Buttered Salmon with Red Onion and Dill by Alison Roman

True story: this salmon deserves all the hype it’s been getting. 

Instead of the oil poach method, this fish is cooked in the oven, topped with browned butter and some olive oil, slightly frizzled red onions and lemons, and drained capers. It’s plenty briney and tangy, but still rich from the butter. Alison encourages topping the finished salmon with a mountain of dill. The earthy herb presence is not only pretty, but balances the acidic and fatty elements in the dish nicely. Oh, and don’t forget that flaky sea salt! 

thicker cut of salmon

I’ve made this twice now with different cuts of salmon. A thicker cut of salmon takes longer to cook (obviously) and required some basting to keep the whole piece of fish equally tender. A BBQ cut of salmon, much thinner, only took 12 minutes, and the skin became slightly crispy. When I make this again (which I will do, because it’s really good), I’ll choose a thinner cut, and try searing the skin at the end in a cast iron to get an even crispier result. I’m not sure if that will work, but it’d be worth a try. 

This is my third Alison salmon recipe - I have just one more to go. Once I make that fourth and final salmon recipe, I’d like to write up a power ranking of the four recipes based on this criteria: fussiness, fishy texture, and overall deliciousness. Am I missing any criteria? Please let me know! 

thinner, BBQ cut salmon

52 recipes cooked, 173 to go.

Black Lentils with Crispy Garlic and Labne by Alison Roman

In my last post about lentils, I said there were more stories to be told, more memories to share, about these pebble-like grains. For some reason, all my thoughts of lentils are very clear. Perhaps more than any other food, lentils have appeared in very specific moments of college and early adulthood where I felt a shift or a change in my world view. I can look back on each one and think, oh that was the day when I realized ___.  Writing about these moments seems like a valuable exercise, if only to practice remembering them for myself. 

Last time I shared my very first lentil experience (it was not a good first impression). There’s a gap in my memory of lentils between that winter lentil dinner and this next lentil encounter, so I’ll just assume I didn’t eat any lentils between January 2013 and January 2017. 

Sophia & Mark

happy pals, tired pals

On New Year’s Day 2017, I boarded a long flight from Chicago to Kigali, Rwanda. My dear friends Amy and Margaret, and I, along with our acting professor and his daughter, journeyed to this small, resilient country to teach a 3-week theater course to a group of middle and high school students. Our other dear friend Sophia lived in Rwanda and taught full-time at a school there. She graciously invited us to join her for this theater-intensive course wherein we would work with the students to devise a musical, based on a beloved children’s story called “You are Special.” It was an opportunity to not only use our storytelling skills, but also experience the country that Sophia loves so much. 

I could write many essays about our experiences there, the things we taught and the things taught to us, but that’s not what you’re here for. Instead, lentils. Lentil soup, to be exact. 

This was lentils’ turning point, there in that Rwandan kitchen with tiled flooring and bright blue walls. On one of our first nights, Sophia offered to cook us a pot of lentil soup for dinner. In addition to lentils, the soup also had angel hair pasta, carrots, tomatoes, onions, and various spices thrown in to simmer over the stove. In opposition to my last bowl of lentils, this soup spent a lot of time simmering, letting the lentils soften and the flavors meld together. Sophia is someone who deeply resists the urge to rush. I could taste her care in each bite.  

Margaret, Amy and I have all tried recreating this soup in the years since that trip, always with the intention of reliving our experience in Rwanda. I’m sure we’ve each gotten close, but no bowl will ever compare, for me at least, to the bowl that Sophia made for me in her home in Kigali on a warm January night. That night I was reminded of how much I need other people, and how that can be a blessing. 

If you’re still wondering about Alison’s lentils, I’ll say that they were delicious and simple. The recipe made wayyy too many lentils for just two people to eat - so I’ll call this one good for hosting others. The dish consists of black lentils cooked al dente and tossed with lemon juice, zest and cilantro. On top of the lentils, you can add a large dollop of labne (or goat’s milk yogurt if you’re me) and some frizzled garlic and shallots. Next time I make this, I’ll cut the lentil portion in half, but keep the same amount of garlic/shallot/labne.

51 recipes cooked, 174 to go.

Slightly Sticky Walnuts with Sesame and Sumac by Alison Roman

The first 20 recipes in nothing fancy fall under the “Snack Time” category, and this was the first one I’ve made. I love snacks, so why did it take me 3 months to dabble in this category? I think because my ideal snack and Alison’s ideal snack aren’t super aligned.. 

Alison likes fishy snacks like trout roe on toast and anchovies with potato chips. Alison reaches for bowls of fancy olives and sesame dips. She appreciates a good shrimp cocktail. While I’ll eventually have to try all of those things, and may even like some of them, they’re not what I crave when I want a tasty snack to perk up my afternoon. I like pickles and tortilla chips. I want a tangerine or a bowl of honey-mustard pretzels. 

Another snack I can totally get behind are flavored, roasted nuts. Alison and I absolutely agree on that. So enter these slightly sticky walnuts! 

These walnuts are a quick, easy, and super tasty snack that’s fancy enough to appear at a party and humble enough to be an ordinary day treat. 

To make these tasty walnuts, toss 4 cups of raw walnut pieces in maple syrup, tahini, olive oil, raw sesame seeds, a pinch of cayenne, and salt and pepper. Bake the nuts on a baking sheet and parchment paper for 20 minutes at 325. As soon as they’re a golden brown and removed from the oven, sprinkle with flaky salt and ground sumac. 

The result is a good balance of salty and sweet, and a fun crunch from the nuts and sesame seeds. They’re addicting. If these nuts are any indication of how I’ll like the other snack time recipes, then good times are yet to come.

50 (!) recipes cooked, 175 to go.

Everyone's Favorite Celebration Cake by Alison Roman

My 28th birthday was magical… 

(Shameless plug: If you want to hear about ALLLL the magic, you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter. It’s short and hopefully entertaining, and arrives just in time for your Saturday morning coffee. Subscribe here.)

One of the many magical events of my birthday weekend was having our two favorite couple friends over to celebrate. For this event, I felt it only fitting to make Alison’s Celebration Cake: a three-tiered yellow cake with chocolate/sour cream frosting and rainbow sprinkles. And yes, I did convert it to a Gluten-free recipe! Tips for doing so are below.

I’ll admit that I’ve never considered myself a baker. Baking is fussy and requires precision. People say baking is pure science, and since I am historically terrible at that subject, I assumed I’d fail at baking, too. I used to tell people that I was capable of messing up a box of brownie mix. (Which is true, I’ve done so more than once.)  I’m working on my baking confidence though. I received a Kitchen Aid mixer as a wedding gift, and you can’t have one of those giant, heavy machines and not attempt to use it. This project alone requires me to bake at least 30 times. But a three-tiered cake -- now, that made me nervous. I went down a dark mental road and imagined it toppling over several times. Which turned this into a moment when I had to test my theory that good things happen when passion and risk join forces. So without further ado… cake.

First step was to make all three tiers of the yellow cake and let them cool completely. I won’t bore you with the steps of making the cake batter, but I will tell you how I made it GF. Using the steps below, I truly could not tell what the difference would be between my GF version and the real deal. Similar to the method I used for the Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake, I: 

• Swapped regular All-Purpose flour with Gluten-free All-Purpose flour, using a 1:1 ratio 

• Added 1.5 tsp. of Xanthum gum (½ tsp. per cup of flour)

• Used 2 additional eggs: 7 whole eggs instead of just 5 eggs, in addition to 3 egg yolks

I used my scale to distribute the batter evenly between the cake pans as best I could. The cakes bake for about 40 minutes, swapping two of the pans halfway through so that each one has some time on the top rack. Once they are golden brown and pulling away from the sides, they can rest on a rack to cool completely. 

The frosting is made of only 5 ingredients: 12 oz. melted bittersweet chocolate, 2 sticks of butter, powdered sugar, sour cream, and a dash of salt. Whip them together until they’re impossibly fluffy, and you’ll have frosting that looks and feels like it came straight from a canister. I’ll admit that this frosting is VERY rich. Delicious, but perhaps slightly too much for me. And for some reason, it tasted more mellow on the second and third days. 

Assembling and frosting the cake was the part I was most nervous about. However, Alison provides a guide on “How to Casually Frost a Cake,” which basically encourages playing fun music, sipping rosé and acting like the whole affair is purely a fun activity. Which in hindsight seems like a no brainer. But I do struggle with taking myself too seriously, so this was a welcomed reminder. 

I learned about a crumb layer through this recipe. It’s essentially the first layer of frosting applied to a cake. You know the time you frosted a cake as a kid and it felt like you were just smearing loose crumbs all over the surface with the frosting? A crumb layer allows for that to happen, because you can refrigerate the cake after the crumb layer, allowing the cake to settle and firm up before applying the second, and more decadent layer of frosting -- the layer that won’t have any crumbs. (However, I didn’t have any problems with crumbs in either layer, which I think is due to how thoroughly my cakes had cooled by this point.)

The last step was to apply copious amounts of rainbow sprinkles. For the sides, I basically had to toss sprinkles at them like confetti and pray that they stuck. Which means that these sprinkles went E-VER-Y-WHERE. At one point, Jordan had the brilliant idea of moving the whole operation to our balcony. We stood in the cold wind and chucked double-fisted handfuls of sprinkles at the cake like all-star pitchers. 

I may still be vacuuming up sprinkles from my carpet one week later, but this cake was totally worth it. The awe-factor of cutting into it and seeing those three straight layers of cake emerge was super satisfying. Like I said, the cake and frosting were rich, but boy were they delicious.

49 recipes cooked, 176 to go.

Butcher’s Steak with Dried Chiles and Salted Peanuts by Alison Roman

I appreciate when a single recipe creates an entire meal. There are days when I don’t mind flipping between pages to follow three separate recipes to make three separate dishes simultaneously. But most days, I just want to look at one page and end up with everything I need to feed and satisfy the people at my table, which is usually just J and I. 

This recipe contains instructions for two key components: the salsa and the steak. But it also gives plenty of fabulous ideas for sides and fixings, including some helpful quick tips that I will be using for all kinds of future taco nights. 

The salsa. Generally speaking, I’m a salsa verde type of gal. I’m incapable of turning down tomatillos and lime. But this dried chile salsa is made from red chiles, New Meican and Guajillo chiles to be exact. (FYI, Whole Foods is rather reliable for their dried chile selections, if you have a hard time finding some.) First step is to remove the stems of the chiles and toast them with garlic and oil in a small pot. However, every time I’ve cooked with dried chiles, I find a layer of dried dirt hidden in some of the chile crevices. I have yet to see a recipe or a package instruction that says to wipe off said dirt, which sort of flummoxes me. But you’ve heard it from me, look out for the dirt and use a lightly dampened paper towel to clean the chiles before cooking with them. 

Once the chiles and garlic are toasty, the nuts get tossed into the pot for a quick coating in oil before all of the ingredients get transferred to a blender or food processor to be roughly pureed. Lately I’ve been having issues with raw peanuts and my stomach not getting along. So I’ve been sticking with almonds instead of peanuts. Yes, they’re different flavors, but they’re both still nutty! I think cashews could also have been a fine substitution here, but sadly, J can’t stand cashews. The pureed salsa can go into a bowl and be mixed with some apple cider vinegar and more oil, until it’s the consistency of a “spoonable sauce.” 

Dried chile salsa can be made ahead, covered and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks! If there are just two of you eating this recipe, then you’re bound to have a lot leftover. We ended up doing a second taco night a few days later with some chicken instead of steak, and used all the leftover salsa, tortillas, and other fixings that didn’t get eaten. 

Now onto the steak. Alison says you can use any kind of butcher’s steak: hangar steak, strip steak, etc. I chose a strip steak, rubbed it with salt and pepper, and cooked it over high heat in a cast iron skillet. 

Alison provides instructions for two other elements in the taco smorgasbord. Red onions - slice them very thinly into rings and soak them ice water before serving. I don’t know why I had never heard this trick before, but it’s brilliant! By soaking them, the red onions lose their strong, sometimes overpowering bite. They still retain a lot of their flavor, but they didn’t take over the tacos. Secondly, watercress marinated in lime juice and salt and pepper. I could not find any watercress -- I searched three stores! So I used a head of chopped romaine instead, and honestly it was a wonderful choice. I also served up some leftover mexican brown rice and cilantro, in addition to the corn tortillas. 

This recipe was a crowd (of 2) pleaser. I see more taco nights like this in our future.

48 recipes cooked, 177 to go.