I’ve been trying out Blue Apron, a subscription…food…delivery…service…? I don’t actually know how to describe them. Anyway, you subscribe to their service and they have sent you fresh ingredients for you to make meals according to the week’s menu. I decided to try it out because sometimes I don’t have time to actually go buy ingredients for myself or I don’t want to figure out my week’s meal plan but still want to cook. So this works out for me. Also, they sponsor a whole bunch of podcasts I listen to, so I got a discount.
Anyway, I’ve tried the service out a few times now. It’s kind of fun. But probably because I already like to cook. Their instructions are fairly clear, although I’ve noticed some typos that could potentially be very confusing who doesn’t cook all the time. And I don’t like how they suggest you salt your food after every step. That’s a lot of salt. A. LOT. OF. SALT. I don’t believe salt/saltiness should be the dominant flavor in most dishes. I regard that as being lazy and/or cheap. At full price, it’s comparable to going out to eat if you don’t always eat at fancypants restaurants, so you’re not saving a ton of money. But at least you know what’s going into your food and the ingredients they send you are good quality.
Thus far, I just receive one box per month, which includes ingredients for two different meals. I look at the month’s menu beforehand and opt out of the recipes that I could easily make myself or eat/cook a lot already. I like to try the stuff I wouldn’t normally cook or don’t have the ingredients for. Here’s what I think thus far.
Crispy curried catfish with chana masala and brown rice
This was pretty good. I don’t normally like catfish but it was cleaned well and didn’t have that muddy flavor. Also, I like chickpeas. And I forgot to take a picture when I served. So you have a Tupperware shot.
Beef stew and cheese mashed potatoes with carrots and thyme
This was kind of normal. Not bad, it just doesn’t particularly stand out to me. I make beef stew sometimes already. I make a Guinness beef stew that I like better than this one. I also just did a quick search and realized that I never posted about the beef stew. Oh well.
Garlic-herb butter shrimp with roasted cauliflower and brown rice
I like shrimp but I REALLY don’t like peeling shrimp. Thus, I don’t make shrimp that often, which is why I opted in for this box. It wasn’t bad except that I believe they were using Gulf shrimp, which has a characteristic briney taste that I don’t care for. I probably wouldn’t make this again. But it did make me realize that I quite like roasted cauliflower.
Stir-fried beef and udon noodles with gai lan and Thai basil
I very much like udon and I rarely have it stir-fried. We normally use udon in noodle soups when we’re too lazy to make our own noodles (I grew up eating hand-pulled noodles, nbd). This was pretty good because I really like gai lan tsai. I also find it funny that there’s no English name for it. I also REALLY like Thai basil. So, it was hard to find anything wrong with this menu. I might make it again, but probably not if it’s just for me.
Seared cod and garlic-ginger rice with Ponzu-glazed broccoli
I like fish a lot. I probably eat too much fish. I don’t think very many people can say that. But I think I really might eat too much fish to the point where I should be concerned about mercury poisoning. Fun fact. Anyway, I didn’t much care for this recipe. The rice was neither garlicky nor gingery enough to warrant calling it garlic-ginger rice. The cod wasn’t bad. I like cod. But I really didn’t like the broccoli, which is weird because it’s one of my favorite vegetables. I think the Ponzu glaze was too overpowering.
Pork chops and apple mostarda with roasted sweet potato, toasted walnut, and blue cheese salad
I have to say that this is probably my favorite of everything I’ve tried from Blue Apron. I would definitely make this again. But, if I were to do it myself, I would use pork tenderloin instead of center cut, cut the salt entirely from the mostarda, and increase the amount of sweet potatoes in the salad.
Random moosages as I see fit. 