Tag: Side Dish

Queso Fresco Strawberries: Homemade Queso Fresco Colored with Powdered Beets, Studded with Black Sesame Seeds, and Topped with Basil

Posted February 1, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

It isn’t often that I make a recipe and say, “That was fun! I’ll probably never make it again.” 😆 This is one of those rare recipes: fun, whimsical, easy, and pretty tasty . . . but also a little too “out there” for regular use. I had a feeling that might be the case when I decided to make it for my current blog menu, but I was so intrigued when I read its description in the book MY FINE FELLOW, I couldn’t help but make it!

In MY FINE FELLOW, main character Elijah enters the Royal Culinary Exhibition and makes this recipe as one of his competition dishes. It’s not really meant to be something you’d make at home. Instead, it’s supposed to showcase Elijah’s gourmet cooking skills. The book describes these cheese bites as homemade queso fresco colored with beet powder and dotted with nigella seeds, each with a strawberry stem on top.

I had a LOT of fun puzzling out how to bring a dish like this to life! First, I dried my own beets in my dehydrator and ground them down to a powder. Then I mixed them in with queso fresco I made using a recipe from Goodie Godmother. Rather than dotting the outside with nigella seeds, I decided to use black sesame, which I already had on hand and looks similar. Since strawberries aren’t in season, I topped the finished cheese bites with basil leaves instead of strawberry stems. The final flavor combo was a bit different from the story but still really delicious. I was pleasantly surprised that you could really taste the beets!

While I probably won’t be making beet-dyed, sesame-studded queso fresco strawberries again soon, I DO intend to use the methods I learned again in the future. The basic queso fresco recipe will become part of my regular cheesemaking at home, and I’m looking forward to experimenting with more powdered fruits and vegetables as natural dyes and flavor enhancers.

I’ve been having so much fun learning knew recipes and techniques as I make this menu. It’s been such a refreshing challenge. I can’t wait to see where it takes me next!

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Yorkshire Pudding

Posted November 30, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

When I first decided to make a menu inspired by ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, I knew it had to include Yorkshire pudding. For one thing, the show is set in the Yorkshire Dales. Plus, main character Jim “eats [his] weight in Yorkshire puddings” at the Dobsons’ farm after he helps them out with their cows.

Making Yorkshire pudding is a bit of an art. I wanted to be sure I got it right, so I turned to this recipe from The Spruce Eats. The final results were amazing! The only major change I made was increasing the rest time. When I let the batter rest for several hours like the recipe suggests, I found that the finished puddings had a nice texture but not a strong flavor. I saw some recipes that called for an overnight rest, so I gave that a shot with the same batter as before. The final product was sooo rich and eggy—something special, truly worth the extra time!

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Poe’s Incredibly Soft White Bread

Posted October 5, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

In EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES, a brownie named Poe gifts Emily with bread in exchange for her help. But this isn’t just any bread. This is faerie bread made with magic! Emily describes it as “perfectly golden and soft,” a welcome delicacy when she accidentally offends the nearby villagers, who start giving her burned bread and seaweed relish to eat. Poe’s bread appears frequently throughout the story, so I knew I had to try my hand at this magical loaf.

Almost every time Emily mentions Poe’s bread, she reminds us of how soft it is. This in mind, I hunted for the softest bread recipe I could find and decided on this Asian Milk Bread from A Day in the Kitchen. The recipe requires making a roux, but don’t let that scare you. The dough is still relatively easy to make, doesn’t require hand-kneading, and makes a delightfully soft and fluffy bread. I was nervous when I started, but I found the recipe easy to follow and pretty forgiving.

My kids LOVED this, especially my son, who is a major bread enthusiast. He ate a whole mini loaf for breakfast and ate another for a snack. I think I did Poe proud!

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Sunnmørsbrød: Norwegian Rye Bread

Posted July 20, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

NOTE: I usually post my recipes for each menu in the order you’d eat them during an actual meal (appetizer, entree, side dish, and dessert). I’m doing things a little different this week, since I have something special planned for the entree, but it’s not ready yet. So today we’re doing the side dish instead. On with the show!

One of the great things about food blogging is that it gives me a chance to experiment with with variations on common foods. Loads of classic books prominently feature bread, so I make it all the time. Of course, I don’t want to repeat recipes, which means I’m always on the hunt for a new kind of bread to make. This has led to some delightfully unique bread making experiences. I’ve made Swiss braided bread, Missouri bacon cornbread, and even Brimstone Bread inspired by DRACULA! Since RONIA THE ROBBER’S DAUGHTER is set in a fantasy version of Scandinavia, today I’m trying my hand at sunnmørsbrød, Norwegian rye bread!

Scandinavia boasts many unique, traditional breads like knäckebröd (Swedish crispbread) and rugbrød (a distinctively angular Danish bread). In RONIA THE ROBBER’S DAUGHTER, Ronia’s mother Lovis makes amazing bread, but the book doesn’t say what kind. The only clue is that it’s always referred to as a loaf, which disqualifies all the Scandinavian crispbreads and flatbreads. Luckily, that still leaves lots of yeasted rye breads, so I chose a recipe from the Sunnmøre region of Norway, which I found on Arctic Grub.

This recipe is super easy. It’s also really flavorful, since it uses oat AND three types of flour: white, whole wheat, and rye. It takes on a delightful nutty flavor when toasted. Perfect for slathering in butter and dipping in Lovis’s chicken soup!

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Brambly Hedge Chestnut Soup

Posted June 8, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Over the past several weeks we’ve made Brambly Hedge recipes inspired by summer and autumn—now it’s time for a wintery recipe! In WINTER STORY, the woodland creatures of Brambly Hedge are cozy in their homes enjoying the autumn bounty they stored away when the delight of the first winter snow inspires them to throw a Snow Ball.

This cozy, savory chestnut soup (a variation of one by A Hedgehog in the Kitchen), is just like the one the Toadflax family serves just as the children discover the first snow. It’s super easy and quicker than most soups, and it would pair beautifully with a cottage loaf. I love how strong the rosemary flavor is. It’s the perfect thing for a cold day. Enjoy! 🙂

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Seaweed and Cucumber Salad

Posted March 30, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

There are so many unique foods and ingredients in TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, I couldn’t help but throw a funky recipe in this menu. Seaweed stood out to me in the story because it’s a bit unusual but still pretty easy to source (I got my seaweed at H-Mart, but you can also buy it online).

I decided to make seaweed salad since it pairs well with this menu’s entree: Sesame Soy Tuna Steaks. I made a variation on this sunomono salad recipe from My Kitchen. In my version, I use two types of seaweed–wakame and hijiki–for some added variety in flavor and texture.

This was definitely a fun experience. I highly recommend this salad if you want to experiment with seaweed recipes, since it’s so quick and easy (though I’d make a half batch if you’re not sure you like the flavor of seaweed). I enjoyed the springy bite of the wakame, and I also liked how tangy the cucumbers got after absorbing the dressing. However, after eating this, I decided that cold preparations of seaweed aren’t for me. I love it dried and in soup, but I’m not a fan of the texture when it’s rehydrated and cold.

Luckily, a little dried seaweed goes a long way, so I still have some leftover. I’ve heard it’s great in soups, and I still have some leftover miso and gochujang from making Spicy Eel. Maybe I should make some spicy miso seaweed soup!

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Strange Bun

Posted November 17, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Say hello to the Strange Bun, my latest recipe from the game STARDEW VALLEY! In the game, this recipe is made from void mayonnaise and periwinkle, an appropriately strange combo to be sure. Literally everyone in the game hates them (even the villager who gives you the recipe). I was intrigued by this dish, so I decided to try my hand at making a delicious (but still weird) version.

The in-game recipe thumbnail shows a yellow spiral bun that rises in the center and has red filling, so I knew what my final bun needed to look like. I started with my go-to enriched dough recipe, but I swapped out the egg for mayonnaise. It may sound wild, but mayo has long been known to add fat and complexity to baked goods. In fact, you may have even come across cake recipes that call for mayo.

But what to do about the filling? I loved the idea of adding to the strangeness by making my buns spicy. I decided to make red pepper jam, and since this was my first time making it, I used a recipe by Inquiring Chef and tweaked it to suit my taste. To make the bun higher in the center, I cut the rolled dough into triangles and rolled them from the wide end, baking them in muffin tins to help them keep their shape.

The final product was savory and sweet with a touch of spice. A bit confusing to be sure, but delightfully so. I think if the villagers in STARDEW VALLEY got a chance to try this version, they might change their minds about Strange Buns!

 

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Salad of Beet Root

Posted September 29, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I’m a sucker for a good autumn salad. I’ll take hearty greens, roasted root veg, spiced nuts, soft cheese over a tomato-and-cucumber situation any day. Yet I’ve never had a chance to make one for the blog, so when I saw one mentioned in JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL, I knew my time had come. Plus, I knew a beet salad would go perfectly with the other dishes I had planned for my Strange & Norrell menu—wigg buns with orange marmalade, a honeyed Cornish hen pot pie, and an opulent dessert I’m keeping secret for now. 😉

I added honey to my roasted beets to tie them in with both the pot pie entree and the vinaigrette I drizzled over the salad at the end (a honey Dijon variation on my go-to vinaigrette recipe). I wanted robust, earthy greens that would hold up to the deep flavor of the beets, so I used some kale and beet greens (never pass up a chance to use edible root veg greens in your salad—turnip greens are amazing too!). For salt and crunch, I included some bacon and toasted pine nuts.

An autumn salad craves soft cheese, so I went with goat cheese since it’s appropriate for the English countryside setting. Stilton would be even more appropriate, but I couldn’t get any. Up to this point, my salad is pretty much a standard beet salad, so I wanted something unusual to set it apart. Apricots were the answer to my prayer—sweet enough to brighten up all the other flavors, while rich enough not to get overpowered.

I ate this with my sister after I finished taking pictures, and we absolutely devoured it! In fact, she normally doesn’t like goat cheese, but she loved it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 🙂

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Venison Stew

Posted August 4, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Today we’re making another recipe from MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George! One of my favorite things about this book is that it actually includes simplified recipes for a lot of the foods the main character, Sam, eats over the course of the story. I wanted to make sure to include one of these recipes in my menu, so today we’re making Sam’s venison stew. When explaining how to make one of his meals, he says, “brown puffballs in deer fat with a little wild garlic, fill pot with water, put venison in, boil.” Granted, he doesn’t call it “stew,” but pretty much the only difference between soup and stew is how long you cook it and if/how you thicken it. Venison can be a tough, lean cut of meat, so I think it’s more likely Sam cooked it for quite a while to tenderize it, like you would for stew. Plus, we know he had acorn flour on hand, so he could have used that as a thickener later if he wanted.

I used Sam’s instructions as a jumping off point, but my recipe below has a few more ingredients, ensuring a rich, deep flavor. I used a venison hindquarter roast I got from my dad (my mom says venison steaks would work well too), white button mushrooms (since puffball mushrooms weren’t in season), carrots and potatoes (because what’s a stew without some hearty root veg?), and a whole mess  of herbs and spices. It turned out tender, rich, and hearty—just what Sam would want after a long day of hunting in the Catskill Mountains.

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Pineapple Slaw

Posted June 9, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

Time for more tropical goodness! This recipe is a snap to throw together and includes multiple ingredients mentioned in Swiss Family Robinson: pineapple, cabbage, carrot, and lime. Plus, it’s dotted with cute little carrot hearts. Let’s make some Pineapple Slaw!

Pineapples turn up regularly in Swiss Family Robinson, so even though I used them in my Seared Salmon with Pineapple Mango Chutney, I wanted to use them again. I loved the idea of a cold, fresh side dish to pair with my salmon entree, so I went hunting on Pinterest and found this Hawaiian Slaw recipe from The Skinny Fork. I love that it uses so many ingredients from the book, and it has a touch of gingery, peppery spice to complement the chutney in my entree. Plus, how cute are those little veggie hearts??? I just made a few minor changes to suit what I had in the fridge.

With the weather heating up, this refreshing, sweet-n-spicy side dish is the perfect thing to keep in mind when those sweltering summer days are upon us. Enjoy!

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