard people say that you can never have enough) and bacon crumbles. Easy to make. Easy to double the recipe for a crowd or a party. Just plain easy.
There are lots of names for these…. (mini) Rösti, Kartoffelpuffer, Reiberdatschi, Latkes, Placki, Potato Pancakes, Hashbrown patties. These are so many many variations and personalizations. While many of them have onions, I use finely sliced red onions (just a little) and I use a very uncommon ingredient: carrots. I like the color and a little bit of sweetness and because they have similar characteristics when it comes to cooking, it works well for me. If you don’t like the carrot idea, leave them out but add 2 more potatoes.
I haven’t done this in a while, but back in the day, Ben and I would use these rösti as the base for Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict, so today I made both smoked salmon and avocado eggs benny with mini-rösti patties. Delicious.