The best dishes are the simplest dishes to me. When we decided to make some dry roasted edamame our Test Kitchen ingredient, I kept trying to think up obscure ways to use the snack. However, in the end, the simplest way was the route to take. I was inspired by the many pistachio-crusted items I've enjoyed in the past and decided to coat some beautiful ahi tuna steaks with edamame. It turned out to be an excellent idea and one that won't take you very long at all to do as well! The edamame gives a salty nuttiness to the ahi with the additional, occasional zing from peppercorn. It's delightful.

It's been a while since we last did a Test Kitchen post but since we had some moving to do out of Duc's apartment, a lot of my cooking utensils and ingredients were stuffed in random places. One of those was the bag of wild rice which was originally supposed to be the Test Kitchen ingredient to play with. When I finally found it recently, I then thought of ways I have seen it used. The grass seed, as it really is that, is hardy and have a definite bite to it that might deter people from eating much of it. It sure does fill you up. I've seen it used in Thanksgiving side dishes before so that was the inspiration for making this into a pecan cranberry recipe with wild rice. Sweet and nutty, it is great alone but also fantastic with a side of chicken, turkey, or even mild flavored beef!

The latest Test Kitchen ingredient to grace the pages of the blog was a package of steamed black-eyed peas by Melissa's, and the suggestions that came through when we posed it centered on an upcoming Southern tradition. You see, there is a dish celebrated during the new year as an indicator of good luck and fortune upon the eater if enjoyed on January 1st. That would be hoppin' john and it is primarily a black-eyed pea and rice dish. How appropriate! So I got to reading about it and though the basic makeup requires just some onion, black-eyed peas, bacon, and rice, there is definitely more that can be added to make a superb one-pot dish for a whole lot to share. Check out the recipe and make some to bring prosperity to your friends and family!

The latest Test Kitchen ingredient was fresh dill, and several of you chimed in over on Facebook. Thank you for that! It gives me inspiration but also allows me to know what kinds of foods I ought to be posting to meet your own needs. Circumstances made it difficult to make some of the dishes you suggested but with the cooler nights, a soup seemed most appropriate. The prominent flavors of this carry dill soup are the herbaceous nature of dill and the inherent sweetness of carrots. They work very well together, and I hope you will give this simple and swell recipe that I put together a try!

I have always loved grits in just about any way that I've had them. They usually cannot be messed up other than being blander than preferred. When it became a Test Kitchen ingredient for us to experiment with, I thought of the different applications I have seen it in. Shrimp and grits is a very popular dish but felt overdone...however, what if you combined them into a snackable piece? Chopped up finely, the shrimp would be able to mix in with the grits well enough to make a shrimp and grits cake. What a thought! To prevent it from being too bland, I seasoned both the grits and the shrimp pieces too. The recipe requires several ingredients because everything is made from scratch but this savory, Southern treat is well worth the effort. Give it a try yourself. I got the thumbs up from even my parents who rarely eat non-Asian food!

Our latest Test Kitchen ingredient was the wonderfully non-photogenic salted radish which is primarily used in Asian cooking. It is a radish or turnip that has been preserved in a mixture of sugar and salt and usually comes sold by the half pound in bags. I recall how often my mom would use it in just a handful of simple go-to dishes when I was growing up. I was unable to shake that from my mind though as I tried to figure out how to use the ingredient. Therefore, I resulted to some comfort food.

I tell people that I am Chinese but there are so many variations of it that if I had to be more specific, I'd tell you I was Teochew. As I get older, I am beginning to distinguish more and more what was Teochew in my childhood and what was a mash of cultures - one of those things was the porridge we'd eat. Teochew porridge is basically watery rice that is so bland (and made from only those two ingredients) that having something quite salty as the side dish was necessary. I would usually double or triple up the amount of porridge I'd have to the accompanying dish so each bite was balanced. Salted radish (aka chai poh) in an omelet was a solid regular in our meals so I decided it was time to recreate the dish. Luckily, it was easy!

The last Test Kitchen ingredient we had was a jar of champagne mustard that one of Duc's friends had brought back to us from France. Naturally, we had to explore what it meant to be champagne mustard and upon that learning, we thought it appropriate to use it in a slightly different but still mustard-y way. One traditional way to incorporate mustard into savory dishes is via mustard cream sauce but to change it up a bit, I added some sake for an extra oomph to the scent. The mustard really highlights the chicken I paired this with, and the creamy factor makes it more acceptable to get some tang onto your plate!

Who knew that tarts could be so simple to make? I've never worked with puff pastry before but after making these apple tarts, methinks I ought to use the magic sheets more often. This dessert/pastry came from the brainstorming all of you did over our Test Kitchen ingredient of pumpkin butter. Shari B. suggested on Facebook to use the delicious stuff in an apple tart; we thought it was a fine idea and thank her for the inspiration! These lovelies use the pumpkin butter a base and seasoning for the apples atop the flaky crust, and topping everything off with honeyed pecans just added a little more pizzazz to the whole thing. Since I'm not suggesting you make the crust from scratch, this recipe will take just 30 minutes of your time which is not really that long! Make a few and force people to love you once you had them a tasty tart.

It may feel like it's blazing hot outside but soon enough, the autumnal chill will be upon us (if it isn't already for you). Better prepare yourself with some recipes up your sleeve for those cooler nights. Our last Test Kitchen ingredient was whole cloves so there were a handful of options to think about. When someone suggested clove orange tea, I wondered what other drinks incorporated the fragrant dried flower bud. We decided to go with some mulled cranberry cider which gives a very seasonal feel and takes little of your time. Give it a try yourself and cozy on up with a good book once autumn and winter hit!

I don't like making anything complicated because I want to be able to replicate it later. One late night, I decided I ought to work on our Test Kitchen ingredient of Israeli couscous. The typical routes of making a salad or throwing together a childish dish were not appealing. What about putting some basil pesto vinaigrette on it though? We had a bottle of it in the refrigerator. What to pair it with though? It seemed like a Mediterranean flavor, the pesto in couscous, so I came up with this Mediterranean chicken. It's a dry rub that infuses its flavors into the thin chicken breast to keep it moist and still flavorful. Check out the easy recipe below!

The Test Kitchen is a test of both ingredient creativity and skillset a lot of the times. When lavender cropped up as a Test Kitchen ingredient for me, I didn't necessarily want to stick to a dessert but it kept coming around to that. I realized also that I had a lot of white chocolate remaining in the pantry so putting the two together yielded the idea of panna cotta. I admit though that I got a lot of guidance from this website here with much of the recipe from there too. I have never made panna cotta before but this one just seemed right. Lavender infused with orange zest components, this white chocolate panna cotta is a treat and may take some patience but is well worth it. Once you share it with someone, I'm going to guess that they'll start calling you their best friend once their sweet tooth starts hankering for more!

The first thing that usually jumps to people's minds when you talk about poppy seeds is some kind of pastry. Well, that or the fact that it is an opiate but that's not the point of this post. Wait no, I take that back - that part is relevant. Don't take a drug test right after having this salad dressing lest you want to test positive for something and look like a heroin addict. Practice safe eating! Anyhow, I have been liking poppy seed dressings lately so when this became our Test Kitchen ingredient, I thought I ought to go in that direction. Who needs fattening pound cake when you can have a creamy, smooth dressing over some fresh greens? The recipe's simple but the taste is complex. Enjoy making this one, folks!

I love hazelnuts. Their flavor is unmatched by other nut flavors, and when combined with something like chocolate, it is sublime. I brought back quite a hefty bag of the nuts from our Portland trip and couldn't quite figure out what to make with it; thus, it became a Test Kitchen ingredient. I was tempted to eat the whole bag but I needed them to grow on their own. I loved the suggestions that came through of which one frequently suggested one was Nutella. While that was a great idea in its own right, my dear talented chocolatier friend (Amy Jo of Valenza Chocolatier) suggested gianduia which is pretty much the mother to Nutella. Challenge accepted! With some research through this nifty 35-part series and other parts of the internet, I came up with something that beats out the sugary, oily jar that is Nutella. It's purer, more nutty, more chocolatey, and made of ingredients we know and trust. Make yourself this recipe using only six ingredients and live happy with jars of decadent happiness.

What I first remember about pound cake was that it was always a special treat that my mom gave us kids when she had the right coupon or the right sale was on at the grocery store. We always had the Sara Lee one that came in the freezer section of Ralph's or Albertsons (though manly Ralph's). Aside from how dense the cake was and cold, the favorite part by all of us was the brown, peelable "crust" surrounding the loaf. There was something about it that made the section so desirable - perhaps it was its different-ness.

When amaretto became the latest of our Test Kitchen ingredients, I saw plenty of your suggestions to use it in a dessert. The pairing of it with fresh fruits came up often, leading me to think of what else fruit goes well with. Pound cake jumped to mind, and the almond flavor of amaretto just made sense. So, we went with eating this without accoutrements but you can certainly toss on some fresh berries! Otherwise, enjoy a dense, moist almond-tasting pound cake made adult via liqueur!

Peruano beans, also known as Peruvian beans, have been described as being pleasantly creamy but I didn't know exactly how creamy until I had some myself. Yum. Luckily, since I had read up on how creamy they were, I decided that it only made sense to use them in a fashion other than soup or on the side. I made them the main feature in quesadillas! These vegetarian pockets of cheesy, beany goodness need some salsa to spice them up and keep your tongue from sticking to the roof of your mouth from all of the tasty stickiness. I also added mushrooms to the mix for extra nutrients but you don't have to if you prefer to skip the fungi!

When we presented Poblano peppers as the Test Kitchen ingredient, several suggestions came our way about stuffing the peppers somehow. Even looking through the initial search results of Poblano pepper recipes showed them stuffed either to be baked or be used as chile relleno. Given that the days lately have been a strange mix of unbearably hot and uncomfortably chilly, I felt that a soup was in order actually. It had been a while since we had a nice, rich soup to sup on so after some thinking, I pureed together this creamy and spicy soup that is sure to warm you up. It gives a great deal of credit to the roasted flavor of the Poblano too. Try it out yourself.

The picture of the fried tofu with such a sweet and spicy glaze makes me want to jump back in time to when I had this dish freshly done, hot and ready. The Test Kitchen ingredient was some local eucalyptus wildflower honey from Bee Ladies which is herbaceous with slight hints of savoriness. You are obviously completely welcome to use other types of honey with this recipe though. I also didn't list it sriracha with a capital S because I ended up using an artisan variety from New York called Jojo's Sriracha (which is awesome by the way!) but feel free to use the signature green topped bottle. The glaze (or is it a sauce?) is quite easy to remember as it is a 2-2-2-2 mix. I can imagine this also being great with shrimp or chicken but fried tofu is also very, very satisfactory. It is a sweet and spicy touch to any dish.

When we chose spelt as the Test Kitchen ingredient, it was because I had given in to the ease of ordering from Amazon (as I always do) and bought several pounds of the stuff. I was on a health kick to find whole grains. My intent was only to purchase farro but the wretched "Customers Also Bought" scrolling bar made me curious about the spelt; a quick click and Amazon Prime produced a box of the stuff in two days' time. I gave a bag to my mother to try out too but she didn't read the instructions one day and ended up with hard-to-chew grains (she didn't soak it overnight). That experience delayed my exploration of this ancient grain but I finally decided it was time to try it out. In a soup, it expands and makes itself well known as an ingredient, lending a nutty flavor and texture to the dish. I quite liked this soup which turned out like a vegetarian beef stew. Try out the recipe yourself and enjoy.

I am surprised at how long we have been able to keep the Test Kitchen series up but there are just so many ingredients out there to play with! The last one we put up was split green peas, and we did get some fun suggestions from you all. The one that seemed most interesting was over on Twitter when our friend and fellow blogger Mike of Eating My Way Through OC (go check it out!) said, "Pancakes!" He's always trying to put me up to a challenge, and I gladly ran with it. Pancakes and split green peas made me think of roti, an Indian bread that I've heard of being stuffed with lentils before. Apparently split peas is also another option for filling but most people use the yellow version; I opted to make this green and had a fun time working with the dough. However, it is easily a time consuming activity so it's no wonder that people think of these as the homemade stuff "grandma" makes! It definitely takes time. I didn't have the appropriate cooking surface but a large non-stick skillet worked out just fine. Roti are just the perfect snack to munch one, crispy and savory. The recipe's below with some help from this recipe here:

It has been a long time since the very first Test Kitchen post but I have tremendously enjoyed doing them. Uncommon ingredients get me excited, and there have certainly been a plethora of those. When red rice cropped up as one, I went online to search for what exactly the rice was. Seeing that it had a bite to it texturally and somewhat of a nutty flavor, I decided to pair it with some black lentils and (continuing with my mushroom habits lately) oyster mushrooms. You might not find the result visually appealing mainly because it's dark reds and blacks (though those ARE my favorite colors...) but it definitely is a filling dish that is worth having. I also love that you don't need too many ingredients!