What's Cooking: Satsuma Habanada Shrimp, Veggie-Loaded Pad Thai, Chicken Thigh Caesar, Caveman Burgers & More!

Since we officially moved into the house, here’s my first creations in my new incredible kitchen! The counter and cabinet space! The dishwasher! All my beautiful plates, serving dishes and pots and pans from storage! It’s truly a dream! And yes it warrants all of these exclamation points! ;-)

Shrimp with Satsuma & Habanada Cream Sauce, Squash & Caprese Salad

Wow, this was good! On Monday after moving all afternoon, I made some simple chicken thighs and salad (below) and we had leftovers and a black lentil stew from the freezer to get us through the week. So this meal on Friday night was really my first major cooking endeavor in my new kitchen.

Inspired by this recipe from my favorite food blog I reference all the time, Pinch of Yum, but majorly amended for what I had on hand and my cooking style.

Habanada peppers are sweet, fruity and floral, selected over generations from habanero peppers to have that flavor without the heat. I thought they’d pair perfectly with satsumas here.

The recipe calls for blending a chipotle pepper in adobo sauce with heavy cream, garlic, salt and orange zest. Instead, I diced about a quarter pound of habanada fairly small and sautéed in a pan with avocado oil. I then added the drained and dried gumbo size shrimp and seasoned with salt, coriander, cumin, chipotle powder, chili lime seasoning, fresh minced garlic and lots of satsuma zest. I sautéed that, deglazed with satsuma juice and then added half and half and simmered to thicken. It came out incredible. The cilantro microgreens from Funny Farm were perfect for it, too.

On the side we had roasted Honey Bear Acorn Squash, which were absolutely delicious, creamy and sweet and perfect. We have so many squash right now, this was the first time I had these particular ones this season.

And because we had gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and basil, I also got some burrata and did a lovely caprese salad, amped up with Smoked Black Garlic Maldon Salt and Texas Olive Oil and Texas Hill Country balsamic vinegar.

Cast Iron + Oven Finished Chicken Thighs & Caesar Salad

Last weekend, Grant kept asking me what the first thing I was going to make in the new kitchen was. But with all the moving chaos, I was like man, we’re still in survival mode, it’s gonna be something simple, there’s plenty of time for fancy cooking ahead!

I had taken out a pack of Pearl River Pastures chicken thighs (because it was labeled drumsticks and it definitely did not look like drumsticks!). I started them in cold cast iron pans skin down (I find this helps the skin not shrink up drastically all at once when it hits the hot pan and lets some of the fat render as it’s heating up).

I gave them a good sear, flipped them and cooked a little longer, than transferred to the oven to finish.

We had some caesar dressing leftover from the previous week, as well as some buttery seasoned breadcrumbs, so we had the chicken with a Caesar salad of sorts and it really hit the spot!

Tofu Pad Thai with Shiitakes, Boo Choy & Spaghetti Squash

By Sunday, I was ready for a big cooking project, even though I still had lots of boxes to unpack, drawers to organize, etc.

I started with the battered tofu method I learned from Pinch of Yum. Now I rarely make tofu another way, I just change up the seasonings a little. The key is cornstarch, nutritional yeast and soy sauce, along with oil and preferred spices that you mix up into a batter that coats the tofu before baking in the oven. It adds this crispy coating and umami flavor that is just perfect for tofu. This time I used the black mushroom variety, but I have done it with plain, lemongrass and even pieces of the fried tofu cubes!

I thought about doing only spaghetti squash in place of noodles for the Pad Thai, but usually I find recipes like that end up too mushy for me.

So I cut the spaghetti squash into slices (you had longer “noodles” this way) to roast at the same time as the tofu, but went ahead and used traditional rice noodles, as well.

Then I sautéed onions in my huge stainless steel wok (one pan I did NOT forget existed, I was so looking forward to using it again), then added the shiitake mushrooms, bok choy and garlic.

In the meantime I scrambled some eggs in another pan and mixed up the sauce: anchovy paste and soy sauce and coconut aminos (all in place of fish sauce because I’m out and Whole Foods has been out!),. tamarind paste and brown sugar.

I followed a recipe for the sauce and it was lacking a little pizazz when I mixed it all together, so at the last minute I added a bunch of Smokey Shiitake & Black Garlic Seasoning and some homemade gochujang I recently got from a chef friend. While not traditional, it totally brought it all together.

We topped it with plenty of peanuts and then in place of bean sprouts and cilantro, lots of River Queen’s mixed microgreens and micro cilantro from Funny Farm.

Epic Caveman Burgers, Oven Fries & Fall Salad with All the Crispies

I defrosted some Caveman ground beef and pork sausage I planned to mix and make moussaka (because I have lots of beautiful eggplant to use up).

But after the long afternoon Pad Thai project, Grant encouraged me to do something simpler and we (he especially) can never get enough burgers.

I’ve been defaulting to the pre pressed hamburger patties lately, so it was nice to be able to season these before making the patties. I used Smokey Shiitake & Black Garlic Seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and black pepper.

Having all of my huge sheet pans from storage was a game changer for properly spreading out the oven fries for maximum crispiness (and quicker cooking time!). They end up soggier and take longer if you overcrowd the pans. I actually did this on two pans and combined to serve/for the photo.

And finally, we are really in our crispy era for salads right now. This one was a mix of Compsotella’s mustard mix and arugula, little cubes of fried bread cheese, a small Arkansas Black apple, corn & pepper chow chow, Trader Joe’s chipotle almond dip as a dressing, plus pumpkin seeds, crispy chickpeas and crispy jalapeños on top. The mix of sweet, salty, sour, spicy and crunchy is the peak salad experience.

Fresh Pesto Breakfast Sandwiches

And since I didn’t make the moussaka, I also needed something to do with the pork sausage. This is one of the rustic blends from a custom butcher we used for a breeder boar a few years ago and I’m still using the last of it up!

I had some lingering basil to use, so made a quick batch of pesto with sunflower seeds and walnuts, garlic, Texas olive oil, parmesan cheese and Meyer lemon vinegar since I was out of lemons. Then we did some sausage patties, a fried egg and the last of the burrata smashed into the bread, with pesto on the other side of the bread. It was a great way to start a Monday!