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Showing posts from 2012

Oven "Fried" Catfish

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This is a stock photo (so handy working in advertising!), but it is close enough to showing the succulence of Oven Fried Catfish. Rose, living in L.A. since last January, called and wistfully said, "I know what I want for Christmas." I waited expectantly and was surprised when she said, "Catfish." "Oh, I mean what I want for meals when I come home." she said. "Catfish fried in the oven." "Mmmm, sounds good. Potato salad or mashed potatoes with that?" "Ooooo." Her voice got more excited. "Potato salad! And maybe, well, is cabbage a cold weather vegetable?" "Why do you think the Germans and Russians have so many cabbage dishes?" I asked. "Cold weather is what cabbage is all about." "Then coleslaw too! And potato rolls ?" "I have extra in the freezer from Thanksgiving that I'm saving until you come home. So we're on our way!" Sounds good, doesn't

Turkey Bone Gumbo

Here's what I'm making this weekend. I've got the stock made and the turkey reserved. Now I've just got to get the time to put the whole thing together which should happen this weekend. For those who've forgotten or never tried Turkey Bone Gumbo I thought I'd repost it since our family loves it so. ------------- After I reviewed Gumbo Tales , Sara Roahen very graciously emailed me some recipes. The Turkey Bone Gumbo had caught my eye and I made it after Thanksgiving. Oooo, now that was some good gumbo! So savory, so rich. However, I didn't want to go spreading her recipes around. Then I recently finished Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. An excellent look at the basic cooking of New Orleans, it also had a recipe for Turkey Bone Gumbo that is very similar to Sara Roahen's. I now felt ok about putting the recipe out there. What follows is a combination of her recipe and of the one from Cooking Up a S

Review: An Everlasting Feast by Tamar Adler

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An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler My rating: 3 of 5 stars I noticed this book popping up in various spots and have been waiting for the library to cycle through others who requested it before me. One thing I noticed that I thought was fantastic was that the readers actually were feeling bolder in the kitchen, more willing to experiment and throw together a meal from inexpensive ingredients on hand ... and coming up pleased and increasingly confident thanks to the meals they produced. I like any cookbook which does that. Having finally gotten a copy I can say that Adler has a very practical viewpoint, which she herself mentions time and again. She talks about various ingredients and cooking approaches in a pleasant, discursive manner with very few actual recipes. It is this quality that emboldens her readers and a very good quality it is to have. Adler says that she was inspired by M.F.K. Fisher's "To Eat a Wolf" which was a 194

The Good Cook Series

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Soups by Time-Life Books My rating: 5 of 5 stars Every cook should have a set of The Gook Cook series which was published by Time Life between 1979 and 1983. They are organized by cooking subject (Fish, Soup, Cookies & Crackers, etc.). They were edited by the brilliant Richard Olney and written by many food writers who went on to become well known. Each has a brief but comprehensive history of the topic followed by 80 pages of detailed techniques accompanied by detailed photos. The last 80 pages contain around 200 recipes from around the world, spanning 300 years, many of which were translated for the first time for these books. It is hard to imagine any dish or technique that this series does not cover. Want to make your own food dye? This is your series. Want to make a basic broth? This is your series. Want to make a birthday cake? This is your series. There are 28 volumes (see the list at Wikipedia ), all of which I picked up at used book stores fairly cheaply.

Review of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

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The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was captivated by the book's beginning in which Kathleen Flinn tells about becoming interested in a woman and daughter grocery shopping. Fascinated by the prepackaged and "mix" foods in her cart, she began stalking them and eventually wound up helping them replace all the highly processed meals with the ingredients for homemade. Key to this was scribbling recipes and simple instructions. This encounter led to Flinn's epiphany that there is a generation of women (and people in general, actually) who don't have the first idea of how to cook. Never taught to cook by their parents, they are equally ignorant of nutrition. Flinn selected 10 worthy candidates and began her Kitchen Counter Cooking School to educate not only them as cooks but also herself in the ways of how to communicate simple kitchen kn

Tandoori Pizza

This is also from  James McNair's New Pizza . It is a delicious adaptation of Indian flavors to pizza and we really like it a lot. Tandoori Pizza Use  Garlic-Glazed Chicken Pizza recipe as your guide, incorporating the changes below. Step 1: 1 c. yogurt 2 T lime juice 2 T grated ginger 2 T minced garlic 1 T paprika 2 t garam masala 1 t salt 1 t cayenne 1-1/2 lb boned and skinned chicken breast halves or thighs Combine yogurt through cayenne to make a marinade. Marinate chicken for a minimum of 4 hours up to overnight. Preheat oven to 500°. Place chicken on a rack set over a shallow roasting pan and roast 10 minutes for breasts or 20 minutes for thights. Let cool. Chop into small bite-sized pieces. You can refrigerate chicken at this point. Just bring it to room temperature before making the pizza. ========= Step 2: 1 recipe of  California-Style pizza dough  (use sesame oil instead of olive oil; use no cheese in the crust, substit

Review: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese

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Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods by Jennifer Reese My rating: 4 of 5 stars Jennifer Reese lost her job and began experimenting in the kitchen to see what was better when made at home and whether it was worth the time and labor involved to do so. The result is this cookbook which I like very much. Reese's calm common-sense comes shining through in the introductions to each recipe. Her sensibilities are very much like mine and, just in case they aren't, she clearly describes her likes and dislikes about each project. Thus I know that I probably don't want to make my own cream cheese (at least from her recipe) because I don't want something noticeably tangier (or as her family says "sour") than Philly Cream Cheese. Would I mind my homemade peanut butter being "nubbier" than commercial brands if the peanut flavor sings forth? Maybe not. Each recipe

Neapolitan -Style Pizza Dough ... Something to Build On

Since we've been talking about pizza, I can't believe I never gave you some of the most basic recipes that are used to "build" pizza around our house. From my favorite cookbook on the subject, Pizza: Anyway You Slice It by Charles and Michele Scicolone,  comes one of the favorite pizza doughs of our household. I used it when we had a party and had a couple of people particularly comment upon how much they like it. It has what may seem like an unusual ingredient, cake flour. This is included because Italian flour is lower in gluten than American flour and cake flour helps turn the crust into a tender, easily stretched dough which is easy to shape. I'll confess that I often cheat and use 2-1/2 teaspoons yeast, a more traditional amount (at least for someone who is used to bread baking), to get the dough to rise in an hour or less. Neapolitan-Style Pizza Dough 1 teaspoon active dry yeast 1-1/4 cups warm water 1 cup cake flour (not self-rising) 2-1/2 to 3

Ginger Chicken

I no longer remember where this recipe came from. I know that it was one of my sister's absolute favorite dishes and I think I got it from her. I have made this without browning the chicken, with only fresh ginger, with a combo of both kinds of ginger, and on the stove instead of in the oven. What can I say? Every single time we love it. It may be slightly different because of those changes but never enough to really matter. There's plenty of juice which you may thicken or not as you see fit. I tend to serve it with rice for that reason. Enjoy! Ginger Chicken STEP 1: 1/2 cup flour Salt and pepper, to taste 1 chicken, in serving pieces 4 tablespoons oil Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, salt and pepper. Coat chicken with flour. Brown the chicken on all sides. Transfer chicken to a baking dish with cover. STEP 2: 1/2 cup dry sherry 2 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/4 cup minced preserved ginger OR 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

BBQ Chicken Pizza

UPDATE: also lost in the great labeling disaster of 2012, so am reposting it here. The inspiration for this is from James McNair's New Pizzas, but I have streamlined his process for cooking the chicken which seemed unnecessarily long and drawn out. Basically follow the recipe for Garlic-Glazed Chicken Pizza but substitute this for the Garlic-Glazed Chicken in the recipe: Cut 1-1/2 pounds of chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Saute them in some oil. Mix them with 1 cup of barbecue sauce, either of your own making or your favorite tomato-based kind from the store. Nothing could be simpler and this is very similar to the California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken Pizza.

Garlic-Glazed Chicken Pizza

UPDATE: What happens when you think you are simply labelling a recipe and instead delete it by accident? You wind up revisiting something that you published way back in 2005 and have forgotten to make since then. I'm going to make this over the weekend for sure. I am so happy that Google had it cached so I could pull it out of the ether and back into the here and now. Purely delicious and even the pickiest eater in the family had three pieces. Be sure to leave yourself plenty of time for this. It is simple, especially if you have any experience making bread but it does take a while. From James McNair's New Pizza . If the idea of making pizza dough is intimidating, I can assure you that it is very easy. And nothing is stopping you from trying the pizza using a premade dough or shell. ( Foodo del Mundo took pictures when they made this pizza ... scrumptious.) Standard Pizza Crust From Pizza California Style, by Norman Kolpas The following recipe produces a thin, golde

Summertime and Corn Salad is Easy

Full disclosure: I haven't made this recipe. However, my mother did and everyone she shared it with is complimenting it to high heaven. Her palate (not to mention all those others) is good enough for me. I will be making this one soon. Mom really liked the unusual cooking method for the corn and highly recommends it. She also shocked the corn in ice water after cooking, and used whole tomatoes which she blanched, peeled and chopped. This is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe which I somehow have not encountered before but definitely will be exploring, especially since I came across this Mexican Tomato and Corn Salad which looks like something I'm definitely going to try also (mmm, cilantro!). Summer Corn Salad Serves 4 6 ears of corn, shucked 1/2 cup finely diced red onion 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 3 tablespoons cider or red wine vinegar 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup julien

Skillet Lasagna

Every so often I pick up a Cook's Country magazine when I'm at the grocery store. I know it is by the Cook's Illustrated gang, but it just seems friendlier somehow. Also, there is a preponderance of simple, down home recipes which just appeal to me. However, I've never made anything from it. Until now. The idea behind a Skillet ... well, anything, actually ... but especially behind a Skillet Lasagna is that it is easier than making the actual lasagna. And just as good! This actually is just as good and got enthusiastic comments from Tom. I also loved it. Cooking Notes: I substituted a pound of Italian sausage for the hamburger (excuse me, ground beef). I also found a really delicious fresh ricotta which made a huge difference. I've never liked ricotta before but this ... melted and had a really fresh dairy flavor. It did take longer for the noodles to get tender than the recipe said and, thus, also took more liquid but I added it in fourth- to half-cu

Ripe: a pre-reading review

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Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard by Nigel Slater My rating: 5 of 5 stars If the book just was published can I still call it a classic? If I just got it, can I really know it is 5 stars? Let's just say that I have every confidence in Nigel Slater's Ripe being just as fantastic as Tender (his vegetable garden and cookery book) was last year. It has the same gorgeous photography in a stunningly produced book. It has Nigel Slater's same quirky honesty. The only difference here is that the focus is on fruit. As I'm at the beginning, I can't say much more. Except to confide that just reading the first page of the introduction made me look at the back yard and think, "blueberry bushes?" (Right. From the person who finds container gardening a chore. But still, it made me consider it.) (Read my review of Tender at the link above.)

Cooking the Books: Green Beans with Ginger

In my personal challenge to "cook the books" and work my way through cookbooks I own, I've been a bit lax in moving on. Some is because I've been busy, but some is because I "discovered" a cookbook that is so good I keep choosing "just one more" recipe before moving on to another book. It's the 1973 classic, Introduction to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey, which I see that Knopf republished in 2011. These days anyone interested in Indian cooking knows that Jaffrey has written many cookbooks. Back in the day, though, she wrote the book almost in self defense as she told the story in the introduction. An actress in New York, she would have people over to dinner or throw parties and invariably was asked for the recipes for the delicious fare. Finally, she decided it was easier to write a cookbook than keep jotting down recipes on scraps of paper, some of which got passed on so many times that she wound up attending a party where every dish had

Short Pasta with Cauliflower

Another of the recipes that Rose tried out when she was our nightly cook. (Oh, those were the days!). This was really tasty and comes in handy for meatless Fridays. SHORT PASTA WITH CAULIFLOWER Adapted from Italian Cookbook (page 92) 1 medium cauliflower 3 cups milk 1 bay leaf 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup flour salt and pepper to taste 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese 1-1/4 lb short pasta Bring large pan of water to a boil. Wash the cauliflower well, and separate it into florets. Boil the florets until they are just tender, about 8-10 minutes. Remove them from the pan with a strainer or slotted spoon. Chop the cauliflower into bite-size pieces and set aside. Do not discard the cooking water. Make a béchamel sauce by gently heating the milk with the bay leaf in a small saucepan. Do not let it boil. Melt the butter in a medium heavy saucepan. Add the flour, and mix it in well with a wire whisk ensuring there are no lumps. Cook for 2-3 minutes, but do not let the

Montmartre: A Favorite Part of Paris and a Favorite Cocktail

This weekend, flipping through our Mr. Boston book, I atypically chose a cocktail the way our daughters tend to ... just because I liked the name. We usually gravitate to sours but there was something to this drink that we both loved, like a sweet vermouth Martini but with an orange note added. We're not Martini drinkers, sweet or dry, but the Montmartre ... that's a drink we could probably trust a bartender to get right because it has just three, basic ingredients that every bar has. Montmartre Cocktail 1-1/4 ounce dry gin 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth 1/2 ounce triple sec (we used Cointreau, as always) Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Palaver Chicken

Here is another of those recipes that Rose tried out when she was home and cooking dinner every night. (Yes, I miss those days and I am positive that Tom does...) The name supposedly came from all the talking that is done about the right way to make the dish. Evidently it is found all over Africa and can be made with beef, lamb, or fish and different sorts of greens. This was absolutely delicious and probably one of the best ways to feed your family spinach that I have ever had. Even Hannah ate it, which is saying something! PALAVER CHICKEN The African and Middle Eastern Cookbook (page 136) 1-1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tbsp butter 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 onion, finely chopped 4 tomatoes, chopped 2 tbsp peanut butter 2-1/2 cups chicken stock 1 fresh thyme sprig or 1 tsp dried thyme 8 oz spinach, chopped 1 fresh chili, seeded and chopped salt and pepper Cut chicken into thin slices, place in bowl and stir in garlic and a

Garlicky, Oven-Roasted Chicken

This recipe continues to haunt my palate. I absolutely loved it. It is from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen which I can recommend, based solely on this recipe. It's an easy read in which the author does a lovely job of introducing her beloved Vietnamese favorites to a Western audience, both in describing flavor / context and in placing them in her memories of growing up. Not every recipe is this simple, but many are, and if they all have this depth of flavor then cooks will be well rewarded for their efforts. Garlicky, Oven-Roasted Chicken Marinade 4 cloves garlic, minded 1-1/2 teaspoons sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon pepper 3-1/2 tablespoons Maggi Seasoning or soy sauce 2-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil 4 pounds chicken drumsticks, thighs and/or wings Marinate chicken in the refrigerator for 2-24 hours. Preheat oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with foil and put chicken, skin-side down, on baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes and then turn chicken skin-side up. Bake 40-

Pork & Sausage Jambalaya

After hearing The Catholic Foodie talk John Besh's cookbook, My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking, I requested it from the library. I’m always up for a book that encourages people to cook with their families on a regular basis, usually with basic recipes that can be adapted. The book is all that with gorgeous photography added. Although not as long and more oriented to New Orleans style cooking, this book really reminded me of Julia Child’s The Way to Cook . Both have an easy-going, instructional quality that doesn’t stress too much over details while giving you the tools (and general recipes) to find your own way in the kitchen.  I’ve certainly gotta give Besh full props for not being afraid to show his two boys proudly holding two just-killed wild birds or showing a just dead chicken. Way to reconnect us to where food really comes from. I like it. I was particularly interested in the Sausage and Pork Jambalaya and the Eggplant Dressing, although the Stuffed Fr

Cooking the Books: Weber's Big Book of Grilling

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I've been meaning for some time to tell y'all about my personal 2012 Cooking Challenge. I have quite a few cookbooks and yet I cook from them so rarely. Many of them I have read numerous times but still have never been impelled to do more than cook the same two or three recipes that interested me originally. This year I thought I'd make two-three dishes from a particular cookbook each week. If all goes well, I'll have provided much more variety to my usual round of "go to" default meals. That should be a welcome change for all! First up, was Weber's Big Book of Grilling. I remember trying it when it was new (2001, is it possible?) and hitting a dud first thing out of the box. The problem was that so many recipes looked great that I couldn't bear to get rid of the book, yet my first experience made me distrust it. This time there was no such problem. Both the Pork Chops with Adobo BBQ Sauce and the Lamb Patties in Pita with Yogurt Dill-Mint Sauc

Chilaquiles

Rose may be gone to L.A. but the cooking she did during her months at home lingers on with us, making memories bright and mouths water. Here's a delicious one that actually would be a good make-ahead recipe for Super Bowl Sunday, now that I think of it. CHILAQUILES Adapted from “Tortilla Pie with Chorizo” in Mexican (page 140) Vegetable Oil 1 1/4 lb ground pork 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 2 tbsp dry sherry 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt 12 corn tortillas 3 cups Monterey Jack, grated 1 1/4 cups creme fraiche 2 cups tomatillos 4 tbsp stock or water 2 fresh serrano chiles, seeded and roughly chopped 2 cloves garlic Small bunch of cilantro 1/2 cup sour cream Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the pork and garlic. Stir over medium heat until the meat has browned, then stir in the oregano, chili powder, cloves, and pepper. Cook for 3-4 m