Archives for July 2007
68. Easy Cassoulet p.272
No recipe for this one.
Easy indeed. I’ve made both of the cassoulet recipes in the book now. This is the easy version which can be prepared in 4 hours, plus soaking time for beans. The more authentic version takes 2 days. Both were delicious, and the differences between them were pretty subtle. It’s nice to [...]
67. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds p.5
The recipe is just like this one from Epicurious, except that The Book gives proportions for the ingredients. I think the Epicurious version is more honest. This is barely even a recipe. Toast pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet ’till they’re browned and smell good, toss with olive oil and sea salt. That’s it.
Despite it’s [...]
66. Mocha Toffee Cashew Bars p.694
The recipe.
Opinion varied wildly about these bars. We brought these to dinner with another couple. The guy loved them, my dining companion hated them, and the other girl and I were of mixed opinions. They’re built on a fairly dense espresso flavoured cookie base, then topped with chocolate and salted roasted cashews.
I thought things were [...]
Finding the Rythm
I’m 5% of the way through the book, and on pace to get recipe #113 posted by September 14th! I’m getting into better blogging habits, and hoping to get myself stuck in this rut until operation 60 in 60 comes to a close. I’ve been cooking pretty regularly too. It’s quite possible that by September [...]
65. Chocolate Truffles p.696
The recipe.
This recipe has three ingredients, chocolate, cream, and cocoa powder. Almost by definition the success of failure of the recipe is in the quality of those ingredients, and the method of combining them. I used the wrong ingredients, and ignored parts of the method. They still came out tasty, if a bit ugly. The [...]
64. Coq au Vin p.368
No recipe for this one.
Coq au Vin is such a classic it’s practically drowning in preconception and expectation. This recipe doesn’t throw any wild experiments or out of the play book ingredients in, but it tries to simplify the process a bit too much. The biggest twist in this recipe is that it calls for [...]
63. Cheese Fondue p.72
the recipe
My God I love fondue. Everything about it is good. Incredibly rich gooey cheese swaddling a crunchy bite of bakery fresh baguette, what could be better than that? It’s an easy to prepare and casual meal, that’s inherently social and fun. It’s horrible for you, which makes it even better to share with close [...]
62. Char Siu p.478
The recipe
This recipe was a bit of effort, but boy was it worth it. The ingredients are simple and readily available, and they come together in the most delightful way with the judicious application of heat. The recipe calls for a 1 pound boneless pork butt or shoulder. I bought a whole picnic ham (from [...]
61. Shrimp Dumplings With Dipping Sauce p.59
No recipe is available online.
These were fairly good, and easy to prepare. Here, a filling of chopped shrimp, water chestnuts, scallions, ginger, and egg are mounded onto wonton wrappers. The wrappers are folded over and sealed with water, then they’re browned in a skillet with a bit of oil. Water is then added and they’re [...]
60. Prosciutto- and Parmesan-Stuffed Mushrooms p.27
No recipe, too bad.
These were an excellent appetizer. I brought them to a dinner party and they disappeared just like that. They’re mushroom caps stuffed with the cooked down mushroom stems, garlic, onion, bread crumbs, prosciutto, Parmesan, a useless dash of parsley, and an egg to hold it together. After the caps are filled [...]
