Monthly Archives: April 2010

Spicy Pasta and Sausage Bake

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Currently cooking from The Best Simple Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen

I have officially started divorce proceedings against Bryan so I can marry this book. Wait, I was raised Mormon, so maybe I can marry them both. What? That only works for men? Damn.

I could go on and on about this dish. It was spicy (but not burn your mouth spicy like the orange beef was) and creamy, cheesy and gooey. It easily made enough for four main courses and it was all done in one pan. Yes, you heard that right. You brown the chorizo, make the sauce and cook the pasta in the same pan. Genius.

And leftovers were just as good as it was on the first day.

The dish begins by browning a pound of chorizo and an onion. Next you stir in chicken broth, Ro-Tel tomatoes, cream and penne pasta and bring it all to a boil. Once the liquid is boiling, you simmer the dish until the pasta is tender. To finish it off, you stir in a half of a cup of pepper Jack cheese, then sprinkle more cheese over the top. This gets put under the broiler until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

My only concern with this dish is that the recipe tells you to halve and slice the chorizo sausage. In the past, when I’ve tried to do this with chorizo, I ended up with a reddish-brown sludge as the chorizo fell apart. This time, I browned the chorizo sausages first, and then cut them as directed. This way, the sausage was cooked enough to hold it’s shape when sliced. It worked perfectly.

Chicken with Pesto-Mushroom Cream Sauce

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I’m running out of superlatives for this cookbook. Here’s another extremely easy, extremely good recipe.

You start out by browning skinless, boneless chicken breasts in a skillet. Once the chicken is browned, you remove it to a plate and add a bunch of mushrooms to the empty skillet and cook them until browned. Then you add cream, chicken broth, garlic and the chicken breasts back into the skillet and simmer until the chicken is cooked through.

Once the chicken is done, you stir in pesto and lemon juice and serve, preferably over rice so none of the creamy, pesto-y sauce goes to waste. That’s it. Really.

Chinese Orange Beef

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Currently cooking from The Best Simple Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen

As I went to make this dish, I realized that I didn’t have any Asian chili-garlic sauce. What I did have was some Sriracha sauce. I checked the ingredients and it (the sriracha sauce) had chili and garlic in it, so I figured it would work. And it did. This dish was good. Orangey and beefy. And spicy.

Spicy. Spicy. SPICY! OH MY GOD MY MOUTH IS BURNING!

Upon reflection, maybe I shouldn’t have used the full amount of chili sauce the recipe called for.

That little point aside, I really liked this dish. Like the rest of the recipes I’ve tried out of this book, this one was quick and easy. You start by searing slices of flank steak in a hot skillet. While the beef is browning, you make a sauce by mixing orange juice and orange zest, brown sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce, fresh ginger, cornstarch and the aforementioned Asian chili-garlic sauce. When the meat is done, you simmer the sauce until it thickens, then add the beef back in.

BAM! THIS IS REALLY GOOD EVEN THOUGH MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE!

Note to self: Less Sriracha sauce next time.

Thin-Cut Pork Chops with Creamed Spinach

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Currently cooking from The Best Simple Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen

There’s nothing surprising about this dish. Thin-cut pork chops get seared in a hot skillet and then set aside. Spinach is added to the now empty skillet to wilt and pick up all the brown crusty bits left by the pork. A quick cream sauce of flour, cream and chicken broth is made in the pan with the spinach, then poured over the pork chops.

Nothing surprising, but pretty good, especially since the whole thing is done in less than 30 minutes. The pork chops I bought from the supermarket looked mangled, with one side much thinner than the other, but they worked fine. The tin side got a bit dry, but with the sauce from the spinach, you couldn’t really tell.

I’ve never had creamed spinach before, but it was good. I liked that the sauce was thickened with flour and only had 1/2 cup of cream in it. The only change I’d make is to serve the pork chops over something to absorb the sauce. Rice, quinoa or bulgar all would work.

Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce

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I love hummus. And hummus is made with chickpeas. So I was sure I’d like these vegetarian patties made primarily with the beans. I wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t love them. I did, however, love the cucumber-yogurt sauce.

The patties are made by crushing two cans of chickpeas and mixing in eggs, bread crumbs, scallions, spices and a shallot. The mixture is formed into patties and fried in a little bit of olive oil.

The patties had okay flavor and a nice meaty texture, but they were a bit dry. Especially on the second day, when I reheated several in the microwave.

The real star of the recipe, the yogurt sauce, is simply shredded, drained cucumbers mixed with scallions and plain Greek yogurt. Some sort of alchemy takes place, as this sauce becomes greater than its parts. Without the sauce, this recipe would be boring.

Skillet Shepherd’s Pie

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My second recipe out of this book is another winner. Shepherd’s pie make with frozen hashbrowns. Genius. And mighty tasty as well.

You start off by browning ground beef and onions in a large skillet. Once the meat is no longer pink, you stir in flour and beef broth to make a simple gravy. To finish off the filling, a package of frozen peas and carrots are stirred in (the recipe calls for thawing the veggies, but I was lazy and simply microwaved them for a few minutes; they were fine.).

As you are cooking the filling, a package of frozen hashbrowns gets nuked until they are tender. Once the filling is done, you sprinkle the potatoes over the filling and then broil the dish until the hashbrowns are browned and crispy.

So easy! And the entire dish only took about 30 minutes. Sigh. I love this book.

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

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Currently cooking from The Best Simple Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen

I might be in love. With this cookbook.

I had originally planned to do a cake and/or a cookie book next, but then I found this one. I’ve always had really good luck with Cooks Illustrated recipes (although they can be kind of fiddly and complicated, sometimes), and a quick glance through the pages of this book showed me a bunch of recipes I really wanted to try. In fact, I don’t think I’ve found one yet that I didn’t think looked good.

Oh wait. There was a tofu recipe in there. Okay, so far, only one recipe that doesn’t sound that good to me.

So the first recipe up to bat was this chicken and broccoli casserole. It was fast. It was easy. It was good. Score! My only problem was I wished I had served it over some rice to sop up the sauce. The only change I made to the recipe was to use a full can of chicken broth, rather than just the one cup called for. My sauce started thickening up too much.

You start off by sauteing skinless, boneless chicken breasts until browned on both sides. Then you toss a diced onion into the pan to soften. Once the onion has softened and started to brown, you stir in some flour, then chicken broth, cream and sherry and cook until the sauce starts to thicken. The chicken breasts go back into the sauce to finish cooking. Once the chicken is done, you move the meat to a casserole dish and stir partially cooked broccoli and parmesan cheese into the sauce. That gets poured over the chicken breasts. Everything is topped off with more parmesan cheese and the whole thing gets broiled until browned.

I have a good feeling about this book.

Sticky Lemon Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

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Lemon with cream cheese. What’s not to love? These rolls are cinnamon rolls for people who don’t like cinnamon. Or for people who like lemon. Or for people. And maybe aliens.

Seriously, these are good. The sweet, tangy filling is encased by a soft, just slightly sweet yeasty bread. The lemon flavor is everywhere. There’s lemon zest in the dough. The filling is made up of sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. And the cream cheese glaze has lemon juice in it.

You can find the recipe here.