Okay. Time to review this month's dinner recipes.
Italian "Nachos":
Quite frankly, this did not impress me at all. To be fair, I must say that I couldn't get Fontina, and used Gruyère, instead, but I don't think having Fontina would have saved this renamed bruschetta - not that it was bad, only that it wasn't anything special. I would definitely choose the Macaroni Grill Bella Napoli recipe that I posted earlier over this.
Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower:
This was good, but still nothing spectacular. It was somewhat bland, for my taste, and I probably would prefer it with some chipotle pepper powder mashed into it, although I didn't do that this time. My initial taste of this made me think that I was, perhaps, correct in my original guess that the mushroom-sherry sauce had been intended not just for the meatloaf, but for these potatoes, as well, so I went ahead and made the sauce.
Mushroom-Sherry Sauce:
This was good, but I could not find any fresh mushrooms, here, and had to use canned mushrooms. The canned mushrooms, however, did not cook down very much, and I wound up with about THREE cups of sauce that was more like seasoned mushrooms than an actual sauce - hence my earlier question as to whether the recipe had been type correctly or not. Either way, this really helped the potatoes. In fact, since there was so much of it, I also used it to help the Italian "nachos," and it was really good there, as well.
I shall make this again, but shall only use 3/4 cup of the canned mushrooms, so it will be more of a sauce, and so that the flavours are not as diluted by the presence of too many mushrooms.
Thai Chicken Skewer Wraps:
These were absolutely fantastic! I did have to make some substitutions, but WOW! Absolutely, I shall make this again.
As for substitutions, there was really only one, as far as the magazine's recipe was concerned, and that was for the red curry paste. None of the stores, here, had red curry paste. One did have yellow curry paste, but that is quite different, and would have changed the character of the entire dish. In addition, that small jar of yellow curry paste was about $11! Thus, I decided to use this recipe from one of the links I had posted earlier.
The recipe for the paste led to other substitutions, however. Naturally, I used ginger in place of the galangal, and (as the recipe suggested) fresh lime peel in place of the kaffir lime rind. Coriander roots or stems are just cilantro (except that we usually use just the leaves for cilantro) so that was no problem. White peppercorns, however, were nowhere to be found, but I do have a good supply of ground white pepper, so I used a teaspoon of that (it was all going to be ground up in the mortar and pestle, anyway). Finally, the shrimp paste was not available here, and is supposed to be a real pain to make, so a number of other websites suggested substituting anchovy paste or anchovies (although they did say that it would not be as strong a flavour as the shrimp paste). Since anchovy paste wasn't available, either, I used a little bit of canned anchovy. The whole thing was a lot of work in the mortar and pestle, but was worth every bit of it, and I shall definitely be making this again. In fact, since I have some of the red curry paste left over, the dinner I shall be making tonight is "Traditional Thai Red Curry."
Back to the chicken skewers - I almost forgot one other substitution: I couldn't get the specified variety of lettuce, so I used Romaine, instead.
For me, this was the clear winner of this month's dinner recipes, and is the one I shall, most enthusiastically, be making again.
Boston Cream Cupcakes:
As stated when I chose the menu, I elected these in case anyone also wished to make a dessert. Since they had already been discussed in other threads, I left them as optional. In fact, I haven't even made them, myself, yet, but shall do so at some other time.
Italian "Nachos":
Quite frankly, this did not impress me at all. To be fair, I must say that I couldn't get Fontina, and used Gruyère, instead, but I don't think having Fontina would have saved this renamed bruschetta - not that it was bad, only that it wasn't anything special. I would definitely choose the Macaroni Grill Bella Napoli recipe that I posted earlier over this.
Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower:
This was good, but still nothing spectacular. It was somewhat bland, for my taste, and I probably would prefer it with some chipotle pepper powder mashed into it, although I didn't do that this time. My initial taste of this made me think that I was, perhaps, correct in my original guess that the mushroom-sherry sauce had been intended not just for the meatloaf, but for these potatoes, as well, so I went ahead and made the sauce.
Mushroom-Sherry Sauce:
This was good, but I could not find any fresh mushrooms, here, and had to use canned mushrooms. The canned mushrooms, however, did not cook down very much, and I wound up with about THREE cups of sauce that was more like seasoned mushrooms than an actual sauce - hence my earlier question as to whether the recipe had been type correctly or not. Either way, this really helped the potatoes. In fact, since there was so much of it, I also used it to help the Italian "nachos," and it was really good there, as well.
I shall make this again, but shall only use 3/4 cup of the canned mushrooms, so it will be more of a sauce, and so that the flavours are not as diluted by the presence of too many mushrooms.
Thai Chicken Skewer Wraps:
These were absolutely fantastic! I did have to make some substitutions, but WOW! Absolutely, I shall make this again.
As for substitutions, there was really only one, as far as the magazine's recipe was concerned, and that was for the red curry paste. None of the stores, here, had red curry paste. One did have yellow curry paste, but that is quite different, and would have changed the character of the entire dish. In addition, that small jar of yellow curry paste was about $11! Thus, I decided to use this recipe from one of the links I had posted earlier.
The recipe for the paste led to other substitutions, however. Naturally, I used ginger in place of the galangal, and (as the recipe suggested) fresh lime peel in place of the kaffir lime rind. Coriander roots or stems are just cilantro (except that we usually use just the leaves for cilantro) so that was no problem. White peppercorns, however, were nowhere to be found, but I do have a good supply of ground white pepper, so I used a teaspoon of that (it was all going to be ground up in the mortar and pestle, anyway). Finally, the shrimp paste was not available here, and is supposed to be a real pain to make, so a number of other websites suggested substituting anchovy paste or anchovies (although they did say that it would not be as strong a flavour as the shrimp paste). Since anchovy paste wasn't available, either, I used a little bit of canned anchovy. The whole thing was a lot of work in the mortar and pestle, but was worth every bit of it, and I shall definitely be making this again. In fact, since I have some of the red curry paste left over, the dinner I shall be making tonight is "Traditional Thai Red Curry."
Back to the chicken skewers - I almost forgot one other substitution: I couldn't get the specified variety of lettuce, so I used Romaine, instead.
For me, this was the clear winner of this month's dinner recipes, and is the one I shall, most enthusiastically, be making again.
Boston Cream Cupcakes:
As stated when I chose the menu, I elected these in case anyone also wished to make a dessert. Since they had already been discussed in other threads, I left them as optional. In fact, I haven't even made them, myself, yet, but shall do so at some other time.
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?