Recipes That Rock: 2008

[maggiethecat]

Everyone here, I'm guessing, finds a recipe online, in a food mag or newspaper, or in a cookbook old or new and says: "Hmmm. I'll give it a shot." Sometimes they disappoint, sometimes they're Ok or even excellent. Now and then one rocks your kitchen and gets filed under "I never knew X could be so good. I'll make it again soon! Why was this never in my repertoire? Why do all recipes for X pale before the one I tried for the first time tonight?"

I don't mean that the recipe has been published in 2008 -- you simply need to have tried it for the first time in 2008. In the past few weeks I've found two.

Funeral Grits from Virginia Ellis's Bon Appetit, Y'All. (2008)It's a simple casserole that gets taken to wakes, but for me it's the ultimate cheesy grits dish.

I've made many the cinnamon roll in a long life of baking, but the recipe from David Rosengarten's It's All American Food(2004) makes my efforts from many other well regarded baking sources look like heavy, tasteless, zestless pale imitations. I'm going to have to curb my enthusiasm, or any hopes of retaining any version of a Girlish figure will be doomed. They're that good.

Can you point us to a great recipe you've tried in 2008? I want to know.

[purplewiz]

The Roasted Ratatouille from Cuisine at Home, April 2008. Very easy, very fast, and way more delicious than expected.

Marcia.

[dockhl]

I've made many the cinnamon roll in a long life of baking, but the recipe from David Rosengarten's It's All American Food(2004) makes my efforts from many other well regarded baking sources look like heavy, tasteless, zestless pale imitations. I'm going to have to curb my enthusiasm, or any hopes of retaining any version of a Girlish figure will be doomed. They're that good.

I thought I was the only other person in the world that owned that book ! Haven't tried the recipe.

Is there any legal way to give us a gander at these recipes? Or do we need to just google the hell out of them and hope that something turns up?

[Emily_R]

Great thread. For me the revelation of the year has been Giada's recipe for Beef and Butternut Squash Stew, which has sundried tomatoes, marsala wine, and fresh rosemary -- it is truly out of this world good. My one note is to cut some of the butternut pieces smaller than she calls for (she calls for 2 inch cubes, I cut them somewhere between 1.5 and 1 inch) and to cook for almost an hour longer than she calls for so some of the butternut starts to melt into the sauce and thicken it.

Here's a link to the recipe...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_97063,00.html

And edited to say I'm glad you mentioned that book -- I love David Rosengarten and didn't know he'd written it... I just put a request in for it at my library, and will definitely try those cinnamon rolls!

Edited April 3, 2008 by Emily_R (log)

[C. sapidus]

Can you point us to a great recipe you've tried in 2008? I want to know.

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Stir-fried green cabbage with fennel seeds. My new favorite way to make cabbage.

[Pierogi]

Ditto the sentiments on the greatness of the thread, I will be searching for the other's recommendations.......

Me....I'm a recipe nomad. Some might even say a 'ho, or a *gasp*....s!ut. I keep searching and searching and searching for *THE* recipe. Like you Maggie, sometimes I find it, sometimes I wonder what the heck the author was thinking. But since I try new recipes so frequently, I have a passel to contribute. And we're only through the 1st quarter of 2008 !!

**The slow roasted pork shoulder from the last edition of "150 Best American Recipes", rubbed with equal parts salt & chipotle powder, plopped into a roasting pan, sealed with foil & slow-roasted at like 250° for 4 hours. A-freaking-mazing for tacos the day its roasted, and fantastic for enchiladas later in the week. A real revalation. Soooooooooo simple, and sooooooooooo good.

**Alton Brown's "Very Basic Bread" recipe from the Food Network website (yes, I know, but Alton's cool.....). I have never, in my 35+ years of cookingness, been much of a baker. This was my New Year's resolution, to teach myself to bake good bread. This recipe rocks. It takes 2 days to make it (you let the starter preferment overnight in the fridge), but so worth it. SO worth it. Best bread I've ever made, and made me think there's hope for my bread-making skills after all. Close runner-up in this category, the Mini Baguettes from the last "Fine Cooking" (the web site says #91, I want to say it was maybe the March or April edition, NOT May......). Some technical difficulties handling the dough due to my ineptitude, but a decent loaf of bread that can be par-baked and frozen.

**Coffee'd Brisket from the Los Angeles Times food section some time last year. A beef brisket, rubbed with finely ground coffee, salt, sugar & chipotle powder. Let to sit in the fridge with the dry rub overnight, then roasted the next day low & slow (350°) with onions, carrots & a jus of beef stock & espresso. Again, a revalation. The coffee rub and espresso in the jus gave it a bitter edge that you really couldn't identify, but somehow, intrinsically, knew. Leftovers were amazing in ....

**Pot Roast Hash with Fried Eggs from the Food Network website (yes, I know. I'm so ashamed. The recipe is credited to Gourmet magazine, does that redeem me??) The BEST hash recipe I've found. Ever. Anywhere. The only one I'll ever make again. Confirmed with some leftover roast beef filet from the freezer a couple of weeks ago. A keeper, which is my highest praise.

**Pasta with Tomato-Gorgonzola Sauce , from the 10/07 edition of "Cuisine at Home". So easy. So very very easy. So very very good. Maybe the perfect after-work meal, and the leftovers were Da Bomb for lunch at work a couple of days later.

**Corned Beef Brisket with Horseradish Sour Cream , ok, this one is REALLY embarrassing......from one of those little recipe booklets on the checkout stands at the grocery store. In the crock pot, the corned beef is plopped on top of thick-sliced onions, sprinkled with dried red pepper flakes, and has a combo of beef broth & Worcestershire sauce poured over it. Et voila, 8 hours later, pull that bad boy out, serve with sour cream mixed with horseradish and its the best corned beef ever. Ditch the seasoning package and rinse the meat before cooking it, btw......not that I'm giving you the recipe or anything....... One of the few recipes I'll pull the crockpot out for.

And finally......tonight's dinner.........

**Seared scallops with spicy aioli and grilled asparagus , from of all things, the most recent Williams-Sonoma mailer. Good, dry pack scallops, S&P and pan-seared. With an aioli (ok, I cheated.....I used Best Foods mayo) doctored up with the called for garlic, ground cumin, ground corriander, lemon juice, S&P and some cayenne instead of the requested hot paprika.......and grilled fat asparagus, seasoned with EVOO, S&P and a mere sploosh of lemon juice (again, I cheated, I tossed 'em in a 450° oven instead of grilling them, since I had the oven going for my baked potato). Probably the best scallops I've ever eaten. It was a dish I'd pay big bux for in a restaurant. Again.....so simple. So very very simple and easy, and a perfect after-work *special* meal.

[Abra]

Rabbit in Gingerbread and Beer Sauce. If you enjoy rabbit, this recipe might rock your world like it did mine.

[Anna N]

Sometimes EVERYTHING just seems to rock in the kitchen and yesterday was such a day. I made both of these:

Tomato Balsamic Soup

and

Honey Lime Dressing for fruit salad.

[milgwimper]

Oh I love this thread! Couple of months ago I made Spicy Chipotle pork tacos with sun dried tomato salsa from Rick Bayless, Mexico One Plate at a Time. The salsa was killer, the pork was great too but man the salsa just flipped my lid. I know I have others but I can't think of them now, gotta go and make dinner.

[santo_grace]

Fun thread!

Made a Rib Eye with Bernaise sauce recently. I've never made bernaise sauce before, and it was wonderful. I think it was from a recent Gourmet issue. It turned our perfectly, even if we did have a very scary moment of thinking we had scrambled the eggs. My husband is begging me to make it again, which will probably happen this weekend since it is his birthday.

[sadie4232]

Great idea for a thread. I took a look back in my 2008 food journal and offer the following “OMG -- can’t wait to make these again” recipes:

Orange Chicken with Scallions from the Oct/Nov ‘07 issue of Fine Cooking. A fairly quick recipe that yielded an amazing glaze for the chicken.

Tuscan Chicken from Bon Appetit (sorry, forgot to note the issue). This turned out practically perfect in every way. Nice breaded chicken paired with a lemon aioli and tomato confit.

Slippery Shrimp served with Sticky Rice - The shrimp recipe, from Bon Appetit, is awesome. The glaze packs heat and sweet which makes my taste buds want to do a little dance. Paired it with sticky rice (I use the recipe from the Williams-Sonoma “Stir Fry”) and you have a complete, yummy meal.

Potato, Greens and Goat Cheese Quesadillas (Bon Appetit, March ‘08) sounded a bit strange to me at first. Maybe because I had never used mustard greens before. But, the tastes all come together, especially when served with tomatillo sauce and a mango salsa (a frequent side dish thanks to Bon Appetit).

Orzo Risotto with Sausage and Artichokes (Food & Wine, March ‘08) got two thumbs up from everyone at the table. This was the first time I used orzo instead of Arborio rice to make a risotto and it almost convinced me never to go back to Arborio again. I did substitute 1 cup of the water called for with 1 cup of white wine, which really improved the flavor. I also warmed the stock before adding it to the orzo (some risotto habits die hard).

Sweet & Spicy Catfish Sandwiches has been one of my favorites from Food & Wine (March ‘08). The basting sauce for the fish includes green onions, soy sauce and honey, along with a few spices. Julienned carrots are marinated in a honey/vinegar sauce and are to die for. I did back off on the amount of Asian chili sauce for the aioli to about 1 ½ tsps. versus 1 Tablespoon, which turned out to be a smart move. We like things spicy, but a full tablespoon would have seared our lips off. I’ve used modifications of this recipe by putting the fish and carrot mixture on a bed of baby greens instead of serving everything on a roll and it worked out great.

Sicilian-style Potato Gratin (Bon Appetit, March ‘08) will make you roll your eyes with delight. I mean how can you go wrong with potatoes, capers, olive oil and some chicken stock. A wonderful alternative to the standard gratin.

Grilled Brie, Turkey & Pear Sandwiches (Fine Cooking, Feb/Mar ‘08) are great! The pears provide a nice, sweet crunch and are a perfect partner to the Brie. I served the sandwiches with The French Laundry’s recipe for Gazpacho, which is probably the best I’ve ever had or made. The flavors are much more intense than any gazpacho recipe I’ve tried before.

Chicken Faux Gras from Happy in the Kitchen cookbook. WOW! This is such a wonderfully decadent appetizer -- full of butter, cream, onions, chicken livers. It has quickly become one of my main “go to” recipes.

Chicken Sausages, another winner from Happy in the Kitchen.Who would have thought “no-fat” sausage using chicken and eggplant could taste so good? While the prep takes a little time, the end result is well worth the effort. These sausages were so superior to any bratwurst I have ever had and will definitely be making (and freezing) more in the future.

Nicoise Salad from CIA Cooks at Home is a meal unto itself. Between the potatoes, green beans, baby greens, anchovies, olives, every mouthful was filled with delicious goodness. Oh and their recipe for the vinaigrette provided just the right tang to meld with all the flavors of the salad.

BTW - it might be fun to start an alternative thread about recipes we've made so far this year that bombed and we swear never to make again

[Edited for correcting issue date for Bon Appetit recipe.]

Edited April 3, 2008 by sadie4232 (log)

[ErikaK]

Neat thread!

I am actually trying to be better about actually trying new stuff instead of redoing all of the old stuff. Although I have 2 ring binders full of clipped recipes!!

One thing new that I did make recently that was just spectacular was the fennel cured salmon out of the Ruhlman/Polcyn Charcuterie book. It was absolutely awesome!

I recently made the shrimp & grits method from the Lee Bros cookbook and even though I am a failure at grits, the shrimp was great!

But the thing that rocked absolutely was Nigella Lawson's chicken & sausage bake, I posted pics here,it was so good I made it again 2 weeks later for a bigger crowd. I think the marination overnight is the key to this for sure.

[Pierogi]

Wow ! I can't believe how many of the recipes other's have cited I've made and also been impressed with....

Like....

Orange Chicken with Scallions from the Oct/Nov ‘07 issue of Fine Cooking

and

Nigella Lawson's chicken & sausage bake

and

Spicy Chipotle pork tacos with sun dried tomato salsa from Rick Bayless, Mexico One Plate at a Time

ALL winners & repeat worthy, though they didn't qualify for me, since I'd made them a while back.

And Sadie4232 I'm sure game for a disaster thread, I had a major one on Sunday !

Yes, Anna it does rock when it all works, doesn't it? SUCH a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction !

[suzilightning]

Red Wine Brasato with glazed root vegetables from the February 2007 Bon Appetit but ONLY to make

Shepherd's Pie with Parsnip Topping(though i made it without the parsnips - didn't have any in the house).

That was one of the best things I have ever had and the leftovers really are better than the original dish.

Braised Tarragon Chicken from Sara Foster. I am in love with recipe and make it about every other week.

[chezcherie]

i bow deeply in maggiethecat's direction. THANK YOU (yeah, i'm shouting) for starting this thread, just when i needed some inspiration. i see a lot of recipe testing with pre-loaded payoffs in my weekend future!

[Chris Amirault]

Those wondering what the recent cocktail fuss is all about might want to get a bottle of decent brandy, some Angostura bitters, a lime, and then whip up a batch of orgeat syrup from this Art of Drink recipe. I discussed tweaks here while enjoying a fine Japanese Cocktail #1. It rocks wicked.

[Megan Blocker]

The gougères from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris book, which came out (I think) in 2006. They were super-easy and really impressive. They even held up to about six weeks in the freezer, at which point I thawed and re-heated the leftovers for dinner one night.

[maggiethecat]

Wow. You've all been inspirational. Thanks for the rockin' suggestions.

Last night was one of those eerie occasions when I had a handful of ingredients on hand and not much of interest otherwise. Ingredients: Swiss chard, canned cannellini beans, a Roma tomato that needed immediate attention, likewise celery, and the end of a box of barley. Onions were around, as they usually are.

Marcella Hazan's "Marcella Cucina" is new to my bookshelves, and while leafing through it I found culinary Kismet :page 88 Swiss Chard, Cannellini Bean and Barley Soup

(I should mention that while I revere Marcella, I've always found her literary persona to be un poco unyeilding? Dictatorial? She's the Mother Superior with a ruler twitching in her capable hands and I'm the schoolgirl about to have my knuckles rapped because my skirt is a half an inch too short. She terrifies me.)

What a recipe! Dead easy: sweat the celery and onion, add the chard and tomato, sweat until tender. The barley is boiled separately, and the water is added to form the base of the soup. Add the beans to the soup. No stock. The seasoning is salt and pepper.

And it rocked!! It's a beautiful to behold soup, with layers of flavor.

[Marmish]

So far Vodka Spiked Cherry Tomatoes and Braised Swiss Chard with Cannelinni beans served with grilled Italian sausages are my two best of the year.

[Marlene]

In 2008 so far, I've been mostly playing with bread, so the Vienna Bread from BBA.

[snowangel]

So far Vodka Spiked Cherry Tomatoes and Braised Swiss Chard with Cannelinni beans served with grilled Italian sausages are my two best of the year.

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Those Vodka Spiked Cherry Tomatoes are a lot of work, worth every minute (but made last last year, so they probably don't count on my behalf).

But, the other day, I had a sick child a home, so took to the couch with the Recipe Box. Low and behold, when I went to get the child a beverage, a package of country-style ribs fell on my foot. A quick perusal of the Recipe Box revealed many of those "why in the hell did I bother clipping this?" but also revealed an old recipe from the NY times for Clay Pot Pork. Now, never mind that I just used a regular ceramic pot, and it wasn't a shoulder, but chunks of country-style ribs. But oh me, oh my. Everyone loved it, and best of all, the leftovers made for a breakfash of champions. The stuff you dream of.

Oldies are sometimes the best goodies of all...

[-sheila mooney]

from April 2008 Cook's Illustrated, last weekend i made the crispy skin chicken (fabulous while hot, not so great for leftovers) and the hearty tuscan bean stew (with rapini instead of kale). the big news: salting the bean-soaking water made for the most beautiful cannellini i have ever made. all those years of not daring to salt the soaking liquid! i will never make beans any other way.

[Emily_R]

A question for ErikaK and Pierogi -- I looked at that Chicken and Sausage recipe, and it says to marinate with the 1/2 cup of olive oil and then pour all that oil into the baking pan. That doesn't make the end product VERY greasy? I'm struggling to get my mind around the recipe (but very tempted to make it as I've got some good sausage to use)...

[Emily_R]

Wow. You've all been inspirational. Thanks for the rockin' suggestions.

Last night was one of those eerie occasions when I had a handful of ingredients on hand and not much of interest otherwise. Ingredients: Swiss chard, canned cannellini beans, a Roma tomato that needed immediate attention, likewise celery, and the end of a box of barley. Onions were around, as they usually are.

Marcella Hazan's "Marcella Cucina" is new to my bookshelves, and while leafing  through it I found culinary Kismet :page 88 Swiss Chard, Cannellini Bean and Barley Soup

(I should mention that while I revere Marcella, I've always found her literary persona to be un poco unyeilding? Dictatorial? She's the Mother Superior with a ruler twitching in her capable hands and I'm the schoolgirl about to have my knuckles rapped because my skirt is a half an inch too short. She terrifies me.)

What a recipe! Dead easy: sweat the celery and onion, add the chard and tomato, sweat until tender. The barley is boiled separately, and the water is added to form the base of the soup. Add the beans to the soup. No stock. The seasoning is salt and pepper.

And it rocked!! It's a beautiful to behold soup, with layers of flavor.

←

Very interesting Maggie -- glad you posted this as it sounds interesting but I would have been skeptical of the no stock part... Did you use canned beans or dried?

[Anna N]

. . .

Those Vodka Spiked Cherry Tomatoes are a lot of work, worth every minute (but made last last year, so they probably don't count on my behalf).

←

Same here - made them a number of times last year so it doesn't count but still want to plug that recipe!