Three Free Thursday Part I: Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs with Edamame

Happy Three Free Thursday, Blog Readers!   To recap the process, on the first Thursday, I select three free recipes from sources on Twitter.  On the following Thursday, I report back via blog entry the full results of my adventures in the kitchen and let you know if you should try these recipes at home. Enjoy!

Recipe: Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs

with Edamame

Source: @Real_Simple

Link:http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/chicken-teriyaki-meatballs-edamame-snow-peas-00000000006815/index.html

After the last Three Free Thursday adventure with "Pineapple-Ginger Rice with Edamame", I vowed that I would go back to basic recipes for awhile and simply help my readers find classic recipes to add to their overflowing recipe boxes.  However, after some helpful suggestions from @EatingtheWeek and reading this recipe for "Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs with Edamame", I felt I needed to try again.   

Anyone else think soba noodles
kind of look like brains?
Great Halloween dinner. ;-)

Findings:

The recipe is pretty basic and requires a bit of "re-engineering" - in particular adding different types of vegetables instead of just heaping three cups of snow peas into skillet/wok and incorporating different seasonings.  I tried @EatingtheWeek's brillant ideas - serving the dish over a bed of soba noodles and seasoning with red pepper flakes and/or brown sugar - in a few of my experiments. In the end, I settled on my favorite combination - mini meatballs atop a bed of soba noodles, adding a heaping serving of frozen stir fry vegetables in place of half of the snow peas, adding red pepper flakes and fresh ginger to a doubled amount of soy/brown sugar sauce and chilling overnight. 
After experimenting with this recipe, I did end up enjoying the final meal outcome.  It was particularly good as a cold dish for lunch the following day.  The flavors really deepened overnight and the soba noodles absorbed a bit of the sauce.  I'd suggest that everyone start with the basic recipe and my tips and then experiment with frozen vegetables to tailor the recipe to their taste. Let me know what combination works best for you and yours.

Tips: 

• Serve hot over white/brown long-grained rice or serve cold over soba noodles.
• Replace 1 1/2 cups of snow peas with 1 1/2 cups of frozen stir fry vegetables (thawed) and cook for 3-4 minutes before adding the sauce.
• Double the sauce recipe to better coat the rice (or soba noodles) and add stronger flavor to the dish.
• Make 32 mini meatballs instead of 16 larger meatballs to minimize cooking time.   
• Spice it up! Add a small pinch of red pepper flakes or 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger to soy sauce/brown sugar sauce prior to reduction.

Rating: 3 out of 5  

Thanks for reading Part I of this week's Three Free Thursday! Feel free to send in recipe suggestions for Three Free Thursday on Twitter to @RecipEngineer or by e-mail RecipEngineer@gmail.com

Three Free Thursday Part II: Tuscan Kale with Pine Nuts & Golden Raisins

Happy Three Free Thursday, Blog Readers!   To recap the process, on the first Thursday, I select three free recipes from sources on Twitter.  On the following Thursday, I report back via blog entry the full results of my adventures in the kitchen and let you know if you should try these recipes at home. Enjoy!

Recipe: Tuscan Kale with Pine Nuts & Golden Raisins

Attack of the killer kale!

Source: @Sur_La_Table
Link: http://ht.ly/3Sxyp

People tend to have very strong opinions about kale.  They either shudder at the thought of this slightly bitter, nutrient-filled leafy green or delight in its chameleon-like ability to blend seamlessly into many dishes from savory soups to hearty side dishes.  I knew that some of my readers would skip this blog entry about healthy kale and move directly on to the double chocolate chips cookies - that's fair.  Still, I grew up on kale and it holds a special place in my heart as my Portuguese paternal grandmother's incredible cooking once featured a thick, flavorful kale soup.  The Portuguese are renowned for their kale soup recipes - a mix of kale, potatoes, beans and chourico (Portuguese sausage) - and a winter month never passes without my mother or I crafting a tasty Portuguese Kale Soup for the entire family.

Surprisingly, in my decades of experience with kale, I'd never tried Tuscan kale.  A flat-leafed kale that resembles collards, Tuscan kale is slightly more expensive than traditional curly green and red kale and more difficult to find in standard grocery stores.  I tried this recipe with both Tuscan kale and a mix of curly green/red kale.  The results were rather similar, however the mix of curly green/red kale was much more attractive when plated.  Feel free to substitute any type of kale available at your local grocery store or farmers market into this recipe.

Findings:

Go easy on the garlic! My one complaint with this recipe was the three full cloves of garlic minced and incorporated into this side dish were a bit overwhelming.  To limit the intense garlicky flavor in this side dish, don't add minced garlic.  Instead, crush garlic cloves and toss them into the oil for 1-2 minutes to infuse the oil with garlic flavor.  Remove cloves prior to adding the kale and you'll enjoy the essence of garlic without  the intense after-taste of garlic and ensuing dragon breath.

Once you tone down the garlic, this is a delicious and healthy side dish.  The raisins add a surprising sweet note amidst the slightly bitter garlicky kale and the pine nuts add a nice crunch.  If you are allergic to or severely opposed to pine nuts, omit them or substitute other nuts (like toasted walnuts or pecans).  This side dish works well topped by a simple chicken or pork entree and is an excellent way to get your vitamins in the depths of a dark, cold winter. Enjoy!

Tips: 

• Mix up varieties of kale - curly green and red kale mix is readily available, less expensive and more visually appealing than Tuscan kale.
• Serve immediately - leafy green side dishes wilt and compact quickly as they cool down. 
• Replace golden raisins with dried cranberries for a new twist on this side dish.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Thanks for reading Part II of this week's Three Free Thursday! Feel free to send in recipe suggestions for Three Free Thursday on Twitter to @RecipEngineer or by e-mail RecipEngineer@gmail.com

Three Free Thursday Part III: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Three Free Thursday, Blog Readers!   To recap the process, on the first Thursday, I select three free recipes from sources on Twitter.  On the following Thursday, I report back via blog entry the full results of my adventures in the kitchen and let you know if you should try these recipes at home. Enjoy!

Recipe: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: @Real_Simple
Link:http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/double-chocolate-chip-cookies-10000001046904/index.html

The best way to describe these Double Chocolate Chip Cookies is to say that they are "the cookies".  These are "the cookies" for when you finally realize that "he's just not that into you".  These are "the cookies" for when your lifelong rival gets married/promoted/pregnant before you. These are "the cookies" for a hot Friday night of Lifetime television movies and sweatpants.  Oh yeah, and I guess boyfriends, best friends and co-workers would like these cookies too (if there were any left to share).

I randomly ended up testing this recipe late on a rainy Friday night when friends and I had finally admitted to ourselves that we were not venturing out in the storm to seek Boston nightlife. Instead, I pulled out my mixing bowl and whipped up these treats as we snarkly discussed former classmates and planned a friend's imaginary wedding - good times.  This Double Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is simple (nice work @Real_Simple), but delicious.  The cookies were quickly and neatly in the oven in mere minutes and engulfed my cozy apartment with warm melting chocolate aromas. I'd say the worst part of this recipe was waiting for the cookies to completely cool... but who would ever do something insane like that?

*** Apologies for the blurry photo - these cookies were disappearing too quickly to get good photo quality.  Think of it as live action shot of deliciousness flying off the plate and into my friends' mouths.

Findings:

This Double Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is sensational. The real question regarding this recipe is... why would anyone ever stop at "double chocolate chips" when there are so many other scrumptious chips available to the modern baker? This recipe calls only for semisweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips.  Two very fine options in baking chips, but certainly not the far limits of the baking chip galaxy. Toss in some white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, dark chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or even novelty chips like rainbow chips to take these cookies to another level of decadence.

Fortunately, I had lots of willing taste testers or I would have eaten the full batch of cookies myself.  Taste testers described these cookies as "orgasmic", "the best thing that happened to me this winter" and a other few unmentionable raves and noises as they inhaled the full batch of "Triple" Chocolate Chip cookies containing semisweet/milk/white chocolate chips in under 30 minutes.

Tips:

• Go wild! Add lots of different chocolates! Experiment with various mixes of semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, dark chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or even novelty chips like rainbow chips.
• Make a double batch - your friends will thank you and describe you to everyone they meet on the streets of Boston as the best baker ever! Seriously, your friends will purchase MBTA ads to share their appreciation of your baking skills with their fellow passengers on the Red Line. (For my readers outside of Beantown, this is a good thing... well except for the riding the subway part... just kidding... mostly). 

Rating: 5 out of 5  

Thanks for reading Part III of this week's Three Free Thursday! Feel free to send in recipe suggestions for Three Free Thursday on Twitter to @RecipEngineer or by e-mail RecipEngineer@gmail.com

Three Free Thursday Part III: Homemade Donuts

Happy Three Free Thursday, Blog Readers! This is the second entry of my new biweekly "Three Free Thursday" blog entries.  To recap the process, on the first Thursday, I select three free recipes from sources on Twitter.  On the following Thursday, I report back via blog entry the full results of my adventures in the kitchen and let you know if you should try these recipes at home. Enjoy!

Recipe: Homemade Donuts
Source: @SeriousEats
Link: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1epWL1/www.seriouseats.com/2011/01/how-to-make-the-easiest-doughnuts-donuts-from-pillsbury-biscuits-homemade.html

Girl walks into Grocery Store with five dollars.  Girl walks out of Grocery Store... with five dollars. Girl walks into Grocery Store #2... with five dollars.  Girl walks out of Grocery Store #2... with five dollars.  Girl walks into Grocery Store #3 with five dollars... Girl... well I think you see where this is going...

In the end, I tried four major grocery stores and four convenience stores/local markets and never found pre-made biscuit dough.  Amazed? So am I! Where has all the pre-made biscuit dough gone? I found tubes of cookie dough in chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter, sugar, butter, oatmeal chip and more.  I found pre-made brownie dough, pre-made cookie pie dough, pre-made croissant dough and pre-made cinnamon roll dough.  I never found pre-made biscuit dough.  Throughout the week, my quest for pre-made biscuit dough began to grow as an urban kitchen legend.  Co-workers and friends inquired and joked about my epic quest.  Some even tried to help me find the elusive biscuit dough, but by Three Free Thursday, there was still no pre-made biscuit dough.

Feeling like a blogging failure, I struggled to figure out how to make these "simple" donuts without pre-made biscuit dough.  Ultimately, the RecipEngineer got back in her car and drove back to Grocery Store #8... and bought the pre-made cinnamon roll dough.  Below are my findings:

Findings:

Well obviously, as carnivals world-wide know, you can fry any dough. Using pre-made cinnamon roll dough has its' pros and cons. 

Pros: No buttermilk taste - although I was never able to test the pre-made biscuit dough, I had serious reservations about donuts made with buttermilk dough. The cinnamon roll dough is nicely speckled with pockets of cinnamon. Cinnamon roll dough also comes with pre-made icing, which is a perfect glaze (if applied while donuts are hot) or frosting (if applied after donuts cool).

Cons: The cinnamon topping on each pre-made cinnamon roll immediately falls off in the hot oil and causes the oil and thus the donuts to darken significantly.  Donuts resembled cider donuts more than golden-colored old-fashioned donuts.  If you want golden-colored donuts, be sure to chip off cinnamon topping prior to adding donuts to the hot oil.

Overall, these donuts were tasty and ridiculously quick to prepare.  I tried out the recipes for plain and chocolate glaze, which were a little misleading.  You'll want to add the confectioner's sugar slowly to control thickness of the glaze - if you prepare the glaze per the recipe instructions, it is too intensely thick and overly sweet. The best topping for these donuts - a simple mix of granulated sugar and cinnamon.  I'd consider making these donuts for a quick, sweet breakfast treat for myself or a casual group of friends. However, if you were throwing a more organized brunch, I'd skip these recipe and just pick up donuts from your favorite bakery.  No one wants their kitchen smelling of leftover vegetable oil during an elegant brunch.

Tips:

• Don't agonize over finding the perfect 1" cookie cutter to cut donut holes. A sharp paring knife works just fine to cut donut holes.  Fix any irregularly-shaped holes by hand.
• Be careful not to leave donuts in the hot oil for more than 2 minutes (or 1 minute for donut holes). They tend to overcook very quickly.

Rating: 3 out of 5  

Thanks for reading Part III of this week's Three Free Thursday! Feel free to send in recipe suggestions for Three Free Thursday on Twitter to @RecipEngineer or by e-mail RecipEngineer@gmail.com

Three Free Thursday Part II: Pineapple-Ginger Rice with Edamame

Happy Three Free Thursday, Blog Readers! This is the second entry of my new biweekly "Three Free Thursday" blog entries.  To recap the process, on the first Thursday, I select three free recipes from sources on Twitter.  On the following Thursday, I report back via blog entry the full results of my adventures in the kitchen and let you know if you should try these recipes at home. Enjoy!

Recipe: Pineapple-Ginger Rice with Edamame
Source: @WholeFoods

Link: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2679

Let me start by saying, "miso" disappointed.  Sorry - I really couldn't help myself.  Honestly, this recipe truly let me down.  I love pineapple and ginger and edamame, so it seemed impossible that combining these tasty ingredients wouldn't create a perfect side dish (or meal by adding chicken or tofu). Things began well enough as I chopped and measured ingredients and the warm aroma of ginger engulfed my kitchen.  As I added the miso to the simmering vegetable broth and ginger, I immediately realized that there was scarcely enough liquid in my pan. For the 4 cups of brown rice listed in the recipe, less than a cup off liquid was not going to be enough to coat the rice in miso/ginger taste.   Proportions were a significant issue throughout this recipe.

Pineapple also turned out to be a dilemma for this cook.  My local grocery store (not be named, but it  "might" be listed somewhere in this blog entry) tried to charge me $5.99 for a single, scrawny pineapple.  While I am all for free trade, a five dollar mark-up from other vendors this week seems outrageous.  Since pineapple costs can be an issue throughout the year, I tried the rice with both canned and (a less expensive)fresh pineapple to determine if canned pineapple was a suitable alternative.  Surprisingly, the canned pineapple performed significantly better than the fresh fruit.  The consistency of the texture and sweetness of the canned pineapple works well in this recipe.

Attack of the killer edamame!

 Findings:

This recipe is better in concept than in execution.  The combination of flavors seems perfect, but the outcome of the dish was seriously lacking.  Within minutes of serving, the pineapple juice leached into nearby rice creating a soggy contrast between sweet and savory.  The flavor of the ginger and miso was barely present in the rest of the pre-cooked rice. Edamame overwhelmed the dish as the recipe called for two cups of edamame to pair with the four cups of brown rice. Without added salt, edamame tends to have a bland taste, so they added very little to the flavor of the dish. This dish also re-heated poorly with the rice clumping together and the edamame shriveling up during reheating.

Tips:

• Feel free to use canned pineapple instead of fresh pineapple if necessary.

• Cook brown rice in the boiling ginger-miso vegetable broth liquid to infuse rice with flavor.

• Don't mix ingredients ahead of time - assemble quickly and serve immediately to avoid pineapple juice from oversweetening rice.

• To serve as a main dish, add a healthy serving of grilled tofu or shredded chicken.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Thanks for reading Part II of this week's Three Free Thursday! Feel free to send in recipe suggestions for Three Free Thursday on Twitter to @RecipEngineer or by e-mail RecipEngineer@gmail.com

Three Free Thursday Part I: 30-Minute Meatloaf

Happy Three Free Thursday, Blog Readers! This is the second entry of my new biweekly "Three Free Thursday" blog entries.  To recap the process, on the first Thursday, I select three free recipes from sources on Twitter.  On the following Thursday, I report back via blog entry the full results of my adventures in the kitchen and let you know if you should try these recipes at home. Enjoy!

Recipe: 30-Minute Meatloaf
Source: @TestKitchen
Link: http://www.cookscountry.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=3658&bdc=43896

I hate meatloaf. Wow - it feels really good to get that off my chest after decades of suppressing my disgust towards these dry bricks of ground meat masquerading themselves as comfort food.   A meatloaf is either a perfect Stepford-like square loaf that cuts in solid, tasteless slices or an uneven humped hot mess with bits of aluminum foil clinging to its burnt bottom bits. And a meatloaf doesn't last just one meal.  Meatloaf lives on for days as hot, dry leftovers and disgustingly solid cold sandwiches.  Meatloaf may be the worst thing that ever happened to sliced bread. I hate meatloaf.

So why make meatloaf for Three Free Thursday?  First, I aspire for Three Free Thursday blog entries to shake all of us (myself included) out of our usual cooking and eating ruts. Also, I trust @TestKitchen and appreciate their thorough means and methods of recipe testing and recipe writing.  Mainly, it was the challenge of "30-Minute Meatloaf".  I have a love/hate relationship with simplified recipes.  Simplified recipes tend to over-simplify by severely limiting ingredients and minimizing important cooking steps. I personally love dicing and peeling vegetables, using fresh herbs and slowly roasting meats. 

Armed with a hatred of meatloaf and wariness of simplified recipes, I put this recipe to the test.  After a full day of work, followed by an hour of GroupPower gym lifting class, I arrived at my kitchen counter with tired, achy muscles and a cranky attitude. The perfect remedy for my maladies - crushing Saltines.  While others might efficiently pulse the crackers in a food processor, I prefer to crush the Saltines by hand.  The best therapy is watching weak crackers cower in a little, clear sandwich bag while I repeatedly pound them into crumbs.

Findings:

The 30-Minute Meatloaf was the perfect weeknight comfort food.  Every step of the recipe looks and smells delicious.  The meatloaf mix included the usual suspects - fragrant fresh parsley and savory Worcestershire sauce - but utilize garlic and onion powders to speed up the prep work. You honestly won't notice the lack of onions or minced garlic at all.  The recipe produces four hearty meal servings, which is perfect so that you aren't saddled with tons of leftovers.  Great "prep ahead" instructions in the recipe suggest completing the recipe up to forming the loaves and then wrapping up the loaves tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight and then thaw for 20 minutes before adding to the skillet.

Added bonus, I completed the recipe in just over 30 minutes (and that includes a "few" wine and Tweet breaks).  Serve with mashed sweet potatoes & steamed green vegetable for a  tasty, nutrient-rich meal. Turns out, I'm a "30-Minute Meatloaf" believer! Thanks @TestKitchen.

Tips:

• Take the time to form the loaves well.  You want consistent cooking and good cohesion when handling the loaves.
• Transfer loaves for skillet to broiler plate VERY carefully to avoid breaking up loaves.
• Save the extra glaze for leftovers.  It is delicious - a sweet alternative to boring ketchup.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Thanks for reading Part I of this week's Three Free Thursday! Feel free to send in recipe suggestions for Three Free Thursday on Twitter to @RecipEngineer or by e-mail RecipEngineer@gmail.com