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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Helena’s Jägerschnitzel

Posted January 18, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Today we’re continuing our international menu of dishes inspired by MY FINE FELLOW with Helena’s jägerschnitzel recipe!

In the beginning of the book, Helena asks Penelope to taste test three different versions of jägerschnitzel to guess which is the most authentic. One version uses venison, the second uses boar, and the third (the authentic one) uses pork. Every version sounded delicious, but since things like venison and boar are harder to source, I decided to make the authentic version as the entrée for my MY FINE FELLOW menu.

I don’t have a go-to recipe for jägerschnitzel (especially not one I would consider super authentic), so I went internet hunting. I really like this recipe from All Tastes German because it uses all the ingredients referenced in Helena’s recipe (including the red wine), and the post offers lots of details about the dish’s background and regional variations.

The final dish turned out AMAZING. I was actually a little nervous, since I’d never eaten jägerschnitzel before and the recipe calls for coating the pork cutlet in a mustard/paprika mix before breading it (mustard and I have a tenuous relationship). After the schnitzel and mushroom sauce were plated, I took a small taste just to make sure the recipe turned out . . . then plopped myself down at the table and ate a whole serving! The fried pork and mushroom sauce complement each other so well—a savory, salty, satisfying combo—and I was pleasantly surprised by the mustard. It’s not super strong, instead lending a subtle complexity to the pork. It wound up being my favorite part of the whole dish!

I will DEFINITELY be making this again soon! 🙂

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Faraway Pasties: Elijah’s Empanadas

Posted January 4, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

 

 

Welcome to a new year! May your 2024 be filled with joy, adventure, and (of course) lots of delicious food—just like the inspiration for today’s menu, a delightful book I read last year called MY FINE FELLOW.

MY FINE FELLOW is a gender-swapped version of MY FAIR LADY with a few other notable changes. In this version, instead of a phonetics professor passing off a flower seller as a fine lady at a ball, a young pair of gentlewoman chefs hope to pass off a talented street food vendor as a gentleman chef. Naturally, the book is full of delicious food, and since the main characters come from a mix of cultural heritages, many of the dishes come from around the world. Reading about so many creative dishes ignited my imagination, and I relished the idea of starting the new year with a challenging menu. So here we go!

Today I’m making one of the book’s most iconic recipes: Faraway Pasties. These are Elijah’s signature dish, which catch the attention of Helena and Penelope, setting off a chain of events that lead to Elijah competing in the Royal Culinary Exhibition. Throughout Penelope’s first conversation with Elijah, we get little bits of info about the pasties—enough for us to know that Elijah’s Faraway Pasties are fried Salvadoran empanadas with paprika mixed into the masa dough and filled with beef, potato, and oregano. They sounded SO good, so I knew they had to be the first dish in this menu.

I’m very new to making empanadas, so for today’s post I combined recipes from Jonathan Melendez and Hank Shaw, making a few tweaks for the sake of accuracy to the story. Oh man did they turn out good! They were a huge hit with my kids. My son loved the crisp fried masa dough exterior, and my daughter especially enjoyed the savory, beefy filling. They ate a half batch in one sitting!

I can just imagine how satisfying one of these empanadas would be on a cold, rainy night at the Convent Garden Market, just like when Penelope eats them at the beginning of the story!

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Mrs. Hall’s Shortbread

Posted December 14, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

 

 

A meal inspired by ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL can only end with this dessert: Mrs. Hall’s shortbread! Although Mrs. Hall is known for dozens of delicious dishes, her shortbread is iconic. In fact, PBS even published an official recipe for these cookies! Naturally, that’s the recipe I used in today’s post (though I did spruce it up a tiny bit with a cookie mold!). The snowflake cookie mold used here is made by House on the Hill and was gifted to me by a family friend. This was my first time using a cookie mold, but it was super easy and fun. Definitely planning on using it again to make make Christmas cookies later this month.

I love how the finished cookies turned out. They’re super buttery, and the snowflake pattern shows up perfectly! My husband and son are especially big fans. Three cheers for Mrs. Hall and her shortbread! 😀

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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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Tristan’s Mini Shepherd’s Pie

Posted November 16, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

 

 

Today’s recipe from ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL is inspired by my favorite character—Tristan! In the show, Tristan is the younger brother of local veterinarian Siegfried Farnon. He is first presented as a potential rival for fellow vet Jim, but the two soon become friends and frequently get each other into (and, thankfully, out of) mischief. Tristan’s character arc is so heartwarming. Watching him grow from an impish flirt into a responsible, empathetic young man (all while maintaining his signature sense of humor) is one of the highlights of the show.

Today we’re making individual shepherd’s pie, which Tristan makes for the housekeeper, Mrs. Hall, to welcome her home after she’s had an emotionally exhausting day. Since this episode was Tristan’s first time cooking, I kept my recipe simple: ground beef and mixed vegetables simmered in beef stock with onions and herbs, topped with mashed potatoes. I made my favorite mashed potatoes for the top: red potatoes coarsely mashed and mixed with garlic and cream cheese. Divine!

This is such a comforting, satisfying dish, exactly what Mrs. Hall would need after a hard day. I hope you enjoy it too!

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Skeldale House Sausage Rolls

Posted November 2, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I’ve been craving comforting TV shows for the past few months. I’ve had lots of health issues lately, and it’s got me feeling weary in body and soul. When I feel like this, I just want to curl up on the couch and watch something cozy. For me, peak comfort television is ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL. It’s a PBS Masterpiece show about a Yorkshire countryside veterinary practice in the 1930s-40s (based on the memoir of the same name). I just rewatched all three seasons, and the lovable characters, wholesome story, and cute farm animals soothed me to the depths of my heart. Season Four recently released in Britain, but since I’m in the U.S., I have to wait until January. As I eagerly await Season 4, I’m biding my time by making a menu inspired by all the delicious food in the show.

Today’s recipe is sausage rolls, a staple appetizer at every Skeldale House Christmas party. Since the show’s season finales are always set during Christmas, sausage rolls appear in each one. Sausage rolls are especially prominent in the season three finale, where Jenny desperately tries to force a plate of rolls on Gerald to keep him from leaving the party early.

The filling for these sausage rolls is heavily inspired by Rapunzel’s Braided Pastries in my e-cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC. However, I also took a lot of inspiration from this Jamie Oliver recipe, since I wanted the rolls to be authentically British.

They turned out AMAZING. I love a good sausage roll, and these are top tier (if I do say so myself! 😉).

P.S. If you haven’t read the memoir the show is based on, I highly recommend it. My husband got it for me as a birthday present a couple years ago, and it’s sooo good!

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Glazed Mini Cakes

Posted October 19, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

Today I’m bringing my EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES menu to a close with the iconic mini cakes the Ljoslanders serve throughout the story. This dainty dessert is sometimes described as being spiced and sometimes as being glazed, but it’s ALWAYS delicious. What’s most intriguing to me is that both the humans and the faeries eat variations of this dish, making it a regional delicacy that spans species and dimensions.

I couldn’t find any recipes for mini cakes specific to Ljosland (or Norway, where Ljosland is located), but I did find recipes for Swedish mini almond cakes. I combined recipes from Food and Journeys and Adrian Roselli to make the cakes below, topping them with a simple powdered sugar glaze to make them true to the story.

These cakes were a fun new experience for me. I had never used almond paste in a cake batter before, but I love the effect it had on the final product. The cakes were fluffy and soft in the middle with a firmer exterior, very nutty, and delicately sweet.

Needless to say, my kids gobbled these up. They’re great for feeding a crowd if you want something a little different from standard cupcakes or cookies. They’re also an amazing gift if you want to thank a professor for reviving the ancient tree in which you’ve made your faerie home. 😉

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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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