Cookbook challenge

Tiny Trees in a Giant’s Bowl

2024-02-08T23:36:30Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Another recipe from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins. I almost didn’t post this one, since it is essentially just steamed broccoli and a simple sauce, but it was a good sauce and should be shared.

Tiny Trees in a Giant’s Bowl
Serves 4 to 6
2 bunches broccoli (about 2 pounds total), trimmed to look like miniature trees
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fish sauce

Bring about an inch of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the broccoli, lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, or until bright green. The stalks should be soft enough to poke a form through. Drain well.

In the biggest bowl you have, combine the hot broccoli, salt, fish sauce, and butter, tossing the broccoli and shaking the bowl to melt the butter. Serve.

Notes:
I have a steamer, so I used that.

The sauce was very good, but I feel like it could have used less salt.

When I make it again, I will probably melt the butter before mixing it in with the broccoli.

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Purple Soup

2024-02-07T23:43:49Z

Posted by: spiralicious

This is another recipe from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins

Purple Soup

Serves 6

2 tablespoons butter
½ cup roughly chopped yellow onion
2 medium raw beets (about 8 ounces total), roughly chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
2 medium yellow potatoes (about 12 ounces total), roughly chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
1 large carrot, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
Sea salt to taste
4 cups water
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sour cream for garnish

Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Toss in the onion and cook until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add your chopped veggies, salt, and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, or until the beets are very soft.

Let the soup cool slightly before pouring it from the pot into a blender. Blend until ultrasmooth and purple.

Return the blended soup to the pot and add the lemon juice. Stir and adjust the seasoning. Serve the soup in mugs or 6-ounce ramekins.

Kid’s job! Swirl in sour cream to create a purple fuchsia cyclone.

Notes:
My onion I had saved for this had gone off and it was storming out, so I subbed in onion powder. I don’t remember how I calculated it, but I came up with 1 ½ tablespoons.

I also used just under a half a cup of extra beets because I had that much left over and I wasn’t going to waste it.

My blender is not big enough to handle this much soup at once, so I had to do it in batches. It makes quite the extra mess. If I do it again, I am going to try using the potato masher and see how that turns out.

The beets I had defied all color logic and were no where near the any color normally associated with beets and were instead blood red. Everyone I sent a picture to with no context asked if I was making soup from the blood of my enemies for dinner, except one who wondered what “hella spicy” sauce I had conjured up. So just know that is a possible visual outcome.

Taste wise, it was quite good. It tasted most like buttered baked beets.

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Egg and Cheese Cupcakes

2024-01-30T21:20:58Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Egg and Cheese Cupcakes from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins (This is technically a cookbook for cooking with children as a family, so I have left the “Kid’s job!” labels in, but you obviously do not need to be or have children to enjoy this.)

Makes 6 cupcakes

Butter for greasing
6 slices bread
1 ¼ cups grated Parmesan, Cheddar, or Jack cheese. Divided
6 eggs
Pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter a 6-cup muffin tin.

Kid’s job! Press the rim of a sturdy drinking glass into a slice of bread to make a round cutout. Using your glass, stamp out six rounds of bread. Grab the crusty bread scraps and rip ‘em up into nickel-sized pieces. Put those ripped bread bits in a pile.

Distribute 1 cup of grated cheese evenly among the muffin cups - the cheese will crisp and form a crust on the bottom while baking. Press one bread round firmly into the bottom of each cup, on top of the layer of cheese.

Kid’s job! Give the eggs and salt a good whisking in a large Pyrex measuring cup (or any large cup or bowl with a pour spout). Pour the eggs into each muffin cup. Go slowly… can you fill each cup almost to the top without spilling over?

Top each cup with the reserved bread scraps, sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup cheese over the top, and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes: Our muffin tins are a bit shallower than average and I had a lot of bread leftover.

I expected this to be very eggy, but the round of bread at the bottom of the muffin tin absorbs the egg and swells to fill up the space, giving the texture of a cupcake when you bite or cut into it.

Even with the cheese, it is very French toast like in flavor to the point I recommend serving it with something sweet.

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Japanese Curry (S&B Golden Curry)

2023-12-31T05:53:39Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Japanese Curry (S&B Golden Curry)

I finally tried making the curry recipe on the side of the S&B Golden Curry box.

Ingredients (5 servings)

Beef (or chicken, lamb, shrimp), chopped - 450 g/1 lb (I used beef)
medium onions, minced - 1 3/4 (350 g/13 oz)
medium carrot, chopped - 1/2 (100 g/3.5 oz)
medium potato, chopped - 1 (150 g/5 oz)
Vegetable oil - 1 Tbsp
Water - 540 ml
S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix 92 g - 1 pack

Directions

1. Stir-fry meat and vegetables with oil in a large skillet on medium heat for approx. 5 min.

2. Add water and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until ingredients are tender, approx. 15min.

3. Turn the heat off, break S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix into pieces and add them to the skillet. Stir until sauce mixes are completely melted. Simmer approx. 5 min., stirring constantly.

4. Serve hot over rice or noodles.

I didn't use the exact vegetable amounts, but close, and we had it over rice. I think it turned out really well. My mother had never had curry before, except at the Thai restaurant, and was hesitant to try it, but ended up really liking it.

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Sushi Brain

2023-12-31T05:27:27Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Sushi Brain

I made this for Halloween dinner as a sort of "slice and serve" meal, instead of as a dip as the recipe intended. I'm not sure how it would actually work as a dip.

There doesn't seem to be a written version of this recipe anywhere. It was originally part of a show break during an episode of Halloween Baking Championship and has been on the Food Network's YouTube channel since 2014. I've been eyeing it for a while, but the stars finally aligned for me to have all of the ingredients at the same time.

Ingredients:

whole avocado
cream cheese
prepared sushi rice
smoked salmon
roe

1. Halve avocado and peel the avocado. Remove pit.

2. Press cream cheese into pit cavity.

3. Press halves back together.

4. Put avocado on plate. Pack cooked sushi rice around avocado and keep doing so until you have built a brain shape.

5. Make indentations along the center of rice brain.

6. Separate slices of smoked salmon.

7. Roll into irregular pattern and place on rice brain.

8. Repeat until completely covered.

9. Press together with plastic wrap.

10. Spoon red tobiko (roe) into indentation to simulate blood. (I did not do this step.)

This was a big hit. I wish I'd had some nori on hand to have with it.

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Bok Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce

2023-11-02T14:14:48Z

Posted by: watersword

From the NYT

( ingredients )

( paraphrased method )

( notes, substitutions, etc. )

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Coconut-Poached Fish With Bok Choy

2023-10-30T23:38:53Z

Posted by: watersword

From the NYT.

( ingredients )

( paraphrased method )

( notes, substitutions, etc. )

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Four months late for the start-of-the-year post with sign-up poll

2023-03-24T05:02:46Z

Posted by: conuly

But I recently remembered I meant to do that.

Very sorry, I've been busy being sad my mother died. As compared to last year when I remembered to post the poll and then spent the year being busy pretending I didn't think my mother was dying.

I'll find my previous year's poll and post it probably in a few days, but I wanted to post now before I forgot, and just say - yup, challenge is still ongoing!

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charred salt and vinegar cabbage

2023-03-24T00:37:23Z

Posted by: watersword

from Smitten Kitchen Keepers, Deb Perelman.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

( Notes )

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everything bagel biscotti

2023-02-08T01:29:52Z

Posted by: watersword

From King Arthur Baking.

( ingredients )

( paraphrased method )

( notes )

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Soy-Braised Tofu With Bok Choy

2023-02-08T00:30:08Z

Posted by: watersword

From NYT.

( Ingredients )

( Paraphrased method )

( Notes )

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Confetti Frittata

2023-02-01T07:10:57Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Confetti Frittata
The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins

Ingredients:
1 leaf Swiss or rainbow chard
6 eggs
1 cup milk
Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup grated mild Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup grated Swiss cheese or Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 350° f.

Wash and dry the chard. Hold the stem at the bottom, like a handle, in one hand. Use your other hand to tear the leaf away from the stem in one swoop. Set aside the stem or use it for a duel. Using child scissors, snip off tiny pieces of the leaf to make teeny green confetti. Set aside. (They assume a child is helping you.)

Combine the eggs, milk, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and wisk until well mixed.

Melt the butter in a medium-sized pan (preferably cast iron) over medium heat. Swirl the butter so it coats all sides of the pan. Once the pan is evenly coated, pour the excess melted butter into the whisked eggs and give them a stir. Set aside.

Add the chard confetti to the pan and stir until just wilted. If there's water in the pan after sauteing the greens, press the greens into the pan with a spatula and tip the pan to pour out the excess into the sink.

Pour the egg mixture into the pan. Top one side of the pan with cheddar and the other with Swiss or gruyere. Pop the pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the middle: if it comes out mostly clean, it's ready.

Let the frittata cool for a few minutes, then slice into wedges and serve.

Notes:
While my sister turned her nose up at this, my mother and I enjoyed it, and my mother would like this in regular rotation. I did have to sub the chard for okra and the Swiss cheese for a very similar cheese. Even using a cast iron pan, 2 tablespoons of butter was excessive, but it didn't hurt anything.

I had to "talk to type" this to type it and I think I caught all the typos, but if there are any, that's why.

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Cherry clafoutis

2022-12-16T04:17:07Z

Posted by: yuuago

This is more of a summer recipe, but it's always a good time for cherries and custard-y things, I think.

( Cherry clafoutis )

Adjustments: It called for fresh cherries, but I used frozen instead. I thawed them out overnight beforehand, and there were no issues with the baking.

Verdict: I enjoyed this a lot; it's like a delicious baked custard. Would make again. Might be nice with whipped cream on top. However, my relatives didn't enjoy it. More for me, then!

Other info: I'd like to emphasize that this really does have to be eaten warm; it's edible cold, but not nearly as nice. So if you're having leftovers, be sure to heat it up before serving.

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Ginger Chicken with Coconut Rice

2022-11-27T17:02:01Z

Posted by: purplecat

From my mother's cookbook.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I used chicken thighs as advised and substituted rice wine for sherry (since experience tells me that the appearance of sherry in any 1980s-90s asian-style recipe from the UK should probably be replaced by rice wine). I cheated and bought microwave coconut rice.

Verdict

Nice and simple chicken dish. Will make again.

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Chicken and Mushroom Pie

2022-10-12T20:47:28Z

Posted by: purplecat

I realise that this page of Mum's recipe book contains no less than four chicken recipes, all in the same font and cut from a magazine. I hypothesise some kind of "things to do with chicken" article. The jury is still out on whether I'll attempt the other two - a tagine and a slightly tame looking Thai poached chicken. Anyway, Chicken and Mushroom pie is a classic, so I thought I might as well.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I didn't have any shredded cooked chicken thigh meat to hand so I diced some chicken thighs and fried them first. I was very suspicious of the lack of any seasoning beyond two rosemary sprigs and so added a pinch of salt and a generous grinding of pepper to the mixture before I put it in the pie dish.

Verdict
The puff pastry didn't really puff, but I suspect that isn't necessarily the recipe's fault but more, perhaps, a comment on the quality of ready-rolled puff pastry - or possibly I took it out of the fridge too soon. Otherwise this was perfectly nice and very decorative. Will make again.

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Chicken with Fennel and Tarragon

2022-10-09T16:31:25Z

Posted by: purplecat

The offspring having returned to university, I am going back to cooking my way through my mother's recipe book. This looks like it has been cut out of a magazine.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Verdict: A perfectly nice chicken in a cream sauce recipe, but nothing special.

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Ginger and Date Cake with Toffee Rum Sauce

2022-09-25T02:13:39Z

Posted by: yuuago

It's getting to be that time of year when I'm remembering all the fancy desserts I bookmarked years ago with the intention of testing them in advance of holiday time. Here's one I tried today.

( Ginger and Date Cake with Toffee Rum Sauce )

Verdict: My parents loved it! I'll be adding it to the list of fancy things that I can make if I need to impress somebody. This cake isn't difficult, but it takes a bit of time due to preparing the dates and making the sauce. Fortunately, the sauce reheats very well, so (as the recipe suggests) this is a nice make-ahead cake.

Other info: This recipe calls for 125 ml whipping cream, but the smallest carton I could find was 237 ml. So, I whipped the extra cream and dolloped it on top of the warm cake and toffee sauce. EXCELLENT idea, will be doing that every time I make this!

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Caraway Pork to serve with Pasta

2022-07-03T15:08:32Z

Posted by: purplecat

This is the end of the "Meat" section in Mum's cookbook - though if I'm interpreting the notes correctly Meat actually continues if I go to Fish and start working backwards. It's handwritten with no clue as to provenance. This is one of the few recipes I actual recall eating, even though I think it must have gone into the book after I left home. At the time I didn't like it because of the caraway flavour, but this time I rather appreciated that.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistake and Substitutions
I distinctly remembered this being served with sliced pork, and note that there is no mention of slicing the shallots or mushrooms, so I treated this as an omission because Mum knew everything was to be sliced, and sliced everything before starting. At that point though the 1/2 hour to cook the pork seemed somewhat excessive. Himself insists the pork fillet should have been boiled in the stock and then sliced after the fact. Maybe? Used onions instead of shallots.

Verdict
The pork wasn't terribly tender and felt a little on the dry side, but it was nice enough and different enough with the caraway flavour that we will try again. I may try slicing the pork before serving next time, though I shall still slice the onions and mushrooms before sautéing them.

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Kuku Paka

2022-06-19T11:51:58Z

Posted by: purplecat

Again this is from my mother's cookbook. It looks like a photocopy from a recipe book.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Subsitutions
I used three halved chicken thighs instead of carving up a whole chicken. As a result I was then playing fairly fast and loose with the other quantities (particularly after I dropped half the chilli/coriander mix on the floor). I still used a whole onion, but used only one tomato. Most of the herbs and spices I halved. Since I had a lot less chicken I cooked for 15 minutes before adding the coconut mix, and then only 10 minutes afterwards. This probably put more time pressure on making the coconut mix that was good for it, and I was very sparing with the coconut milk since I was wary of it getting too runny.

Verdict
It's a kind of baked curry and even with all the random I had introduced it was very nice (if a bit hot). We will make again.

The blurb in the recipe says "Kuku means chicken in Swahili. This is a coastal recipe which was brought inland by traders" which begs a lot of questions really. Is this an African dish? Is it from an African cookbook. What bit of Africa? Wikipedia suggests it is a recipe from the Indian communities on the East African Coast.

Images on the internet suggest I was too sparing with the coconut milk and could have used considerably more of it than I did.

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Broccoli and Ham Gratin

2022-06-05T14:53:03Z

Posted by: purplecat

From my mother's cookbook. Apparently this is from page 70 of the Sainsbury's Vitality Cookbook. Amazon tells me this was published in 1993 so we can safely assume, I think, that this recipe is from the mid-1990s.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I made this pretty much as directed - though I steamed the broccoli and I suspect the recipe expected it to be boiled.

Verdict
A simple recipe (albeit one that ends up using quite a few pots and pans). For the effort involved it's probably worth it for a simple everyday dish. I haven't quite decided whether I'd want to make it again though.

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Oyster sauce cod and greens

2022-06-03T00:24:23Z

Posted by: watersword

From the NYT.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons canola oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 pound baby bok choy, halved lengthwise
Kosher salt and black pepper
¼ cup oyster sauce
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless cod fillets, cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon lime juice
Cooked rice, soba or egg noodles, for serving

NYT method, paraphrased:
Sauté garlic and ginger in oil until fragrant. Add bok choy and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, and remove to a plate. Add oyster sauce and soy sauce and bring to a simmer, add fish. Simmer for ten minutes, turning halfway through, spooning sauce on top. Add lime juice and butter and simmer until thickened, approximately two minutes. Serve over rice.

Modifications and notes:
This was so good, although I (a) was very hungry, (b) used it more as an inspiration than a recipe, and (c) already knew I adored greens with oyster sauce. Modifications included substituting yu choy for bok choy, and J. Kenji López-Alt's recipe for Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce from his new book The Wok for the sauce (he adds cornstarch, water, and sugar to the oyster/soy mixture, and mixes it beforehand instead of in the pan) and adopted his method of a quick blanching for the greens before sautéeing. I didn't bother with the butter-and-lime step, instead drizzling some sesame oil and lemon juice (which I prefer to lime) over the dish to serve, and used bacon fat instead of canola oil, to get some smokiness. My fish broke up when I tried to flip it, but I think I cut the pieces smaller than I was meant to, and they cooked through very quickly. I want another serving right now.

Mods, can we have a "fish" tag?

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Chocolate Nut Bars

2022-06-01T17:31:02Z

Posted by: valoise

For the past few years I've been looking at the history of cookies and biscuits and have flagged many recipes to try. This recipe for Chocolate Nut Bars from Fannie Farmer Merritt's 1912 book, A New Book of Cookery looked very simple, just a thin meringue flavored with chocolate and nuts. https://archive.org/details/newbookofcookery00farmrich/page/324/mode/1up

Chocolate Nut Bars
Whites 6 eggs
14 ounces powdered sugar
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 pound Jordan almonds
Beat egg whites until stiff and add gradually, while beating constantly, sugar; then carefully cut and fold in chocolate which has been melted and slightly cooled and two-thirds of the nut meats, blanched and chopped. Spread mixture one-fourth inch thick in two buttered dripping pans, sprinkle with remaining nuts and bake in a slow oven forty minutes. While warm cut in finger-shaped pieces, using a sharp knife. For serving arrange on a plate covered with a lace paper doily.

Changes I made:
I only baked 1/2 of the recipe, using 3 eggs instead of 6
I had walnuts handy, so I used them instead of almonds.
I baked on parchment paper instead of a buttered cookie sheet
No temperature was given, but meringues are often baked at a low temp, so I tried 225° F, a setting I found in a modern cookbook.

I thought it my an interesting way to bake meringues, instead of dropping them onto the parchment paper as individual cookies, just spread them out and cut into bars while they're still warm. They weren't quite set, I maybe should have raised the temperature a little or left them in the oven a little longer. These were very, very sweet. If I try them again I would definitely cut back the sugar by a LOT

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Pear-Berry Breakfast Cake

2022-05-31T05:25:28Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Pear-Berry Breakfast Cake from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins
This cookbook is meant to be a “family friendly” cookbook to encourage involving your children in making meals, so I left the “Kids job!” note in.

Makes 6 individual cakes

1 can (15 ounces) pear halves or pear slices in unsweetened pear juice
4 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
pinch of sea salt
1 ½ cups fresh raspberries or blackberries

Preheat the oven to 375 F

Drain the pear halves or slices, reserving the juice. Roughly chop the pears and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When it is just melted, brush some of it on the insides of six 6-ounce ramekins. Reserve the remaining butter for the batter.

Combine the eggs, pear juice, flour, remaining melted butter, and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth – a few seconds.

Kids job! Put some chopped pears in each of the buttered ramekins, then top each with a couple berries. Pour the batter over the fruit, distributing it evenly among the ramekins. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Let cool for about 3 minutes, serve warm.

My notes:
While I have what feels like a billion ramekins, I don't have six of the same kind or size, so I ended up cooking three in the 6-ounce clear glass Pyrex ramekins and three in the 7-ounce Corningware. They cooked up the same.

My juice measurements may have been off because the only sized can of pears I could get was 30-ounces, so I just used half the juice from the can. (As well as half the pears.)

I used fresh chopped strawberries instead of blackberries or raspberries. They are in season and affordable here right now. The others are neither.

I melted the butter in the microwave.

I don't have a food processor and I just didn't want to try to clean raw egg out of our blender, so I used a whisk. It wasn't perfectly smooth, but it cooked up correctly. An electric hand mixer would have worked well.

The instructions make it sound like you might not be using all of the fruit, you are. It's the perfect fruit to batter ratio, if distributed evenly among the ramekins.

To evenly distribute the batter, I used a shallow gravy ladle.

It's hard to tell when they are done and I over cooked them just a touch, but they were still a huge hit. They are basically a thick, extra custardy, Dutch baby, if that helps.

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Cauliflower Mash

2022-05-31T04:55:37Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Cauliflower Mash from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins

serves 4 to 6

1 small head cauliflower (about 3 heaping cups florets)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons warm milk
sea salt to taste
½ cup grated Cheddar or Parmesan cheese

Trim the leaves and most of the stem from the cauliflower. Pull apart the florets or cut them into pieces of uniform size so they all cook at the same speed.

Bring about an inch of water to a boil in a pot equipped with a steamer basket and a tight-fitting lid. Add the cauliflower to the basket and cover the pot. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until fork-tender.

Combine the cooked florets, butter, milk, and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. If your blender has a wand attachment, use it to help the puree along; otherwise, stop occasionally and scrape down the sides of the container with a spatula. When your puree is smooth, taste and adjust seasoning. Spoon into bowls, top with grated cheese, and serve warm.

My notes:
This was a really good way to use up leftover cauliflower. My mother, for reasons that still escape me, bought a head of cauliflower that was over twice as big as my head and then was upset that we had only managed to eat half of it in a week. Luckily, I remembered this recipe was in the Adventurous Eaters Club when I was marking recipes I hadn't tried yet, but have all of the ingredients on hand.

The cauliflower we had left was closer to five cups, so I doubled the butter.

I eyeballed the milk, instead of measuring it. I was closer to two tablespoons than four and, while it worked out fine, it probably would have been better with more.

I also did not measure the cheese I topped it with when serving.

I do not own a food processor and balked at the idea of having to clean the blender, so mixed everything by hand with a dough blender/pastry cutter. It took some extra work, but it became near the consistency of mashed potatoes pretty easily. (The reason the recipe wants you to use a blender or food processor, is that they are trying to help you introduce a new vegetable to children that prefer smooth, creamy textures, which was not an issue here.)

I'd definitely make it again.

Can we get a side dish tag?

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Snow-Capped Artichokes

2022-05-31T04:30:51Z

Posted by: spiralicious

Snow-Capped Artichokes from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins
This cookbook is meant to be a “family friendly” cookbook to encourage involving your children in making meals, so I left the “Kids job!” note and kid's question at the end in.

serves 4

( Read more... )

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