Project Start Here: Chapter 5

Another month, another chapter of Sohla El-Waylly's cookbook!

When I first started "Start Here," I didn't really think there was enough to know about steaming and poaching that an entire CHAPTER could be dedicated to it. And then I got to chapter 5.

While you may think steaming and poaching = simple, bland, or boring, it can actually be an excellent way to get your desired texture/flavors embedded in the food! Steaming and poaching can be equally utilized for vegetables and proteins.

Steaming allows food to be cooked gently and yet at a high heat, making it a much quicker cooking method than expected. Poaching, however, is all about low and slow; while less versatile than steaming, it can REALLY pack a punch of flavor for tender proteins.

Alright, brief cooking lesson over. Lets get into the recipes and experiences, shall we?

Steam & Sizzled Greens

Hot & Tingly Cabbage, Everything Seasoned Broccoli, Caesar-ish Little Gems

Sohla often lets us (the readers, the amateurs, whatever we are) get started with a concept by giving a few variations of something quite simple. In this case, it's steaming some greens. The cabbage gets "wedged," the broccoli got buttered and spiced, and the little gems got doused in a caesar-ish vinaigrette. It's simple, you get the concept of steaming, and you get your daily dose of veg. Can't complain!

Rating: 6/10; none stood out but none were unlikable

Brothy & Glazed Vegetables

Brothy & Garlicky Pea Leaves, Sticky Spicy Carrots, Fancy Restaurant-Style Glazed Potatoes

Similar to the greens, these veggies are elevated to the next level. Rather than steaming, these veg are cooked in some form of delicious broth that Sohla assists you in concocting. The pea leaves are steamed in loads of garlic and topped with sesame oil. The carrots are cooked in garlic, chili flakes, and white wine (yum) and topped with a honey butter sauce (again, yum). The potatoes are coined, gently seared, and steamed in bone broth and topped with butter. Simple, yet incredibly flavorful.

Rating: 8.5/10 potatoes were a STAR

Fluffy Kabocha with Tahini Almond Sauce

I am admittedly not the biggest squash gal. While I enjoy the occasional spaghetti or butternut, I had never dabbled in kabocha before. Similar to all other squashes, it takes a lot of love to break them open, scoop out the seeds and strings, and then slice into wedges. From there, it's steamed until tender (which was admittedly much faster than other cooking methods may have been...who knew?) and topped with a delicious...you guessed it...tahini almond sauce.

Rating: 6/10 not a big squash gal but all things considered this is how I'd like to eat it

Tofu & Bok Choy with Ginger Garlic Scallion Sauce

Now that we've gotten a hang of steaming with the veg, we can start to implement other ingredients such as this "forgiving" protein. Really, the goal is just to warm the tofu and then the bok choy gets wilty and cooked through. The star of the show was the ginger garlic scallion sauce--I use it on TONS of different dinners nowadays!

Rating: 7.5/10 sauce was PERFECTION

Loaded Sweet Potatoes with Vegan Queso

You get the drill at this point -- the sweet potatoes get steamed until soft. Really, the more "complex" element of this recipe is the vegan queso. I grew up watching a lot of YouTubers who happen to be vegan, so I was familiar with the vegan queso game. Cashews are used to achieve the creamy texture. Various aromatics and spices give it flavor. And nutritional yeast gives it the cheesiness! The sweet potatoes and queso get topped with Fritos, which truly rounds the whole thing out.

Rating: 6/10 if I'm being honest I'd prefer regular queso but this was the next best thing

Steamed Mussels with Sake & Coconut

In all honesty, I've never made mussels before. Turns out I had no idea what I was missing --they are incredibly easy, quick, and cost effective. These muscles were cooked in a coconut sake sauce that was so flavorful, light, and zippy. Served with some crusty bread, this meal was one of my fav's of the whole chapter.

Rating: 10/10 no notes!

Saffron Cod in a Packet

Another quick and easy meal! The dish is prepared by laying the cod on a blanket of fennel, garlic, olives, capers, and other aromatics, then wrapping it all up in parchment and tinfoil, pouring in some wine, and allowing it to steam in the oven until juicy and tender! It requires minimal dishes, takes minimal time to cook, and is a guaranteed a healthy and flavorful ending.

Rating: 9/10 my tinfoil wrapping skills are not the best but still came out perfect!

I Promise it's Good! Poached Chicken Breast

(This is how I checked the internal temp at all times....)

I traditionally am deathly afraid of undercooking my chicken. As a result, when I roast or grill chicken, I have a tendency to accidentally overcook it. Insert the beauty of a poached chicken breast. Sohla recommends dry brining to pre-flavor the chicken, then poaching in bone broth to keep the chicken breast juicy and the broth extra flavorful. This leaves you with safely cooked, still juicy chicken, and the most pungent (in a good way) chicken broth! I'll admit this takes a lot of patience - you have to keep the broth at a consistent temperature and the chicken cooks pretty slowly - but it's worth it in the end.

Rating: 8.5/10 juicy chicken, not as time efficient as other cooking methods

Classic Curried Chicken Salad

A more chunky version of a chicken salad...hope that's ok

One thing I love about Sohla's cookbook is that once she teaches you a technique, she gives you multiple ideas of how to utilize it. In this case, now that we have our poached chicken, she gives 3 different ways to use it in different recipes! You can never go wrong with a chicken salad, and the curry-fication takes it one step further.

Rating: 8/10 can't go wrong, perfect for lunches

Simple Chicken Noodle Soup

I LOVE soup, so of course this was my favorite way to utilize both the chicken breast and the amped-up bone broth. It's a pretty classic chicken noodle soup recipe, but it's a classic for a reason!

Rating: 9/10 tried and true

Hainanese-Inspired Chicken Rice

This was another favorite from this chapter. The chicken gets topped with the aforementioned ginger garlic scallion sauce, but the real star of the show is the rice. The rice gets cooked with garlic, scallions, and in bone broth rather than water to amp up the flavor. This is something I would make again and again for an easy, weeknight meal!

Rating: 9/10

Snappy Shrimp with Punch-You-in-the-Face Cocktail Sauce

Okay. The recipe itself is pretty straight forward. You make your own poaching iquid, throw the shrimp in there until cooked, and serve with a snappy sauce.

Sohla recommends you purchase U16 to U20 shell-on shrimp. (This is how I learned that shrimp are sized by the amount you get per pound, so 1 lb of these shrimpies = 16-20 shrimp.) The reason for the de-shelling and de-veining yourself is so that you can use the shells in the poaching liquid to amplify the flavor. Makes logical sense, right?

I pride myself on not being overly squeamish with cooking. I can debone a chicken breast or spatchcock a turkey and not react too strongly to either. But these shrimp - this was a mental feat for me. Their tiny little legs, having to slice their little bodies and remove their skins (aka shells)...it was a lot. Not to mention the deveining process (if you know what's in those veins, you know why I may be squeamish). Nevertheless, I persisted. I made the shrimp and I enjoyed the shrimp - but at what emotional cost.

Rating: 6/10 for the de-shelling, 10/10 for the flavor.

And that's poaching for ya! Who knew there were so many ways to poach (or steam) different things...much less in a way that still has flavor. By now, I feel pretty confident in my ability to follow recipes despite them involving ingredients or techniques I've never tried. Onto the next!