fftf: hot tip friday #14 🍚🥬👧🏽

successful intuitive dinner, inventive app to recreate, latest kids-cooking task

Hello and happy Friday!

Excited to share a few pieces of food inspiration for you this week:

#1 - a successful intuitive dinner! … spiced veggie & meat sauté with coconut-y rice + toppings

I made an “intuitive” dinner this week for the first time in a WHILE, and it turned out delicious! Woohoo! (Amazing what a full day of childcare does for my creative spirit and patience 🤣, as this is what happened after!)

I did not have a plan ahead of time, and used one of my favorite tricks of intuitive cooking: taking a spice/ingredient combo you know you like from a favorite recipe, and applying it to different ingredients in a different way.

For the above meal, I used the spice/ingredient combo from this Burmese-inspired chicken and sweet potato curry that I know I love: turmeric, coriander, fish sauce, and coconut milk, but I used these ingredients differently!

To make the above bowl, I first made some brown rice in the instant pot, using half coconut milk/half water for the liquids. While that cooked, I made the sauté: first chopping up the random veggies that I needed to use up: 1.5 onions, garlic, some broccoli stems, and swiss chard greens.

For the sauté, I first cooked the onion until mostly soft, then added the garlic and broccoli stems. I then pushed all this to the edges of the pan, added a bit more oil, and then added two pounds of ground meat (I did a combo of beef and lamb but you could really use anything here, including tofu or just more veggies!). I added salt and pepper to the meat, and then my spices - a hearty amount of turmeric and coriander (should have added some chili flakes too but was keeping it non-spicy for Jazzy). I kept cooking that until mostly browned, then mixed it all in with the veggies, and then added the greens on top with a little water, then covered it to cook another minute or two until the greens were just done. Finally I stirred in a bit of fish sauce at the end.

I served this atop the coconut-y brown rice, with some coconut yogurt and pickled onions on top for extra flavor & texture. The coconut yogurt really tied it all together with a touch of creamy sweetness! The pickled onions are more for a pop of color, but they also added a nice hit of acid and crunch (don’t worry if you don’t have them, but - easy recipe for them here!)

Note: for a veggie version, you can easily skip the meat and use more veggies and/or tofu instead; and can sub the fish sauce with soy sauce or coconut aminos, or just skip it all together.

#2 - an inventive appetizer that I can’t wait to recreate, and seems easy!

I was recently very impressed by this fun appetizer at a restaurant: “dipping lettuces” with beet dip and spicy, crispy rice:

As you can see, it was served in this elevated tin bowl full of crushed ice (similar to an oyster presentation). The lettuce looks so pretty and inviting! You then dip it into the beet dip first, followed by the crispy rice (which sticks to the beet dip). The rice was spicy and crunchy, the beet dip earthy and creamy, and all of it was a perfect, light bite to start the meal.

I loveeeeee veggie-based appetizers like this, that are satisfying but don’t fill you up too much before dinner. Since I already make beet dip on the regular, all I need to figure out to recreate this is the crispy rice and the presentation. When I do figure it out, I’ll get back to you!!!

Until then… (I could have sworn I’d written about it but can’t seem to find it at the moment…) I love Alison Roman’s beet dip (recipe here) and previously loved the beet hummus from Minimalist Baker (just haven’t made it in a while). Quick googling led me to this recipe for spicy crisped rice, which will probably be my starting point on an attempt to replicate the one I ate; stay tuned!

#3 - my latest kid-helping task for cooking: ripping lettuce/greens

This one goes out to all my fellow parents of young babes!

I hope to instill a love of cooking in my kid(s) as early as possible, so I’m always looking for new tasks for Jazzy (currently 19 months) to do in her “helping tower.” My latest discovery in things she can actually do that are actually helpful: ripping lettuce/greens!

I started having her do this with radicchio - which is hearty so can stand to be ripped vigorously (this wouldn’t work as well for more delicate lettuces, but also depends on the level of ripping-aggressiveness of your child, LOL). Jazzy really seems to enjoy this, and successfully ripped at least three big leaves of swiss chard for the meal mentioned in #1 above!

I am a stickler about making sure she sits while she eats, but I do let her snack/taste while in the helping tower, as I have found that she is often more open-minded to tasting new things while she helps me prep! She will try all kinds of new veggies and spices that she usually rejects if I offer them while in her high chair :).

Although I don’t have a pic of her ripping the greens, here’s one of her latest kitchen advancement: peeling a clementine almost all by herself for the first time!

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend and see you in two weeks :).

Love,
Jess

PS. In case you missed it, I’m now posting every other week until May, and then - starting in May (when baby #2 is due!) - I will be posting once/month until further notice :). Thanks for reading/staying with me through changing times!