Random moosages as I see fit.

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.