Recipes that Rock: 2011

[nakji]

Recipes that Rock 2008

Recipes that Rock 2009

Recipes that Rock 2010

It's 2011 and we're continuing our ongoing quest of finding recipes that, well, Rock.

Rockingness is defined as a recipe that is either new or only new to you; and that left your socks somewhere on the floor and a considerable distance from your feet.

[C. sapidus]

Chicken curry with sweet potatoes (ca ri ga), from Mai Pham’s Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table.

A warming, savory-spicy-sweet winter stew from tropical Vietnam, this tasted even better the following morning. As a bonus, the recipe is quite tolerant to substitutions. I had been meaning to make this for some time, but never quite got around to it. It will not be long before we make it again.

Pleasures of the Vietnamese Kitchen includes quite a few other recipes that rock, FWIW.

Oops, almost forgot the pic:

Edited January 2, 2011 by C. sapidus (log)

[MelissaH]

It's really simple, but I made it for a between-hockey-games potluck and had smashing success with it: sugar snap peas, washed, dried, and strung if needed; drizzled with dark sesame oil; and sprinkled with sesame seeds (either white or black) and kosher or coarse sea salt. That's it. I stole it from my next-door neighbor, who got it from the Barefoot Contessa. It's great for parties and potlucks because it's good at room temp. I can't stop eating them.

MelissaH

[baroness]

Chicken curry with sweet potatoes (ca ri ga), from Mai Pham’s Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table.

A warming, savory-spicy-sweet winter stew from tropical Vietnam, this tasted even better the following morning. As a bonus, the recipe is quite tolerant to substitutions. I had been meaning to make this for some time, but never quite got around to it. It will not be long before we make it again.

Pleasures of the Vietnamese Kitchen includes quite a few other recipes that rock, FWIW.

Oh, my. Thanks so much for this suggestion--it is fabulous (even without the lemongrass and part of the garnish; I'm trying to cook out of the pantry stock)! I am already thinking of substitutes for the chicken, and other vegetables that would rock with this curry.

[Paul Bacino]

Alain Ducasse's Gourgeres....add a pinch of cayenne

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

[Paul Bacino]

Ohh here is my Gougeres for the holidays!!

They were light as a feather

[nakji]

Chicken curry with sweet potatoes (ca ri ga), from Mai Pham’s Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table.

A warming, savory-spicy-sweet winter stew from tropical Vietnam, this tasted even better the following morning. As a bonus, the recipe is quite tolerant to substitutions. I had been meaning to make this for some time, but never quite got around to it. It will not be long before we make it again.

Pleasures of the Vietnamese Kitchen includes quite a few other recipes that rock, FWIW.

Oops, almost forgot the pic:

Bruce! Thank you! This curry rocked my world! I think the key here was the use of chicken stock - I used Maggi powder, and it was seriously authentic. I'm quoting your picture because my camera has been broken for months.

My contribution: Saveur's Greek Mac n' Cheese.

I made it for my husband, who craves feta. I made it without the dill, because I can't remember the last time I saw fresh dill. It still rocked.

[Emily_R]

I've had this Mushroom Bhaji recipe in my "to try" file for probably almost three years... Finally made it last night and its delicious! Mushrooms cooked in Indian spices and a tomato onion sauce... I served it with brown rice, and the full recipe plus rice and a salad was enough for dinner for two. Its easy to make, rich and savory and spicy and good. I never think of mushrooms when I think of Indian food, so this was a nice surprise.

http://www.theperfectpantry.com/2009/11/cumin-recipe-mushroom-bhaji.html

[nakji]

Looks good! Did you use the white button mushrooms? I'm thinking it might be really savoury with a mix of shiitake and buttons.

[Emily_R]

Hey Nakji -- I actually used creminis, but I'd imagine that shitakes would be a really good flavor addition!

[rarerollingobject]

Two recipes that rock for me this year both involve broccoli, funnily enough. (Actually, it's not a coincidence: I made the mistake of once telling a farmer friend her broccoli was unusually tasty, and now she gifts me boxes and boxes of it with each visit..)

The first recipe can hardly be called a recipe at all, but futzing around the web looking for broccoli inspriration, I struck upon Gordon Ramsay's Broccoli Soup,

The recipe? Boil broccoli florets in salted water for 4 mins. Remove florets to blender with a ladle or two of the cooking water. Blend. Season. Voila!

Surely a joke, I thought! Satirical commentary on the gullibility and blind slavishness of the food porn-addicted! Broccoli, water and S&P? What, no sweating onions and garlic in butter? No mirepoix? No herbs? No deeply flavoured and of course homemade chicken or vegetable stock?? Deeply skeptical, I tried it as directed, and WOW. Really, really good - clean, fresh and deeply vegetal, in a good way. Course I couldn't help gussying up the serving dishes with gorgonzola and bacon but it didn't really need it. Shocked that it rocked. Gordon, I shall never doubt you again.

The other one that rocked for me is the soup recipe's diametrical opposite..broccoli cooked so long and slowly it turns positively caramelly and sweet, if a little unsightly in appearance. The recipe I followed is here.

Edited January 16, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[nakji]

That's the sort of genius I could have used last night when I was staring down two heads of broccoli from my CSA. I ending up steaming them and tossing them in a lemon vinaigrette, which worked out, but that's next on my list if I get any more.

[rarerollingobject]

That's the sort of genius I could have used last night when I was staring down two heads of broccoli from my CSA. I ending up steaming them and tossing them in a lemon vinaigrette, which worked out, but that's next on my list if I get any more.

Oh! I would have posted this yesterday, but I got distracted by all my broccoli!

I'm also intrigued by this super simple Heston Blumenthal recipe/method for, yeah, broccoli:

linkety link.

[Emily_R]

Wow -- both those broccoli recipes are exciting me so much I'm tempted to go into town on a broccoli run today. These will be made very soon and I'll report back!

[rarerollingobject]

Wow -- both those broccoli recipes are exciting me so much I'm tempted to go into town on a broccoli run today. These will be made very soon and I'll report back!

If you're making the Gordon Ramsay soup, start with way less cooking water in the blender than he recommends, his was too thin (for my taste) and I put it back on the stove to rethicken..just put a ladle or two and then add more if need be.

Edited January 16, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[baroness]

The first recipe can hardly be called a recipe at all, but futzing around the web looking for broccoli inspriration, I struck upon Gordon Ramsay's Broccoli Soup,

The recipe? Boil broccoli florets in salted water for 4 mins. Remove florets to blender with a ladle or two of the cooking water. Blend. Season. Voila!

Surely a joke, I thought! Satirical commentary on the gullibility and blind slavishness of the food porn-addicted! Broccoli, water and S&P? What, no sweating onions and garlic in butter? No mirepoix? No herbs? No deeply flavoured and of course homemade chicken or vegetable stock?? Deeply skeptical, I tried it as directed, and WOW. Really, really good - clean, fresh and deeply vegetal, in a good way. Course I couldn't help gussying up the serving dishes with gorgonzola and bacon but it didn't really need it. Shocked that it rocked. Gordon, I shall never doubt you again.

This IS an excellent soup; I've been making it for at least 5 years now.

[heidih]

The first recipe can hardly be called a recipe at all, but futzing around the web looking for broccoli inspriration, I struck upon Gordon Ramsay's Broccoli Soup,

The recipe? Boil broccoli florets in salted water for 4 mins. Remove florets to blender with a ladle or two of the cooking water. Blend. Season. Voila!

Surely a joke, I thought! Satirical commentary on the gullibility and blind slavishness of the food porn-addicted! Broccoli, water and S&P? What, no sweating onions and garlic in butter? No mirepoix? No herbs? No deeply flavoured and of course homemade chicken or vegetable stock?? Deeply skeptical, I tried it as directed, and WOW. Really, really good - clean, fresh and deeply vegetal, in a good way. Course I couldn't help gussying up the serving dishes with gorgonzola and bacon but it didn't really need it. Shocked that it rocked. Gordon, I shall never doubt you again.

This IS an excellent soup; I've been making it for at least 5 years now.

Since broccoli is not that "different" of a vegetable - have you applied this to other vegetables either cruciferous or not?

[Emily_R]

Made the Gordon Ramsay broccoli soup tonight and it was excellent, And so easy it was really ridiculous. I didn't have goat cheese, but added lemon juice instead. My husband added a little sour cream... The color and texture were truly amazing -- and I've never managed to get broccoli soup so smooth -- its always been grainy. Thanks rarerollingobject!

[Emily_R]

Ok, and now time to add a soup of my own. I know, Pasta e Fagioli doesn't sound all that revelatory. But this recipe on Food52 just really did it for me -- super quick and easy for a weeknight meal (about 20 minutes start to finish), and really really flavorful for such a low investment of time and number of ingredients. The key thing I changed was to substitute pancetta for bacon, and I think that made a big difference. That, adding an extra celery stalk, and a pinch of rosemary were my only other changes. My husband and I raved about it when we had it two nights ago, and then I raved again when I had the leftovers for lunch.

http://www.food52.com/blog/1599_pasta_e_fagioli

Emily

[FrogPrincesse]

The first recipe can hardly be called a recipe at all, but futzing around the web looking for broccoli inspriration, I struck upon Gordon Ramsay's Broccoli Soup,

Thanks for posting this. Although I am really not a picky eater (I pretty much eat everything), I had almost given up on broccoli due to lack of inspiration.

This makes me want to give it another try.

[Pierogi]

[....]

The recipe? Boil broccoli florets in salted water for 4 mins. Remove florets to blender with a ladle or two of the cooking water. Blend. Season. Voila!

[.....]

Oh. Holy. Cats.

I made this tonight with an admittedly sad 1/2 bunch of broccoli from my CSA. Wow. Wow. Did not blow me out of the water, it blew me out of the universe.

This soup is phenomenal. PHENOMENAL. Spectacular would not be an overstatement. I tossed in a (very) small crushed clove of garlic, and since I didn't have goat cheese like Gordo suggested, I used some feta. I used *too* much feta, but it was still..........phenomenal. I could not believe such flavor came from such sad broccoli and water. Even when I got to the end, and it was cold and had too much feta flavor, I kept scooping up little tastes, because the broccoli flavor was so vibrant. Wow.

The dregs (that had too much feta *mental note, light hand on the feta*) got spooned over the dogs' dinners, and they loved it too. All 3 of us almost ate the paint off the bowls.

Thank you RaRoOb for sharing this. I'd have never believed it was so amazing. I'd have paid big bucks for this soup in a restaurant. BIG bucks, and been happy.

[Darienne]

[....]

The recipe? Boil broccoli florets in salted water for 4 mins. Remove florets to blender with a ladle or two of the cooking water. Blend. Season. Voila!

[.....]

Oh. Holy. Cats.

I made this tonight with an admittedly sad 1/2 bunch of broccoli from my CSA. Wow. Wow. Did not blow me out of the water, it blew me out of the universe.

This soup is phenomenal. PHENOMENAL. Spectacular would not be an overstatement. I tossed in a (very) small crushed clove of garlic, and since I didn't have goat cheese like Gordo suggested, I used some feta. I used *too* much feta, but it was still..........phenomenal. I could not believe such flavor came from such sad broccoli and water. Even when I got to the end, and it was cold and had too much feta flavor, I kept scooping up little tastes, because the broccoli flavor was so vibrant. Wow.

The dregs (that had too much feta *mental note, light hand on the feta*) got spooned over the dogs' dinners, and they loved it too. All 3 of us almost ate the paint off the bowls.

Thank you RaRoOb for sharing this. I'd have never believed it was so amazing. I'd have paid big bucks for this soup in a restaurant. BIG bucks, and been happy.

OK. Ya got me. I'll do it.

Watched the video. Lovely. The man can be enchanting.

Edited January 22, 2011 by Darienne (log)

[rarerollingobject]

I made this tonight with an admittedly sad 1/2 bunch of broccoli from my CSA. Wow. Wow. Did not blow me out of the water, it blew me out of the universe.

Good stuff! I haven't been so surprised by a 'recipe' in a long time, either.. bring on the broccoli, I say!

[prasantrin]

I've always made broccoli soup that way (mostly because I never have chicken stock around). I also do cauliflower and asparagus soups like that, too. Taste just fine to me.

[dividend]

I made another winner from Real Simple magazine last night :

Spinach Salad With Salmon, Barley, and Oranges

This is a seriously wonderful salad. I futzed with the proportions for 2, with a small bag of a spinach, 1 whole avocado, 2 blood oranges, 1/2 cup of barley, and one piece of salmon (those frozen vac sealed wild salmon from Costco). Wow, this was great. DBF raved about it all night, demanding to know when I'd make it again. He said, "Everything about this salad is delicious."

I swear, I've probably gotten at least 5 really great, easy, healthy salmon recipes from this magazine.