Currently cooking from In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark

We are broccoli eaters around here, so I was intrigued by this recipe when I saw it. You cut up a couple heads of broccoli into bite-sized pieces, then toss them with salt and red wine vinegar. While the broccoli marinates, you heat olive oil with garlic and cumin seed, stir in sesame oil and a pinch of red pepper flakes and pour the whole thing over the broccoli and vinegar and let it sit for an hour to so at room temperature. The hot oil softens the florets just enough that they aren’t raw crunchy, and the vinegar adds a welcome acidity, cutting the richness of the oil. Although the broccoli will continue to soften as it sits, it will remain perfectly toothsome for several days in the refrigerator.

This is a nice change from my usual roasting or steaming method. I did have to add about twice as much vinegar as the recipe called for as there wasn’t enough to coat my broccoli, but I found that I liked having a stronger vinegar flavor. I’ve made this twice, and found that the smaller I cut the broccoli, the softer it gets. The second time I made this, I cut down a bit on the amount of cumin called for and still thought there was too much. Don’t leave out the red pepper flakes. They add just a touch of heat that contrasts nicely with the cold broccoli.

Roasted cauliflower. A sauce made of sauteed onions, garlic, lemon juice and tahini (ground sesame seeds). It was quick and easy,  little bitter from the tahini and a lot sour from the lemon juice. I didn’t get pictures because we ate it too fast (and it looked pretty ugly).

I could tell you how easy this was, but I’ve already done that with most of the other recipes out of this book. I could tell you how tasty it is, but I’ve done that with just about every other dish out of this book as well.

Instead, I’ll just say, “Go make this. You won’t be disappointed.”

Chicken cutlets are covered in flour, dipped in egg and coated in a mixture of panko bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese. Then you saute the chicken in a bit of olive oil, a couple of minutes per side.

While the chicken is cooking, cut up some tomatoes (the recipe called for cherry tomatoes, but I used small regular tomatoes and quartered them) and chop some fresh basil. Toss the tomatoes with the basil, olive oil and salt and pepper.

When the chicken is done, serve it with a pile of the tomato salad. So good.

Currently cooking out of Make It Fast, Cook It Slow by Stephanie O’Dea

These smelled yummy as they were cooking, but the final product was just okay. For me, these veggies were an excuse to consume massive amounts of sour cream.

It wasn’t pretty.

The dish is pretty simple. You cut a small green cabbage into wedges and toss it with chunked potatoes, garlic, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. The lot gets slow cooked until the potatoes are tender, which in my slow cooker took about 6 hours on low.

The vinegar flavor didn’t really come through, so if you like vinegar, I’d up the amount. Also, I wouldn’t core the cabbage wedges as my wedges fell completely apart. I ended up fishing out bits of cabbage from the potatoes.

Here’s the link to the recipe on O’Dea’s blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/roasted-cabbage-and-potatoes-in.html

So when I told Bryan that I was making baked potatoes in the slow cooker, he laughed at me. I was a little skeptical myself, because, come on, baked potatoes in the slow cooker? Why not just microwave them?

I’m still not convinced that just baking potatoes in a slow cooker is the easiest way to go, but I gotta say, these potatoes were fantastic! They were garlicky, smoky and moist, not the least bit dry. And any excuse I have for eating tons of sour cream is a big hit with me.

You start off by cutting the potatoes almost all the way through, about every inch. Into those cuts, you put thin slices of garlic. Salt, pepper, olive oil and butter are sprinkled and poured on the potatoes. Then, slow cook the spuds until tender. In my slow cooker, that took about 4 hours.

Baked potatoes. Slow cooker. Who woulda thought?

Here’s the link to the recipe on O’Dea’s blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-garlic-baked-potatoes.html

Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Thanksgiving left me with a surplus of celery, so I took a suggestion from a commentor and tried Stevens’ braised celery recipe.

You start off by trimming and cleaning a bunch of celery stalks and making a celery stock with the trimmings. The stock is poured over the celery stalks and then braised for just over an hour. Once the celery stalks are tender, you top them with bread crumbs and gruyere cheese and bake the dish until the cheese is melted and the top is crunchy and brown.

Honestly, this was a little too much celery-ish for me. I ate a couple of the stalks, then just picked the topping off the rest. The dish felt very one dimensional (celery!) to me, even with the flavorful topping. In a book full of really good dishes, this one was disappointing.

Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

I’m on the fence about this vegetable dish. I didn’t love it or hate it. It made a nice side to hamburgers, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to make it again. To me, cauliflower tastes best when simply roasted with salt and pepper.

In Stevens’ recipe, you start out by frying traditional Indian spices such as cumin, coriander, ginger and tumeric in vegetable oil. Then cauliflower, potatoes and water are added to the spices and braised until the veggies are tender. At the end of the braise, peas are added to the dish.

Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

You can’t get much simpler than this side dish. It packs a flavor punch without much work.

Leeks and potatoes are braised in chicken stock until tender. Then, cream is poured over the veggies and baked until the whole thing is bubbly brown. At the end, you’re rewarded with nicely browned potatoes that are soft and creamy inside. The leeks seem to meld with the cream, contributing a sweet, faint oniony taste.

Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

During a visit to our local food warehouse store, I stumbled across some Brussels sprouts. Recalling that there was a recipe for Brussels sprouts in Stevens’ book, I threw a bag into our cart.

On a side note, I’ve always called them brussel sprouts, but my dictionary primly informs me that the correct spelling is Brussels sprouts. Throwing that extra “s” in there twists my tongue up.

These braised Brussels sprouts are easy to make and easy to eat. You trim the stem and any ragged outer leaves off the little guys and cut them into quarters. The sprouts are browned in some butter before being braised into sweet meltingness in heavy cream. Once the sprouts are tender, you season them with salt and pepper and lemon juice. Then you eat as many as you can before your husband gets home and wants to share them.

On a side note, taking pictures of braised food is much more challenging then I thought. Although the picture of the cooked sprouts looks like something the cat might have coughed up, it really did taste good.

My next book goes hand-in-hand with fall and winter. All About Braising was made for long, cold evenings, when your body craves slow-cooked comfort food. I love to make these kind of dishes, where you do a little prep work at the beginning, but the majority of the time, the dish bubbles away either on the stovetop or in the oven, unattended.

According to Stevens, braising is basically putting food into a heavy pot with a little bit of liquid, covering the pot and gently simmering everything until it is tender. By cooking food in a covered pot, all the liquid that the food releases is trapped, so it mingles with the braising liquid, creating a flavorful sauce. In addition, by cooking the food slowly and gently, you can use tougher, cheaper cuts of meat that tend to turn dry and stringy when cooked in other ways (think pot roast).

This is another book I’ve had for some time, but hardly ever used (probably because there are no baking recipes in it). The one and only recipe I’ve made from it is this green cabbage dish. I don’t have a picture because I forgot to charge my camera battery. So just imagine a pile of light green cabbage wedges, lightly charred and draped with soft onions and dotted with chunks of carrots. Yes, this dish is as good as it sounds.

You start by coring and cutting a green cabbage into eight wedges. The cabbage is arranged, in a single layer, in a 13″x9″ dish. Over the top of the cabbage, you scatter a sliced onion and a carrot cut into rounds (I usually use 3-4 carrots, because those are my favorite part of this dish). The whole dish is drizzled with olive oil and chicken stock and seasoned with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. You cover the dish with tinfoil and  braise the vegetables in the oven for two hours. At the end of the braising time, you remove the tinfoil and cook the dish for another 15-20 minutes, just until the vegetables start to brown.

This dish is good warm or at room temperature and is even better the second day.