Guacamole
This may be the easiest, clearest, most customizable guac recipe I've ever made. I like how I&T start with the most basic, mandatory ingredients and list the other items as add ins. Of course, Ryan is here, so there will be no cilantro. Instead, I went with jalapeño, diced tomato, cumin, and garlic, i.e. everything else.
It's interestingly light in color... maybe because it's so fresh?
SFO: 10
Chili-Chocolate Mole
Mole is one of those things I'm not sure I understand. People speak of it with a kind of reverence, but I suspect that even if I were in the presence of a spectacular mole, I might not have the ability to know why. I remember hearing on some food program that a mole sauce should taste like its own flavor, i.e. not like any one of its ingredients, which is definitely not the case here. This mole really tastes like peanut butter to me. But I'm not complaining - I love peanut butter!
What an interesting ingredient list: crushed tortilla chips, almonds, sesame seeds, anise seeds, chile powders, cinnamon, marjoram, allspice, cumin, tomatoes, chocolate, of course garlic and onions, and the aforementioned peanut butter. I couldn't wait to see what this would taste like...
And it tasted great! A lot of those strong flavors did disappear, most notably the anise seeds, chocolate, and surprisingly the tomatoes, but the peanut butter definitely held court. And again, I found this to be undersalted. But when all is said and done, I'm very happy to eat this!
SFO: 10
Seitan in Mole Sauce
I'm even happier to eat this over some homemade seitan. This seitan/mole comba makes for a nice, chunky stew! This would be a perfect, wintry comfort-food dinner! I served it over a plain white rice, which tasted great! Again, the peanut butter ruled, but hey, I'm the one always ordering things in peanut sauce at Thai restaurants so I'm in!
SFO: 9
This all hinges on your acceptance of seitan as a protein. So I took a point off for potential seitan-a-phobia.
Strawberry-Plum Crisp
This is almost a great, quick, easy dessert recipe to throw together for a homemade summer dinner!
As I&T speculate, yes, plums and strawberries make great buddies here. The end product features a nice gluey red shlar filling, and I mean that in the best way possible.
As far as I'm concerned, a crisp's top can't be crispy enough, and this one wasn't quite fulfilling on its promise. I think it could've used more topping, and it might've helped to bake it a little longer.
Also, not sure why, but this crisp had an overall off taste. Was my oil not quite good? Or was it the cloves in the filling? Something was just... off.
SFO: 8
Points off for a subpar version of something that should've been nailing it.
Hey there! Remember me? Yup, I disappeared for a bit, but I'm back!
A few months ago, I was cast in a show, rehearsals for which required every bit of my spare time and energy, so I put my cooking on hold for a spell, until the show was up and running. And now that it is, I'm happy to be back in the kitchen with I&T and you all!
The aforementioned show is Murder for Two, playing though August 25 at Second Stage Uptown. It blends murder mystery, musical comedy, and crazy hijinks, with a cast of two, including me and today's special guest taster, the insanely talented and adorable Brett Ryback!
Brett and I were offered a pair of tickets to the Shakespeare in the Park production of Love's Labours Lost, so we made plans to have a picnic beforehand, which gave me a great excuse to pull out the cookbook and make some spreads!
Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Dip
Well, this packs a tomato wallop! Two cups of dried tomatoes are reconstituted for this recipe, then added to 1/2 cup of ground almonds and 1/2 cup of white beans and pureed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. Now that's 4 parts tomato to 1 part almonds and 1 part beans. The flavor here is a tad overwhelming, I have to say, maybe nice as an accent on a sandwich, but as a dip, it's almost hard to take. I think if the beans had been ramped up and the tomatoes reduced, this would have been more palatable.
I did the basil variation because it's summer and basil is so plentiful. Alas, the basil got lost in the tomato tornado.
SFO: 9
Safe for omnivores, but not for those with sensitive taste buds.
Walnut-Mushroom Pâté
We liked this one much better. The woodsiness of the mushrooms worked great in combination with the ground, toasted walnuts. And the nut and bean to mushroom ratio was much more even here. This is a really well-designed recipe, and quite easy to prepare, assuming you have a food processor. Again, the salt in the recipe is modest, and I had to add more to bring the flavor of the spread to life, but come to life it did.
I'm not sure if pâté is the best word for the consistency I ended up with. It really behaved more like a spread or dip.
Now this, I would make again.
SFO: 10
Greek-Style Tomato-Zucchini Fritters with Fresh Herbs
This is not an easy recipe, but it is definitely worth the effort! Even with my mistakes, it still delivered a pretty yummy result.
My big mistake had to do with liquid removal. You're basically dealing with a lot of liquidy things, like chopped tomatoes, grated zucchini, and tofu. And if you don't drain them really well, I mean REALLY well, you're going to end up with an overly wet batter. Which I did. Which is not ideal when you're about to roll it in bread crumbs and fry it.
That said, they held together, and even though they were quite soggy, they were really delicious.
I also tried baking a few to see if I could improve the situation, but no, the batter was just too wet to ever be crispy.
If you make these, don't give up until you've gotten every last drop of water out of the tofu, tomatoes, and zucchini. You will be rewarded, I'm sure!
SFO: 9
You'd never know there was any tofu in here, the other flavors are so vibrant!
Mediterranean-Style Cashew-Cucumber Dip
This is a perfect accompaniment to the fritters! Again, there's water removal, this time from the cucumbers. I love the whole concept of using cashews for creaminess. And it's quite effective, although one issue I have with this dip is that upon sitting, it tends to separate a bit, i.e. creamy patches and watery patches.
As I&T say, it's delicious enough to serve on its own with pita bread, but with the fritters, it's heaven.
SFO: 10
Dijonaisse
After my second experience making the Silken Mayo, I thought I had unlocked the key to the magic of the recipe, i.e. maple syrup vs. agave nectar. Alas, this batch was on the sweet side again. I think I'll just cut back a little on the syrup next time, as I have a lot of variations on this recipe yet to do....
I love mustard and I was hopeful for this, but it was only OK and languished in my fridge unused.
SFO: 4
Apricot BBQ Sauce
I love a fruity sauce. And I love apricots. This should have been a hole-in-one for me, but it ended up being only OK. I think I know why.
First of all, it was probably too early in the season to be cooking with apricots. They just didn't have that great apricot-ty flavor yet.
Second, I think there's something up with my liquid smoke. The flavor is just too overwhelming. I either need to cut back on the amount or change brands.
When it was time for tasting this sauce and adjusting the seasonings, I found I needed more maple syrup and more salt - it just seemed, I don't know, blah.
In the end, it was fine, but not the fruity wonder I was expecting.
SFO: 9
Baked BBQ Tofu
Hmm. Again, another recipe that should've been a winner but just didn't register.
First you bake slices of pressed tofu in oil and soy sauce. The tofu gets somewhat leathery, but not really fried. And then with all that oil in the baking pan, you pour the BBQ sauce on and keep cooking it. I couldn't help thinking that this dish would have benefited from removing the oil before adding the sauce.
It's possible that my results were skewed because I cooked this in a smaller pan than directed; the pieces seemed cramped during the first stage of cooking. (Who has a 9x18 baking pan anyway?)
Here's Alysha with some tofu on her plate, and the other picture is the baking pan with the tofu covered with BBQ sauce.
SFO: 3
Chocolate Chip Walnut Pound Cake
Definitely my favorite pound cake variation in the book so far!
I went out of my way not to overmix this, and the results were much better. So I'm going to declare a typo. Do not mix the pound cakes "with electric beaters for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until a very thick batter forms." This is a recipe for a disastrous lump of uncooked batter at the bottom of your pound cake. Mix just until combined, maybe 30 seconds. The end.
If your oven is like mine, you can probably expect to cook the cake for 70 minutes or more.
Otherwise... yum!
SFO: 10
The "kids" are over again! (i.e. Alysha, David, and Trey)
Caraway-Parsley-Carrot Dip
Thank god I made this, because I was running so late with my Broc Mac Daddy and the kids were starving, so this went fast! David thought it was hummusy, which it is vaguely in texture and appearance, but flavor-wise, not at all. In fact, flavor-wise, it's somewhat blank. Carroty, yes, but the caraway and parsley don't do much to bring it alive.
Before starting this project, I tried the curried version of this recipe, and it was a lot more flavorful. I look forward to making that again....
SFO: 10
Broc Mac Daddy
This is my second Mac Daddy, the first one being the "original recipe." Now I'm moving on to the variations.
I have to say, this one was a lot better than the first, which is not to say the first was bad, but the big difference is the vegetable broth! The first time, I used Trader Joe's Low Sodium Veggie Broth, which has a strong flavor with a big tomato presence, and it really affected the color and flavor of the dish. This time, I used Whole Foods Vegetable Broth, which has a much lighter flavor and color, and the results were one million times improved.
The broccoli was a nice addition, didn't make or break, but it did give us the illusion we weren't being super naughty.
But wait, we weren't being super naughty. The naughtiest thing about this dish is that it's mostly pasta. And it's salty. Otherwise, it's a lot of nutritional yeast, and some tofu. Comfort food that won't harden your arteries! Yay!!
SFO: 7
We all really liked this, but I can see how this might be upsetting for a closed-minded omnivore.
Tea-Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce
I+T are really funny. They make exactly the right joke about this dish, i.e. it feels like you should have a butler to serve it. It is more lah-di-dah than most of the recipes in here. Plus it involves tea, which is so British, i.e. butlery.
I think there's a mistake here in the ingredients: "8 ounces chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup or so)"
These two numbers, 8 ounces, and 1/2 cup, are so far off that one has to be wrong. I sided with the 8 ounces, and I ended up with a chocolate sauce that had a proper consistency, however it did obliterate any tea flavor.
In fact, we were hard-pressed to find any tea flavor at all, even in the pears.
That said, it's a very pretty dessert, and it's delicious. Some of us licked our plates clean. (see picture)
Others of us licked our plates and then ate all the leftover sauce out of the saucepan with a spoon. (no picture to protect the binge eater who may or may not also be the writer of this blog)
SFO: 10
Homemade Vegetable Broth
Well, it's about time I made this recipe, after all my griping about the taste of commercial vegetable broth. And what is there to say? Of course, it's a million times better than that other stuff, which is so, I don't know, tomato-y? Heavy. Fake-tasting. This stuff tastes fo real.
And yet, it's awfully sweet. I wonder if some of the suggested optional add ins, like bay leaves and peppercorns, might have mitigated some of that sweetness.
I ended up with about 6 cups of broth, which means there was quite a bit of evaporation, considering I started out with 9 cups of water. Those 6 cups were chock full of flavor, with a rich medium brown color, not the orange of store-bought veg stock. (see photo)
Someday, when I'm a real cook, I'll make homemade vegetable broth all the time. But for now, I might just lean on those handy little bouillon cubes. They may not have all the delicious depth of this broth, but they also don't have the tomato-y-ness of the packaged broth, and they get the job done....
SFO: 10
Broccoli-Potato Soup with Fresh Herbs
I know Marcy's a sucker for potatoes, so this soup seems right up her alley.
Here's another easy soup that's big on flavor. Yes, Broccoli and Potato get top billing, but the Herbs are the real stars here.
When I start the soup, I'm smelling smells and thinking, "That tarragon is going to be very dominant!" But then I add my flavorful and sweet veggie broth (yup, all 6 cups), then the potatoes and then the broccoli, and once that's cooked, the tarragon had found its place.
But wait, it's not over! A fistful of fresh mint and then another one of dill get thrown in at the last minute! It's pretty startling the difference this makes. Well, I should qualify that: the mint sort of settles into the background. In fact, I couldn't really distinguish it. But the dill becomes the MVP in those last five seconds!
Unfortunately for me, I'm not a dill fan, so this was a turn for the worse for me, but I think for all you dill lovers out there, this will be very happy-making.
My aversion to dill aside, this recipe is solid. It's a yummy, creamy, chunky bowl of herby goodness.
SFO: 10
Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade
Wow. I don't know what to say. This is probably the first recipe in the book that left me scratching my head. And scraping my tongue.
There must be a misprint in the ingredients for this recipe because it tastes so crazy to me, I'm thinking it can't be the authors' true intent.
The recipe starts out very straightforward: basil, walnuts and garlic, chopped in the food processor. Then olive and walnut oils, grated lemon zest, salt and pepper... and maple syrup?? OK, maybe a tiny splash, for that "lightly sweetened" taste. But there's 1/3C of maple syrup in here! That amount tips this over into dessert. It's super sweet... and super salty at the same time. And I usually love the salty-sweet combo, but here, it just tastes crazy. KA-RA-ZY!
Marcy and I stared at each other upon tasting it, speechless.
If you dare to try this, I recommend starting out with 2T of maple syrup and then see if you want any more. I'm guessing 2T would be plenty.
SFO: 0
(not safe for anyone, as written)
Fresh Rosemary Focaccia
In my culinary adventures, I've done my share of bread baking. Yeasted breads, I mean. And I've learned some good tips along the way. So when I read this recipe, I found it very confronting. There were so many things I knew would lead to certain unwanted results.... Do I make the adjustments to get the results I know I'd prefer? Or do I follow it to the letter?
Since this exercise is to cook every recipe as designed, I did just that. (With one exception: I used my mixer to knead the dough.)
FYI, I went with my typical 50/50 white and whole wheat flour split.
The first fork in the road that I struggled with: I wanted to combine all of the ingredients minus the salt, which I know prohibits autolysis, and then let the dough sit for the 20m autolyse process. But no, I added everything and kneaded. (Incidentally, the salt is left out of the recipe directions, but I'm assuming they must expect us to add it with everything else.)
Next, cover with a dish towel. Hmm. I wanted so badly to cover with plastic wrap, as every other bread recipe I've ever made has instructed, but I did as told. Result? A not very well risen dough ball with a dried out exterior. :-(
I let the dough rise for an extra 10 or 15 minutes, to see if it would rise a little more, but there wasn't much change, so I proceeded. I've never punched down or rolled out focaccia dough, but that's what I&T told me to do, so punch and roll I did.
The final fork, sprinkle with salt and rosemary leaves first, THEN brush with oil? I just couldn't follow that one, because I'd be brushing all the salt and rosemary right off! So I brushed with oil, then I sprinkled the salt and leaves, then I sprayed more oil, just in case there's a reason to want oil on top. (Never too much oil in focaccia!) And I couldn't bear to lay a dishtowel over that oily dough! It'd absorb it all! So I put my foot down and used my trusty plastic wrap.
OK, I guess I did veer away from the recipe a teensy bit at the end, but so much less than I longed to!
In the oven, the bread's rise was rather impressive. Perhaps the short rise time leading up to being baked accounts for the big oven growth.
And the bread turns out fine. I just think focaccia here is a misnomer. This bread tastes strangely like a quick bread, with a very soft crumb and crust. Well, in fact, it IS a quick bread! A yeasted quick bread. The more authentic focaccias (focacce?) I've made not only have risen for twice as long, but also they've included a sponge/starter, developed overnight at a minimum, so these two processes are incomparable. As are the results.
Is this loaf edible? Tasty, even?
Absolutely.
Is it cute?
See for yourself.
Is it focaccia?
I don't think so....
SFO: 10
(just call it something else... Fauxcaccia?)
Remember when Judith and Ryan were supposed to come over and Judith got sick and only Ryan came?
Well, this is that dinner, rescheduled!
No Chinese theme this time, though. We're in the realm of Spain now. But first, I have to use up the rest of my Costco chestnuts....
Chestnut-Lentil Paté
Exactly as I&T described, this spread has a sweet and woodsy taste. To look at it, you'd think you were getting a sort of hummus, but then the taste of chestnuts takes over the experience, and the lentils are really just a background binder. I followed the serving suggestion of Melba toast and sliced tomato, the acid of which really helped balance out the sweetness and creaminess of the spread. And now as I'm reading the recipe again, I'm noticing the suggestion of adding a sprinkle with salt, which I think I would have appreciated if I had caught it at the time.
Ryan and Judith loved this. I thought it was OK. But again, not a huge chestnut fan.
SFO: 9
(one point off for the foreignness of chestnut flavor)
Chickpeas Romesco
I've never made a Romesco sauce before, but I'm fascinated by the concept - creaminess via ground almonds. Unfortunately for me, another key ingredient in a Romesco is the dreaded red bell pepper. Alas, what's a pepper-hater to do? Just make it and shut up.
Another first here for me was fire-roasted tomatoes. It's an interesting twist on your regular canned tomatoes, a little taste of char.
As usual, this recipe is easily made and has great flavor. Even with my profound hatred of pepper flavor, this sauce is so balanced and nice that I was going back for seconds.
SFO: 9
(one point off in honor of those who want a "there" there)
Saffron-Garlic Rice
For me, this was the highlight of the meal! So much flavor! And pretty too! They say the toasted almonds are optional, but I completely disagree. They are mandatory! I loved the big hit of garlic too. And frankly, I thought the saffron component was a little stingy. If I make this again, I might amp that up...
SFO: 10
Chocolate Chip Brownie Waffles
This recipe comes in the brunch chapter, but I thought it was a viable candidate for dessert. And it was! No need for toppings, we just ate these plain!
The batter for this is so thick, you're not really pouring it into the waffle iron, it's more like you're spooning it and spreading it out. My waffle iron is shaped to make four squares, but these waffles come out more like big circles because the batter just doesn't flow to the corners. No matter, they were still amazing. Not too sweet, which I like, although sweet dessert purists might appreciate some kind of sauce or sugar topping.
SFO: 10
White Bean Aioli
I needed a quick something to make today, and I know my friend Marcy is always up for bean-y things, so this seemed like a good idea. Now, this recipe says it takes 10 minutes to make, and it really does take 10 minutes! And it's delicious!
I'd say this is more of a white bean dip than an aioli. There's no reason you couldn't put this out in the same way you'd put out a hummus. Yes, it's very garlicky, but that short amount of cooking time that the garlic gets really takes the edge off it.
SFO: 10
What an interesting ingredient list: crushed tortilla chips, almonds, sesame seeds, anise seeds, chile powders, cinnamon, marjoram, allspice, cumin, tomatoes, chocolate, of course garlic and onions, and the aforementioned peanut butter. I couldn't wait to see what this would taste like...
As far as I'm concerned, a crisp's top can't be crispy enough, and this one wasn't quite fulfilling on its promise. I think it could've used more topping, and it might've helped to bake it a little longer.
