127. Steamed Broccoli with Balsamic-Basil Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: March 16, 2010
Page: 140
Rating: B-

t’s been awhile since I cooked something new from the book. I actually use many of the recipes in the book frequently, but as my repertoire increases my use of new recipes slows down. Also having a newborn baby means I am not spending so much time planning and preparing meals, in fact I am spending more time refereeing the wrestling matches between my 6 and 3 year old. Three boys is going to get interesting. But let’s get back to the purpose of this blog. Cooking… or attempting to cook.

I chose this recipe simply because we had broccoli in the fridge. It is one of the few vegetables that we frequently have fresh, asparagus is the other. Also looking through the ingredient list I had everything else (which is not as rare an occurrence as it used to be). Preparation for this was really simple. I combined extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a bowl to which I added minced shallots, garlic and basil. Having a basil plant in my kitchen window is definitely a great thing. I hope this summer to plant a nice little herb garden, once I find an area of my yard to grow them in.

I cut up some broccoli and steamed it. The steamed broccoli was tossed in the bowl with the vinaigrette and then plated with the rest of the meal. I would like to write a fantastic tale of culinary magic but the reality is that I steamed some broccoli and then tossed it with a handful of other ingredients. Not hard.

Rating: B-. I’m not rating it very high for two reasons. It really wasn’t very magical. Definitely not bad and is a perfectly fine manner in which to dress up broccoli. But still I wasn’t impressed. Now I will concede that the quality of ingredients is very important since they aren’t hidden. This leads to the second reason I scored it low, the shallots I used overpowered it. Overall it is a preparation I will tweak for the future.

124. Boiled Potatoes with Butter and Chives

Date Cooked: January 10, 2010
Page: 190
Rating: B

While I enjoy roasted potatoes or a fully loaded baked potato, I don’t share the same enthusiasm for boiled potatoes. In fact I will blame plain boiled potatoes for my rice preference. As a child, potatoes were not on my list of approved foods, and to be honest this was a short list. I felt they were plain and boring and unless they were scalloped I dreaded eating them. In case you were wondering about French fries, as a child they don’t count as potatoes, just ask my son. Anyway I have never cooked boiled potatoes before. Never. Well except every time I make mashed potatoes I guess.

The new potatoes were put in a big pot with salt and enough cold water to cover by an inch. The water was brought to a boil and then covered and simmered for about 15 minutes. During this time I had to move the pot from one burner to another to make room on my congested stovetop and this interrupted the simmering but I don’t really think it mattered too much. Once done I drained them and then cut each HOT potato in half. It really was amazing how fast I could slice each potato in half without suffering any cuts and only minimal heat damage to my fingertips. I definitely don’t have cook hands. These potatoes were then tossed with butter and chives.

Rating: B. Not bad for basic boiled potatoes. The chives were a required addition. I won’t say I am a convert to boiled potatoes, but they are a dinner option again. The kids ate them with the same enthusiasm I used to have though. Which is to say there were more left on their plate than in their belly.

123. Glazed Carrots

Date Cooked: January 10, 2010
Page: 149
Rating: B-

I don’t think I have ever really been a fan of carrots. I don’t hate them, but they would not be a first choice for a vegetable side dish. I also detest raw carrots. I find them so fibrous that I tend to chew them forever. So let’s just say I wasn’t selecting this recipe because I craved carrots. But I figured the glazed part might entice my children to at least try them.

I started by slicing some carrots on the bias. These carrots were younger carrots and a little smaller than I would have liked so the pieces were pretty small. If I was a wise cook I would have thought to use this information further in the process, but I’ve never claimed to be wise. The carrots were cooked in a skillet with some chicken broth, salt and sugar. Once the carrots were slightly tender, the liquid was reduced and then butter and some more sugar were added. Once fully cooked, the carrots were tossed with some lemon juice and served.

Rating: B-. I made three mistakes with this recipe. The first was trying three stovetop recipes from the book at the same time. The second was using small carrots. The last mistake was not reducing the broth enough. All of these produced flavorful, but mushy carrots. The smaller pieces cooked too quick and the extra liquid didn’t help achieve a nice glaze. I found the lemon juice did help curb the sweetness but the mushy texture detracted from the dish. On the plus side though, my kids did try them with little fuss.

120. Braised Cauliflower with Garlic and Tomatoes

Date Cooked: November 30, 2009
Page: 154
Rating: B+

I was hesitant about this recipe. For starters it contains tomatoes. And secondly it didn’t involve a cheese sauce which is almost always how we eat cauliflower… I guess that is a bit shameful. Well that is why I selected this recipe to try. A little outside the regular range of cooking without being too over the top (the other version involves anchovies, I’m not there yet in my culinary adventures).

I started by butchering a head of cauliflower into many smaller pieces. These got sauteed in oil until lightly browned and then I added some red pepper flakes, garlic and a bit more oil. When these ingredients hit the sauce pan my eyes started to water something fierce. I think the red pepper flakes were vaporizing into the air as they made contact with the hot pan. When I added the diced tomatoes the results were not much better as bits of red sauce splattered everywhere. I very quickly stirred the cauliflower and then covered it. The cauliflower cooked for another 5 minutes before I removed it from the heat and stirred in some fresh basil.

That was all it took to prepare this dish.

Rating: B+. This was a really easy way to prepare cauliflower. I actually enjoyed this dish and my wife didn’t complain at all which means I think she liked it, but won’t admit that she is getting used to tomatoes… The kids on the other hand didn’t touch it.

110. Bread Stuffing with Bacon, Apples, Sage, and Caramelized Onions

Date Cooked: October 12, 2009
Page: 369
Rating: B+

I had pretty high hopes for this dish. I learned last year that I don’t like stuffing a turkey and I dislike the cooked stuffing that comes out afterwards. So this year I opted to cook all of the stuffing in a baking dish, which they recommend for any stuffing that doesn’t fit in the turkey, so I’ll pretend none fit in the turkey.

This recipe actually started two days before Thanksgiving when I had to start drying out the bread. I cut an entire loaf of French bread into slices and left them out overnight to dry. The next day I cut the slices into cubes and left them to dry overnight again. Thanksgiving morning the bread rocks were sufficiently dry. The whole point of drying out the bread is so that the dried bread can rehydrate with even more flavorful liquid when the stuffing cooks.

Unlike the chaotic mess of last thanksgiving, I planned ahead this year to reduce the last minute panic of trying to get all the dishes finished. So first thing in the morning I got started on the stuffing, so all it needed was some time in the oven closer to dinner. I began this recipe by cooking the bacon in my dutch oven. Any recipe starting with bacon is great. The smell is awesome and I always cook a little extra because I am guaranteed to sample a few cooked pieces, this was no exception. Once the bacon had finished cooking I put it aside and using a small amount of the bacon fat (draining the rest), I began to caramelize the chopped onions. This is a technique I still need to work on. Maybe it is my patience that I need to work on as it always seems to take forever to get a nice golden brown color without burning them. Once the onions were almost done I threw in the chopped apples for a few minutes before removing everything from the heat.

In a large bowl I mixed the onions, apples, bacon, stale bread, sage and some stock. This was thoroughly mixed and then transferred to a 9x13 baking dish that had been buttered. On top of the mixture I placed several pats of butter and then pour some more stock. Covered in foil it sat until ready to cook before dinner. About an hour before dinner was to be served, the stuffing was baked for 25 minutes before the foil was removed and then baked for an additional 30 minutes.

Rating: B+. I enjoyed this stuffing. The flavors were great and the bread was definitely not dried out. My biggest complaint though, which is more to do with my execution of the dish than the recipe itself, is that the bread needed to be cut into smaller pieces. The bread pieces were a little too large in comparison with the rest of the ingredients. Sometimes it felt like eating a soggy (but flavorful) piece of bread, and not a mouthful of stuffing.

109. Basic Cranberry Sauce

Date Cooked: October 12, 2009
Page: 373
Rating: C+

What Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without some cranberry sauce? Mine. I am not a fan of cranberry sauce, mostly because I am not a fan of cranberry jelly still perfectly molded from the can. I decided I would try some fresh from scratch cranberry sauce to see if that made a difference.

Starting with a bag of cranberries I went to work. In a saucepan I brought to a boil sugar, water and salt. Cranberry sauce contains a lot of sugar. I guess when there is more sugar than water I am in for something sweet… or at least that is what you would think. Once the solution was boiling I dumped in the cranberries and brought them back to a boil before letting them simmer. In a reasonably short period of time I could hear them bursting and it was almost done. It was fascinating to hear them pop and explode.

Once done I transferred them to a bowl and let them cool before serving.

Rating: C+. I personally found the sauce to be quite tart, even with the amount of sugar used. I didn’t mind the flavor but something just did sit well with me. A mouthful was cloyingly sweet until you bite into a cranberry and then everything becomes tart. I understand that a good cranberry sauce strikes a good balance between sweet and tart but it didn’t feel balanced. It felt like two distinct tastes, first sweet then tart, not a melding of the two. But taste aside the texture really put me off. The cranberries were either totally destroyed by the cooking process and nothing more than skin and mush or they were little tart pellets. Please bear in mind I am no connoisseur of cranberry sauce so maybe I just don’t like it… whether it’s good or not. I’m not going to miss it at dinner.

107. Cream Biscuits with Cheddar Cheese

Date Cooked: September 30, 2009
Page: 712
Rating: B+

I’m not sure why I have been fixated on biscuits but it probably has something to do with the fact that they are not terribly hard to make, just terribly hard for me to make well. I figured after the biscuit topping for the Peach Cobbler and Chicken Pot Pie I was starting to understand how these things were supposed to be made.

This time around I was a little more prepared and had a good understanding of the steps involved. That is one thing that this project has helped me with. While many of the recipes I am tackling are not really that complex or unique they are introducing me to basic skills I didn’t have. As I learn these skills, things are getting easier and I am beginning to realize how common the process is amongst recipes.

So I started by whisking together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) and the cheese cubes. Then I slowly added heavy cream while folding the ingredients together. When the dough had roughly formed I turned it out onto my counter and then added a little more cream to the mixing bowl to get the remainder of the little dough pieces. I kneaded the dough until it formed a reasonably cohesive mass before rolling it out into a ¾ inch thick round.

I don’t have pastry cutters so I opted to cut these into wedges. This actually turned out really well as the sharp knife cut through the dough cleanly and I didn’t have and left over scraps to reform into a ball to cut further. I baked them for about 18 minutes and as soon as they were out of the oven I cut into one, loaded it with butter and devoured it.

 

Rating: B+. These turned out really good and I was very happy with the texture and form of the biscuit. That being said the flavor left me wanting… not sure whether sweeter or saltier though. They tasted like they didn’t want to be sweet or salty and therefore decided that the bland and boring middle would be fine. I will make these again but I will try to experiment with the flavor a little to give them something more. So I can now strike biscuits off my list of simple things I should be able to make without horrendously screwing up. It’s a long list.

102. Spicy Fries

Date Cooked: September 21, 2009
Page: 195
Rating: B+

This week we decided to try something we keep meaning to do but always fail horribly at, a meal plan. This week we have decided to start simple and figure out just dinners. So on Monday night we decided to have homemade chicken strips and some French fries. This was the second attempt to cook French fries in our deep fryer. In case you didn’t know, I highly recommend the self cleaning deep-fryer from T-Fal, makes deep-frying easy, and clean-up manageable.

The first step is to cut the potatoes into fries and then soak them in cold water to help release some of the starch and ensure the potato cells are hydrated. The process this time around was much easier because I knew what I was doing. The fries went into the deep fryer for 9 minutes for their first round and then I let them drain on paper towel while the rest of the meal was prepared. When it was time to eat, the fries got another 5 minutes in the deep-fryer at a higher temperature to crisp them up.

Now my kids wouldn’t like the spicy seasoning so they ate their fries with some gourmet vinegar. The spicy seasoning was a simple mix of cumin, paprika, chili powder and cayenne pepper. For my fries I tossed them with the seasoning and then sprinkled a little more on top for good coverage.

Rating: B+. While the fries turned out much better this time the seasoning was nothing special. Probably because the seasoning didn’t contain salt and I didn’t salt the fries too much.

96. Mango Salsa

Date Cooked: August 22, 2009
Page: 584
Rating: B+

When I made the Peach Salsa a few weeks ago I truly loved it. I liked the fresh taste it brought to the meal and I viewed fruit at dinner time in a new way. I decided I wanted to try the other fruit salsas from the grilling chapter of the book and I figured the mango one was a simple choice.

I love mangos but I do notice I am very picky about the time to eat them. Under-ripe and they have a starchy taste to them. Overripe and they are sickeningly sweet. Unfortunately I think these might have been a little too under-ripe. The other problem I face with mangos is a good way to cut them. I normally just cut down the side of the pit and then skin the “halves” but I feel so much gets wasted. Anybody know a good way to cut mangos?

Anyway let’s stop whining about the difficulties with mangos and discuss this dish. So after processing two mangos, I finely chopped half of a red onion and half of a jalapeno. Well the recipe called for half but since I had already used these jalapenos in another dish I knew they weren’t too hot so I used the whole jalapeno. Some lime juice was added to the mix and then a little chopped cilantro. Everything was tossed together and then I put it in the fridge to rest for an hour.

I have these nested stainless steel mixing bowls (Wolfgang Puck) that I purchased awhile ago before I really started getting into cooking. They sat unused for quite awhile since the only use I had for bowls was heating things up in the microwave and I’m sure big metal bowls and microwaves aren’t supposed to play together. Anyway, these bowls have seen a lot of use since the lids they come with seal perfectly and are great for coating foods in oils or dressings. Just thought I would let you know… in case you cared or were in the market for mixing bowls.

Rating: B-. I didn’t like this one as much as the peach salsa I had made. The mangos were a little under-ripe as I had mentioned before and the overall flavors weren’t as complex as the peach salsa. It was delicious mind you, but given the choice I am going to make the peach salsa again first.

95. Grilled Corn with Soy-Honey Glaze

Date Cooked: August 10, 2009
Page: 158
Rating: B-

This dish was an afterthought as I was cooking up some leftovers. This recipe is basically grilled corn that gets a glaze after the initial grilling and then spends a few more minutes on the grill to caramelize it. We had some grilled corn the night before with several cobs left over. I figured this would be a good use for the corn.

An extremely simple recipe to make, I basically reduced equal parts honey and soy sauce and then generously coated the cobs of corn before putting them on the grill for a few minutes.

Rating: B-. I don’t know if it the fact that they get grilled a second time or because I used corn that had been sitting in the fridge overnight but the corn was definitely cooked a little too much. The kernels didn’t have enough crispness to them. The flavor was good but the soy sauce was definitely dominant and not sweetened enough by the honey. If doing this again I would cook the corn a little less the first time on the grill and I would probably use more honey than soy sauce.

94. Grilled Asparagus with Orange-Sesame Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: August 7, 2009
Page: 135
Rating: B-

I almost didn’t realize it but this is my 100th post! While it’s not the 100th recipe posted from the book, that is still to come and a milestone I am looking forward to, it does mark a commitment to something I wasn’t really sure I was going to stick with, especially back in May and June. I’m glad I have stuck with it and I am really enjoying trying new things and learning new (and sometimes basic) techniques. Well on with the show!

You may have noticed that I cook an abundant amount of asparagus from the book. The actual number at this moment is 50 percent of the recipes in the vegetable chapter cooked so far are asparagus recipes. That’s a lot of asparagus! I used to actually hate this stuff. Well this was the last grilled asparagus option in the book so I figured why not give it a try. Sounded tasty!

The recipe is basically a grilled asparagus recipe with a vinaigrette added to it. I started by prepping the vinaigrette. And the very first step to that was to toast some sesame seeds. Toasting seeds… in fact toasting anything in this manner is something I had never done until I started this project. So as I toast each ingredient for the first time I am trying to figure out when something looks done and smells done. I think I may have done a good job with the sesame seeds. Of course I didn’t do anything else while they were toasting for fear they would quickly turn into something akin to tiny pieces of charcoal. Time really does crawl when watching something cook. I think paint drying is more exciting to watch.

Once the seeds were toasted I went to work on the rest of the vinaigrette. The recipe really should just be called, sesame vinaigrette. Along with the toasted sesame seeds, I added toasted sesame oil and tahini along with some olive oil. I also added some rice vinegar and of course some orange juice (freshly squeezed!). Once it was whisked together I took a little taste. I will withhold commenting until later. I let the vinaigrette rest while I finished grilling the asparagus.

Grilling asparagus on my new grill is much easier. They don’t seem to slip through the grate like they did on my old grill. The asparagus was tossed with some EVOO, salt and pepper before being placed on the grill. In about 7 minutes I have nice tender, tasty asparagus.

I then ruined it by pouring some vinaigrette on it.

Rating: B-. The only thing preventing this from being a C is that I like asparagus and it has a strong enough flavor to shine through the vinaigrette. The vinaigrette is strongly flavored of toasted sesame. It needs to be better balanced. I don’t know if it’s the ingredients I used but I ended up mixing in some more orange juice and that did seem to balance it out. I doubt I would make this again as written.

90. Peach Salsa

Date Cooked: July 31, 2009
Page: 584
Rating: A-

This was an accompaniment for the pork chops I had grilled from the previous post. I have watched on numerous cooking shows (especially those covering grilling) the use of fruit salsas with grilled meat. I have never actually made one until now.

It was a fairly simple recipe to make although I almost lost a finger in the process. While I could spin this story into a near tragedy I won’t, because I simply wasn’t paying attention and caught myself before a very sharp knife slid across my pinky. Two peaches were split and then chopped into large chunks. A red pepper and red onion were chopped fine and a jalapeno was minced. It was all tossed with some chopped parsley and garlic and some lime juice and pineapple juice.

This sat for about an hour while the pork chops marinated and cooked.

Rating: A. Absolutely delicious! The flavors went so well together and added a fresh layer of flavor to the pork chops! The peaches could have been riper but this was a great dish and I will prepare this in the future for serving with more grilled meats. The next day I had some more with the leftover pork chops and it was even better once the flavors mingled overnight.

87. Grilled Eggplant with Cherry Tomato and Cilantro Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: July 31, 2009
Page: 162
Rating: B+

I’m living the week as a pseudo-bachelor. My wife is away with my eldest on a vacation in Florida and I am at home ‘relaxing’ with my youngest. This actually translates into attempting to accomplish as many home renovation projects as time and money allows. I also figured this was a good time to cook items from the book that my wife would probably not enjoy. Anything with tomatoes is very low on her list of enjoyable menu options. I’m not the biggest fan of tomatoes either, but I have been making a conscious effort to change that. This project has been a big help in that goal. I’m still not looking forward to the recipes containing anchovies. That is going to be a challenge.

Eggplant is not the first vegetable I would go to when looking for something to pair with… well anything. I have had this aversion to it for no good reason. Maybe as a child the name turned me off and since it was never a childhood staple I have had no reason to try it. Awhile back I made a stir fry with it and I enjoyed it. But I had yet to eat it as the star of a dish. I figured now was a good time to change that, especially since this recipe was made for the grill.

Prepping the eggplant was as simple as slicing it into thick rounds and brushing them with garlic, oregano and olive oil. The vinaigrette on the other hand required a little more work. The cherry tomatoes were quartered and then I diced a shallot and minced some garlic. I roughly chopped some cilantro and everything was tossed with some olive oil and lime juice. I let the vinaigrette rest while I prepared the rest of the dinner.

Now I am getting much better on the grill but I still have a lot to learn, especially timing. I placed the eggplant on the hot grill and closed the lid. I figured that they should take about 8 minutes and I should probably flip them at the 4 minute mark. I would like to point out that my grill has hot spots and I am not talking about areas that are warmer. I have spots on my grill that that approach molten metal temperatures. After 4 four minutes several pieces were glowing red, but of course other pieces were beautifully grilled. So I flipped them all over and moved the pieces away from the molten sections of my grill. I only let them go a few more minutes before removing and plating.

I poured the vinaigrette over the eggplant and served.

Rating: B+ I really enjoyed the flavors of this dish. I didn’t even mind the tomatoes in it. This could almost of had an A- rating except that the skin of the grilled eggplant was extremely tough and detracted from the smooth texture of the eggplant. The best I could describe it would be like eating a cupcake and then biting into a hidden piece of the cupcake paper cup. Next time I’ll skin the eggplant and I am surprised it didn’t mention it in the book… then again maybe it did. I think I will double check that.

83. Grilled Asparagus with Grilled Lemon Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: July 7, 2009
Page: 134
Rating: B

My parents were down visiting for a week and now that we are into summer I am feeling the need to use the grill. And since I have done very few grilled recipes I figured this was a good time to start. We had several bunches of asparagus left over from a party we held on the weekend and tossing them on the grill would be a simple way to prepare them.

I started by tossing the trimmed asparagus in oil, salt and pepper. Once the grill was hot enough I placed them on to cook. I also added a halved lemon to the grill. While they were cooking I finely chopped some shallots and added them to a bowl with thyme, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and the juice from the grilled lemon. I whisked up the vinaigrette and drizzled it over the asparagus. Well drizzled is such a fine technique. I actually dropped clumps of shallots on the dish.

Rating: B. I enjoyed this preparation of asparagus but I had two complaints. The vinaigrette was very lemony, not bad just strong lemon flavor. In addition, the asparagus spears were thin and cooked rapidly on the grill. This would probably be better with thicker spears.

76. Steamed Asparagus with Ginger-Hoisin Vinaigrette

Date Cooked: April 8, 2009
Page: 131
Rating: B-

We were throwing together a quick meal and needed a vegetable to accompany it. We have an abundance of asparagus it the fridge for some reason so I figured some steamed asparagus would be a nice and easy recipe to cook. It definitely was easy.

Other than steaming the asparagus, I needed to whisk together several ingredients. Before I started this project I would not have been able to just throw this dish together. I would not have had most of these ingredients in my fridge. But I am slowly beginning to increase my pantry and fridge staples, which is a truly nice feeling.

I whisked together soy sauce, hoisin sauce, canola oil, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar and some minced ginger. I realized that I love the smell of fresh ginger. I always thought I disliked it. Not sure why. I honestly couldn’t tell you why I thought I had this hate-on for ginger. I just did. Then I took a big direct sniff of it and all the past hate melted away.

Once the ingredients were mixed they were drizzled over the asparagus and served.

Rating: B-. This was a very tough rating to decide on. I was leaning towards a C but my wife liked it. I wasn’t turned off by it, but the flavor was pronounced and I didn’t feel it was accentuated by the asparagus or that it improved the asparagus. It felt like a separate flavor entity wrapped around the asparagus flavor. Will I make this again… not as a dressing for steamed vegetables but maybe as part of a stir-fry or something.

75. French Fries

Date Cooked: April, 5, 2009
Page: 195
Rating: A-

Ever since I made the Buffalo Wings I was seriously in the market for a deep fryer. But I needed to have a good one that was easy to use and even easier to clean up. Well Canadian Tire had a sale on the T-Fal EZ Clean model and my wife and I broke down and bought it. So of course we had to break it in immediately and what else should you make but French fries.

Well this recipe was simple in theory but lengthy in first time execution. I started with potatoes… of which we had none, so I started with a trip to the closest grocery store. Inevitably, whenever I want to quickly grab something from the grocery store, that is when my son wants to come along. Regular trips to the grocery store are met with negotiations about the conditions under which he will come (he’s 5 and doesn’t accept that simply being his parents is reason enough.) While the run through the grocery store was quick, check out was a nightmare. We went through the self-checkout and every time I tried to pay, my son would sit on the scale, or grab a bag from the scale and the computer would freak-out that I was adding or taking away items. It literally took 7-8 attempts to get my son to remain motionless long enough for me to cash out. He was excited for French fries.

At home with potatoes in had I set to work. The potatoes got driven through the French fry cutter that came with the deep-fryer. That is the last time that gadget will ever see the light of day when it comes to making French fries. Thank god it came free. I can’t go into details about because I will end up rambling nonsensical crap as my blood pressure rises. If you took your dullest butter knife and then tried to cut potatoes with its handle, that would approximate its cutting efficiency.

Once the potatoes had been transformed into fry shapes I rinsed them in water to remove the excess starch and then let them soak in ice water for 30 minutes. Once bath time was over they were thoroughly dried. As they were being dried I was heating up the oil for round one. I had a lot of fries so I split them into two batches. This actually worked out well because I could cook the second batch while the first batch was resting between oil immersions.

The fries were cooked at 320°F for about 10 minutes. They were limp and yellow. The oil was heated to 375°F and the fries were cooked a second time for about 5 minutes until golden brown and crispy. The fries were laid out on paper towel and then liberally coated in salt and pepper and then served to a hungry family.

Rating: A- Everyone loved them. They turned out really nice for a first attempt at fries and I look forward to cooking them more often. The best recipe book is particular about resting times and such but with experience I think I could whip these out fairly quick. Especially since after round one you can actually freeze them.

** The vinegar in the background is from Mr. Vinegar. We picked up several bottles of flavored vinegars from them in the fall when we attended the One of a Kind show in Toronto. The spring show just finished up last weekend. I highly recommend them. I never knew how good vinegar could taste.

59. Polenta with Parmesan and Butter

Date Cooked: January 25, 2009
Page: 226
Rating: C

I was a little intimidated about this recipe. I’ve heard all the stories of polenta turning out clumpy because the corn meal was added to quick and I was concerned. Did I need to be?

Polenta is not exactly the pinnacle of complex food. Water, corn meal and some spices make up the basic dish. But it is a heavily technique based recipe. I started by bringing water to a boil in my dutch oven. Once boiling away I added some salt before slowly (very slowly) pouring in the corn meal. Once all the corn meal was added I was surprised. It went well and the result was rather uniform with no discernable lumps. Okay so I relaxed, this wasn’t too tough.

The book recommends a vigorous stir every 5 minutes for about 10 seconds. Repeat for 30 minutes. In the beginning this worked fine but as I was approaching the end of the cooking time the polenta began to firm up fast when suddenly it was sticking to the bottom. I stirred that polenta like I was mixing paint, and while a large blob splashed from the pot onto the floor, most of it quickly smoothed back out. Disaster narrowly avoided.

Once the polenta was finished (or as close to finished as I could figure out) I mixed in a good portion of grated parmesan and some generous pieces of butter. I stirred until the butter incorporated and then served.

Rating: C. I was not happy with this. It tasted too… raw? It didn’t feel smooth like I had hoped it would. I used the recommended stone ground medium cornmeal but I think a fine grind might have made it smoother. I’ll try again in the future since there are several polenta variations but I really hope they get better.

58. Sugar Snap Peas with Pine Nuts and Garlic

Date Cooked: January 25, 2009
Page: 173
Rating: B+

My memories of peas for the most part include horrible nightmares of brown mushy canned peas. I don’t recall eating them at home much but my grandmother always served them and I really loathed them. Although it has been many years since I was exposed to the unpleasant smell of those little gross peas every time I think peas, I think canned. Then slowly the vibrant green of frozen peas works its way in. The only other type of pea I have in memory are snow peas. In fact I always thought that sugar snap peas and snow peas were the same. Never gave it much thought… until I decided to buy sugar snap peas. Turns out they are different. In fact sugar snap peas look like beans. So on this day I had learned that peas come in one more form for my memory to store. And after this recipe I am really hoping that when I think peas I think sugar snap.

This was a rather straight forward recipe. My wife tediously snipped the tips of the peas and then they were quickly blanched. I am not a good judge of timing (as I have bemoaned often in the past) so the peas might have been cooked a tad too long. They received a nice dunk in an ice water bath before being spread out on some paper towel to dry.

Since I was preparing a full diner that night from the book, they were able to sit for a bit until they were ready to be finished off. Into a skillet of oil with toasted pine nuts and garlic they were sautéed until warmed through and then plated to be served.

Rating: B+. These were very good and accompanied the meal well. I will make these again. I’ve also determined that I like pine nuts. Something up until this point I don’t really recall eating before.

56. Roasted Baby Carrots with Rosemary, Thyme, and Shallots

Date Cooked: January 21, 2009
Page: 151
Rating: C

I needed a side dish for some chicken cacciatore that I was preparing and carrots seemed like a nice earthy vegetable to accompany it. Roasted baby carrots seemed very easy to prepare since I would be preoccupied with the chicken dish.

Rosemary, thyme, shallots, oil and salt were tossed with the carrots and then put in a roasting pan and into the oven. Baby carrots are tough. The carrots were supposed to be roasted for 20 minutes but it took nearly 35 minutes until they were ‘done’. Even then they weren’t really tender.

Rating: C. The shallots and herbs were well done before the carrots were tender enough to eat. Not sure if the quality of the vegetables is to blame but I’m not sure how this could have been improved without partly cooking the carrots first and then reducing the roasting time. It had potential and I have three more variations to try it out on

48. Roasted Potatoes

Date Cooked: December 25, 2008
Page: 185
Rating: B

I’ve been so busy that I actually I forgot I had cooked these from the Book and only realized I had these to post when I retrieved all my holiday pictures off my camera. So I get to post about this instead of the delicious soup that I was ready to post about. Mmmm… I’m not a big soup fan but I sure ate a lot of this particular soup… but more about that soon enough. Today we are going to discuss the Roasted Potatoes.

Growing up I was not a potato fan. We ate a lot of potatoes and unfortunately they weren’t always that special. So I always assumed potatoes to be a bland stomach filler. Every once and awhile though we had these awesome roasted potatoes, and I had hope to recapture that. Let’s see if I could surpass a memory.

This dish is pretty simple. Cut up potatoes. Toss potatoes in oil, salt and peeper. Peeper? I think I meant pepper. Then spread them out in a single layer on a shallow roasting pan (or in my case a stone baking sheet). Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then uncover and bake for 15 minutes. Then flip the potatoes and bake an additional 15 minutes. Then put them in a bowl to serve. Simple.

Of course because this was for Christmas dinner I had a ton of potatoes to cook and they were crammed in pretty tight on two baking sheets. Flipping them resulted in numerous potato casualties as they kept hitting the floor.

This particular recipe did highlight something I truly need to work on. Portion size. Christmas dinner was for 7 adults and two young children. I think I made enough potatoes for 20 people… If all they ate were potatoes. But of course who eats only potatoes for a meal besides the Irish (my wife’s family is Irish so I can get away with saying that.) We had 8lbs of prime rib roast along with vegetable dishes and some truly sickening deserts (and I mean sickening in a gloriously indulgent way.) I should not have doubled the recipe, I probably could have halved the original. None of this would have been an issue except that we left the next day for a weeks holiday. Anyway I am rambling I think.

Rating: B. These potatoes turned out nice. They were crispy on the outside and nice and tender on the inside. They probably would have been a bit crispier if they hadn’t been crowded on the baking sheet. Otherwise these are pretty standard fare and will probably be made again many times as a food staple. Oh yeah, did they remind me of the roasted potatoes from my childhood… no, I haven’t achieved that, then again everything is better in your memory than in reality.