Category: Dinner

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From the Skinny Taste air fryer cookbook

Made this tonight, from the Skinny Taste air fryer cookbook, because Kev got us an air fryer a while back and I figured I should learn how to use it. This was good, but dang, white people food makes a lot of mess to cook. So many dishes! And then you need utensils to eat it too…

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Sri Lankan dinner for twelve

I might’ve done a lot of cooking today. Sri Lankan dinner for twelve. Other people helped shop and chop and did all the dishes while I was cooking, and all the cleanup afterwards. It was actually a lot of fun — it’s been a while since I had time to cook like this. I love composing a complex meal, and even dealing with restricted ingredients can add a fun challenge.

AND I finished a story draft today. Today gets an A+ on the personal front.

Menu:
• cheese and chutney (from a jar) and crackers
• mango-passionfruit mimosas
• red samba milk rice
• basmati rice
• seared ahi tuna, seasoned with a marinade of green chili, onion, and pink Hawaiian sea salt (this was an experiment, turned out well)
• local beef (from a family farm) curry
• tempered red lentils (one guest liked it so much, she took a photo of the recipe in my cookbook)
• egg curry
• eggplant and date curry (no tamarind easily found nearby, but dates worked well in a complementary sort of way)
• papaya and pineapple curry (v. popular)
• kale salad
• cucumber salad
• yogurt (okay, I didn’t cook this, but it was on the table, so)
• vanilla ice cream and store-bought cookies — in theory, I was going to make fruit salad, but ran out of energy, alas. But the papaya-pineapple curry was actually really good / interesting on the ice cream!

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Beef Smoore with Brisket

Tried an experiment tonight — usually when I make Sri Lankan Beef Smoore, I use chuck. But brisket was on sale (half the price of steak), and I couldn’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work — just maybe take a little longer, so I’d need to start a little earlier? So I tried it, and it was good. It’s not quite as sliceable as chuck, which usually ends up with a roast beef kind of consistency — when you slice this, it shreds some. Yet I didn’t cook it so long that you can easily use two forks to shred it the way you might normally with brisket. (Maybe another 30 minutes would have gotten it there.) So it ended up a texture that’s sort of neither one or the other…but a deliciously tasty texture, easy to eat with your hand. Kevin did fine with a fork. 🙂 I spent most of the day hauling stuff around the house in a big re-org, and stayed up most of last night nursing Kavi (so tired!), so I wasn’t really up to cooking anything else. But I’m thinking I’ll save this to put out at the potluck we’re hosting on Sunday (Kavi is FINALLY on the mend from her traveller’s bug, so we should be an illness-free house by Saturday, knock wood!), and tomorrow I’ll make a veg. or two to go with it. It could use a cabbage & coconut mallung, or a bright carrot pickle, or a fresh kale sambol… Recipe is in my Feast of Serendib cookbook. This took 2 hrs marinating time + 2 hr 15 min. simmering time. You can also cook it in an Instapot to speed things up — link below.
Instant Pot Beef Smoore
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We divvied up the Thanksgiving dishes

We divvied up the Thanksgiving dishes pretty well this year. I made the turkey and cornbread-sausage stuffing and mango fluff. Kevin made the mashed potatoes and Caesar salad. Kev and I made the artichoke dip. Kavi, Kev, and I made the eggplant parmesan (somewhat random last-minute addition that Kavi learned how to make in her culinary class, delicious). Kavi made the crescent rolls. Nara brought the green bean casserole and Daniel brought the pumpkin custard pie. I forgot to put out the cranberry jelly, but it’ll be around for sandwiches tomorrow.

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Chipotle & Pepper Corn Bread-Sausage Stuffing

I’m hosting an indeterminate number of people for Thanksgiving in two days, haven’t planned the menu or prepped at all, and I am totally chill about it. This is either maturity or complete mental exhaustion. 🙂 I will definitely be making my sausage-cornbread-chipotle stuffing, because I invented it and I love it. Photos from 2017, so Kavi is probably about 10?

Chipotle & Pepper Corn Bread-Sausage Stuffing

(30 minutes (plus 30 minutes for making the cornbread), serves 8.)
      • 4 c. cornbread, crumbled (best if made with chopped green chilies and whole corn (frozen works fine, thaw and drain); I just use two boxes of Jiffy for the cornbread)
      • 1 large onion, chopped
      • a little oil for frying
      • 2 lbs. mild Italian sausage (turkey sausage also works, less rich)
      • 1 c. white wine
      • 3 large bell peppers (red, orange, yellow), chopped
      • 1 can chipotles, chopped (buy canned chipotles and use the sauce they’re in — if you want it less spicy, reduce how much sauce you put in)
      • 1 t. salt
      • a few grinds black pepper
      • 1 c. chicken broth
    1. Make cornbread according to box directions.
    2. Sauté (on medium-high) the onions in the oil until golden.
    3. Add the sausage and sauté until cooked through and browned. De-glaze pan with wine.
    4. Add the bell pepper and sauté until soft.
    5. Add the chipotles in sauce, salt and pepper and stir well.
    6. Break up and stir in cornbread.
    7. Stir in broth.