Linguistic arguments aside, this week in IP history I created a little something for both factions: the “Oh, I’m not eating carbs anymore” people and the “give me all the desserts” people all have something amazing to discover in these paragraphs, so read on for the deets!
It’s easy to get caught up in preparing main dish after main dish when making your way through an entire cookbook, and often those “extra” recipes get forgotten entirely, such as sides and veggies. I mean, it’s not exactly tough to throw a steamer bag of frozen {insert veggie of choice here} into the microwave and boom, three minutes later the sides are ready. But we aren’t here for the easy way out! Well, sort of… this blog season IS all about cooking quick! But I digress. I noticed my checkmarks were leaning heavily to the soup and poultry sections, so I figured it was time to branch out to the chapters I was less comfortable with. Enter the humble spaghetti squash for #15 Spaghetti Squash Scampi. I confess to having never eaten one of these things until I was well into my 30s, and being utterly delighted when I first dug a fork into the roasted squash and dragged it through to produce the long, thin strands of vegetable ribbons that so accurately mimicked, you guessed it, spaghetti! I knew it was supposed to do that, but I was ridiculously tickled when it actually worked. If you know me, you can probably guess which direction I took the versatile squash for that first experiment: sweet, not savory! I added butter, cinnamon and a bit of brown sugar, like I was dressing a sweet potato. I managed to restrain myself from adding marshmallows… I went with this because I was trying to get my kiddos on board with eating a new vegetable, and thought that might “sweeten” the deal so to speak. They weren’t especially enthused, but I liked it! Next time I tried it served like actual spaghetti, complete with marinara and meatballs, which was decent but not my fave. Over the years I also tried a butter/pepper/Parmesan combo that I liked, and swapped back and forth between the sweet and savory applications whenever I felt like I had served corn or peas for too many meals in a row. Prior to my No Shopping January kickoff, I stocked up on fresh vegetables and snagged one of these beauties, mostly because they keep forever. When I finally got to prepare this veggie, I was most excited by the word “Scampi” in the description, which I have long associated with one of my favorite shrimp recipes. I had a dietarily responsible, keto and low carb friendly “side” dish ready to take a walk on the wild side, so I decided to make the MAIN dish. And so it became the base for #16 Sweet and Sassy Shrimp! I could practically feel the pounds melting off my hips, knowing this dinner was going to be so virtuous. Not to say that it was boring! I particularly enjoyed the addition of onion (was actually supposed to be shallots) and garlic, plus parsley, butter and Parm. A little lemon juice and white wine jujjed it up, and suddenly squash held its own with the shrimpy star of the show. The squash rates 10/10; no major disasters to report!
Here, alas, is where the story takes an unfortunate twist. Just gaze upon the picture above; it looks pretty good, right? Well, it definitely could have been, had I not petrified those poor little shrimpies. But let me back up to the “pros” of this recipe (there were a lot of them!) First off, I had everything I needed on-hand to make the sweetly sassy sauce, and I was able to clear out plenty of shelf space from half empty bottles of honey, hot sauce and apple cider vinegar! Second, the shrimp doesn’t need to be thawed to make it, so deciding on dinner at the last minute doesn’t disqualify this meal. Using frozen is a pro, but let me give you a “pro tip” so you don’t encounter the same issue I did: even though the author said to set the cook timer for one minute if the shrimp are frozen, DON’T DO IT!! It’s a trap. For thawed shrimp the instructions are to cook for zero minutes, which sounds weird but as soon as it comes to pressure, it beeps and you immediately Quick Release. Well folks, I should have just done that, because I have never nearly chipped a tooth biting down on a shrimp. “Rubbery” would have been a vast improvement for this poor seafood, but I passed that about a mile back. I’m not certain what went wrong, as these were jumbo shrimp for sure and they should have been able to withstand a bit longer cook. My guess is they sat too long in the hot sauce while I did other things. So let my screw-up be a lesson to you in the future, because truly, the sauce and overall idea of this meal was fantastic. The squash was a great component to use as a base, and the flavor rivaled any restaurant. Just pull back the throttle on that cook time and give it a try! 5 out of 10 for my abject failure to properly cook shrimp, but I have no doubt I can nail it next time!
I have to end on a more sweet, less sassy note! #15 Customizable Cheesecake has been the recipe I most looked forward to, dreaded, and feared, in equal measure. I am a cheesecake snob of the highest order, and the first time I saw people posting about making it in an Insta (Instant?!) Pot I called BS. I had images in my head of dumping the ingredients into the pot and then having it plop out perfectly, and I just didn’t see how that could be remotely possible. That’s because it isn’t, of course, and I was being ridiculous! Turns out you still need a classic springform pan, and they just so happen to make one wee enough to fit inside the IP. I’m glad I checked on this prior to setting out to make the cheesecake, because I had intended to use my regular springform pan, and that’s about 3 inches in diameter too wide to fit into the pot! Amazon was my friend, delivering the most adorable little bundt pan to go along with the 6″ springform, so now I can make every recipe in this book with no further equipment. Back to the cheesecake; first way this recipe differs from the many versions I have made in the past is the crust. It’s exactly the same ingredients (graham crackers and butter), except there was no need to par-bake it. Instead I just stuck it in the freezer whilst preparing the batter. This is where I hope you had some squash and shrimp for lunch, because I have the rest of your daily allotment of calories right here! Using my 600-horsepower KitchenAid mixer, because ain’t nobody got time to do this by hand, I combined cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and eggs with the all-important Jell-O Instant Pudding mix. There is no such ingredient in traditional baked cheesecakes, but I imagine this is what makes it stable, and also where I took my first departure in making it “customizable”. The instructions called for vanilla pudding mix, but I prefer chocolate. I can assure you, any flavor will work as long as it is INSTANT. The long-cook version is a no-go. Once the mixture was as smooth as it could get, I poured it into the springform pan and covered the whole thing in aluminum foil. I filled the IP with two cups of water and lowered my creation into the bain-marie it had transformed into (essentially a double-boiler situation, using the water bath to gently cook through the pan.) 45 minutes later I let it natural-release for a half hour and voila! Cheesecake was born. It had to chill overnight like any other cheesecake, but it was faster and easier to cook than I believed possible. So… how did it taste?? I’m pleased to report that even though it wasn’t uber-complicated and take hours to prepare, the flavor was on point, especially topped with my favorite, cherry pie filling. I will dock a point for the texture being ever-so-slightly off; there were tiny pockets of cream cheese that didn’t blend in enough while mixing, so next time I’ll be sure to have it at room temperature and mix even longer. I give it a 9 out of 10 for that reason alone, though I guess my cat gave it a 10 of 10; I lost out on the last slice when the little thief hopped on the counter and went to town on it!
Have Book, Will Cook 