Pork Chops with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

So far, this cookbook is giving it’s sister, The Best Simple Recipe, a run for its money. I haven’t come across a clunker yet, and this recipe was no exception.

The star of the dish is the roasted red pepper sauce, based on the classic Spanish sauce called romesco. You take roasted red peppers (from a jar), sliced almonds, a slice of white bread, water, garlic, olive oil and a bit of cayenne pepper and process them in a food processor until the sauce is smoothish and creamy. The sauce is served over pork chops that have been sauteed on the stovetop. Roasted cauliflower dusted in paprika rounds out the meal.

The red pepper sauce is tangy with just the barest hint of heat from the cayenne pepper. You can taste the almonds and the garlic, but neither flavor overwhelms. This recipe makes a lot of sauce, so I’ve been using it on grilled chicken and to add flavor to rice. This is an easy way to perk up just about anything, I think.

The only thing I didn’t like about the dish was the cauliflower. I didn’t like the paprika, and will continue to roast my cauliflower seasoned simply with salt and pepper.

Quick White Wine-Braised Chicken and Potatoes

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

I really liked this dish. It was fast and easy, just as advertised. My only beef is that I would have preferred chicken breast meat to chicken thighs. I find I’m not much of a thigh person these days.

The dish starts out by microwaving small red potatoes until they are tender. This is one of those I-can’t-believe-I-didn’t-think-of-this tips that I will use forever more. It’s much easier and faster than waiting for water to boil.

Anyway, while the potatoes are microwaving, you brown the chicken thighs that you’ve cut in half and seasoned with salt and pepper. The chicken gets set aside, and using the same pan, you cook carrots and leeks until they are tender. Wine is used to deglaze the pan, after which the chicken and any accumulated juices are added back to the pan. The pan is covered and the chicken simmers until it is done. The chicken, carrots and leeks are transferred to another plate, along with the potatoes, so you can reduce the remaining liquid to build the sauce. Once the liquid has thickened slightly, you stir in creme fraiche (or sour cream if you are me), lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. The sauce is poured over the chicken, carrots, leeks and potatoes and everything is stirred together and seasoned to taste.

As I said above, both Bryan and I really enjoyed this dish. It was filling and reheated very well. The only change I would make next time, besides using chicken breasts instead of thighs, would be to cut down on the amount of meat. It felt like there was too much meat compared to the amount of veggies.

Streaks with Citrus-Soy Pan Sauce and Slaw

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

I’ve found cooking (not baking, but cooking) with oranges to be hit or miss. Sometimes the dish gets overwhelmed by an orangey-furniture polish taste and smell. Or it is simply bitter from the orange zest. That was my main concern with this dish, but fortunately, it worked.

This one is pretty simple. You make a simple dressing of soy sauce, orange zest and juice, vinegar and ginger. This dressing does double duty by being the basic dressing for some bagged broccoli slaw and then, with the addition of some butter, becoming a pan sauce for steaks.

First, the slaw. This is one of those side dishes that comes together very quickly but is really tasty. The recipe calls for adding edamame to some bagged broccoli slaw, which is convenient. Unfortunately, all of the broccoli slaw in my grocery store looked old, so I made my own by simply mixing together broccoli, cabbage and shredded carrots. The dressing has a hint of Asian flavors, especially with a bit of sesame oil added to the dressing portion. The vinegar softened up the cabbage and the broccoli, toning down their raw bite. It even held up well overnight.

The steaks are simply pan-fried, and a portion of the dressing (minus the sesame oil) is reduced in the same pan. Once the sauce is reduced, you take it off the heat and swirl in a few pats of butter. The butter enriches and thickens the sauce and makes it seem a little more luxurious.

The flavors in this dish were bright and fun. The pan sauce was easy to make, but really added a lot of flavor to the steak. For me, the slaw was the highlight of the meal and could easily stand on its own. I can see slicing the steak and adding to the slaw, or even using leftover chicken to make it a stand-alone meal. This dish was definitely a winner.

Thai-Style Fish and Creamy Coconut Rice Packets

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

Here we go again; another America’s Test Kitchen offering. When I first picked up this book, I was worried that it was just a repeat of their other books, such as The Best Simple Recipes. I’ve heard that other people have found repeat recipes, but I haven’t come across any. And even if I do, I think there are enough new ones to keep me interested and make the purchase of this book worthwhile.

Simple Weeknight Favorites is full of quick, weeknight meals, along with scads of tips and quick side dishes. In fact, those side dishes might be my favorite part of the book; I’m always looking for (easy) ways to make side dishes more interesting and varied. As Bryan has pointed out on occasion, there’s only so many times you can eat microwaved frozen peas before they get boring.

This was the first dish I tried out of the book. I was looking for something a little different, and this caught my eye because of the cooking method: en papillote, or in a pouch. Translated into Trista speak, that really means fewer dishes! In addition, I thought the flavors sounded interesting.

The pouches came together very quickly. You start by mounding quick-cooking or ready rice in the middle of sheets of tinfoil. A fish fillet (the recipe called for cod or halibut but I used tillapia) is placed on top, and a mixture made with rice vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, coconut milk, cilantro, fish sauce, garlic and ginger is spooned over it. The  pouches are sealed and then baked for about 20 minutes.

The fish came out tender and flavorful, with no trace of fishiness. The sauce mixture thickened and coated the rice, with the coconut milk making it creamy and muting the heat from the red pepper flakes. I did find the sauce a little sweet, so I’d cut down on the amount of sugar, probably by half. As per usual, I only used about half of the ginger called for and didn’t miss it at all. And the best part? One little, lonely pot to wash.

I can already tell that I’m gonna like this book.

Wrap-up — Cook This Now by Melissa Clark

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As with Clark’s other book, In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite, I struggled to find recipes in this book that appealed to me. Don’t get me wrong, the book is wonderful to read, and all of the recipes sound delicious. I love how the book is organized by months, with an emphasis on cooking with what is in season. Its just that few of the recipes inspired me, and I can’t exactly tell you why. I suspect that part of it is just in the way I cook. While I can have 10 different chocolate chip cookie recipes, I only want one recipe for quick, weeknight chicken breasts. And my sides are usually a steamed veggie or a salad. Most of Clark’s recipes call for a little more effort than that, as well as ingredients that I don’t readily keep on hand. That being said, I did like this book better than In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite.

My favorite recipes were:

Coconut Fudge Brownies — While my search to make a gluten-free version of these brownies has been stymied, the original version is hands-down one of my favorite brownie recipes. Fudgy, coconutty and decadent don’t even begin to describe them.

White Bean Stew with Rosemary, Garlic and Farro — Simple, cheap and filling, but tasty. Forget the farro; this stew is hearty enough on its own.

Chile-Coconut Braised Short Ribs — Tender, succulent pieces of meat bathed in a rich sauce. You can’t really go wrong.

My least favorite dishes were:

Butter Whole Wheat Paratha — These tasted like wheat crackers, but without the crunch. Or the flavor.

Barley with Carrots, Scallions and Maybe Parmesan — This was bland. So bland, I can hardly remember anything else about it.

Wrap-up — In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark

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I held off on writing this wrap-up post, hoping that I’d find the time and/or energy to make a few more dishes from this book. Unfortunately, neither time nor energy found their way to me, and I’m ready to move on.

In the Kitchen is a well written book that is fun to read. Most of the dishes I made came together quickly with directions that were clear and easy to follow. That being said, I struggled to find recipes that appealed to me.

First, my favorite dishes:

Spicy, Garlicky Cashew Chicken — I’ve made this dish several times since I first tried it, and each time it was as good as I remembered (ahem, as long as you don’t overcook the chicken). Grilling weather is almost here, and I have a feeling that this will be even better over the grill instead of under the broiler.

Easy Stovetop Macaroni, Peas, Bacon and Cheese a la Jamie Oliver — Probably the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever made. This dish isn’t swimming in a gooey cheese sauce, nor is it day-glo orange.

My least favorite dishes:

Roasted Eggplant — This one isn’t Clark’s fault. I just don’t like eggplant.

Dahlia’s Fragrant Chicken Fingers — Another recipe that I didn’t like due more to my tastes than anything else.

Coconut Fudge Brownies Updated. Again.

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Although I haven’t been doing much baking or cooking these last few weeks, I did find time to give the coconut fudge brownie gluten-free experiment another couple of tries.

If you remember, the last experiment had me replacing all of the flour with almond meal. While these brownies were to die for warm, they were pretty greasy cold. So for my next try, I decided to try using different kinds of flours. I’ve been seeing bags of coconut flour in the store. These brownies have a theme going, so what the heck. I used roughly one part almond meal to three parts coconut flour (I say roughly, because I forgot to write the exact amounts down. I know. Bad blogger.)

Anyway, these brownies bombed. The coconut flour soaked up all the available liquid and made the brownies pretty dry. In addition, they had a very chalky, gritty texture from the flour. Bryan and I each took one bite and threw the rest away.

A few days later, I was reading one of my favorite gluten-free blogs where Shauna was talking about using teff flour in her brownies. The next day, I came home from the store with my own bag of teff flour.

For my next batch of brownies, I used the same ratio of teff flour to almond meal. These brownies weren’t greasy. They were just the tiniest bit gritty, but not overwhelmingly so. Still, they tasted kind of flat. These brownies didn’t go straight into the trashcan like the coconut flour brownies did, but they did linger in the fridge for almost a week before we finished them. Usually, that’s a sign that we don’t love something.

I’d like to give Shauna’s brownies a shot, as well as a couple more gluten-free brownie recipes that I’ve seen lately. We’ll see how motivated I am in the next few weeks.

Cooking Doldrums, Part 2

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Super Chunky Granola from Cook’s Illustrated, March/April 2012. Even though I thought I had found my perfect granola, I couldn’t pass this recipe up without at least giving it a shot. And I’m glad I did, because it has become my new favorite. I’ve been making a batch of this almost every week for the past month.

As far as granola recipes go, this one is standard. You mix rolled oats and nuts in brown sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. The mixture is spread out on a cookie sheet and baked until golden brown. The secret here, I think, is in the proportion of liquids to solids, as well as in the fact that you don’t stir the granola as it is baking. What you end up with is a solid sheet of granola that isn’t greasy or too sweet. The granola is easy to break up into chunks.

I’ve melded this recipe with my previous favorite. I sub in a cup of unsweetened coconut flakes for a cup of the oatmeal. I also add a tablespoon of cinnamon and whatever nuts (besides almonds) that I happen to have around, usually pumpkin seeds and cashews.

The Best Cinnamon Swirl Bread also from Cook’s Illustrated, March/April 2012. I didn’t actually make this recipe, only the technique it describes to create a gorgeously swirled cinnamon bread that doesn’t gap. I used my go-to, multi-grain sourdough bread that is full of seeds and nuts. I could easily eat a whole loaf by myself.

And finally . . .

Preserved Lemons from various websites. Back in February, I found myself with an abundance of lemons. I’ve been reading about preserving them in salt, so I decided to give it a try. Two months later and I’m ready to use them. Unfortunately, I don’t know what to make with them, so any suggestions would be appreciated. They are fantastically salty and bitter, unless you cut away the pith. Actually, to be honest, I have no idea if this is how they are supposed to taste or not.

Cooking Doldrums, Part 1

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I’ve been feeling uninspired by my current cookbooks and am thinking it may be time to move on to something new. Until I decide, I thought I’d show you what I have been cooking/baking from.

Cuban Black Beans and Rice from Cook’s Illustrated, March/April 2011 issue. I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for more than a year, but the issue got shoved to the bottom of my to-try recipes. I forgot about it until just a few weeks ago when Bryan mentioned that he’d like to try a black bean/rice dish. Thank god he said something, because this dish was spectacular.

You cook dried black beans with half of a green bell pepper, half  of an onion and garlic. The vegetables infuse the beans and the cooking liquid with tons of flavor. When the beans are tender, you drain them, saving the liquid and throwing away the veggies. Next you take more garlic, green bell pepper and onion, chop them up fine and saute them in bacon grease until they have softened. The black beans, their cooking liquid and rice is stirred into the pot and the whole thing bakes until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is tender.

If you think black beans and rice is boring, you have to try this recipe. My mouth is watering just thinking about how good it was.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread also from Cook’s Illustrated, March/April 2011 issue. I was intrigued by this recipe because the whole point was to pack as much whole wheat flavor into the bread as possible without making it coarse and dry.

The recipe starts off by having you soak wheat germ in milk overnight. At the same time, you make a preferment (or biga or starter) with most of the flour, water and yeast and let it sit overnight to develop flavor. The next day, you mix up the soaked wheat germ, the preferment, honey, butter, salt and vegetable oil into a smooth dough, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, punch it down, form it into loaves, let those loaves rise and then bake the bread.

The recipe delivers on what it promises. You end up with two loaves of bread, packed with whole wheat flavor, that are light and tender, perfect for toast or sandwiches. I found it boring. I wanted nuts or seeds, something to interrupt the softness of the bread. I also wanted a sourdough tang.

Coconut Fudge Brownies Updated

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I took another shot at making these brownies as gluten-free as possible. This time around, I reduced the flour to a quarter of the total and made the rest up in almond meal. Unfortunately, this version was quite greasy; I think I’ve hit the limit as to how much I can reduce the flour. This version’s flavor was good, still dense, extremely moist and chocolatey. The almond flavor was quite pronounced, but that was a good thing.

I took a small bite of the brownies while they were still warm, and I just about died because it was so good. They were almost like a molten lava cake, but with a little more chew thanks to all the coconut in them. I may have said this once or twice, but if you served the brownies warm, over ice cream, you’d have a hit. Knowing that I’d never be able to cut the brownies while they were warm, or even at room temperature, I stuck them in the fridge until they were cold. This is where I started seeing some of the greasiness.

At this point, I could try reducing the coconut oil and/or butter and leave the flour to almond meal ratio the same, but I think I might try using some other flours, either rice flour or coconut flour, and taking the ratio back up to half flour and half almond meal.

Stay tuned.