Brown Butter Lemon Pasta

Bon Appetit, March 2020, Issue, Pg. 77

When I think pasta, I think creamy. Creamy, cheesy, gooey carbonara. For some reason, I always forget how good a simple pasta can be. Sunday afternoon, Bee and I sat down and sifted through all my issues of Bon Appetit to pick out this week’s recipes to try. This six-ingredient pasta caught our eye because – 1) it looked easy peasy and 2) I still had way too many leftover lemons from baking a Vegan Lemon Loaf a week ago.

LINK TO RECIPE

Slicing lemons and grating parmesan

My lemons were a little two ripe and it made it hard to get them cut super thinly, but they still tasted delicious either way. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten the rinds cooked like this before, I usually toss them away like any other garnish. This pasta was so butter-y though that it did need that tangy pop of lemon.

Browning lemons and butter in the pan

The recipe called for a short-tube pasta. Unfortunately, with everyone panic-buying pasta, the closest thing I could find was some penne. No problem though, these ended up just the right amount of al dente. Bee was a big fan of the texture – firm and a little chewy.

This is where I fudged up a little. After adding the pasta water to the brown butter, the mix looked so thin and I worried (even though the recipe explicitly told me this would happen and to wait). Instead, I decided to add more parmesan – conveniently forgetting that the parmesan was salty. So oops, a teensy bit over-seasoned.

At the end of the day, still a solid recipe. Probably better if I had listened to directions and possibly gotten the right pasta. That being said, it was still nice to change up the pasta game with something a little zestier. Quick to whip up and so much better than an out-of-the-bottle pasta sauce.

Things I learned:

1. There is such a thing as too much cheese – especially when it’s a salty parmesan

Bee’s Score: 3.5-4 / 5

My Score: 3 / 5

Happy Eating!

Chrissy Teigen’s Pot Pie Soup

Hi friends!

SKIP TO RECIPE

It has literally been a year since my last blog post – oops? What can I say, sometimes life gets away from you. Anyway, hope you’ve all been well and safe, especially in these hard-times. I’m not going to lie, for the first half of this shelter-in-place business, I was doing a lot of takeout and frozen pizzas. I was eating my feelings, don’t judge me. But then, my little sister moved in with me and I figured I should really be feeding her something other than fried chicken. Maybe even a vegetable or two. Coincidentally, we happened to watch Julie & Julia the first week she was here, which made me realize that for all the cookbooks and food magazines that I collect…. I haven’t used a single recipe from one.

So now, I’m on my own Julie & Julia adventure minus the Julia Childs bit and the super aggressive pace. BUT I do want to try making one or two recipes from my cookbooks each week, starting with (surprise surprise) Pot Pie Soup from Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings.

I don’t want to be one of those scroll-for-ten-years-before-you-get-to-the-recipe bloggers, so I’ll try to always post the recipe or share a link right at the top. This seems to be a pretty widely made one, so you don’t have to buy the book to try it.

Full Disclaimer – I cheated. Instead of making the pot pie crackers, I just bought a sheet of puff pastry, cut those into little squares, and popped them in the oven instead. But even without the crackers, this soup was wonderful. It tasted exactly like a pot pie, but a creamier, richer version. Huge fan.

Five-ish years ago, I went to Texas for the first time and the very first meal I had there was a pot pie. It was served in a little dish with a little pocket of crust right on top instead of as a traditional pie. This recipe reminded me so much of that. That trip wasn’t the greatest, but that pot pie sure was. This soup is just as good.

The Good

• Great for meal prep – reheats deliciously!
• Doesn’t take too long to whip up once you’ve got all the ingredients diced up

The Bad

• Little sister ate all my Tums after this. All that butter = heartburn

Has anyone else tried any other recipes from Cravings? Any recommendations? If you’ve made this one, is it worth doing again with the full from-scratch crackers?

Bee’s Score: 2/5 for Heartburn, “Too Creamy”

My Score: 4/5

Happy Eating!

Vietnamese Braised Pork & Eggs | Recipe

My momma is probably one, if not the biggest, reason why I grew up to be such a food addict. Almost all my memories with her growing up took place in the kitchen or around food. She loves to cook. Sure, she had her traditional Vietnamese staples, but she also tried to recreate any dish she enjoyed or found intriguing (thanks Food Network). We had fish tacos every weekend for three months until she was satisfied with her recipe. Ha! But today’s recipe is not one of those. This is actually one of those aforementioned traditional Vietnamese staples. It’s something she would whip together on a regular ‘ole day and it was never a point of excitement as a kid.

Having grown up and moved out, it’s somewhat of a rarity to eat it now. It’s not commonly served in Vietnamese restaurants and definitely not at the trendy ones you can find on the westside. It’s a homecooked family meal through and through. Without further ado, here’s Mama Nguyen’s thịt kho trứng, or in other words, braised pork and eggs.

Ingredients

• 1 – 1 1/2 lb. of fresh pork belly or pork ribs
•  6 to 8 eggs
•  1 can Natural Coconut Flavored Soda (COCO RICO)
•  Salt
• Sugar
• Black pepper
• Cooking oil

Directions

Let’s get cooking!

Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, turn off the heat, but leave the eggs in the pot for another 5 minutes.  Then, place the eggs in a cold water to cool them down. Peel the eggs and use a tooth pick to poke a few holes all around each egg. We want all the delicious seasoning to be able to seep in.

Next, rinse off your cut of pork and pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut the pork into approximately one and a half inch squares. Sprinkle with some salt and black pepper.

Okay, so flip on your stovetop fans or open a window because it’s time to make our caramel! Which inevitably leads to some smoke rising off and if you’re in a teeny tiny Los Angeles apartment like me with the world’s most sensitive smoke alarm, you’ll want to pop a window or two.

Add 1 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp of sugar to the dry pot and cook on high heat, stirring frequently until the sugar melts into a light brown liquid.

Quickly, stir in all the meat so the caramel doesn’t burn on the bottom. Caramel goes from delightful to smoky burnt rather quickly, so if you think you’re going to be a bit slow with the meat, feel free to flip off the heat, stir the meat in, then turn it back up.

When all the pieces of the meat turn light brown,  pour in the full can of coconut soda and two cups of water. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of black pepper and one tablespoon sugar. Cover the pot.

As soon as the pot begins boiling, uncover it and skim away all the white foam off the surface. Add in the eggs and cover the pot once more. Bring the heat back down to low and let the dish simmer for about an hour, hour and a half – or until the water reduces almost to the bottom of the pot. This step largely depends on personal preference. If you like thicker sauce, allow it to cook for longer. Just know that leaner cuts of meat can dry out a little if you do. If you like a thinner, wetter sauce, take it off the heat sooner.

As always, season to taste as you go! This usually is enough for our family of five, so share with friends or you’re set with meal prep for the week. Traditionally, this dish is paired with rice (Mama says nothing beats white rice) and a pickled vegetable dish. Recipes for how to make those coming soon! Until then, happy eating!

Modifications

Keto? Swap out all the sugar for stevia or erythritol and you’ll be good to go. Stick with the fattier pork belly to longer sustenance. You can get diet coco rico or maybe try a coconut flavored sparkling water instead, though you’ll have to up your other sweeteners to compensate for the sugar.

Want it even lower cal? Switch out pork belly for a much leaner cut like the rib or shoulder even.

Want to bookmark on Genius Kitchen? Here you go!